#253: The Will of Sauron

Today's card is one of the most sought-after cards in the game, and one of the most useful rares. I think, though, that it is often a bit overrated.

The Will of Sauron - Hazard - Permanent-event
Playable only if Doors of Night is in play. All hazard long-events remain in play until this card is discarded. Discard this card when Doors of Night leaves play, or when any play deck is exhausted. When this card is discarded, all hazard long-events are discarded. Cannot be duplicated.

First off, this card can be VERY powerful. Second, it's extremely versatile. This card can work in about 75% of all decks. But with these features comes a grave and often overlooked danger.

First off, it makes long-events even longer. Almost permanent in fact (as long as this card sticks around). Almost every hazard portion has a long-event that works well with it. It can work with cards like Wake of War to help out wolves/spiders/animals, ahunt dragons to make journeying to the north-east a risky prospect, it can work with The Balance of Things, making corruption a very dangerous thing, or even with Awaken Minions/Denizens to shut down Indy Jones strategies.

Without this card, long-events involve tricky timing and have limited usefulness, but with it they can really rock. However, this is a double edged sword. It keeps your opponent's hazard long-events around too. This could quite easily be worse for you than for him, but usually isn't because you were planning on getting out the Will. However, one good strategy is to include a few long-events in your hazard portion (which are often useful on their own) so that WoS doesn't just help your opponent.

Another danger of WoS is having it discarded right when you need it. Note that all long-events go away with WoS. So, your opponent Twilight's your Doors, WoS goes and takes your long-events with it. Gates of Morning has the same effect, and Marvels Told can knock out WoS while leaving Doors in play (and most decks have at least one of those three). This can be a very bad proposition when you are making an orc attack souped up by perma-Minions Stir/Clouds/Host of Bats, making a nasty attack into a free MP.

So overall, WoS is a very powerful and useful card (maybe they should have made it uncommon), but is not without it's bad side.

Ratings for Will of Sauron
Isildur: 7.5
Frodo: 9.5
Farmer Maggot: 9.5
Gandalf: 10.0
Legolas: 10.0
Strider: 10.0
Wormtoungue: 9.5
Samwise: 10.0
Average: 9.5

More back issues

Card names and text copyright 1996 by Iron Crown Enterprises, all rights reserved. This document copyright 1996 by Trevor Stone. Permission given to duplicate so long as no profit is made and the copyright notice is kept in tact, blah, blah, blah.