Ocasionally I've considered making a Grima deck. Every card with a picture of Wormtongue in it. There's the Wormtongue minion card, Twisted Tales and several other agent hazards, Saruman, Persuasive Words, and
Ambusher # Hazard # Creature # 1 MP # 10/- # Keyable: Fd, Bl
Men. Two strikes. Attacker chooses defending characters.
As one rater quipped, this is "The Cave-drake of the civilized world," which it is exactly, except for what it can be keyed to and its creature type.
First of all, Ambusher has two 10-prowess attacker-chooses strikes. While this won't deter a Wizard holding Glamdring, that's why you choose who takes the strikes. Ambusher is an ideal way to attempt to get rid of Hobbits (I say attempt, because chances are high that they will get away). Ambusher can let you bypass the fighters in the front to nab a few weak creatures in the back. Or you can use it to tap the up front creatures so they don't stand up to protect the weaklings from your next attack. Or you can use it to tap a big guy and then assure that you keep the MP by also going after a little squirt. The options are open. And if there are Rank Upon Rank of Ambushers, you get 3 ACD strikes at 11, that's startin' to get scary.
The main difference between Ambusher and Cave-drake is playability. Cave-drake hits deep wilderness and ruins & lairs. It takes a very specialized deck to avoid both double wilderness and ruins & lairs. Yet a deck built around Rivendell (or some other places) can easily avoid going through any free-domains or border-lands. A deck built around Gondor, though, will be much easier to hit with an Ambusher than a Cave-drake. So part of deciding whether to pack an Ambusher or Cave-drake is what you anticipate your opponent to be traveling through. Unless Gondor decks are popular in your area, you might want to consider more Cave-drakes than Ambushers because overall, Cave-drakes have a higher frequency of play. Not that Ambusher isn't a good creature, though, especially in a deck with cards like Rank Upon Rank.
| Ratings for Ambusher: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 8.5 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 9.0 |
| Samwise: | 7.3 |
| Strider: | 8.0 |
| Legolas: | 7.2 |
| Beorn: | 7.3 |
| Frodo: | 8.0 |
| Fingolfin: | 9.0 |
| 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.