The site text does not match the card text. "1 Rohan card" vs "1 Rohan ally card"....fairly large difference. I don't know how to submit this for a fix, but figured I'd mention it.
Would be really interesting if you COULD in fact dig for attachments or some of those Rohan events.
Keep It Secret has no restriction on the number of times you can activate it, meaning you can choose to threat out in the first phase of the game.
Usually this would be totally useless, but with A Perilous Voyage, it allows us to flip the contract in the first planing phase, benefiting early from it's bonuses :
You also start a race against the clock, because you can't reduce your threat from non-contract effects... but with Beyond the Original Bargain, you can add a contract that has build-in threat reduction : Council of the Wise.
Well, now your deck is totally inconsistent, because you avec 100 different cards in it
... and that's how we recreated somehow an EDH from Magic the Gathering
You will have one 3+ cost card guaranted T1. That'll be your Commander, the concept which you will build your deck around. For example, Sword that was Broken for a swarming monster questing deck.
Your heroes are not exhausting to quest, so you can use characters with high stats. Glorfindel becomes truly a monster.
Thurindir is also an interesting inclusion, with Gather Information easily completed you can grab another card. For example pick Vigilant Dúnadan with contract, and then Arwen Undómiel or Narya with the side quest.
Some kind of extra draw on your heroes is nice to funnel Council of the Wise : Beravor, Círdan (perhaps with a Silver Harp fetched by Elena?)...
Or you can simply pick Salvaged Supplies with Gather information.
You will probably be in secrecy most of the game.
For example, if i have 30 starting (so 34 with BtOB, 35 after activating A Perilous Voyage once), i will activate Keep It Secret 8 times, ending at 24 and a secrecy limit of 28.
Below a recap for different starting threats :
| Starting threat | Without One Ring | With One Ring | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Effective threat | Secrecy limit | Effective threat | Secrecy limit | |
| 25 | 20 | 30 | 19 | 28 |
| 26 | 20 | 30 | 21 | 27 |
| 27 | 22 | 29 | 21 | 27 |
| 28 | 22 | 29 | 23 | 26 |
| 29 | 24 | 28 | 23 | 26 |
| 30 | 24 | 28 | 25 | 25 |
| 31 | 26 | 27 | 25 | 25 |
| 32 | 26 | 27 | 27 | 24 |
| 33 | 28 | 26 | 27 | 24 |
Lindir is a helper, not a deck-shaper. There is no point in making a deck around him, but he provide card draw in certain situations. I don't believe he should be used as is for combo decks, since those usually have a huge focus on drawing cards, and getting a Lindir with 11-card hand size is just disheartening. He is still a decent Ally to splash in any Spirit deck with no access to much card draw, as it's not uncommon to have a small or inexistent hand in such decks. The fact he can defend with no repercussions is even better - in fact, some times you might want him to die, just in time for his twin brother Lindir to take his place and draw you 1-3 cards. In Noldor decks, I would dare to say he is close to a must-have. Absolutely so if you are using Erestor, of course. But any Noldor deck worth their salt is dropping cards like crazy to boost an early game, save a bad situation or just control the board. The fact he does pack a punch, although a small one at 1 , makes him a versatile ally; sometimes that's the difference between doing damage or not having enough to overpower an enemy's .
There is, however, something else... Something I have been using with Lindir, that is both cheeky and fun: Messenger of the King. Since you "draw 6 cards" as your starting hand in Step 7 of Player Setup and not "draw until you have 6 cards", and Lindir enters play in Step 5, that's a 10-card starting hand (due to first turn draw) in any deck; the fact he is a 2 Spirit Noldor Hero, means he can be easily splashed into virtually any archetype and be proactive while at that - free access to Elrond's Counsel good people! If you have The One Ring in your deck, that means you have a 11-card hand! The chance of you drawing one of a 3-of in your deck is increased to 52.1%, not counting the option to mulligan! If you are using Galdor of the Havens, the chance to get that one card increases so much I can't even bother calculating. Did I do enough to convince you to go and try a Lindir as Messenger of the King? I hope so.
Disclaimer: This takes into consideration the revised Setup rules, which brings Contract Setup effects to Step 5, instead of 7 - which honestly makes much more sense, since otherwise you could lose access to your MotK hero due to drawing him in your starting hand. You can see more info about this right here: [alongextendedparty.com](https://alongextendedparty.com/reworked-setup-in-depth-version/)
I'm writing the first review of this card. I used it in an Alatar and Pallando deck I was running in the Angmar Awakened Campaign. I love this card merely because I love the thought of playing the enemy (Gríma, Revealed in Wrath, Parrying Cutlass). But I was able to bring an Angmar Captain, a Warg, and a Coldfell Giant to my side. If you have resource generation or a powerful constitution (read: patience), you can create a powerful ally. The "exhaust an Istari character" cost isn't that severe because with Rods of the Five, you can ready the character. Or you could use this in a Gandalf The Grey Wanderer Steward of Gondor deck because of the readying from Shadowfax and The Grey Wanderer and the resources from Steward of Gondor and The Grey Wanderer. This is a great addition to the card collection.
After more than five years since this card's publication, how can there still be no reviews of The One Ring, the centerpiece item of the Lord of the Rings?
This card certainly isn't an auto-include for deck building, but is very good in the right deck. Even at its simplest use, you get to reduce your deck size by one (since the ring starts in play) and pull another card from your deck during setup, giving you effectively seven starting cards and a deck size of 48 instead of 50. Depending on what your deck needs, all four of the master attachments are potentially useful: Power of Command boosts willpower, Inner Strength for blocking, Strength and Courage for attacking, or Well Preserved for health.
It is of course dangerous to use this in a high threat deck or on a quest where there are severe threat conditions, but for a low threat deck (like hobbits, a very thematic choice, or The Grey Wanderer) the threat penalty probably won't even be noticed.
I like the threat payment abilities on the attachments because you're already getting benefit even without paying. I wish the actions had a similar format where you had a base effect with no threat cost and an optional threat cost to boost the power. For example, The Master Ring could have its effect plus an optional threat payment to not draw a replacement card. Similarly, The Ring of Power could have a stat boost and optional threat payment to ready the hero. Likewise, The Ruling Ring could have one target by default plus an optional threat payment for an extra target. In all three cases, the base cost and threat cost would need to be balanced to the effects granted.
Example decks:
