CCG League Virtual Set 3: Return of the King II and Reflections II

[Tbiesty]

Greetings!

CCG League Virtual Set 3: Return of the King II and Reflections II is now here.  (This is the last of these virtual sets.)

Return of the King II:

    Stay This Madness (V)
   Condition • Support Area
   Bearer may be exerted only by
   Free People's cards.
   Maneuver: Spot Gandalf (or add 2 threats)
   to transfer this condition to an enduring
   minion. Heal that minion.

    •Gondorian Merchant (V)
   Ally • Home 3K • Man
   Strength: 6
   Vitality: 1
   Maneuver: If you have initiative, discard
   2 cards from hand to make the site
   number of a minion +2 until the regroup
   phase.

    High Vantage (V)
   Condition
   Bearer must be a mounted Man.
   Discard this possession if bearer is not
   mounted.
   For each Southron stacked here,
   bearer's strength and the minion
   archery total are +1 (limit +3).
   Shadow: Spot 2 Men, remove ,
   and stack a Southron from hand on this card
   to draw a card.

    •Speak No More To Me (V)
   Condition
   To play, spot a minion.
   Bearer must be an unbound Hobbit.
   While you can spot a or Man,
   the Free People's player may not use
   bearer's special abilities and bearer may be
   exerted only by Shadow cards.
   Discard this condition if bearer wins
   a skirmish.

Reflections II:

    •Ithil Stone (V)
   Artifact
   Bearer must be Sauron or The Witch-king.
   The Ring-bearer's resistance is -1 (or -2 while
   this artifact is in your support area).
   Response: If a companion or ally is killed
   in a skirmish involving bearer, transfer this
   artifact to your support area to discard a
   Free People's artifact.

    •Bilbo, Bearer of Things Burgled (V)
   Companion • Hobbit
   Strength: 3
   Vitality: 4
   Resistance: 8
   Ring-bound.
   Skirmish: If Bilbo is wearing The One Ring,
   exert him twice to add his strength to a
    or companion.
   Regroup: Add a burden to play a tale.

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:
Southron Mumaks (flavor)
Bilbo Ring-bearer
Gondor Ally (flavor)

Strategies to Counter:
Exerting Enduring Minions
Alternate Ring-bearers
Bouncing (return to hand) Hobbits
Gondor Artifacts

(Click here for more info about previous CCG League virtual sets)

[hsiale]

    •Gondorian Merchant (V)
   Ally • Home 3K • Man
   Strength: 5
   Vitality: 1
   Maneuver: If you have initiative, discard 2 cards
   from hand to make the site number of a minion +2
   until the regroup phase.

I don't think making him possible to skirmish at site 3 will make him better (especially as with such stats it's nearlyh sure he will be killed in that skirmish).

    High Vantage (V)
   Possession
   Bearer must be a mounted Man.
   Discard this possession if bearer is not mounted.
   For each Southron stacked here, bearer is
   strength +1 and the minion archery total is +1.
   Shadow: Remove to stack a Southron from
   hand on this card.

I see the idea. And I really like it. But there can be a few problems:
- stacking cards on a card that is not in a support area (and that is borne by a character which could be as well stacked there) is opening a big can of worms. This can lead to a lot of confusion.
- this is quite expensive, for those 3 twilight I could often simply play this minion.
- I would use a less used card, High Vantage is perfectly playable.

What do you think about this:

•Great Beasts
Possession • Support Area
At the start of the maneuver phase you may exert a mounted Southron to transfer this possession to him. Transfer this possession to your support area at the start of the regroup phase or when bearer is no longer mounted. For each Southron stacked on bearer, he is strength +1. Each archer stacked on bearer adds to minion archery total (limit 3 archers).
Archery or Skirmish: Remove to stack a Man from your hand or discard pile here.

    Speak No More To Me (V)
   Event • Response
   If a Hobbit is about to be returned to its
   owner's hand by a Free People's card,
   exert or discard your minion to cancel
   that action and discard that Hobbit instead.

Are WoBaS and Swordthain heavily played in your meta? I would never add such card into my deck. Maybe make this a condition and stick additional "discard to make a minion strength +2" to it (maybe making it unique as well so that the pump doesn't become too good)?

[Tbiesty]

A few updates...

[Tbiesty]

Updates are now complete!  Enjoy!

[Thranduil]

    Stay This Madness (V)
   Condition • Support Area
   Bearer may be exerted only by
   Free People's cards.
   Maneuver: Spot Gandalf (or add 2 threats)
   to transfer this condition to an enduring
   minion. Heal that minion.

I think better is "Bearer may not be exerted by Shadow cards". Also, currently this can be played in any deck and I don't understand why. Perhaps "Spot Gandalf (or spot a companion and add 2 threats". But I think this a very cool concept for a card in an enduring set.

    •Gondorian Merchant (V)
   Ally • Home 3K • Man
   Strength: 6
   Vitality: 1
   Maneuver: If you have initiative, discard
   2 cards from hand to make the site
   number of a minion +2 until the regroup
   phase.

This just seems a bit dull to me. Why just "fix" a card when there are tonnes of great titles and mediocre effects in RotK block that could have new cards to their names?

    High Vantage (V)
   Condition
   Bearer must be a mounted Man.
   Discard this possession if bearer is not
   mounted.
   For each Southron stacked here,
   bearer's strength and the minion
   archery total are +1 (limit +3).
   Shadow: Spot 2 Men, remove ,
   and stack a Southron from hand on this card
   to draw a card.

I have a practical issue with this card: it's borne by a minion, but it itself bears other cards. I really don't like that functionality—it's very confusing to actually play with. I don't see a problem with making it a support area condition with "For each Southron stacked here, the minion archery total is +1 (limit +3)." Also, why does it draw cards? Not an especially Southron thing to do. Of course, that doesn't fulfil your goal of making it work with Mûmakil. I would just go for something else to begin with. You could even have a support area condition with "The minion archery total is +1 for each mounted Southron".

    •Speak No More To Me (V)
   Condition
   To play, spot a minion.
   Bearer must be an unbound Hobbit.
   While you can spot a or Man,
   the Free People's player may not use
   bearer's special abilities and bearer may be
   exerted only by Shadow cards.
   Discard this condition if bearer wins
   a skirmish.

I would like this to be a mirror of Stay This Madness (V). So a support area condition that transfers to a companion. Not sure why it has to be unbound Hobbits, nor why you have to be able to spot or Men to make the card do anything. (Why at all? Is the the card not about Denethor being corrupted by Sauron?) It doesn't need to be so specific, and it would still perform the function you wanted.

    •Ithil Stone (V)
   Artifact
   Bearer must be Sauron or The Witch-king.
   The Ring-bearer's resistance is -1 (or -2 while
   this artifact is in your support area).
   Response: If a companion or ally is killed
   in a skirmish involving bearer, transfer this
   artifact to your support area to discard a
   Free People's artifact.

I like the little mini-quest involved with getting it into the support area. But why does it discard artifacts? What's the flavour connection? It's a Palantír—it should see things. The resistance penalty is very flavourful but the rest of the card isn't gelling for me right now. Rather, I would like it to do something like "Each companion bearing an artifact or The One Ring is resistance -1", and then maybe a way of looking at the FP player's hand or top of deck.

    •Bilbo, Bearer of Things Burgled (V)
   Companion • Hobbit
   Strength: 3
   Vitality: 4
   Resistance: 8
   Ring-bound.
   Skirmish: If Bilbo is wearing The One Ring,
   exert him twice to add his strength to a
    or companion.
   Regroup: Add a burden to play a tale.

Really glad the first ability is here! But why does he still need the old (and slightly confusing) ability? I would make the first one his thing and be done with it.

Thran