Erestor still losing to Cirdan, but just barely (49-51). Come on Erestor!!!

Lets all have a moment of silence for Erkenbrand - essentially the second/third best defender in the game. (He is second/third due to Beregond x2!) He sadly didn't stand a chance against Elrond. (Currently 93% vs 7%)

The other matches that have been by a similar margin where very justifiable:

Thalin vs Fatty.

Bard vs Pippin (S).

Caldara vs Bilbo.

Thorin vs Oin.

Aragorn (T) vs Elladan.

Arwen vs Nori.

Aragorn (Lo) vs Na'asiyah.

Erkenbrand deserves better than just 7%!

Erestor still losing to Cirdan, but just barely (49-51). Come on Erestor!!!

I'm hoping he makes it all the way to semifinals. I'd take him over Amarthiul, Loregorn, or even Elrond. Can't say the same for Cirdan.

Lets all have a moment of silence for Erkenbrand - essentially the second/third best defender in the game. (He is second/third due to Beregond x2!) He sadly didn't stand a chance against Elrond. (Currently 93% vs 7%)

Erkenbrand deserves better than just 7%!

It's funny, Elrond is actual my top non-Beregond defender. He has the highest Def in the sphere that has burning brand and is also the best for healing (which he even helps with)

LoDenethor deserves a mention here. Same defense as Elrond, eligible and same-sphere for Burning Brand, and benefits from the cheap Gondorian Shield if you have access to tactics. Plus if he doesn't defend he has a useful ability he can do. (True also for Elrond, but only once he has Vilya).

Elrond does have an extra hp, but he also costs significantly more threat.

Erestor still losing to Cirdan, but just barely (49-51). Come on Erestor!!!

I agree that Erestor is a powerful hero and should get a better place in the hero ranking then he might get if he looses this round.

But Cirdan... man that hero is bonkers! Big Quester, "free" carddraw + readying with Narya (good target for Light of Valinor too) is just so **** good. In our 4-player-games he does a s**t ton of work and for me he is a real contender for top spot in this years contest!

Erestor still losing to Cirdan, but just barely (49-51). Come on Erestor!!!

I agree that Erestor is a powerful hero and should get a better place in the hero ranking then he might get if he looses this round.

But Cirdan... man that hero is bonkers! Big Quester, "free" carddraw + readying with Narya (good target for Light of Valinor too) is just so **** good. In our 4-player-games he does a s**t ton of work and for me he is a real contender for top spot in this years contest!

I think that's the difference. Erestor wins games, but not in a board-state changing way. So people seem to not like that. Erestor tends the win the game around turn 1 - which I suppose, is not very fun to some people. "Oh, I drew my starting hand and first 4 cards. I guess I won." As opposed to Cirdan, "Oh wow, we were going to die, but then Cirdan saved us by readying two allies with Narya!!!"

I think that of the heroes that have not won before, the only heroes I think that deserve the top spot are Aragorn (T), Pippin, Denethor (Le), Caldara, Dain Ironfoot, and Erestor. After this round, only one of those will remain which is pretty astounding. There are some other powerful heroes that I would be okay with winning (like Gandalf or Glorfindel), even if I don't particularly enjoy playing them.

Aragorn - He has allowed Tactics to do what it was meant to do, but ordinarily did terribly.

Pippin - He has always been strong, but he has grown even stronger as the card pool has grown and as scenarios continue to force engagement. He can often draw you two cards per turn. In Aragorn (T) decks he can often draw you far more than two cards per turn.

Denethor / Erestor - They win you the game on the first turn

Dain Ironfoot - Obviously strong

Caldara - An interesting ability that became incredibly powerful as the card pool expanded.

Erestor still losing to Cirdan, but just barely (49-51). Come on Erestor!!!

Thanks, now I'll vote for Círdan.

ROUND 4 voting has begun!

Voting closes at noon CST Monday Dec 19

Sam Gamgee [1] v Boromir (T) [16]

Frodo Baggins [8] v Éowyn (S) [9]

Amarthiul [38] v Círdan the Shipwright [13]

Elrond [5] v Aragorn (Lo) [12]

Gandalf [2] v Haldir of Lorien [15]

Legolas (T) [7] v Arwen Undomiel [10]

Beregond (T) [3] v Galadriel [14]

Aragorn (T) [6] v Éowyn (T) [43]

"Easy" round for me. Only one tough matchup:

Aragorn (T) vs Eowyn (T)

Reaaaally hard choice. I don't use tactics very much so it's difficult to judge here. Tactigorn has his usual toys and those amazing abilities, Éowyn is a questing powerhouse and has super low threat, plus the ability to kill bosses... My vote is because I've used Tactigorn to success before, meanwhile I've yet to use T-Éowyn for a 1st time

My votes:

Sam Gamgee vs Boromir (T)

Frodo Baggins vs Éowyn (S)

Amarthiúl vs Cirdan the Shipwright

Elrond vs Aragorn (Lo)

Gandalf vs Haldir of Lorien

Legolas (T) vs Arwen Undómiel

Beregond (T) vs Galadriel

Aragorn (T) vs Éowyn (T)

Sam vs Boromir (T) - I'll take the versatile Hobbit over the Captain of Cheese.

Frodo vs Eowyn (S) - This one was tough for me. As someone that plays a lot of 4 player, Eowyn's ability to quest for 8 is too good to pass up.

Amarthiul vs Cirdan - I haven't tried Noldor much yet, but Amarthiul is a key piece of the Dunedain archetype and opens up some new ways to play the game.

Elrond vs Aragorn (Lo) - Tactics Aragorn is by far my favorite Aragorn, so its hard to vote for any of the others over a powerhouse like Elrond.

Haldir vs Gandalf - My hate for Gandalf is well documented.

Legolas (T) vs Arwen - Tough choice, but I think I have to go with the classic Legolas. Arwen is great, but I really miss being able to count on being able to play her ally version.

Beregond (T) vs Galadriel - Another tough choice. Galadriel is better for solo, but Beregond is amazing in multiplayer.

Aragorn (T) vs Eowyn (T) - While I appreciate what tactics Eowyn brings to deck building space, I think she is still the 2nd best Eowyn. Meanwhile, Aragorn is the best tactics hero, imo.

Sam Gamgee [1]

Éowyn (S) [9]

Círdan the Shipwright [13]

Elrond [5]

Gandalf [2]

Legolas (T) [7]

Galadriel [14]

Éowyn (T) [43]

The only thing more boring than Boromir might be Sam winning two years in a row.

Chose Boromir over Sam. I rarely play low threat decks and he is pretty awesome solo. Sam is the best hobbit, but I much prefer Boromir.

Chose Eowyn because she is pretty great in multiplayer.

Haldir because he is more fun than Gandalf and ally Gandalf is so good.

Arwen is fantastic, Legolas has competition for best ranged character. It would be interesting to see a Legolas Haldir matchup.

I chose Beregond and hope he makes it all the way to the top this year.

Naturally, these have progressed to be a bit harder decisions for me.

Sam Gamgee vs Boromir (T) - I just don't like hobbit decks that much. definitely bias.

Frodo Baggins vs Éowyn (S) - Frodo is a stand-alone hobbit who can do work without being in a hobbit deck, but he doesn't cut it against how awesome Eowyn is, especially in the 4 player games that I mostly play in.

Amarthiúl vs Cirdan the Shipwright - Sure, Cirdan has some strong will and neat tools, but give me Dunedain and traps all day!

Elrond vs Aragorn (Lo) - Elrond is just the better.

Gandalf vs Haldir of Lorien - this was the hardest decision for me, because Haldir is absolutely amazing, but I love the redicoulous things that I can accomplish with Gandalf

Legolas (T) vs Arwen Undómiel - Again, a hard decision. Legolas is a badass, but with his Ally card out, he sees less play. With Arwen's hero card, her ally hardly sees play.

Beregond (T) vs Galadriel - AGAIN a hard decision. The lord of defending win against Galadriel and her tricks, powerful as they may be.

Aragorn (T) vs Éowyn (T) - had to pick Eowyn again due to how great she can be for splashing in tactics into other decks - like paired with Haldir!

Also, I dream of an Eowyn vs Eowyn finale.

Eowyn (S) can take Sam or Boromir for certain. It will be a harder fight against Elrond or Cirdan. I'd vote her all the way through myself, but I feel the community wouldn't.

Eowyn (T) has a near impossible road ahead of her. Beregond or Galadriel will be a close fight and after that it is either Gandalf or Arwen. I can't imagine her winning out against either of them.

My prediction for the end result is here: Cirdan will win after beating Amarthiul, Eowyn (S), and Arwen in the final round.

I anticipate the final four will include Arwen, Galadriel, and Elrond. What I'm curious to see is how Sam fares against Eowyn next.

Matchup Spotlight: Red Dead Contention

Tactics versus Tactics. Eowyn and Aragorn.

vs

GrandSpleen: Today's Matchup Spotlight is brought to you by the Witch-king, Lord of the Nazgul. Currently Aragorn has a narrow lead over Eowyn, 53% to 47%. Witchie, what are you thoughts on this matchup?

Witch-King: Not a fan of either one of these dopes. Not. A. Fan. Look at Eowyn. What is that. 6 starting threat? Like you're gonna be sneaking around? Glory-hound, I don't think so. You're gonna pop that threat pill first chance you get. What do you think's in that pill people? Then you're spent. And 4 willpower. In tactics? So you here to quest then? Aragorn now. Minus one defense. I am so immune to that. Take a few orcs, pal, I don't need em. I will sick a Mumak on you though buddy. Try staring grimly when your whole party's exhausted. Or an assassin, or a couple of forest flies. Yeah. You ain't all that.

GrandSpleen: Thank you for the assessment, Naz. Any final words?

Witch-King: See you at the Pelennor.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEE

We are getting to the interesting part

Boromir(T) > Sam - Both great but Boromir carriers me through my campaign . Also I tent to play higher threat decks or pack few threat reduction, so Sam looses much value.

Eowyn(S) > Frodo - I like Frodo, but prefer Eowyn, back in the core set days she was much more useful than Frodo was at his release (for me) and even today you see her quite often.

Cirdan > Amarthiul - Never played any of these very often, but Cirdan offers much utility in any deck. Amarthiul needs a bit of set up and a specific deck build around him. I like that these heroes exist, but Cirdan seems more useful in general.

Elrond > Aragorn (Lo) - I love both but Elrond is a god I played so many games with him and he amplified our healing by so much saved tons of ressources with his ring, defend when needed quested if possible. Loragorn usually his my excuse to cut all threat reduction

Gandalf > Haldir - Haldir doesn't even make it to the top 3 ranged heroes (imo Legolas, Lanwyn and my new found friend Brand), so he doesn't stand a chance against a wizard.

Legolas > Arwen - Man these two are similar. Both great heroes, both awesome allies. But as I stated before (I think), Arwen hero is easier to exchange. So I vote for Legolas.

Beregond > Galadriel - The Gondorian wall deserves much more praise than I can write here, he is sooo good. Galadriel is awesome as well, but Beregond can save you from so much more Trouble!

Aragorn(T) > Eowyn(T) - Aragorn only really shines in multiplayer but there he goes off! Eowyn is still quite limited in her use.

It's funny, this round isn't particularly difficult for me. In almost every bracket, it's a character I play a lot against a character I rarely play, making my choices easy.

The only two that don't fall into that category are Beregond v Galadriel and Legolas v Arwen, all of whom I use often. In both cases, I voted for the one who hasn't won a hero championship in the past.

OK, things are narrowing down to the point where I feel I can comment on each matchup individually. Still going to shift the more interesting ones to the bottom though.

Sam Gamgee vs Boromir (T) - This is incredibly simple for me. Boromir is boring, Sam is great.

Elrond vs Aragorn (Lo) - I am actually a massive fan of Loragorn, and he's let me do some truly ridiculous things over the many games I've used him, but Elrond is also amazing. Vilya of course is incredibly powerful, but even just Elrond's own innate abilities I keep finding more and more useful over time. Incidentally I love that about this game that I'm still gaining additional appreciation for a hero who's been around longer than I've been playing the game.

Gandalf vs Haldir of Lorien - Haldir is a ton of fun, but Gandalf, as I've noted in previous rounds, can do just about anything. The level of power, efficiency and incredible variety Gandalf can offer your deckbuilding is just so difficult to match.

Legolas (T) vs Arwen Undómiel - Another easy one for me. Legolas is just a strong attacker with a nice ability. Arwen's resource generation is super-powerful and enables so many different decks.

Beregond (T) vs Galadriel - Similar to the above. Beregond is good, but all he is is a (very) strong defender. Galadriel's incredible support abilities just make so many things work so much better.

And the difficult ones for me this round:

Frodo Baggins vs Éowyn (S) - Frodo is a great hero, and there's a part of me which really wants to vote against Eowyn given how ubiquitous she is, but she really is just that good, so getting past my tendency to go against the grain, she really is the better choice.

Aragorn (T) vs Éowyn (T) - I haven't actually used Tactics Aragorn that much, bbut I know how amazing he is. I've used Tactics Eowyn even less, but she's also an incredibly powerful hero. Eowyn offers Tactics something fairly unique and opens up a bunch of new deckbuilding possibilities for the sphere. Aragorn meanwhile, though he does offer some new options, mostly just does the standard Tactics things; it's just that he does them incredibly well (I would argue better than any other hero). That makes it pretty hard to choose between the two, but I picked Aragorn because he helped me beat Siege of Annuminas yesterday.

Amarthiúl vs Cirdan the Shipwright - And this one I haven't voted on yet. Neither of these heroes quite makes it into my list of favourites, but they're both somewhat on the cusp I'd say. Amarthiul I really tend to take as a representative of the Dunedain deck archetype as a whole, and I've had a lot of fun with that archetype, plus he's gained favour of late in combination with Elfhelm/Armoured Destrier; whereas Cirdan offers that extra deck speed/filtering and can use Narya, not to mention the 4 willpower, plus he has a truly epic beard. I like Cirdan more as a character I suppose. Mechanics-wise while Cirdan is obviously more flexible and widely applicable, Amarthiul I think arguably has more going for him in and of himself. It would be unreasonable to consider Cirdan without also considering Narya though, and Narya is a pretty big deal. I could still go either way on this one, though unlike Denethor vs. Arwen last round I do intend to actually cast a vote before the round ends.

ROUND 5 voting has begun!

Voting closes at noon CST Friday Dec 23

Sam Gamgee [1] v Éowyn (S) [9]

Círdan the Shipwright [13] v Elrond [5]

Gandalf [2] v Arwen Undomiel [10]

Galadriel [14] v Aragorn (T) [6]

Sam vs Eowyn (S) - Both heroes are quite good and both heroes are old news by now. Eowyn might be the stronger hero, but she has competition for dedicated questers. Sam, meanwhile, has a totally unique ability and is the lynchpin of many decks.

Cirdan vs Elrond - I'm surprised Cirdan made it this far, beating out Erestor and Amarthiul. His 4 WP is great and access to Narya is also great. I just don't see him played nearly as much as Elrond. While Vilya is boring to me, Elrond's healing boost is a life saver, especially in 3-4 player games.

Gandalf vs Arwen - My hatred of Gandalf is well documented. Arwen (either hero or ally version) seems to be in almost every game I play these days.

Galadriel vs Aragorn (T) - Two really fun heroes. I'll go with Aragorn's supremely entertaining ability over Galadriel's tools. The fact that Galadriel can't do any fighting or questing on her own has frustrated me enough times to tip the scales against her.

I find it interesting that we have 4 spirit heroes and only 1 of each other sphere (plus neutral). And that is even without the ubiquitous Glorfindel. Spirit simultaneously has some of the best heroes in the game and several of the worst (Fatty, Pippin, Oin, Dwalin).

I find it interesting that we have 4 spirit heroes and only 1 of each other sphere (plus neutral). And that is even without the ubiquitous Glorfindel. Spirit simultaneously has some of the best heroes in the game and several of the worst (Fatty, Pippin, Oin, Dwalin).

Yea, I was really surprised when I realized we had a Spirit hero in each pairing this round.

Sam vs Eowyn (S) - Like I said previously, Eowyn all the way!

Cirdan vs Elrond - The card cycling and 4 WP are enough to push him above Elrond. When I consider their tools - Vilya vs Nenya - I actually like Nenya more. Sure, Vilya is strong, but I just don't care for the blind aspect without also requiring Gandalf to be present.

Gandalf vs Arwen - this was easily the hardest vote for me. Gandalf is easily one of my favorite heroes to play, but he really requires so many tools and such much dedicated deck space, where Arwen just works right out of the gate and is just better if you manage to draw Elven Light.

Gladriel vs Aragorn (T) - Aragorn is a murder machine, but I've found Tactics can already murder things well without him. Galadriel offers some interesting abilities and uses out of your allies, so she takes the pick.

It is because of people like Slothgodfather that we have 50% Spirit heroes left (well, also all of those heroes are really strong).

For me, this round of voting was by far the easiest - not a single difficult decision:

Sam vs Eowyn (S) - Obviously both of these heroes are quite strong, and Eowyn I think still retains the questing crown, though her hold has been getting more and more tenuous. Sam, however, brings strong willpower to Leadership, where he is fairly unique. I find myself using Sam far more often then Eowyn.

Cirdan vs Elrond - Like Teamjimby above, I am also surprised that Cirdan made it this far. Obviously he is a good hero, but I consider both Amarthiul and especially Erestor to have significantly greater impact on the game. Regardless, his unexpected rise has to end here. Elrond is just better. I love building Elrond decks, especially those without Vilya.

Gandalf vs Arwen - Gandalf shouldn't really be a hero, but since he is I built a deck with him one time. It was fun for the first 2-3 quests I used it on, so I built another one... which was almost exactly the same. No hero takes up more dedicated deck space than Gandalf, and that is what makes him boring - I'm not saying that you can't build differently with him, I'm just saying there is really no point. Arwen, on the other hand, opens up a huge deckbuilding space that has been really fun to explore.

Galadriel vs Aragorn (T) - Both of these heroes are quite fun and very powerful, despite being essentially diametric opposites. Galadriel helps any deck along in fairly subtle ways, while Aragorn... kills everything. I have to say that I enjoy building decks with Aragorn a lot more. Both heroes offer many possibilities and enable new strategies, but only Aragorn is generally the centerpiece of a deck.

If everyone votes as I have - and so far the heroes I have chosen are actually winning - we will get a final four representing one hero from each sphere, which would be fantastic. Hopefully Elrond will finally become the champion as he deserves, though I'm not sure how I would vote in an Elrond/Aragorn match up.

Sam Gamgee vs Éowyn (S)

I don't use any of these heroes very often... I never go mono-leadership, and when I think in including leadership (for stuff like Steward or Sneak attack+Gandalf), I think in access to resource generation, and thus I want to include guys like Denethor or Amarthiúl. When I think in spirit, I think in stuff like test of will, unexpected courage, threat reduction, etc... and although I'd rather prefer Arwen, Galadriel or Glorfindel over Éowyn, I like her more than Sam. I've considered using Éowyn for Caldara decks; I never consider Sam for any deck (I don't care about thematic decks btw)

Cirdan vs Elrond

I've been using Cirdan in a Caldara deck I recently built. He is definitely solid, and Narya is awesome... but Elrond is just better. Well, at least I like him more and I've had much more success with him. Vilya is just broken.

Gandalf vs Arwen

ugh, both these guys are top 5 heroes imo... the main issue with Gandalf is that you can't use his ally versions. Threat doesn't even matter with those stats, abilities and toys (Narya & Word of command!!). I agree with previous comments saying Gandalf requires decks running around him, meanwhile Arwen is much more versatile and adaptable. mmm honestly this is a tie for me. My choice is because I play solo, I play power decks, and I think Gandalf has a tiny advantage in that regard.

Galadriel vs Aragorn (T)

They are so different in what they offer and therefore is hard to establish comparison points. Galadriel is always an option when I build decks, and that's the main reason for my vote here. Consistent threat reduction is a hard thing to find even in today's meta.