Most people reading this are doing it during
A Short Rest # Resource # Long-event
Each moving company may draw an extra card for each region less than four in
its site path.
This card can speed up a deck based around a small area, especially since many sites in common areas have fairly small draw numbers. It is best used when you're moving two or one region, as otherwise the card you draw will just replace A Short Rest, which puts you back where you started.
First, a word from the latest Collected Rulings File: This card only allows the extra card draw for moving companies that actually have a site path. If a company moves with Eagle-mounts, for example, it does not have a site path and does not trigger A Short Rest. This means that you can't use it when you're going between Under-deeps sites, though that would be the most productive use of the card.
Aside from that, there are a couple uses of the card. The first is if your company spends most of its time in one or two regions. A perfect example of this is a dragon deck, most of which stay almost exclusively in Withered Heath, Grey Mountain Narrows, Northern Rhovanion, and perhaps one or two more faction regions. A company moving from Caves of Ulund to Gold Hill can draw an extra 3 cards, which can help a lot if you're in a tough place, your deck has lots of special-situation cards, or if you need certain cards for a cool combo. It can be useful when going from Irerock to Lake-town, too, drawing two extra cards, which is one plus the one it took for drawing A Short Rest. You can even use it in a Radagast deck to almost assure drawing 4 extra cards each turn, though in that case you can usually extend your site path, though this also adds more regions of keyability.
Another good use of A Short Rest is to use it with multiple companies. If, for example, you have one company that hangs out in Gondor and another that hangs out around Anduin Vales, playing A Short Rest before either of them move (in the Long-events phase) can mean you can draw up to 5 or 6 extra cards that turn, which can give you a better chance of having something to play in the site phase for both of the companies. A Short Rest can also be useful in sealed deck, where you usually don't have very many MP resources. It works with starter movement despite what it sounds like and many of the sealed deck sites are within a couple regions of a haven.
A Short Rest is a long-event, so your opponent gets the bonus cards as well, though she may not be planning to take as short a trip as you are. You can also lessen the effect with a Siege the turn before or if you play Shadow of Mordor on her turn. While neither player must draw the cards, if you can get Shadow of Mordor out for your opponent's movement, either you get a lot more benefit than the opponent or the opponent doesn't get any benefit.
So if you want to cycle a couple extra cards per turn a little faster, A Short Rest (and possibly Echo of All Joy) is an ample card. In many situations, though, the deck would work better if you just had a utility card in your deck instead.
| Ratings for A Short Rest: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 4.0 |
| Farmer Maggott: | 7.5 |
| Wormtongue: | 5.4 |
| Frodo: | 7.5 |
| Bandobras Took: | 6.0 |
| Samwise: | 6.1 |
| Legolas: | 5.5 |
| Strider: | 6.5 |
| Beorn: | 6.8 |
| Fingolfin: | 7.5 |
| Average: | 6.3 |
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.