My problem with this card is the same problem you run into with "full heal" items in video games: you collect them throughout the game and never use them because you want to save them until you reeeeally need them, and then you beat the final boss without ever having used any of them. Which is the same way I feel about healing events like this and Beorn's Hospitality in LOTR LCG. Except for a very few specific quests, I would want repeatable healing like Self Preservation or Warden of Healing over event-based healing in almost every case, because even though they heal less damage, you don't have to pay for them every time you want a heal. And I think the designers understood that too, because after the core set we got a lot of healing options on allies and attachments and very few more healing events.
I don't see a lot of good uses for this card, even in a dedicated Eagle deck. Maybe it's useful if you can't pay the resource cost to keep a Vassal of the Windlord or Winged Guardian in play, because you can play it in the action window that comes between combat damage and the attack ending? I guess it also powers up your Eagles of the Misty Mountains by returning an Eagle to your hand whenever you want, but that seems like a waste because you've just spent 2 cards (Meneldor's Flight and the returned Eagle which won't end up back in your hand). Admittedly it does seem cool to pick up and play Descendant of Thorondor or Meneldor over and over, but that's expensive unless you have cost reduction like Radagast's Staff (which came out near the end of the game's life cycle and this card came out near the beginning). So I guess if there were more cards that cared about when Eagles entered or left play (kind of like a Tactics version of what the Silvan play style ended up being), then maybe this card would have been more useful. But as it is, the card isn't that great.
Very intesting card to include in Gondor Decks, because basically for a price of 1 Resource , you could defend 1 additional attack boosting +1 Defence (so normally you are going to use it when you have to deffend current attack and a future incoming attack). Specially shining in scenarios when you have to defend against powerful enemies which are immune to player card effects (witch king, nazguls, etc).
I discovered a fun combo for this guy in a hero lineup of Hirgon, Mablung and Aragorn as follows:
- Quest successfully w/Hirgon and play the Knight for 2 resources (you may choose whether or not to give him +1 )
- Immediately engage an enemy, triggering the following: 1) Mablung gets a resource, 2) the enemy gets -1 , 3) Knight of Minas Tirith attacks for effectively up to 4/5
Best case scenario, you have eliminated an enemy by spending a net total of 1 resource and you now have a strong, durable ally on the table moving forward. Very fun for taking out Harbor Thugs and similar foes!
A cheap but versatile auto-include ally in a Gondor deck :
- He's from the main Gondor sphere
- He's an early target for Visionary Leadership, Boromir and Faramir
- He synergizes well with LothÃriel + Valiant Sacrifice
- He increases the flexibilty of the resources thanks to his response
- He's a deck target for the entry effect of Soldier of Gondor
- He's a free chump-blocker or discard target of some treacheries or shadow effects