Held (6R109): Difference between revisions
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Secondly, you have to leave the ring-bearer [[exhausted]] for it to work. Your opponent can just hold back whatever card they were going to use to finish off the ring-bearer until you leave yourself vulnerable again. It's buying you time to stabilize your situation at the cost of burdens, but you do have to drop Held at some point. This is especially a problem against {{Card|Gollum, Dark as Darkness}}, since most decks playing Gollum have a way to [[recur]] him over and over again. Plus, if you're leaving the ring-bearer exhausted, you're somewhat wasting the advantage of playing {{Card|The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles}} or {{Card|The One Ring, The Ring of Doom}} in the first place. | Secondly, you have to leave the ring-bearer [[exhausted]] for it to work. Your opponent can just hold back whatever card they were going to use to finish off the ring-bearer until you leave yourself vulnerable again. It's buying you time to stabilize your situation at the cost of burdens, but you do have to drop Held at some point. This is especially a problem against {{Card|Gollum, Dark as Darkness}}, since most decks playing Gollum have a way to [[recur]] him over and over again. Plus, if you're leaving the ring-bearer exhausted, you're somewhat wasting the advantage of playing {{Card|The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles}} or {{Card|The One Ring, The Ring of Doom}} in the first place. | ||
Thirdly, it can just lose you the game. As long as your opponent keeps a minion alive through the [[Skirmish Phase]] at every single site, Held can just corrupt your ring-bearer. This will rarely happen, but it does mean that as long as you're relying on Held to counter your opponent's Shadow strategy, you may have to slow down, and can't just [[run]] down the site path. | Thirdly, it can just lose you the game. As long as your opponent keeps a minion alive through the [[Skirmish Phase]] at every single site, Held can just corrupt your ring-bearer. This will rarely happen, but it does mean that as long as you're relying on Held to counter your opponent's Shadow strategy, you may have to slow down, and can't just [[run]] down the site path. Cards that wound or discard minions in the Regroup Phase, such as {{Card|Gondor's Vengeance}} or {{Card|Out of the High Airs}}, can ensure that you can discard Held, but these cards are stronger, more-versatile tools to prevent Regroup Phase wounding anyway! | ||
= Strengths and Weaknesses = | = Strengths and Weaknesses = | ||
Revision as of 02:48, 17 January 2022
 Wisp of Pale Sheen (6C108)
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 Back to Ents of Fangorn Index |
It Burns Us (6U110) 
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Held (6R109) is a 
Shire Condition from the Ents of Fangorn set.
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Strategy
Held barely does anything useful, and as such is rarely played. Its effect is largely redundant with the One Ring, and any deck that might want Held can just run The One Ring, Isildur's Bane (1R1)
or The One Ring, The Ring of Rings (11R1)
instead for more consistent protection. It's mainly notable as the only Free Peoples card in the entire game that can automatically corrupt the ring-bearer regardless of resistance.
Technically, Held is useful to protect the ring-bearer in the phases where they can't put on the One Ring. The The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles (4R1)
and The One Ring, The Ring of Doom (15R1)
are both popular, but can't protect in the maneuver or archery phases. Likewise, only The One Ring, Isildur's Bane (1R1)
and The One Ring, The Ring of Rings (11R1)
can protect the ring-bearer from wounds from Regroup abilities like Isenorcs or Gollum, Dark as Darkness (9R+28)
. In theory, Held would let you run ATAR without the risk of being wounded to death outside of the Skirmish Phase. However, Held is practically useless, because of some significant weaknesses.
First, you have to play Held in the Fellowship Phase, before you know what your opponent is going to do that turn. If your opponent doesn't try to wound the ring-bearer and instead focuses on your other companions, then Held generates no value whatsoever. This isn't the end of the world: some Shadow decks apply undirected wounds every single turn, and you can use Held to convert those excess wounds to burdens rather than needing to sacrifice your other companions. When you face Isenorcs or archery Shadows like Moria Archery or Sauron Grind, you can have a pretty good idea what your opponent is going to be doing no matter what. But even in that ideal matchup, you need to play it before you know things are going to get really bad.
Secondly, you have to leave the ring-bearer exhausted for it to work. Your opponent can just hold back whatever card they were going to use to finish off the ring-bearer until you leave yourself vulnerable again. It's buying you time to stabilize your situation at the cost of burdens, but you do have to drop Held at some point. This is especially a problem against Gollum, Dark as Darkness (9R+28)
, since most decks playing Gollum have a way to recur him over and over again. Plus, if you're leaving the ring-bearer exhausted, you're somewhat wasting the advantage of playing The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles (4R1)
or The One Ring, The Ring of Doom (15R1)
in the first place.
Thirdly, it can just lose you the game. As long as your opponent keeps a minion alive through the Skirmish Phase at every single site, Held can just corrupt your ring-bearer. This will rarely happen, but it does mean that as long as you're relying on Held to counter your opponent's Shadow strategy, you may have to slow down, and can't just run down the site path. Cards that wound or discard minions in the Regroup Phase, such as Gondor's Vengeance (1C106)
or Out of the High Airs (10R17)
, can ensure that you can discard Held, but these cards are stronger, more-versatile tools to prevent Regroup Phase wounding anyway!
Strengths and Weaknesses
Synergizes With...
- The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles (4R1)
and The One Ring, The Ring of Doom (15R1)
, kinda. Those cards already give you a cushion against attempts to assassinate the ring-bearer. Held just prevents the last wound from squeaking through in an unusual phase, as long as you see the Shadow player's strategy coming beforehand.
Strong Versus...
- Very little. It's not a useful card, and even the things listed here are soft counters at best.
- Shadow strategies to assassinate the ring-bearer, as long as you see them coming before they're played. Once Held is on the table, Little Snuffler (13U52)
assassinations won't work very well, and the Resistance Becomes Unbearable (2U79)
/Return to Its Master (1R224)
bomb will only score a kill with an overwhelm or corruption. 
Wraith cards that trigger when the ring-bearer puts on the One Ring, such as Wraith-world (2R86)
and The Twilight World (1R228)
, unless they have Resistance Becomes Unbearable (2U79)
. These cards generally only appear in Twilight Nazgûl decks, which generally pack RBU.- Except for The One Ring, The Ring of Rings (11R1)
, Held is more efficient than any version of the One Ring at converting archery wounds or wounds from Isenorcs to burdens.
Weak Versus...
- Patience. Since you have to remove Held before site 9 or else you lose, your opponent can simply hold back their assassination cards, as long as they aren't super situational.
- Relying on a single condition to keep your ring-bearer alive is always dangerous unless you're protecting it from condition removal with something like Scouring of the Shire (18R112)
. And even then, Buckland Homestead (11S230)
can always remove it.
