The Art of Gandalf

[Dictionary]

I have some questions regarding The Art of Gandalf:

1) Can I stack an Spell from my hand on this card?

2) Can I discard a card from hand to take an card stacked here into hand?

3) Bonus question: If Ted Sandyman stacks a Man here, can I discard a card from hand to take the Shadow player's [men] Man into my hand?

[Legion]

Your Shadow cards are not active on your Fellowship turn, so you can't stack Shadow spells. Therefore parts 1 and 2 are both "no".
The bonus question is interesting. I'd say you can. Opponents' Shadow cards are legit. Oh the possibilities :-)

[Durin's Heir]

But stacked cards are NOT active, be Shadow or FP. I say yes to 1 and 2. Grimbeorn specifies a keyword card type in the Shadow cards he discards from hand, "minion", so if he can look inside the gametext and stats of your own non-active Shadow card, why not the Art of Gandalf?

But 3... I don't know. Don't know if there ever was a rule about it, probably not because no other card might do that trick (Twisted Tales would be nasty!). So I'd guess it's YES.

Curiously, in Spanish the word "draw" (for card games, no pencil or paper involved) is "robar", which also means "to steal" or "to rob". So we got a lot of fun in school with that translation, haha! (But we always returned them ).



The only usefulness I see is loading all your copies of Cruel Caradhras to play them in a row when the RB is exhausted, preferrably with 2x Saruman's Ambition and an Uruk Shaman (Broad-bladed Sword if necessary). A Fell Voice on the Air is much better for replaying weather conditions.

[Legion]

Grimboern specifically bends the rules by discarding a minion that must be inactive. Otherwise cards do not. For example, you couldn't pull your Staff of Saruman when playing Gandalf, Returned. Grimboern is the exception, rather than the rule.

Also minion is not a keyword, but a card type. I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but you certainly don't read the gametext (including keywords such as "Spell") of inactive cards.

[Durin's Heir]

Grimbeorn does not play cards, while Gandalf Returned does. You cannot play Shadow cards during your turn. So are very different issues.

You don't use the gametext of inactive cards ('cause you cannot play them)... but that doesn't mean you cannot read it.


You're right, minion is not a keyword, confused it with item classes.

[Phallen Cassidy]

Your Shadow cards are not active on your Fellowship turn, so you can't stack Shadow spells. Therefore parts 1 and 2 are both "no".
The bonus question is interesting. I'd say you can. Opponents' Shadow cards are legit. Oh the possibilities :-)

This is a common misconception, and not quite right. Dwarves stack best, of course, and have some good examples. Preparations, for example, can stack any card from discard, and may be used with Rest by Blind Night to shuffle a considerable number of Shadow cards back into your draw deck. Ever My Heart Rises stacks anything from the draw deck, and Hall of Our Fathers stacks anything from hand onto it, and takes anything stacked onto it into hand.

The rules on inactive cards are actually much less prohibitive:

active

During your turn, only these cards in play are active:

•  sites on the adventure path,
•  sites in any player's support area,
•  your Free Peoples cards,
•  your copy of The One Ring, and
•  your opponents' Shadow cards.

All other cards in play are inactive. Inactive cards are not affected by the game and do not affect the game.

Note: all other cards in play are inactive. As an aside, I don't think cards in hand are ever active or inactive - they're simply in hand. Try to refrain from quoting me on this, as I haven't really considered all that this means.

There's also some relevant information for stacking cards.

stack

Stacking a card is not playing a card. Stacked cards are placed face up and may be looked at by any player at any time.

Stacked cards are not in play and are not active. You cannot spot them. They do not count for uniqueness. A stacked unique card may be in play elsewhere. Multiple copies of the same unique card may be stacked together.

For what it's worth, stacked cards are not inactive - otherwise cards like Gorgoroth Pillager and Sindri would have no point. I imagine how the game handles cards stacked and cards in hand are somewhat similar - not in play and not active. We have plenty of rules on when you can play things from hand, but no rule allowing you to play things stacked unless another card gives you that rule.

So there's absolutely no reason you can't stack a card as long as it meets the requirements: none for Preparations, Free Peoples item for Gandalf's Card, and a spell for The Art of Gandalf. (1) checks out - legal.

(2) is fine, as well. Hall of Our Fathers takes any/all cards stacked into hand, and if it weren't legal there would be no need to specify Free Peoples on Dwarven Foresight. Most other cards do specify, but the ones that don't aren't held accountable because of them. Again, stacked cards are only as valuable as the text that tells you what to do with them. The Art of Gandalf is a different card from others, and has a different functionality.

Which means that (3) must be legal. There are no other ways (I can think of) to take an opponent's card into hand, but that doesn't mean it's against the rules.