Éomer

Hero. Threat: 10. 1   3   2   4  

Rohan. Noble. Warrior.

Response: After Éomer commits to the quest, spend 1 resource from his resource pool to immediately declare him as an attacker (and resolve his attack) against an enemy in the staging area.

...he was young, and he was king; the lord of a fell people. The Return of the King
Ryan Valle

The Mountain of Fire #3. Leadership.

Éomer
Reviews

Éomer's ability could well be the ultimate form of action advantage - without using any other cards to make this happen, he quests, he attacks, and, assuming he takes his target out, he frees up another character from having to defend against the now-destroyed enemy's attack. Destroying an enemy also removes its threat from the staging area, which means Éomer contributes more than his willpower to the questing. And it's just cool to get the first strike in. And he does this at the fairly reasonable cost of one resource per use. But you need time to set that up, and you need to be playing the right deck and/or the right scenario. If you just put him in any old deck, he won't have any targets to use his ability on, because any enemies you revealed last turn have already engaged you, and if you play him in the wrong scenario he won't be able to kill his targets. My limited experience shows that Éomer is good out of the gate in most Khazad-dum/Dwarrowdelf scenarios, since they often have goblins that pop up from shadow effects and don't get to engage you before Éomer has a shot at them - and they're frail enough for him to take them out by himself.

But if you're playing against something other than goblins, Eomer will need some help. That help will generally not be coming from , so I'd advise against playing him in a mono- deck. Here are the main things to consider:

1) You need to ensure there are targets for him. I can see three ways of doing that:

  • Change the timing of when Éomer strikes. The main tool for this is Late Adventurer - don't commit Éomer if there isn't already an enemy in staging, and wait to see if one pops up. In theory you could also give Éomer the icon, give him Windfola and use Don't Be Hasty! to remove and recommit Éomer when an enemy pops up. That's entirely too many combo parts to put together with any kind of reliability, but if done it could allow Éomer to strike three times in one turn - commit and attack as usual, Don't Be Hasty + Windfola when an enemy pops up and then Late Adventurer at the end of staging (which you can still do because Windfola exhausts itself but not the attached character).
  • Keep your threat low so the enemies don't engage you on their own. Fastred seems to be the easiest way of doing that - particularly because if any enemies do get through, he can bounce them back to staging again. In-sphere, Frodo Baggins could be helpful, but having two heroes spend their regular income on their own abilities every turn sounds like something that would slow a deck down quite a bit.
  • Keep enemies in staging with card effects. I can see little synergy with traps - Ranger Spikes is the one that keeps enemies in staging, and because it also brings the trapped enemy's threat down you don't really care about destroying it (unless the trap attaches to the wrong kind of enemy, like a Goblin Sniper) - but if you're playing opposite a deck they could be bringing ways to increase enemy engagement costs or cancel engagement checks altogether. In-sphere, Terrible to Behold will help you deal with an enemy that did get to engage you - and, conveniently enough, Éomer is a Noble and can use it if there was nothing there for him to attack this turn.

2) You need to ensure Éomer can actually kill something, or else his attacks are meaningless. The most obvious and effective attack boost is probably Spear of the Mark, and it's what I've been using, but once I get that pack I will also be trying Firefoot; that's more expensive and the response won't be useful if Éomer mops everything up in staging, but sometimes an enemy will still slip through and be there in your face (unless you'e using Fastred, I guess). The other way, if you don't want to include in your deck, would be to make Éomer an Elf-friend, and give him Light of Valinor and a Mirkwood Long-knife or two; it's another thing I'm theorycrafting on because I don't have Sands of Harad, but it would make more use of Éomer as a quester (his normal 1 is a bit sad otherwise) and let you get double use of the attack boost.

Guthwine is another good card for Eomer and also Herugrim if you add some Necklafe of Girion for him (boosting Willpower and giving him the resource to do that each turn. Unseen Strike could also be useful and Firefoot too. — Alonewolf87 2375
I haven't really looked at the guarded cards yet (I'm way behind on expansions), but Necklace of Girion plus Herugrim does sound really good. — TheNameWasTaken 9
orcrist is in sphere if you want t0 go for guarded attachments (and it would help him get more resources to fuel his ability) — BlackArrow 336

Since I've bought Mountain of Fire expansion I was trying to find a place for Éomer in one of my decks and failed each time. While his response sounded great, in fact most often he didn't work since he needed serious attack boost (and only in-sphere valid option is Gúthwinë) to really make difference and what is more important, he lacked targets. Apart from secrecy decks (which don't seem to be really best space for him) in most of my games I don't want to keep enemies in staging area - at least weaker enemies and against tough guys Éomer can't shine. He definitely has good interaction with Fastred, but I don't have him in my collection. I've always chosen his tactic version then as it is way easier to use.

That being said, I've recently started playing Ring-maker cykle again with freshly bought Dream-chaser cycle cards (yes, despite playing the game for ~10 years now I'm not rushing) and found him really strong. Beginning of Ring-Maker cycle is great for him since I've often some glass canon Dunlendings in staging area, great targets for Éomer armed with Spear of the Mark and/or Firefoot. Of course he needs access to tactics sphere, but he pairs up really well (not only thematically) with tactics Éowyn - her low starting threat means that I don't have to engage everyone and she covers his lack of willpower. But that wouldn't be enough to make him viable. To give him targets, I've used Fresh Tracks, but Terrible to Behold is also amazing choice since it can send back enemies that I engage automatically in specific scenarios. 2 copies of both events are fine to give him flexibility. But definitely the most crazy combo I've discovered recently involves Grappling Hook. I don't need anymore to have an enemy left in staging, I can wait for them to appear. What is more, while still I'm willing to boost Éomer with Firefoot and Spear of the Mark, with the Hook I can wait for staging and then add him contributing 6 points (!) to the quest and 7-strength attack (difference due to Spear wording, at least this is my intepretation) - enough to kill a lot of opponents. Yes, it needs 4 cards, but hey - Éomer just needs some deckbuilding around him, it's fine by me. Definitely more interesting option than Late Adventurer.

Very satisfying hero to play. When he is working, he is really outstanding.