One of people's favorite pictures from Dark Minions (as told by the survey) was To The Uttermost Foundations. Coincidentally, I was planning on reviewing
To The Uttermost Foundations - Resource - Permanent-event
Playable on a company at an Under-deeps site during its organization phase; tap
site if untapped. This card is played tapped and can only be untapped during
your organization phase if the company is at a different Under-deeps site. If
untapped and at a Haven, this card may be stored in your marshalling point
pile-only if stored do you receive its marshalling points. Cannot be duplicated
on a given company.
Well, on its own, this card is probably not worth going to the Under-deeps, but it can be a nice tag-along card. It is free of corruption and is non-influencable. It can't even be discarded with Which Might Be Lies. It's basically free MPs for a spelunking company.
Three MPs is equivalant to the average faction or so, but as I mentioned, this card is not able to be influenced away. It also doesn't need to be influenced, so it automatically comes out. It's worth about as many MPs as some of the major or greater items, but it imparts no corruption. It is, however, harder to get than your average major item. You can, however, get it along with a couple of other items.
This is the best strategy with this card. Drop down to the under-deeps and snag an item such as Aiglos or Dragon-helm (or both :-) At the start of your next turn, play this card and then move to another Under-deeps site to play, say, a Vein of Arda or a pair of other items. This card untaps and you can now go back up to the surface and store some of your stuff, knowing that you now have 3 secure MPs that you didn't have to do much extra work for.
You can also play this card on one trip to the Under-deeps, come up and heal/ replace lost characters, and then go back down a few turns later. This card will then untap, and be free for the storing.
There are only two real drawbacks to this card. The first is that it has to be played at the Under-deeps. That's not too big of a deal, though, as you can just put it in your decks that plan on going to the Under-deeps. The other disadvantage is that you don't get the MPs until it's stored (after visiting the second site). However, I usually find that the first place one goes after the Under-deeps is to a haven, and you can't use MPs down below to call the council any way, so it's not too big of a deal.
So all in all, To The Uttermost Foundations is a good minor side-quest for any company travelling down under the surface.
| Ratings for To The Uttermost Foundations: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 8.0 |
| Frodo: | 8.0 |
| Samwise: | 8.6 |
| Wormtongue: | 6.5 |
| Legolas: | 7.0 |
| Strider: | 8.5 |
| Gandalf: | 7.0 |
| Average: | 7.7 |
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.