Good fantasy needs a Bridge to Reality. Things have to get pretty weird, but at the same time, people like to think that it all could have happened in our own world. So fantasy is in need of something weird enough for its own setting, yet commonly known in twentieth century Earth. It is therefore hardly surprising that a lot of fantasy `s celebrity characters sooner or later encounter......An Elephant!
Mumak (Oliphant) :: METW :: Hazard Creature :: 12/- :: 1 MP :: R
Animal. Two strikes. May be played keyed to Dagorlad, Gorgoroth, Horse Plains, Ithilien, Khand, Nurn and Udun, and may also be played at sites in these regions. May also be played (on the same turn and on the same company as Corsairs of Umbar) keyed to Andrast, Anfalas, Belfalas, Lebennin; and at Ruins and Lairs and Shadowholds in these regions.
Art by Angelo Montanini.
If this review would have been written, say, a year ago, it would have been something like this:
The Mumak is top of the line as far as animals go. Only in the Spider department representatives of Middle-Earth's fauna can be found that are more deadly. Fortunately, decent folk will hardly ever encounter this colossal beast. It can only be found in the south-eastern corner of Tolkien's world. This means that it comes down to sheer luck with the Mumak: probably a company will only be near the Big Snout's habitat once in the entire game, and if you don't have it in your hand at that time, it's over. Sometimes it gets thrown into the action by the Corsairs of Umbar, and in those times it can stampede even as far as Western Gondor. However, this is all very unlikely, since the Corsairs suffer from the same impairment the Mumak itself has: their keyability is restricted to certain regions, not region-types. This means that if you play with these creatures, you just have to sit and wait for your opponent to head their way. Unlike creatures keyable to region types, there's no way to expand their keyability by changing Middle-Earth's environment. So putting them in your deck is a risk. They might never come out, wasting valuable slots. The sideboard therefore seems to be the best spot to keep them in.
But are the Mumak's regions even worth the slots in your sideboard? Something strange has happened to the Mumak's reach, anyway. In the LotR, Frodo and Sam encounter the Mumak when they run into an army of Southrons who are on their way to the Morannon. well then, can anybody explain to me why the darn beast cannot be keyed to Harondor? What's one region in a lifetime, you might ask? Well, Harondor happens to be the only region in the south-east that's frequently visited, due to the presence of a certain faction (which apparently manages to hide its elephant-farm pretty well). Without that, what's left for the Homicidal Herbivore? Not much. There's Ithilien, sometimes visited by Gondor decks for their Rangers. But this region then makes up the easternmost border of the deck's geographical width, which means that it's a once and never again affair for the visiting company: first turn a company goes there, you get the Mumak from your sideboard, next turn the company's gone never to come back, and the Mumak in all likelihood is clogging up traffic somewhere in your playdeck. Now what? The Easterling Express comes to mind. Still used in some decks (though not very often), this card drawing machine from the old days when life (and more specifically MECCG) was easier lets a 3-mind character hop between Lorien and Easterling Camp picking up 4 cards every turn. Would you use a Mumak to stop that train? Well, you could (even when starter movement is used, the region of Horse Plains is part of the site path). With the Corsairs, it can be used against Truly Dedicated Gondor decks (the ones that make a Cave-drake nearly unplayable). For those decks, the Corsairs/Mumak combo is worth considering, since your opponent may not be ready to fight a 12 -prowess animal. But even then, there are more effective ways of fighting Gondorian strategies.
Fortunately, these days, there's more to Middle-Earth than just the Istari's Salvation Army. MELE has come along, and with it the south-east has become Sauron's homeground. Enter Mumak. This creature is for minions what all those pesky double wilderness creatures are for heroes. Versatile, fairly big, near basic utility, unavoidable in the first few turns. Oh, it's not. It's been banned. That's right, you're not allowed to play this card against minions. Unlike its role-model in the books, this one only tramples people from the other side. And that's a shame, really. With MELE's detainment rules, hazard strategies based around Wolves and Animals have risen from obscurity, because they do try to kill instead of getting a good conversation going. Apparently designers and playtesters thought it too unbalancing to allow the Mumak to score as well.
Well, what about the new kids in town then? Have the Fallen-Wizards got anything to fear? The high-MP hero factions in the south-east are practically worthless to Fallen-Wizards (why bother if it only brings you one point?), and leveling the FW-country between the two Fortresses is not an option either.
So, a year and two alignments later the Mumak still is nothing more than the beast under your bed or in your closet or whatever place you have chosen for your collection to gather dust in.
But, admittedly, despite its near-unplayability, the Mumak is one of the coolest cards ever, and since coolness never goes unnoticed for long, one day they will come out and grind your companies to dust.
Maybe hell will freeze over.
Fram Frumgarson
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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