Perhaps the ultimate way to make the game into a blood brawl is to play
Clouds # Hazard # Long-event
Environment. If Doors of Night is in play, the prowess of each hazard creature
is modified by +2. Cannot be duplicated.
This card is almost the epitome of fear in Middle-earth. A plethora of decks can benefit, but it can also hurt the person who plays it. But multi player mosh games with The Will of Sauron and Clouds out can be SO fun :-)
The effect of this card is simple, it gives all hazard creatures +2 prowess. Doors of Night has to be out, so the companies should be prepared for nastiness, but maybe not this nasty. +2 turns a -3 modifier into a -5, it gives a sure thing a 1/12 chance of failing. And if you play several creatures, each with a +2 modifier, the chance that someone will get wounded increases significantly. For instance, a Ghouls, normally 5 strikes at 7 prowess, becomes 5@9, something more fearsome. If you add The Moon Is Dead and Plague of Wights things start to get sick. Or you can have a Daelomin with 3@15/8. This can work on some of the creatures that come into play more often, giving a Cave-drake 12 prowess or a Slayer 13 prowess (ouch!). In fact the only creature decks that Clouds don't help are decks built around the absence of Doors of Night, and even then Clouds can give the creatures a boost (thought the resource portion may struggle).
Of course, if you put Clouds out for your animals or drakes, your opponent will hammer you with his undead or orcs. If you're planning on using Clouds either pack lots of cancellation cards or make sure your company can handle a really sick attack. Even then, if Clouds, Night, and a type-specific modifier are on the table, you could loose most of your company in one turn. There are two extremes to this. You could Twilight either the Clouds or the Doors on your turn, preferably right after your opponent grins and plays his first creature. With three each of Twilight and Clouds, plus perhaps Night, and cards like Mouth of Sauron or Palantir of Orthanc to recycle them, your opponent can get very annoyed and you can get a significant advantage (though you may lose an advantage considering how card intensive this combo is). The other extreme is to play The Will of Sauron along with Clouds. While this may not be a particularly smart or long-lasting move in a tournament, it can make a dull game really pick up in a casual game. Now the object is no longer to see who can get the most MPs fastest, it's now a question of who can survive to get MPs period. If you plan to take this route, you should plan on cards like Risky Blow, The Dwarves Are Upon You! and Potion of Prowess so you can negate to some level the effects of the Clouds. And if you get lucky and your opponent is playing corruption or roadblock, you'll be really rockin'. Of course, why else do people pack three Twilights?
| Ratings for Clouds: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 7.0 |
| Samwise: | 5.7 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 7.5 |
| Legolas: | 6.5 |
| Bandobras Took: | 7.5 |
| Fingolfin: | 7.5 |
| Beorn: | 7.7 |
| Frodo: | 8.0 |
| Strider: | 8.0 |
| Alatar: | 8.0 |
| Average: | 7.3 |
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.