Finishing with the wizard enhancers is I think the best one. Even though Pallando was the fifth Maia chosen to go to Endor, he seems to be the best general wizard in the game.
Eyes of Mandos # Resource # Short-event
Playable on Pallando during the organization phase. Tap Pallando and reveal up
to 8 cards from the top of your play deck. Choose one to put into your hand
and shuffle the remaining ones into your play deck.
This card has two intertwined uses. The first is to chose a card from the top of your deck. This can be immensely useful if you don't have what you want in your hand. While you can send a company around to draw cards, chances are that you might get something that is playable at a site in the complete opposite direction. Also, the sites that let you draw lots tend to be the dangerous ones (like Easterling Camp). With this card, you can chose any one of the top 8 cards of your deck and put it in your hand. This can mean the difference in the turn before the Free Council or just a turn or two of bother.
Its other nice effect is that it lets you know what's coming up. You can get one card and plan to be in the right place for a second. Or you can know to save that Thorough Search in your hand until you get that other item coming up in a bit. This usually isn't as good as looking at the top seven cards of your opponent's deck, but it's still fairly good.
There's only a couple of disadvantages to this card. The first is you have to tap Pallando, and he can't be pre-tapped, during the organization phase. This is a pretty small penalty for the effect, and can of course be remedied with a card like And Forth He Hastened. The second is that both Palantir of Minas Tirith and Mirror of Galadriel are better scrying devices. The first is permanent and can see the top five of both decks, but is also harder to play and imparts corruption checks. The second lets you look at your opponent's hand and the top five cards of either deck and is about as hard to play. However, neither of those cards let you chose one for your hand.
This card, like Pallando, isn't as good as the other wizard enhancers in the right situations, but is the most generally useful. All in all, the stances of the wizards didn't change much, but most of them gained some advantages. Saruman didn't gain much, but corruption strategies decreased more, making him a happier wizard. Alatar may now be the wizard of choice for big item companies, especially for the Under-deeps. His reduction of the opponent's draw can really help with cards like Two Or Three Tribes Present, and his event (as I didn't realize earlier), can really help with that theme. Gandalf, along with the rest of the hobbit strategy, increased some in the area of roleplaying. If any of the wizards decreased it's probably Radagast. While the hazard strategies that increased the most are primarily shadows- based, cards like Angmar Arises and Reaching Shadow can hurt. And Pallando remains the best choice for a general wizard, as his abilities are always useful and work anywhere. Plus, he's the servant of Mandos, Lord of DOOM!
| Ratings for Eyes of Mandos: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 8.0 |
| Frodo: | 9.0 |
| Samwise: | 9.0 |
| Wormtongue: | 7.5 |
| Legolas: | 7.0 |
| Strider: | 9.0 |
| Gandalf: | 3.0 |
| Morgoth: | 7.0 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 9.5 |
| Average: | 7.66 |
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.