Honestly, Pippin isn't bad in solo. Group him with hobbit heroes, and use Hobbit Pipe and events such as The Galadhrim's Greeting to draw cards.. If enemies engage you just send them back to staging. Using Will of the West you can eventually get your to 0. I assumed Pippin was horrible because everyone says so, but I'm kinda digging him!

I have recently "re-discovered" Map of Earnil while playing a Noldor build w/Erestor, and it is quite powerful when combined with high-powered card draw. Essentially, you can get two extra usages out of a card like Elrond's Counsel or The Galadhrim's Greeting each time through your deck (the first when you trigger the Map and the second when you draw into the recurred event, which is now back in your deck). Well worth it :).

As pointed out by the lads over at cardtalk2018 in a recent podcast there is the reflection of a dwarven face in the top left of the axe that I never noticed before and will likely never be able to unsee. It legitimately jumpscared me because even as a newer player I've looked at this card many a time and never saw it before. Is this anyone else's first time seeing this?

Thalin has a cool ability and as we all know.. stats that don't support him. Except when it's suddenly time for sieges and battles, here he can suddenly quest for a lot more thanks to things like dwarven axes and armour that can be found in abundance in tactics. I also quite like chip damage against high defense enemies, it makes them a little easier to take down a turn or so faster when you might otherwise wound an enemy down to 1 hp. He's still not great, but I like him together with leadership Dain for some extra stat buffs.

This should almost be called horn-call of Rossiel, because of how much it synergizes with her ability. Now she can commit to questing and potentially help out on defense as well, as long as you send a common enemy trait to the victory display.