The Way Into Mordor - Isengard (12/31: Token Machine Stuff)

[lem0nhead]

I like the entire card.

[DáinIronfoot]

Now, in the theme of the mutual goal of and to control sites, here are a couple relatively easy site-controlling minions. Enjoy!

Uruk Rampager
Minion • Uruk-hai
Strength: 5
Vitality: 1
Site: 5
Hunter 1. Each time this minion wins a skirmish, take control of a site.
While you control a site, this minion cannot take wounds (except during skirmishes).
"‘They do not come to destroy Rohan's crops or villages....'"

The title and lore are inspired by Uruk Village Rager, which shares almost identical text as well. It's a goodie that was simply too good to pass up semi-reprinting, especially since I wanted some "village raging" Uruks of my own.

Uruk Marauder
Minion • Uruk-hai
Strength: 7
Vitality: 2
Site: 5
Damage +1. Hunter 1.
Each time this minion wins a skirmish, spot X or minions to take control of a site, where X is that site's site number.
"‘We were driven back yesterday over the Isen with great loss; many perished at the crossing.'"

Yes, he can be splashed in very easily with Dunlendings. I think this is alright since the many cards that protect Dunlendings from taking wounds would not help this guy at all, and it would reduce the effectiveness of cards that require spotting multiple minions by thinning out your pool of minion Men. Of course, he's perfectly good (and perhaps preferrable) with fellow Uruks as well.

[Gate Troll]

Uruk Rampager
Minion • Uruk-hai
Strength: 5
Vitality: 1
Site: 5
Hunter 1. Each time this minion wins a skirmish, take control of a site.
While you control a site, this minion cannot take wounds (except during skirmishes).
"‘They do not come to destroy Rohan's crops or villages....'"

I'd prefer vitality 2, but it's your call.

Uruk Marauder
Minion • Uruk-hai
Strength: 7
Vitality: 2
Site: 5
Damage +1. Hunter 1.
Each time this minion wins a skirmish, spot X or minions to take control of a site, where X is that site's number.
"‘We were driven back yesterday over the Isen with great loss; many perished at the crossing.'"

Oooh, I would use him. Nice splash card.

I think I'm going to copy these stats to index cards and test-play them. 

[sickofpalantirs]

I'd cut a keyword of the marauder.

[Thranduil]

Uruk Rampager
Minion • Uruk-hai
Strength: 5
Vitality: 1
Site: 5
Hunter 1. Each time this minion wins a skirmish, take control of a site.
While you control a site, this minion cannot take wounds (except during skirmishes).
"‘They do not come to destroy Rohan's crops or villages....'"

These guys have all seemed pretty terrible to me, but never mind. No reason why he can't have a damage bonus.

Uruk Marauder
Minion • Uruk-hai
Strength: 7
Vitality: 2
Site: 5
Damage +1. Hunter 1.
Each time this minion wins a skirmish, spot X or minions to take control of a site, where X is that site's number.
"‘We were driven back yesterday over the Isen with great loss; many perished at the crossing.'"

Which number do you mean? Site number or Shadow number? You need to be specific; if it's the site number I would word it as: "that site's site number" so as to avoid all confusion.

Thranduil

[Elf_Lvr]

Rampager is fine as-is. I second Thran when it comes to the Marauder.

[lem0nhead]

Uruk Rampager
Minion • Uruk-hai
Strength: 5
Vitality: 1
Site: 5
Hunter 1. Each time this minion wins a skirmish, take control of a site.
While you control a site, this minion cannot take wounds (except during skirmishes).
"‘They do not come to destroy Rohan's crops or villages....'"

Nice.

Uruk Marauder
Minion • Uruk-hai
Strength: 7
Vitality: 2
Site: 5
Damage +1. Hunter 1.
Each time this minion wins a skirmish, spot X or minions to take control of a site, where X is that site's site number.
"‘We were driven back yesterday over the Isen with great loss; many perished at the crossing.'"

Not so sure why he is either very good or very poor.

[DáinIronfoot]

Aaaaargh! I don't know why I'm having such trouble with Uruks! I thought they'd be so easy...but instead I'm finding that they're so common in LOTR TCG already that it's hard to come up with fresh ideas.

So while I continue to rack my brain with them, let's move on to an subculture that also touches on site control and plains sites, both of which will help connect them to the culture a bit. Enjoy!

Plains Rider
Minion • Orc
Strength: 5
Vitality: 1
Site: 4
Warg-rider. Hunter 2.
While the fellowship is at a plains site, this minion's twilight cost is -1.
It was not wise to wander the grasslands of Rohan while Saruman's warg-riders roamed the plains.

Plains Scout
Minion • Orc
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Site: 4
Warg-rider. Hunter 1.
While the fellowship is at a plains or battleground site or while you control a site, the site number of each warg-rider is -1.
"‘What is it? What do you see?'"

[Thranduil]

Plains Rider
Minion • Orc
Strength: 5
Vitality: 1
Site: 4
Warg-rider. Hunter 2.
While the fellowship is at a plains site, this minion's twilight cost is -1.
It was not wise to wander the grasslands of Rohan while Saruman's warg-riders roamed the plains.

Meh. I'm not a fan of Warg-riders. This guys alright.

Plains Scout
Minion • Orc
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Site: 4
Warg-rider. Hunter 1.
While the fellowship is at a plains or battleground site or while you control a site, the site number of each warg-rider is -1.
"‘What is it? What do you see?'"

Meh. Again, I'm not thrilled by this one. I think I would have it with a different title (less "scouty") and a strength boost.

Thranduil

[Gate Troll]

Plains Rider
Minion • Orc
Strength: 5
Vitality: 1
Site: 4
Warg-rider. Hunter 2.
While the fellowship is at a plains site, this minion's twilight cost is -1.
It was not wise to wander the grasslands of Rohan while Saruman's warg-riders roamed the plains.

I'd prefer to see it with 2 vitality. 

Plains Scout
Minion • Orc
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Site: 4
Warg-rider. Hunter 1.
While the fellowship is at a plains or battleground site or while you control a site, the site number of each warg-rider is -1.
"‘What is it? What do you see?'"

I'd make it something like this:

Plains Scout
Minion • Orc
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Site: 4
Warg-rider. Hunter 1.
Shadow: Spot a site you control and exert this minion to play a minion. That
minion is twilght cost -1 for each Plains and Battleground site on the site path.
"‘What is it? What do you see?'"

[DáinIronfoot]

Hmmm...I'll tinker with those guys. It would help to have another review or two, so to Thran and GT and a promised to anyone who goes back and reviews those two initial warg-riders.

In the meantime, let's try to ramp things up a bit....

Feral Warg
Possession • Mount
Strength +3
Vitality +1
Bearer must be a warg-rider. While bearer is not exhausted, he is fierce.
Response: If an event is played during a skirmish involving bearer, exert bearer to cancel that event.
"‘I saw the enemy go: endless lines of marching Orcs; and troops of them mounted on great wolves.'"

The old-school warg-riders ALL had the text "While {this minion} is not exhausted, he/it is fierce." For these new guys, I opted (in most cases) to free up their text space for other things and instead slap the same fierce text on the Wargs themselves.

Speaking of which, the old-school Wargs all had the text "Response: If a special ability is used during a skirmish involving bearer, exert bearer to cancel that action." A nifty ability, especially considering the high vitality that mounted warg-riders typically had. But I didn't want to just make new Wargs with that same text and different costs/stats, as that would be extremely boring. So instead, I chose to focus on events, which have become a bit more commonplace since the days of Tower block.

Battle Warg
Possession • Mount
Strength +4
Vitality +2
Bearer must be a warg-rider. While bearer is not exhausted, he is fierce.
Response: If an event is played during a skirmish involving bearer, exert bearer to cancel that event.
Response: If bearer is killed, discard this possession to play an Warg from your draw deck.
"As they went the howling of the wolves broke out anew."

Same story here. This has an additional trick up its sleeve, though: if the rider is killed, the Warg itself can spring from your deck and become a minion of its own. The lore and context (with Gimli and Aragorn contending with still-very-dangerous Wargs after their riders were dispatched) make this very appropriate, I think.

Of course, that implies I have Wargs TO pull from the deck. I do, of course, and long-time reviewers probably remember the Wargs found in both of my previous sets (Lasting Alliances and The Road Ahead), and thus have some idea what to expect with the Wargs. Those that don't know will just have to wait a little longer.

•Sharkû's Warg, Vicious Beast
Possession • Mount
Strength +5
Vitality +3
Bearer must be a warg-rider. Bearer is fierce (and damage +1 if bearer is Sharkû).
Response: If an event is played during a skirmish involving a warg-rider, exert a warg-rider to cancel that event.
"Borne upon the wind they heard the howling of wolves. Their hearts were heavy, remembering the many men that had fallen in battle in this place."

Not that much different from the others, but the damage +1 for a certain minion certainly makes this a killer when slapped on....

•Sharkû, Terror of the Plains
Minion • Orc
Strength: 7
Vitality: 2
Site: 4
Warg-rider. Hunter 1.
While Sharkû is not exhausted, he is fierce.
When you play Sharkû, you may play an mount or Warg from your draw deck.
Sharkû and his warg-riders harrassed Rohan's villagers and even their mighty Riders for many years.

Both previous versions were pretty good. Warg-captain had a brilliant tie-in to mounts, and Vile Marauder turned all that excess vitality (5 rather easily) into twilight to strongly discourage regroup moving. For this new version (perhaps not the last in this set, by the way), I opted to go back to the mount tie-in, with a twist: this version also lets you pull that previously-teased Warg minions as well. It's also THE best way to get him paired up with his special Warg, which alone makes it a fantastic toss-in to many decks besides a rider-exclusive one.

[Thranduil]

Feral Warg
Possession • Mount
Strength +3
Vitality +1
Bearer must be a warg-rider. While bearer is not exhausted, he is fierce.
Response: If an event is played during a skirmish involving bearer, exert bearer to cancel that event.
"‘I saw the enemy go: endless lines of marching Orcs; and troops of them mounted on great wolves.'"

Yeah, fair enough. The fierce text makes more sense on the Wargs anyway, though it's never seemed to me particularly good.

Battle Warg
Possession • Mount
Strength +4
Vitality +2
Bearer must be a warg-rider. While bearer is not exhausted, he is fierce.
Response: If an event is played during a skirmish involving bearer, exert bearer to cancel that event.
Response: If bearer is killed, discard this possession to play an Warg from your draw deck.
"As they went the howling of the wolves broke out anew."

This one is very entertaining! You do realise that this card can technically also pull the card "Warg"?

•Sharkû's Warg, Vicious Beast
Possession • Mount
Strength +5
Vitality +3
Bearer must be a warg-rider. Bearer is fierce (and damage +1 if bearer is Sharkû).
Response: If an event is played during a skirmish involving a warg-rider, exert a warg-rider to cancel that event.
"Borne upon the wind they heard the howling of wolves. Their hearts were heavy, remembering the many men that had fallen in battle in this place."

The ability's alright, but I want something more useful (like something which isn't on every mount anyway).

•Sharkû, Terror of the Plains
Minion • Orc
Strength: 7
Vitality: 2
Site: 4
Warg-rider. Hunter 1.
While Sharkû is not exhausted, he is fierce.
When you play Sharkû, you may play an mount or Warg from your draw deck.
Sharkû and his warg-riders harrassed Rohan's villagers and even their mighty Riders for many years.

This guy is perfectly reasonable, but I've never seen Warg-riders played (they always seemed pretty terrible to me) so I'm not sure about the power level of this strategy. As it is, he seems slightly underpowered.

Thranduil

[sickofpalantirs]

Hmmm...I'll tinker with those guys. It would help to have another review or two, so to Thran and GT and a promised to anyone who goes back and reviews those two initial warg-riders.

In the meantime, let's try to ramp things up a bit....

Feral Warg
Possession • Mount
Strength +3
Vitality +1
Bearer must be a warg-rider. While bearer is not exhausted, he is fierce.
Response: If an event is played during a skirmish involving bearer, exert bearer to cancel that event.
"‘I saw the enemy go: endless lines of marching Orcs; and troops of them mounted on great wolves.'"
nice and basic...should it be 3 though?


Battle Warg
Possession • Mount
Strength +4
Vitality +2
Bearer must be a warg-rider. While bearer is not exhausted, he is fierce.
Response: If an event is played during a skirmish involving bearer, exert bearer to cancel that event.
Response: If bearer is killed, discard this possession to play an Warg from your draw deck.
"As they went the howling of the wolves broke out anew."
coolio.


•Sharkû's Warg, Vicious Beast
Possession • Mount
Strength +5
Vitality +3
Bearer must be a warg-rider. Bearer is fierce (and damage +1 if bearer is Sharkû).
Response: If an event is played during a skirmish involving a warg-rider, exert a warg-rider to cancel that event.
"Borne upon the wind they heard the howling of wolves. Their hearts were heavy, remembering the many men that had fallen in battle in this place."
fine.

•Sharkû, Terror of the Plains
Minion • Orc
Strength: 7
Vitality: 2
Site: 4
Warg-rider. Hunter 1.
While Sharkû is not exhausted, he is fierce.
When you play Sharkû, you may play an mount or Warg from your draw deck.
Sharkû and his warg-riders harrassed Rohan's villagers and even their mighty Riders for many years.

fine. are there no warg mounts? OH i get it, not mount wargs.

[Gate Troll]

Feral Warg
Possession • Mount
Strength +3
Vitality +1
Bearer must be a warg-rider. While bearer is not exhausted, he is fierce.
Response: If an event is played during a skirmish involving bearer, exert bearer to cancel that event.
"‘I saw the enemy go: endless lines of marching Orcs; and troops of them mounted on great wolves.'"

I always thought wargs were way to too cheap. I'd make it . 

Battle Warg
Possession • Mount
Strength +4
Vitality +2
Bearer must be a warg-rider. While bearer is not exhausted, he is fierce.
Response: If an event is played during a skirmish involving bearer, exert bearer to cancel that event.
Response: If bearer is killed, discard this possession to play an Warg from your draw deck.
"As they went the howling of the wolves broke out anew."

I don't like having two Responses and the first ability reeks OP. Seeing on every gad-darned warg and warg-rider isn't any better either. 

•Sharkû's Warg, Vicious Beast
Possession • Mount
Strength +5
Vitality +3
Bearer must be a warg-rider. Bearer is fierce (and damage +1 if bearer is Sharkû).
Response: If an event is played during a skirmish involving a warg-rider, exert a warg-rider to cancel that event.
"Borne upon the wind they heard the howling of wolves. Their hearts were heavy, remembering the many men that had fallen in battle in this place."

I don't like seeing the same event flying around all the time and what with the vitality of most warg riders I think I'd
prefer "Response: If an event is played during a skirmish involving a warg-rider, exert a warg-rider twice to cancel that event." or even "Response: If an event is played during a skirmish involving a warg-rider, exhaust a warg-rider to cancel that event." Your average War-rider canceling three events just seems wrong. 


•Sharkû, Terror of the Plains
Minion • Orc
Strength: 7
Vitality: 2
Site: 4
Warg-rider. Hunter 1.
While Sharkû is not exhausted, he is fierce.
When you play Sharkû, you may play an mount or Warg from your draw deck.
Sharkû and his warg-riders harrassed Rohan's villagers and even their mighty Riders for many years.

Needs a spotting requirement. Preferably a mounted warg-rider or two. Aside from that, sweet! 

[DáinIronfoot]

I may fiddle with the last batch a bit, but for now here are some of those promised Wargs. No, not mounts...minions. Enjoy!

Wolf of Isengard
Minion • Warg
Strength: 6
Vitality: 2
Site: 4
Fierce. Hunter 1.
This minion may not bear possessions.
While skirmishing a wounded non-hunter character, this minion is damage +1.
"‘Stinking creature....'"

Mountain Warg
Minion • Warg
Strength: 7
Vitality: 2
Site: 4
Fierce. Hunter 1.
This minion may not bear possessions.
While at a mountain or plains site, this minion gains hunter 2.
While skirmishing a wounded non-hunter character, this minion is damage +1.
"‘Warg! We're under attack!'"

These share some things in common with the Wargs I've made in the past: fierce and hunter, both of which make lots of sense with Wargs, in my opinion. These guys have a new twist, however, with their damage bonuses. Get a companion wounded, then release the hounds to finish them off!