I don’t post too much on this site but I had some ideas kicking around in my head for a DC set and Thranduil persuaded me to share it here. The idea of the set is thematic rather than based on any particular section of Tolkien’s work. The theme is death in all its forms, including the undead, wraiths, tombs, foresight and so on. The mechanics are based around the discard pile, draw deck and dead pile.

My thoughts for which characters to include are below. If you have any more suggestions, I would love to hear them, especially for non- minions.

Characters - Shadow - Twilight nazgul, barrow wights, wraiths, dead marshes.
FP - Army of the dead, twilight Frodo, Aragorn, Arwen, Elladan, Elrohir, Gimli, Theoden, Theodred, Boromir, Denethor, Gandalf, Balin, Brand, Dain, Glorfindel.

Mechanics:
-Enduring X, using the same system as Thranduil, I will be using a variable Enduring keyword.
-Twilight, unloaded keyword but used more widely than in Decipher’s work.
-Legendary X, again from Thranduil. This means two things. The X is the additional cost that must be paid by an opponent to discard the card. Legendary by itself means that it goes to the Dead pile when discarded from play.
-Return - X , my own mechanic, similar to Flashback from Magic. When this card is in your discard pile, you may play it for its Return cost. Events will then remove themselves from the game to prevent infinite loops.
-Desperation, a callout keyword that signifies a character who benefits from having no cards in your draw deck.
-Scour X is a game verb meaning discard X cards from the top of your draw deck (saves a lot of space and words).

•King of the Dead, Wraith Lord
Companion • Wraith
Str: 8
Vit: 4
Res: 5
Twilight.
To play, spot Aragorn or two Wraiths, and add a threat.
King of the Dead is Enduring 2 for each card in your dead pile.
“‘And thereupon the King of the Dead stood out before the host and broke his spear and cast it down.’”

I don’t post too much on this site but I had some ideas kicking around in my head for a DC set and Thranduil persuaded me to share it here.

The idea of the set is thematic rather than based on any particular section of Tolkien’s work. The theme is death in all its forms, including the undead, wraiths, tombs, foresight and so on. The mechanics are based around the discard pile, draw deck and dead pile.

My thoughts for which characters to include are below. If you have any more suggestions, I would love to hear them, especially for non- minions.

Characters - Shadow - Twilight nazgul, barrow wights, wraiths, dead marshes.
FP - Army of the dead, twilight Frodo, Aragorn, Arwen, Elladan, Elrohir, Gimli, Theoden, Theodred, Boromir, Denethor, Gandalf, Balin, Brand, Dain, Glorfindel.

Mechanics:
-Enduring X, using the same system as Thranduil, I will be using a variable Enduring keyword.

-Twilight, unloaded keyword but used more widely than in Decipher’s work.

-Legendary X, again from Thranduil. This means two things. The X is the additional cost that must be paid by an opponent to discard the card. Legendary by itself means that it goes to the Dead pile when discarded from play.

-Return - X , my own mechanic, similar to Flashback from Magic. When this card is in your discard pile, you may play it for its Return cost. Events will then remove themselves from the game to prevent infinite loops.

-Desperation, a callout keyword that signifies a character who benefits from having no cards in your draw deck.

-Scour X is a game verb meaning discard X cards from the top of your draw deck (saves a lot of space and words).

•King of the Dead, Wraith Lord
Companion • Wraith
Str: 8
Vit: 4
Res: 5
Twilight.
To play, spot Aragorn or two Wraiths, and add a threat.
King of the Dead is Enduring 2 for each card in your dead pile.
“‘And thereupon the King of the Dead stood out before the host and broke his spear and cast it down.’”

Glorfindel.
You could easily put some of those apparently minions into if you want another culture, like Wisp of Pale Sheen and those other rubbish Wraiths. I was thinking perhaps Saruman fits into this theme who is after all a Maia and can’t die though sort of does. Also, surely Sauron is an obvious choice who’s all about death and returning to life.

Legendary [X], unless you plan on introducing variable costs and not just twilight which I almost did and may still do.

You should probably explain ’callout keyword’ - people often aren’t up on their MTG terms round here.

Mechanics:
-Enduring X, using the same system as Thranduil, I will be using a variable Enduring keyword.

Be wary of how powerful anything beyond enduring 2 can get.

-Twilight, unloaded keyword but used more widely than in Decipher’s work.

Yeah this has always needed developing.

-Legendary X, again from Thranduil. This means two things. The X is the additional cost that must be paid by an opponent to discard the card. Legendary by itself means that it goes to the Dead pile when discarded from play.

Yeah ive seen plenty from Thran. Not sure i like the return to play of legendary cards though.

-Return - X , my own mechanic, similar to Flashback from Magic. When this card is in your discard pile, you may play it for its Return cost. Events will then remove themselves from the game to prevent infinite loops.

Very cool.

-Desperation, a callout keyword that signifies a character who benefits from having no cards in your draw deck.

Great idea but very flipping rare. Would be so tought to pull off.

-Scour X is a game verb meaning discard X cards from the top of your draw deck (saves a lot of space and words).

Yeah sound.


•King of the Dead, Wraith Lord
Companion • Wraith
Strength: 8
Vitality: 4
Resistance: 5
Twilight.
To play, spot Aragorn or 2 Wraiths, and add a threat.
King of the Dead gains enduring 2 for each card in your dead pile.
“‘And thereupon the King of the Dead stood out before the host and broke his spear and cast it down.’”

Enduring 2 is OP enough without legendary cards. This is so abuseable in terms of Thran’s set so imagine with yours too. Dain has good thoughts on limiting the power of this. Nice idea though.

Enduring 2 is OP enough without legendary cards. This is so abuseable in terms of Thran’s set so imagine with yours too. Dain has good thoughts on limiting the power of this. Nice idea though.[/b]

Some potentially very powerful cards to get this thread off with a bang. Less controversial cards will follow, so don’t panic just yet.

•The Stone of Erech
Artifact • Support Area
Legendary -
Response: If an exhausted Wraith is about to take a wound, you may spot Aragorn and add 2 threats to discard that Wraith instead.
Skirmish: Spot Aragorn and place this card in the dead pile to make each Wraith Strength +2 until the regroup phase.
“’Now come! By the Black Stone I call you!’”

Muster of the Dead
Condition • Support Area
Wraiths in your dead pile do not count towards the rule of nine.
To play a companion you must add two threats.
“...but the Dead followed.”

Some potentially very powerful cards to get this thread off with a bang. Less controversial cards will follow, so don’t panic just yet.

•The Stone of Erech
Artifact • Support Area
Legendary -
Response: If an exhausted Wraith is about to take a wound, you may spot Aragorn and add 2 threats to discard that Wraith instead.
Skirmish: Spot Aragorn and place this card in the dead pile to make each Wraith strength +2 until the regroup phase.
“’Now come! By the Black Stone I call you!’”

Muster of the Dead
Condition • Support Area
Wraiths in your dead pile do not count towards the rule of nine.
To play a companion you must add two threats.
“...but the Dead followed.”