Held (6R109)
 Wisp of Pale Sheen (6C108)
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It Burns Us (6U110) 
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Held (6R109) is a 
Shire Condition from the Ents of Fangorn set. It is the only Free Peoples card that can automatically corrupt the ring-bearer regardless of resistance. Only the Ring-bearer can be corrupted, however, and since it corrupts Frodo by name it can be borne at site 9 by Frodo, Frenzied Fighter (13R149)
without causing the Free Peoples player to immediately lose.
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Strategy[edit]
Gameplay Strategy[edit]
Held is essentially an extension of The One Ring, converting wounds on Frodo into burdens. This makes it an extremely niche card even before you consider its drawback at site 9 -- everybody starts the game with a similar effect on the table. Whether Held has any value at all depends on which version of The One Ring is being used and what dangers the player using Held is hoping to address.
In Towers when the card was released, only The One Ring, Isildur's Bane (1R1)
could convert archery wounds into burdens (and at great cost). The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles (4R1)
not only offers the greatest strength (while worn, at least) of all rings in the format but also the greatest vitality, yet it doesn't offer much of a way to utilize burdens against a wounding deck -- the best the Free Peoples player can do is allow Frodo to lose a skirmish instead of another companion, which is moot if another unassigned companion would have won the skirmish anyway. A fellowship comprised of Frodo with 6 vitality and 4 companions with 3 vitality can only take 13 wounds before companions start dropping, while most wounding strategies deliver 15 or more wounds across sites 7-9 to leave Frodo dead or stuck skirmishing more minions that he can handle.
This scenario is where Held can offer something: by putting as many wounds as possible from sites 7 and 8 on Frodo before discarding Held, the Free Peoples player may be able to get by with just two or three losses (especially if Frodo wasn't able to fully heal at site 6). Minions in wounding decks are typically lower strength, which means discarding Held with its text at site 8 is much easier to achieve and Frodo can expect to handle a minion on his own. If a companion has a defender bonus then Frodo may not have to fight at all despite the wounding thrown at the Free Peoples. In conjunction with Sam, the Free Peoples player can reliably assign up to 14 wounds to Frodo (5 wounds, plus 9 more converted to burdens) before allowing him to be overwhelmed and transfer the Ring to Sam, discarding Held in the process.
Against other strategies, the wound-converting of Held is typically less impactful as no version of The One Ring can't be worn for a skirmish. If the Free Peoples player is using a copy of The One Ring that must be worn in the maneuver phase, Held can occasionally allow Frodo to make full use of his vitality before soaking up burdens. In theory Held may also offer some protection against regroup phase wounding (a feature of non-Warg 
Isengard Orc decks), which only Isildur's Bane and The Ring of Rings can do. In practice, however, Isengard Warrior (3U61)
discourages loading Frodo up with wounds in order to benefit from Held and at the same time if those minions are giving the Free Peoples player trouble then they are surviving to the regroup phase, potentially risking corruption if there's no plan B for discarding it.
Of course, site 9 concerns do not apply to Frodo, Frenzied Fighter (13R149)
. It can't automatically corrupt any Ring-bearer except Frodo, so in this case it functions very similarly to Shadowfax, Unequaled Steed (11U40)
-- the protection of The One Ring is essentially extended to Frodo. Unlike Unequaled Steed, however, Held is not optional: killing Frodo when necessary may prove difficult. Ironically, the danger is still greatest at site 9 when the Free Peoples player has little to gain by keeping Frodo alive and much to lose as the burdens stack up.
Deckbuilding Strategy[edit]
For most decks Held is only really useful in a handful of matchups so you will rarely be tempted to include more than one copy of it. Luckily, it has the greatest utility as a protection against wounding decks which typically only strike after site 6 -- drawing it early allows a player to lean on it more heavily, while drawing it late (as long as it's by site 7!) allows a player to use it when its need is most dire.
You may not be able to sweep the board every turn and discard Held at your leisure, so it is important to include a backup plan. If Frodo has low enough strength, the Free Peoples player can have him overwhelmed and give the ring to many versions of Sam, not only discarding Held but clearing as many burdens as Frodo was able to bear. While many Free Peoples cards specify that they discard a Shadow condition, others can discard any condition -- including your own. Actions that take place in the Fellowship or Regroup phase are ideal, since the start of your turn at site 8 and the end of your turn at site 7 are the latest phases to get rid of it while getting full use of the effect. Seven We Had (4U318)
has limited use against many Shadow strategies, but is always available for use and is the only option available for decks with only Hobbits, Dwarves, or Smeagol since none of those cultures have another way to discard an arbitrary condition borne by Frodo.
When using Frodo, Frenzied Fighter (13R149)
with a high-resistance alternate ring-bearer like Sam, Bearer of Great Need (13R156)
, extra copies may come in handy -- not only will the card be more generally useful since Frenzied Fighter has no wound protection from The Ring, but the Shadow player will be less tempted to leave it in play as there's no hope of it automatically costing the Free Peoples player the game. It's not unique, so you also won't be stuck with a dead card in hand (even if the second copy is not a useful one). Just remember that Held will only kick in once Frodo is exhausted, so it won't always be possible to benefit from it and his ability.
It may be tempting to include in *any* Frenzied Fighter deck, Held is only going to make an impact when Frodo is taking wounds. While it can make for a great fallback, many decks with lots of healing, skirmish cancelling, or that aim for Frodo to win his skirmishes will gain far greater benefit from more flexible prevention such as Nice Imitation (2U106)
or additional skirmish buffs than this card.
Only Frenzied Fighter can replace the Ring-bearer in a skirmish, although depending on what you want to get out of Held there may be more effective ways to accomplish something similar without the downsides. If an invincible companion is your main focus then consider some version of Bilbo: Consorting With Wizards (2R97)
makes him immune to wounds with no cost at all (and Pippin, Friend to Frodo (1C306)
can keep it safe). Similarly, if all you're hoping to do is replace a companion in skirmishes to mitigate losses you may find that Pippin, Brave Decoy (11R170)
is able to do nearly the same job with access to most of the same tools Frodo has (plus some extra ones, such as Halfling Leaf (17U106)
). Gandalf can replicate Frenzied Fighter + Held for unbound companions: Shadowfax, Unequaled Steed (11U40)
allows Gandalf to convert wounds into burdens without even being exhausted and Mighty Steed (8U17)
can be easily recursed (or Gandalf, The White Rider (12R27)
can be used) to put him into the necessary skirmishes.
Strengths and Weaknesses[edit]
Synergizes With...[edit]
- Frodo, Frenzied Fighter (13R149)
, which can bear Held without fear of site 9 and isn't able to use The Ring for protection
- Effects that can discard your own conditions, such as Sleep, Caradhras (1C84)
, Let Us Be Swift (5C85)
, and Secret Sentinels (2R20)
(to name a few) - Cards that discard minions, such as Gondor's Vengeance (1C106)
and Narrow Escape (10U111)
- Either version of Mithril-coat (2R105)
, which can help keep burdens added to a minimum if Frodo will be skirmishing - Any version of The One Ring except The One Ring, The Ring of Rings (11R1)
: the Free Peoples may be unable to use The Ring (for example, in the Regroup phase), unable to optimize Frodo's vitality (being forced to wear The Ring in the Maneuver phase in order to prevent him from being killed later), or unable to convert wounds as efficiently (many versions of The Ring have a cost to wearing them)
Strong Versus...[edit]
- Wounding decks - Held is more efficient than most versions of the One Ring at converting wounds to burdens and does so regardless of phase
Weak Versus...[edit]
- Almost everything. Because it is an *extremely* situational card, it is at best useless and often downright harmful much of the time -- a waste of hand and deck space that prevents you from getting anything worth playing
Rulings[edit]
If your Ring-bearer’s resistance is reduced to zero, he is corrupted. (See losing the game.) Only your Ring-bearer can be corrupted. There are cards that can corrupt the Ring-bearer, regardless of how many burdens he might have.
- Corrupted section
Because Held is not optional, once Frodo is exhausted it cannot be used in conjunction with response actions to prevent wounds such as Intimidate (1C76)
:
Every action is either optional or required. An optional action is defined as: an action that uses the word "may," an event, or a special ability. All other actions are required actions.
...
All required actions responding to a particular trigger are performed before any optional actions. After all such required actions have resolved, players may perform optional actions responding to that same trigger using the action procedure. (See response.)- Action section
Some actions are preformed when a described situation "is about to" happen. Typically, only one of such action can be performed in a given situation, because its effect will "prevent" that situation or replace it with another effect "instead."
- Response section
