Banner of the Mark (6U90)
 Winged and Ominous (6R89)
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Blood Has Been Spilled (6U91) 
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Banner of the Mark (6U90) is a 
Rohan Possession from the Ents of Fangorn set. It is part of a cycle of hand weapons, along with Banner of Elbereth (6U14)
and Banner of Westernesse (6U51)
on the Free Peoples side and Banner of Isengard (6C59)
and Banner of the Eye (6C98)
on the Shadow side.
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Strategy[edit]
Gameplay Strategy[edit]
Unlike its 
Elven and 
Gondor counterparts, this Banner is usually only considered for its site liberation if it is considered at all. Rohan has access to abundant possession recursion which, combined with Simbelmynë (4R289)
to fetch when needed, allow a single copy to cover site liberation at the first sign of need and for the rest of the game. Weapon Store (4R294)
and Ecglaf, Courageous Farmer (5C81)
are the most obvious ways to put it back in play for Towers, though Armory (5U79)
along with any of Éowyn, Daughter of Eomund (5P122)
, Théoden, King of the Golden Hall (5C93)
, or Gamling, Warrior of Rohan (5R82)
can also do the trick in a single turn. Merry, Swordthain (7R321)
is the premier possession recursion in any later format.
The banners all provide some benefit from winning skirmishes while making it harder to do so by depriving the bearer of a strength-providing hand weapon. Elves have many event-oriented decks and Gondor has several ways to win skirmishes through exertions, so in a roundabout way those banners do aid skirmishing in recovering the cost to win them. But Rohan's Banner has no interaction with the bearer's skirmish at all. If anything is expended to win the skirmish - which is more often necessary for a banner-bearer than bearers of other hand weapons - the Free Peoples player will not get any of it back. Further, since it is an optional trigger, the exertion happens after the skirmish wound and will leave minions alive that the damage bonus from Rider's Spear (4C288)
would have killed.
Still, if the bearer wins a skirmish the exertion can help another companion. Minions can be exhausted for We Left None Alive (6C97)
, be given an extra wound to buff up Éomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark (4R267)
, or allow a companion to avoid a skirmish altogether with Rohirrim Helm (5R89)
. Several strategies do play a mix of weaker supporting minions and stronger frontline minions, and in some cases a companion's base strength may be enough to reliably win skirmishes against the supporting minions. Cave Troll of Moria, Scourge of the Black Pit (1R165)
, for example, needs a 
Moria Orc which often have 1 vitality and low strength.
One benefit the exertion effect has over other Towers-era cards is its ability to exert any minion -- including ones skirmishing the Ring-bearer. Towers Block experimented with a new division of ring-bound vs unbound that left Frodo with only The One Ring and a hand weapon to increase his strength, capping at a pitiful 6 or 7 depending on the version of The Ring. An exertion from Banner, combined with a wound from Cliffs of Emyn Muil (4R299)
, can finish off a troublesome minion or help protect Frodo from a swarm of higher vitality minions like 
Isengard Orcs. In other formats, however, there are better ways of protecting Frodo specifically and putting wounds on minions in general.
Deckbuilding Strategy[edit]
Rohan excels at exerting effects, making mild ones like this difficult to justify. Though it has some uses, by and large companions are better off with a mount and just about any other hand weapon, especially Rider's Spear (4C288)
. If you determine that, for whatever reason, this sort of effect is necessary, Rider of Rohan (4C286)
won't make you rely on winning a skirmish first if you have room in the Fellowship for him. And of course, Merry's Sword (7R242)
has the best exerting effect a possession can offer if you're not playing Towers Block.
The response action benefits from Rohan's affiliation with possessions -- with Simbelmynë (4R289)
and a way to replay it, only one copy is ever needed. However, all site liberation effects have to contend with two powerful forces: how often opponents actually take sites, and how much doing so actually matters. Is your deck adversely affected by site control strategies anyway? In Towers the handful of cards that control sites do so by winning skirmishes or relying on conditions, two things that Rohan is very adept at managing already. Should an opponent take a site, only Nurn (17U148)
from Expanded does anything on its own. Beyond that, the mechanic merely enables other cards. If your deck can handle them without trouble, liberation is often completely unnecessary and could even make your deck more vulnerable to site control by crowding out cards that are essentially already doing the job.
If some site control strategies are indeed a weakness to your deck, can you access any incidental site liberation? Rohan has the greatest number of site liberation effects out of any culture, with many options that have better secondary effects than Banner. Helm! Helm! (4R279)
and Let Us Be Swift (5C85)
from earlier sets don't require companions to win any skirmishes, much less do so without any strength gain from a hand weapon. They come with additional requirements though, and can't be played on demand by Simbelmyne. In Movie Block a few more alternatives appear, alongside some events there is Snowmane (7R250)
able to be played by Simbelmyne. Expanded brings about Sturdy Shield (15R141)
, the only card able to liberate two sites in one action.
If you can't handle site control and the alternatives don't cut it, there are plenty of more powerful dedicated options too. Ceorl, Weary Horseman (4U264)
is the ultimate stop and can lock opponents out of ever taking them. Fell Deeds Awake (10U73)
offers intensely reusable liberation which can be triggered on demand by Léowyn (7R239)
or Déor (7C222)
. And Rohan Worker (15R135)
completely upstages the liberation aspect of Banner while being difficult for the Shadow Player to remove. Banner does have some margin where it is the best choice over the alternatives when liberation is needed, especially in Towers. That margin is just very thin with how many alternatives exist and how little the need tends to be.
Strengths and Weaknesses[edit]
Synergizes With...[edit]
- Ecglaf, Courageous Farmer (5C81)
, Weapon Store (4R294)
, and Merry, Swordthain (7R321)
for recursion
- Rohan effects which only work against minions who are exhausted rather than simply exerted, such as Rohirrim Helm (5R89)
and We Left None Alive (6C97)
- Similarly Éomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark (4R267)
, who would benefit from another exertion on a minion he is about to skirmish
Strong Versus...[edit]
- Site control decks
- Moria beatdown builds, which plays Goblin Runner (1U178)
alongside much stronger minions such as Cave Troll of Moria, Scourge of the Black Pit (1R165)
or Goblin Patrol Troop (1C177)
bearing Moria Axe (1R190)
- Isengard Orcs, especially Isengard Smith (3U60)
when protected from wounds by Isengard Shaman (3C59)
Weak Versus...[edit]
- Over the Isen (4U31)
, which can ensure any banner-bearer is always assigned to either a losing skirmish or no skirmish at all - Beatdown strategies with few or no supporting minions to offer easy wins
- Moria swarm, which mostly plays 1-vitality minions anyway
- Decks where most minions have 3 or more vitality, as the damage bonus from Rider's Spear (4C288)
tends to mean more than another exertion
Rulings[edit]
Every action is either optional or required. An optional action is defined as: an action that uses the word "may," an event, or a special ability. All other actions are required actions. All required actions responding to a particular trigger are performed before any optional actions.
- action section
