- Card Talk Season 6 Episode 2
- Cycle
- Set
- Player Card Categories
- Damage Cancelation
- Burglar Treasure
It’s not a Honour Guard but great for turning a hero into a super defender.
Background
The flavor text comes from the description of Pippin’s gear after he entered Denethor’s service. It is is interesting to note this is not a Guard of the Citadel‘s mithril helm. Those had the wings of sea birds.
Card Theme
Armor preventing or mitigating damage is very true to the real world application of armor. The Raven-winged Helm card is not perfectly thematic to Lord of the Rings. Pippin can’t equip it as none of his hero versions have the sentinel keyword. Presumably Beregond as a fellow guard would also have the Raven-wing Helm, but it is not specified in the text.
Card Synergies and Interactions
Beregond
The hero the helm is made for considering it is free to play on his Tactics version. It also works great on the Spirit version considering it can help ensure the player can trigger the threat reduction.
Gwaihir Hero
Raven-winged helm is great for Gwaihir hero because it is not a restricted attachment. Gwaihir has a drawback that prevents players from using restricted attachments on him. This excludes many good defensive attachments like Gondorian Shield, Round Shield, and Ancestral Armor. Raven-winged helm basically acts another point of defense on him.
Gain Sentinel
There are many heroes with sentinel that the helm can equip to, but some strong defensive heroes like Spirit Dain don’t have it initially. Fortunately, there are some ways to give heroes sentinel. Dunedain Signal was the first one that can grant any hero sentinel. Arwen ally is the most flexible since she can grant any character sentinel. Although, to play helm using her ability will require something like Spare and Hood Cloak to exhaust her during planning. There are some trait related options like Elven Mail, Armor of Erebor, and Tireless Thoroughbred.
Erkenbrand
Erkenbrand is partly a nonbo with the helm. Canceling the damage caused by his ability stops the ability from working. This is due to a ruling that canceling the damage isn’t paying the cost so it no longer works. This would also be the case for Treebeard hero if equipped with the helm.
Allies Promoted to Heroes
Messenger of the King and Sword-thain opens up a couple good ally defenders to gaining the helm as well. In particular, Jubayr and Déorwine are great because they have built-in shadow control.
Ring Rating
Card Talk uses the highly scientific yet arbitrary scale of 1 ring for the card to rule them all to 10 to be cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came.
I rate Raven-winged Helm at 6 rings. It is role player of a card. It is designed to help defensive heroes against high attack enemies and shadow effects with direct damage. It will also be helpful against archery. Cheating deal a damage costs have been neutered by an official ruling from former lead developer Caleb keeping its applications pretty narrow. It can go on the wider roster of heroes with the help of a few other cards. Allies promoted to heroes can even get it. This all said, it is still much more limited than Honour Guard that is also 2 Tactics resources.
- Dave – 5
- Grant – TBR
- Ted – 4
- Matt – 6
- Average – 5
External Links
Sample Decks
Power grimbeorn the old nightmare by Grant
Grant’s go to Grimbeorn multiplayer battle deck. It’s survived Assault on Dol Guldur epic multiplayer.
Main Deck
Hero (3)
Grimbeorn the Old (The Withered Heath)
Hirgon (Beneath the Sands)
Théodred (Core Set)
Ally (21)
2x Beorn (Core Set)
3x Beorning Guardian (The Crossings of Poros)
3x Beorning Skin-changer (The Withered Heath)
1x Erestor (The Long Dark)
3x Giant Bear (Fire in the Night)
1x Grimbold (The Flame of the West)
2x Honour Guard (The Wastes of Eriador)
3x Legolas (The Treason of Saruman)
2x Warrior of Dale (The Wilds of Rhovanion)
1x Yazan (The Mûmakil)
Attachment (22)
2x Armored Destrier (Temple of the Deceived)
2x Bow of Yew (The Wilds of Rhovanion)
2x Cram (Over Hill and Under Hill)
3x Dúnedain Mark (The Hunt for Gollum)
3x Dúnedain Warning (Conflict at the Carrock)
2x Hauberk of Mail (The Wilds of Rhovanion)
2x Raven-winged Helm (The Wastes of Eriador)
2x Secret Vigil (The Lost Realm)
2x Steward of Gondor (Core Set)
2x Warrior Sword (The Ghost of Framsburg)
Event (5)
2x Feint (Core Set)
3x Sneak Attack (Core Set)
Player Side Quest (2)
1x Gather Information (The Lost Realm)
1x Send for Aid (The Treachery of Rhudaur)
3 Heroes, 50 Cards
Cards up to The Ghost of Framsburg
Sideboard
Ally (4)
1x Faramir (Core Set)
3x Gandalf (Core Set)
Attachment (10)
1x Celebrían’s Stone (Core Set)
2x Necklace of Girion (The Wilds of Rhovanion)
3x Song of Travel (The Hills of Emyn Muil)
1x Steward of Gondor (Core Set)
3x Unexpected Courage (Core Set)
Event (3)
3x The Galadhrim’s Greeting (Core Set)
Decklist built and published on RingsDB.
Now It’s Time For… Deorwine?
A solo deck focused on getting Sword-thain Deorwine to defend.
Main Deck
Hero (3)
Boromir (The Dead Marshes)
Denethor (Flight of the Stormcaller)
Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders)
Ally (22)
1x Bill the Pony (The Black Riders)
3x Déorwine (Temple of the Deceived)
3x Envoy of Pelargir (Heirs of Númenor)
2x Erestor (The Long Dark)
3x Errand-rider (Heirs of Númenor)
3x Gandalf (Core Set)
3x Honour Guard (The Wastes of Eriador)
2x Legolas (The Treason of Saruman)
2x Vassal of the Windlord (The Dead Marshes)
Attachment (19)
3x Armored Destrier (Temple of the Deceived)
2x Raven-winged Helm (The Wastes of Eriador)
3x Rod of the Steward (Flight of the Stormcaller)
2x Song of Kings (The Hunt for Gollum)
3x Steward of Gondor (Core Set)
3x Sword-thain (The Dread Realm)
3x The Day’s Rising (The Antlered Crown)
Event (9)
3x Captain’s Wisdom (The Thing in the Depths)
3x Sneak Attack (Core Set)
3x We Are Not Idle (Shadow and Flame)
3 Heroes, 50 Cards
Cards up to Temple of the Deceived
Decklist built and published on RingsDB.
Card Talk: A LOTR LCG Podcast and Blog 