Well, I suppose it's about time someone wrote a review for the final Aragorn, especially with the rerelease of the Angmar Awakened cycle.

By now, we all know Aragorn's stat line by heart (2 3 2 5), but I'll go over it quickly anyways. The willpower is always useful, especially with some boots or a Steed of the North. The is fantastic, especially with the ability, but I'll get into that later. The in combination with the is immensely useful, especially in multiplayer with the ever useful Sentinel keyword. The hit points are even useful if he is primarily an attacker because you can defend most attacks in a pinch, survive many undefended attacks, or just soak up archery damage. The threat is high, but it's totally worth it for those amazing stats.

Now on to the fun stuff: the abilities. The first ability is obviously extremely useful because it just makes your attackers better. This ability is inherently better than giving Aragorn +1 because it affects MULTIPLE enemies and even affects enemies when Aragorn is exhausted. This ability is useful in just about any deck, but is even better in Dunedain decks because those decks want to be engaged with multiple enemies at a time. It makes it much easier to destroy any excess enemies you don't like. Side note: the -1 can also combo with Straight Shot to instantly kill an enemy with 1 , but that's quite niche.

The second ability is not as obvious. "Response: After Aragorn participates in an attack that destroys an enemy, choose an enemy not engaged with you and engage that enemy." (note that responses are optional). At first glance this seems like a pretty mediocre ability, but I'm going to try to convince you otherwise. The most obvious application is in multiplayer. This allows you to destroy an enemy and save another player from an enemy they cannot handle. This can be a lifesaver in certain situations. This ability also lets you effectively optionally engage another enemy, assuming you can destroy a different enemy first. So, in combination with Halbarad, you can effectively optionally engage three enemies, which can really come in handy for Dunedain decks. You can even give Aragorn a readying effect such as Unexpected Courage to do this effect multiple times. Riding Roheryn makes this response even better because there's no need to defend the attack first.

Another situation where the ability is useful is during the quest phase using Quick Strike. During the quest phase, you can use Quick Strike to destroy an enemy engaged with you (applying the -1 ) and then engaging an enemy just revealed from the encounter deck, or any enemy in the staging area. You can do this before calculating progress to effectively remove that enemy's from the staging area! A really fun combo and a very useful one to boot. And the Steed of the North can even ready Aragorn after destroying the enemy so he is ready for the combat phase! Tell a Tale of Tinúviel for even more boosted craziness.

There is a fourth situation where the response can be useful. Warden of Arnor explains the interaction very nicely on his review of Westfold Outrider. Basically, in multiplayer you can Quick Strike to destroy an enemy and then engage another player's enemy on their turn. This effectively negates the attack!

Well, that's our favourite ranger. I will quickly mention that being an Aragorn, he can make great use of his many tools. He is of course competing with all the other Aragorns for a spot on the team, but he easily competes with the other versions. A very interesting hero who has an ability that makes you think of the game in different ways, and that is always a good thing. Have fun pulling enemies from across the table (I don't know how it works thematically but it sure is fun to imagine) and I hope I've inspired you to use Aragorn in some unique ways.

Considering how many great Dwarf allies there are, this one (and from one of the early cycles) is surprisingly balanced. 2 for 1 , 0 , 1 , and 2 is exactly what we expect for an ally at that price. The 1 is nice and the and allow the Ered Nimrais Prospector to take a small hit in a pinch (and soak up one archery damage). In any normal deck, this card is incredibly unremarkable.

But of course, this card is meant to be used in Dwarf mining decks (where the Dwarf trait impoves this ally's stat line anyways with Dáin Ironfoot or Hardy Leadership). The mining ability is great in Dwarf mining decks because those decks want to discard the top cards of the deck anyways, perhaps even finding a Hidden Cache or a Ered Luin Miner down in the mine. But the second part of the ability is where this card truly shines. "Then, choose and shuffle 1 card from your discard pile back into your deck". This card fixes the biggest problem with discarding cards from the top of your deck: discarding an essential card such as Will of the West. The beauty of this card is you can wait until the essential card is discarded because you can shuffle ANY card from your discard pile back into your deck, not just the top card like Galadhrim Weaver. This gives you much more comfort in recklessly mining for all the gems in the world.

Of course, this card isn't perfect. You could just as easily have all your copies of Ered Nimrais Prospector discarded into the discard pile, but this card still improves the consistency of mining in the long-run. One nice side benefit of the card is it allows you to shuffle Hidden Cache back into your deck to keep mining for resources.

I recommend you give the prospector a try if you overlooked them (and not just because Dwarves are short), as they might surprise you with their useful stat line and interesting ability.

This is far and away my favourite contract in the game, and I would go so far as to say that it is also one of the most creatively stimulating cards in the game. Here's why.

What this card basically does is expands your choices for heroes by as many non-neutral unique allies you own. The possibilities are endless! Do you need another hobbit hero for your hobbit deck, but you don't have any hobbit heroes available? Ally Sam Gamgee can fill that slot. Are you making a deck reliant on getting a specific pipe? Ally Bilbo Baggins can make you start the game with a pipe. Do you want to make a Gandalfless-Vilya deck without totally relying on Imladris Stargazer? Choose ally Gildor Inglorion as your hero!

This card opens so many options! You can even use it on allies like Ioreth or Galion to have a hero worth 1 threat! This card opens up secrecy options, theming options, or combo options (like Gamling in Rohan decks).

Some of the best choices include: Birna, Legolas, Pippin, Arwen Undómiel, Súlien, Éothain, Forlong, Gimli, Halfast Gamgee, Rosie Cotton, Bob, Firyal, and Galdor of the Havens and the cards already specified above.

What if you already have a deck with the contract in it but you want to make a different deck usign a Messenger of the King hero? Who cares! Just pretend you have another copy of the card. Realistically, all the contract does is open hero choices. That's why it is so great. Any card that paves the way for creativity is something I give my full support to. Give it a try if you haven't already. Don't own the card? Pretend you do! It won't make a difference.

I don't think this is a card people use very often in their hobbit decks.

Personally, I always try to include it in my hobbit decks because the theme is just so good. It perfectly embodies the support Sam gives to Frodo in their journey across Middle-Earth.

But, how good is the card? +1 in each stat on a hero is always amazing, but it comes with a heavy reastriction. 2 copies of the card need to be in play for the ability to come into effect. This makes it akward as only three copies can be included in a deck. This means we need to get 2/3 cards into play to get any value out of it.

Of course, this is assuming the card exists in a vacuum. These days, there are many ways to help ensure we get both copies in play. Gather Information, Drinking Song, Master of the Forge, Galadriel, Imladris Stargazer, Mirror of Galadriel, and Word of Command are just a few.

Sam Gamgee and Tom Cotton make great use out of this card especially with Fast Hitch or Unexpected Courage.

Of course, does this card do anything that Rosie Cotton doesn't do better? Rosie is significantly more consistant to set up and has comparable benefits. So, not really.

TLDR: This isn't an amazing card, nor is it an outright terrible card. It's an okay card, but most importantly it is a fun card. That last point is the takeaway. We play and love this game because it is enjoyable. Anythong that increases that enjoyment gets a pass in my book. Hence, why I love this card so much. Hopefully I convinced someone to give this card a second look.

I've found this version of Faramir a good companion for Guarded (Enemy) attachments. It is not the best card to deal with them, I agree, but I believe his ability is worth enough to give it a shot.

Once you play the attachment and the guardian is revealed, you can play Faramir to immediately engage the enemy, dealing it a direct 4 damage. If you are able to prepare the encounter deck for this, you will be able to claim the attachment at the same moment you've played it.

It is a bit tricky to make it work, since you will need to have the ability to play both Faramir and the attachment within the same planning phase. On top of that, having a scrying tool, to be sure that Faramir will be able to insta-kill the upcoming guardian, is also a must.

Fortunately, Faramir belongs to the sphere with the most powerful scrying cards (Denethor, Henamarth, Risk Some Light, Rumour from the Earth, etc.). Besides, the lore sphere also has Glamdring as guarded enemy attachment, and there are also available several neutral ones (Necklace of Girion, Ring of Thrór, The Arkenstone).

So, if you are playing with a mono-lore deck, to be prepared to apply this combo shouldn't be as hard as it looks.