Great Day, Great Hour (10R1)
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Memories of Darkness (10U2) 
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Great Day, Great Hour (10R1) is a 
Dwarven Event from the Mount Doom set.
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Strategy[edit]
Great Day, Great Hour is a potent direct wounding card, but suffers by comparison to the similar Slaked Thirsts (7U14)
, which serves much the same role in both Dwarven decks and multicultural wounding decks. Unlike Slaked Thirsts, it's too expensive and not reusable.
Great Day, Great Hour follows on from a theme of "spot/exert a dwarf who is damage +X to get [X benefit]", first begun in Siege of Gondor. Aggression (8C1)
was so powerful that it ended up banned, and Blood Runs Chill (8R3)
and Honed (8C6)
became core parts of Dwarven cultural identity. Reflections added even more support for this playstyle, with Durin III, Dwarven Lord (9R+3)
, a potent centerpiece companion with Damage +1, Gimli, Bearer of Grudges (9R+4)
, a ring-bearer that gets extra resistance from damage bonuses, Linnar, Dwarven Lord (9R5)
and Úri, Dwarven Lord (9R11)
, who grant and benefit from damage bonuses respectively, and a series of dwarf rings that all grant Damage +1 or more, in the case of Ring of Fury (9R+7)
. In contemporary Movie Block, every Dwarven deck stacks some damage bonuses, and some go even further, running multiple copies of Lord of Moria (1C21)
so as to use Honed and Uri to trivialize high-strength minions and Blood Runs Chill to wipe the Shadow player's minions and support area out in one fell swoop in the regroup phase.
This sort of exertion on this sort of timing is a very useful sort of direct wounding, as well. This card exerts minions immediately when they're played, almost always in the Shadow Phase. This means it can shut down any minion with an annoying exertion ability. Dwarfs in particular need to worry about Gríma, Wormtongue (4R154)
showing up and clogging up your hand with all of your various possessions and artifacts, and any deck that runs a large Fellowship hates to see Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul (1U231)
. The fact that this happens in the Shadow phase means it can even shut down minions with Shadow Phase exertion abilities, like Grishnákh, Orc Captain (5R100)
. So why don't decks run this card?
Slaked Thirsts (7U14)
does basically the same thing. And unlike Great Day, Great Hour, it can be constantly replayed with Preparations (7R12)
. Slaked Thirsts/Preparations is cheaper to boot. Many decks, especially Rainbow Wounding, include a dwarf like Gimli, Bearer of Grudges (9R+4)
specifically in order to use Slaked Thirsts/Preparations, it's that good. Dedicated Dwarven decks are also often already running Preparations (7R12)
so they can use Sindri, Dwarven Lord (9R10)
to play and replay strong skirmish events like Honed (8C6)
or Battle Tested (7U3)
.
Even if Great Day, Great Hour wasn't crowded out by Slaked Thirsts, it has a crucial weakness. Unlike most cards to cripple or kill minions, it's played in the Shadow Phase, so its sizable twilight cost means it can immediately be turned into more minions. This is especially relevant because many Dwarven decks try to choke, to limit the number of cards the Shadow player can play per turn. If you play Great Day, Great Hour, your opponent will probably get to play another minion, on top of the likely still-relevant minion you just exhausted. Great Day, Great Hour can stifle Shadow Phase exertion abilities while most other wounding cards (except for Shadowplay (10U114)
) can't, but that's generally not worth the cost.
Its nominal greater amount of wounds is also a weakness, because it's inconsistent. There are relatively few minions with more than 3 vitality, and very few with more than 4. The only minions of note with more vitality who want to exert for some effect are Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul (1U231)
or Pavise (11C94)
-enhanced 
Men like Mûmak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings (15R86)
. Slaked Thirsts can't completely stymie those minions, but it can dramatically reduce their output. On the other hand, Great Day, Great Hour is weaker than Slaked Thirsts if you only have a Damage +1 dwarf with no damage boosters in play. Since the upside for Great Day, Great Hour over Slaked Thirsts in a best-case scenario is so small, the consistency of Slaked Thirsts is usually more valuable.
Strengths and Weaknesses[edit]
Synergizes With...[edit]
- Other direct wounding to finish off the exhausted minion. There's a whole deck archetype of options, but options in Dwarven culture specifically include Here Lies Balin, Son of Fundin (1C19)
and Baruk Khazâd (5R5)
. - Damage +X companions or effects, like all versions of Gimli, Durin III, Dwarven Lord (9R+3)
, Lord of Moria (1C21)
, and Dwarven rings like Ring of Fury (9R+7)
. If you're already running those effects, other cards that benefit from Damage +X, like Blood Runs Chill (8R3)
, Honed (8C6)
, Gimli, Bearer of Grudges (9R+4)
, and Úri, Dwarven Lord (9R11)
are more attractive.
Strong Versus...[edit]
- Minions that exert to use some obnoxious effect. In particular, hate minions like Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul (1U231)
and Gríma, Wormtongue (4R154)
.
Weak Versus...[edit]
- Any Shadow deck that can punish you for handing them three extra twilight worth of minions or other cards in the Shadow Phase.
