One of the most important battle elements is morale, and one thing to give morale is word of reinforcements on the way. One big boost is hearing
Horns, Horns, Horns # Resource # Short-event
Each player removes all factions from his discard pile and shuffles them into
his play deck.
This card can be fairly useful, both as an "oh, crap" card and as a card to be planned around.
The first use of this card that most people think of is recovering lost factions. It's no coincidence that Horns, Horns, Horns came along at the same time when Wormtongue, Golodhros, and all the other agents who can wander around taking out factions. On top of the agents is the annoying card Muster Disperses as well as the COMPLETELY annoying "wandering wizard" strategy where a souped up wizard dashes around undoing everything another has done. So if you aren't planning on influencing away your opponent's factions, Horns, Horns, Horns could be a nice card to recover some of your lost factions so you can get them early in the next cycle (as your site is still tapped for this cycle). The card can also be used to recover a few factions if you've botched a roll or two, as the site remains untapped in that case.
Yet there are usually better cards to put in your deck "just in case." Planning for Horns, Horns, Horns can help your MPs be faster and safer. You can discard most of the factions you draw in the early game and then, once your wizard is in play, blow your Horns, Horns, Horns to bring back the factions to let your wizard have a crack at them. Of course, this works best when your factions are in the sideboard. Reveal your wizard, tap him to put five factions in the discard pile, and then bring them all into the now thin play deck for a high frequency of factions for your wizard to grab. Another nice use is with Alert the Folk to get some bonuses fighting dragons and then bring them back to bring in.
There is, of course, the possibility you will help your opponent. Horns, Horns, Horns would be a good way for an agent deck to shoot itself in the foot, though again the player will have to wait until the beginning of the next deck. However, if you are content with leaving your opponent's factions where they are, the only way she'll be helped is if she discards some factions to free up hand space for other cards or if she messed up a few rolls, which rarely happens in my experience (and it never fails that you won't have screwed any rolls until AFTER Horns, Horns, Horns).
So Horns, Horns, Horns can be a nice card if you don't want factions early or if you want to be able to recover lost factions.
| Ratings for Horns, Horns, Horns: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 5.7 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 7.5 |
| Samwise: | 6.0 |
| Strider: | 6.5 |
| Legolas: | 5.1 |
| Beorn: | 7.5 |
| Fringolfin: | 5.5 |
| Frodo: | 6.5 |
| 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.