Good food is great, but when you're really hungry, you could cram almost anything into your mouth, even if it's
Cram - Resource - Minor Item - 0 MP - 1 CP
Discard to untap bearer. Alternatively, discard during organization phase to
allow its bearer's company to play an additional region card.
Most people like to play minor items that will stay around for a while. Dagger of Westernese, Elven Cloak, Star-glass, Black Arrow, etc. are obviously good choices, but many of the minor items must be discarded after use, and thus don't seem like as good of choices. However, Cram can be very useful even though it's only a one shot card.
As expressed yesterday with And Forth He Hastened, untapping once can be a very important thing. It can allow the playing of a card instead of having to wait an extra turn. It can allow a character to protect the weaklings of the company. So much can depend on one untapped character.
Cram has the added advantage of increased movement. I can hardly count the times when I have pored over the map, looking at all possible ways to get from my site to the site I need to play something and no matter what, I need five regions. Well, Cram comes in nicely there. As I mentioned before, if you're hungry you could eat almost anything (heck, even spam). You can use this card and maybe another similar card to allow a company to travel from Rivendell to a big dragon's lair. Or In a coastal deck, move from Tolfalas to Himring (or Grey Havens with two Crams).
Cram is also very easy to play. You can play it at the start of the game (or if you need the speed, two). Or you can play it along with any other card in the site phase, or at a multitude of sites.
There are, of course, a few disadvantages (aren't there always?). First, it's got a very minor 1 corruption point. And if corruption becomes a problem, Cram is easy to get rid of. Also, if you are playing a longer game, one untapped character once probably won't make too much difference. Thus, it may be wiser to start with a Dagger or Shield or Black Arrow or...
So all things considered, Cram is a fairly useful card, especially in a
shorter game.
| Ratings for Cram: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 6.5 |
| Frodo: | 6.0 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 8.0 |
| Gandalf: | 5.5 |
| Legolas: | 5.0 |
| Strider: | 6.0 |
| Wormtoungue: | 7.0 |
| Samwise: | 8.3 |
| Average: | 6.5 |
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.