Thengel · RingsDB

!!!DISCLAIMER!!! Elrond and Vilya are still great. But Thengel is really, really good. And something I do not state below, Gandalf, Elrond and Vilya are virtually immortal.

Let's be short. Thengel is AMAZING! No one can deny that.

But, for sake of this being a good review, I'll elaborate.

First, let's look at his statline: 11 , 3 , 1 , 3 , 4 . Kind of lopsided, and reminds me of Elrond, who is 13 , 3 , 2 , 3 , 4 , which comparing their stats, the only thing that Elrond beats Thengel in is , which is rarely used. And Thengel has 2 less than Elrond. Comparing further,Elrond can get Light of Valinor and still utilize his 3 . Similarly, Thengel can get Snowmane and use his 3 . But when it comes to cards to boost the stats (Vilya does not boost stats, if you were wondering), Thengel beats Elrond because of the glory that is Golden Shield. It gives Thengel double his starting , and that isn't using other or boosting cards (The Favor of the Lady, Silver Circlet, Dúnedain Quest, Song of Hope, ect.). Thengel trumps Elrond with stats and stat-boosting cards.

Next, let's go with effects. So an ally is discarded from play, (normally Rohan), and you search the top five cards of your deck for another ally that share at least one trait with the ally that left play. If you find one, you play it for free. You can't use it until the end of the round, unless you ready it with something like Ever Vigilant, but it is still free. The only cost is to discard an ally from play, which, in a Rohan deck, which Thengel will mainly be used in, discarding gives you something good anyway. Again I will be comparing Thengel to Elrond. Elrond's Ring effect requires you to exhaust Elrond to play the top card of your deck for free, but at the price of a hero exhaust, which doesn't benefit anything. And Elrond's Ring effect is the top card of your deck, which a lot of times is blind, granted there are cards like Imladris Stargazer, Gildor and Gandalf's Search to look at your deck. But I find playing Elrond/Vilya decks those cards take a lot of setup and I can't always get them out until late game. But in Rohan decks I can discard allies pretty much infinitely, and Gamling makes it even better.

Overall Thengel is almost too good, and him having great art from Unknown Artist is just great.

Rating: 10/10

3/26/21

Truck 1409

I think one of Thengel's strongest uses would be in a Last Alliance Rohan/Eagles deck. Discard Wilyador to Worthy of Remembrance and bring a Misty Mountains Eagles in play while readying Gwaihir in the meantime. — Alonewolf87 1921 3/26/21

Great review! — GreenWizard 310 3/26/21

Couldn't agree more. He completes the Rohan archetype almost single-handedly. Just amazing. — Uruk-guy 535 3/26/21

I'm almost positive the artist is Welsey Burt, he was Lotro's lead concept artist during the Riders of Rohan expansion. I'm sure the Alep crew did their due diligence to track it down, but it takes a true Lotro nut to get into the weeds of the concept artists that have worked for that game. — Quetzal513 92 3/30/21

This man makes rohan an absolute joy to play! — xobeabacat 16 10/28/21

Also Thengel with herugrim and Guthwhine he becomes a good attacker — StewofGondor1 22 6/28/22

I'm not a fan of over-powered fan cards --- this one is ludicrously over-powered and should not have been made. I agree with the other review here that identifies him as more powerful than Elrond, which is damning in itself. The ability is a stronger version of the already broken Vilya, which players regularly talk about banning. I really don't see why people get excited by fan-cards that are so obviously over-powered --- they exhibit poor design and a lack of respect for the game. A big thumbs-down from me. (But nice art.)

11/25/22

CardAddict 36

I agree that Thengel is broken, but I like the new possibilities that fan cards open. Rohan was bad before Thengel and Need Brooks No Delay. Maybe these cards aren't needed but even Vilya isn't broken if you play thematically. Plus, even cards like Seasoned Forager or Thengel struggle against difficult quests such as Nightmare Dol Guldur. — NERD 808 11/25/22

I am not sure I would call Thengel more broken than Vilya. You are limited to an ally being discarded from play (note that this is different from it being destroyed, a card effect needs to say "discard"), you can only put in play an ally (while Vilya can play attachments and events too) that shares the same trait with the discarded one and must be in the top 5 cards (ammitedly something you prepare for, but then you are forced to go with a sort of mono trait deck instead of general good stuff like a Vilya deck) and you can't even use the ally for that round since it comes into play exhausted. Sure Thengel it's really powerful, especially in a Rohan deck, it was designed to do so, to elevate an otherwise sub-par archetype, but I would not say it's more powerful than Elrond + Vilya which still stands at the top of the pyramid (though recently with more stuff like MotK and Bond of Friendship). One could argue that FFG cards like Spirit Glorfindel, Steward of Gondor, A Test of Will or Bond of Friendship were already more broken than anything ALeP has produced. — Alonewolf87 1921 11/26/22

Interesting discussion. I initially was like "woah, way too powerful", especially since Thengel has kind of good stats. Questing and Defense are the best! — Sprig3 1 8/31/23

(Sorry, posted comment before done) But... (I was going to say.) There are a lot of other super cards out there and this really only works with Eagles or Rohan. (Not enough discard mechanisms from any other trait afaik...) And it's really only Gamling and Horn of the Mark that elevates this to broken, but that's adding a lot of expense to the combo. It's like saying "outlands is broken". So, I am warming up to Thengel. — Sprig3 1 8/31/23

I belive that the card has to be viewed as part of an archetype that many consider quite weak. With Thengel the Rohan archetype goes from a low tier of strength, to a higher one. Is a Thengel/Rohan deck stronger than the top 10 powerdecks that you see on every toplist? Probably not. The truth is that it is a non-competitive co-op game, where one can play with any cards they like. I like to build thematically, and remove cards that don't fit the theme (can't have steward of Gondor unless it suits the theme lorewise), while others enjoy just building and playing the most busted powerdecks possible, "breaking" the game and it's challenge. Both are fine. — Zangaxx 1 3/3/24