A few of these matchups fit into the category of pitting the tricksy against the reliable. Makes for some interesting decisions between them:

Loragorn vs. Na'asiyah - Na'asiyah's ability is a more unusual one where Loragorn's is very simple but also very potent.

Haldir vs. Bard - Both are good Ranged attackers, but Bard's ability is a straightforward better at ranged attacking while Haldir offers timing shenanigans and staging area hits.

Legolas vs. Timrahil - Legolas is the classic Tactics hero, been around since the Core and very solid, while Timrahil offers new and exciting (if not perhaps as dependable) tricksy play to the Tactics sphere.

Beregond vs. Caldara - If you wanted to pick out a hero as the epitome of dependable, you'd struggle to find better than Beregond. And equally it's hard to get tricksier than Caldara.

Boromir vs. Spirit Merry - As Rajam said, Boromir is the classic OP but boring, whereas Spirit Merry enables Secrecy decks and other odd shenanigans.

And then there are the matchups I'm actually finding difficult to pick for which also somewhat fit this pattern:

Sam vs. Hama - Hama's tricky, Sam's pretty straightforward and reliable. As I said in the first round of voting I've been enjoying Hama more lately, but equally who doesn't love Sam? I might pick Hama in the end just because I think by most people's perspectives he'll be a bit of an underdog.

Elrond vs. Theodred - That extra resource every round from Theodred is super reliable and powerful, but then on the flipside Elrond buffs healing, smooths resources between spheres and can use Vilya. I kind of want to go Theodred because he's so good and somewhat underappreciated, but Elrond wins out majorly on cool factor.

Gandalf vs. Leadership Gimli - Off the top of my head I'd say Gandalf is Caldara's only real competition for the title of 'Tricksiest hero in the game', whereas new Gimli offers a powerful but straightforward ability by contrast. Gimli gets a definite advantage from being shiny and new, and the ability definitely appeals, but I love some of the shenanigans-y stuff you can do with Gandalf and I know that even after two years I've still barely dipped a toe in the vast ocean of possibilities he offers.

Beregond (T) vs Caldara is all about general vs specialized. Caldara is amazing in basically one deck. Beregond is very good in many decks. I would rather take the more general hero. Although some of that is because I find the Caldara deck is too strong and - dare I say - boring after a few plays.

Legolas (T) vs Prince Imrahil (T) is similar in a way. You make "a Prince Imrahil deck" in the same way that you make "a Caldara deck", but there are more options with Imrahil since you aren't pigeon-holed into a single sphere like Caldara. Meanwhile, while Beregond is the only hero with 4 defense (and sentinel), Legolas is one of 6 heroes that have 3 attack and ranged. So in this case, my vote is for Imrahil. Of course he is still new and shiny, so who knows what I would say next year.

Eomer vs Gloin is interesting. Gloin is trying to be one of only 3 Dwarves to make it to the top 32, and it looks like no Dwarves will be in the top 16. I think most people are bored with Dwarves, yet Gloin has the jank appeal. Personally, I find his jank to be too difficult to set up, but then too game-breaking when it gets rolling. Eomer, meanwhile, isn't very exciting unless he has Firefoot. Nonetheless, I have been using Eomer lately with the new Imrahil, so he got my vote.

Gandalf vs Gilmi (Le) reminds me a little bit of Star Wars. Gandalf is like the evil empire that is so ridiculously strong. Gimli is the upstart underdog rebellion with limited abilities that everyone wants to root for. Yet, despite the desire to root for the underdog, Gandalf is obviously so much better that even the PR disadvantage isn't enough to bring him down.

4 closer matchups this time:

Bormoir (T) > Merry (S) - I like the powerhouse Gondorian.

Beregond (T) > Caldara - Yeah Caldara has her Spirit deck and it is a good one and that's it. Beregond is just so much more useful in General. And playing a hero just to discard him disqualifies the hero for me him for me as soon as there is serious competition. It just lacks the "hero" Feeling.

Imrahil (T) > Legolas (T) - New Imrahil seems good, but so is Legolas. Anyway Imrahil gets the new and shiny Bonus and offers more "tricks" while Legolas is pretty 1-dimensional, so the prince gets my vote.

Eomer > Gloin - Eomer is strong and entertaining when build around (something I like very much). Gloin has is borderline broken Combo...

Right now it looks like the most contentious match ups are:

Cirdan the Shipwright vs Thalin

Gandalf vs Gimli (Le)

Legolas (T) vs Prince Imrahil (T)

Beregond (T) vs Caldara

It will be interesting to see how these ones shake out.

Not sure about that, would agree with the bottom two though.

I for myself prefer Legolas (T) over Imrahil (T) because he is a real proven hero and has his in-sphere attachments which makes him a real boss when it comes to fighting! Beregond vs Caldara is a tie for me, voted for Caldara but not sure if she makes it through.

If you look at the other matchups I think Cirdan should stomp Thalin in the ground. Wouldn't be surprised if he wins with more then 80% of all votes. He is so much better then Thalin.

Although I don't really like the Gandalf hero because I play 3+ multiplayer games most of the times and Gandalf is a difficult hero to bring to the table (the ally version is still so **** good) he took championship in 2014 so I think he will win against Gimli here pretty easily. Round 3 against Spirfindel will be more of a challenge for him but he will probably make top 4 again this year...

Gandalf did not win the championship in 2014 though......

Currently Beregond appears to be pulling ahead of Caldara (55%). The Caldara deck is powerful and can be quite fun, but Beregond can fit into a lot of different types of decks.

Gandalf is significantly ahead of Gimli(L) (70%), which is quite sad. Gandalf just isn't much fun after the first time you build a deck with him, and no hero kills multiplayer games faster. I really wish they had kept Gandalf solely as an ally.

Congratulations to Aragorn(T), who is currently beating Elladan with 100% of the vote. I like twin decks quite a lot, but Aragorn(T) is powerful, fun, and fairly unique. Hard to vote against.

Finally, the closest matches have Legolas(T) beating Imrahil(T) and Eomer beating Gloin, both by 53%. Legolas(T) has always been a fantastic hero, and it speaks well of the game that some heroes from the core have yet to be overshadowed. Meanwhile Eomer has always seemed fairly boring and straightforward to me, but Gloin is full of possibilities.

Missed Round 1, but you better believe I'm voting from now on!

Just some comments about Round 1:

Na'asiyah winning over Dori: Dori is solid. I'm sad he got so crushed, and by a suspicious newcomer at that!

Thorin Oakenshield vs Oin: Geez, 98 to 2. I'm not sure why, but Oin is definitely one of my favorite Dwarf heroes of all time, way over Thorin, who has too much threat. I always enjoyed Oin's versatility... Starts blue, turns red with the army, able to do basically any job. He's great. Don't feel down, Oin. Your fans are still out there.

Glorfindel (Sp) vs Rossiel: I know Rossiel doesn't compare when it comes to outright stats, but man I love her in Silvan decks. Just so cool. Have a classic Silvan deck, mix in some of her victory display cards, and you have a great defender in a trait that generally is very weak. Plus, getting rid of those enemies permanently is SO great. I would have voted for you Rossiel!

Grima vs Argalad: Strangely this was the closest match-up. I can honestly say I think I've used Grima once, and I didn't like the threat trade-off; but this makes me want to test him out some more.

Lanwyn vs Erkenbrand: I definitely would have picked Lanwyn. She's great in nearly any deck, especially if you've got some readying effects. Getting rid of surge is SOOOO wonderful, and she can attack nicely too.

Caldara vs Bilbo Baggins: Wow, did not expect Caldara to win by such a margin. I mean, she's gotten better, but I still would prefer the extra card draw.

Aragorn (Le) vs Amarthiul: I totally didn't see this coming. Guess I just assumed people still were in love with Leadergorn. Good for you Amarthiul!

lol some hipster voted for Elladan

lol some hipster voted for Elladan

Even I who has constantly campaigned for the brothers over the years voted for Aragorn....

Elladan is great but Tactigorn is ridiculously good.

As a side note they work ridiculously well together.

Thanatopsis is that end date meant to be Friday Dec 30 or Sat Dec 31? (currently says "Friday Jan 31")

Thanatopsis is that end date meant to be Friday Dec 30 or Sat Dec 31? (currently says "Friday Jan 31")

Thanks! Fixed on page one. Should be Sat Dec 31.

I was just taking a closer look at the brackets and if Caldara were to win this match up versus Beregond it would probably end up being Tactics Aragorn versus Caldara in a much later round. Dang, that would be tough for me to choose between so maybe it's just as well that it looks like I won't be having to make that choice.

Edit: Nevermind, I overlooked Galadriel down there and if Beregond beats Caldara I'm sure Galadriel would too.

I love some of the shenanigans-y stuff you can do with Gandalf and I know that even after two years I've still barely dipped a toe in the vast ocean of possibilities he offers.

Gandalf just isn't much fun after the first time you build a deck with him, and no hero kills multiplayer games faster. I really wish they had kept Gandalf solely as an ally.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why the Hero Championship is really interesting to see how it plays out.

Yea, I love the hero Gandalf and in our group it's almost expected that someone is going to use him so most of us don't even build considering the ally version until after everyone's decided on what heroe they are going to use. (the group I play with once a month likes to build new decks in-between each session)

I actually really love him in a support deck since he has access to so many tools, but he is beast enough that you can use him in a heavy questing or combat deck, or balanced jack-of-all deck, or even combo with Elrond for more ridiculousness.

My favorite build of his so far though is the enabler deck that uses all nearly every zero cost Action event in the game to play through 4+ cards a turn. It's so much fun to see what you can do with it and how fast you can accelerate the other players decks.

As for this round of votes, again I only have a few I had to consider. My relative meh attitude towards hobbits and dwarves definitely shows.

Boromir (T) vs Merry (S) - I had to vote for Merry just because I like the repeat-ability to lower your threat each turn, giving you the most reliable method for staying in secrecy. Now if only secrecy was more worth it out of Spirit!

Frodo vs Mirlonde - I actually read this wrong! I say Baggins, assumed it was Bilbo and voted for Mirlonde.

Beregond (T) vs Caldara - I'm in love with Caldara atm, so even though Beregond is amazing, he had to take a back seat.

Theoden (S) vs Legolas (S) - I don't care for Santa too much and would rather give new Legolas the love.

Frodo vs Mirlonde - I actually read this wrong! I say Baggins, assumed it was Bilbo and voted for Mirlonde.

Mirlonde and I thank you for your vote =)

I have one message for you all.

Grima will have its vengeance.

I have one message for you all.

Grima will have its vengeance.

"its" vengeance? Geez no wonder he turned out to be evil if the few people supporting him call him 'it', like he's an object rather than a person.

I'm also rather surprised that Grima was knocked out of the running so early, though I do wish that his ability only effected the player running him. He might actually see use. Beaten by Argalad is pathetic. That guy is so mediocre.

I actually really like Argalad, and I have been using him a lot lately. He can usually quest for 2 while also dealing 1 damage to an enemy each round. It's not flashy, buy it adds up, and I have found it to be especially useful in Lore, which can be a little light in the attack department anyway.

ROUND 3 has begun!

(Round 2 results are on the first page of this thread)

Here are the match-ups

Voting closes at noon on Thursday.

Sam Gamgee [1] v Merry (T) [32]

Boromir (T) [16] v Merry (S) [17] [Voted in the prior round]

Frodo Baggins [8] v Faramir (Le) [25]

Éowyn (S) [9] v Celeborn [24]

Theoden (S) [4] v Amarthiul [38]

Círdan the Shipwright [13] v Erestor [20]

Elrond [5] v Erkenbrand [37]

Aragorn (Lo) [12] v Beorn [21]

Gandalf [2] v Glorfindel (S) [31]

Haldir of Lorien [15] v Dain Ironfoot [47]

Legolas (T) [7] v Pippin (Lo) [26]

Arwen Undomiel [10] v Denethor (Le) [23]

Beregond (T) [3] v Gimli (T) [30]

Galadriel [14] v Mablung [19]

Aragorn (T) [6] v Argalad [38]

Éomer [11] v Éowyn (T) [43]

Getting into some tough choices here!

Sam vs Merry (T) - Sam is still such a beast and his action advantage is more versatile.

Frodo vs Faramir (Le) - I do like the new Faramir, especially with Ents. But I love Hobbits and secrecy and Frodo is still my favorite spirit Hobbit.

Eowyn (S) vs Celeborn - Really tough choice here, but I'm going with Celeborn. He enables an entire deck type that works in multiplayer. Eowyn is still really strong, but she has more competition for dedicated questors (mainly her Tactics version).

Theoden (S) vs Amarthiul - Theoden is pretty good, but a bit too narrow in application. I really wish he had 3 player. Meanwhile, Amarthiul works well in a Dunedain deck (very fun) and with mounts.

Cirdan vs Erestor - Erestor just opens up so much design space for deck building.

Elrond vs Erkenbrand - I'm probably higher on Erkenbrand than most people and I pretty much refuse to use Vilya anymore, but Elrond is still better. His healing bonus is so amazing in multiplayer.

Aragorn (Lo) vs Beorn - Beorn's stock is rising as we get more damage cancellation. I'm really looking forward to playing him with the side quest that reduces enemies' attack. He is such a unique hero. Meanwhile, Aragorn is a dangerous hero to try to bring to a game.

Gandalf vs Glorfindel (S) - I know Glorfindel is overplayed, but Strider has breathed some new life into him.

Haldir vs Dain - Dwarves are still boring.

Legolas (T) vs Pippin (Lo) - I fully expect Legolas to win this, but I think Pippin is one of the most splashable heroes in the game. In the right deck, his card draw is incredible and I've lost count of how many times the increased engagement value has saved our bacon.

Arwen vs Denethor (Le) - Two great options for resource acceleration. I'll go with the one that opens up more design space.

Beregond (T) vs Gimli (T) - It was a good run, Gimli.

Galadriel vs Mablung - Another really tough choice. I'll take the guy that has basically the only resource acceleration in tactics (RIP Horn of Gondor).

Aragorn (T) vs Argalad - I like what Argalad brings to the table, but Aragorn (T) makes combat and engagement a highly entertaining puzzle to solve.

Eomer vs Eowyn (T) - The new Eowyn makes mono tactics viable. Eomer isn't very exciting right now. I'm hoping for a new version in the last saga box.

Uff, plenty of tough matchups now!

Frodo vs Faramir (Le)

Faramir is cool, but works only with ents tbh. Frodo is an amazing defender and his low threat is more than welcome

Éowyn (S) vs Celeborn

Although Celeborn works only with silvans (much like LeFaramir works only with ents), his bonuses are that much better imo, and I'd rather prefer utility heroes instead of "dedicated" heroes (heroes that "only" quest, attack, or defend)

Gandalf vs Glorfindel (S)

Glorfindel has stats, Asfaloth, and enables secrecy decks. Gandalf has Wizard Pipe, Gandalf's Staff, Narya, Expert Treasure-Hunter, and even more important, Word of Command. Although by using him no one else can use his allies counterparts, as a solo player I'm not that bothered by that. Honestly just Word of Command on his own makes hero-Gandalf rise some levels for me

Haldir of Lorien vs Dain Ironfoot

Haldir is fun, dwarves are boring, but Dain's ability is on par with Celeborn...

Legolas (T) vs Pippin (Lo)

Lore Pippin works so well... Legolas is fun and has an interesting ability, but I feel that is hard to build and plan a strategy around him, or throw him around as a good 3rd option fit, specially considering other tactics heroes outclass him imo

Arwen Undómiel vs Denethor (Le)

ugh, how can this matchup happen so early >_> both of them are so incredible and deserve to reach much higher positions; it's very likely that Arwen is the best spirit hero, and Denethor is the best leadership hero... yeah I'll have to go with Denethor. I've built more decks with him around lately

My votes:

Sam Gamgee vs Merry (T)

Frodo vs Faramir (Le)

Éowyn (S) vs Celeborn

Theoden (S) vs Amarthiul

Cirdan the Shipwright vs Erestor

Aragorn (Lo) vs Beorn

Gandalf vs Glorfindel (S)
Elrond vs Elkenbrand

Haldir of Lorien vs Dain Ironfoot

Legolas (T) vs Pippin (Lo)

Arwen Undomiel vs Denethor (Le)

Beregond (T) vs Gimli (T)

Galadriel vs Mablung

Aragorn (T) vs Argalad

Éomer vs Éowyn (T)

Funny, because I think only the Denethor Arwen match-up is somewhat close

I ended up voting for Denethor as the headstart he provides you with is awesome and it doesn't take much work to make him a great defender (if 3 defense shouldn't be enough anyway). Arwen surely is one of the top spirit heroes, works incredibly well with the Noldor mechanic (especially Elven Light) and while in multiplayer both hit the table regularly, Denethor has the edge for me in solo play as finding a hero for questing and getting other forms of carddraw (what Arwen is doing most of the time; consuming her own ressource generation) is easier than having a defender who helps getting the deck started and smoothes out ressources. Excited who will make it in the end!

A little sad that new Imrahil fell to our veteran competitor Legolas

Arwen v Denethor is really rough, I would vote for either of them all the way to the finish line this year. I ended up voting Arwen here, since I play more Noldor decks than Gondor decks.

Frodo vs Faramir (Le)

Faramir is cool, but works only with ents tbh.

If you genuinely think that, it really seems like a failure of imagination on your part. Faramir works with all sorts of allies. You can ready up utility allies like Gleowine or Warden of Healing or you can take various other allies with versatile statlines that aren't Ents, e.g. Gandalf, Elrond, Saruman, Gildor, Galdor, a bunch of Gondor allies if Boromir(Ld)/Visionary Leadership are in play, a bunhc of Dwarves if Dain is in play, Outlands if you really must play them, some Silvans on the round they enter play if Celeborn, some other Noldor if Lords of the Eldar has been played, maybe Northern Trackers, Wardens of Annuminas... there are so many options, and that's without even getting into the possibility of engaging things out of usual phases or exhausting allies for other reasons, like A Very Good Tale or some encounter card effects.

All that said, Frodo is really good and you're entirely justified in voting for him, but to say that Faramir "only works with ents" is simply not true.

So my take, extracting the most difficult decisions:

Sam Gamgee vs Merry (T)

Frodo vs Faramir (Ld) - for all that impassioned support I just gave, this was a tough decision, but Faramir is a ton of fun.

Theoden (S) vs Amarthiul - Dunedain are super fun, whereas I've never really gotten into Rohan.

Cirdan the Shipwright vs Erestor - Both are great, I give Cirdan the edge because of Narya (also I love the character).

Gandalf vs Glorfindel (S) - Gandalf is one of the most interesting heroes in the game, Glorfindel one of the most boring.

Elrond vs Elkenbrand - I like Erkenbrand, but Elrond is a long-standing favourite for so many reasons.

Haldir of Lorien vs Dain Ironfoot - Again, interesting vs boring.

Legolas (T) vs Pippin (Lo) - I've never understood this community's obsession with Legolas, but I'd rather have Pippin.

Beregond (T) vs Gimli (T) - Maybe I'm bitter because Beregond beat Caldara, but also powering up Gimli with a mountain of hit points is a deeply satisfying combat solution.

Galadriel vs Mablung - Everything is better with Galadriel.

Aragorn (T) vs Argalad - I just really like Argalad recently.

Éomer vs Éowyn (T) - This isn't even a contest to me.

And the really difficult choices:

Éowyn (S) vs Celeborn

Especially have played Progression-style a lot, I get bored of Eowyn. But that aside, there's a reason she's still incredibly ubiquitous to this day, and it's because she's incredibly good. And she works just about anywhere, whereas Celeborn is pigeonholed into Silvan decks and Silvan decks only. As much as I kind of want to go against the norm, I think I have to give this one to Eowyn.

Aragorn (Lo) vs Beorn

These have been two of my favourite heroes for quite some time. Beorn I reckoned back in January to be the most pure fun hero in the game, but then that Loragorn threat reset is just so reliable, and so powerful for the kinds of crazy shenanigans it can enable. In the end I may have to give the nod to Loragorn just for his versatility, but it pains me to vote against the bear.

Arwen Undomiel vs Denethor (Ld)

Oh wow. This is like the Mablung/Beravor matchup from before, but on an even higher level. These are two of the absolute most powerful heroes in the game for how they help with one of the most central and fundamental aspects of the game - in this case resources for both of them. Looking at my decks on RingsDB (including some unfinished and unpublished ones), I have the same number of good/interesting decks with each of them. Denethor only provides 2 additional resources, and afterwards just helps with smoothing, but he provides those extra resources at the very beginning of the game, when they are absolutely most needed. Meanwhile Arwen offers a resource every round in exchange for a discarded card, which in some decks isn't really even a downside. Arwen's a good quester, Denethor's a decent defender. Denethor has a lower threat cost by 1.

...is it possible for me to abstain from voting on one of the matchups? Because I'd seriously consider it at this point.

Looks like it is, I can submit the votes I've already picked and it just leaves that one matchup still open for me to vote. Maybe I'll decide about this one later.

The really hard one for me is Aragorn (T) vs. Argalad: Argalad has done so much for my silvan deck and he is so useful. Tactigorn is SUCH an efficient killing machine but he doesn't really work for me I am first and foremost a solo player! Lol. Ended up going with Aragorn still, even if I have never successfully built a solo deck featuring his skills.