It's already sorted by culture, and trimming the subtitles would require me to either rename the cards and give them additional properties for the searchable text of their subtitles or rework how Gemp generates the X-/R-lists. Perhaps as we get towards a final product I'll reorder things, but right now sorting by culture and then alphabetically makes things much easier on me when I edit the restrictions.
Alright, by culture is ok, the list is short enough now. Changing how Gemp creates those lists will require a lot of additional work, and it's better to focus on more important matters like current bugs. Don't trim the subtitles, they're useful for search purposes in the Deckbuiler.
Those changes increase the consistency of every shadow strategy, but not their strength. The Free Peoples already has to plan to face armed Trolls, Wargs, Smaug, etc., and each of the conditions you mentioned are sure targets for the powerful Free Peoples condition hate. A bigger swarm will be much more harrowing for Bilbo than for some second-rate Dwarf. Each strategy is more potent, of course, but there's not a considerable strength gain.
A minion gains strength when another minion joins his skirmish. If Bilbo can't be overwhelmed if not tripled (bears Dori, or is Reliable Companion and faces Gollum), the additional minion will be much better killing a support Dwarf than securing that single wound on Bilbo. If are Orcs, more will go to
Goblin Swarms; if are Spiders, less defenders will be available for the fierce fight.
Also, there's a relative strength gain when William is persistently cutting the supply line of followers. Or if Ancestral Feuds is frequently making a Dwarf strength -3. Add to the mix more copies of If He Loses,
Anger, Savage
Warg and Troll Knife, and you'll see minions will be much stronger than what the current restrictions allow them to be. Then, I see the chance that 2 Axes are to few, just a chance.
4x Enchanted River will not only help Spiders/Goblins, but Trolls too, since are intensive in hand discard (with enough twilight, 11 cards will allow you much more Troll power than 8 cards in hand, so all 3 Stooges in play with many Knives will be much more viable).
Acorn seems far weaker than Ancestral Knowledge... I'm just having trouble seeing where Acorn is stronger than Ancestral Knowledge, except for burden removal.
Yeah, you're right, 4x AK is stronger. Acorn has 2 advantages over AK, and the biggest is not the doubt removal but that can be borne. Still,
Have Patience (costlier, clogs hand) is better than
Athelas (cheaper, more versatile, bearable), so AK should get the "limit 2x" instead. It's just that 4x of both will make this format a Negative Play Experience to many shadow strategies, we must cut one or the other... this format is special in the sense that has the Acorn (the only non Main Deck anti-condition card in the whole game) and at least one heavy condition-dependant Shadow (Moria Swarm).
So ok to max 2x Ancestral Knowledge.Remember, too, that Acorn has a viable counter - Riddles in the Dark. Players will have to rely on Bifur/Ancestral Knowledge as long as it's around.
Not true. Riddles can block Old Thrush, and the Thrush is much better supporting AK than the Acorn. But since the Acorn doesn't exert Bilbo it can't be stopped by Riddles, though can be discarded by it (if you prefer that to getting rid of The One Ring or
Sting). Riddles + Caught in a Sack can often force the exertion, but that's a 2-conditions combo, with the vulnerabilities it means.