They Are Coming

[Alazzar]

I'm actually kinda surprised at how many people don't like They Are Coming.  What do you do when you reconcile after your Free Peoples turn, only to draw into a hand full of FP cards?  If you've got a They Are Coming on the table, those FP cards turn into Orcs!  Similarly, if you're playing Scavengers and drawing cards with the Scimitars they grab, you could draw into stuff you don't need -- be it an FP card or a duplicate of a Moria condition that you don't need.

Also, there's the whole point about cycling often being a good thing.  Sometimes, discarding 3 cards isn't a penalty, it's a blessing!

And as far as Host of Thousands goes, I think it's more suited for Moria Archery, where the goal isn't to just get as many orcs as possible out, but rather to get SPECIFIC orcs out.  The crappy thing about Host is that you can draw it when there are no orcs left in your discard pile, either because they've already been played with They Are Coming (or just another copy of Host), or because it's early in the game (site 4) and you have no orcs in your discard pile.  If your opponent moves to site 4 with a relatively small fellowship and you've got 5 orcs and 2 Host of Thousands in your hand, you'll be kicking yourself for not using minions instead of those Hosts.  The game coulda been over right there!

But like I said, Host of Thousands is great for Moria Archery, 'cause it lets you pull the Moria Archer Troop (or whatever else you may want) repeatedly.

[daisukeman]

Also, there's the whole point about cycling often being a good thing.  Sometimes, discarding 3 cards isn't a penalty, it's a blessing!

Agree.. They are coming is a must, totally needed in any moria deck. Even if it's not an archer's deck.

Sometimes your opponent, who started, has double-moved so your objective in the game becomes holding on to saving Frodo and just killing with shadow. Then, you discard freeps cards because the point of the game for you now is not to beat the opponent's shadow. (And also ultra handy in site 9, since you no longer need freeps cards).
Also, I´ve had my gandalf killed in a gandalf deck, so it's a pain to have copies of glamdring and narya and his stuff show afterwards. Those can be gladly discarded too for more orcs.
In FOTR, there are few cards that let you unclog your hand against choke decks.
Mainly Nenya, Ottar, Man of Laketown, Gwemegil, Arwen, Elven Rider, Gift of the Evenstar.

IMHO if the freeps can discard conditions and it comes to choosing just one to discard in a shadow's support area I'd rather discard a they are coming than a goblin armory.

[Elessar's Socks]

Alazzar pretty much said it.

And though Host of Thousands might not be a staple even in Moria archery, I like to use it exactly to get the Moria Archer Troop back. High-vitality, two points of archery, and discourages a double move. Ah, Brown Lands was a fun site...

[jdizzy001]

I love the brown lands