Dark Minions marks the first time that an orc deck is viable in most settings. This card is one of the key cards helping that strategy, but it can help almost any creature strategy.
Two or Three Tribes Present - Hazard - Short-event
Playable on a company moving with at least two Wildernesses, one Shadow-land,
or one Dark-domainin their site path. When played, announce a creature type
except Nazgul, Undead, or Dragons (like Orcs, Men, Slayers, Drakes, etc.). For
this turn, any hazard creatures of this type played against target company do
not count against the hazard limit.
This is one of the most deadly hazards in the game so far. And on top of that, it's common. It can find its way into most creature decks, and there is no way currently to cancel it.
Why is this card so great? It can potentially allow you to throw at least 25 creatures at a company with size two (unlikely, but possible). It allows you to play any number of all but three creature types may be played. Admittedly, those three creature types are probably the deadliest, but the others can be just as deadly. Take Orcs as an example. With Minions Stir, three Scimitars of Steel, and Clouds out, a typical Orc-watch of three strikes at 9/- becomes 8 strikes at 16/-, all for just 1 MP. And if you play those five cards, you can play this as a sixth (assuming a large company) to make them all effective for several orcs. Trolls and Men also benefit greatly from this card, as there are several of both of those and they also are greatly helped by several enhancers. Other good choices of creature types with lots of cards are Drakes (which don't have many general enhancers other than Withered Lands but several strike specific enhancers) and wolves or animals.
This card can be used well for both large and small companies. With a large company you can play several enhancers and then a whole bunch of creatures (or just three or four, but more than the company was prepared for). Against a company of just two you could play a card to soften the company up and then play this to hit them with several creatures. Or you could use this to hit them with several creatures, tapping them and using up some defense, and then come in with a big Nazgul or Dragon.
However, it may not be all that feasible to hit a company with too many creatures, especially of one type. Sure, 25 is possible, but chances are that one will only have four or five of a creature type in her hand at a time, and usually only if the deck is based around that creature (and for a LOT of them you need to save up for a couple of turns, using space that could be used for other cards). This is where cards like Pallando, the elven kings, the Book of Mazarbul, and Emerald of the Mariner come in handy :-) So perhaps you can only get three or four creatures out with this card, but that's quite something against a very small company. One way to get more is to use Revealed to All Watchers, getting a lot more into your hand (well,if your deck is based around one or two creature types, you should have a pretty high chance of getting a couple).
With a card this good, you'd expect some sort of major disadvantage. You'd expect something like it being a long-event, so it'd screw you too, or maybe it would specifically apply to only a few creature types, or require Doors of Night, but no. The only disadvantages are that it may only be played against a company with two wilderness, a shadow-land, or dark-domain (most companies do this most of the time), that it doesn't apply to the solitary Dragons, the Nazgul which only have one tribe, and the undead that can't think enough to organize into tribes. The other disadvantage is that you might have been able to play that many creatures against your opponent anyway, although this card (along with Eyes of Shadow) sort of passively eliminate the small companies that were formerly so effective.
So Two or Three Tribes Present is a great card, worth its slot in almost any hazard portion.
| Ratings for Two or Three Tribes Present: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 9.5 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 9.5 |
| Gandalf: | 9.0 |
| Frodo: | 8.0 |
| Strider: | 8.0 |
| Legolas: | 8.5 |
| Eonwe: | 9.6 |
| Samwise: | 7.5 |
| Average: | 8.7 |
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.