Bringing this one back! Of the Fellowship block sets, making a Top 10 list was easiest for me by far for RotEL. I left off anything which wound up on the Movie block x-list because, clearly, those cards have already proven their effectiveness.
10
Citadel of Minas Tirith - Great picture, great effect, great lore. Just a cool card to use.
9
Long-knives of Legolas - Made Legolas a fighter. Maybe not as good a fighter as Arwen, but Legolas has more utility than her.
8
Isengard Smith - If you can protect his vitality, discard "all Free Peoples possessions" is tough to beat.
7
Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith - Basically allows the Free Peoples player to replay him every turn. There's certainly a cost but in general the effect is well worth it, especially if you slap some armor on him.
6
Deep in Thought - One of the best condition discarding effects in the game if you can meet the requirement.
5
Elrond, Herald to Gil-galad - A single card which constantly heals any companion for free with no cultural enforcement. He can also provide any deck access to stellar condition discard via
Secret Sentinels. Pretty good darn.
4
Saruman, Servant of the Eye - When I first started playing, I thought this was the most overpowered support minion there could be. I was naive. Still, undoubtedly a solid minion capable of killing companions in one site with another minion present or stopping a Fellowship by himself in a potential bluff.
3
Trust Me As You Once Did - Cornerstone for decks which use it, this one has excellent versatility to win fights, survive swarms, and have Pippin fight The Balrog...
twice.
2
Shire Countryside - In most other sets, this would be the top card. Another condition cornerstone for some fun and tough strategies. Any card that gets a nickname or has decks named after it is a gem; Hobbit Hospital has both.
1
Vilya - Oh,
Vilya. This is my least favorite card to play against in the entire game, and that includes
GLR. Combined with
Herald to Gil-galad, the Free Peoples has near-complete control of the board and the Shadow player has few ways to counter. A 5 vitality ally (who heals twice every turn) is nigh impossible to kill, and discarding is usually a temporary solution since people pack multiples of Elrond and
Vilya to draw them early. Because of how powerful they are. Should've gotten X-listed when token-bearing conditions appeared (i.e., in Towers along with the introduction of the X-list).
Betrayal of Isengard didn't make the list, though I wanted to add that it's the counter for what is perhaps the best card in the set:
Saruman, Keeper of Isengard.
It's interesting to look at what had previously been mentioned. The game hasn't changed, and yet the best cards (at least, in my mind) are not the same as they were. Does anyone else have an opinion on the matter, some 8 years later?