Today's card is a promo for Lidless Eye, spoiler released on the newsgroup. From what I gather, it will be in the May Scrye magazine (released later this month, I believe) and will then be available through the normal channel of Self Addressed, Stamped Envelopes sent to ICE.
Deadly Dart # Minion Resource # Minor Item # 0 MP # 2 CP
Scout Only. Tap Deadly Dart to give -1 body and -1 strike (to a minimum of
one) to an auto attack or hazard creature keyed to a site. Tap its bearer or
discard Deadly Dart when it is tapped. May also be used as a Hero resource
(i.e. included in a Wizard's deck), but may not be included with a hero
starting party.
First, a little terminology. This card, from what I understand, will have a slightly different resource marking to show that it is for use by minions (most of our current agents plus more minions such as orcs in companies led by Nazgul) rather than by heroes (the companies we have now). This one specifically allows for hero use, but with a drawback.
Deadly Dart is a nice utility card, nothing to make a huge part of your deck, but a nice card to have around, sort of a Black Arrow for the bad guys. It's for scouts only (no one else may even carry it), but there will probably be plenty of scouts, probably even some non-unique ones. While -1 to body isn't particularly great, -1 strike can be pretty nice. For instance, your company heads to Dancing Spire to take advantage of the low prowess. Tap Deadly Dart to reduce the attack to 1 at 11 and you can almost waltz in right under Daelomin's nose (with someone like Beorn or a wizard). Or perhaps a Nazgul riding a Fell Beast is bearing down on your company at Carn Dum and will surely hit your weak scout. Why not tap the scout and reduce the attack to just one strike and make the body fairly beatable, after all, a reduced strike still lets you get the MPs.
Deadly Dart does have a disadvantage, though, in that to keep it around you have to tap the scout. This means you shouldn't give a Deadly Dart to a character like Aragorn who you want to leave untapped, and you may even have some reservations giving it to a Hobbit, who you might need to grab an item or play a Concealment. Sure, you can use it along with cards like Hundreds of Butterflies or recylce it with Mathom Lore, but as it stands, you'll often be better off with a Black Arrow or, as time progresses, a Bow of Dragon-horn. Of course, in conjunction (maybe even on the same Warrior/Scout), these three cards can work as preventive measures to scare your opponent into not attacking you, as you'll just make them much weaker.
It still, it remains to be seen what sort of scouts Lidless Eye holds, and there may be some Orcs that work very well with Deadly Dart.
| Ratings for Deadly Dart: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 6.0 |
| Bandobras Took: | 6.0 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 9.0 |
| Samwise: | 6.2 |
| Strider: | 2.0 |
| Fingolfin: | 9.0 |
| Beorn: | 7.0 |
| Frodo: | 9.0 |
| Legolas: | 5.0 |
| Average: | 6.6 |
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.