Looking through my piles of common cards, I noticed that there are A LOT of minor items, but they almost never seem to make it past the two starting minor items. One card that could change that is
Armoroy - Resource - Permanent-event - (1) MP
Only you and your companies can use Armory. You may place any minor items from
your hand under Armory during your organization phase. A character at a Haven
can store a minor item under Armory instead of to your marshalling point pile.
When you otherwise would be allowed to play a minor item from your hand at a
Border-hold, Free-hold, or Haven, you may play an item from under Armory
instead. If you have at least three minor items under Armory, gain 1
marshalling point.
This is one of several "place cards under" card from dark minions, one of the many new ideas. From what I have seen, this is one of the best of them. Not only can you get an MP, it makes your dealings go faster.
Probably the best use for this card is to keep your hand flowing. One reason why minor items aren't too common in decks is that they sometimes aren't worth the card slot in your hand. You might draw a minor item and have to wait a couple of turns to play it. With Armory you just have to wait until the start of your next turn (or you still have the option of playing it with a company directly). Then you can play it at your leisure at any Free-hold or Border- hold along with another card. This leads to one of the few problems with this card, it's mainly useful in a faction heavy deck. However, most item based decks don't need minor items as much.
Another advantage of this card is that you can transfer minor items amongst companies easily. For example, a wounded Frodo can drag himself into Grey Havens and tell Cirdan to put his cloak in the armory. Theoden then goes to his home to rally the Riders of Rohan before heading off to raid some dragon- lairs up north. As he is leaving the Riders, Hama steps up and hands him a package that was just delivered by an eagle. Theodon dons this cloak and it later saves him from the dangers of a Winged Cold-drake.
There are obviously several minor items that this card is better with. Naturally the items that you discard to use will come up more frequently, so it may be good if you're starting with cards like Potion of Prowess to include this card so that when you draw them again, you have a safe place to put it. One good card to use this with is Mathom Lore. Now you can leave someone like Robin Smallburrow at a haven with Mathom Lore and then bring back your used Potions of Prowess during organization and store them under Armory right away.
One other (small) advantage to this card is the 1 MP. If you find that your startign minor items are not appropriate for your opponent's strategy and you have another minor item in your deck, you can make the best of a bad situation and get a MP out of it.
The only real disadvantage of this card is that it's not very useful in decks without many minor items. So all in all, this is a cool card that will help to bring minor items into wider play.
| Ratings for Armory: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 8.0 |
| Frodo: | 9.5 |
| Legolas: | 6.0 |
| Wormtongue: | 4.0 |
| Strider: | 5.0 |
| Gandalf: | 6.5 |
| Smaug: | 4.0 |
| Eonwe: | 6.8 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 8.5 |
| 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.