It’s time to discuss the final stat that we can find on our characters in this mini-revival of the Staples series: Defence. This is an important stat for characters to have, as it will decide how much an enemy can attack before the defender starts to take damage. At the table, there will always be a need for a character to have a high defence stat in order to reliably defend bigger enemies. Boosting this stat is arguably more important than things like willpower and attack since characters can quest/attack together and add their stats to the total. Not so with defence! Only in rare situations (Stand Together, Hold the Line) can there be more than one defender against an enemy attack. You will often have to rely on a single character to withstand the enemy, and with many shadow effects increasing the enemy’s attack, boosting that stat will prevent a lot of damage on your defender.
Aside from being able to withstand enemy attacks and not take any damage, boosting your defence can also prevent players from having to raise their threat, lose cards, or lose willpower against certain enemies. And defence is also used during Siege quests, which is one of the most brutal ways to have to make progress since it leaves characters with high defence unable to defend enemies in the combat phase. High defence stat characters will benefit a lot from readying effects as well, making cards like Behind Strong Walls a pretty good boosting effect, despite only raising defence by a single point.
In this article, we will take a look at some of the best ways to increase the defence stat of your characters and whether or not the cards provide another helpful effect to assist in defending. As usual, the norm for boosting your threat by a single point is 1 resource per stat buff, as can be seen in cards like Dunedain Warning and Gondorian Shield (when not attached to a Gondor hero). I will discuss one staple per sphere and feature some faction-specific defence boosts afterwards. That doesn’t mean that others aren’t worth including, as there are many different ways to help your characters through the combat phase.
Leadership
When it comes to boosting your defence, I consider Leadership and Tactics to be on equal footing in the number of cards they have with a defence-boosting effect. Leadership tends to focus on several characters at once, though, usually providing defencive boosts to a particular trait. This includes Celeborn‘s buff to Silvans and For Gondor! to all Gondor characters. Beyond that, there are various Leadership allies with ways to boost their defence, like Warrior of Lossarnach, Guardian of Arnor, and Redwater Sentry. Many of these effects in Leadership are somewhat restricted to the traits you are bringing into your deck, but there are a few cards that can go into nearly any deck.
Hauberk of Mail
Honestly, I think this is one of the best cards that was introduced in the Wilds of Rhovanion box, as it allowed players to boost the defence of their allies a lot better than before. At 1 cost in Leadership, the card can be considered next to free, but it still provides a useful boost to defence. Sure, it is 1 resource for 1 point of defence, but what sets the Hauberk apart from other attachments that can be played on characters is that it is not Restricted. This allows you to run it alongside Restricted attachments like Raiment of War and Spear of the Citadel on your defenders. The attachment gets even better if you happen to play it on a character with the Sentinel keyword, as they will also get +1 hitpoint. A great combo for this attachment is the Redwater Sentry, who gains +2 defence, +1 hitpoint, and the Sentinel keyword for this attachment, which is free to play on him.
There are a few restrictions on this attachment that should be mentioned, though. The first is that the Hauberk can only be played on Dale or Warrior characters. This is usually not an issue since your defenders will often be Warriors, but it can hinder you in situations where they lack that trait. The armor is also limited to one per character, but I prefer this over it being Restricted. It can still go on fully armored defenders and provide a nice additional buff. It’s great for defenders like Grimbeorn and Beregond, who both get the +1 hitpoint as well. My favourite combo is still on the Gondorian Spearman, who gets a lot more survivability with this attachment on him. It also keeps space for a Squire’s Helm and/or Spear of the Citadel. It’s quite the investment but can be amazing to pull off.
Tactics
As with attack buffs, Tactics knows how to boost defence, offering a variety of armor attachments and events to boost defence for particular characters temporarily. It is common to splash in a bit of Tactics in your deck to get a reliable defender or a buff on a particular hero. With such a wide variety of common defence boosts like Gondorian Shield and Raiment of War, I actually dove in a little deeper to find a more underappreciated card, in my opinion. While this card has seen a fair few games, he is usually left on the cutting floor when making a deck, despite being pretty useful for a selection of decks.
Ally Boromir
That’s right, I went with Gondor‘s favourite son for this pick, but I think everyone can agree with me that he is a pretty useful ally to have on the table. With pretty impressive stats for a 4-cost ally, he is quite the investment but will help with handling enemy attacks. He does this by getting +2 defence when defending an enemy with a higher engagement cost than your threat. This ties in nicely with his attempt to save Merry and Pippin at Amon Hen, as Hobbits tend to keep a low threat, allowing Boromir to get up to 3 defence. Combine this with his 4 hitpoints, and he can take a fair number of attacks before he goes down. To further improve this, he will ready each time he gets any amount of damage. That means that you can even quest with him, take a point of Archery damage, and ready him. The main purpose is, of course, to take a bit of damage during the combat phase so that he can ready and hit back for an impressive 3 attack, which is rare on defenders. The readying is also unlimited, allowing you to defend several attacks with him as long as you can find a way to heal him in between attacks.
The problem with Boromir is that you will need to run healing alongside him to keep him ready and perhaps something to cancel shadow effects with. He can benefit from additional defence boosts like Round Shield, Blade Mastery, and Raiment of War to make him more reliable. He also would make a decent MOTK hero, though remember that his readying would be limited to once per phase at that point. The biggest issue with Boromir is likely his name, as there are two hero versions of him that could end up with uniqueness conflicts. It’s because of the Leadership hero that you rarely see ally Boromir in a Gondor deck. The Gondor archetype of getting to 40+ threat also doesn’t do the ally any favors, but if you can maintain a relatively low threat, Boromir will be sturdy enough to take a few hits and dish out some counterattacks himself!
Spirit
I always believed that Spirit was the willpower-sphere, but there are quite a few ways to boost defence in this sphere as well. This can range from relatively small effects like Armor of Erebor increasing your defence by 1 and providing Sentinel to a big event like Light the Beacons that will give all characters +2 defence and causes them to not have to exhaust to defend, which usually solves any combat phase as it also keeps characters ready for attacking back. Spirit has really grown into its role as a defence sphere, but I am still going for one of the earlier cards in the card pool that mixes both the willpower and defence focus of Spirit.
Arwen Undomiel
I think that this ally requires no further introduction; Arwen is one of the best allies in the game and is the perfect blend of the willpower and defence focus of the Spirit sphere. She costs 2 resources but can reliably quest for 2 willpower. Her biggest strength lies in her Response. Whenever Arwen exhausts to do anything (though usually when she exhausts to quest), you may choose a character. That character gains +1 defence and gets the Sentinel keyword. This improves any defender, making them able to defend across the table, benefit from Sentinel-related buffs (Hauberk of Mail, Hold Your Ground!), and take less damage from enemy attacks thanks to the +1 defence. But note that Arwen’s effect is not limited at all. Players could find a way to ready her and then exhaust her again so that they can use her Response again. This can target the same character, giving +2 defence in total, or target a different character so that you have several defenders ready to go.
There are a few drawbacks to playing Arwen. She is a very popular ally but also a popular hero for many decks, even beyond the Noldor decks. This can cause many uniqueness conflicts, giving life to the Arwen-Barwen meme. The ally also only has 2 hitpoints and will often be exhausted. This makes her vulnerable to direct damage effects like Necromancer’s Reach or many of the effects in Desert Crossing. You will have to run some healing with her or invest in a Squire’s Helm on her to make her last a little longer. When you are playing Redhorn Gate and Road to Rivendell, you will get some training in keeping her alive.
Lore
As per usual, it is slim pickings for the Lore sphere when it comes to boosting defence. This sphere is more balanced than the others, focusing less on boosting stats and having cheaper ways to interact with the encounter deck instead. As such, Lore has the fewest cards of any sphere (not counting Neutral cards) that boost defence. The cards that it does have aren’t all that fantastic, either. Cloak of Lorien is a good boost for Silvan and Noldor characters, but it only really pays off in quests where you are traveling to Forest locations. Harbor Master is another Lore card with defence boosts built in, but if I include him as a Staple, I will lose all my credibility as a content creator. So instead, I will play it safe and go for the one good card that boosts defence in Lore.
Protector of Lorien
I’m going back to the Core Set for this one, but it is objectively the best defence buff that Lore gets. This classic card can attach to any hero and will provide the option to discard cards from your hand to give that hero +1 willpower or +1 defence until the end of the phase. This is now limited to 3 times per phase, but some players might remember the pre-errata days when this was unlimited. On its own, the attachment does not do a lot but will require players to have a lot of cards in hand to dump for a temporary stat buff. Luckily, this is Lore and card draw should really not be an issue. This is also a great tool to get rid of duplicate uniques from your hand. The willpower buff is usually the more popular way to use this attachment, making it similar to Spirit Eowyn. But the defence boost can be life-saving if the hero defends an attack that gets an unexpected shadow effect. You still have the option to discard cards in order to prevent the hero from taking damage or even dying before any damage would be dealt.
The defence buff can also be useful for Siege questing, as the action is not restricted to enemy attacks, like with Spirit Dain Ironfoot. You just need enough cards in your hand to fuel the effect, though tools like Silver Harp can help to return cards to your hand. This attachment works great with the Noldor synergy, though it can be used on any hero to give them more flexibility during questing and defence. My personal favourite is Radagast, as he can quest without exhausting after playing a Creature ally, after which he usually defends in my decks.
Neutral
With me having discussed Narya in the Attack Boost article, I do not feel the need to repeat myself here. Aside from that ring, Neutral does not have any generic ways to boost the defence of a character. Once you hit the campaign modes of particular cycles, you will get some ways to boost your defence, but I am excluding those from this list since those Boons have to be earned and cannot be put into any deck against any scenario.
Faction-specific defence boosts
The following cards only provide boosts in specific situations or for specific archetypes. They are strong but less flexible than the cards mentioned earlier in this article.
- For Gondor!: +1 defence to all Gondor characters on the table is amazing for 2 Leadership resources, it explains why this was in the Attack Boost article as well!
- Eagles of the Misty Mountains: +1 attack and +1 defence per Eagle you sacrifice can lead to unlimited growth, but it requires some setup.
- Durin’s Song: +2 to every stat on a Dwarf hero for the rest of the turn, all for 1 resource!
- Celeborn: +1 to every Silvan ally that enters play until the end of the round, on top of willpower and attack buffs
- Hobbits get a lot of defence boosts with Halfling Determination, Hobbit Cloak, and Friend of Friends.
- Warrior of Lossarnach: +1 defence to all Outlands characters, making them more difficult to kill via attacks
- Guardian of Arnor: +1 defence for each enemy engaged with you without any limit!
- Cloak of Lorien: Provides a static +1 defence boost to Noldor and Silvan characters, but +2 if the active location has the Forest trait.
- Elfhelm: Each Leadership hero with a Mount attached will get +1 defence, including Elfhelm himself.
- Defender of Cair Andros: Scales his defence with your threat, making him ideal in Valour decks.
- Elrohir: In both versions, he gets +2 defence if Elladan is in play.
Having discussed all the stats and how to boost them most effectively, the time has come for some new topics. I have not yet settled on any, so I might take some time away from this series to find some interesting aspect of the game to write about with some of the best cards per sphere. In the meantime, the additional time will be put towards the many other projects on the blog, hopefully managing to complete the PODs at some point this year. If you have suggestions for a topic, be sure to let me know!
Vision Of The Palantir 