Format Rules, Regulations and Red Tape

[SomeRandomDude]

Unfortunately, due to a series of unfortunate errors on the part of Decipher, cards ended up being made *cough*Steadfast Champion*cough* that were eventually banned for doing things like discarding your opponents deck, hand, minions and all conditions, and then making the move limit infinite...or other...bad things.

So here we have a list of things that you cannot cram in your decks. In each appropriate format.

Standard Format X-List (None of these cards are legal for standard play).

All cards from sets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
All promotional cards 0P1 - 0P19, 0P21, 0P22, 0P30 - 0P47 and 0P62 -0P67
Aggression
Courtyard Parapet
Demoralized
Final Account
Galadriel, Lady Redeemed
Madril, Defender of Osgiliath
Memories of Darkness
Mordor Fiend
Orkish Smith
Steadfast Champion
Strange-Looking Men

Standard Format R-List (A maximum of one copy each of these cards may be included in a standard deck).

(none)

Expanded Format X-List (None of these cards are legal for expanded play).

Aggression
Aragorn, Heir to the White City
A Talent for not Being Seen
Final Account
Frying Pan
Galadriel, Lady of Light
Galadriel, Lady of the Golden Wood
Galadriel, Lady Redeemed
Gimli, Dwarf of the Mountain-race
Horn of Boromir
Legolas, Dauntless Hunter
Memories of Darkness
Mordor Fiend
Orkish Smith
Sam, Son of Hamfast
Saruman, Keeper of Isengard
Saruman's Snows
Steadfast Champion
Sting
Strange-Looking Men
The Palantir of Orthanc
The Shire Countryside
Ulaire Nertea, Messenger of Dol Guldur

Expanded Format R-List (A maximum of one copy each of these cards may be included in an expanded deck).

Bill the Pony
Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
Elrond, Lord of Rivendell
Flaming Brand
Fortress Never Fallen
Forces of Mordor
Get on and Get Away
No Stranger to the Shadows
Ottar, Man of Laketown
Relics of Moria
Savagery to Match Their Numbers

Open Format X-List (None of these cards are legal for open play).

(none- knock yourself out )

Open Format R-List (A maximum of one copy each of these cards may be included in an open deck).

Forces of Mordor
Memories of Darkness
Mordor Fiend
Orkish Smith
Steadfast Champion
Strange-Looking Men

Block Formats

Fellowship Block- Sets 1 through 3 only
-Same Restricted List as Open

Towers Block- Sets 4 through 6 only
-Same Restricted List as Open

King Block- Sets 7, 8 and 10 only
-Same Restricted List as Open
-Gondorian Captain banned in most play

War of the Ring Block- Sets 11 through 13 only
-Same Restricted List as Open

Hunters Block- Sets 15, 17 and 18 only
-Same Restricted List as Open

Alternate Formats

No-Rares
-No Rare Cards Allowed
-Expanded Format X-list

Movie Block
-Sets 1-10 allowed; King sites
-X-List
Aggression
Aragorn, Heir to the White City
Bill the Pony
Elrond, Lord of Rivendell
Flaming Brand
Forces of Mordor
Frying Pan
Galadriel, Lady of Light
Gondorian Captain
Horn of Boromir
Memories of Darkness
Mordor Fiend
No Stranger to the Shadows
Ottar, Man of Laketown
The Palantir of Orthanc
Relics of Moria
Saruman, Keeper of Isengard
Savagery to Match Their Numbers
Steadfast Champion
Sting
Ulaire Nertea, Messenger of Dol Guldur

Culture Shock
-Expanded Format X-list
-Only cards of one culture allowed on each side of the deck (ring-bearer excepted)

Highlander
-No X-list
-All cards restricted to one copy per deck

Enjoy!

~NB

[Elessar's Socks]

The August 13 CRD added these to the Standard Format X-List, the Open & Block Format Restricted List, and the Expanded Format X-List:

Strange-looking Men
Orkish Smith

(Block formats have restricted cards taken from the Open format restricted list.)

The X-List for movie block is often cited as the X-List before Shadows:

Aggression
Aragorn, Heir to the White City
Bill the Pony
Elrond, Lord of Rivendell
Flaming Brand
Forces of Mordor
Frying Pan
Galadriel, Lady of Light
Gondorian Captain
Horn of Boromir
Memories of Darkness
Mordor Fiend
Ottar, Man of Laketown
No Stranger to the Shadows
The Palantír of Orthanc
Relics of Moria
Saruman, Keeper of Isengard
Savagery to Match Their Numbers
Steadfast Champion
Sting
Úlairë Nertëa, Messenger of Dol Guldur

Thanks! Edited.

[Kralik]

From LOTRO at least, Movie Block includes set 9. Link to their formats page.

[Gil-Estel]

Pepin played me a few times lately and in every movieblock deck I have includes 4 copies of Shire Countryside. He keeps saying it is banned, but I don't see the support for that claim...help me, please

[Elessar's Socks]

If you're playing the game as it was like before Shadows was released, The Shire Countryside would be legal.

[Pepin The Breve]

   The fact is that Movie Block don´t have any official rulling that i know so we must get to some agreement around it.

   I always played with expanded X and R lists in movie block. I just found that with mount doom cards like A Light in His Mind and even Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom it´s just a crazy healing machine but i agree that we have other cards that are powerful as well and aren´t banned.

  I think the best solution is to do some agreement between the players. I have also played movie block against Sam, SoH and i really don´t know what is the reason that would make him x-ed in expanded and not in movie.

   Our good sense are above some rullings (or the lack of it in this case) so we can manage to get some deal around it. All the games i face the mentioned cards we continued to play without problems and they don´t screw up the game with some dort of crazy loop combo so i think there is not much problem with that.

    Anyway i´m just happy that people here are trying to adventure in movie block! We can make a SdA tourney maybe... 

[Pepin The Breve]

   How about this movie block deck:

 Put your Shire Countryside at table. Use Frodo that add burdens to wound minions, PATHS, Merry that add strenght to other companion, Smego that add a burden to get st+2  paired with this things to get burdens out (Nine-fingered, light in his mind, sam, soh, etc...) and take no wounds you will have a almost imortal companion (Smeagol), a very protected RB and the mass exertion you will need to do this every time will just be gone as soon as they were added...

EDIT: Ah, we can´t forget the main card Not Listening (6C43)

So make Smego BIG enough to win some skirmish remove burdens and heals all the party    Next turn? Peel tehe burdens out with Sam and heal him and Merry with countryside using Not Listening (6C43), a A Light in His Mind (10U108)
 or Nine-fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom (10C112)... Pretty powerfull don´t you think?

[Elessar's Socks]

I don't disagree that TSC is overpowered/broken, but that's the X-List I think most people here would assume to be in effect, and it's the one LOTRO uses. Maybe it could've been called King Standard instead or something. But if you're on the same page with your opponent, you can of course ban (or un-ban) anything you'd like (personally I'm still waiting for Madril DoO to be kicked from Expanded).

[Kralik]

and it's the one LOTRO uses.

And it's also documented in some old CRD's. Overpowered or not, you have to agree on something unless/until a PC is established...

Of course, I am more than happy to abuse The Shire Countryside myself.
Your shadow needs some condition discarding!

[Gil-Estel]

like Saruman's Power...woohoo!

[Gil-Estel]

Highlander question. 1 copy of each card is allowed. Does it matter if I have multiple Aragorns, but different subtitles?

[macheteman]

i remember asking that question a while back, and the answer was no. you can only have one aragorn.

[Gil-Estel]

Ok, fair enough...will put some thinking in to it....

[Gil-Estel]

Ok guys, help me here. If you play movieblock, without Reflections, what are the rulings regarding different cards. I mean, cancelling RB skirmish was banned due to the Reflections. etc etc etc. How do you play it?

[leokula]

I'd say it's ok to cancel skirmishes if reflections is not allowed. Movie Block is a format created for players anyway and there is no official rulings for it, as far as I'm concerned.

I don't even know how accurate is the X-List on this topic for movie block, 'cause i thought Galadriel, LR was banned before shadows.

[Gil-Estel]

me too, but he says she isn't...evil is coming!

[leokula]

LMAO again I think it's very very unlikely that she's legal in movie block...

Anybody out there knows if she was banned because of a shadows card or simply because she's broken on her own?

[daisukeman]

I have a CRD that has Galadriel banned before shadows.
I don't know why the kept changing these rulings and the decipher site went down, so I don't know if any changes were made about that. I like to keep her banned where I play.

An about RB's cancelling, I've understood since Reflections they realized it was not sane for the RB to cancel. So be it FotR, TTT, RoTK, or MB no RB cancelling was allowed ever again.
That's how we play here and how I've understood the decision events...

[leokula]

I think cancelling skirmishes with Frodo in movie block is OK, it was never OP. The main concern was with stuff like Voice of Nimrodel in Galadriel, BoW and Boromir's Gauntlets in Boromir, BoC. Apart from that, there are no abusive cards that cancel skirmishes before Shadows.

[Elessar's Socks]

Galadriel, Lady Redeemed (and Final Account) were added to the X-List in January 2005, after the release of Shadows (article here). Changes to the X-List upon the release of Shadows are covered here.

Anyway, these are just for the records. If your group doesn't like the lady in whatever format, nothing's stopping you from banning her. Same with scaling back the canceling rules (technically later rules documents supersede earlier ones).

[Kralik]

I have a CRD that has Galadriel banned before shadows.

If you have any old CRD's, please attach them so they can be uploaded for reference? But, the newest CRD I have before Shadows has an X-list without Galadriel LR, identical to the Movie Block X-list used by LOTRO. That CRD is posted in The Archives.

Movie Block is a format created for players anyway and there is no official rulings for it, as far as I'm concerned.

Decipher's definition was on their LOTRO pages (now missing) and can be checked with the LOTRO deck validator.

As far as canceling RB skirmishes: I'd say do it in Fellowship/Towers, since cards in those blocks were designed for it specifically. But not in King/Movie.

[rubbercarp]

What is the definition of "Expanded?" Is it all sets (minus the XList above)? What sites should I be using? Can I use any sites from Shadows onward?

I am a former player that got out of the game before Shadows (so the last set I have cards from is 10 Mt. Doom) but a friend of mine who I want to play with has some cards from Shadows and Black Rider. We're trying to find a middle ground where neither of us have to completely rework all of our decks.

He doesn't want to play Movie Block because he has decks with newer cards in them and a new unnumbered site path. And I don't want to play Standard because it bans over 2/3rds of the cards that I already own.

I've been lurking on these boards for a few days trying to find a middle ground, and it sounds like it might be "Expanded."

Thoughts?

[Elrohir]

Hi rubber,

In expanded, you use sites from Shadows onwards. In your case, you can play cards from editions 4 (The two towers) to 13 (Bloodlines). - This (former standard) format should work. Use either Rotk Block sites (with crown symbol) or site from shadows, Black Riders and Bloodlines.

Sincerely

[MR. Lurtzy]

This is the expanded xlist and rlist
Expanded Format X-List (None of these cards are legal for expanded play).

Aggression
Aragorn, Heir to the White City
A Talent for not Being Seen
Final Account
Frying Pan
Galadriel, Lady of Light
Galadriel, Lady of the Golden Wood
Galadriel, Lady Redeemed
Gimli, Dwarf of the Mountain-race
Horn of Boromir
Legolas, Dauntless Hunter
Memories of Darkness
Mordor Fiend
Orkish Smith
Sam, Son of Hamfast
Saruman, Keeper of Isengard
Saruman's Snows
Steadfast Champion
Sting
Strange-Looking Men
The Palantir of Orthanc
The Shire Countryside
Ulaire Nertea, Messenger of Dol Guldur

Expanded Format R-List (A maximum of one copy each of these cards may be included in an expanded deck).

Bill the Pony
Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
Elrond, Lord of Rivendell
Flaming Brand
Fortress Never Fallen
Forces of Mordor
Get on and Get Away
No Stranger to the Shadows
Ottar, Man of Laketown
Relics of Moria
Savagery to Match Their Numbers


You can play any other cards, but use the site path from the newer sets (11 and onward)

[rubbercarp]

Thanks Elrohir and Lurtzy for your FAST responses!

Though there seem to be some descrepancies between your answers =)

[Elessar's Socks]

The official Expanded format is what Lurtzy described. All sets legal, following the X/R-lists above, and sites only from set 11 (Shadows) on.

Another (unofficial) approach is, as Elrohir described, to scale back Standard format to before Towers Block was rotated out and Hunters was released. For "authenticity" that would be sites from set 11 on, and following whatever X/R-list was in use at the time. Maybe you could borrow later sites, or both use the RotK site path (possibly adjusting the X-list for broken combos).

[rubbercarp]

Thanks so much everyone!
What a great community this is!

It took me a while to find an active community (since most searches direct back to dead Decipher and DGMA pages). As I said, I've been lurking for a few days and this site is really great!

Looks like I'm off to the Trading pages to see if I can get my hands on some Sites!

[Gil-Estel]

There I could help you out....Where are you from...try to get rid of like 10.000 plus unc/common from set 1-18, for like 30 usd. But since I live in the Netherlands I guess shipping would be high if it is to be send to other parts of the world...

[Elessar's Socks]

Since this has come up a few times, here are the articles I could find giving reasons why certain cards were added to the X-List.

Still missing:

Aggression
Final Account
Frying Pan
Galadriel, Lady Redeemed
Memories of Darkness
Mordor Fiend
Steadfast Champion
The Shire Countryside

Cards Not in the New Enviorment

Below is a card-by-card analysis of the fifteen cards the Decipher TCG Studio concluded were skewing the play environment. You'll find that most of these cards either:

   1. Have too little "cultural enforcement." Cultural enforcement in The Lord of the Rings TCG means that something on the card requires a commitment to the culture. Perhaps it requires 3 cards from that culture before it can be played, or requires characters from its culture to exert to activate it. This enforcement ensures that to get the strengths of a given culture, you also have to deal with its weaknesses. Without this enforcement, all decks would devolve to "best of" decks.
   2. Are undercosted when compared to the benefit received from the card.
      For instance, a card like Filibert Bolger, Wily Rascal has an extremely useful (and powerful) ability. To be costed correctly, he needs either a higher cost to play, or a higher cost to use for his special ability.

The number of cards, especially Free Peoples cards, with these problems threatened the play environment with stagnation. To design cards that must compete with this host of overpowered cards would simply be replacing one of them with a new, more powerful version. The result would be that one deck type would continue to dominate the tournament scene, with players growing more and more unsatisfied with their gaming experience.

1R40 Elrond, Lord of Rivendell

The cultural enforcement on this card is not strong enough for the ability provided. Such an ability should require more of a commitment to the Elven culture. Also, when combined with other cards such as 1C59 Shoulder to Shoulder, the healing function of this card provides too much utility, both for Elrond, and other site 3 allies.

1R45 Galadriel, Lady of Light

This card has no cultural enforcement. The special ability allows a player to play high utility site 6 allies, who also lack cultural enforcement, for free. This level of permanent resource denial undermines the Shadow number curve on sites. Also, when combined with other cards such as 1C59 Shoulder to Shoulder, the healing function of this card provides too much utility, both for Galadriel, and other site 6 allies.

1R80 Ottar, Man of Laketown

This card makes large-scale card draw too accessible to all Free Peoples strategies. It requires a very low cultural commitment to a culture that is not supposed to be the strongest at Fellowship phase card draw.

1U108 No Stranger to the Shadows

This level of permanent resource denial undermines the Shadow number curve on sites.

1R139 Savagery to Match Their Numbers

The secondary function of this card is too strong for its cost, and makes the card superior in almost all situations to any other strength event.

1U234 Ulaire Nertea

The special ability of this card has no cultural enforcement. This makes him too accessible to non-Ringwraith swarm decks. His ability also empowers the swarm by triggering the "best option" swarm minions repeatedly.

1C248 Forces of Mordor

This card was written before the swarm dimension was added to the Sauron culture. As such, it is too powerful in those decks.

1R313 Sting

There is no cultural enforcement on this card because every deck is required to play with Frodo. This is true of any card that requires only the Ring-bearer with no additional enforcement. The cost of the special ability, exerting a Hobbit, is undercosted for the utility it provides.

2R32 Flaming Brand

This card has no cultural enforcement, may be played in addition to another weapon, and has no cost. The resulting combination provides too much utility.

2C101 Filibert Bolger, Wily Rascal

There is no cultural enforcement on this card as all players have one or more Hobbits. For a special ability on a permanent, the cost is too low compared to the power provided. Also, this is a permanent that cancels the Ring-bearer's skirmish at site 9.

2R108 O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!

There is no cultural enforcement on this card as all players have a Ring-bearer. Also, this is a permanent that cancels the Ring-bearer's skirmish at site 9.

3R38 Aragorn, Heir to the White City

There is no cultural enforcement on the game text of this card. This level of permanent resource denial undermines the Shadow number curve on sites.

3R42 Horn of Boromir

There is no cultural enforcement on the special ability of this card. This permanent effectively circumvents the rule of 9 by allowing non-companions to skirmish.

3R68 Saruman, Keeper of Isengard

This card effectively doubles the number of skirmishes a fellowship faces by making all Uruk-hai fierce and then nullifying play that would serve as protection against those Uruk-hai.

4C192 Uruk Regular

The cost reduction of this minion is too extreme, especially when combined with the reduction on 4U347 Deep of Helm.

Last Updated: Monday, April 14, 2003

Shadows Cast Upon the X-List

This November, Shadows – the newest expansion for The Lord of the Rings TCG – will come roaring onto the scene. The rules changes made in this new set are small, but between them and the 266 cards that comprise it, the impact on the strategy will be huge. Consequently, we will be adding 9 cards to the X-List with the release of Shadows.

This does represent the largest single update to the X-List since its creation, but we believe this to be the right step to maintain the health and diversity of the tournament environment. We're confident that the exciting strategies allowed by the new rules and cards of Shadows – which were created with eyes firmly on a long-term future of depth and variety – will easily compensate for the loss of a handful of cards.

Effective upon the release of Shadows, the following cards will be on the X-List:
Saruman's Snows (1 C 138)
Sam, Son of Hamfast (1 C 311)
A Talent For Not Being Seen (1 U 316)
Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow (2 R 75)
Gimli, Dwarf of the Mountain Race (2 P 121)
Galadriel, Lady of the Golden Wood (3 R 17)
Legolas, Dauntless Hunter (4 R 73)
Fortress Never Fallen (4 U 276)
Get On and Get Away (4 R 304)

Also, we will be removing from the X-List:
Gondorian Captain (7 C 96)

Finally, though not related directly to the X-List, there are important rulings clarifying the play of 4 other cards in the Open and Standard environments:
Paths Seldom Trodden (1 U 222)
Úlairë Nelya, Lieutenant of Morgul (1 U 233)
Dark Places (2 C 55)
Grimbold, Marshal of Rohan (7 R 233)

With sneak previews of Shadows cards and rumors of rules already buzzing about the community, some of you may deduce the reasons behind these changes. But in case you're not up on the latest gossip (or aren't sure which bits of it to believe), here's a card-by-card explanation of each of these changes.

Saruman's Snows
This card had perhaps a slower rise to power than some, but before long players knew this was one of the most effective conditions in the game. Its impact was so deep, more than one top-level tournament deck has been seen stocking multiple copies of Boromir's Cloak exclusively to deal with it. For a "swarm" style of Shadow strategy, quite potent enough on its own, Saruman's Snows ensures the Ring-bearer will be overwhelmed.

Saruman's Snows does not necessarily interact directly with any of the new rules in Shadows. We have witnessed over the years, however, that it is a figurative mallet where a scalpel is called for. Denying an opponent a resource or opportunity he was counting on is of course what the game is all about. A missed chance to heal here, a lost special ability there; in the right quantities, these are the things meant to decide games. But Saruman's Snows is a card able to cut off an entire phase of the game – neither skirmish special abilities nor events can slip by it. Consequently, it's a constant impediment to new card design. In a way, it doesn't matter how interesting or impactful a new card we release is – if it happens in the skirmish phase, there's a frequently used card out there that can shut it off.  You may well see aspects of this card reappearing in the future, but not all together in a gift-wrapped single package like this.

Sam, Son of Hamfast
This card has been on our X-List radar for quite some time. The deck lists turned in by the top 16 players of each major event this year were a perfect example of why – in every case, at least 15 of them were stocking one or more copies of Sam. He is simply too versatile, offering huge benefits regardless of Free Peoples strategy, and regardless of who your Ring-bearer is. And he's even better if your Ring-bearer happens to be Frodo.

With Shadows, the need to address Sam became even more pressing. With resistance becoming an important feature of all companions (not just Ring-bearer) and it being directly tied to burdens, Sam easily undermined a large number of Shadow cards in the set, and made many Free Peoples cards too reliable (and thus, too strong).

A Talent for Not Being Seen
Any single type of function of the game can be looked at as falling somewhere on a scale. For example, take healing: on one end of the scale, you have a card which removes 1 wound, while on the other you might have a card which removes 20. Cost is just as important as scope in determining where on the scale a card falls, of course. A card that heals a wound for a twilight cost of 2 is lower on the scale than a card that heals a wound for a twilight cost of 1.

With A Talent For Not Being Seen, the scale in question is denying twilight tokens to the Shadow player. Talent has a very low cost, and over the course of the game it can deny a lot of twilight tokens. Thus its scope leaves us very little room to make cards any better than it without "exploding" this aspect of the game. At the same time, its cost is so low that it leaves us very little room to make cards of lower scope than it – there's not much lower the cost for such cards can get. It's sort of a big, rotting tree in the middle of the "twilight denial" acreage. With very limited possibilities for building around it, it had to be torn down to make space for the house we intend to build on the land.

For those who feel I've stretched my analogy a bit thin (or who draw an unpleasant comparison with Saruman uprooting the forest near Isengard), let me say it another, perhaps simpler way: Talent has been a card near the edge of "trouble" for some time, and with recent efforts to increase the strength of other aspects of the Hobbit culture, it was judged too powerful to remain in the environment.

Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
There was talk of adding Bill Ferny to the X-List while we worked on Reflections. Clearly, he works well against the alternate Ring-bearers and deters some players from using them. But at that time, we felt that the scales were not tipped far enough against the new Ring-bearers to warrant removing Ferny.

But now Shadows gives resistance a much larger role in the game, and the fact that Ring-bearers other than Frodo have a lower resistance is becoming a greater liability in and of itself. That new liability, combined with the existence of Bill Ferny, threatened to make one of the most well-liked aspects of Reflections too unreliable in a tournament environment for most players to consider.

Also, as one more strike against Bill Ferny (though an unneeded one), Shadows introduces a couple of new cards to the Wraith culture (renamed from the Ringwraith culture) which, because they work for the whole culture and aren't Nazgûl specific, would have made Ferny a truly frightening force to be reckoned with.

Gimli, Dwarf of the Mountain Race
Dwarves as a culture have never excelled at keeping site Shadow numbers low and "choking" off the twilight pool. Gimli was a fun anomaly for the Fellowship block, where the number and placement of underground sites was known and limited. Those same boundaries held true on the Tower and King site paths. But with Shadows, all that is changing.

Shadows has a big focus on what design and development call "terrain" – that is, whether a site is a battleground, forest, mountain, river, or any of the other similar types of keywords. Terrain is so important with the new adventure path that in playtesting, players were frequently bidding to go second, and "pathfinding" (selection of the next site by the Free Peoples player) was valued as it has never been before. If a player wants to run an adventure path of nothing but one type of terrain, that may well be possible – if not with Shadows, then likely once Black Rider and Bloodlines are added to the mix.

In short, having a single, easy-to-start card (one with out-of-culture gameplay, at that) which could potentially deny 2 twilight tokens at every single site simply proved too strong.

Galadriel, Lady of the Golden Wood
Again, terrain is hugely important beginning with Shadows. And as with Gimli, this card was both too strong and out of culture. Pathfinding has never been a part of the Elven culture aside from this card, and suddenly Galadriel was enabling Elves to put out an uninterrupted string of forests onto the adventure path. She could even do this for free, since the cost of her exertion could be negated by using her to heal herself.

Legolas, Dauntless Hunter
This is another card that has been considered for the X-List before. One can look at deck lists before and after The Two Towers expansion and see a sudden, sharp drop in the number of conditions used by the average Shadow build, a trend which to this day many Shadow strategies don't dare to challenge. Playing against a Dauntless Hunter deck can be particularly negative to a new player, who is usually unaware that such a powerful deck type exists to stall playing Shadow events and conditions.

With Shadows, a third unbound Hobbit is on the way to add to Merry and Pippin, and push the power of this Legolas even farther. We also anticipate additional unbound Hobbits in future sets. While there's lots of room to debate whether Dauntless Hunter is simply "good" or "too strong" with two unbound Hobbits (and we certainly have in the past), that room shrinks quickly as the number of unbound Hobbits starts to rise.

Other cards such as Aragorn, Wingfoot, Gimli, Lockbearer, and various Ents also have a relationship with unbound Hobbits – one which we'll be watching closely in the future – but Legolas, being so near the edge of being a problem already, needed attention now.

Fortress Never Fallen
No doubt some will question adding a Rohan card to the X-List at a time when the Rohan culture is not making a strong impact in the environment. First of all, be assured that Rohan's star will rise again with future sets.

Since the release of The Two Towers, we have been refining the cultural identity of Rohan. Among other evolutions, we want them to be absolute top dog at dealing with Shadow possessions, but hard-pressed to deal with Shadow conditions. Let Us Be Swift and (in a very limited way) Arrow-slits are also capable of discarding conditions, but neither is as reliable or effective as Fortress Never Fallen. The card is so effective, it was impeding future design – it was hard for us to push Rohan to be strong at the things they're supposed to be strong at while they were also so strong at this particular thing they're supposed to be weak at. Any good push ran the risk of simply making them good at everything. With this "obstacle" removed, the road will now be clear for us to roll through with great new cards for fans of the Rohan culture.

Get On and Get Away
As with Galadriel, here was a pathfinding card that proved very powerful with the new adventure path. And like Galadriel, it's in a culture that should not have pathfinding at all. After all, who knows how long Frodo and Sam might have staggered lost through Emyn Muil without Sméagol to guide them out?

Gondorian Captain
This is the one card coming off the X-List upon the release of Shadows. We didn't really have it in for the Gondorian Captain when he was added to the X-List a few months ago. Unfortunately, his combination with Base of Mindolluin from Mount Doom was just too powerful to ignore.

We knew the adventure path would be changing with the release of Shadows (as it has at the beginning of every new block so far), thus removing Base of Mindolluin from the Standard and Open tournament environments. For this reason, there was some consideration given to the possibility of doing nothing about either card and waiting four months for the situation to resolve naturally. Ultimately, however, we decided the best thing to do would be to add Gondorian Captain to the X-List for a short time. Once the reason for his X-ing was gone, he could be brought back. When Shadows releases, that time will have come.

Paths Seldom Trodden
Úlairë Nelya, Lieutenant of Morgul
Dark Places
Grimbold, Marshal of Rohan

These four cards are not being added to the X-List, but they are going to suffer a hit at the hands of some rules changes effective upon the release of Shadows.

I'll be talking about exactly how the new adventure path in Shadows will work in an upcoming article on decipher.com. For now, the crucial thing know (which may whet the appetites of some of you) is that sites will no longer have site numbers printed on the cards. Players will have control over what site comes up on the adventure path, and when. A site will take on its site number (for purposes of roaming, and other such things) by virtue of being placed on the site path. While they're sitting around in your adventure deck, sites don't have a number at all.

Consequently, these four cards – each of which has the ability to trade a site on the adventure path with a site that has the same site number in your adventure deck – won't be able to do that any more. The fellowship may be at site 4, but there's no site 4 in your adventure deck or anyone else's, just a variety of sites waiting to get a site number when you play them.

That means if you play Úlairë Nelya, he'll be essentially a fierce minion with no other game text. Dark Places will offer a strength bonus to Moria minions, but nothing more. Grimbold will be a Valiant companion to spot, but otherwise won't do anything another companion can't do. And Paths Seldom Trodden… well, it's basically a blank condition.

Fortunately, all these cards will still retain their complete functionality in Fellowship and King block games. As I said earlier, we feel confident that when you learn how the new adventure path works and see all the strategic possibilities it adds to the game, you'll agree that the loss of these four cards is an easy tradeoff.

So there you have it, your first look at how the existing environment will be transformed by Shadows come November. Check decipher.com regularly as we reveal cards from the set itself.

Evan Lorentz
Decipher Game Designer

Last Updated: Monday, October 11, 2004

[Kralik]

Very interesting read, ES - thanks!

But... which list has Filibert Bolger?

[Elessar's Socks]

Bolger was taken off the X-List at some point... after the Ring-bearer's skirmish could no longer be canceled, I think.

The old decipher.com should have more of these goodies, but trying to access it through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine results in an error saying it's been blocked by robot exclusion.

[jdizzy001]

What is the ruling on promo cards for movie block?

[TheJord]

You can use cards that represent actual cards in Movie block, and those from the WETA collection (Radagast etc...)

[MuadDib85]

Erkenbrand and Anarion have resistance though.. 

[legolas3333]

yeah but so do all the reflections companions...

[MuadDib85]

No they don't. Just the Ringbearers.

My understanding was that resistance (the black numbered icon replacing signets) came in with shadows..

[Elessar's Socks]

Companions without printed resistance retroactively have a resistance of 6. However resistance on non-Ring-bearers might not have a use, depending on the format.

[MuadDib85]

Yeah I know about the resistance 6 rule in standard, but does that apply for movie block?

Does resistance apply at all (besides the ringbearer) in movie block?

Anarion and Erkenbrand would be the only companions in movie block (non-ringbearers) that actually have the black icon. I just noticed that's all, probably not important.

[Elessar's Socks]

The Comprehensive Rulebook does supersede earlier rulebooks, barring cases of player mutiny, so technically the resistance rule applies to earlier blocks. Anarion and Erkenbrand may stick out, but that's okay.

[Kralik]

Player mutiny, like... FotR RB Cancel?

[Elessar's Socks]

Yes.

[jdizzy001]

You can use cards that represent actual cards in Movie block, and those from the WETA collection (Radagast etc...)

Does that mean comps like king in exile 1P365 are off limits? or when we refer to promo are we referring to 0P cards?

[MuadDib85]

King in Exile is fine. He is a premium card. Not a promo.

Promos are 0P cards. 

Cards like Aragorn, Ranger of The North and Aragorn, Captain of Gondor have a normal and a 0P version. Either version is fine to use in movie.

[ket_the_jet]

Kralik and I have agreed for our own purposes that any Promo up until (and including) The One Ring, The Binding Ring (P) is elligible for games against each other in Movie Block.

Neither of us have used these characters to this point, but that was worth noting. Oh, and it didn't take a PC to make that agreement.
-wtk

[jdizzy001]

Kralik and I have agreed for our own purposes that any Promo up until (and including) The One Ring, The Binding Ring (P) is elligible for games against each other in Movie Block.

that is what I thought

[Kralik]

Kralik and I have agreed for our own purposes that any Promo up until (and including) The One Ring, The Binding Ring (P) is elligible for games against each other in Movie Block.

I like to start Reluctant Adventurer and then swap out Mr. Underhill (P).

[legolas3333]

i would only use Mr. Underhill if i was making a trust me deck... other than that they're the same basically.

[Kralik]

I don't care about the signet, but I like the picture best.

[Gwaihir]

I care about the signet.  Let Us Not Tarry.

[ket_the_jet]

I care about the signet.  Let Us Not Tarry.

Let Us Not Tarry only works on unbound companions, so the bonus doesn't help Frodo. Anyways, what's the difference between that and Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir, Frodo, Wicked Masster! or Frodo, Tired Traveller?
-wtk

Edit: At least pick a good Gandalf-signet card!
-wtk

[Witchkingx5]

I think Gwaihir wanted to say that it's useful for other ompanions when you use him and let us not tarry.

Well, Old Bilbo's Heir works mostly with Hobbit Allies anyway, so you won't run many TmAyOD in those decks.

Wicked Masster! was a great card until Resolute Hobbit was released, I nearly don't play him.

Tired Traveller is pretty cool in ring-bound Ranger decks, but there,signets don't matter anyway.

[Gwaihir]

Exactly, he is an extra gandalf signet that can be spotted helping an unbound companion in a skirmish.  No other gandalf signet frodo dramatically outshines him.  They may be better in some situations, but certainly not all.

[hrcho]

I was just checking my collection and putting cards on trade lists. As I don't play Standard, I'm trying to get rid of any post-MD cards. I found that I own a copy of Strange-Looking Men. I thought, cool, a Rare that I might trade good, but I just noticed it's X-ed. I can't really see the reason for that card being X-ed as it doesn't seem that powerful on its own. Maybe there's some kind of combo with another card.

Could someone explain it to me?

[legolas3333]

I could explain it to you, or, I could let smallman!

http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,2285.0.html

Or NBarden because smallman just mentioned it

http://lotrtcgwiki.com/community/viewtopic.php?search_id=1865839449&t=3823

[jdizzy001]

what is good about wicked masster!

[legolas3333]

well, before resolute hobbit was available, he was one of the best options for ring-bearer because he has a built in wounding engine and could save himself on later sites

[jdizzy001]

but 4 burdens....ouch!

[macheteman]

quick question, seeing as i never play standard...

are the wraith collection and expanded middle earth all legal for standard play?

[Not a Zombie]

Yes

[macheteman]

sweet

[Milosz006]

I did look around, is this the rules question thread? For the record I only played during the movie years. If you are playing with the sites from Shadows and on (Expanded, Open), does Galadriel, Lady of the Golden Wood still let you play sites? Either way, are there any cards from the movie block that work with the sites from Shadows on?

[Air Power]

This thread's for format/tournament questions rather than general rules questions.  Those go in the Archives of Minas Tirith, located here: http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/board,2.0.html

But in answer to your question, I think LotGW still works like she says even post-shadows.  The only cards that won't work in relation to sites are those that spot specific site numbers, like hobbit farmer.  Those only work using the sites from the movie in which they were made.

[Milosz006]

Thx.