Elladan and
Elrohir weren't present at the Council, but were present at Rivendell in that time just like Merry and Pippin; in the book the Fellowship of the Ring was designed after the Council and not during it. They later went to Rhosgobel to summon
Radagast, but found he wasn't at his house and returned to his father (otherwise
Radagast might have been one of
the Nine Walkers, but Tolkien excluded him, such as Elrond and Glorfindel, probably to give more emphasis to Hobbits and Men instead of supernatural forces like Gandalf, or dwindling races like Elves or Dwarves). So they were present.
It's a good idea to playtest the Elven Twins before deciding if they are overpowered or not, to therefore X-list them. The X-list can help to give shape to this new format, just as the "additional valid" list. But there is another list we might use to prevent OP combos (or reduce the impact of OP cards):
the R-list.The problem of the
Horn of Boromir can't be easily handled with the FOTR card pool: you have to
discard the Horn,
kill Boromir or
discard most or all allies to counter it. And the "additional valid" list doesn't help too much, because Shadow cards that discard FP possessions suffer of these issues: they aren't lore consistent (
Dunlending Pillager,
Corsair Marauder,
Grond HotU,
Wormtongue,
Where Has Grima Stowed It) or rely on new game mechanics (
Cantea, Faster than Winds); I can't recall a
,
,
,
, or
card of later sets that doesn't have such problems, though I can be wrong 'cause I'm not an expert and don't play anything past set 10. So, to counter the
Horn of Boromir we have:
-
can try to discard the Horn with
Isengard Smith (but will have huge troubles to survive unexhausted to the Regroup phase) or kill Boromir with
Saruman SotE and some strong, preferably fierce guy like Lurtz (or
Saruman SotE himself, with his Staff and his Throne); discarding
Armor with
BtHoM will be key. To discard/kill allies they have nought.
-
can try to kill Boromir with
Hate,
You Bring Great Evil and
Enduring Evil, or discard/kill allies with
Memory of Many Things and Tower Assasin. They can't discard possessions.
-
can try to kill Boromir with, as you correctly say,
Such a Little Thing. Or with
Frenzy (such an underrated card, if he exhausts himself to summon some allies, you can force him to fight a strong Goblin or a high vitality Goblin bearing a
Moria Axe ). They don't have anything to discard possessions or non-Dwarf allies (
Goblin Warrior), so killing "The Great Warrior" (as Uglúk named him) is the only thing Moria can do.
-
can discard the Horn with
Beauty is Fading, or try to kill Boromir with many tricks (
Blade Tip,
Shotgun Enquea,
Toldea MoM with a
Nazgul Sword ), or discard/kill strong fighter allies with
Fear,
Attea The Easterling,
The Nine Servants of Sauron (hobbit hospital) and
Their Power is in Terror. They are clearly in advantage to the other Shadow cultures.
If all those hard efforts to directly discard the Horn finally hit the nail, the FP player can just play another copy in a further Fellowship phase.
Unless the Horn of Boromir is added to the R-list. If we do that, the Horn will be only a piece of the engine in "Fighting-allies" FP decks; the other pieces would be events:
One Whom Men Would Follow for everyone (a legal way to summon
Tom Bombadil in Movie Block), and
Support of the Last Homely House and
Swan Ship of the Galadhrim for
allies. And good-old
Thrarin, Dwarven Smith.
So we can add the
Horn of Boromir to either the X-list (removing a strong lore consistent card) or to the R-list. But allowing 4 copies of it will be too unbalanced I think.
The R-list can make OP cards more bearable to the opponent. I firmly believe that
Savagery to Match Their Numbers and
Saruman, KoI SHOULD be R-listed, not X-listed in Movie Block, but that's another discussion. The only cards that can't be reduced in power when added to the R-list are companions that can be part of the starting fellowship, because you don't have to draw them in order to play them. That leaves only 2 options for
Grimbeorn: totally allowed, or totally forbidden.
The R-list can turn discard decks even more powerful, as a strategy that relies on a card with a single copy will be destroyed if that card unwillingly hits the discard pile
. I'd add
No Stranger to the Shadows to the R-list, given the power increase to Gondor and the need of less choking mechanisms to allow stronger and more expensive Shadow strategies to work.
In respect of
Forces of Mordor, I'd vote for its remotion from the R-list. That's another way of making the
culture stronger.
In respect of Reflections, there are so many things that correspond to TTT or ROTK, or to past ages like Elendil, that would be absurd to allow that whole set to be used. Nonetheless, there are some good cards that we might make "additionally valid" (or allow the Set 9 to be used with a swollen X-list including Elendil, Isildur, Gil-Galad, Dwarven Lords and Rings...):
-
Bilbo BoTB will be awesome in FOTR Block.
-
Boromir BoC, as a regular companion, will be very interesting I think (
Troop of Uruk Hai +
Saruman KOI? Just discard it!
).
-
Host of Moria can bring new blood to the Goblinses.
-
Gollum DaD and the Nazgûl Rings, as we talked before.
-
Library of Orthanc?
Ithil Stone?
-
Elven Rope?
Knife of the Galadhrim? Merry's Dagger and Pippin's Dagger? (Only the
Elven Rope is truly lore-consistent, and unless the Knife is used to give
Halbarad a weapon, Aragorn doesn't need more toys)
-
Radagast.
SENT BACK (Kamikaze Gandy)! Frodo + Gandy decks will thank the inclusion of
Sent Back.
-
Scroll of Isildur.
Narsil, BotF (without Elendil and Isildur, will be a vitality enhancer for
guys like
Boromir SoD, in fact he's handling that sword in the picture);
Strider carried only one weapon in Bree in the book, and was the hilt of a broken sword...
Andúril
FotW, and perhaps Andúril
STWB (though the vitality bonus worries me with
Aragorn's Bow). I know that those aren't part of Reflections, but Andúril is part of the FOTR book. LORE CONSISTENT. Maybe
Aragorn Strider, as it's very lore consistent too (Boromir/Halbarad + Aragorn as starting felowship).
EDIT: Added more spices to the soup, so read it again you lazy guy! Just joking, but added more things about the R-list.