News From the Mark

[ket_the_jet]

News From the Mark is dangerous territory. It allows the Shadow player to draw 6 extra cards, but almost guarantees (unless he or she cycles superbly) that the Shadow player will not get an opportunity to reconcile more than once over the course of the turn.

Worse yet, he or she could play News From the Mark and then clog your hand by not double or triple moving.

Thus, the poll question. If someone plays the card, what do you do.

Furthermore, does anyone actually play this card? I find it quite extraordinary. I mean, with Radagast, the Brown and a stacked fellowship, you could conceptually end the game from site 4! You'd probably need a quick setup with Saved From the Fire, of course...
-wtk

[TheJord]

Remember that reconciling means discarding down to 8, so you could toss a lot of unneeded cards that way. I did consider a Mounted /Sauron Discard deck, as News from the Mark means lots of drawing for them, but its a bit too cheesy to work

[Thranduil]

I feel like drawing 6 cards, you're bound to find enough (or filter through enough) cards that you'll find stuff to kill a fellowship on a triple move - that is, as long as your playing a good Shadow deck. This is why I have never considered playing NftM - just seems far too much like death to me.

Thranduil

[ket_the_jet]

Well, for two twilight it might be a really good idea to play. If they draw the cards and you don't move again, then you may have forced them to discard a few important cards.
-wtk

[Alazzar]

Well, for two twilight it might be a really good idea to play. If they draw the cards and you don't move again, then you may have forced them to discard a few important cards.
-wtk

Sure, it's possible you may have forced them to discard important cards, but I feel you're even more likely to have made them draw cards they needed that they otherwise wouldn't have gotten for a turn.  And really, if you have 14 cards in hand, after you get done playing a few in your Shadow phase, what are the chances that every card left in your hand will be a vital one?

I dunno, I guess I just don't see the point in playing the card unless you plan on making use of the move limit bonus.  Giving the other player 6 cards is pretty much never going to hurt them unless you're trying to mill their deck away (in which case you're probably playing Dwarves instead of Rohan anyway).

To answer your question for the thread, I'd draw 6 cards, every time.  =P