oh god... literally only 1 hero I voted for in the last round made it... and I very recently took him out of my hero line up in my decks....

beregond... the absolute most boring defender somehow robbed legolas.... stupid nevershouldhavebeenmade gandalf beat elrond.... AND theoden beat Aragorn..... looks like Sam will win at this point, pretty sure he came second to Legolas in the first hero championship so honestly he deserves it the most at this point. Not to mention the fact that all the other heroes at this point except for Gandalf are rather average compared to Sam who is easily the best hobbit. As far as my votes go:

Elrond robbed again..... first by Galadriel who was new and shiny and now by broken cheesemaster Gandalf who looks like he is going to lose to Spirit Theoden anyway (from votes so far at least).....

Elrond just can't catch a break!

Sam: Go Sam! He is one of the best heroes in the game and absolutely deserves to win the whole thing. He's good in a bunch of different decks, and he absolutely shines in campaign mode.

Gandalf: As much as I enjoy Theoden, and as helpful and fun as he is in Rohan decks now, I've got to give the nod to Gandalf. I'm splitting the finest of hairs between them, but the card that really makes Rohan awesome is Gamling. Theoden helps a ton, but you really need Gamling on the table to make the deck sing. And as good as he is, he really only fits into one deck type. Big G can be overpowered nonsense, but he can also breathe life into dead cards and carry decks that would otherwise be awful. There's just a lot of creative possibilities he opens up because he fixes what is wrong with a deck. I ran a Gandalf, Dwalin Nori deck that worked, mostly because of Gandalf's greatness. Haven't build a deck with him and Erestor in it, but I'm sure it's fun. Anyway, I understand the hating on Gandalf, but I choose to see his positive qualities. And I hope that Same wins the whole thing.

BL: Sam Gamgee
BM: Gandalf

BL: Beregond

BM: Gandalf

BL: Sam Gamgee

BM: Gandalf

BL: Sam Gamgee

BM: Gandalf

And remember...

Sam

Theoden

Come on people. This Gandalf nonsense needs to stop.

BL: Sam Gamgee
BM: Théoden (S)

If anyone had asked me to predict this final 4 I would never have guessed it, but I have the exact opposite reaction as PsychoRocka (and somewhat feel sorry for him) as every hero I vote for seems to win and basically this is my dream final 4, except I would put Hama in ahead of Beregond. At this point I am supporting Gandalf for the win, but I would be happy with anyone. From the votes above it seems clear that Beregond will get wiped out. That seems fine. Overall, I am living the dream this year :-)

Sam: high quality, low threat heroes are so rare and so valuable. You can put them in any deck and they serve as excellent sidekicks for any power hero. Sam is all the more amazing for being in purple, which benefits more than any other color from low threat. His flavor and art is also spot on, and as said before, he shines in the Saga quests. In my campaign I made it a strategy decision to make Sam as powerful as possible and I resurrected him with "beyond all hope". A powerhouse Sam is a lot of fun.

Gandalf.

Sam - My pick to win it for this year!

Theoden - Theoden really ushered in the era of Rohan decks working well, and I've enjoyed using him ever since he came out. I'm actually not opposed to the Gandalf hero, but every time I try to deckbuild with him he kind of takes over the deck and then I don't have room to do anything else with the deck.

Actually, come to think of it, I don't think I've seen a deck with Gandalf hero in it that wasn't your standard Gandalf-Elrond-Spirfindel deck. If anyone has a Gandalf deck that's sufficiently different from that, I'd love to see it.

BL:Sam

BM:Gandalf

BL: Sam. You can make decks in which he is the key component, or you can have 3 WP for 8 in Leadership. Yes please.

BM: Gandalf. I don't use Gandalf that much, but we always enjoy seeing him in action.

Not much to say..

BL: Sam

BM: Gandalf

BL - Beregond

BM - Gandalf

BL: SAM

BH: Gandalf

BL: Sam Gamgee - Sam can fit into most decks, and excels in Hobbit decks. Beregond is really only good for defending, while Sam can cover any role with the proper attachments.

BH: Gandalf - The Istari beats the Elf here. With all of his toys and cool ability, Gandalf wins over Elrond.

Can't wait to see the outcome! This hero championship is a blast.

BL: Sam

BH: Gandalf

Maybe we should just move on to the final round... This one seems pretty definitive.

BL: Sam Gamgee v Beregond

Sam is a flexible, splashable, 3-willpower, Leadership Hobbit, who works wonders in a Hobbit deck and is great in many others . Beregond ist a simple, ressource-saving (very good) defender, who is only here, because he was matched against Legolas, who is a simple, progress-making (very good) attacker. There is no point speaking for Beregond in this matchup.

BM: Gandalf v Théoden (S)​

I really don't get why Théoden gets all the love, but Dain, Celeborn, Hirluin and Boromir (Le) aren't even close to him. They all enable a specific trait (Rohan, dwarfs, Silvans, Outlands, Gondor) in more or less different ways (cost reduction, stat boost while ready, stat boost for 1 round after playing, paying for all spheres and getting buffed, stat boost while holding a ressource). I guess Théoden is just new and a Rohan-Deck wasn't that great without him.

Gandalf is a strong hero, who allows many cool and powerful combos. I guess many people just see the Gandalf-Elrond-Spiritfindel-Combo and claim, that Gandalf is OP. I would say that, if anything, Elrond and his ring are OP, even more with Gandalf. Having a 5 threat hero with awesome stats to complete the hero line-up helps too. Of Course this is the strongest deck you can build with Gandalf, but his balanced stats allow Gandalf to be part of any deck and his toys help him in this regard, as all of them can be used in different situations (the staff being a prime example).

All in all we have a Spirit-hero, who isn't that much different than the other trait enablers and sets-up a Rohan deck, against a flexible stat-powerhouse, who is often disliked, because a deck exists, in which his ability makes an other hero with his attachment completly absurd. Elrond should get the hate for making it possible to cheat every ally, attachment and some events into play for free, not Gandalf, who, if not combined with expert-treasure hunter, only gives you ONE more card to play with during the entire game (seeing the next card in your deck and being able to play it equals one extra card drawn at the beginning of the game, as the card on top of your deck would be the one in your hand, from your latest draw)

I'm sorry if this reads like a little rant, I just don't understand why some people vote against Gandalf for being OP/boring

BL: Sam Gamgee - While Beregond stood out fom Legolas for great defence being a lot rarer than good attack, pitted against Sam I have to give the vote for the Hobbit's versatility.

BM: Gandalf - All the love for Theoden has made me think I should probably try again to build a decent Rohan deck with him, but again, versatility. Theoden does one type of deck which has never been especially interesting to me. Gandalf is incredibly powerful and enables a multitude of possible decks, many of which can be fascinating to play around with.

Actually, come to think of it, I don't think I've seen a deck with Gandalf hero in it that wasn't your standard Gandalf-Elrond-Spirfindel deck. If anyone has a Gandalf deck that's sufficiently different from that, I'd love to see it.

Well, plenty of people have built their own versions of Gandalf/Elrond/Galadriel, but that's probably not so different. IIRC, DukeWellington has a Gandalf/Hama/Glorfindel deck which apparently beats most everything. Glaurung did a couple of videos a while back using Gandalf/Beregond/Glorfindel and Gandalf/Boromir/Glorfindel. I'm sure there are other Gandalf decks floating around.

For myself, I have Gandalf/Frodo/Bifur (that one's specifically focused on Gandalf and toys), Gandalf/Balin/Bifur (for a mixture of Gandalf and some Dwarf synergy), I started a Theoden/Galadriel/Gandalf deck (Spirit Rohan using Gandalf to splash other spheres) but never finished it, I've played around a fair bit with using Gandalf to help enable Smoke Rings using Gandalf/Merry/Fatty Bolger (so with ally Bilbo I can have 3 Hobbit Pipes plus Wizard Pipe for Smoke Rings) including playing through a solo campaign using that lineup which has just made it to Helm's Deep; and finally my favourite use of Gandalf is this, where I'm using him primarily just for his sollid stats and sphere-smoothing to power up Dunhere while remaining mostly mono-Spirit.

Like I said above, he enables a multitude of decks. I've barely scratched the surface of all the possibilities.

Well, plenty of people have built their own versions of Gandalf/Elrond/Galadriel, but that's probably not so different. IIRC, DukeWellington has a Gandalf/Hama/Glorfindel deck which apparently beats most everything. Glaurung did a couple of videos a while back using Gandalf/Beregond/Glorfindel and Gandalf/Boromir/Glorfindel. I'm sure there are other Gandalf decks floating around.

For myself, I have Gandalf/Frodo/Bifur (that one's specifically focused on Gandalf and toys), Gandalf/Balin/Bifur (for a mixture of Gandalf and some Dwarf synergy), I started a Theoden/Galadriel/Gandalf deck (Spirit Rohan using Gandalf to splash other spheres) but never finished it, I've played around a fair bit with using Gandalf to help enable Smoke Rings using Gandalf/Merry/Fatty Bolger (so with ally Bilbo I can have 3 Hobbit Pipes plus Wizard Pipe for Smoke Rings) including playing through a solo campaign using that lineup which has just made it to Helm's Deep; and finally my favourite use of Gandalf is this, where I'm using him primarily just for his sollid stats and sphere-smoothing to power up Dunhere while remaining mostly mono-Spirit.

Like I said above, he enables a multitude of decks. I've barely scratched the surface of all the possibilities.

Gandalf Outlands is good too.

BL: Sam Gamgee
BM: Gandalf

BL: Sam Gamgee v Beregond: Sam oh Sam! Go to the finale, and beat the wizard. You are a powerful quester, with the Staff you can defend with no worries, and even you can taste it again to beat those enemies. Just for 8 Threat. Sam you have to win this Championship!
BM: Gandalf v Théoden (S): Gandalf is amazing, he can do everything.