Continuing with the symbolic cards to finish up my post, I am figuratively (and sorta literally) taking an Elf-boat out as I say farewell. This card also has my favorite piece of art in the game.
Elf-song # Resource # Long-event
When Elf-song comes into play, each character at a Haven may immediately
remove one corruption card. While Elf-song is in play, no character at a Haven
may be discarded or returned to its owner's hand for any reason.
This card, aside from having SPECTACULAR art, has a pretty nice ability. It's one of the few non-environment resource long-events, so can only be canceled by Many Sorrows Befall, and has a couple decks where it can be pretty useful.
First off, this is a resource long-event, so you can't pop it out right when it would be needed, but instead you have to anticipate when you'll need it. Of course, Echo of All Joy can be very nice with Elf-song (and can be out with Doors if you play Crown of Flowers). When you bring it into play, each of your characters at a haven (and they haven't moved anywhere yet) can remove a corruption card. This is in addition to the normal attempts during the organization phase (and can get rid of corruption cards which you botched the roll for). This can be a nice effect coming in from the sideboard to combat a corruption strategy. It can also be nice in a deck with lots of big items, though Wizard Uncloaked is usually a better alternative.
The second ability of this card is what I think makes it worthwhile. Any character at a haven can't get discarded. This saves your company from influence attempts by your opponent's wizard, Elven agents, etc. It also means that you can bend the rules a little. Bring this card in one turn and move all your companies to havens. Then, during the next turn, you can play a character that exceeds your influence capabilities. It can't be returned to your hand or discarded, so it has to stay. Make sure you're playing with friends, though, as this may cause a little aggression and name-calling. This ability also prevents the tree deadly cards which return characters to your hand: Call of Home, Tookish Blood, and Call of the Sea. Yet the main advantage to this ability is corruption checks. This card basically gives you +2 to all your corruption checks in havens. Lure of the Senses a problem? It's CPs are negated! Planning to use Ren the Unclean? Your characters in havens are under protection. This is especially useful in decks with Palantiri (which you usually want on a character sitting in a haven), effectively nullifying the CPs from Align Palantir. And if you use Echo of All Joy, you can keep using those Palantiri to your heart's delight.
There's pretty much only one disadvantage to this card (aside from the fact that your opponent can benefit from it if he happens to be hanging out in havens). This card only works in havens, so is mainly only useful in decks where you have a number of characters using cards from havens, which is that many less that are out foraging for MPs. Still, in the right deck, Elf-song is a very good card. And if you don't put it in your deck, you can have it in your binder so you can look at the excellent art by Stefano Baldo.
| Ratings for Elf-song: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 7.5 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 5.0 |
| Strider: | 9.0 |
| Legolas: | 10.0 |
| Beorn: | 7.0 |
| Frodo: | 7.0 |
| Fingolfin: | 8.5 |
| Average: | 7.7 |
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.