At first, today's creature seems kind of weak. After a little though, though, this Dark Minions uncommon is pretty effective.
Nameless Thing # Hazard # Creature # 3 MP # 10/4 # Keyable:
Drake. 3 attacks of 2 strikes each. A character can tap to cancel one of these
attacks. Playable at any site in the Under-deeps. If Doors of Night is in
play, also playable at an adjacent site of any Under-deeps site or keyed to a
Coastal Sea.
With Doors of Night, Nameless Thing is pretty limited. However, once Doors is out, Nameless Thing can effectively slow down the two top tournament decks, Indy Jones and coastal seas.
First off, it's worth 3 MPs, but has the lowest prowess/body of any creature over 1 MP. 3 MPs can be a pretty big hit, giving your opponent about as many MPs as he would have gotten at the site anyway, and he can just grab what he wanted to play the next turn. Nameless Thing also, though, has more total strikes than any creature save Morgul-rats and cards like Neeker-breekers. Secondly, it's a drake. While there are several cards that can hurt drakes (Fram, Wormsbane, Dragon Feuds, etc), there are a lot more cards that can help them out (Dragon's Blood, Half an Eye Open, etc.), and the drake defenses aren't included too often. Since it's a drake, it can also be lots of fun with Two or Three Tribes Present (3 Nameless Things, 3 Rain Drakes, and a couple Sea Serpents anyone?).
But how much damage can it do? It has three attacks of 2@10/4, which is three times what a Cave-drake (perhaps the best creature without modification in the whole game) can do. It can't choose defenders, true, but after three attacks, your opponent will probably be pretty darn tapped, even if he taps a character to cancel one. This is not the card to play on a company with Glorfindel and Beorn as the only members, but it is a good creature to play on a character containing five or six mid-range characters, hopefully with a weakling amidst them. Hey, that sounds just like an Indiana Jones deck! And what a coincidence, some of Indy's main sites are Moria, Carn Dum, Mount Gram, Goblin Gate, and Mount Gundabad. And guess what's under each of those sites? Under-deeps sites! With a few of these, some Drums, and Redoubled Force, you can really shake up an Indy deck.
What's that? With Doors, Nameless Thing hits Costal Seas as well? How nice! Now I can hit those companies heading from Himring to Isles of the Dead that Live! Or from Dol Amroth to Tolfalas! Still, the full brunt of this card can be prevented by Great Ship, but that's what Noose of the Sea is for ;-)
Sadly, though this card takes out the two main tournament strategies, it's pretty weak against others. Many Gondor decks's don't hit the sea at all. Dragon slaying decks, though fitted for this card, are usually out of this card's reach. Also, one Twilight can make this creature unplayable, which can ruin all your fun. So Nameless Thing is a good defense against some of the most popular strategies, but has trouble with others.
| Ratings for Nameless Thing: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 7.0 |
| Bandobras Took: | 9.4 |
| Samwise: | 9.1 |
| Cirdan: | 9.0 |
| Frodo: | 8.5 |
| Alatar: | 7.5 |
| Legolas: | 6.0 |
| Beorn: | 6.8 |
| Merry: | 8.7 |
| Fingolfin: | 8.5 |
| Farmer Maggott: | 9.0 |
| Wormtongue: | 7.6 |
| Strider: | 7.0 |
| Average: | 8.0 |
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.