Short Cut is unique in its ability, but not particularly good. The biggest problem with this card is that it shuffles the location back in before revealing the new encounter. The possibility of getting back the exact same card is soul-crushing. The next problem is that (unlike what the other reviewer said) it doesn't actually cancel the first card. Any "when revealed" or "forced" effects will still happen before you can use this Response, so you may end up with one and a half or two encounters instead of one!

It should have said:

Response: If a location would enter play, exhaust a Hobbit character to instead set that card aside without resolving any of its effects. Then, reveal the next card from the encounter deck and add it to the staging area. Then, shuffle the set aside location into the encounter deck.

From FAQ 1.9:

Q: If I use the Response effect on Saruman (VoI 3) to treat an encounter card guarding an objective as out of play, does that mean I can claim that objective because it is free of encounters?

A: No. When a card is considered to be out of play, each card attached to it is also considered to be out of play. Because objectives with the Guarded keyword are attached to the enemy or location that is guarding it, if that enemy or location is considered to be out of play, the guarded objective is too.

This card is really fantastic for an #RCO player with a limited collection. Once they own the Dream-Chaser hero pack, they have access to a 0 mana tactics event that can, with the simple insertion of a piece of paper with some writing on it, can be any 0 cost tactics event in the non-revised content.

Need some location management? Now it's Bilbo's Plan. In a Silvan deck it can be Pursuing the Enemy, in a dwarf deck it can be Khazâd! Khazâd!. Gondorian Discipline may be helpful in a Gondor deck, or if you need to take out some enemies you can have it be Straight Shot or Goblin-cleaver.

I've started calling this card the rich man's Sneak Attack, but while it works well with anything with a powerful "enters play" effect(cough cough), it is also one of the few ways to replay anything with a "when played from hand" effect.

The most powerful one I could think of would be Galadriel for her card search and willpower, especially since she would typically discard herself. After that West Road Traveller for active location shenanigans and Andrath Guardsman for enemy shenanigans. Making Rivendell Minstrel repeatable could also help set up more songs for a deck. And of course there's the Doomed allies Greyflood Wanderer, Herald of Anórien, Mirkwood Pioneer, and Henneth Annûn Guard. Of those the Herald seems most interesting to me, as a way to get in off-sphere allies in a leadership and tactics valour deck.

This also works with Radagast to scoop up creatures and replay them to keep triggering his free questing at a discount.

Overall an okay card thats overlooked in favor of Sneak Attack for good reason since you need lots of resources to replay allies and resource generation is typically found in leadership and if you're in leadership you may as well just go for the path of least resistance instead of trying to make a niche card and uncommon "when played" abilities work.

This card is a bit self-evident, but worthy of a review to highlight the merits. Angmar Awakened introduced player side quests, and another set of them were added with The Haradrim, all of them with appreciable benefits. This event means that, if you have access to , you can find any side quests you may feel like including, no matter what sphere, to tailor to what you may need at any given time. If you are running Thurindir or Thalion, Dúnedain Message is an easy way to power them up faster, as well as Iârion for Angmar Awakened's campaign mode.

At 1 resource in the richest sphere, it's not much of a burden to include, aside from just the deck space. Additionally, with the Signal trait, it can be fetched with Weather Hills Watchman. I wouldn't say this card should convince a deck to run side quests, but if your deck has a couple of side quests and has access to , this card is worth considering.