Council of Elrond

This is a newbie question and I hope this is an okay place to ask it. I apologize if it's not.

When dealing with characters that are "manifestations," do they enjoy the standing the character has in general?

For example, Strider is a manifestation of Aragorn II. It says on the card that you can bring Aragorn II onto Strider and replace him and auto-transfer everything on him.

But Strider has abilities that normal Aragorn II does not have, the biggest being you not losing three marshalling points if he's eliminated. If you can play Anduril on Strider, get the Army of the Dead, do Return of the King on him, and use Arwen to pay his Mind cost, is there any point in having Aragorn II at all?

Or is there something I am missing?

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

No, Strider cannot play Aragorn II specific cards. If you look at the CRF (Collected Rulings File), Rulings by Terms, under Manifestations, you can find the two relevant rulings :
- A manifestation of a card is not the same as the named card
- A manifestation of <foo> cannot play <foo> specific cards
https://meccg.com/rules/collected-rulin ... festations

maxocub3 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 03, 2025 11:27 pm No, Strider cannot play Aragorn II specific cards. If you look at the CRF (Collected Rulings File), Rulings by Terms, under Manifestations, you can find the two relevant rulings :
- A manifestation of a card is not the same as the named card
- A manifestation of <foo> cannot play <foo> specific cards
https://meccg.com/rules/collected-rulin ... festations

Thank you very much! I appreciate your time in explanation. I hope you have a good rest of the day.