[Questionable Flavor] Gandalf, Mithrandir

[ket_the_jet]

• Gandalf, Mithrandir
Companion • Wizard
Strength: 10
Vitality: 4
Signet: Aragorn
Damage +1
Each time the fellowship moves, wound Gandalf.

I have always found this card a bit odd. I really like the idea of an empowered Mithrandir, who defeated the Balrog and returned to counsel the free peoples moving forward. But if feels like the text (wound per move) seems to be a clear attempt to hamstring the stronger aspects of his card.

What do you think about the flavor of Gandalf, Mithrandir? How would you create a dream card version?

• Gandalf, Mithrandir
Companion • Wizard
Strength: 10
Vitality: 4
Signet: Aragorn
Damage +1
Each time the fellowship moves, reveal two cards at random from an opponent's hand. Add for each shadow culture you can spot.

I don't know if this is perfect, and I played around with card quite a bit...the original idea was to add for each free peoples culture over 2 (presuming he isn't just run with Hobbit/Gandalf fellowships) but I don't know that it fit perfectly either. After all, Mithrandir was bringing the free peoples together, why would he punish you for having more cultures?

So I settled on shadow cultures, as they are the threat anyways. Won't always add and could sometimes add , but at the same time has a bit of a Palantir effect...don't know that I want that either.
-wtk

[Air Power]

What if he revealed cards at random from the FP's hand?  Gandalf is now revealed in his power as the West's champion in Middle Earth.  He doesn't pass unnoticed nearly as well as he used to, and some are unhappy to see him (Theoden, Denethor).

[menace64]

•Gandalf, Mithrandir
Companion • Wizard
Strength: 10
Vitality: 4
Signet: Aragorn
Damage +1. To play, spot 3 companions, each of a different culture.
The twilight cost of each card is -1 as long as no player has played a card of that card's culture during that phase.


It's kind of a mouthful and there's probably a better way of wording it, but the idea here is that all sides of the war see an acceleration as a consequence of Gandalf's return.

[ket_the_jet]

•Gandalf, Mithrandir
Companion • Wizard
Strength: 10
Vitality: 4
Signet: Aragorn
Damage +1. To play, spot 3 companions, each of a different culture.
The twilight cost of each card is -1 as long as no player has played a card of that card's culture during that phase.

Huckle buckle beanstalk. He feels like a bear to get out on the board (good luck if your Legolas or Gimli gets picked off at site 2 after a bad draw) but I kind of see what's going on here. What if we took a page out of Gollum, Plotting Deceiver's page for the text?

Damage +1
While you can spot three cultures in the fellowship, you can play Gandalf from your discard pile.
At the start of each of your turns, spot a culture. Add when playing a card when not of that culture until the end of the regroup phase.


All of the above ideas don't necessarily account for the fact that a strength 10 damage+ Gandalf easily becomes the best version. So he probably does need an actual reason to consider not using him, relative to the White Wizard or Defender of the West.
-wtk

[Durin's Heir]

To play, spot 3 companions, each of a different culture.

I believe this can be done in the opposite direction: instead of forcing a high number of FP cultures to play Gandalf, why not make him reduce them instead? Gandalf gathered together peoples of very different habits races and made them act as one, so his presence should reduce the Shadow's potential of exploiting those differences and crack them apart.


•Gandalf, Mithrandir
Companion • Wizard
Strength 7  Vitality 4  Aragorn Signet
The total number of Free Peoples cultures the Shadow players may spot is -1 (or -2 if Gandalf bears an artifact), to a minimum of 1.
Skirmish: Play a spell to make Gandalf enduring.
"'Just gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme / Fried chicken!'"


So your many-cultured company acts with more subtlety and at a swifter pace, which allows you to pass under Chief Counselor and Agents of Orthanc's radars more easily. They can still spot Aragorn and his culture if you have him around, and Legolas' , and Gimli's ... they can be spotted well when measured by separate, but as a whole the total number is trimmed. Decipher made very few multi-culture hate cards sadly (and the Voice of Saruman chapter was totally abandoned, which might have provided a good bunch), but those that already exist are a nightmare for the decks that trigger them. TMAYOD decks, for instance.

He's strength 7 solely, but can reveal his Ainur power by playing skirmish spells. (The enduring keyword appeared 2 sets after, I know, but saves me a lot of intricate wording.) IMO, if there's a single character that should have received the enduring treatment, that one is Gandalf (but temporarily, of course!).


Just my two cents.

[ket_the_jet]

•Gandalf, Mithrandir
Companion • Wizard
Strength 7  Vitality 4  Aragorn Signet
The total number of Free Peoples cultures the Shadow players may spot is -1 (or -2 if Gandalf bears an artifact), to a minimum of 1.
Skirmish: Play a spell to make Gandalf enduring.

I actually quite like this. If you don't mind, allow me to riff on your idea so that it still fits the Ents of Fangorn set, but still shows off his Maia power a bit.

•Gandalf, Mithrandir
Companion • Wizard
Strength 7  Vitality 4  Aragorn Signet
The total number of Free Peoples cultures the Shadow players may spot is -1 (or -2 if Gandalf bears an artifact), to a minimum of 1.
Skirmish: Exert Gandalf twice to play a Free Peoples skirmish event of any culture on Gandalf.

Think of this as a reverse Servant of the Secret Fire. Gandalf may lose his 10 strength and damage bonus, but what if you could use an Axe Strike or Swordsman of the Northern Kingdom on Gandalf in a pinch?

This might make the card too much of a text block though.
-wtk

[Inspire]

What if he revealed cards at random from the FP's hand?  Gandalf is now revealed in his power as the West's champion in Middle Earth.  He doesn't pass unnoticed nearly as well as he used to, and some are unhappy to see him (Theoden, Denethor).

I really like this idea - I might change it to "Each time the fellowship moves, reveal your hand" to make it a bit more punitive (even then, I'm not sure it's enough of a drawback to balance the additional strength and damage). However, it's mechanically interesting and the flavor is terrific. Great thinking on this one!