Citadel of Minas Tirith (3R40)
 Banner of the White Tree (3R39)
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Gondor Bowmen (3R41) 
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Citadel of Minas Tirith (3R40) is a 
Gondor Condition from the Realms of the Elf-Lords set.
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Strategy
Citadel of Minas Tirith works well in a Gondor deck that uses direct wounding or other deck that focuses on killing or discarding minions with exertion abilities like Aragorn’s Bow (1R90)
, Fortifications, or Ithilien Blade (15C62)
. Citadel of Minas Tirith's healing can clear up the wound tokens from those exertions, as long as you use those abilities to clear up any minions that might win a skirmish. Additionally, a cancelled skirmish isn't considered lost, so it works well with Boromir's Gauntlets (4C112)
or skirmish cancellation in other cultures, like Gandalf's Staff (2R22)
or Hobbit Stealth (1C298)
.
Citadel of Minas Tirith shines in a deck using the Madril, Defender of Osgiliath (15R64)
/ Ithilien Blade (15C62)
/ Aragorn’s Bow, Ranger's Longbow (15R56)
combo, as most minions do not make it to the Assignment Phase. Another similar strategy Citadel of Minas Tirith works well in is a Gondor Knights deck, as once this deck sets up, cards like Fifth Level (10U32)
or Fourth Level (8C35)
combined with Turgon, Man of Belfalas (5U42)
or Gondor Bow (7U94)
will kill minions easily. Citadel can take care of the exertions taken from Sixth Level (8U44)
for fortification recursion.
Citadel is vulnerable to condition removal, making it a potentially shaky source of healing, but as a good chunk of condition hate is in the maneuver phase, it is fairly reliable in such a deck.
The healing on takes place at the end of the turn, after the Regroup phrase. This makes the Citadel of Minas Tirith well-timed to counter Regroup phrase wounding by cards such as Isengard Retainer (3U57)
.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Synergizes With...
- Gondor cards that exert to wound or discard minions or cancel skirmishes. Examples: Ithilien Blade (15C62)
, Turgon, Man of Belfalas (5U42)
, Stone Tower (5R39)
, Boromir's Gauntlets (4C112)
.
Strong Versus...
- Shadow decks that don't aim to win skirmishes very often, including archery decks,
Isengard orcs, and some versions of Sauron Grind.
Weak Versus...
- Citadel of Minas Tirith is a win-more card. Once minions start getting through and causing damage, it stop helping at all.
- Saruman's Power (1U136)
, Too Long Have These Peasants Stood (6U8)
, and other multitarget condition removal. It will rarely be worth expending targeted condition removal on it, but a board sweeper can wipe all of your copies.
