If I had to give this hero a score it would be an A, possibly even an A+.

I included him in a beorning deck for fun and thematic purposes, and boy was he fun. I underestimated him at first thinking that he would be a fun gimmick, but not as good as his younger self, and I was proven to be dead wrong. I would put him on par with his other version if not better. That's saying something considering I like the other hero Beorn a lot.

For one thing, he has sentinel which is great for me because I only play on multiplayer so I can support weaker combat decks.

His ability is reeaaaallllllllyyyyy good! I was so impressed at how many times I found myself using it. It is basically built in action advantage with a bonus that he reduces the enemies by 2, effectively giving him a boost in attack power.

His stats are also all in the right place so he functions effectively as a defender AND attacker.

I can see that Fantasy Flight designed him to help the player with combat for the early rounds before your deck gets set up. I wonder if you're allowed to make a deck with Grimbeorn the Old and Beorn? That would be fun!

Good designing Fantasy Flight! You guys have my approval.

Extremely powerful hero. He is now in my "power deck" as in the deck you pull out when a scenario is just ridiculously hard. I've actually gotten to where I don't use him unless I run into those types of scenarios because with the right cards he becomes quite broken.

Not only is his ability action efficient (defend and attack), but it also breaks certain enemies/shadow card chains. There are some enemies who do things like return to staging area after they attack. The timing of his ability is such that he can counter-attack before said enemy can take its escape action. Brilliant. It also breaks nasty shadow card effects like "makes an additional attack after this one".

Now here's the ultimate OP combo: Steward of Gondor - Grants tons of resources and the Gondor trait (this is important). Wealth of Gondor - Free card for extra resources, you'll need it. Gondorian Fire - Turns those tons of resources into tons of attack, which sticks around for the entire phase. Gondorian Shield- Two additional shields. Rohan Warhorse - Re-readies after he kills an enemy.

And if you have those particularly nasty enemies/shadow effects that break through or you're dealing with several enemies. Gondorian Discipline Behind Strong Walls Hold Your Ground!

And lets not forget the thematic card Beorn's Rage, which will also greatly help him early on. The real trick is just making sure he gets plenty of resources.

Yes, it takes time to get all this going. But it's not like hes a slouch until then and obviously there will be other things at play. The point is within a few turns you'l be clearing the table of trolls and enemy captains with ease anywhere on the table. This is really useful if you are in a fellowship with a combat-deficient player when a boss type enemy bounces to the first player at some point in the round. Because he's sentinel and de-facto ranged he can defend and attack for anyone.

Now, with all that said. I find it frustrating that he has no synergy with beorning allies. Frankly, the two are in conflict with each-other. Beornings are relatively expensive allies and yes, I know about beorning-skin changer's cost-saving ability. Grimbeorn's ability is resource intense, and he's the type of hero that begs for a stack of attachments.The other thing is that Grimbeorn is so combat efficient that you don't necessarily need beorning allies.

I am very critical of heroes needing to spend a resource for their ability in general, however Grimbeorn the Old might be the most notable exception to that rule. His ability means he will not only be a very decent sentinel defender, but also a potent attacker anywhere on the board, thus giving him a unique form of pseudo-ranged.

The fact he uses pretty much all of his (conveniently very focused) stats makes him a prime target for attachments boosting both of these aspects, like Raiment of War or Captain of Gondor. I also really like to combine him with Strength and Courage, meaning he will be able to kill even bigger enemies early on through his ability. And if you boost his attack high enough, Firefoot is then extremely useful to maybe prevent another enemy attack outright through killing something in the current defense window.

There still is the issue of him being quite expensive and therefore putting you in the unfortunate spot of balancing to buy attachments for him or using his ability, with you often not able to do both, however even then he remains either an elite defender or great attacker, if not both. A fantastic hero and all-round combat juggernaut!

Rating: 8/10

Decks of mine using Grimbeorn the Old

All my card ratings