Radagast

Hero. Threat: 11. 2   2   3   4  

Istari.

This card was errata'd

While playing a Creature ally, Radagast gains the printed , , and icons.

Response: After you play a Creature card, Radagast does not exhaust to quest this round.

"..he has much lore of herbs and beasts, and birds are especially his friends."
-Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring
Aleksander Karcz

The Fate of Wilderland #145. Lore.

Radagast
Reviews

I have an urgent errand. My message is thematic, long-awaited and powerful.

Wow this is what Eagles were missing. They've always been strong but short of Vilya they have been difficult to afford. That all changes now, being Lore he is able to bring in card draw (and more importantly Word of Command which you can still exhaust to do after questing as long as you play a creature) and healing. But unlike all Lore except for Elrond he is still able to help pay for his tactics winged friends (and the assortment of new creatures in this cycle). Not to mention his staff which allows you to decrease the cost of creatures even more. Even the Descendents of Thorondor are looking like they'll see the battlefield.

About the only possible negative is the artwork leans more towards the movie version which has mixed reactions from fans. And I suppose high threat and kind of being limited or at least best with a certain kind of build where his friend Gandalf can plug in more places.

Don't forget to put Wizard Pipe and Flame of Anor into your deck for even more Radagast fun. Burning brand also has a new friend.

All in all one of the strongest heroes of this cycle of not in the top ten for the game. Which as one of the wizards is fitting.

I'm really disappointed by the wording of Radagast's text box :

You may use resources from Radagast's pool to pay for Creature allies of any sphere.

This ability doesn't allow you to pay 0-cost cards as you don't have a resource match. Notably, if you use your Staff to reduce the cost of a Creature by 2, you will not be able to play it if you don't have another hero with the correct resource icon.

This is half of the available creatures cards in the pool, and the ones you want to play the most : Messenger Raven, Vassal of the Windlord, Winged Guardian, Eagle Emissary, The Riddermark's Finest, Wild Stallion, Bill the Pony. (the ratio gets even worse with AleP cards).

Most of the time Radagast is played in an Eagle deck alongside heroes, so you won't notice it, but it harms seriously other build like a Grey Wanderer deck.

A good fix would be to recognize that, as every other Istari, Radagast should gain a printed icon :

When you play a Creature card, Radagast gains the printed , , and icons.


Edit : thanks to Ered Mithrin reprint, this fix is now official !

Emmental 426
I've always thought the 0-cost ruling was especially unintuitive. You could just read it the way you want it to work and I don't think anyone would blame you! — kjeld 662
Just don't use his Staff on those creatures then. They're already cheap to begin with, and with Radagast they are practically free. He shines at lowering the cost of the more expensive creatures. Giving him printed resource icons would make him OP. — eddyvan 34
Note that Caleb confirmed in a CotR episode that hero Radagast was indeed meant to work that way (that is to say being able to play Creature allies of all spheres even when their cost are reduced to 0). I think they might have used hero Elrond's templating without realizing it was a non-bo with the Staff — Alonewolf87 2376
ALeP also proposed a fix similar to the one you are proposing: https://alongextendedparty.com/alep-faq-and-errata/ — Alonewolf87 2376
And finally we will have your proposed fix being made official with the reprint — LordOfLórien 22