Useful Hazards

Let's face it! Some hazards are better than others! It probably didn't take you long to find out those Crebain weren't doing anything but giving your opponent some kill points, while those pesky Cave-drakes were giving him severe head-aches!

In this text I will discuss the hazard cards that I use very often in serious decks. If you're a new player it might be a good idea to try to get these hazards first -- they will really improve your decks.

The text is split up into a list of hazards that work against all alignments and hazards that work well against hero decks or minion decks, respectively. (In a general opponent tournament, you can bring two decks, one vs. heroes, one vs. minions.)

Versus All Alignments

• Adunaphel - The Wizards - Rare
  In my humble opinion, the best Nazgul there is. Tapping the right character at the right time usually will cost your opponent a turn. Examples: tap the only character in the company that is still untapped, if your opponent is going to get a faction, tap the character who was supposed to be doing the influencing, tap the strongest character in the company, then throw some hazard creatures his way, etc. Adunaphel rules; don't listen to anyone who tells you something else!
• An Unexpected Outpost - Dark Minions - Common
  An indispensable card for getting back the hazards that really hurt your opponent from your discard pile or to access your sideboard. I usually put two in the play deck and a third copy in the sideboard. (Note that the wording on the Unexpected Outposts in the Challenge Decks indicates that you can also take one hazard from your discard pile and another from your sideboard if Doors of Night is in play.)
• Baduila - Dark Minions - Rare
  Baduila is an agent that can send a company back where it came from, which is one of the most powerful effects in the game! And Baduila's two home sites, Goblin Gate and Mount Gundabad, are visited frequently by both heroes and minions.
• Cave Worm - The Dragons/The Lidless Eye - Common
  This horrible drake with a prowess of 16 is playable at a whole bunch of frequently visited regions. And even if your opponent manages to kill it, he only gets one kill point! It's almost to good to be true!
• Daelomin at Home - The Dragons - Rare
  Discard to increase hazard limit of a certain company by 2. Easy to play and can be quite nasty when used at the right time.
• Foolish Words - The Dragons & The Lidless Eye - Common
  Great card to screw with faction rolls. Use it as an on-guard card for maximum effectiveness.
• Mouth of Sauron - The Wizards - Rare
  A card that allows you to get any hazard from your discard pile back into your hand! I don't think I'm being over-enthusiastic when I say this card belongs in every Middle-earth deck...
• Power Built By Waiting - Against the Shadow - Common
  It's a bit less powerful than Daelomin At Home, but it's non-unique. This is another good card for fast hazard decks.
• Revealed to All Watchers - The Dragons - Rare
  A useful card for almost any deck. Allows you to put aside those resources during your opponents turn and then draw a bunch of new cards -- who knows what kick-ass hazards might be among them?
• River - The Wizards & The Lidless Eye - Common
  Hazards that can potentially force your opponent to do nothing during his site phase without risking giving away kill points are always good.
• Sellswords Between Charters - The Lidless Eye - Common
  This hazard creature may not look very special at first sight but 2 strikes at 11 is quite good actually. And they can hit both border-holds and shadow-holds which makes them very versatile.
• Summons from Long Sleep - Against the Shadow - Uncommon
  This permanent-event allows you to take a drake or dragon from your hand and place it on this card. It can then attack (with a +2 prowess bonus) whenever you want it too. Speeds up your deck and makes those drakes even stronger!
• Twilight - The Wizards/The Lidless Eye - Common
  You need at least some Twilights in your deck and/or sideboard in case your opponent plays a so-called roadblock hazard strategy (the cheezy bastard!) or to remove his Gates of Morning or Doors of Night at the right time -- or to counter his Twilights (yes, you can twilight a Twilight) when he tries to remove yours!
• Uvatha the Horseman - The Wizards - Rare
  Though he's less versatile than Mouth of Sauron, Uvatha is still very useful: he allows you to take a hazard creature (including Mouth of Sauron!) from your discard pile and put it into your hand.

Versus Heroes

• Assassin - The Wizards - Rare
  Most hero decks will visit a border-hold or free-hold at least once during a game -- they need allies and factions and these MP cards are usually only playable at these site types. When they do -- it's assassination time! This nasty hazard creature has three attacks against the same character with a prowess of 11! If you don't have any Assassins (they are rare after all), Slayers are a good substitute.
• Beorning Skin-changers - The Balrog - Fixed
  A card that can send your opponent's companies back to where they came from can't be bad. It's especially devastating against hobbit decks but it can be made to work against almost any deck.
• Lure of the Senses - The Wizards & The Lidless Eye - Common
  This is a corruption card that, unlike Lure of Nature, is playable on any character (except Ringwraiths). It's also pretty hard to remove.
• Rain-drake - The Dragons - Common
  Rain-drake is a 15-prowess triple-wilderness drake that can also hit ruins & lairs with at least 2 wildernesses in their site path (for heroes, this means you can play rain-drake at almost every ruins & lairs there is) and as a bonus it's also playable at coastal seas.
• Rolled Down to the Sea - The White Hand - Rare
  This is a card that can really slow down a one ring deck or any other deck that uses rings. And if your opponent doesn't play with rings you still get to peek at his hand, which is always useful.

Versus Minions

• Elf-lord Revealed in Wrath - The Lidless Eye - Rare
  The Elf-lord is probably one of the most expensive cards in the game... And rightfully so, since he kicks some serious bad guy butt! With a Chill Them With Fear and no Doors of Night in play, he has three strikes @ 17!
• Heedless Revelry - The Lidless Eye - Rare
  This is a great card against those annoying squatter decks or against decks that play multiple resources at one site during the site phase (Blasting Fire and similar cards, wolf allies, Snaga-hai etcetera).
• Ice-drake - The Dragons - Common
  Minion decks often visit the regions where this nasty critter (2 strikes @ 15) is playable.