One thing I thought Dark Minions should have had more of was spiders. It had
a few spider enhancers, but there's still only two non-unique spiders.
Well, as one rater put it, this card is to Shelob what Durin's Bane is to the
original Balrog. It has a simlar effect as shelob, but better. First, her
(I assume almost all spiders are hers, espeicially big nasty ones) creature
stats are pretty good. 16/9 is on par (actually a little better) than most of
the Nazgul, and she's worth just 4 MPs. She has a lower range than most
Nazgul, normally limited to Sulfur-deeps/Dol Guldur, two nasty sites that
are only visited in an Under-deeps deck or by someone trying Pass the Doors of
Dul Guldur. With Doors of Night, though, she's got a fair ranger, comprising
most of Mirkwood and several Under-deeps sites. However, most of the times I
go through Mirkwood (except maybe Woodland Realm), I'm using movement from
Lorien, and there aren't too many good sites in Mirkwood, so Spider of the
Morlat is best played as an event, able to attack later, not held in the hand
as a surprise.
As an event, she rocks. On top of giving all spider attacks +1 strike (all
those six spiders you're going to play). This can also add on to cards like
Wake of War, Shelob, and Dwar of Waw for a total of +4 strikes and +3 prowess
(making Giant Spiders 6 strikes at 13/-). Plus, her spider enhancement affects
her children in Mirkwood, making them at least 3 stikes at 10. While this
isn't a totally deadly attack, it's still pretty nasty (assuming your
opponent's travelling in the middle-eastern part), and can tap out a few
characters to start off a M/H phase. It's not as dangerous as a dragon ahunt,
but it is a) permanent and b) won't give your opponent Marshalling Points if
he defeats it (it won't even go away).
The only disadvantages are that Spider of the Morlat is only really useful in
a Spider deck, has limited regions, and if your opponent also happens to be
playing a Spider deck, you could be in for some real interesting times.
So Spider of the Morlat is a cool card, like all of the children of Ungoliant
IMHO, and will get better as more spider cards come out (as they hopefully
will :-)
Card names and text copyright 1996 by Iron Crown Enterprises, all rights
reserved. This document copyright 1996 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.
Unique. Spider. May be played as a hazard creature (with two strikes) or as a
permanent-event. As a creature, she may be played at Dol Guldur and The
Sulfur-deeps. If Doors of Night is in play, she may also be keyed to Southern
Mirkwood, Heart of Mirkwood, or Woodland Realm; or at any adjacent site of The
Sulfur-deeps. If played as a permanent-event, all Spider attacks receive +1
strike. Additionally, any company moving in Southern Mirkwood, Heart of
Mirkwood, Woodland Realm, Dagorlad, or Brown Lands faces a Spider attack of 2
strikes with 10 prowess. You can return Spider of the Morlat as a
permanent-event to your hand-which counts as one against the hazard limit.
Ratings for Spider of the Morlat: Isildur: 7.0 Frodo: 8.0 Bandobras Took: 6.5 Cirdan: 8.5 Alatar: 6.0 Fingolfin: 9.5 Legolas: 7.5 Samwise: 8.0 Gandalf: 7.0 Farmer Maggot: 9.5 Strider: 8.5 Beorn: 7.2 Merry: 5.5 Wormtongue: 8.5 Average: 7.7