Vilya
Resource: Short-Event
Elrond only. +4 prowess, +2 body, +6 direct influence until the end of the
turn. If your play deck has at least 5 cards in it, you may take 5 resource
cards of your choice from your discard pile and shuffle them into your play
deck. Elrond makes a corruption check modified by -3.
[Archivist's note: This card has errata: Playable on Elrond only. +4 prowess,
+2 body, +6 direct influence until the end of the turn. If Elrond is at
Rivendell and your play deck has at least 5 cards in it, you may take 3
resource cards of your choice from your discard pile and shuffle them into
your play deck. Elrond makes a corruption check modified by -3. Cannot be
duplicated on a given turn. It has been re-reviewed in
CotD
#455]
It may be a short-event, but during that turn it sure is powerful. More D.I. bonus than The One Ring, the equivalent of only 3 corruption points and a forced check when it's out, +4/+2 prowess/body while we're at it, and it doesn't need that tedious ring stuff that most other Rings do. Plus, it's the only real reason to pick Elrond over Cirdan, since otherwise Cirdan's got two extra abilities and Elrond's only got an extra +1/+1 over him.
So just for the enhancers it's a good one-turn deal, before a major battle or trying to influence away an opponent's character/ally/item (10 D.I. for a turn certainly is helpful) or even both. Plus you get the added bonus of being able to recycle FIVE resource cards into your play deck. You can bring your One Ring, all 3 Precious Gold Rings, and a Wizard's Test back on the same turn.
Plus there's a sneakier ability: you can use this to over-recycle itself. Stock three of these (remember, it can be duplicated all you want) in your deck, then play them as often as you like (assuming Elrond's pretty well off for corruption points) and each time recycle the last one along with 4 other resources. Sit Elrond at Rivendell with a few friends and a few Fellowships and you can literally play one of these whenever you get it. Plus of course you get to keep an extra card in your hand, too, if you sit him in one place (though that's kind of silly with the +4/+2 enhancers making him an 11/11 with 10 direct influence). Use this as a constant resource re-supplier, especially with Far-Sights to let you bring items right up to your hand (though you need another company going to Information sites and having a Durin's ring). The one problem is the -3 corruption check. If Elrond doesn't have any other items, this isn't much of a problem, but if he does then you should be careful about playing this. Overall, Vilya is a pretty good ring that provides some nice enhancers without much corruption.
Ratings for: VILYA
| Rater | Rating | Rater | Rating |
|---|
| Gandalf | 7.5 | Gollum | 9.4 |
| Morgoth | 5.0 | Shadowfax | 6.4 |
| Radagast | 9.5 | Sauron | 9.0 |
| Eru | 7.5 | Isildur | 4.7 |
| Average | 7.38 | | |
|---|
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