Honestly the mirkwood knife is quite the disappointment imo.

At this stage of the game it has been clear that 1 cost for 2 stats is the usually the price to pay for great attachments Dwarrowdelf Axe, Gondorian Shield, Rivendell Blade are all for the most part 2 stats for 1 cost. Other good attachments are also 1 for 2 but conditional, like Bow of the Galadhrim, Dagger of Westernesse or Warrior Sword.

Silver Circlet is probably the exception to this rule, 2 stats for 2, but willpower is the best stat in the game and for a dedicated questing hero there's little else you want.

The mirkwood long knife has the same "efficiency" of 2 for 2 but has its stats divided and thus it severely limits it's potential. You'd have to run action advantage to even get 2 stats out of it, while action advantage on a Gondorian Shield for example can mean 4 points worth of defense.

It's also restricted and limited to silvan heroes, severely limiting again the applications for it to the point where there's virtually 0 places where another option wouldn't be better. Imo making it not restricted or allow it on allies would have open more space for this attachment to shine, but as it stands there little reason to play it.

Thalin started strong, beating those pesky ravens in the Core set/Shadows of Mirkwood times and helping out against other low health enemies. His true moment of glory came when he joined party at the Seventh level in Khazad-dum expansion. I made a simple deck including him, Bifur and Dain and most importantly Gondorian Spearmen. This deck consistently won every attempt at Seventh level no matter how bad the encouter deck draw was. So many two hit point enemies, with Thalin this adventure turned into Orc slaughter. But... lack of willpower eventually caught up with him as other adventure packs of Dwarrowdelf were more demanding. His final attempt to become relevant has occured at Heirs of Númenor days in battle/siege quests. Special mention deserves his swift strike combo, which was able to annihilate Haradrim Elite (3 hit points). But alas, this marked an end to his short but fruitful era. Since then he never recoved and basically lost his spot in our decks. Yes, of course, it is possible to make a good deck including Thalin, but unfortunately there always are better options for Tactics hero spot. Unless you are going pure direct damage deck, of course.

No review yet? This card rocks.

This is a very unique card. It is one of the few cards that will simply discard a location in play, without ever exploring it, with others being Bilbo's Plan, Distant Stars, and Eryn Galen Settler. Bilbo's Plan gets you a random enemy from the encounter deck for your troubles, and hopefully its threat is high enough to target a location you want to discard (so most likely won't work on high-threat locations). Distant Stars requires the location to be active already, so either you paid the travel cost or used some other card to get the active location where it is. Plus, Distant Stars won't lower the threat in the staging area, so it has a different, but still valid, use case than Heirs of Earendil. Eryn Galen Settler requires you to discard it, which isn't too steep a cost all things told, but also requires the location you're targeting to be the same title as the (explored) active location, which means you have to deal with at least one of those locations in a more conventional way.

Now why would you want to discard a location in the staging area? There are the obvious benefits, those that are shared by exploring a card in the staging area via Northern Tracker or Asfaloth, etc, such as reducing the threat in the staging area and avoiding bad travel costs, but then there are some unique benefits, like being able to get rid of locations with "cannot have progress while in the staging area", discarding cards with X printed quest points like Hills of Wilderland (because printed X = 0), and discarding locations with nasty when explored effects like Sinister Dungeon. And if there aren't any of those sorts of locations in the scenario you're playing, it's still very good location control.

Now, the costs. The major one, a unique Noldor and a unique Dúnedain character. Aragorn and Arwen are what immediately jump to mind, but there are plenty of combinations that are possible here. Now, if you're going for a purely Noldor or Dúnedain deck, those combinations probably won't be utilized, but this card is a good reason to build a deck with these traits, and Tale of Tinúviel is a fun reason to do so, even if I struggle to use it well. Next cost, raise your threat by the printed quest points. Considering you must control a unique Noldor character, you have easy access to Elrond's Counsel, and you might even control Aragorn, so this is a cost that's rarely impactful, though there do exist some nightmare locations to give you pause (looking at you, Gladden Marshlands).

So, there you go. Use the guidance of the great mariner Eärendil and the Silmaril he bears across the sky to just skip over some location entirely.

Shadowfax is an awesome card. If you draw it up in your starting hand, you should automatically pay for it. There is nothing better in the early game than Shadowfax, as you can quest Gandalf, then ready him to use for defending. You can pay for Shadowfax immediately, as it only costs 3 resources. When you do pay for him, you basically get a 3/3/3/5 character with Ranged and Sentinel - all for a discount of 4 resources.

No review for the man himself? Spirit Frodo’s best bud, beautiful synergy with Frodo’s ability and the popular One Ring “Master” card cycle. Not bad as a 2wp for 1 resource ally even if you’re not building around him. Wouldn’t run him without Frodo.