Light & Shadow - Complete Card List

[Thranduil]

Meh. Thats all there is to say.

I will think more on this one... But I agree with you, it's pretty meh. Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing yet!

Argh! Urgh! Bleh! No. Lovely idea but its just so wrong i cant state it! Id kill to use it but i feel it goes against all that is LOTR TCG! If you kept it id clear the wording up like "Bearer wins ties in strength during skrimishes."

I don't understand, why specifically do you have such a big problem with this? And is it really that good? Am I missing something about the card's power level?

If you kept it id clear the wording up like "Bearer wins ties in strength during skrimishes."

That is a fair point, though it becomes a very interesting anti Final Triumph weapon...

Well that was it for the culture. So the next (skipping over which we've already seen) would be , but I don't want to start something big right now when I'm still not sure about that shield. So, instead we'll have a little detour into .

First, the cards we've already seen (just for completeness):

Awoken in the Darkness
Event • Shadow
Discard any number of minions to play The Balrog from your draw deck. Its twilight cost is -1 (or -2 if the current site is underground) for each minion discarded in this way.
L U 101

•The Balrog, Demon of the Ancient World
Minion • Balrog
Str: 17
Vit: 5
Sit: 4
Fierce.
Discard all other minions.
While skirmishing a companion with resistance 4 or less, The Balrog is strength +3 and damage +1.
L C 102

•The Balrog's Sword, Weapon of Shadow
Artifact • Hand Weapon
Str: +3
Bearer must be The Balrog.
Each time The Balrog wins a skirmish, you may exert a companion with resistance 4 or less.
Regroup: Discard this artifact to add a burden.
L R 104

•Whip of Many Thongs, Weapon of Flame
Artifact
Res: -3
Bearer must be The Balrog.
Skirmish: Exert The Balrog to transfer this artifact to a companion skirmishing The Balrog.
L R 105

And you may remember that I wasn't decided on how the rare Balrog would play out. But, I think I have a fun build for it, and here it is!

•The Balrog, Nameless Fear
Minion • Balrog
Str: 17
Vit: 5
Sit: 4
Damage +1. Fierce.
When you play The Balrog, you may play a artifact from your draw deck or discard pile.
Each companion with resistance 4 or less cannot use special abilities.
L R 103

[Elf_Lvr]

Awesome new Balgy. The ability to pull his weapons from your discard pile is really unique, and really awesome!

[lem0nhead]

Argh! Urgh! Bleh! No. Lovely idea but its just so wrong i cant state it! Id kill to use it but i feel it goes against all that is LOTR TCG! If you kept it id clear the wording up like "Bearer wins ties in strength during skrimishes."

I don't understand, why specifically do you have such a big problem with this? And is it really that good? Am I missing something about the card's power level?

Not necessarily powerful, just saying its so anti lotr it gives me "the willies" as sop says. Its just wrong to win ties in strength for the freeps! I guess its not so bad, like i said its a cool idea, its just flavour wise i dont feel comfortable with it.

Ill review the cards later when i got time.

[Braler]

Like the new Balrog alot! The whole artifact playing ability is great and i like the resistance/fear/cannot use special abilities flavor. I'm still not sold on that whip though, it just seems a bit clunky with transfering it to a companion.

[Thranduil]

Okay thanks for your thoughts. I will think on and address the shield and the whip.

Now for something quite different. I gave my spiel about unloaded keywords a while back. So, though I will be referencing unloaded keywords hardly at all in this set, I did decide to throw them everywhere. And I had already decided that one of the themes for the culture was going to be Bree, mainly because it was done so badly in Treachery & Deceit. And then my train of thought led me to wanting an unloaded keyword to represent something about them and others, which is why I came up with traitor (which, if you guys like the concept, would also appear on Saruman and the Orcs of Cirith Ungol who started killing each other, and any others where it makes sense). I wasn't sure about the name, but I couldn't think of something better. I was thinking about "turncoat" or "fickle" or something but I wasn't convinced. Any ideas?

This is a simple one:

Breeland Rogue
Minion • Man
Str: 8
Vit: 1
Sit: 2
Traitor.
While skirmishing a companion with resistance 5 or less, this minion is strength +2.
L C 83

And I said there would be some multiculture Shadow support - well this is one of them.

Breeland Traitor
Minion • Man
Str: 9
Vit: 2
Sit: 2
Traitor.
This minion is strength +1 for each Shadow culture you can spot.
L C 85

And remember that one of the themes of this set is playing Shadow stuff during the skirmish phase.

•Bill Ferny, Man of Bree
Minion • Man
Str: 4
Vit: 1
Sit: 2
Traitor.
While you can spot a companion with resistance 5 or less, Bill Ferny cannot be assigned to a skirmish by the Free Peoples player.
Each companion (except the Ring-bearer) skirmishing Bill Ferny is resistance -3.
L R 81

[Braler]

Love the new keyword don't change it.  It can fit so many different aspects in Middle Earth as that is a main theme of the stories. 

Breeland Rogue - looks good
Breeland Traitor - interesting flavor with the lack of allegiance
Bill Ferny - seems good if just under the power curve as i see it

One note that i can see, even though im sure you will address this.  With the strength of your Free People's cards at maintaining a high resistance you are going to have to give these guys some good resistance lowering abilities.

[Thranduil]

One note that i can see, even though im sure you will address this.  With the strength of your Free People's cards at maintaining a high resistance you are going to have to give these guys some good resistance lowering abilities.

Actually, you've raised an important issue which I suddenly realised I hadn't done much about! It seems like a made a lot of resistance reductions for the culture, but somehow forgot to do the same for other cultures... And with that thought, I've changed Bill Ferny around a bit.

Thanks for your vigilance in spotting mistakes you didn't even know I'd made!

Thranduil

[lem0nhead]

The second guy needs "that you can spot" on the end. And bill needs to be slightly better possibly, feel hes slightly in the shadow of the others.

[Thranduil]

Okay thanks for all your thoughts! We're just going to see a few more Bree cards...

First a (unique) Harry Goatleaf! Stupid Decipher....

•Harry Goatleaf, Gate-warden
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 2
Sit: 2
Traitor.
To play, spot a or card.
Each minion is site number -2.
L R 93

And this is a card that first appeared from me in the Neverending DC thread. I figured I might as well include.

Breeland Spy
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 2
Sit: 2
Traitor.
This minion's twilight cost is X, where X is the current region number.
L R 84

And here's a "thesaurus reprint" (you know, like Enduring Evil to Abiding Evil) which I realised after I made it was a combination of 2 cards from Fellowship block. But I'll leave you to work out which!

Spies From the South
Event • Response
Search.
If the Ring-bearer puts on The One Ring, spot a minion to discard the Free Peoples player's hand or the top 5 cards of their draw deck.
L U 97

[Gerontius]

This is a simple one:

Breeland Rogue
Minion • Man
Str: 8
Vit: 1
Sit: 2
Traitor.
While skirmishing a companion with resistance 5 or less, this minion is strength +2.
L C 83
Fine. The Traitor keyword seems alright.

And I said there would be some multiculture Shadow support - well this is one of them.

Breeland Traitor
Minion • Man
Str: 9
Vit: 2
Sit: 2
Traitor.
This minion is strength +1 for each Shadow culture you can spot.
L C 85

Whoa. Imagine the decks you could build around this card! Okay in its own set, I guess.

And remember that one of the themes of this set is playing Shadow stuff during the skirmish phase.

•Bill Ferny, Man of Bree
Minion • Man
Str: 4
Vit: 1
Sit: 2
Traitor.
While you can spot a companion with resistance 5 or less, Bill Ferny cannot be assigned to a skirmish by the Free Peoples player.
Each companion (except the Ring-bearer) skirmishing Bill Ferny is resistance -3.
L R 81

Could be very cheap, but alright.

•Harry Goatleaf, Gate-warden
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 2
Sit: 2
Traitor.
To play, spot a or card.
Each minion is site number -3.
L R 93

Once again, you could build a very broken deck around this card, but in itself it seems okay.

And this is a card that first appeared from me in the Neverending DC thread. I figured I might as well include.

Breeland Spy
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 2
Sit: 2
Traitor.
This minion's twilight cost is X, where X is the current region number.
L R 84

See above. Are you designing these to be a site 2-3 swarm?

And here's a "thesaurus reprint" (you know, like Enduring Evil to Abiding Evil) which I realised after I made it was a combination of 2 cards from Fellowship block. But I'll leave you to work out which!

Spies From the South
Event • Response
Search.
If the Ring-bearer puts on The One Ring, spot a minion to discard the Free Peoples player's hand or the top 5 cards of their draw deck.
L U 97

Okay.

Good cards!

[Thranduil]

Are you designing these to be a site 2-3 swarm?

They are supposed to be good early on. Do you think they're really too powerful?

Thranduil

[lem0nhead]

•Harry Goatleaf, Gate-warden
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 2
Sit: 2
Traitor.
To play, spot a or card.
Each minion is site number -3.
L R 93

Why each minion not minion?

Breeland Spy
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 2
Sit: 2
Traitor.
This minion's twilight cost is X, where X is the current region number.
L R 84

Novel, very SWCCG!

Spies From the South
Event • Response
Search.
If the Ring-bearer puts on The One Ring, spot a minion to discard the Free Peoples player's hand or the top 5 cards of their draw deck.
L U 97

Fine i guess.

[Thranduil]

Why each minion not minion?

2 reasons: 1) because it should work for Nazgûl as well, and 2) because I'm trying to promote multiculture shadow wherever I can and I didn't want to write or . In fact, I think I'm going to reduce his reduction to -2 so that it works best for Men and Nazgûl (and Orcs).

Thranduil

[sickofpalantirs]

is traitor unloaded? kewl.

[Thranduil]

is traitor unloaded?

Yes indeed!

I think we'll have some other Breelander support.

As I've said before, I've been trying to emphasise the strengths of each culture. One thing I noticed was that the culture was one of the best Shadow cultures at fetching (basically because of the Mouth of Sauron) and so I thought I might make a bigger deal out of it with these cards:

Sinister Inquiries
Condition • Support Area
Search.
When you play this condition, you may foresee 1 (look at the top 1 card of your draw deck; place that card on top of or beneath your draw deck).
Maneuver: Discard this condition and spot a companion with resistance 5 or less to take into hand a event or condition from your draw deck.
L U 95

Under the Ringwraith's Sway
Event • Shadow
If the fellowship is in region 1, spot a card to take into hand a Shadow card from your draw deck.
If the fellowship is in region 2 or 3, spot a card to make an unbound companion resistance -2 until the regroup phase.
L U 98

And now just a funky experiment that I thought I'd throw in! Enjoy!

Spies Everywhere
Condition • Support Area
Stealth.
Response: If a minion minion is played, remove to make that minion gain the culture and traitor until the regroup phase.
L R 96