I have a love/hate relationship with this card. I love it because it is brilliant at dealing with bosses. I love it because it doesn't say 'printed ', so you can boost it to ridiculous strength if you have a lot of boosting attachments (check out my song deck using Bilbo Baggins and Fireside Song in combination with Herugrim and Nor am I a Stranger: ringsdb.com.) I love it because it turns Éowyn from solely a quester to one of the strongest attackers. I love that it belongs to the sphere as the only other weapon in this sphere is Mirkwood Long-knife, which has limited potential.

But even after all this, I equally hate it. I hate that it costs 3 resources (okay, 2 on Theoden but big whoop). No other weapon in the game costs this much - admittedly, no other weapon is arguably as good as Herugrim at dealing with tough enemies but that's the problem - it is limited to just one big attack each round and it is this that really bugs me about this card. By comparison, Gondorian Fire is free to play and with the same level of deckbuilding around it can get up to the same sort of levels of strength, if not more, but it boosts your hero's for the entire combat phase, so you can literally burn through every tough enemy in one fell swoop if you have enough readying, whereas Herugrim only allows you to hack down 1 lousy opponent and what's more because you exhaust it you can't even trigger cards like Foe-hammer or Goblin-cleaver with it. I feel like if you are going to exhaust Herugrim, its effect should at least last til the end of the phase. The other thing is because it only boosts your during an attack you can't use it to boost a hero's for battle questing, whereas the '0 cost' Gondorian Fire can be used to boost a hero's attack in any phase and is not limited to attacks.

I think this card should read 'Action: exhaust Herugrum to add attached hero's to its until the end of the phase' or 'Response: When attached hero attacks an enemy, add its to its (limit once per phase).' The former would allow the hero to make multiple high-strength attacks and help with battle-questing but at the expense of being able to exhaust the weapon to trigger cards like Foe-hammer and the latter would allow the use of said cards but mean that you'd have to do some extra planning to get extra attacks out of it. Even with these changes, I would say the cost of the card should be 2 (or 1 for Theoden).

Herugrim is grim for orcs indeed. It's pretty safe to say this card was designed specifically with Théoden/Théoden in mind considering the lore and ability. I think it finds great use on both versions of Theoden King. For two resources you're putting out 5 on his version, and 6 on his . While this is only good for one attack it is a very good one. For Theoden you actually have the chance to boost this even more with effects from Silver Circlet. Granted, there are several other ways to boost and some of these do not cost a restricted attachment (try Song of Hope!). Simply put, 5/6 once per round for two resources is amazing.

Theoden does not have to be the only target. Putting Herugrim on Éowyn/Éowyn also smashes through enemies by nature of her high . You're likely to use her for questing, but if you can get an Unexpected Courage courage on her you're in business. Tactics Eowyn can one-shot any eligible enemy in the game (that I can think of) when using her ability with Herugrim. There are other potential targets, but they usually are not worth the work that must go into it. For consistency and best cost-effectiveness Theoden is the best target, and rightfully so.

Herugrim is also among the only weapons and I'd argue it's the best when you boil it all down. It does have restrictions to Rohan heroes of course. I think the damage output is spectacular for the sphere where combat can be an issue. Even as a "one-of" Herugrim is a great to include in any Theoden/Rohan deck if you have the sphere match for it.