I'm impressed that Celeborn is so far ahead of Glorfindel. People like their silvans!

Glorfindel is a little boring for veteran players.

What really suprises me is Eowyn beating Legolas as it seems. Both are Core Set heros but Legolas has at least in my opinion more value for player because he generates more progress then Eowyn by killing enemys which covers another important aspect of the game. While that Eowyn is just questing... thats it.

Wrong. Eowyn is not JUST questing, she IS the questing. A gal opens her door and gets explored - you think its Eowyn? No. She is the one who quests!

Regarding Eowyn: The ability to get rid of cards from your hand has also become a big factor lately.

Protector of Lorien does the same ....

Legolas is awesome, but if you are trying to fill the role of "attacker" in your hero lineup, there are many solid options among which Legolas is but one. Eowyn stands above the rest within her specialty.

Protector of Lorien does the same ....

Yes, but it is not a hero in this competition, and it requires taking up space in the deck, drawing it, paying for it with Lore resources and cannot be used by every player in multiplayer. Her ability is extremely useful and not just because recent quests hate your cards.

Legolas is awesome, but if you are trying to fill the role of "attacker" in your hero lineup, there are many solid options among which Legolas is but one. Eowyn stands above the rest within her specialty.

With that kind of argumentation you can also say that Eowyn is awsome in questing but Glorfindel ist way better because he quests "free" for only 1 less willpower but can make an attack in the combat phase and has his horse to create two progress on locations every round. I would still no play him because I don't like him.

Edit: For those who don't get it i post this which counts for everything (in the post above) but the last sentence (I realy don't like Glofrindel ).

My votes won't matter but hey might as well.

AN - Eowyn - Tough, best two core heroes but been loving my Rohan heroes as of late.

AO - Elrohir - Frodo ability is great but I never use him.

AP - Elrond - Hard choice, ask me tomorrow and the answer will most likely be different.

AQ - Beregond - Defence.

AR - Gandalf - Powerful, unique and fun.

AS - Haldir - Hard not to have Haldir in a multi player game.

AT - Glorfindel - Fits into any deck really.

AU - Eomer - Another hard choice, Eomer is such a beast.

With that kind of argumentation you can also say that Eowyn is awsome in questing but Glorfindel ist way better because he quests "free" for only 1 less willpower but can make an attack in the combat phase and has his horse to create two progress on locations every round. I would still no play him because I don't like him.

Glorfindel takes away 2-3 slots of your deck, and if you don't happen to draw it - you're screwed. Eowyn quests for 4 right of the bat without any drawbacks and can turn inro a 8 willpower beast in a multiplayer game. Can't beat that.

triple-post

double-post

Voting has now started for round #4. Our top eight are here!

vs

vs

vs

vs

Sad round for the tactic sphere. Legolas and Eomer got defeated and only Beregond left to hold up. Still three spirit heroes in there, kind of surprises me. I guess there are more people who like the willpower part of this game more then actual fighting monsters. So let's go vote then.

AV - Eowyn (Pretty easy. She is way better then Frodo (and Glorfindel by the way) and will crush him in this matchup pretty easy)

AW - Beregond (Last man standing for the tactic sphere. Hope he makes it! Great defender right from the start of any game)

AX - Galadriel (Probably the most interesting matchup this round. Two heavy weights clashing in this one, hope Galadriel gets the edge. She got my vote at least because I like and play here more then the hero version of Gandalf)

AY - Celeborn (He got rid of Glorfindel finally and therefore gets my vote in this matchup. Sad that Eomer is out, would have voted for him but this matchup should be Celebron all the way. Newer and just a core for so many silvan decks right now)

Oddly, this round contains fewer difficult choices than the last round.

AV - Frodo

AW - Elrond

AX - Galadriel

AY - Celeborn

I think it is interesting that all of the remaining heroes either define a single deck type (Gandalf, Celeborn, Elrond) or completely solve a single area of the game (Eowyn, Frodo, Beregond, Galadriel, Aragorn). Also of interest is that there are no attacking heroes remaining - perhaps the fact that there are many heroes competing for this function prevented any of them from advancing?

AV - Eowyn

AW - Beregond

AX - Galadriel

AY - Celeborn

AV - Frodo (i like hobbits for secret decks)

AW - Elrond (very strong hero, good abilities and super attachment Vilya)

AX - Gandalf (for solo playing very good and universal hero)

AY - Aragorn (i like lore rangers and reset of threat)

The decisions keep getting tougher.

AV - Frodo - Such a unique hero and key to many of my hobbit and/or secrecy decks. The biggest knock against him is that you can't use him in the saga campaigns. Eowyn is really strong too, but kind of boring and a one trick pony.

AW - Beregond - This was my toughest choice and is virtually a tie. Honestly, if Vilya didn't exist I would probably vote for Elrond, but I find Vilya decks to be so stale and predictable. Beregond is similar to Eowyn in that he is awesome at one thing and useless at everything else. Beregond wins the tiebreaker for being the only tactics hero and the hero I have played more.

AX - Galadriel - Partially a Gandalf protest vote, but I also love Galadriel. Her abilities and Nenya don't feel overpowered, but they instead open up new ways to play the game. I really appreciate that she can work in any deck. Plus the artwork is amazing. Gandalf just breaks the game and prevents anyone else from playing Gandalf allies. I would like him more if they never made wizard's pipe.

AY - Celeborn - I think Silvans are my most interesting faction to play because they give you the most in-game decisions to make. Celeborn is the key of that deck and he has the added bonuses of great/unique stats, a very useful trait, and amazing art. Strider is also very good, but I don't like how his ability works and he is feeling a little stale.

AV - Eowyn - I've been on a Rohan deck building kick latley and Eowyn ends up in more of my decks then Frodo

AW - Beregond - Both are great heroes but Beregond just has such awesome art.

AX - Galadriel - Abouther tough choice. Galadriel is my style of hero though and has inspired me to build more interesting/fun decks then Gandalf.

AY - Aragorn - I'm not a Sylvan deck fan so Aragorn wins hands down.

AV - Eowyn
AW - Elrond - love Elrond and Galadriel together in the same deck.
AX - Galadriel - love Galadriel and Elrond together in the same deck.
AY - Aragorn - so many great attachments and events fit with him thematically. He fits into so many decks as well. Celeborn is just Silvan.

AV - Frodo: Frodo is obviously a weaker quester, but he has lower starting threat (helps him fit into more decks) and a good reason to ready himself (Spirit does this pretty well, and there is also a cheaper Fast Hitch) for an additional action: to defend (especially if playing with Arwen). Both of them are in Spirit sphere, so you shouldn't have any issues building up an army of questers to make up for the missing willpower. Eowyn is a one-trick pony and will probably always be a one-trick pony (unless you really want to set up the Charge of the Rohirrim combo).

AW - Elrond: Beregond is an AMAZING defender, but Elrond can do that job pretty well, too. He can also quest like a beast. He can also help with healing and paying for allies. With Vilya, he can more than counter the lack of Beregond's ability to lower the cost of armor and weapons. The 3 starting threat is an issue, but sadly I have to vote against the last Tactics hero standing.

AX - Galadriel: Gandalf's super high threat (vs Galadriel's relatively low threat and threat reduction ability) and reliance on his toys makes him hard to vote for. Galadriel has quite a few awesome toys too, but if I never see them in a game, I'm generally not going to cry. The only knock against Galadriel is her inability to directly contribute any of her stats in a meaningful way early on (or ever if you don't get Nenya), but her ability to let allies quest for free on their first round counters that a bit. Gandalf breaks a very fundamental part of most card games and that makes him very powerful, but it feels hacky so I just don't like Gandalf that much.

AY - Aragorn: Starting threat differences here are negligible, as are stat differences. Wingfoot on Aragorn and Light of Valinor on Celeborn can help them both use their versatile stats for double duty. So let's move on to the big differences:

- Celeborn's ability is useless without building in plenty of Silvan allies and generally some Silvan events, too.

- Celeborn doesn't have any in-sphere repeatable readying, though his sphere has plenty of readying effects.

- Aragorn has lots of toys that can make him a BEAST.

- Aragorn's ability is most useful in low-threat decks (kinda hard with his starting threat), but even a deck starting at over 30 can get a 15 threat drop with his ability if it needs it. The only comparable threat reduction is Galadriel and you'll need a pretty long game to have her lower your threat by that much.

My arguments make it sound like the decisions were obvious and easy for me, but honestly only the last matchup was easy. Celeborn probably should not have made it this far, but everyone is loving Silvan and that's directly related to him. In general, all the matchups came down to versatility instead of pure power, especially if that power was focused on just a single aspect of the game. I love Eowyn and I really love Beregond, but in solo and 2-player, I greatly prefer versatile heroes with some stats of 2 and 3 over heroes with a 4 in one stat column and 1 or less everywhere else. I'd definitely consider Eowyn and Beregond more highly in 3+ player, though, because versatility matters less because there are more heroes out that can take on some of those roles you'd need to ready for.

AV - Eowyn
AW - Elrond - love Elrond and Galadriel together in the same deck.
AX - Galadriel - love Galadriel and Elrond together in the same deck.
AY - Aragorn - so many great attachments and events fit with him thematically. He fits into so many decks as well. Celeborn is just Silvan.

Looks like I completely agree with your picks, but have you ever tried Gandalf and Elrond together? It's pretty ridiculous. How about all 3? Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel.

AV - Eowyn, I don't mind a one-trick pony. And, as I think I said before, she is just so awesome for one of my favorite quests (Fog on the Barrow Downs).

AW - Beregond. The only time anyone could call Beregond versatile is in a Siege quest, and there are few of those. But like I said, I don't mind this, and I love that Beregond helps open up an aggressive play style. High threat? So what! Bring 'em on.

AX - Galadriel. She needs Nenya, but contributes something very useful until you manage to get it. Gandalf I have not been impressed with, not for lack of power certainly, but I find his playstyle just too finicky and tedious.

AY - Celeborn. This was the hardest call for me. I don't like that Celeborn is really only a good hero choice in a Silvan deck, but Silvan is so very fun, and in my opinion so very dependent on Celeborn being there, that I have to give him my vote. Sorry Strider!

AV - Eowyn, I don't mind a one-trick pony. And, as I think I said before, she is just so awesome for one of my favorite quests (Fog on the Barrow Downs).

AW - Beregond. The only time anyone could call Beregond versatile is in a Siege quest, and there are few of those. But like I said, I don't mind this, and I love that Beregond helps open up an aggressive play style. High threat? So what! Bring 'em on.

AX - Galadriel. She needs Nenya, but contributes something very useful until you manage to get it. Gandalf I have not been impressed with, not for lack of power certainly, but I find his playstyle just too finicky and tedious.

AY - Celeborn. This was the hardest call for me. I don't like that Celeborn is really only a good hero choice in a Silvan deck, but Silvan is so very fun, and in my opinion so very dependent on Celeborn being there, that I have to give him my vote. Sorry Strider!

You and I certainly value different things in heroes.

AV - Frodo

AW - Elrond

AX - Gandalf

AY - Celeborn