One of the new things in Dark Minions is the ideas is Under-deeps sites.
The Pukel-deeps - Site - Ruins & Lairs - Region: Under-deeps - You draw 2 -
Opponent draws: 3 - Adjacent Sites: Dunharrow (0), The Gem-deeps (9), The
Sulfur-deeps (9)
Playable: Items (minor, major, gold ring)
Automatic-attacks (2): (1st) Pukel-men - 2 strikes with 11 prowess
(2nd) Opponent may play as an automatic-attack one non-unique hazard creature
from his hand normally keyed to Shadow-holds
Special: Any Undead creature or Pukel-creature may also be played at this site.
Well, that's about the most complicated site we've seen yet! As a quick explanation, there is no site path. Instead, it must be reached from one of the adjacent sites. In order to do that, you must be at that site and make a roll (or draw a # ;-) and if your result is greater than (or I think equal to) the number after the site you are at, you may move. In that respect, the Pukel-deeps is pretty hard to get to, except form Dunharrow. You might also want to try from The Sulfer-deeps as that's a pretty good site. So if you're in Dunharrow after getting Shadowfax or waiting for Pathes of the Dead.
One advantage of The Pukel-deeps is that your opponent can only key to the site type (R&L in this case), but there are quite a few creatures keyed to ruins and lairs (not to mention the denizen cards) and corruption can also be played.
The only other advantage of this card is the fact that when you play an item, you can play another minor, major, or gold ring item. However, there are other Under-deeps sites that have easier auto-attacks (I reccomend The Under- grottos) and Thorough search or two Gold Ring sites may be both wiser and faster.
The auto-attack is pretty steep. Other comparable non-underdeep sites have attacks better than 2 strikes with 11 prowess, not to mention the fact that your opponent gets to play a shadow-hold creature that your opponent can play stuff like orcs, trolls and undead without a chance for you to get the MPs. For this reason I think those strategies to grow.
Another strategy I think will grow with this expansion is the roadblock strategy. Once you are down in the under-deeps, you don't have any site paths to worry about, so you can hang out with WoS and Snowstorm up above and you grabbing lots of items below. If you time it right, you may be able to hit all of the under-deep sites you want in the time it takes you to cycle and get rid of the Will (keep in mind you have to roll for movement). One problem with the strategy is corruption, though, as you can't come up for air and storage.
Another problem with underdeep sites is the vast number of cards that can mess up underdeeps strategies. All told, underdeeps sites are pretty dangerous and chances are that you will take just as much time going to an underdeep site to get two items than going to two different "upperdeeps" sites.
| Ratings for The Pukel-deeps: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 7.0 |
| Gandalf: | 8.0 |
| Strider: | 4.0 |
| Smaug: | 6.0 |
| Samwise: | 7.5 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 8.0 |
| Frodo: | 6.5 |
| Eonwe: | 5.6 |
| Legolas: | 4.0 |
| Average: | 6.3 |
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.