I'm not sure if this card really needs another review, but as I've progressed in the game I've realized finesse moves make this card really invaluable. Additionally this card isn't restricted, so it can be piled up with itself and other defensive attachments.

As I've understood action windows better, I find shifting this card around can be key. Siege phase, move it to your questers, then during combat shift it back to your defender. While it can't cancel/respond to a shadow card, there is an action window between revealing the shadow card and determining damage, so there is an opportunity to change the defense value of a hero before applying any straightforward damage. Playing two-player, first player defends, then action window allows moving the warning to the defending hero of the second player; in a two player game, the next round with player order flipped, the move can be repeated if necessary.

Obviously these moves cost resources, so there is a definite opportunity cost involved and are probably prohibitively expensive if you're moving attachments a lot. But it's can be the difference you need to make or break a quest sometimes, since losing a hero or, to a lesser extent, failing a quest phase can prove critical.

I recently made a deck with cards that I have seldom ever used while playing the On the Doorstep expansion. Similar to @Wandalf the Gizzard, I remembered this as one of the worst cards from the early days. While I still don't think it's welcome in multiplayer (note, next challenge: craft 2-handed decks that feature this card), it was very effective paired with Prince Imrahil, Expert Treasure-hunter and Valiant Sacrifice. While I don't have a huge card pool to try some more innovative stuff, I definitely have to pause to consider these combos rather than just tossing Aragorn in a deck.

For me, this card is great. I really enjoy the idea of adding your own player cards to the encounter deck so as soon as I saw this card, I knew I had to put it in my eagle deck.

To play it you have to bring a eagle ally from play back into your hand. This could be quite expensive in most situations but could help for some of the eagles. If you use it on Descendant of Thorondor or Meneldor or even Gwaihir, then you can get more uses out of their abilities. So, if you have loads of reasources then this could be worth it, but you would probably want to use it on some of the more cheaper eagles like Vassal of the Windlord and Winged Guardian.

One way to "cheat" the cost is to Sneak Attack or Gwaihir an eagle ally in and then use this card on it.

The Eagle of the North ally itself is actually quite good. With the 2 and 3, it gives you some choices on what you want to do with it. You can quest or you can use him for a bit of attack. You'll probable want to quest with him cuz eagles have very low . You can also give him to another player who is in trouble in combat to help them out.

The Eagle of the North's ability is quite useful. Not because it gets rid of an enemy so you don't have to fight it, but rather because it gets rid of some of the in the staging area. Eagles have no problem dealing with enemies as they are very combat-powerful, but they can't do much during the quest phase.

This card is a card that you could think is worth it or.... not so much. For me, it's worth it because I like playing with gimmicks like this as I find them to be quite fun to use, but I'm sure there are better cards to include in you deck.

Eagles have been known to be very powerful for combat but... not much else. With the release of Meneldor, the players playing the eagle deck can actually contribute something to the questing power and the other players won't have to carry you so much.

We already know the ability is great but Meneldor comes with a bonus, it has 2!. You rarely see that in a ally and near never in a eagle. I'm glad that Fantasy Flight designed more eagles for the archetype and didn't make them combat heavy like the others.

I know it's a very unpopular card, but it has been a very useful card in my experience in the right situation.

In multiplayer, it can be incredible, espesially in 3-4 player games. Apply it to a high threat hero like Gandalf, Elrond, or Treebeard, and nearly every hero in the game gets a 2 boost. If the players have any leftover resources left, then they can give all of those heroes a 2 boost.

Now, for the problems.

There are a small amount of heroes that this card can reliably be used on. The heroes in most decks usually range from 9-12 threat cost so you have to apply this to a 13+ threat cost to get reliable use out of it. If you use it on a 11 or 12 threat hero then chances are you will miss a few target heroes who may actually need the boost.

The fact that it is a card is really annoying because you probably want to use this card on one of the three high threat cost heroes mentioned above. Elrond and Treebeard are both cards so you have to find some way to pay for a card. You could include a hero or A Good Harvest etc and for Elrond you could use Vilya to solve the problem. Inspiring Presence works ok with Gandalf on his own but you can get it in more reliably using Wizard Pipe. The card would function much better if it was in the sphere. While in theory you could go out of your way to fit this card in with those heroes, it's not worth your time usually.

Most of the time in combat, is more important than because you need to get rid of the enemy so it doesn't attack you again next round, while for defending you could just chump it or defend with one of your more beefy heroes. So, if the base effect of the card was the extra and the secondary effect the boost, then this card would probably be used more often.

A very niche card, but one that I have found great use with in a multiplayer deck.