Editing Enduring

{{SplashImage|LOTR-EN10S067.0_card.jpg|{{Card|Ulaire Cantea, Thrall of the One}} is one of several {{Nazgul}} from set 10 with skirmish special abilities that use healing the minion as a cost.|500px|Ulaire Cantea, Thrall of the One (10R67)}} 

'''Enduring''' is a [[loaded keyword]] introduced in set 8, [[Siege of Gondor]]. It is a synonym for the following game text: "'''this character is strength +2 for each wound on this character'''". It frequently appears on characters with above-average vitality, such as {{Card|Sauron, The Lord of the Rings}} or {{Card|Shelob, Her Ladyship}}, which can respectively gain up to +10 or +14 strength from the enduring keyword alone. 

One of the more famous set of enduring minions are the "enduring {{Nazgul}}" introduced in the [[Mount Doom]] set.  Each included the enduring keyword as well as an ability that would heal the {{Nazgul}} in exchange for an effect.  The keyword was not exclusive to minions, however: {{C|Gondor}} [[Wraith]]s in particular utilize it. 

Enduring had a large impact on how decks dealt with minions. In earlier formats, an archery or wounding deck would often have a constant trickle of wounding effects (from [[Archer]]s or automatic exertions such as from {{Card|Rider's Mount}}), and the Free Peoples player would augment the trickle with a surge of targeted wounds to disable individual obstacles as needed. With enduring minions however, a trickle of wounds becomes a liability, and "almost" killing a minion goes from an unfortunate gap to a massive swing in power. As a result, decks needed to pivot away from attrition-based decks to effects capable of one-shotting minions, either through discarding them outright ({{Card|Stand Against Darkness}}), killing them outright ({{Card|Stone Tower}}), erasing their game text ({{Card|Phial of Galadriel, Star-glass}}), or smothering their strength for an overwhelm ({{Card|Cirdan}}). As these effects worked equally well on non-enduring minions, the [[Power Creep]] of the ecosystem thus began to rachet up. 

Enduring is one of several later mechanics that "flip the script" on whether an effect is desirable or not. Normally, wounds would of course be considered a bad thing, but enduring minions want as many as they can hold. This has an ongoing impact on card design, as any card that uses exertion as a cost must now be evaluated over whether it unduly enables overly-easy enduring pumping, as {{Card|Raider Halberd}} famously does for {{Card|Castamir of Umbar}}. 

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==Rules Entries==

{{RulesQuote
|source=enduring
|text=For each wound on a character with the enduring keyword, that character is strength +2.}}

==List of Cards with Enduring==

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|sort= {{CultureSort}}
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==Cards that Interact with Enduring==

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|filter= {{UsesKeyword|Enduring}} AND {{PromoFilter}}
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{{Loaded Keyword Table}}