A very powerful and underrated version of Aragorn.

Versatility

With a stat-line that can do any job, being in the sphere of Unexpected Courage helps him a lot. Choosing what to do with him in the first few turns is critical for all versions of Aragorn. With his ability you can wait until after the encounter deck reveal to determine what to do. Did you reveal an enemy you need to fight? He's still ready! Did you reveal a location? You can use his ability to add his willpower to questing anyway.

But it gets better: did you keep him in reserve for combat, but find yourself just short of willpower to clear the active location or to put progress on the quest? There are situations where this gamble can cost you the game. Think of locations such as Lightless Grotto, Ancient Guardroom, Ithilien Road or Quests such as Breaking of the Fellowship 1b, or the quests from the Harad cycle. Aragorn can give you that final boost.

Or if maybe you want to build your board state and not advance the quest, but still keep clearing locations. You can underquest and if you get a low threat enemy or treachery, you don't accidentally advance. Aragorn ability to control your questing power is unmatched and you need to play with him to really appreciate.

And there are more creative ways to use his ability. Any location that triggers on "when this location is explored" can be timed by using his ability to place progress. In one instance I used it to explore a location with Elf-stone on it to put Jubayr into play after my current copy in play was just defeated in order to block another enemy.

Questing power

Aragorn is one of very few heroes that can quest twice using Unexpected Courage. He can quest AND use his ability to use his willpower again. This let's him get double effectiveness from willpower boosts. Add the fact that he can put progress on the location and he's also questing for future turns. In 3 or 4 player games, being able to explore locations in the staging area is very powerful and having a hero capable of such feats from turn 1 is great. Add Rhovanion Outrider or Northern Tracker and you're in great shape.

Tools

Being Aragorn, there are a lot of useful attachments specifically for him. Ring of Barahir is in sphere and a great addition if you are also playing with lore. You'll want more artifacts on him then and Mithril Shirt and Stone of Elostirion are both amazing on him and because they are guarded by locations, they play into his strengths. Even better, they discard non-locations from the encounter deck so the rest of the deck is more likely to hand you more locations. This also lets you lean into The One Ring and Well Preserved. Sword that was Broken is the best Aragorn attachment and can be played with Reforged** provided you have means to discard it from your hand with cards like Arwen Undómiel or Éowyn. Thorongil gives you access to tactics Aragorn abilities to help your spirit deck deal with enemies but lore Aragorn and his threat reduction can come in clutch as well.

Downsides

Aragorn flexibility at the start is great, but you'll also need it due to his high starting threat.

His other weakness is that his ability requires targetable locations in the staging area. In 3 or 4 player games this shouldn't be a problem but in solo play you'll want to keep a location in the staging area or use cards like A Watchful Peace, Shadow of the Past or The Hidden Way to be sure. This, along with the other tools we mentioned, means he'll want to take a sizable chunk of your deckspace for support.

** Apparently Reforged got errata in the repackaging. But I 100% believe Sword that was Broken should be an 'item' and usable with this card for obvious reasons.

This card can be pretty useful in decks that have Beorning allies! Let’s say a Giant Bear was destroyed during combat, then the next round you can exhaust Birna to put Giant Bear back into play for one round only for one resource! At the end of the round instead of the Giant Bear being in your discard pile, he’s in your deck to draw him up again. I say a Giant Bear in play for one round for one resource is a pretty good deal for me! But there are tons of other great targets for Birna’s ability than just the Giant Bear. For example, there’s Beorning Skin-changer and Beorn himself! There’s lots of cool options with this card.

Just note that Birna brings back the Beorning ally for a phase only, not a whole round. Still since you will probably use that ally in the Combat Phase there is often little difference —
Oh, that makes sense. Thanks for clearing things up! —

What about this card? I put it in ever deck with a ln hobbit hero!! This attachment can reduce a lot of expensive event like the gratis hunt! I play correct or i did a mistake? And with erebor hammersmith i can retake it and replay more times

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While this card is great with any Hobbit hero around note that it does not work well with the "must spend resources from 3 different heroes" events. If you discount those events you will not satisfy the requisite of spending resources from 3 different heroes so you will not be able to use stuff like The Great Hunt. But it works well with say Galadhrim's Greeting or Hour of Wrath. —

This card is great for decks that have access to the Leadership sphere and can’t defend much, so that you can return the chump blockers to your hand after they are destroyed while defending. In the next planning phase you can pay for that same ally that defended so that ally can defend against the next big attack! But where this card really shines is in the Journey in the Dark scenario, where you encounter the Balrog. When you face the Balrog, your threat is most likely 40 and above, so you are able to use the Valour action to return those allies who defended back in your hand so in the next round, you can use them again. This card helps even more if your deck can’t bring in cards quickly to your hand. This card can definitely save the day in a pinch!

Not a review, but theoretical question: what happens with the guarded attachment if the active location is discarded (e.g. with Distant Stars) and not explored?

I see that it's maybe not the perfect combo anyway (since with Distant Stars you "make a location active" instead of "travelling to" and that sadly bypasses the opportunity to draw another attachment), but I'm wondering if there is any synergy.

Sadly the attachments is placed in your discard pile in that situation. —
@alonewolf87 is that true? I thought you'd get the attachment after following the standard rules for Guarded(X): "Once free of encounters, its owner gains control of it and attaches it to an eligible card." —
Yeah, the basic rule is that once a card leaves play all attachments on it are placed in the discard pile, unless something clearly says otherwise. This contract does not make use of the Guarded (X) keyword rules, it even specify to ignore the Guarded (X) keyword if present on the loot attachment. We could argue if the loot attachment is meant to go to the staging area without a way to claim it as an objective, instead of being placed in the discard pile, but that seems very weird to me. —
What is the difference between ignore the guarded keyword and it losing the guarded keyword. As this is an ignite effect, it seems that once that part has concluded, the ignore ends (there is also no tracking to this). I'm unsure on the intention of the designers here. —
IMHO since it does not trigger when it comes into play, the "delayed effect" of getting the guarded (X) attachment should not be applied either. —
Still it must be something worth asking the developers a clarification —
You might also be able to argue that the clause about Guarded (X) clause is a constant effect, lumped in with the triggered forced to save space on the card. —
As I'm thinking about this more, there are more questions arising - for example, what if I switch the active location (e.g. with Strider's Path) and then explore it in staging area? Text on Burglar's Turn applies to ACTIVE location only, but... yeah, it would be great to ask devs about the clarification. —
I wrote to Caleb, let's see if he answers. —