I've found myself including Lórien Guide more often in Silvan questing decks for his/her 2 more than anything else. Silvans are notoriously weak to direct damage, particularly when treacheries target all questing characters (i.e. Blocking Wargs), and so having a board state that will not be completely wiped out by a nasty treachery is quite nice. The cost of 3 is slightly high (as many of the previous reviewers have pointed out), but I can see how this ally would be almost too strong at a cost of 2. Besides, Silvans have many ways to mitigate this (O Lórien!, The Tree People), and so while not ideal, the cost is not prohibitive.

Lórien Guide is not an auto-include by any stretch, but s/he does have a usage even before the bonus ability is taken into account.

This is a very unique card which can offer a ton of flexibility for those heroes with several iterations. Aragorn in particular has a wide variety of effects to choose from depending on your board state. Threat a little too high? Aragorn to the rescue. Needs some attack boost? Aragorn has your back. While there are not a whole lot of heroes that have versions in multiple spheres, the ones that do are typically some of the best heroes in the game. Théoden and Théoden combine for cost reduction and a sphere willpower boost. Prince Imrahil and Prince Imrahil have a nice repeatable combo replicating Sneak Attack and a readying effect for a single resource. Combine this with some of the synergies for when characters leave play and it is pretty game breaking.

The extra sphere on the hero is the cherry on top. It can help with resource smoothing and give access to some sphere specific attachments and effects. Denethor could always use a A Burning Brand to make him a super defender while still having the early game resources.

All in all, a good card for 3 resources if you have the right heroes, especially if you have several heroes that can make use of their alternate selves.

What a fantastic toolbox hero! He completely solves the problem of threat, which was honestly a big problem for new players in the earlier cycles the game, since there were so few solutions. Take Return too Mirkwood for example, a early quest where threat is a HUGE problem, especially solo. Well, Aragorn solves that, easy. So when The Watcher in the Water was released, I think a lot of people got really exited over this version of Aragorn, and for good reason. But what is his role now, in more modern lotr lcg decks?

Well, let's talk about his ability. It's threat reduction in , which is very good, since there are few other options in (Woodmen's Clearing comes to mind). But his threat reduction works differently than normal threat reducters. Aragorn's ability depends on how high your threat started to begin with. For example. if you are playing a deck with a high starting threat (and keep in mind, he is a 12 threat cost hero), you won't really be lowering your threat to a "Safe" level, because you weren't "safe" to begin with. Enemies will still engage you, bad things could happen, etc. So in that case, you have to treat his ability as a last ditch safety button--sort of like Favor of the Valar. Yes, you could pick a low threat cost hero line up, and use him to stay low and avoid enemies for most of the game, but then wouldn't you just pick another hero with a lower threat cost?

However, as for the hero himself, the combos are endless: Sword that was Broken, Celebrían's Stone, Ring of Barahir, a burning brand or Armored Destrier to defend attacks, your choice of weapon, and provided readying with Steed of the North. Sadly, he only has the Dunedain and Ranger traits, unlike his other three versions, which all have three traits (noble/warrior/scout), so there are some limits to the combos you can use, but no matter. basically, he can do anything, which is the definition of a glue hero. Also, he can share the wealth with Desperate Alliance, to lower everyone's threat!

In my opinion, Aragorn find a great place in two archetypes: Doomed, and Valor. We all know the classic shenanigan of using Helm of Secrecy to swap out Saruman for Aragorn, to stay alive longer if you're running a doomed deck. Valor could work very well too: pick a lineup of hero with high staring threat to get to 40 quickly (or just use Pillars of the Kings, but whatever works) and use his refresh ability when things get too high. Perfect. I think the one archetype that Aragorn does not being in is the one he was probably intended for: secrecy. While his ability would be great for staying at 20 of below, his own starting threat of 12 is just to darn high, unless you're running a MotK hero with really low threat. Still, he is such a good hero, and dang, that artwork is so good, that I think he still holds a place amidst the more modern heroes. The only reason he sees a bit less use is that his other versions are so popular too!

I like to throw a copy of Rivendell Bow into fellowships that include Glorfindel as part of the more -focused deck. Since low-threat, high-willpower decks tend to want to avoid enemies, it is easy for Glorfindel's 3 to go to waste. Rivendell Bow is an easy way to remedy this. A similar concept holds true with Aragorn, who will often be questing and readying for the combat phase.

Overall, the card certainly has its place in the right deck/fellowship.

This is the card that catapulted the Woodmen trait from "Oh yeah, they're pretty good" to "Wow I want to play that!" for me. She doesn't seem too flashy. But just the fact that there is another Woodman hero (and that she's !) is really nice. Finally, I don't have to include the horribly off-theme Bard son of Brand for the off-sphere attachments!

Similar to Damrod with traps, Rowan works in the background. One resource every round might not seem like much, but she's the lynchpin of my current Woodman build. Her stats are a great complement to Haldan, and though her second action might seem a bit lackluster, it's actually enormously effective. Say you already have a lineup of attachments on the active location, and suddenly you realize that someone's about to threat out. Well, just use her action to make that person first, and you can lower their threat by three. Or if the first player's playing an Erestor deck and it would be the end of the world for them to draw nine useless cards, give the first player token to the next player and they get the benefit. And this isn't even going into the versatility she brings to a "first player quest" like The Black Riders.

In all, I think Rowan is an extremely fun card. She's interesting enough to provide some heft for a small trait, and she's well-balanced to not be OP. Wonderful job yet again, ALeP!