Eleanor users, please tell me what makes you include her in your deck and how do you utilize her?

For me, it seems just nearly pointless.

She can't quest, she can't attack, she barely can defend(and won't last long if used for defense frequently without any good defending attachments).

Her ability requires her to exhaust, rendering her useless until the next turn(but meh, she's already is), and morefor, her ability is kinda lackluster.

By exhausting her, you may cancel "When Revealed" effect of just revealed TREACHERY CARD(so no 2 dmg from orcs cancel and stuff), discardring this card and replacing it with the new card from encounter deck. So, if the treachery card was doomed and/or surged, it still dooms/surges and then adds a new card to the staging area. Basically, she does what 1 resource cost Spirit sphere card, but ten times worse.

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

But she does it repeatedly and starting right from turn 1. I will have an article up where she gets some spotlight in the not too far future.

There are two things to look out for when using her:

1) Know which effects to cancel and which not. Do not use her blindly.

2) Have something else for her to do in your deck, like Strength of Will or Common Cause.

or UC her and put some dunedain attatchments on her so she can defend also

Before Arwen comes out, I use Eleanor just because of the illustration;

After Arwen comes out, I still use her since Arwen keeps getting exhausted and it is uncomfortable to look at her at 90 degrees, while Eleanor usually remains ready.

Okay, in fact, I haven't used her in any deck for the past 12 months.

Angus Lee said:

ha! good one

In my Ladies deck (Eowyn, Beravor, Eleanor), she is the prime defender, 2 def, 3 hp is more than enough to handle most enemies that deck has to engage. As you can see by looking at the heroes, it's not a fighting deck so if possible, it won't engage any of the tough enemies (3+ attack) unless it can one-shot it to death. So while Eowyn quests and Beravor draws (haven't played the game in a couple of months now, so can't yet tell how the FAQ will change things), chipping in defense or attack if needed once UC'd, Eleanor cancels any outright killer Treacheries with WR or sits back and defends if needed.

Eleanor is one of the more persistently underrated heroes in the game. She does something no other hero can do: keep you from losing. She's basically an attractive little security blanket that means you will almost NEVER lose due to an untimely Evil Storm, Sleeping Sentry, Dark and Dreadful, etc. She essentially eliminates one of the biggest uncontrollable variables (that being ridiculously powerful treacheries that wax you regardless of board development). Plus, she's a capable defender in a pinch.

Now, is her effect as good as that on A Test of Will? Obviously not. But you have to draw that event, whereas Eleanor is always on the table. If you want to win consistently, you can't count on having a cancel event in your hand at the appropriate time (at least until we get more reliable deck search effects). She's not flashy, but she does one very, very important thing to help you win games.

Try her in Foundations of Stone against that "Lost and Alone"-Card and you will love her (Especially when that one Stage 4 Quest card just made you discard your hand with your "Test of Wills")

I agree with the last guys usually my sister plays Spirit and we rarely leave her out, it depends on how bad treacheries the quest we are playing has.

When a single treachery turns all your game upside-down you will surely wish she was here…

Angus Lee said:

I think this is the thread winner right here.

She holds her own weight in the first Hobbit scenario. Not only does she cancel treacheries, but she also helps you defeat quest stage 2 by getting through the encounter deck quicker.

I've not been playing long and only have the core set at the moment, but attachment that allow her to ready again during a turn mean you can exhaust her twice to cancel a total of 2 when revealed effects - that's saved my deck a number of times to date.

Kasatka said:

Please note that this does not work normally during the Staging step in Quest phase because there is no action window in this step, i.e. you cannot take action between revealing cards from the encounter deck. You can only response when the triggering condition is true. So you can cancel the When revealed effect of a treachery card but then you cannot ready Eleanor before revealing another card.