Fill in the Blank Season 1: Lairs #11

[menace64]

Welcome to Fill in the Blank Season 1: Lairs!

Each week I'll post the collector's information for one of the cards in the set's card-list.

Contestants are free to create whatever card they see fit for that slot in the card-list, keeping in mind the surrounding cards. As the contest progresses, the card-list will become more and more defined, guiding the contestants' choices.

The theme of our set is Lairs! You're free to interpret this however you want.

Not every card has to fit the theme, of course, but it's something to keep in mind when coming up with entries.

Each week a poll will go up for the previous week's entries. Simply vote for one you like the most. In the event of a tie, I'll let a random result generator make the decision - but each of the tied cards will appear in the final set card list.


On to Stuff!


Last week's winner...
menace64 pushes against Gondor and adds another Gollum card to the set with Worse Than Orcs.


Last week's entries to pick from for Card #18...

•The Mouth of Sauron, Horseman in the Night
Minion • Man
Strength 9  Vitality 3  Site 4
Shadow: At region X, remove a threat to make a character (except the Ring-bearer) strength -X until the regroup phase. The Free Peoples player may add instead.
Maneuver: Shuffle X Orc or Man minions into your draw deck to add X threats.
"'Consider well, but not too long.'"

Designer's notes:
Play a force of Orc/Man minions and postpone the assault (shuffle them into deck) to threaten Erebor. Or convert your threats into resources to turn those words into action, if Dain Ironfoot doesn't yield and snitch on dear old Bilbo.
As the game advances, the Maneuver skill will enrich your deck's minion ratio, while the Shadow one will be favouring twilight addition, allowing to play those minions in big groups for a much more brutal Region 3 confrontation.

•Merry, Rider of Rohan
Companion • Hobbit
Strength 5 Vitality 4 Theoden signet
Maneuver: If Eowyn is mounted, you may stack Merry on Eowyn and add his strength to her until the Regroup phase.

Designer's Notes: stacking Merry would remove all his wounds, possessions, artifacts, followers, and conditions (see Web). This is especially a companion version of a follower. This card does not add vitality or resistance because there is no mention in the rules and the card infers it.

•Udûn Lieutenant
Minion • Orc
Strength: 11
Vitality: 2
Site Number: 7
Enduring. To play, exert a Orc.
Shadow: Discard a Orc to draw 2 cards.
Skirmish: Discard a Orc to make a Orc strength +3.
Regroup: Discard a Orc to add .
"'Not much use are you, you little snufflers?'"

Designer's notes:
I've been thinking a lot about what an Udun subculture might look like, and I figure "wanton disregard for Orcs" is the way to go. I also think Udun Orcs should be Dunland-esque pushed in the strength department, and many of them would be enduring to illustrate how bathed in Sauron's evil they've become.
"To play, exert a Orc." would be a common theme in the Udun subculture, to easily fuel their enduring boosts.

Southern Stranger
Minion • Man
Strength: 6
Vitality: 1
Site: 2
Nazgul may not use maneuver special abilities.
When you play this minion, reveal X cards from your hand (limit 5). The Free Peoples player must add or make the number of burdens that any player may spot +X until the regroup phase.  
"'An account of your performance would be very interesting to certain people. It seems to me only too likely that they will hear of it before this night is over.'"

Designer's notes:
The culture introduced a handful of cards which had not-insignificant burden-spotting requirements in sets 1-3, namely Ulaire Toldea, MoM, Dark Whispers, Nazgul Sword, They Will Find the Ring, and Threshold of Shadow. As devoting significant resources to adding burdens in a non-corruption deck was impractical (and these cards had no place in a twilight Nazgul deck), these cards were generally lightly utilized at best. Additionally, from sets 1-6 the culture suffered from a lack of low-twillight cost supporting minions (a problem finally rectified in set 7).
Southern Stranger allows the Shadow player to meet the spot requirements of these cards, while not actually adding any burdens (note that the Ring-bearer can't be corrupted by spotting burdens - they must be actually placed). Additionally, it gives the Shadow player the opportunity to bluff by selectively revealing (or not revealing) certain cards from hand in order to influence the Free Peoples player into selecting the option they want.

This week's contest is...
Card #23!

This card is going to have some diverse entries! Let's see what you've got!

• A card (after Merry, Conspirator)
• An card
• A card
• A site
• A Premium-slot card

Closing date: July 11th! Good luck!


Lairs Card List  
Number - Name - (Culture • Type) - Contestant - Week it won
1.
2. •Stronghold of the Adorn River ( • Possession) - Durin's Heir - 3
3. •Balin, Lord of Moria ( • Ally) - menace64 - 8
4.
5. Sméagol Lied ( • Event) - SGollum - 4
6. Worse Than Orcs ( • Event) - menace64 - 9
7.
8. Sheltered Hollow ( • Condition) - TelTura - 6
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14. •Wrested Kingdom ( • Condition) - menace64 - 1
15.
16. •Úlairë Attëa, Khamûl ( • Minion) - SGollum - 7
17.
18. SUBJECT OF THIS WEEK'S VOTE
19.
20. •Bag End Hearth ( • Condition) - Inspire - 2
21. •Merry, Conspirator ( • Companion) - Inspire - 5
22.
23. IN CREATION THIS WEEK
24.
25.


The Misadventure Deck (cards that lost due to tied-decision but will appear in final cardlist! Maybe?)
26. •Durin's Axe, Omen of Fortune
27. From Lowest Dungeon to Highest Peak
28. Orkish Whip
29. •Mountains of Shadow
[/list]

[Legion]

•Pippin, Co-Conspirator
Companion • Hobbit
Strength: 3,
Vitality: 4
Signet: Frodo
Each time you shuffle your hand into your deck, you may draw 3 cards.

[Durin's Heir]

Is it right to have Card #23 be a Premium one? Decipher made only 2 such cards per Set, 1 per Starter Pack. Otherwise said, how many Starter Packs will this Set have as maximum? Because if card #X is set as a Premium, and Premium cards go to the bottom, all successive ones will be forced to be Premium too.

Also, "Premium cards" is very open. Do you want them to be any card type, or only Characters as Decipher did?

---

Southern Stranger is also worrying me a bit. If it wins this voting round, it'd rule out any card proposed during this one for the next's vote; either goes after or after , but not both. Which leads to the question: where do you, master Menace, want to go?

[menace64]

Is it right to have Card #23 be a Premium one? Decipher made only 2 such cards per Set, 1 per Starter Pack. Otherwise said, how many Starter Packs will this Set have as maximum? Because if card #X is set as a Premium, and Premium cards go to the bottom, all successive ones will be forced to be Premium too.

Also, "Premium cards" is very open. Do you want them to be any card type, or only Characters as Decipher did?

I am being maximally-inclusive. If somebody slots in a Premium card here, the set will just have at least 3 Premium cards in it. I imagine anybody writing a Premium card would make it a character, but again, I don't care if it ends up being something else.  

Southern Stranger is also worrying me a bit. If it wins this voting round, it'd rule out any card proposed during this one for the next's vote; either goes after or after , but not both. Which leads to the question: where do you, master Menace, want to go?

lol yup I did end up getting tripped up by this time around. Let's just say I've learned my lesson regarding + in a contest like this. This is one bump the Star Trek contest I'm parroting doesn't have to worry about, since ST's sets are organized by card type, not by culture. And none of their card types have changed names!

We'll fix it in post if anything funky shows up due to this issue. And in the next season we'll make darn sure to define our terms before starting!

[TelTura]

Barrow-downs
Site
Fellowship or Shadow: Spot a companion to play a Nazgul or Wraith from your discard pile; its twilight cost is -1 for each wound on that companion.


We can't have a theme of Lairs and neglect sites!  I feel like all of the empty chunk here is an obvious opportunity. 
This card obviously started as just a shadow-based site, but then figured the flavor actually works for both sides, so why not. 

[SGollum]

•The Black Gate
Site
While the Fellowship is at The Black Gate, each Orc and Man is strength +2.

(Forgive me if this card is OP because I don't play 11-19 much at all.)

Note: the card is meant to give Freeps men and Shadow men strength.

[menace64]

[8-K] Shelob's Lair
Site
Lair. While any player spots Shelob and 4 threats (or 8 burdens), only Ring-bound companions may skirmish here.
--->

I realize it should be "Mountain. Underground." but I don't want Balrogs showing up here.