Interestingly, the way the numbers work out, Frodo with The One Ring doesn't benefit from The Mithril Coat and all the armor's accomplishing is giving him an extra 3 CP, which could as easily be given to someone else or stored at a haven...
The Mithril Coat # Resource # Greater Item # 4 MP # 3 CP
Unique. Armor. +3 body (to a maximum of 10).
When items are being considered, the first ones that pop into people's minds are the weapons, largely because it's better to have a card to prevent you from getting wounded than to have a card which helps you once you're wounded. Yet there's a flip side. Since more people put weapons or items with nifty special items, The Mithril Coat will have a lower chance of already being in play when you draw it.
Perhaps the best part of The Mithril Coat is its 4 MPs. In order to get more resource MPs than that you'll either have to go to the Southron Oasis and bring in the Sourthrons or do some combo play (like a ring or a quest). The Mithril Coat is often one of the staple items in an Indy Jones deck (along with Orcrist, Wormsbane, and Scroll of Isildur) as it, combined with a Thorough Search for a major item and a Rescue Prisoners, can yeild 8 MPs on a single turn. The Mithril Coat can also be a nice item in a deck designed for two deck play, bringing it out and then storing it so nobody else can get it.
The 2 CPs carried by The Mithril Coat is pretty decent. There are very few cards with an MP:CP ratio better than 4:2 and a character only bearing The Mithril Coat and perhaps a minor item has little to fear from normal corruption checks (though Lures can get a little dangerous if not properly disposed of). The main drawback to the CPs is that The Mithril Coat is least effective on a Hobbit, so you can't have your MPs and wear them too.
The stat bonus is pretty nice when used with some characters. Theoden, normally prime picking material from Slayers due to low body, has a respectable body of 9 when wearing The Mithril Coat. If you add two Fellowships to deal with corruption, he becomes a fearsome 7/9 fighter with 3 DI. You could also use The Mithril Coat in a deck titled "The Best of the Worst: Improving Underappreciated Cards" and put it on Halbarad, gving him a body of 8. The max of 10 isn't too bad, as I have seen probably about 20 body check rolls of 11 or 12 in the entire time I've been playing METW. The only thing you have to worry about is rolling 4s and 5s when Lure of Nature is dropped on the character. This corruption danger also means that it's pretty risky to normal character with both The Mithril Coat and another item like a weapon or a Torque of Hues.
Still, Mithril Coat is one of the easiest 4 MPs to get, and gives a nice little stat bonus.
| Ratings for The Mithril Coat: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 8.5 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 7.0 |
| Samwise: | 7.5 |
| Strider: | 9.0 |
| Legolas: | 9.0 |
| Beorn: | 8.0 |
| Frodo: | 7.5 |
| Fingolfin: | 7.5 |
| Average: | 8.0 |
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.