Category: 2 Rings

The Core Set’s premiere questing hero.

Background

Éowyn and Éomer were orphaned and raised by Théoden. During the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, she disguised herself as a man and fought beside King Théoden. She killed the Witch-king with the help of Merry. She was presumed dead after the battle, but was later treated by Aragorn and met Faramir, with whom she fell in love. They were married and settled in Ithilien, where she became known as the Lady of Ithilien.

Card Theme

There’s not really a thematic link for her action. The real thematic link is her strong willpower stat. She achieved her “wish to face peril and battle.” This despite the orders of her king and uncle by disguising herself and riding to war.

Card Synergies and Interactions

Put into Play from Discard

Play from Discard

There are a few cards that can be played right from the discard pile. Elven-light has a lot of synergy with Eowyn’s ability because it can only be played from the discard pile and doing so returns it to the player’s hand. It gives the player even an additional card for the trouble. Given enough resources, Elven-light enables the player to give Eowyn +1 willpower every turn. Lords of the Eldar is similar in the playing from the discard pile restriction but has little synergy unless the player has Noldor characters in play. Plus it returns to the bottom of the deck and not easily reused with Eowyn’s ability. Glorfindel doesn’t mind being discarded to Eowyn’s ability although like Lords of the Eldar it isn’t going to help give multiple willpower boosts.

Silver Harp

Effects based on top card in Discard Pile

The Grey Havens introduced a few Noldor allies that gain stat bonuses based on the top card of the discard pile. Eowyn can discard the appropriate card to give the ally the needed bonus.

Willpower Substitution

Herugrim, Goldend Shield, and Against the Shadow all bring Eowyn’s willpower to bear in combat. Herugrim is the safest one to use considering there is little change of Eowyn taking damage. Golden Shield and Against the Shadow are a little riskier since Eowyn only has 3 hit points if 4 defense isn’t enough to block the entire enemy attack. Against the shadow isn’t limited to just defending, but could be used for quests with the siege keyword.

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 give her 2 rings. Most quests require significant willpower on turn 1 to quest successfully. Questing unsuccessfully can often spiral into a game losing board state as players gain threat and have to engage more enemies than they can handle. Staging area threat can also build up quickly if not clearing out the active location regularly leading to location lock. Eowyn gives players a strong quester right away for a reasonable 9 threat cost. The ability to adjust willpower after staging by discarding a card can also make the difference between clearing the active location, avoiding threat gain, or advancing to the next stage.

The main reason I rate Spirit Eowyn at 2 rings instead of 1 is Tactics Eowyn. Tactics Eowyn has the same printed willpower for 3 less threat cost plus an amazing ability that is a boss killer. There are many scenarios where the Tactics version is a better choice than the Spirit one. A corollary to that is more viable alternatives questing heroes with Cirdan, Galadriel, Arwen, and Lothriel all offering great willpower and abilities.

Spirit Eowyn is still an excellent choice. Especially in multiplayer as each player can use her ability to gain +4 willpower in 1 turn. She’s just no longer the must have choice for questing.

• Dave – 4
• Grant – 3
• Ted – TBR
• Matt – 2
• Average – 3

External Links

• Tolkien Gateway
• Hall of Beorn
• Ringsdb

Sample Deck