Return to the Paths of the Dead - Abandoning All Reason

[lem0nhead]

•Ulaire Otsea, Twilight Stalker
Minion • Nazgul
Strength: 9
Vitality: 3
Site: 3
Twilight. Enduring 2.
Each time Ulaire Otsea wins a skirmish you may heal him to add a burden for each Shadow card borne by a character he was skirmishing.
"...under their mantles were long grey robes..."

Good but again my comment stands about them not being fierce.

Ride Through the Twilight
Condition • Support Area
To play spot a minion.
Each time the fellowship moves you may scour 3 cards. For each twilight card you scour, add a threat. For each Free Peoples card you scour, remove a threat.
"He stared downward at the hateful Road, leading back westward - to his home. Suddenly, he was aware that two black specks were moving slowly along it, going westward; and looking again he saw that three others were creeping eastward to meet them. He gave a cry and clutched Strider's arm."

This is broken with ur mechanic. You could play 4 of this and pair it with freeps desperation tactic and abuse it couldnt you?

Back from the Dead
Condition • Support Area
Desperation - each minion gains "Return - remove a burden or a threat" and "Legendary - ".
"'Their horses must have perished, and without them they are crippled. But the Ringwraiths themselves cannot be so easily destroyed.'"

O and theres a shadow desperation tactic as well! Gees. Wow thats insanely hard. Bringing back a wraith for a threat when uve run out of cards is solid. So my comment above stands.

[Anvar]

Don't really know what to do with Lemon's comments here. I see the potential for great power, but remember that if you're playing the shadow side and you have achieved desperation, at the start of each shadow phase all you have in play are things in your support area. If you are scouring cards every turn, you will quickly run out of steam.

We'll have a chance to think about it some more as we look at some more cards.

•Ulaire Toldea, Rider in Twilight
Minion • Nazgul
Strength: 12
Vitality: 3
Site: 3
Twilight.
While this card is in your dead pile, each exhausted twilight minion is fierce.
"...upon their grey hairs were helms of silver..."

Ancient Barrow
Condition • Support Area
Tomb. (Cards stacked here count as being in the dead pile. If discarded, place all stacked cards in the dead pile).
When you play this card, stack a minion from your discard or dead pile here.
Shadow: Discard a card stacked here and spot a twilight card to play a minion from your discard pile.
"To his right there loomed against the westward stars a dark black shape. A great barrow stood there."

Standing Stone
Condition • Support Area
Tomb. (Cards stacked here count as being in the dead pile. If discarded, place all stacked cards in the dead pile).
When you play this card, stack a card from your discard or dead pile here.
Shadow: Spot a twilight minion and remove to play a possession stacked here as if from hand.
Regroup: Remove to stack a possession here from play.
The dark patches grew darker, but they shrank; and suddenly he saw, towering ominous before him and leaning slightly towards one another like the pillars of a headless door, two huge standing stones."

[Thranduil]

•Ulaire Toldea, Rider in the Twilight
Minion • Nazgul
Strength: 12
Vitality: 3
Site: 3
Twilight.
While this card is in your dead pile, each exhausted twilight minion is fierce.
"...upon their grey hairs were helms of silver..."

I think 'the' is superfluous in his subtitle - Rider in Twilight is awesome in itself. I think I'd just throw the blanket 'each twilight minion is fierce' and it would seem fine to me, because you either have to have tombs out or desperation with your above card that gives Nazgûl legendary.

Ancient Barrow
Condition • Support Area
Tomb. (Cards stacked here count as being in the dead pile. If discarded, place all stacked cards in the dead pile).
When you play this card, stack a minion from your discard or dead pile here.
Shadow: Discard a card stacked here and spot a twilight card to play a minion from your discard pile.
"To his right there loomed against the westward stars a dark black shape. A great barrow stood there."

Perhaps this only needs to cost as it has only one chance for an effect.

Standing Stone
Condition • Support Area
Tomb. (Cards stacked here count as being in the dead pile. If discarded, place all stacked cards in the dead pile).
When you play this card, stack a card from your discard or dead pile here.
Shadow: Spot a twilight minion and remove to play a possession stacked here as if from hand.
Regroup: Remove to stack a possession here from play.
The dark patches grew darker, but they shrank; and suddenly he saw, towering ominous before him and leaning slightly towards one another like the pillars of a headless door, two huge standing stones."

What's the significance of possessions being in your dead pile here? My point being: does it really need to be a tomb if it just stacks possessions?

Thranduil

[sickofpalantirs]

definitly you are treading on thin ice with this new mechanic...the best way would be to playtest it somehow.

•Ulaire Toldea, Rider in the Twilight
Minion • Nazgul
Strength: 12
Vitality: 3
Site: 3
Twilight.
While this card is in your dead pile, each exhausted twilight minion is fierce.
"...upon their grey hairs were helms of silver..."
fine.

Ancient Barrow
Condition • Support Area
Tomb. (Cards stacked here count as being in the dead pile. If discarded, place all stacked cards in the dead pile).
When you play this card, stack a minion from your discard or dead pile here.
Shadow: Discard a card stacked here and spot a twilight card to play a minion from your discard pile.
"To his right there loomed against the westward stars a dark black shape. A great barrow stood there."
maybe its twilight cost is -1?

Standing Stone
Condition • Support Area
Tomb. (Cards stacked here count as being in the dead pile. If discarded, place all stacked cards in the dead pile).
When you play this card, stack a card from your discard or dead pile here.
Shadow: Spot a twilight minion and remove to play a possession stacked here as if from hand.
Regroup: Remove to stack a possession here from play.
The dark patches grew darker, but they shrank; and suddenly he saw, towering ominous before him and leaning slightly towards one another like the pillars of a headless door, two huge standing stones."

a dead possession? thats just weird...

[Anvar]

Good questions, and I should probably have made some of this stuff clear before I posted the cards.

1] Of course, there are some unique possessions, the Pale Blade, the Witch-King's Fell Beast etc. So having possessions in your dead pile can be significant.

2] I was trying to capture the idea that the barrows contain treasure as well as Wights (that's how the Hobbits get their swords after all).

3] Tombs feature as a bit of strategy in their own right, so being able to have 8 tombs in your deck seemed important to me. However, I was concerned about having to stack too many minions in the dead pile.

4] There will be a card or two, for only that will stack more cards on these tombs, so you may well be able to get the effect more than once.

Hope that clears up some of the confusion.

Anvar

[lem0nhead]

Don't really know what to do with Lemon's comments here. I see the potential for great power, but remember that if you're playing the shadow side and you have achieved desperation, at the start of each shadow phase all you have in play are things in your support area. If you are scouring cards every turn, you will quickly run out of steam.

Well i mean, yeah ok the downside to the tactic is of course you draw no cards so ur screwed so yes the upside has to be pretty good, but i feel the return values on these makes the desperation tactic TOO strong. Cos ur barely being penalised for having no cards if you can still play ur guls every turn and doing nasty stuff. Meh nvm.

•Ulaire Toldea, Rider in Twilight
Minion • Nazgul
Strength: 12
Vitality: 3
Site: 3
Twilight.
While this card is in your dead pile, each exhausted twilight minion is fierce.
"...upon their grey hairs were helms of silver..."

Wooo interesting. I like. Opens up a lot of possiblities. And totally helps with my earlier point about lacking fierce! Nice!

Ancient Barrow
Condition • Support Area
Tomb. (Cards stacked here count as being in the dead pile. If discarded, place all stacked cards in the dead pile).
When you play this card, stack a minion from your discard or dead pile here.
Shadow: Discard a card stacked here and spot a twilight card to play a minion from your discard pile.
"To his right there loomed against the westward stars a dark black shape. A great barrow stood there."

Cool.

Standing Stone
Condition • Support Area
Tomb. (Cards stacked here count as being in the dead pile. If discarded, place all stacked cards in the dead pile).
When you play this card, stack a card from your discard or dead pile here.
Shadow: Spot a twilight minion and remove to play a possession stacked here as if from hand.
Regroup: Remove to stack a possession here from play.
The dark patches grew darker, but they shrank; and suddenly he saw, towering ominous before him and leaning slightly towards one another like the pillars of a headless door, two huge standing stones."

Shadow needs bold tags. Sorry . This could cost 1.

[DáinIronfoot]

Nothing new to add, really, so I just echo Lem0n's review.

[Anvar]

Thanks for the reviews so far.

Today I have the final Nazgul for the moment and some support cards for tombs as mentioned above.

•Ulaire Nertea, Twilight Wraith
Minion • Nazgul
Strength: 9
Vitality: 2
Site: 3
Twilight. Enduring 3.
While Ulaire Nertea is in your dead pile, the twilight cost of each condition is -1.

Cold Be Sleep Under Stone
Event • Shadow
Spot a twilight card to stack a card from hand or your discard pile on a tomb.
"Cold be hand and heart and bone..."

Dread Incantation
Event • Shadow
Play a Shadow card stacked on a tomb as if from hand (and if it is a twilight minion, its cost is -1).
"In the black wind the stars shall die / and still on gold here let them lie..."

[DáinIronfoot]

•Ulaire Nertea, Twilight Wraith
Minion • Nazgul
Strength: 9
Vitality: 2
Site: 3
Twilight. Enduring 3.
While this card is in your dead pile, the twilight cost of each condition is -1.

Nifty. I think it should be "While Ulaire Nertea is in your dead pile", though.

Cold Be Sleep Under Stone
Event • Shadow
Spot a twilight card to stack a card from hand or your discard pile on a tomb.
"Cold be hand and heart and bone..."

Just what the doctor ordered. Good stuff.

Dread Incantation
Event • Shadow
Play a Shadow card stacked on a tomb (and if it is a twilight minion, its cost is -2).
"In the black wind the stars shall die / and still on gold here let them lie..."

I like it, but the cost reduction offered scares me a tiny bit. I THINK it's balanced enough.

[Thranduil]

Looks good. Perhaps the twilight reduction only needs to be -1, however.

Thranduil

[sickofpalantirs]

•Ulaire Nertea, Twilight Wraith
Minion • Nazgul
Strength: 9
Vitality: 2
Site: 3
Twilight. Enduring 3.
While Ulaire Nertea is in your dead pile, the twilight cost of each condition is -1.
nice

Cold Be Sleep Under Stone
Event • Shadow
Spot a twilight card to stack a card from hand or your discard pile on a tomb.
"Cold be hand and heart and bone..."
fine

Dread Incantation
Event • Shadow
Play a Shadow card stacked on a tomb (and if it is a twilight minion, its cost is -1).
"In the black wind the stars shall die / and still on gold here let them lie..."

shouldn't it be as if from hand?

[Anvar]

Some relatively uncontroversial cards, which makes a nice change

Anyway, a few more minions today - a vertical cycle of Barrow Wraiths. Perhaps not the most exciting creatures ever designed but it seemed to me that Wights could do with some fairly vanilla cards, and a set with only complicated cards wouldn't be much good either.

Wight of the Shadows
Minion • Wraith
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Site: 2
Twilight. Enduring 1.
"Then a grip stronger and colder than iron seized him."

Spirit of Angmar
Minion • Wraith
Strength: 8
Vitality: 3
Site: 2
Twilight. Enduring 2.
"The icy touch froze his bones, and he remembered no more."

•Undead King, Warrior of Old
Minion • Wraith
Strength: 10
Vitality: 4
Site: 2
Twilight. Enduring 2.
While this card is in your dead pile, each minion and Nazgul gains enduring 2.
"Trembling he looked up, in time to see a tall dark figure like a shadow against the stars. It leaned over him. He thought there were two eyes, very cold, though lit with a pale light that seemed to come from some remote distance.

[Thranduil]

My only worry is for Spirit of Angmar who seems powerful for its cost for a non-roaming vitality 3 enduring minion.

Thranduil

[FM]

They can go to the Dead Pile? Sweet! How does that work in your mechanic? Always wanted to see something like that.

[Thranduil]

If you just looked at the top of the page...

Thranduil