Fill in the Blank Season 1.5 / 2 - Welcome to November!

[menace64]

Before we do ANYTHING else, the final winning card in Lairs is officially azogsbane's new site 5, Moria Abyss! The heresy is now complete and so is this bodacious collaborative set of ours! WOOOOOOOO!!

LAIRS   LAIRS   LAIRS   LAIRS   LAIRS   LAIRS   LAIRS   LAIRS   LAIRS   LAIRS   LAIRS   LAIRS   LAIRS   LAIRS   LAIRS   LAZORS   LAZORS   LAZORS   LAZORSNumber - 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. Isengard Test Subject ( • Minion) - Cw0rk - 22
11. Smoke From Isengard ( • Condition) - menace64 - 13
12. From Morgoth's Lair They Came ( • Event) - Cw0rk - 21
13. Goblin Sentinel ( • Minion) - Inspire - 24
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. Moria Abyss (F5 Site) - azogsbane - 25
24. Shelob's Lair (K8 Site) - Inspire - 23
25. The Black Gate (S Site) - SGollum - 11
26+. •Durin's Axe, Omen of Fortune ( • Artifact) - Durin's Heir - 4
26+. From Lowest Dungeon to Highest Peak ( • Event) - menace64 - 4
26+. Oath of Cirion ( • Condition) - Cw0rk - 16
26+. Distant Howl ( • Event) - azogsbane - 22
26+. Key of Orthanc ( • Artifact) - Cw0rk - 17
26+. Host of the Upper Hall ( • Minion) -menace64 - 21
26+. Orkish Whip ( • Possession) - Durin's Heir - 7
26+. •Alliance ( • Condition) - azogsbane - 19
26+. •Mountains of Shadow ( • Condition) - menace64 - 2
26+. Dwimorberg (K4 Site) - Cw0rk - 23[/list]

To view the entire set, go here. The first section has every card listed individually along with original author credits, followed by two different arrangements of the set in 9-sleeve pages.

THANK YOU for being a part of this first season! LotR TCG has been without contests for a life age of this earth, and it feels like the right step on the dance floor of left feet to see us coming together to get some silly #$&*@! done. I'm heartily anticipating what is still yet to come!

And on that note...

Welcome to Fill in the Blank Season 2: Lords!

Lords is a Movie-block set - meaning no 11+ cultures, and is Ringwraith, not Wraith. Shadows-era sites are acceptable.

Each week I'll post the collector's information for one of the cards in the set's cardlist. Contestants are free to create whatever card they see fit for that slot in the card-list, keeping in mind the card titles of previously-victorious cards. As the contest progresses, the cardlist will become more and more defined, guiding the contestants' choices. Not every card has to fit the theme, of course, but it's something to keep in mind when coming up with submissions.

To become a contestant, you gotta do three things: PM me your card submission for the active round; Vote on the last round's submissions; and leave a Comment in the current round describing your vote (yes you can vote for yourself), along with any card reviews you wish to provide.

By constraining card submissions to PMs, I hope to buff some of the excitement each week, as well as develop a private line of communication with each contestant in order to help eliminate 8-liners and other basic formatting errors that typically kill a submission before it even makes it to a vote. This should also make each newly-posted round more exciting!

In the event of any ties, I'm still unsure exactly what I want to do. It'll either be the same as season 1 (randomized tie-breaker), or we'll start some sort of showdown mechanic I haven't quite worked out yet. Dunno! Whatever the solution, I'd be thrilled to end this season without a single card landing on the misadventure list (but it'll be there should we need it).

If you every have any questions about what to do or who to do it to, please don't hesitate to ask!


And now, let us come together and kick. this. pig.

This week's card number is...

Card #15!

Right smack dab in the middle! Good work, RNG gods.

With no other constraints upon you, #15 can technically belong to any culture. Have fun, but be mindful of how your submission will affect the rest of the cardlist!

Closing Date: November 7

LORDS
Number - Name - (Culture • Type) - Contestant - Week It Won
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15. IN CREATION THIS WEEK
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
[/list]

[menace64]

If you're itching to post your card submission in the form of a comment, don't! Scroll up and read those rules, instead! 

[Cw0rk]

Card submitted! Good luck and have fun!

[JamesCB]

I voted Key of Orthanc because I love the originality.
I voted From Morgoth's Lair They Came, because I love the idea of multiple Demon Of Might's.
And, finally, I voted Moria Abyss. Because it's freaking awesome.

[Legion]

I really like these format changes. May I suggest one further? That is that I feel designer's notes should not be included. When Decipher released their cards, the popular ones were discovered by the players, not the creators. Dream cards should do a similar thing: if it's not clear why they should be played, then they aren't good cards. 

In addition, I feel that the designer's notes often can actually reduce creativity. It's easy to take them at face value, and not consider how a card would interact with other cards the designer had not considered. Let the voters decide how to play them.

I would put in the exception to that if explaining the lore on a card (for example I didn't know Dwimorberg was the mountain range by the paths of the dead), but nothing more.

[Cw0rk]

Are people allowed to vote for their own card? I guess not if you are supposed to explain your vote to participate? Can you please clarify?

[menace64]

My hope is to subtly reduce the amount of self-voting that we get each round - not that I'm aware of any abuses of the voting system during the previous season. (and if anybody is abusing multiple accounts to get a leg up in this niche online card creation contest, shame on you! )

In round 10, I voted for my own submission, Worse Than Orcs. That week we got 5 submissions: 2 Aragorns, 1 no-name soldier, and 2 cards, one FP, one SH. If I had been compelled to describe my vote that week, I'd've likely said something like, "I don't think Aragorn fits into the theme of the set, nor does the soldier. Of the two remaining cards, I think mine happens to fit the theme of the set best this week."

It doesn't need to be a justification for your vote - and you are always going to be allowed to self-vote. "I vote for my own submission because I liked it best" is a perfectly legitimate description.

[Cw0rk]

My favorite card from the set was Isengard Test Subject. Not a huge fan of the image you picked thought. I wonder if it would be possible to make a montage with a oneof the Watcher in the Water shot in the background and a random isengard orc in front.

One of my other favorite card was Mithril Gate. I love the idea of 1 card making new decks possible.

The more I see it and the more I like Moria Abyss. Sadly, I vote for the other Balrog card of the set instead. If I could recast my vote, I would give it to the Abyss. The image that you picked for it is amazing.

I also quite like the design of Goblin Sentinel.

[JamesCB]

If I could recast my vote, I would give it to the Abyss. The image that you picked for it is amazing.

For whatever it's worth, you can. Just click the remove vote button at the bottom of the options, then revote.

[azogsbane]

It sure was hard to pick only 3 of the above list. I voted for Balin because I love the ability to pick up some of the cards knocked off the top of your deck by Ever My Heart Rises or Search Far and Wide. I voted for Wrested Kingdom because the flavor is fantastic. I couldn't help voting for Mithril Gates because something along its lines had been a card in my dreams for a long time.

[Cw0rk]

If I could recast my vote, I would give it to the Abyss. The image that you picked for it is amazing.

For whatever it's worth, you can. Just click the remove vote button at the bottom of the options, then revote.

Thanks for the info! I recasted my vote and voted for Moria Abyss.

[Inspire]

Commandeered Vessel is my favorite card of the set. It has a clear utility, the flavor is unmistakable, and the mirroring of Black Sails of Umbar works perfectly as well. 

My other votes went to Distant Howl and Sheltered Hollow, with an honorable mention to Wrested Kingdom. Distant Howl is simple, effective, and fills a need within the card pool. Events, particularly Shadow events, are difficult to do well; Distant Howl passes with flying colors. With Sheltered Hollow, the first line of game text won me over: it's unique in its design as a self-imposed limit on fellowship size and an interesting deviation from the rule of five.

And thanks again to menace64 for running these each week!

[Legion]

I voted Goblin Sentinel and Host of the Upper Hall. Two great cats I raved about when in the competition. Dwimorberg was cool, too

[menace64]

I voted for Distant Howl, Ulaire Attea, and Merry. These are cards that I've thought about elsewhere in my life... they feel like cards out of a Decipher boutique set and this tickles me.