Fast Allies

"There are names among us that are worth more than a thousand mail-clad knights apiece."
     –Gandalf, The Return of the King

Corsairs have assailed the Grey Havens and stolen an ominous, black key recovered from the ruins of Númenor. Now their fleet races swiftly across the seas, and you must catch them in order to reclaim the strange key that they have stolen… Thus begins the Flight of the Stormcaller, now available for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!

Even as its new scenario thrusts you fast into the narrative action of the Dream-chaser cycle and its thrilling approaches to travel, sailing, and discovery, Flight of the Stormcaller marks the beginning of your new adventures in deck-building and multiplayer experiences by introducing a wealth of powerful new allies and cards that play out of one sphere but grow stronger if you can pay for their secondary effects from other spheres.

And while all of this means that you'll need to accrue piles of resources across the different spheres, Flight of the Stormcaller also introduces a new Leadership version of Denethor (Flight of the Stormcaller, 1) who can, if he chooses, accelerate your accumulation of wealth and distribute it among the other members of your fellowship. With his aid and his resources, you may even be able to man your ships, lay pursuit, catch the Corsairs, and recapture the stolen key.

Setting Sail

Círdan, Lord of the Grey Havens, has seen his fleet decimated, and though he grants your heroes the use of his remaining vessels, you won't be able to set sail with a large navy. Instead, you'll have limited space aboard the few ships under your command, and you'll need to crew them wisely. When you can't carry thousands of mail-clad knights, you need greater names.

To that end, Flight of the Stormcaller kicks off the Dream-chaser cycle's focus on high-impact allies by introducing two new unique allies and two versatile non-unique allies.

Azain Silverbeard (Flight of the Stormcaller, 4) is a Dwarf Warrior whose three Attack Strength can help you swiftly dispatch the deadliest of foes, and he also comes with a unique Response ability that makes him particularly effective at cutting through hordes of smaller enemies. After Azain Silverbeard participates in an attack that destroys an enemy, you can spend one Tactics resource to have him deal two damage to any other enemy that shares a Trait with the enemy he just defeated. More than this, though, Azain Silverbeard's ability encourages cooperation between the players at a larger table because any player can trigger it—not just the player controlling him.

Glorfindel already exists as a hero in both the Lore and Spirit spheres, but the new ally version of Glorfindel (Flight of the Stormcaller, 6) is bound to give them both a run for their money. Although he costs a whopping five resources, Glorfindel is easily worth the investment. He comes with the same three Willpower and Attack Strength as the hero version, as well as the same one Defense Strength, and although his Hit Points have been reduced from five to four, his unique ability to be played from the discard pile makes him even more resilient. And then while he's in play, you can discard a card from your hand once per phase to ready him. So long as you have sufficient card draw, Glorfindel can quest, defend, and attack—all in the same round!

If you're already investing in extra card draw to be able to ready Glorfindel as much as possible, you might consider adding the Imladris Caregiver (Flight of the Stormcaller, 8) to your deck. Twice per round, the Caregiver can convert a discard into a point of healing. By itself, that's frequently enough to keep your allies or heroes alive and in the fight, but you can, of course, improve on the efficiency by running the hero version of Elrond (Shadow and Flame, 128) who doubles the healing power of each discard.

Finally, Flight of the Stormcaller introduces the stalwart Guardian of Rivendell (Flight of the Stormcaller, 10), a neutral, non-unique ally who should prove a tremendous defender with his three Defense Strength and three Hit Points. The trick is that in order to play your Guardian of Rivendell, you must not only pay three resources but discard two cards from your hand. While this extra cost will certainly keep the Guardian out of a good many decks, it lends the Noldor Warrior an extra bit of punch in a dedicated Noldor deck with cards like Lords of the Eldar (The Battle of Carn Dûm, 121), Anchor Watch (The Grey Havens, 7), and Elven-light (The Dread Realm, 145).

Of course, the more powerful these allies are, the more they need to be balanced by their high resource costs, and that can make them difficult to play, especially in multi-sphere decks built to take advantage of the secondary effects presented by new Dream-chaser cards like Tides of Fate (Flight of the Stormcaller, 7). Fortunately, the Adventure Pack's introduction of the new Denethor means that you can play heroes from three different spheres and still be able to get a Steward of Gondor (Core Set, 26) into play on the first turn, drastically improving your acceleration of resources.

Put Steward of Gondor onto the actual Steward, and you'll find you'll almost always have resources to take advantage of Denethor's second ability, transferring resources from his pool to the resource pools of your other Gondor heroes. And if your other heroes aren't from Gondor? Well, there's always the chance that they can decide to become  In Service of the Steward (Flight of the Stormcaller, 3) and gain the Gondor trait. Then, they'll be able to store resources more quickly and more easily play allies like Azain Silverbeard and Glorfindel in the same deck.

Begin Your Pursuit

The Corsairs and their Stormcaller have already begun their race across the seas, so there's no time to delay. Gather your crew, and begin your pursuit!

Flight of the Stormcaller is now available at retailers throughout the United States and online via our webstore. Availability in other regions may vary.