Fill in the Blank Season 1: Lairs #22

[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...

Dark Communion by me squeaks through to claim the card slot for Sauron!


Last week's entries to pick from for Card #12...

Goblin Conspirator
Minion • Orc
Strength 7  Vitality 2  Site 4
Each event is twilight cost -1.
Shadow: Exert 2 Orcs to take a event or condition into hand from your draw deck or discard pile.
"'I fear he had ill tidings to record in a fair hand,' said Gandalf. 'The first clear word is sorrow, but the rest of the line is lost...'"

Designer's notes: With a co-conspirator, you can set up your support area much faster, or rebuild it after being struck by Sleep Caradhras / Blood Runs Chill (or after spending your Armories / Durin's Tower / The Long Dark / Wrested Kingdom). But can also fetch events, so cards like Such a Little Thing, Bitter Hatred, Troubled Mountains, LttG, Final Cry and pumps can be used in the right moment (or requiring less copies). The cost reduction makes events like Foul Things, Dangerous Gamble and Frenzy much more useful and interesting. I'll be posting a powerful event for Card #13, which benefits from this Goblin's fetching and cost reduction.

•Host of the Upper Hall
Minion • Orc
Strength: 16
Vitality: 3
Site Number: 4
Fierce.
When you play Host of the Upper Hall at an underground site, you may discard the top 3 cards of your draw deck. Add for each Orc discarded this way, then take those Orcs into hand.
"How many there were the Company could not count."

Designer's notes: It's a big new Moria minion similar to Host of Moria, but this one seeks other goblins in 'the upper hall' (top of your draw deck). Drop this monster and maybe get a third of your investment back in the form of a bunch more Goblins! Yay goblins!

From Morgoth's Lair They Came
Event • Shadow
Balrogs are twilight cost -3 for each other Balrog you can spot and are not unique until the end of the turn.
"'It was a Balrog of Morgoth,' said Legolas; 'of all elf-bane the most deadly, save the One who sits in the Dark Tower.'"

Designer's notes: More Lair stuff, more events! Morgoth used to have an army of Balrogs.

Fissures and Chasms
Event • Response
If the fellowship moves to an underground site, discard a card to make the Free Peoples player exert a companion or discard a possession borne by a companion.
You may play this event from your discard pile; place it beneath your draw deck instead of discarding it.
"...every now and then a crack would open right before their feet."

Designer's notes: Let's turn the adventure path into an underground obstacle course. It's easy to get over one deep crevice, but soon there will be more. "Wait a minute...I could swear we've leaped over this fissure before. Are we going in circles?"

This week's contest is...

Card #10!

The final card is before us!

• An card (after Cold and Perilous, and before Smoke From Isengard)

Closing date: October 3rd.


Lairs Card List 
Number - Name - (Culture • Type) - Contestant - Week It Won
1. Burned Village ( • Condition) - Dictionary - 12
2. •Stronghold of the Adorn River ( • Possession) - Durin's Heir - 3
3. •Balin, Lord of Moria ( • Ally) - menace64 - 8
4. •Mithril Gates ( • Condition) - azogsbane - 18
5. Sméagol Lied ( • Event) - SGollum - 4
6. Worse Than Orcs ( • Event) - menace64 - 9
7. Commandeered Vessel ( • Possession) - azogsbane - 16
8. Sheltered Hollow ( • Condition) - TelTura - 6
9. Cold and Perilous ( • Condition) - Durin's Heir - 17
10. IN CREATION THIS WEEK
11. Smoke From Isengard ( • Condition) - menace64 - 13
12. SUBJECT OF THIS WEEK'S VOTE
13.
14. •Wrested Kingdom ( • Condition) - menace64 - 1
15. Primitive Cave Paintings ( • Event) - Cw0rk - 19
16. •Úlairë Attëa, Khamûl ( • Minion) - SGollum - 7
17. Angmar Haunts Us Still ( • Condition) - TelTura - 15
18. Southern Stranger ( • Minion) - Inspire - 10
19. Dark Communion ( • Event) - menace64 - 20
20. •Bag End Hearth ( • Condition) - Inspire - 2
21. •Merry, Conspirator ( • Companion) - Inspire - 5
22. •Pippin, Out of the Bog and Briar ( • Companion) - Inspire - 14
23. The Black Gate (Site) - SGollum - 11
24.
25.


The Misadventure Deck (cards that lost due to coin-flip but will appear in the final cardlist! Maybe?)
26. •Durin's Axe, Omen of Fortune ( • Artifact) - Durin's Heir - 4
27. From Lowest Dungeon to Highest Peak ( • Event) - menace64 - 4
28. Oath of Cirion ( • Condition) - cw0rk - 16
29. Key of Orthanc ( • Artifact) - cw0rk - 17
30. Orkish Whip ( • Possession) - Durin's Heir - 7
31. •Alliance ( • Condition) - azogsbane - 19[/list]

[menace64]

DH - sorry man, I accidentally hit "modify" instead of "quote" again and ended up over-writing your comment. I did go ahead and delete the comment since I'd stamped all over it (I wish there was an undo function).

But yes, you're correct that Mountains of Shadow qualifies here and I totally forgot about it. I'll dig it up and get it re-inserted into the card list.

In the meantime, please lighten up. The hostility has been heavy.

[Durin's Heir]

This was the post:

Dark Communion by me squeaks through to claim the card slot for Sauron!

That's actually NOT the only, or first, card of the Set: there's also Mountains of Shadow. People voted for it, and you erased it from the Misadventure Deck. Does it matter? Well, if some people voted for that useless, unplayable 4-card combo that at best does the twilight reduction of Ithil Stone, only or mostly because they thought would otherwise be excluded, then those votes would be based on a completely false premise.

(Because I cannot see any other logic reason to vote for that failure.)

---

Less whining, more business...

•Saruman's Cloak, Eye-bewilderer
Artifact • Support Area
For each or Wizard you can spot, the number of burdens you can spot and sites you control is +1.
Shadow: Discard an artifact to play an card from your discard pile.
"...the colour of which was not easy to tell, for it changed if they moved their eyes or if he stirred."

Just Saruman bewildering the eye and mind of the Free Peoples by posing as friend and counselor, gibbering his way either to conquest or out of trouble. The illusion of burdens and controlled sites helps Saruman to kickstart cards like Evil Afoot, Alive and Unspoiled, Banner of Isengard, Isengard Scimitar, We Are The Fighting Uruk-hai and Uruk-hai Mob, assuring their texts will have a decent minimum of utility.

The Shadow special ability enables you to cycle out extra copies of it (and Throne of Isengard), gives utility to the otherwise useless Palantir of Orthanc SSS (and a new, different use to Library of Orthanc), and helps Saruman and his Staff to appear more often. Giving Saruman a more predominant role in the deck, a la Gollum ESF / So Polite.

[Legion]

Goblin Conspirator
Minion • Orc
Strength 7  Vitality 2  Site 4
Each event is twilight cost -1.
Shadow: Exert 2 Orcs to take a event or condition into hand from your draw deck or discard pile.
"'I fear he had ill tidings to record in a fair hand,' said Gandalf. 'The first clear word is sorrow, but the rest of the line is lost...'"

I don't like cards playing from the draw deck. There has to be very good reason for them (such as Gollum or Gandalf), as otherwise you often get to overpowered combinations of uninteresting gameplay (horn). Plus they take time to play in real life. Discard pile fine, and Moria already does a lot there, but not draw deck.

Plus it nicked my conspirator title from my two failed Pippin attempts.

•Host of the Upper Hall
Minion • Orc
Strength: 16
Vitality: 3
Site Number: 4
Fierce.
When you play Host of the Upper Hall at an underground site, you may discard the top 3 cards of your draw deck. Add for each Orc discarded this way, then take those Orcs into hand.
"How many there were the Company could not count."

I love it! Very expensive, and fierce is unusual (but meaty with an Axe), but that's a cool ability. Maybe it could have been from the bottom of the deck rather than the top, but it's such a cool idea. This wins my vote.

From Morgoth's Lair They Came
Event • Shadow
Balrogs are twilight cost -3 for each other Balrog you can spot and are not unique until the end of the turn.
"'It was a Balrog of Morgoth,' said Legolas; 'of all elf-bane the most deadly, save the One who sits in the Dark Tower.'"

Fun. Nice dream card. Pity it doesn't work with Durin's Bane.

Fissures and Chasms
Event • Response
If the fellowship moves to an underground site, discard a card to make the Free Peoples player exert a companion or discard a possession borne by a companion.
You may play this event from your discard pile; place it beneath your draw deck instead of discarding it.
"...every now and then a crack would open right before their feet."

This is an interesting card. It is sad that it is best with the Shadows site path where Moria is just too weak, but it would still have its place in fellowship. Though it would become useless past site 5. Would be nice to get rid of Aragorn's bow, or to put Greenleaf into Bitter Hatred range, I guess, but eating your conditions to use it hurts.

I happily voted for Dark Communion last week. It maybe was quite overpriced (I think it could have been a condition), but it had flavour. I could only see Helm Hammerhand getting into a Horn deck, so that automatically removed it from contention to me. Also Defender +1 with no spotting requirements doesn't feel right. Horseshoes was a fun card, but I also couldn't see it's potential as much as Dark Communion.

[Cw0rk]

Dark Communion by me squeaks through to claim the card slot for Sauron!

At first I didn't like the choice of card art, then I found out there is a Nazgul flying under the eye, now I love it. Great job!

My entry...

Isengard Test Subject
Minion • Orc
Strength: 5
Vitality: 2
Site Number: 4
Shadow: Remove to stack a tentacle from your discard pile on this minion. Until the end of the turn, this minion gains that tentacle's strength and vitality.
"Twenty other arms came rippling out."

Designer's note: Coming straight from Saruman's science LAIR! Just thought it would be interesting to give a second use to tentacles. Good luck @menace64 finding an image for that one! 

[Durin's Heir]

Legion, I like that kind of posts a lot. Dissecting each point for an open debate. 

Goblin Conspirator

I don't like cards playing from the draw deck. There has to be very good reason for them (such as Gollum or Gandalf), as otherwise you often get to overpowered combinations of uninteresting gameplay (horn). Plus they take time to play in real life. Discard pile fine, and Moria already does a lot there, but not draw deck.

It's more like Simbelmyne or AWINL, but much costlier: 2 exertions per card obtained, in a culture of mostly exhausted Orcs. (Can never be like Erkenbrand's Horn, playing ad nauseam/infinitum.) The idea is to allow situational or specific cards to be played exactly when needed, things like The Long Dark, Frenzy, Such a Little Thing, Dark Fire, Bitter Hatred, the right pump vs your opponent... even Through the Misty Mountains and Goblin Domain in FOTR block. It multiplies the copies of those cards, so you can splash them instead of having to pack 3x or 4x to get them when are useful. Which creates more diverse decks.

Playing from discard is just not enough, since you'd need to include many copies of such card just to have one in discard at the right moment. Must include the draw deck to achieve that effect, so I had to make it very expensive (2 Goblin exertions) in order prevent abuses like those committed by Black Sails of Umbar or the Horn.

Plus it nicked my conspirator title from my two failed Pippin attempts.

Haha, no, it was made for a "Balin's Colony vs Moria" set I've been working on since some 4 or 5 years. But I confess that the nod to Merry and Pippin was an additional reason to select this and not other of those dusty cards.

•Host of the Upper Hall

I love it! Very expensive, and fierce is unusual (but meaty with an Axe), but that's a cool ability. Maybe it could have been from the bottom of the deck rather than the top, but it's such a cool idea. This wins my vote.

I like it too, but is excessively expensive just to end as Eowyn LoI's breakfast. That's what Host of Moria mostly does, die vs LoI (or Mablung, Gondor Bow...) and has a much more strategic gametext (even considering the fierce keyword). For that twilight a Troll is better. And that comes from a Moria Axe fan.

From Morgoth's Lair They Came

Fun. Nice dream card. Pity it doesn't work with Durin's Bane.

But works with tToKD. And with the FOTR Bridge!

Fissures and Chasms

This is an interesting card. It is sad that it is best with the Shadows site path where Moria is just too weak, but it would still have its place in fellowship. Though it would become useless past site 5. Would be nice to get rid of Aragorn's bow, or to put Greenleaf into Bitter Hatred range, I guess, but eating your conditions to use it hurts.

It was excessively nerfed. For such a cost (discarding a support area card, most of the times), it'd be much better if was a discard/exertion directed by you, with the FP player deciding only which of those 2 effects will take place. Pity.

I happily voted for Dark Communion last week. It maybe was quite overpriced (I think it could have been a condition), but it had flavour.

As a condition would have been awesome. Or playable from discard pile. But as a 4-card combo, it's literally less likely to happen than Final Cry, which is one expensive minion + 2 specific cards. But Final Cry means a huge monster + anti-armor / anti-events + a maiming event that often kills LoI or Cirdan by surprise, while in Dark Communion's case we get... -3 twilight cost.

Dark Communion can actually be reduced to a 2-card combo from hand: have a unique minion play itself from outside the hand (like Plotting Deceiver if you force initiative), AND the cheapened minion must be Sauron. But that still costs you around 12 twilight + the unique minion, just to get Sauron. Not worthy (and again, Ithil Stone does the same but easily). And as likely to happen as Saruman + Staff in the best case... and I know from experience how frustrating is to be forced to carry the dead weight of Saruman's Staff until the old guy arrives.

I could only see Helm Hammerhand getting into a Horn deck, so that automatically removed it from contention to me. Also Defender +1 with no spotting requirements doesn't feel right.

Aragorn HoE is def+1. And any companion would fit into a Horn deck, except that this king of a past age bars Eomer/Eowyn/Theoden from appearing. And by costing 4, cannot be started along with Gamling DotH, so Helm complicates Horn decks a bit actually.

[menace64]

omg a tentaclorc - THAT would be a challenge hahaha. If you're gonna go Weird, why not make its race "Orc/Creature"?

•Saruman, Sharkey
Minion • Wizard
Strength: 6
Vitality: 3
Site Number: 1
Lurker. Saruman is always roaming and may not bear artifacts.
Shadow: Exert Saruman twice (or remove 4 cards in your discard pile from the game) to play an Man from your draw deck or discard pile; that Man is strength +3 until the regroup phase.

Going for a Scouring-episode Saruman. I wanted this version of Saruman to look weaker "on paper" than any other persona, while also filling a niche: in this case, summoning Men and empowering them to do dastardly things. In the early-game, Sharkey will typically be constrained by his 3 vitality, but towards the end of the site path he gets a little better, since by then you should have enough cards in your discard pile to get a few more Men into play without having to exert for them.

[Durin's Heir]

Isengard Test Subject

Shadow: Remove to stack a tentacle from your discard pile on this minion. Until the end of the turn, this minion gains that tentacle's strength and vitality.

Why not make it gain also the tentacle's keywords? That way would always gain "tentacle" (to remain on board if the Watcher is played, and even gain str+2 dmg+1 if is Keeper of Westgate), and damage +1 from each Huge Tentacle.

"Until the end of the turn, this minion gains that tentacle's strength, vitality and game text keywords."

[menace64]

If you're asking me if I'm aware that a roaming minion costs an addition to play, then the answer is yes.

[Durin's Heir]

In the meantime, please lighten up. The hostility has been heavy.

Hostility, you say? I'm just calling a spade a spade, and abstaining from potential ad hominem qualifications.

Dark Communion is a lot like Power and Terror: looks very promising at first sight, but when played does very little. (If this Set is ever playtested by a PC, you'll see it empirically.) Power and Terror is a 3+ card specific combo that works bad in a 50% minion Beatdown deck to cheapen a Beatdown monster. As a 2-card combo can discard itself, for 3-card makes The Barlog cost -2, for 4-card makes him -4... ideally as 8-card makes him cost -12, but planets just don't align that way (moreover in a Beatdown deck). Meanwhile, 1x Goblin Runner already makes the Balrog (ToFaS) -4 twilight cost as a 2-card combo that doesn't even need to be held in hand. Similarly to Ithil Stone in Dark Communion's case, so why bother? A spade is a spade.


Legion just associated 2 of my cards to Erkenbrand's Horn decks - perhaps the LOTR TCG equivalent of Hitler. And I replied him my opinion that his opinion was wrong, and now he has the chance to double down on his original thesis, correct it, or just ignore the whole sequence; we can still sip virtual tea together in this imaginary corner of the world - there's no need for bad blood. At least as long as nobody is calling anyone names.

[Inspire]

Pursuing Wolf
Minion • Warg
Strength: 6
Vitality: 1
Site: 4
Fierce.
During a fierce skirmish involving this minion, it is strength +3.
Response: If a mounted Orc is killed, play this minion from your hand or discard pile. It is twilight cost -2 and you may not take another response action during this phase.
"...but you shall see that at least the wolves of the mountains do not devour them. It is with their friends, the Orcs, that they hold their feast: such indeed is the friendship of their kind."

[azogsbane]

Distant Howl
Event • Shadow
Play an mount or a warg-rider from your discard pile to add and draw a card.
"Where the wolf howls, there the orc prowls."

The warg-riders' biggest downfall is that they require a pairing of orc and animal, of minion and mount, two cards to make one decent minion. It kills to have three wargs and no riders, or three riders and no wargs. But having four copies of this new card in your deck should make either scenario much less likely. You might almost say that it squeezes the well-known combo of Host of Thousands + Goblin Scavengers + Goblin Scimitar + Goblin Armory into one simple event. The lore is of a saying that Aragorn quotes in The Fellowship of the Ring.

[Cw0rk]

@Inspire and @azogsbane, if I understand correctly, this week's creation will alphabetically be after "Cold and Perilous" and before "Smoke From Isengard". Both or your entries begin with the letter "W". I am not the judge of the competition, but it looks like they might be invalid. The easiest of solution would be to rename your cards. Why not Isengard Wolf?

[menace64]

Cw0rk is correctus maximus.

[JamesCB]

Until the end of the turn, this minion gains that tentacle's strength and vitality.

Does it stack? EG. it would be Strength 5 + that tentacle's strength and Vitality 2 + that tentacle's vitality?

[Legion]

In the meantime, please lighten up. The hostility has been heavy.

Legion just associated 2 of my cards to Erkenbrand's Horn decks - perhaps the LOTR TCG equivalent of Hitler. And I replied him my opinion that his opinion was wrong, and now he has the chance to double down on his original thesis, correct it, or just ignore the whole sequence; we can still sip virtual tea together in this imaginary corner of the world - there's no need for bad blood. At least as long as nobody is calling anyone names.

I feel no bad blood. Indeed, I had no idea the card this week was yours, given how the format is anonymous. I was considering doing my own similar competition a while back where I'd get everyone to PM me their entries, and that would be totally anonymous.

I don't think I was quite saying that your Helm was a horn deck staple, just that that would be where he would be most at home. True you need to draw him, but now with Gamling/followers and horn, you can transfer Pallando to him for two directed wounds in Maneuver on top of good stats. I'd certainly consider dropping a few in there if I were playing the deck.

As for the Goblin, I'm just generally wary of 'Download' cards. The following page shows how a senior designer at Decipher didn't like them, so I view all such ones with scepticism unless it is really needed (like Gollum or Gandalf). Pre Shadows there were very few such cards that were worth replaying (I feel Simbelmyne was just about tolerable given how you can only play the event once, though it still goes against being a necessity for the culture. This recurs, so is immensely stronger). It's just a really powerful mechanic that often leads to balancing issues/stale play. I believe Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokémon had an issue of 'Turn 1 win on a coin flip, so the tournament is a waste of time' a while back, and cards that pull from the deck are so central to that theme.  That said, it is nice that it at least might give use to Goblin Reinforcements.

https://lotrtcgwiki.com/wiki/gollum_culture

However, I totally agree that you are entitled to your opinion as well as me being entitled to mine. And I don't want to influence it. Indeed, I never did. I never played the meta on Gemp, and never sought to change it either. I was happy playing Moria archery, honestly believing it to be as powerful as Uruks, but only as long as this was kept secret. For about a month when I won a few leagues (back in like 2013), my deck was everywhere. I even saw Great Shield being played! That stopped it being meta very quickly, and soon afterwards the shields left and I could enjoy my advantage again.

By the way, I can't vote for your Saruman as is, either. With Chief Counsellor (I hate that card more than I do horn), he's far too strong. I do like the idea, though. Especially for controlled sites.

[Cw0rk]

Until the end of the turn, this minion gains that tentacle's strength and vitality.

Does it stack? EG. it would be Strength 5 + that tentacle's strength and Vitality 2 + that tentacle's vitality?

Yes, and if you stack many tentacles, it would gain the strength and vitality of all of them.

[JamesCB]

That card (for me) just went from a 3/10 to an 9.5/10. Great job, the card is very creative.

[Inspire]

@Inspire and @azogsbane, if I understand correctly, this week's creation will alphabetically be after "Cold and Perilous" and before "Smoke From Isengard". Both or your entries begin with the letter "W". I am not the judge of the competition, but it looks like they might be invalid. The easiest of solution would be to rename your cards. Why not Isengard Wolf?

Good catch - I read the original post incorrectly. I'll think of a new name.

[JamesCB]

I want to participate in this, but I'm not entirely sure how it works... I don't even know if I am eligible to enter. 

[menace64]

You're certainly eligible!

This week, we're submitting card ideas for an card whose name falls between "Cold and Perilous" and "Smoke From Isengard". That's all you gotta do to hop in.

[JamesCB]

Sweet. 

Saruman, Lord of Isengard
Minion • Wizard
Strength: 8
Vitality: 4
Site: 4
Game Text: Saruman may not take wounds during the archery phase and may not be assigned to a skirmish.
Each weather condition is twilight cost -2.
Shadow: Exert Saruman to play a condition or event from your discard pile.
Shadow: Exert Saruman to discard a free peoples condition.

The idea here is simple.
Key weather conditions, specifically Saruman's Snows and Saruman's Frost now cost only an exertion (But that's why Isengard Worker exists.)
We don't what Saruman taken out, in case of a double move, so we can take out something like... Betrayal of Isengard.

[azogsbane]

Thanks, Cw0rk.