PC card change discussion

[Eukalyptus]

This thread is supposed to be a home for discussing changes to certain cards. Making them either more balanced or playable.

Important: every proposed change needs to be accompanied by a good explanation of why. "I don't like to play against this card." or similar statements are to be avoided!

I'd like to have a set layout for a proposal, e.g.:

The Weight of a Legacy 
Condition
Strength -1
To play, exert a Orc. Plays on Aragorn.

Now, this card is literally unplayable. Not every deck plays an Aragorn, nor is the effect impactful at all. I have multiple ideas:

The Weight of a Legacy
Condition
To play, exert a Orc. Plays to your support area. Each companion is strength -1 for each burden you can spot (except the Ring-bearer).

This would impact the game much, much more, as well as open up a somewhat lacking strategy: beatdown. And not just in FotR block, but in Towers Standard and Movie as well (especially when looking at the ARBs). Now, with the change to Sam, Son of Hamfast, this could add up quick. Solutions could be to make this one unique, put a limit on it or exclude ring-bound companions.

Another idea:

The Weight of a Legacy
Condition
To play, exert a minion. Plays to your support area.
Maneuver: Spot a minion and 5 burdens to make Aragorn unable to participate in skirmishes until the regroup phase.

This condition would be exceptional against Aragorn RotN. Especially on site 9, giving the culture a much better chance to swarm the FP player. I thought about exerting the minion to be able to exclude Aragorn, but then the FP player wouldn't have a chance of countering the effect. Exerting the minion opens up old wounds to direct damage, The culture exerts for everthing anyhow, this need not be the next free wound for the FP player to dispose of the minions. The number of burdens can be adjusted.

Thoughts?

[TelTura]

I know that Sauron flirts a bit with burdens, but regardless the first version still feels more like a Ringwraith card tbh.

Second one has most of the same problems as the original, with the added restriction of being worthless on its own (since other cards need to add the actual burdens).

Here is the version that the PC landed on most recently while tentatively theorycrafting alternatives for The Weight of a Legacy:



Thus it scales off of The Last Alliance of Elves and Men, The Saga of Elendil / The Tale of Gil-galad, and some others. This sticks to the intent of the original, preserves the flavor, and manages to be more generally useful against more targets to boot.

[Gerontius]

I like this, but I think it would work better as an event, not a condition! IMO even if this card is a strong "Aragorn counter" the (FOTR block) meta would respond not by relying on Aragorn less, but by slotting in even more condition removal / Vilya. The same effect as an event instead would have to be played around more actively and would encourage players to build up some non-[Gondor] skirmishers.

I would also suggest strength -1 per card borne by the companion instead of per tale, although I like the flavor.

[Durin's Heir]

Here's my take:

The Weight of a Legacy 
Condition
Strength -1
To play, exert a Orc. Plays on a companion. Limit 1 per bearer.
Each tale or card gains this cost: "To play, discard a random card from your hand."
"'It is because of Meth, the Ring survives... I was there the day the strength of Meth failed.'"


The idea is obviously to make Elven + Gondor faceroll combos much less secure and strong, and hurt the abuse of Might of Numenor / Banner of the White Tree / Gondor Bowmen too (which can hinder a good Grind or Swarm kinda easily). Lorewise, it represents Boromir's vision of focusing on the Steward's Gondor and the world of Men, and giving less importance to the King's return and obsolete alliances.

Athelas and Sleep Caradhras will remove it well, but to do so via Secret Sentinels your opponent will require at least 1 extra card in hand per copy of this in play to be ditched (and randomly). Which can be impossible if you're playing Tower of Barad-dur / Orc Inquisitor, or fatal if you're playing DDotR / The Irresistible Shadow.

Punishes also Curse Their Foul Feet, Double Shot and ally spamming.

[Tunadan]

I like it!