Grima was one of the cards introduced in The Two Towers to discourage people from simply piling up a tonne of possessions/conditions on a few companions. This minion is often splashed in decks to help deal with a fully decked up Aragorn, Gimli or Eomer. Not only does he disable all of that companion's card bonuses for the turn, he also constricts card flow and makes twilight if the player replays the cards next turn. Simply the threat of this card is enough to make a lot of players play no more than 2 cards on a companion, in order to remain safe from this ability. Note that he has no effect on Ring-Bound companions, so any The Two Towers version of Faramir is safe, along with any version of the Ring-Bearer. Also note that he has synergy with shadow conditions that play on companions, as these add towards the total cards Grima spots, but are not returned to hand when he is triggered. Grima is very difficult to counter, however, as more and more cards were released in later sets, several strategies became possible to deal with this minion, most of which can also be used against Enquea, LoM, like Rush of Steeds.

After Grima has done his job, you can try to discard those cards returned to hand with post-Shadow phase discarding tricks like Hand of Sauron, Tower Lieutenant or Band of the Eye.

• Possession heavy decks (Dwarves, Rohan etc.)
• Decks that rely on a single tank e.g. Durin III
• Follower heavy decks

• Ringbound-only fellowships
• Ents and other Unbound companions who can manage without bearing any card
• Foul Creation (can discard Grima from your hand)
• Slaked Thirsts
• Terrible and Evil
• Merry's Sword
• Great Day, Great Hour
• Unheeded (if a card exerts Grima)
• Shadowplay
• Denethor, Last Ruling Steward
• Stewards' Legacy
• Ithilien Blade
• Storied Homestead
• A New Light (can discard Grima from your hand)
• Rush of Steeds