Everybody's favorite burglar has become quite the pet card for me. He certainly needs some help to function (like Hobbit Pony, Pippin or Fastred), however when utilized correctly, he is a very good quester with some decent direct damage to boot and one of my favorite ways to free up guarded cards.

I also really like him for his jank potential - you are able for instance to commit and trigger him, than uncommit him through Elevenses or Don't Be Hasty! before recommitting him through Hobbit Pony or Late Adventurer and thus triggering him again, getting double willpower and damage. He is definitely still only an average hero, with his high starting threat and need to be set up holding him back from a higher rating, but I find Bilbo Baggins overall quite useful in the right deck, not to mention being bags of fun.

Rating: 5/10

Decks of mine using Bilbo Baggins

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While I think that Gwaihir's drawback of not readying in the refresh phase is a thematic homerun, it still majorly ears into his efficiency. Because without this drawback, I would play Gwaihir a lot more and he would still not be broken over overpowered I feel. He would still have the second-highest starting threat in the game and would be unable to claim many of the wonderful attachments tactics possesses, meaning I hardly see him being above-curve in that scenario.

As it stands, he is still far from terrible - having both ranged and sentinel is awesome, as are his stats and traits, often enabling you to play something like Gwaihir's Debt much sooner than you would otherwise be able to. His readying potential - albeit hindered somewhat by usually forcing you to play an eagle ally during planning - is also very useful, meaning you can often use him 2, 3 or even 4 times per round. I also like his synergy with The Grey Wanderer since you usually want to trigger the contract during planning for the resources, with the other ability often going to waste. This will seldom be the case here however, since Gwaihir is a) often damaged as he is a decent defender and b) will be exhausted in planning quite often.

Overall, I enjoy Gwaihir a lot, with him having been a breath of fresh air underneath the wings of many eagle deck. That being said though, I feel like he has just one drawback too many (with readying prevention, inability to equip restricted attachments and a high threat cost) to be a really good hero, rendering him certainly still average but unfortunately little more than that.

Rating: 5/10

Decks of mine using Gwaihir

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Making Elladan and Elrohir a thing is quite difficult I find. Forth, The Three Hunters! at least helps with one of their biggest problems (needing resource-intensive attachments while having resource-based abilities), however they usually still need said attachments to get going, in the case of Elladan mostly Rivendell Bow to give him ranged (since running a dedicated tactics attacker in solo is not something I would recommend as a general rule) and then some other weapons like War Axe or Rivendell Blade to boost his attack strength. This not only takes time, the payoff here is also only average.

The biggest saving grace for Elladan, and the reason why most of my twin decks are not just using Messenger of the King for his otherwise more useful ally version, comes in the form of Orcrist. While this combination still needs a little time to be set up and get going (needing to defeat a guarded card first is certainly a huge downside), the ensuing payoff is pretty great, with Elladan suddenly reaching his ultimate machine-gun form. The setup is bothersome as discussed and probably only makes real sense in higher player counts where there are sufficient enemies to be worth it, however it does save Elladan from being a total disappointment for me.

Rating: 4/10

Decks of mine using Elladan

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Dedicated attacking heroes without ranged and no other unique abilities (like Aragorn, Háma or Merry) are cards I generally have a hard time including in decks. In solo, you rarely can afford to waste a third of your starting hero-power on a dedicated attacker (especially not when it also entails running the worst sphere by far in solo), in multiplayer ranged options tend to outclass non-ranged ones comfortably (at least when discounting the aforementioned examples).

Éomer unfortunately is exactly that - a dedicated non-ranged attacker with his ability only providing potentially more non-ranged attack power. That leaves him in a very awkward spot - because even if you can give him 5 attack consistently (running him next to a Silvan or in a Rohan deck for instance), that 5 attack is pretty unflexible. And while Firefoot does provide him with some much-needed nuance and upside, it is also quite expensive and needs some things to go right before its full effect can be utilized.

However what does elevate him is his wife Lothíriel. She not only reliably triggers Éomer's ability, giving her the Rohan trait also opens up a variety of fun and powerful combinations, especially if you combine her with Éomund (fittingly enough the father of Éomer). Now granted, you can enable the same combinations with leadership Éomer and this argument is more about Lothíriel being awesome than Éomer, but it does give him a decent relevance he would be lacking otherwise.

Rating: 4/10

Decks of mine using Éomer

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In my view, Bard the Bowman feels quite frustrating in a few different ways. As a primary attacker, he has high secondary stats that are often useless during a game, resulting in a fairly hefty threat-cost of 11. Also, his signature weapon, Great Yew Bow, really isn't a very good card, meaning you will have a hard time finding decent weapons for him, with even the otherwise universally useful Dagger of Westernesse somewhat hindered by his aforementioned starting threat. And finally, with the warrior trait being very common and the Esgaroth trait possessing no synergistic potential anywhere, he is pretty unimpressive on that front as well.

Now, having basically 5 attack ranged from the get-go in multiplayer in some areas of the board is pretty handy for sure, as is freeing up your restricted slots for Rohan Warhorse. This means that Bard the Bowman is far from useless and definitely a hero I ran before, however in general, he does not hold up overly well against other options like Legolas, Haldir of Lórien or even Brand son of Bain when it comes to choosing a ranged attacker.

Rating: 3.5/10

Decks of mine using Bard the Bowman

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