"Gandalf halted. Snow was thick on his hood and shoulders; it was already ankle-deep about his boots.
'This is what I feared,' he said. 'What do you say now, Aragorn?'
'That I feared it too,' Aragorn answered, 'but less than the other things. I knew the risk of snow, though it seldom falls heavily so far south, save high up in the mountains. But we are not high yet; we are still far down, where the paths are usually open all the winter.'
'I wonder if this is a contrivance of the Enemy,' said Boromir. 'They say in my land that he can govern the storms in the Mountains of Shadow that stand upon the borders or Mordor. He has strange powers and many allies.'
'His arm has grown long indeed,' said Gimli, 'if he can draw snow down from the North to trouble us here three hundred leagues away.'
'His arm has grown long,' said Gandalf."
- LotR, pg 306 (Alan Lee Illus. ed. Houghton Mifflin, 1991)
Long Dark Reach :: MEDM :: Hazard Short-Event :: R
Playable on a moving company with at least one Wilderness in it's site path if you have at least 10 cards in your play deck. Reveal the top seven cards of your play deck. One revealed Nazgul, Dragon or a non-unique creature (your choice) immediately attacks the company (regardless of its playability requirements). The creature must be playable in a region besides Coastal Sea. If the creature could not normally be played on the company, modify its prowess by -4. Shuffle all unused cards and return them to the top of your deck.
Art by Rob Alexander
Ahh, another really fun Dark Minions card that continues to make Dark Minions one of my favorite sets. The easy thing about this card is that getting company to move through one wilderness is not that hard at all. In fact, it's almost automatic. The creature played with this card does not count against the hazard limit (though Long Dark Reach does) and can override other card effects like Stealth and Sneakin as the creature is considered an effect of Long Dark Reach, not a direct attack. Pretty sneaky. :-)
You might find yourself in a situation in which your big creatures just aren't playable, because your opponent isn't going within reach. Well, this card "extends" the Long Dark Reach and lets you fling something nasty at them wherever they may be. I knew this card could be a potential nasty one when it first came out. There are prime times to use it too. Here are a few.
If your opponent has played Stealth or Sneakin' he may not be expecting a creature to be played. But since Long Dark Reach and the resulting creature attack (if there is one) override Stealth, you might be able to catch them unawares. And the modification to the creature's prowess only happens if the creature normally isn't playable.
Well, let's give you a specific example, from a real turn in one of my games awhile back. I had an opponent going to Mount Gundabad, and he had played a stealth card to protect his company from the play of hazard creatures. Moving from Rivendell, the path was Wilderness, Shadow-land, and Dark-domain to a Shadow-hold. Doors of Night was in play, and his company consisted of 3 hobbits, one of which was already tapped from playing stealth. My first card was Long Dark Reach, and I managed to get both a Dragon (Smaug) and a Nameless Thing. I choose the Nameless Thing as it did not suffer from the prowess modification due to playability, and had more attacks in the long run. With both creatures, the ability to wound my opponent was never in question, and since the Nameless Thing had more attacks, it would require more cancellation to get rid of than the Dragon.
Predicatably, he played a Concealment for the first attack, and had to face the next two. Having one Hobbit left, untapped, I choose the second strike of the first attack, and managed to kill a hobbit. The second attack wounded both Hobbits, but they escaped wounded. The third attack had been cancelled, and that still left me with one hazard to play, which was a Mouth of Sauron to get the Nameless Thing back into my hand. :-)
Which brings up a good point: Long Dark Reach can be much more effective when played closer to the end of your deck, when you can be sure of more creatures, especially if you have prepared for just such a contingency. Use An Unexpected Outpost and Mouth of Sauron to keep loading your deck and hand with creatures and Long Dark Reach, and eventually somthing big, fat, and unlooked for will come crawling out of your deck to hit your opponent's company.
A funny side note, I did have an opponent move to the Caves of Ulund, and I used Long Dark Reach and actually got Agburanar! It was really nice to be able to hit him like that with a Dragon with no prowess modification. But if you think about it, most Dragons and Nazgul are still nasty even if they are at -4.
The difference between 3 strikes at 18 and 3 at 14 really isn't that noticeable, especially when you are choosing the strikes. Another fun card to pull with Long Dark Reach is Were-Worm. One strike at 9 can still be ruthless since you are choosing characters. Target a helpless low-prowess character and nab a huge item. Also, you can set them up by tapping them out first, then play Long Dark Reach to ensure that you will choose who gets the strikes.
Also, since your opponent is moving, why not play Long Dark Reach on guard? No reason not to if you think you can pull something nasty to surprise them. Remember, the creature attacks regardless of its playability. How about an Assassin at Weathertop? Or even more fun, Smaug or Khamul at Gladden Fields!
Since there needs to be an auto-attack to play such a card on guard, try playing Nature's Revenge on sites such as Cameth Brin, Lake Town, Dunnish Clan Hold, Southron Oasis, Henneth Annun, Bree, Lond Galen, Lossadan Camp, Old Forest, Woodmen Town, Wose Passage Hold, or any border-hold in a wilderness to give it an automatic-attack. Then play Long Dark Reach on guard and surprise him with a Nazgul coming to get him, even in Bree! What fun.
The thing to remember with Long Dark Reach is it's potential to surprise your opponent, and the need to be sure it will have the most lethal effect. Good timing with this card can be utterly devastating to your opponent if he is caught with his pants down. And what an interesting visual that is.
Radagast
Reader Comments
Findegil: Excellent review of an excellent card (no, I don't have one, dammit ;-/), but can you really play it on-guard? Surely the company is no longer a "moving company" in the site phase?
Original card review taken from : http://fan.theonering.net/morgulrats/
With the authorization of the webmaster.
The reviewing team consisted of Gwaihir (Chris Farrell), Gimli (Nathan Bruinooge), Ohtar (Charles E. Bouldin, Esq.), Radagast (James Kight), Joshua B. Grace (Beorn), Martijn Steultjens (Fram Frumgarson), Jason Klank (Saruman) and Jeffery Dobberpuhl (Wormtongue)
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