A very good card for a Gondor swarm deck, where it can benefit from Visionary Leadership and Boromir boosts in additions to its own. It can also be an excellent target for a Raiment of War and you can get double duty from it with Faramir.

A very interesting weapon.

The Great Yew Bow is a tricky card to use no doubt about that. It takes up a restricted slot, decreasing your available attack power, requires the enemy to still be in the staging area during the combat phase, costs 2 and must exhaust so it can't be used more than once in a round.

But all that being said the ability to never have to engage an enemy and instead just stealthily take them out one at a time is too good to pass up. There are many ways to keep or put an enemy in the staging area but the best is keeping your threat low, so this card shines best in solo where you can control threat much better. It's great on Bard but I like it more on Legolas for how it combos with his other two Elven bows to create a +6 attack each round which can kill or pepper most enemies.

It also works great with the thematic Black Arrow to take out that one pesky super enemy each game.

So keep your threat low in solo. Or use your Lore trickery, but definitely give this bow a go.

Here is a sample deck I've been having a lot of fun with this card in:

ringsdb.com

Incredible and unique hero, very appropriate for his importance in the LOTR narrative.

Legolas has low Willpower and Defense but you shouldn't be using him for anything other than attacking with his amazing ability. His response effect has no limit so attach all of the Unexpected Courage, Rohan War Horse and Food and Drink readying effects you can to him for maximum death-questing.

My favourite deck to use this guy in is an Eagle one with Support of the Eagles, a beefy attack Eagle and Rohan Warhorse x2 to be able to get up to 6 progress placed in the combat phase by attacking enemies all over the mat. Similarly the Dunedain attachments or any other non-restricted attachments go with the dual horse theme.

If you opt for restricted weapon attachments there are plenty of Elven and tactic specific weapons that work great on him. He particularly works well with a Great Yew Bow, Rivendell Bow and Bow of the Galadhrim all combined with keeping your threat low/utilizing traps to be able to pick off enemies in the staging area and quest from their defeat.

Ranged is great in multiplayer where more enemies are present but he also works great in most quests and is always worth holding back for an attack.

Hands upon the Bow is the event made for him to be able to eliminate a just revealed enemy in the staging area and help remove threat while adding 2 extra progress and saving you from any nasty engagement effects or strong attacks from said enemy.

Don't forget the 2 progress tokens go on the active location first but can't affect those that are immune to player card effects.

All in all Legolas is the Tactics hero from the core set that has held up to the test of time the best and he is unique in being able to help pass stages of the quest outside of the traditional phase to help negate nasty treachery cards that would otherwise be game-Enders.

Check him out and you will not be disappointed.

It seems like I'm one of the few that considers Dori to be terrible, so I thought I'd elaborate on my feeling toward the card.

First, his stats. You'll find cheaper attackers in lore, such as Loyal Hound, Emyn Arnen Ranger, and Quickbeam. In even in a dwarf swarm deck you'd be better off playing Bifur or a cheaper lore dwarf.

Ok, so you're playing him for his ability.

Second, his ability. Let's break it down. If you are using it on a huge attack that is going to kill a full health hero, it's going to kill Dori instead. In which case it's more cost effective to be using a cheap chump ally. If you're using it to siphon off just 2 damage from a hero that is near death (so that Dori doesn't die and can be healed and used again) you'd be better off just having Self Preservation on that defender instead, as it would not only save the hero but actually provide the healing as well (with the Dori strategy you still need another card to perform the healing). If the lack of flexible target is an issue for Self Preservation, look to Daughter of the Nimrodel instead (though I think Warden of Healing is even better even if it only heals 1 damage on each target).

Well, what if the defender can't be healed? Ah, now we get to it. This guy is amazing in a Beorn deck right? Wrong.

Let's break it down again. If you're using this guy to save Beorn from a huge hit, it's going to kill Dori, in which case a 1-cost chump ally would have been better. So that's not why people think he's good. People think he's good because if Beorn gets attacked by an enemy with 2-3 , Dori can siphon off the damage to Beorn. Because while Beorn can't be healed, Dori can - and can then be used again the next round. This strategy keeps Beorn alive for longer.

And it works, to an extent. But you know what's better than Dori for protecting Beorn from 2-3 enemies? Simply defending them with a Defender of Rammas! They're cheaper, they can defend up to 4 (which would kill Dori), you can have multiple of them in play, and they don't require healing every round! And if a surprise shadow attack puts an enemy up to 5 , your Defender of Rammas will die, but so would've Dori. But least you've saved Beorn from taking 4 damage, and the Defender of Rammas is cheap to replace.

There you have it. Even in Dori's ideal use case he gets blown away by a staple ally. Put this card back in your binder.

Question: Who decided that needed Unexpected Courage fused with Staff of Lebethron? Because that's what Armored Destrier is. Yes, it takes up a restricted slot, but shadow cancellation and readying in one card is still a really good combo. And, if you have Elfhelm in play, Armored Destrier also gives you a boost, making you miss the restricted slot it's taking up less. Gondorian Shield may be able to provide +2 , Blood of Númenor even more, but to me Armored Destrier is the king of the defensive attachments.

First off, who it can go on. I like how, while has the theme of blocking huge attacks (via Feint, Beregond with a Gondorian Shield, or Gondorian Spearman) has more of a theme of blocking lots of smaller attacks. Warden of Helm's Deep won't block as high of an enemy as Defender of Rammas, but he can block more attacks overall due to sentinel and the ability to survive direct damage. Armored Destrier continues this theme, providing no base boosts but readying the defender so you can deal with multiple attacks. In addition, it can go on sentinel heroes, allowing you to defend multiple times across the board.

Second, the readying. Unexpected Courage is almost a staple in decks, so readying is clearly a strong effect, and, while it is more situational readying than ye-olde UC, Armored Destrier does not disappoint. Elfhelm defending for 3 twice is nothing to sneeze at, or defending once so you can counter attack. Erkenbrand is another great target, allowing you to block twice with in-built shadow cancellation.

Third, Armored Destrier's shadow cancellation. If Armored Destrier just provided the readying, it would still be good, but the shadow cancellation makes it incredible. Discarding a shadow card is less accurate than cancelling one you know has a shadow effect, but it has its own benefits (die, stupid Core Set Wargs, die!) And, even if you do discard a shadow card with no shadow effect, that's still an attack you can feel safe knowing how much it's going to hit for. The shadow cancellation and readying on Armored Destrier make the Dream-chaser cycle a lot easier, allowing you to stay engaged with enemies like Throngs of the Unfaithful almost indefinitely at low to no risk.

Put all of this together, and you get a ridiculously good defensive attachment that can bypass two of the main weaknesses of defenders, multiple attacks and shadow effects. Personally, I'd even say Armored Destrier's a little too good, especially with Elfhelm in play. Seeing that you're engaged with 3 enemies, as a questing deck, and being confident that you can handle your defenses, is a little too much for me. A 'Limit 1 per hero' would be enough, though, at least I think.

One last thing: if there's one deck, more than any other, that benefited from Armored Destrier, I would have to say it would be Dunedain. is one of Dunedain's homes, making this in-sphere, and it fits their play style like a glove. Staying engaged with multiple enemies means you need to deal with multiple defenses, something Armored Destrier provides easily. Those multiple attacks leave you vulnerable to bad shadows, which Armored Destrier discards. This fits so well in a Dunedain deck (at least theoretically), it's almost ridiculous, though it is very Tolkien-y. An attachment for a new archetype providing a huge benefit to an older one, despite the fact that the older one is mentioned nowhere on the attachment. A chance-meeting, as they say in Middle-Earth, and one which brings great profit.