CCG League Virtual Set 2: The Two Towers II (preview)

[Tbiesty]

Greetings!

CCG League Virtual Set 2: The Two Towers II will be finalized soon (November 2011).  Here's a preview...

Quick As May Be (V)      
Event
Regroup: If you can spot Legolas and
Aragorn and neither is exhausted, exert
Gimli twice at a plains site to make
the move limit +1 for this turn.

Enraged (V)                      
Condition
Str: +4
To play, exert an unbound Hobbit or spot
an card.
Bearer must be an Ent.  Limit 1 per bearer.
Bearer is not Unhasty.
Discard this condition at end of the turn.

Ancient Roads (V)        
Condition
Plays to your support area.
When you play this condition, you may play
Forbidden Pool, Forests of Ithilien, Henneth
Annun, or Ruins of Osgiliath from your draw deck.
Assignment: Spot a ranger to assign a minion
to a Ring-bound companion. That minion loses
ambush and is unable to gain ambush until the
regroup phase. Discard this condition.

•Grima, Son of Galmod (V)          
Minion • Man
Strength: 4
Vitality: 3
Site: 4
Maneuver: Exert Grima to transfer a
possession or condition borne by an
ally or unbound companion to another
eligible bearer.

•Saruman, Black Traitor (V)          
Minion • Wizard
Strength: 8
Vitality: 4
Site: 4
Saruman may not be assigned to a skirmish.
When you play Saruman, you may spot Grima
(or a Man) to play an condition
from your draw deck.
Shadow: Exert Saruman and remove to
play an Man from your discard pile.

Where Has Grima Stowed It? (V)      
Event
Maneuver: Spot Grima and another Man to spot
an ally or unbound companion.  Place each Free Peoples
weapon borne by that ally or unbound companion beneath
its owner's draw deck.

•Durin's Tower (V)                                      
Condition  
Plays to your support area.
Each time the fellowship moves, add
for each Dwarf bearing 2 or more Free
Peoples cards.
Skirmish: Discard your unique minion
to exhaust a wounded companion (except
the Ring-bearer). Discard this condition.

Men of Harad (V)
Condition
To play, spot a mounted Man.
Plays to your support area.
Maneuver: Spot a site you control, spot
3 Southrons, and remove to add a
burden (limit once per turn).
Regroup: Discard 3 Southrons and
remove to take control of a site.

Fight for the Villagers (V)                              
Event
Skirmish: Make a Man strength +2.
If that Man wins this skirmish, you
may heal a villager.

•Forth Eorlingas! (V)                                      
Condition
Plays to your support area.
While you can spot 4 unbound companions
with the Theoden signet, Theoden is vitality +1.
Response: If a companion with the
Theoden signet (except Theoden) wins a
skirmish, heal Theoden. Discard this condition.

•Dead Marshes (V)
Condition
Plays to your support area.
While the fellowship is at site 4T, Wraiths
cannot take wounds.
Response: If a Wraith wins a skirmish,
discard that Wraith and another twilight minion
to add 2 burdens. Discard this condition.

•Morannon (V)
Condition
Plays to your support area.
The twilight cost of the first Troll
played at site 4T is -4.
Maneuver: Spot 2 Orcs to shuffle
up to 2 Trolls from your discard pile
into your draw deck. Discard this condition.

•No Use That Way (V)                                    
Condition
To play, spot Frodo and Sam.
Plays to your support area.
Response: If Smeagol (or Gollum) is about
to be discarded by a Free Peoples card,
stack him here instead.
Skirmish: Wound a minion skirmishing a
Ring-bound Hobbit for each card
stacked here. Discard this condition.

(Site 4T) White Rocks (V)                                  
Battleground. Each time Gimli or Legolas wins a skirmish at White Rocks,
you may play My Axe Is Notched or Final Count from your draw deck.

Enjoy!

Here is a little background info for the designing of this virtual set:

The main goal of the CCG League virtual sets are to fill gaps in deck strategies. This generally involves helping strategies that had promise, but never had enough support to be competitive; it can also involve providing a way to counter an overly powerful strategy.  The result is a larger variety of balanced, competitive decks.

Strategies to Help:
Theoden Signet
Bouncing Smeagol
Legolas and Gimli keeping score
Three Hunters
Isengard Men
Unhasty Ents
Villagers
Twilight Wraith Minions
Sauron Trolls
Raider Burdens/Site Control

Strategies to Counter:
Tank Dwarves (mostly for King format)
Bouncing Gollum (mostly for King format)
Ambush

(Click here for more info about CCG League Virtual Set 1: Fellowship of the Ring II -- released April 2011)

[Thranduil]

Quick observation:

Deathless Lord seems strange as a twilight WK, especially as there is already a WK who's supposed to be the top end of a twilight deck (Lord of the Nazgul). If you're going to redo Deathless Lord, then I think he should be deathless. Something like:

•The Witch-King, Deathless Lord (V)
Minion • Nazgûl
Strength: 14
Vitality: 4
Site: 3
Fierce.
Response: If the Witch-King is about to be killed or discarded from play, remove to shuffle him into your draw deck instead.

Or something similar.

Otherwise, the cards look good and seem to make good sense.

Thran

[Tbiesty]

Thanks for mentioning the suggestion! I did have some doubts whether The Witch-king, Deathless Lord was the right card choice to help the twilight wraiths strategy. Now I'm certain it's not the best option.

We did have another idea that would work for helping the twilight wraith strategy while providing better "flavor".  I'll update this topic with the update soon.

Stay tuned.

[Tbiesty]

[Update: •The Witch-king, Deathless Lord (V) replaced with •Dead Marshes (V).]

[Not a Zombie]

Men of Harad still seems a bit weak to me, as does dead marshes. I like what you are doing with them, but I think they are not yet powerful enough to make the strategies worth playing. For dead marshes, maybe if you didn't have to discard the condition, or make it discard at the end of turn, it would be better.

[Haszor]

The only thing that your version of Enraged does is make someone exert to play it, Unhasty as far as I know is an unloaded keyword and therefore your version really would hinder the fellowship rather than help it.

[Not a Zombie]

Unhasty is loaded, any character having that keyword may not be assigned to a skirmish by any player.

[Thranduil]

Unhasty is loaded, any character having that keyword may not be assigned to a skirmish by any player.

Unhasty is loaded, but it's ability is not quite what you describe. Unhasty characters can only be assigned to skirmishes by the Free Peoples player if a card allows them to be.

Hence, Enraged (V) making the bearer lose unhasty is a good thing.

Thran

[Tbiesty]

Thanks for the input guys! I'll let you know once the set is finialized and my playing group starts using it (sometime next month).

[MarcinS]

Unhasty is loaded, but it's ability is not quite what you describe. Unhasty characters can only be assigned to skirmishes by the Free Peoples player if a card allows them to be.

You're not exact yourself, here is a full meaning, not that Unhasty characters can be assigned to skirmish if they are at home (allies) without a use of any card:
"Unhasty - The Free Peoples player cannot assign a character with this keyword to a skirmish unless it is at its home site (see ally) or when a GANDALF card allows it do so."

[Tbiesty]

CCG League Virtual Set 2: The Two Towers II is now complete.   Here's a link.
Enjoy!

[macheteman]

i thought you could discard 2 cards from hand to assign an unhasty companion to a skirmish. is this incorrect?

[Not a Zombie]

Men of harad may be even more useless now, but otherwise they are pretty cool

[Ringbearer]

I find Where Has Grima Stowed It ridiculously good. THe rest is ok.

[Tbiesty]

Document updated! (Had the wrong version of Men of Harad (V) in it. The rest was correct.)
Enjoy! :-)

[Not a Zombie]

Better, but I still think it's a bit underpowered.