Fool's Hope (7U35)
 Echoes of Valinor (7C34)
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Gandalf, Defender of the West (7C36) 
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Fool's Hope (7U35) is a 
Gandalf Event from the Return of the King set. It is the King block continuation of Gandalf Sleep, Caradhras (1C84)
and Grown Suddenly Tall (4R92)
to "nuke" conditions, although that definition is stretched here: it is far less drastic than its predecessors, neither wiping all of an opponent's conditions nor any of the Free Peoples player's. It is also part of a cycle of Free Peoples events which discard two cards from hand, the only one which doesn't require initiative to be played. The rest of the cycle is Where Shall We Go (7U78)
, Stand to Arms (7U120)
, and Guarded Fastness (7U234)
.
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Strategy[edit]
Gameplay Strategy[edit]
Sleep, Caradhras (1C84)
is among one of the most defining cards in the game, but it is unsuitable for many decks which rely on conditions themselves. Fool's Hope seems to avoid those concerns, with a catch: the Shadow player keeps two preferred conditions. Many Shadow strategies in Movie Block, anticipating more powerful and prevalent condition discarding effects, don't have more than a few conditions in the deck anyway. Others only need one or two key conditions to function, such as Easterlings relying on Small Hope (7R159)
to keep burdens on the table or initiative 
Ringwraith Orcs using Streaming to the Field (8U78)
and Flung Into the Fray (8U71)
. If there is any specific condition like Greed (1R125)
or a Blade Tip (1U209)
that may give the Free Peoples player trouble, Fool's Hope offers no assistance. Even against a Shadow side with many conditions, it won't have an impact towards the start of the game when there are only a handful of conditions out (and many more waiting in the deck). These caveats leave the effect less flexible than Sleep, Caradhras; only certain types of decks are impacted at all, and only after a certain point. As a result, Fool's Hope is a rather unpopular card.
But even though Shadows which depend on few or specific conditions will come out essentially unscathed, those which are built on the volume of conditions suffer about as much as if they had lost everything. 
Sauron strategies are chief among them, with grind, discard, and besieger swarms mostly sputtering out without a completely full support area. 
Moria swarms also suffer at having to lose copies of Goblin Armory (1R173)
, although less severely. Ninja Gollum decks rely on conditions to function, and while Promise Keeping (8R24)
is likely to stay on the table there is much less to fear when almost everything else is gone. 
Isengard machine decks suffer more than any other -- the Shadow player does the discarding, leaving Siege Engine (5U60)
unable to prevent it. It is best to clear out these strategies towards the end of the game anyway, since they spend the first 6 sites setting up a kill towards the end. Holding it in hand will only slow down your Free Peoples and Shadow sides, so use Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor (1U70)
or other recursion to bring it back at the right time.
The most obvious choice for the Shadow player would be to keep the two conditions which are most important for the strategy and discard the rest. However, for unique conditions in particular, decks relying on them often pack multiple copies. If there are still some remaining in the draw deck, it may be worth the risk to allow some of those key conditions to be discarded in favor of a less important one which can't be replaced.
Deckbuilding Strategy[edit]
This card faces stiff competition, though not where it might be expected -- Deep in Thought (3C30)
is usually too unreliable unless the deck is also flooding or has a reliable way to add twilight in the Maneuver phase, and a deck with no key conditions doesn't need to entertain this card over Sleep, Caradhras (1C84)
or Grown Suddenly Tall (4R92)
. Instead, other cultures have their own powerful discarding effects in Movie Block which makes it less necessary to rely on the Gandalf culture at all: Blood Runs Chill (8R3)
, Galadriel, Lady Redeemed (10R11)
, and Fortress Never Fallen (4U276)
are all as capable and far more versatile. Only 
Gondor and 
Shire lack versatile and consistent condition discarding (and 
Gollum, though with only one companion this isn't an impediment to deckbuilding). However, since they both have reasonable access to Bilbo, Well-spoken Gentlehobbit (2U96)
and Athelas (1U94)
or Seven We Had (4U318)
, a smaller still subset of those decks can use Gandalf, rely on many conditions, and would gain more from Fool's Hope than the alternatives.
If a strategy with many conditions is giving your Free Peoples trouble, then Fool's Hope can be the saving grace. Even so, consider whether losing your own conditions would be just as detrimental in that specific matchup. If your conditions don't provide any healing and you struggle against grind, for example, it is often worth losing them and wiping out everything with Sleep, Caradhras even if your conditions would be crucial in any other game.
Strengths and Weaknesses[edit]
Synergizes With...[edit]
- Any condition-dependent Free Peoples which includes Gandalf, such as Trust Me as You Once Did (3U35)
decks - Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor (1U70)
to play the card precisely when you mean to
- A Light in His Mind (10U108)
and Fell Deeds Awake (10U73)
, which allow players to benefit from losing initiative in the Fellowship phase - Secret Sentinels (2R20)
or other targeted condition discarding to finish the job
Strong Versus...[edit]
- Shadow strategies which rely on the quantity of conditions more than any particular ones -- most Sauron and Moria decks as well as Ninja Gollum
- Isengard machines, as Siege Engine (5U60)
cannot protect any conditions from its effect
Weak Versus...[edit]
- Any specific condition
- Shadow sides that only have one or two important conditions to begin with, such as Easterlings with Small Hope (7R159)
or initiative Ringwraith Orcs
- Sauron trackers from King Block, for whom conditions are primarily a way to gain initiative anyway
