Heir to the throne of Gondor | openCards

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Gondor iconHeir to the throne of Gondor

    This Strategy-Note article was written by Hayden-William Courtland and was published first on "Lord of the Rings Online (lotrtcg.decipher.com)".

    "Elendil! I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dunedain, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!"

    The driving force behind the Gondor culture, and indeed, much of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, is Aragorn, Son of Arathorn. As heir to the throne of Gondor, Aragorn is the only one capable of uniting the men of Middle Earth. It therefore comes as no surprise that Aragorn appears as one of the strongest companions in the Lord of the Rings TCG. With 8 strength and 4 vitality, Aragorn is unequaled by other members of the Gondor culture and also better than members of most other cultures - not even Gandalf can boast such baseline statistics!

    Aragorn is well suited to virtually any deck. For the unbound Hobbit/Ent deck, Aragorn, Wingfoot is ideal in his ability to wound minions during each move. As a stable defense against minion swarms use either Aragorn, Heir of Elendil (Defender +1) or Aragorn, Ranger of the North (Defender +X). For shadow denial (once a staple of the tournament scene - now relegated to Open format play), Aragorn, Heir to the White City is unbeatable. Finally, there is Aragorn, King in Exile whose ability to heal a companion each turn can come in very handy against minion archery decks.

    Although strong enough on his own, Aragorn is a force to be reckoned with when equipped for battle. Aragorn's Bow is particularly useful when faced with one too many minions or that single minion of unbelievable strength. There are currently two swords unique to Aragorn: Ranger's Sword and Ranger's Sword, Blade of Aragorn. Both give a strength +2 bonus and, in addition, the former gives the Damage +1 ability and the latter gives an additional +2 strength bonus against an Uruk-hai. If you then add Armor (bearer takes no more than one wound) and Athelas (discard to heal or discard a shadow condition), Aragorn becomes almost unstoppable.

    Of course, in the current format, with Grima a favorite of many shadow players, you have to be careful not to attach too many cards to your companions (less they get bounced back to your hand in the maneuver phase). And so, support cards become equally important and Aragorn works particularly well with many of them. Gondor Bowmen (+2 to the archery total) is particularly suited to Aragorn as its cost requires exertion of a Gondor man and Aragorn has 4 vitality. The Shards of Narsil is also quite powerful - an artifact that can hold unuseable Gondor cards for use at a later time and a medium through which Still Sharp can be played to make Aragorn (or another Gondor man) strength +3 and damage +1. Finally, Aragorn can use virtually all of the strength boosting cards offered by the Gondor culture, many of which work exceedingly well with a specific version of Aragorn. For example, try Dagger Strike with Aragorn, Heir of Elendil.

    So this is the new King of Men - strong, versatile, supportive of his fellows. Truly a leader of his people!