There are some cards that have good art but aren't such a good card for play. Then there are cards with mediocre art and a mediocre ability.
Healing of Nimrodel # Resource # Short-event
Playable during the organization phase on a moving company whose site of
origin is a Haven. If the company moves to another Haven this turn, at the end
of the movement/hazard phase all wounded characters in the company heal (from
wounded to untapped) and all tapped characters untap.
This card is similar in many ways to yesterday's card, Hall of Fire. It allows a company heading to a haven to heal or untap characters which can make things go a little quicker. Healing of Nimrodel, though, is more limited than Hall of Fire and doesn't give itself to any combos to make it worthwhile.
In order to use this card, you must start at a haven. This isn't too bad, as people often head to a haven to heal or to make a somewhat far move. However, the limitation of starting at a haven is the real drawback to this card. If it weren't for that, this card could be very useful. You could use this card after heading to somewhere dangerous like Mordor, return to Lorien and get Healed by Nimrodel, and then head off with an untapped company the next turn. Unfortunately, you have to start off at a haven to use this card. If you begin your turn at a haven, any wounded member of your company will already have been healed, barring a card like The Pale Sword. Thus, if you head to another haven, you won't likely need any characters healed (and untapped the next turn).
You might, perhaps, want to heal all members of your company if the path between havens is particularly dangerous. For instance, if Angmar Arises is on the table and someone is running a nasty undead deck, chances are that most of your characters will wounded on your way from Rivendell to Grey Havens. In that case, by playing Healing of Nimrodel first, you can have a totally untapped party the next turn so you can set out sailing bright and early in the morning. This use can be pretty well duplicated by having Ioreth carry some Healing Herbs either in your company or at your main haven. If you plan on getting wounded a lot, you can set up a Mathom Lore/Armory combo and have your company bring the Herbs back to Ioreth. Plus, with this setup, you have a sage to play Marvels Told.
As far as I can tell, there's only one good combo with this card: Bridge. Unlike Hall of Fire, Healing of Nimrodel does its untapping and healing at the end of the movement phase, so if the road between havens is dangerous and you have far to go, you can head to one haven, heal and untap everyone, and then head off to another destination, even if you could have reached it from the original haven, as your opponent will likely have fewer hazards to hit you with the second time around.
This may be a useful card in sealed deck or starter games where you spend a lot of time going from a site on one side of the map to one on the other side. In sealed deck also, you can't plan around having a big and tough company, so you may get hit hard by someone who gets a nasty creature.
So if your deck is built around weak characters who travel between havens or you have a reason for lots of untapped characters during the site phase at a haven, Healing of Nimrodel is for you. Otherwise, you're probably off with a slightly smaller deck.
| Ratings for Healing of Nimrodel: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 2.0 |
| Bandobras: | 8.5 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 7.5 |
| Legolas: | 6.0 |
| Strider: | 4.0 |
| Fingolfin: | 6.5 |
| Beorn: | 7.5 |
| Cirdan: | 6.0 |
| Frodo: | 6.5 |
| Samwise: | 4.5 |
| Average: | 5.9 |
Card names and text copyright 1996 by Iron Crown Enterprises, all rights reserved. This document copyright 1997 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.