Shadowfax

Resource: Ally

Prowess/Body: 2/8
Mind: 2
Marshalling Points: 1

Unique. Playable at Edoras or Dunharrow. If his company has only one character and a Hobbit at the end of the movement/hazard phase, tap Shadowfax to allow his company to immediately move again; an additional site card may be played and an additional movement/hazard phase follows for that company.

An okay card, with a great ability but an annoying limitation (two of them actually). First let's talk about the ability. The ability is very useful - it pretty much gives you an entire extra turn. Especially since it's not just a long-event one, but a permanent ability caused by tapping (and since Shadowfax isn't an especially good fighter, you probably can safely leave him tapped). This is especially useful if you're playing with a "wandering wizard" strategy, since it allows your wizard to wander much faster. It's almost useless in destroying the ring, since it's not that far to move and it's dangerous enough so that you want a bigger party.

It's perfect, though, for getting Factions and Allies, since you can now reach all those obscure sites off in some rarely visited corner of the map. The main party for this is an extremely enhanced Wizard - say with 10 prowess or so, or a strong character with high influence.

He's also perfect if you play him with a Hobbit, since then the Hobbit can make him a company by himself, and keep shuttling around various other characters to where they need to go (the Hobbit's needed for when he has no other character).

There are, however, severe limitations to this ability that make it a lot less useful. First there's the fact that he's only playable at two sites, one of which (Edoras) is fixed and only in 1 out of 5 starters (so if you only get one starter chances are you won't get it) and the other of which (Dunharrow) is rare. This can cause major problems for players who don't have lots and lots of cards. Also, he can only take a character and a Hobbit. I personally think it should have been two characters (although he was only used for carrying Gandalf and one of the Hobbits, there's no reason another non-little person could have fit there instead), but since it's only one and a half, you have severe problems with hazards come up.

None of the Hobbits have much prowess (all the ones I know of have only 1) and chances are that one character will at least get wounded at some point, and probably killed. So, overall, this card is only useful if you're willing to take a big risk or play lots of enhancers on characters, but if so, it's pretty good.

Ratings for: Shadowfax

Rater	Rating
Gandalf	6.5
Turin	7.0
Shadowfax	10.0
Morgoth	6.0
Cirdan	4.0
Ilsidur	5.0
Elrond	8.5
Radagast	9.0
Beren	5.0
Average	6.7

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