Erkenbrand

what do people think of this guy?? I haven't tried him yet but working on rohan deck and don't think he makes the cut, I wish that for someone that wants to defend a lot and has to take a damage to trigger effect to have a higher defense. 3 defense isn't great against many enemies now. 

His defense is more than adequate and there are ways to boost it even further, should you so choose. Personally I think I would prefer to pair him with Self Preservation; a match that should see you through most dangers.

I think he is pretty fantastic.   His innate ability to cancel a shadow effect is really nice.  I have started running the +attack +defense (non-restricted) attachments from Leadership again and these make a pretty solid impact.  Giving him bonus shields isn't that hard to pull off.  And Nerdmeister is right, a self preservation on him is awesome.

hmm guess gotta give him a try. Just there are already so many enemies that have 4 or higher attack and the fact he is already taking a damage just to use ability (guess he doesn't have to trigger every time and enough ways with cards to stand him to defend multiple times or attack after defending. Sentinel also really good.  

The printed sentinel and 3 shields is great.  Of the 6 hero cards with sentinel, only Beregond has better defense.  The others have 1 or 2 shields, and Aragorn takes up 2 of those 6 slots.   So he really is the next best defender with a really great ability.

hmm solid points I think what I overlooked was only triggering his ability when you really need it I was thinking he just end up killing himself but obviously only trigger when important. 

So very awesome.

Always attracts Unexpected Courage and Self Preservation in my two player games. Then single-handedly does most of our blocking. Kicks butt.

Our win ratio has jumped markedly since we obtained him.

Erkenbrand always reminds me a bit of Eleanor. Not the best defender around, but their real value is their ability to limit what the Encounter Deck can do to surprise you and complicate your quest/battle math. 

And just like Eleanor benefits from Unexpected Courage (and Arwen), Erkenbrand really starts to shine when paired with a solid healing effect. Self Preservation's a good option others have mentioned. Warden of Healing, Elrond and Daughter of Nimrodel can work well too depending on deck construction. 

For his response, if the damage was cancelled, with something like Raven-winged Helm, does that ruin the effect?

What if the damage is redirected elsewhere, with something like Song of Mocking ("attached hero takes all damage assigned to the chosen hero.")?

For his response, if the damage was cancelled, with something like Raven-winged Helm, does that ruin the effect?

 

What if the damage is redirected elsewhere, with something like Song of Mocking ("attached hero takes all damage assigned to the chosen hero.")?

Um, I don't think those would work.  

Healing effects obviously work since you are dealing the damage (paying the cost for Erkenbrand's effect) and then healing it away. But those other effects work a little differently. 

As for Raven-Winged Helm, it cancels the damage outright, which I would think means that the cost has not been paid as the damage was stopped from ever occurring. 

Song of Mocking is more interesting. If I am reading the card right, Song of Mocking would not work as it assigns all damage Erkenbrand would have taken to another character rather than moving that damage to another character after it was placed on Erkenbrand. I could be reading that card wrong though...have we ever got an official ruling on how that card works?

So the reason I thought they might work is that I am a little unsure of what lotr means by "deal 1 damage". In Cthulhu it would say "Wound Erkenbrand to ...", and that would mean we assign a wound and need to have it resolve on him to have paid the cost.

But even with the fact lotr uses different language, "deal 1 damage" made me initially think it meant "assign 1 damage" to Erkenbrand, and didn't care about the ultimate resolution of that damage point.

Also, cthulhu has this rule: "To successfully pay a cost you must create a change in a card or game state. A failure to make the required game state change means you have failed to pay the cost of the ability and you are unable to trigger the effect or play the card."

But I could find no comparable rule in lotr.

There's been an official ruling on Treebeard + Song of Mocking, which should also apply to Erkenbrand as the wording is identical: "Deal 1 damage to (Treebeard / Erkenbrand) to ...". The ruling from Caleb was: