Category: Ring Rating

The resource acceleration to rule them all.

Background

The office of Steward originally established as older men of high trust and wisdom. It changed over time to have men chose from the house of Hurin and from there it became a hereditary title. The Steward Mardil took over rule of Gondor with the death of King Eärnur who left no heir to the throne. (It was also unknown if he alive or dead after riding to Minas Morgul to answer the Witch-King’s challenge.) The Stewards then ruled Gondor until King Elessar (Aragorn) took the throne following the final defeat of Sauron and Mordor.

Card Theme

Gondor was the largest and strongest kingdom of the free peoples during the later years of the Third Age. The resource acceleration provided by this is a nice way to represent the manpower and materials at Gondor’s command. It makes sense that the Steward as the ruler at the time of the game’s setting would marshal be able to marshal those resources.

The large thematic disconnect with the card is that any hero can be the Steward of Gondor and become Gondorian. At least it is very unthematic for the hereditary title Steward of Gondor as known from the Lord of the Ring trilogy. It would work if it referred to the original meaning of the title, but that was about 2500 years before the years between Bilbo’s party and Frodo’s leaving the Shire.

Card Synergies and Interactions

Blood of Númenor and Gondorian Fire

Abilities that Cost Resources

Elrohir, Elladan, Eomer, and Grimbeorn in particular have abilities that not only work well with Steward of Gondor, but also the previously mentioned Blood and/or Fire. Elrohir and Elladan can readying after defending and attack, respectively, for 1 resource each time. There are no limits on this which can make them combat beasts. Eomer can only use his ability once per round since a player can commit him to the quest only once. Still the additional attack from Gondorian Fire can ensure he kills the enemy targeted in the staging area. Grimbeorn for 1 resource can attack right after defending. The only limits to his ability to defend then attack an enemy is how much he can ready and resources to activate the response.

Allies have a few abilities that cost resources as well. Most notably Warden of Healing and Erebor Record Keeper have readying abilities. A few eagle allies like Eagle Emissary, Winged Guardian, and Wilyador and the Dwarven Sellsword require resources to keep them in play. There are a couple other attachments that require resources to activate their ability. Song of Hope offers the more limited willpower version of Blood of Numenor and Gondorian Fire. Steed of the Mark gives some action advantage although ultimately expensive compared to Unexpected Courage. The Dream-Chaser cycle introduced many events that had additional effects if players spend resources from another sphere. Steward can make those additional costs much more affordable.

Resource Smoothing

Hirulan the Fair, Kahliel, and Radaghast have built in resource smoothing for Outlands, Kahliel, and Creature allies. Elrond hero tops all of them smoothing for all ally cards.

The other option is just to move resources from one hero to another. There are some cards that can do this and many are Gondor related. Chief among them is Errand-Rider since it can exhaust each round to move a resource from one hero to any other. Denethor Leadership and Bifur hero can do so repeatedly as well but are limited who they transfer to. Envoy of Pelargir, Pelargir Ship Captain, and Parting Gifts are all one time transfers.

Quest Specific

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 Steward at 1 ring. It’s the resource acceleration card to rule them all. I remember the first few games I played, it was a was struggle to build up with many ally cards costing 3 resources. Then when I put Steward of Gondor into play, it suddenly made sense why they cost that much. The introduction of many more affordable 2 cost allies into the card pool only made it stronger. There’s a reason that basic deck building advice is have resource acceleration and card draw. The encounter deck is typically going to put out 1 enemy or location in true solo ever turn. If the player can get to play 2 allies, attachments, or combination thereof every other turn or better every turn the player will win. Two extra resources per turn ensures that unless the player stuffs their deck with 4+ cost cards.

The only real drawback to the card is that it is unique. A player will want 3 copies to draw it as early as possible and after that it can be a potential dead draw. Even then it can still be helpful to have a back up in case a treachery or shadow forces a player to discard it. The unique limitation is felt more in multiplayer as players have to plan who will use it. There are other less efficient options and even playing on the curve with only low cost card is very possible with a full card pool. It is not an insurmountable problem.

Dave and Grant discussed it falling off in the late game, but that is a good problem to have. If resources are piling up on the hero with Steward, then if all is going well that means the player has played many cards and has no use for them. It is also comforting to know that any card that has a resource match with that hero can be played. This isn’t even considering Blood and Fire decks where the pile of resources is the goal to fuel a heroes like Boromir, Elladan, Elrohir, etc. If all isn’t going well and there is a pile of resources, then likely it was a poor shuffle or a sign that the deck needs some tweaking.

• Dave – 5
• Grant – 4
• Ted – TBR
• Matt – 1
• Average – 3.33

External Links

• Tolkien Gateway
• Hall of Beorn
• Ringsdb

Sample Decks