The other day, I was sitting down to build a deck for an upcoming two player play through of the Wilds of Rhovanion. Now that we have all of the Harad cards, I wanted to put together a deck for that tribe. As far as heroes went Kahliel was the only must include. I was looking for others to support him and I landed on Galadriel. She is blue which give me access to (in my opinion) the strongest card in the game, A Test of Will. While her not-exhaust-ally ability is useful, her threat reduction and card draw is nearly game breaking. I have only have one problem with her, I use her in probably half the decks I build. I tried to use Cirdan instead. ( blue, card draw, ally readying, and can quest/attack/defend) After one game however, I couldn't stop thinking how much better it would be with three less starting threat and constant reduction.

My question to all of you is: Do you have a hero that you have a hard time not playing? And if so who/why?

Tactics Eowyn slots into so many decks she's quite hard to leave out when you need a tactics hero but with no specifics. I'm guessing Arwen will be another one of these heroes, and leadership Denethor is pretty easy to drop in as well - ooh, and Sam. It used to be tactics Legolas for me, but I haven't thrown him in a deck in a while. Trying hard to use every hero as they come out now, and that's putting a damper on addiction to some others!

I have to force myself not to use Arwen sometimes. And even when I’m not using her I still catch myself trying to discard cards for resources.

Dori. OK, I do that on purpose. My favorite splash heroes:

Leadership: Theodred. OK, he's a quester who can't quest, but I love resource generation and the combination with Heir of Mardil. (I think in the larger community Denethor is the most popular leadership splash.)

Lore: Thurindir. 2+ wp/2att isn't bad for 8 threat, but the ability to start with a side-quest is huge for any quest that will cooperate, and it's beautiful for setting up combinations. I like Damrod as a splasher too. (I think in the larger community Bifur and Pippin are the most popular utility in lore.)

Spirit: Merry. Low threat, repeatable threat reduction, access to spirit -- yes, Galadriel can do that too, but I find Merry more fun. I think Bard2 is going to be a heck of a spirit utility hero -- need off-sphere attachments for your main hero? No problem. (I think in the larger community Arwen is most popular, followed by Galadriel -- both displacing the former king of spirit splash, Glorfindel.)

Tactics: Eowyn. Low threat, high willpower, boss killing ability -- she has no weaknesses. I think Hirgon is a tremendous splash choice also. (In the larger community I think Eowyn is also the favorite, with Mablung as a second.)

Spirit Beregond never disappoints.

Grima.

Galadriel too, but also LeaDenethor . They are my detox method for getting out of Boromir and SpiGlorfindel

Once you use arwen with elven light it's impossible to not include her in any spirit deck

Leadership Denethor is probably my 2nd most used hero after Spirit Arwen. Everything about him is great! Relatively low threat, 2 extra resources, resource smoothing, Gondor is a strong trait, he gives you a thematic Steward of Gondor usage, and and you can always use another dedicated defender.

Not so much now, but I definitely went through a patch where my solution to (almost) any deck not working properly was to sub in Galadriel.

Like everyone else it seems, Arwen is very hard to leave out of my spirit decks. TEowyn also ends up everywhere, though SEowyn is also pretty good.

TBeregond is another I find hard to leave out, that big brick wall (with the free Gondorian shield) is just so good now that everything seems to have 4-5 attack. Even better if I'm also running leadership and can stick him on an armoured destrier.

14 hours ago, monkeyrama said:

Tactics Eowyn slots into so many decks she's quite hard to leave out when you need a tactics hero but with no specifics. It used to be tactics Legolas for me, but I haven't thrown him in a deck in a while.

It's funny, those to fit the same niche for me. Tactics heroes that can "quest". Eowyn is just plain fun.

I used to have to force myself not to use spirit Glorfindel, but after the ally came out, I haven't reached for him once.

3 hours ago, JusticeLizard said:

I used to have to force myself not to use spirit Glorfindel, but after the ally came out, I haven't reached for him once.

Yeah, he has definitely fallen from favour. Maybe it's also the change in the overall game state, since low threat is now less useful in many cases than having a useful card ability.

Especially since Asfolath isn't as potent and there are other good light if valinor targets

8 hours ago, player1683311 said:

Especially since Asfolath isn't as potent and there are other good light if valinor targets

Tangent aside about the problem with power creep related to Asfaloth....

I often find it easier for me to stick with hero lineups as opposed to a single hero. I'll easily swap between a Silvan deck and a Dunedain deck, but I rarely try out new heroes within an archetype. But probably across all the decks I've ever built, LeDenethor, Arwen, or Mirlonde are my most used.

Beravor, her card draw and solid stats. I have a limited pool, so I don’t have many options in Lore, and I’m always drawn to her.

Drawn to her....but only once a round

Gandalf

At the moment I'm having major difficulty getting away from using Elrond/Gandalf/Sporfindel and another deck two-handed. Solo I tend to use the three wise men as well.

I'm starting to think I may need help.

Elrond, in multiplayer, his healing boost paired with warden of healing is massive.

Elrond for sure... Don't see myself ever not using him.. amazing stats that allow him to fill more or less any role if need be (even attacker thanks to his Noldor trait) and then his abilities...
the resource smoothing via being able to pay for an ally from any sphere is just ridiculously good and I think his healing boost might be even better. My favourite thing about it is that it boots healing from any card source not just player cards so scenarios that provide healing effects via encounter cards also get boosted.
An encounter card that allows you to heal up to 4 damage total but from any characters suddenly has the potential to heal up to 8 damage, an encounter side quest that allows you to heal 1 damage off each character in play once cleared suddenly lets you heal 2 damage off every character etc.

Then there is Vilya....

Tactics Theoden

I keep wanting to build a rohan deck with his spirit version, but I end up using tactics instead

7 hours ago, Onidsen said:

Tactics Theoden

I keep wanting to build a rohan deck with his spirit version, but I end up using tactics instead

That's either sarcasm or an interesting strategy choice. Santa Theoden is pivotal to spew out all of those Rohan allies.

3 hours ago, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

That's either sarcasm or an interesting strategy choice. Santa Theoden is pivotal to spew out all of those Rohan allies.

My rohan decks have a tendency to turn into hero Voltron decks when I'm not looking, and tend to use tactics Eowyn a lot too (Elfhelm is another hero I'm addicted to, and he lends himself to the Voltron deck as well), so it's not as weird as it sounds.

Actually, most of my decks tend to load up on attachments and focus less on allies. In that environment, Tactics Theoden is actually a clear choice. The added boost from Herugrim and golden shield is very nice (the difference between 5 and 6 attack is much more meaningful than it originally seems at first glance.)