The Twilight World - COMPLETE LIST

[ket_the_jet]

Friend to Gandalf is really cool...As a condition, it is dangerous because it can be discarded easier than, well, I don't know what else it would be.

That would be a cool series of conditions...maybe a "Friend to Dunedain" could pass on the Aragorn signet.

I'm not sure what the benefit of "gaining the culture" is though, except in the sense that events or conditions that spot men could, potentially, spot Boromir with this condition...

...but if you are playing expanded, Servant of the Secret Fire seems to be pretty good anyways.

Hugin would probably see a lot of play, particularly against and minions. They seem to take best advantage of extra twilight.
-wtk

[DáinIronfoot]

•Hugin, Lake-town Ambassador
Companion • Man
Str: 5
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Each event gains toil 1.
T C 18

Nifty, for a common.

•Ottar, Lake-town Ambassador
Companion • Man
Str: 5
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Fellowship: Exert Ottar to foresee 2; reveal and take into hand each card you foresee.
T C 19

Ditto here.

Friend to Gandalf
Condition • Companion
To play, spot Gandalf.
Bearer gains the culture and the Gandalf signet.
Regroup: Discard this condition to heal Gandalf.
T U 15

Love it!

[Thranduil]

Well that lot was incredibly uncontroversial. Let's move on to our last companion, a reprint and another card.

Now this one is a funny turn around. I always thought: "What's the point of unhasty? It's such a useless annoying keyword!" And here I am putting it on my cards... It was on Radagast in the last set, and it's on Treebeard here and another couple of Ents in the next set, Back to the Light. Not sure about it - but what do you think?

•Treebeard, Fangorn
Companion • Ent
Str: 12
Vit: 4
Res: 7
Unhasty. Unyielding (Treebeard cannot be assigned to a skirmish by you unless a card allows him to be and his resistance is not reduced by the number of burdens).
At the start of the assignment phase, reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is a or card, each companion loses unhasty until the regroup phase.
While Treebeard has resistance 6 or more, he is damage +2.
T U 21

Now, the plan for this DC block was always that it comes after Hunters (as sets 20-22) and therefore King block would rotate out to make the new standard of War of the Ring/Hunters/Light & Shadow. In fact, it would be with the release of the Twilight World (ie. this set) that King block would be out of standard, and so I'll be sprinkling some reprints or re-imaginings of cards. Also, Magic has convinced me that reprints are inherently necessary in a TCG - if you have a card that does what you need it to do, then you shouldn't change it by making a new card, you should clearly use an old card so that you don't unnecessarily use up design space. And so I need to strengthen what the culture is good at, and one of the things it can do is heal, and so I thought (obviously) of this card:

Have Patience (reprint)
Event • Fellowship
Spot Gandalf to heal an unbound companion twice.
T C 17

The last card in this set is a slightly wacky rare which, I think, could open up some interesting deck options:

•Great Trials
Condition • Support Area
Tale.
While you can spot a Wizard, each Free Peoples card gains toil 1.
Response: If you play a card with toil X, exert a Wizard companion to make that card's twilight cost -X.
T R 16

And to be honest, while we're still on the subject of Free Peoples cards, I might as well post one of the cards from the culture that ties in (thematically if not mechanically) here. Wait for it....

•Curunír, The White Wizard (FP)
Companion • Wizard
Str: 8
Vit: 4
Res: 5
Traitor. Unyielding (Curunír's resistance is not reduced by the number of burdens).
Play with the top card of your draw deck revealed. Curunír is resistance -X, where X is the twilight cost of the revealed card.
Each time a spell is played, unless Curunír is corrupted, you may add a burden to discard a condition (companions with resistance 0 are corrupted).
T R 45

BAM!

A couple of words.

1) Obviously this is Saruman, but I chose to use his Sindarin name Curunír so that we have a Sméagol/Gollum duality, where having a Saruman companion does not stop Shadow players playing Saruman minions, and this is the easiest way to do it.

2) Traitor is usually a minion keyword (and is unloaded) but I decided that, just as it fits Saruman minion, it should also fit a Saruman companion (and his game text really speaks "traitor" to me!). I was also thinking of adding it to both Gollum and Sméagol for the same reasons.

3) I know many DC-makers put Saruman companions (and the Blue Wizards) in the culture, and while that makes a fair amount of flavour sense (Saruman was, after all, heavily influenced by Gandalf) and a lot of mechanical sense (because he can then be spotted by many cards as a " Wizard") I felt that Saruman could be nowhere but in his own culture. If he was forced to be subservient to Gandalf, he would be disgusted, and so the only way I saw him joining the fellowship was under his own authority.

[DáinIronfoot]

•Treebeard, Fangorn
Companion • Ent
Str: 12
Vit: 4
Res: 8
Unhasty. Unyielding (Treebeard cannot be assigned to a skirmish by you unless a card allows him to be and his resistance is not reduced by the number of burdens).
At the start of the assignment phase, reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is a or card, each companion loses unhasty until the regroup phase.
While Treebeard has resistance 6 or more, he is damage +2.
T U 21

Never had a problem with unhasty as long as it was properly utilized. I'm kind of surprised you're using it after all the flak you and lem0n gave me when I brought it back with my Ents and Eagles, though. Anyway, this has a unique and fun way to negate unhastiness, so this is what I would call a good utilization. I think resistance 7 would be better, though...he's normally 6, and it REALLY doesn't make sense for him to have more than Gandalf typically does! Other than that, though, cool beans!

Have Patience
Event • Fellowship
Spot Gandalf to heal an unbound companion twice.
T C 17

Allow me to impersonate...well, you. Ahem....

Terrible. This is so out of balance that you, sir, should be strung up for all to see. And laugh at. And...uh...poke with a cattle prod.

•Great Trials
Condition • Support Area
Tale.
While you can spot a Wizard, each Free Peoples card gains toil 1.
Response: If you play a card with toil X, exert a Wizard companion to make that card's twilight cost -X.
T R 16

Iiiiiiinteresting. This is one of those that I'd have to see in use to really determine its balance, but since it's unique and only has toil 1 (again, something you normally frown upon...are you feeling alright? ), it's probably fine.

•Curunír, The White Wizard (FP)
Companion • Wizard
Str: 8
Vit: 4
Res: 7
Traitor. Unyielding (Curunír's resistance is not reduced by the number of burdens).
Play with the top card of your draw deck revealed. Curunír is resistance -X, where X is the twilight cost of the revealed card.
Each time a spell is played, unless Curunír is corrupted, you may add a burden to discard a condition (companions with resistance 0 are corrupted).
T R 45

I happen to be one of those that would put him in the culture, subservience or not, but I concede to your argument. It's YOUR set, after all. Resistance 7 seems a bit high...6 sounds much better. Or perhaps even 5 or 4. I mean, really, there aren't many cards that will "corrupt" him with resistance at 4 or 5 that won't do the same at 6. Most cards cost 3 or less...or cost 5 or more. Not a whole lot in between. Like his ability, though.

[Thranduil]

I'm kind of surprised you're using it after all the flak you and lem0n gave me when I brought it back with my Ents and Eagles, though.

Yeah, well... What can I say? I'm a hypocrite changed man.

Anyway, this has a unique and fun way to negate unhastiness, so this is what I would call a good utilization. I think resistance 7 would be better, though...he's normally 6, and it REALLY doesn't make sense for him to have more than Gandalf typically does! Other than that, though, cool beans!

Fair enough. Done - I just felt that resistance 6 is a bit low for someone as awesome and stubborn as Treebeard and must have got carried away.

Terrible. This is so out of balance that you, sir, should be strung up for all to see. And laugh at. And...uh...poke with a cattle prod.

This isn't me at all! I wouldn't be nearly so polite!

Iiiiiiinteresting. This is one of those that I'd have to see in use to really determine its balance, but since it's unique and only has toil 1 (again, something you normally frown upon...are you feeling alright? ), it's probably fine.

Toil 1 is something that I think on Free Peoples cards is not normally worth it because vitality of companions is so precious, but I thought the option of making every card you play have toil would be too much if it was more than 1. And I may have other toil 1 FP cards in the set...

Resistance 7 seems a bit high...6 sounds much better. Or perhaps even 5 or 4. I mean, really, there aren't many cards that will "corrupt" him with resistance at 4 or 5 that won't do the same at 6. Most cards cost 3 or less...or cost 5 or more. Not a whole lot in between. Like his ability, though.

Well, in the beginning I felt that he was just as resistant as Gandalf, and it's only his possessions and his studies into the arts of Sauron that eventually corrupt him (it's no coincidence that he gets in general a bigger reduction from Shadow cards than FP) but I very much accept your mechanical and flavour arguments here...

Thranduil

[ket_the_jet]

•Treebeard, Fangorn
Companion • Ent
Str: 12
Vit: 4
Res: 7
Unhasty. Unyielding.
At the start of the assignment phase, reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is a or card, each companion loses unhasty until the regroup phase.
While Treebeard has resistance 6 or more, he is damage +2.
T U 21

I would stick with his regular resistance six and change the game text to resistance 5 or more for the damage bonus.

Have Patience (reprint)
Event • Fellowship
Spot Gandalf to heal an unbound companion twice.
T C 17

This card is ridiculous. How did you think that up. Oh. Reprint you say? Oops.

•Great Trials
Condition • Support Area
Tale.
While you can spot a Wizard, each Free Peoples card gains toil 1.
Response: If you play a card with toil X, exert a Wizard companion to make that card's twilight cost -X.
T R 16

This card seems awfully powerful. But it's good.

•Curunír, The White Wizard (FP)
Companion • Wizard
Str: 8
Vit: 4
Res: 7
Traitor. Unyielding.
Play with the top card of your draw deck revealed. Curunír is resistance -X, where X is the twilight cost of the revealed card.
Each time a spell is played, unless Curunír is corrupted, you may add a burden to discard a condition.
T R 45

Why resistance 7? That seems high for a traitor. I would make him a culture free peoples' player. Just rename the culture to "Wizard." Voila! Problem solved.

I would really think his resistance should be lower. There are enough resistance pumps to keep him above 0 to get the bonus out of his game text.
-wtk

[Thranduil]

Okay, I have lowered Curunír's resistance to make him more dangerous to use and for the reasons you faithful reviewers most eloquently put forward! Thanks you two!

What I might do is pause for a second here and post all the cards spoiled up to now, in case there are any final comments from anyone. Then I will continue with the culture at some point during the next few days.

Ancient Grudges
Event • Skirmish
Tale.
Make a companion strength +2 (or strength +3 and damage +1 if skirmishing an or minion).
T C 1

Glory Reclaimed
Event • Fellowship
Tale.
To play, spot a companion.
Exert any number of companions with a total resistance of 9 or more to take the same number of Free Peoples cards from your discard pile into your hand.
T R 2

•Grimir, Dwarven Delegate
Companion • Dwarf
Str: 7
Vit: 3
Res: 7
At the start of the fellowship phase, if Grimir has resistance 4 or more, you may play a Free Peoples condition from your discard pile.
T U 3

•Thorin III, Son of Dáin
Companion • Dwarf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Damage +1. Valiant.
Each condition gains toil 1.
T C 4

Ancient Struggle
Event • Skirmish
Make a minion skirmishing an companion strength -2 (or -4 if it is a or minion).
T C 5

•Calaglin, Silent Sentinel
Companion • Elf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Ranger.
Each time you play an event, you may reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is a Free Peoples card, you may exert a minion.
T C 6

•Celeborn, Teleporno
Companion • Elf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 7
While you can spot Galadriel, Celeborn's twilight cost is -1.
At the start of the maneuver phase, you may reveal the top card of your draw deck to discard a Shadow condition with twilight cost less than the twilight cost of the card revealed.
T R 7

•Dínendal, Silent Sentinel
Companion • Elf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Ranger.
Each time you play an event, you may foresee 1 (look at the top 1 card of your draw deck; place it on top of or beneath your draw deck).
T C 8

•Erestor, Wise Councillor
Companion • Elf
Str: 7
Vit: 3
Res: 7
Unyielding (Erestor's resistance is not reduced by the number of burdens).
At the start of the regroup phase, if Erestor has resistance 7 or more and is not exhausted, you may reconcile your hand.
T U 9

Faith in the Valar
Event • Skirmish
Spell. Tale.
Toil 2.
Reveal the top card of your draw deck. Prevent all wounds to a skirmishing companion if that card is a Free Peoples card.
T U 10

Ghosts of Men
Event • Maneuver
Twilight.
To play, spot an companion.
Exert any number of companions with resistance 15 or more to foresee the same number of cards. For each Free Peoples card you foresee, you may reveal it to remove a burden or wound a minion in twilight.
‘"I do not fear them."'
T R 11

Lórien Cloak
Possession • Cloak
To play, spot an card.
Bearer must be a companion.
The minion archery total is -1.
Response: If a minion uses a special ability, discard this possession to cancel that ability unless that minion's owner removes .
T U 12

Power of Foresight
Event • Maneuver
Spell.
Spot an companion to foresee 3 (look at the top 3 cards of your draw deck; place any number of those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order).
T C 13

Silent Watchers
Condition • Support Area
Stealth.
Response: If a minion is played, discard an character from hand to wound that minion.
Response: If a Shadow condition is played, discard an character from hand and discard this condition to discard that condition.
T R 14

Friend to Gandalf
Condition • Companion
To play, spot Gandalf.
Bearer gains the culture and the Gandalf signet.
Regroup: Discard this condition to heal Gandalf.
T U 15

•Great Trials
Condition • Support Area
Tale.
While you can spot a Wizard, each Free Peoples card gains toil 1.
Response: If you play a card with toil X, exert a Wizard companion to make that card's twilight cost -X.
T R 16

Have Patience
Event • Fellowship
Spot Gandalf to heal an unbound companion twice.
T C 17

•Hugin, Lake-town Ambassador
Companion • Man
Str: 5
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Each event gains toil 1.
T C 18

•Ottar, Lake-town Ambassador
Companion • Man
Str: 5
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Fellowship: Exert Ottar to foresee 2; reveal and take into hand each card you foresee.
T C 19

Root Out the Shadow
Event • Skirmish
Search.
Make a companion strength +2 (and discard an or condition).
T C 20

•Treebeard, Fangorn
Companion • Ent
Str: 12
Vit: 4
Res: 7
Unhasty. Unyielding (Treebeard's resistance is not modified by the number of burdens).
At the start of the assignment phase, reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is a or card, each companion loses unhasty until the regroup phase.
While Treebeard has resistance 6 or more, he is damage +2.
T U 21

United in Bravery
Event • Skirmish
Spell.
To play, spot a Wizard.
Exert any number of companions to discard a minion with strength less than the total resistance of those companions.
T R 22

Valour of the West
Event • Skirmish
Tale. Toil 3.
Make a companion strength +5.
T U 23

•Denethor, Son of Ecthelion
Companion • Man
Str: 8
Vit: 3
Res: 5
Unyielding (Denethor's resistance is not reduced by the number of burdens).
To play, spot a companion.
Denethor is resistance -2 for each companion in the dead pile (and is corrupted if Boromir is in the dead pile).
Fellowship: Add a burden to play a condition or possession from your draw deck (limit once per turn).
T R 39

•Curunír, The White Wizard (FP)
Companion • Wizard
Str: 8
Vit: 4
Res: 5
Traitor. Unyielding (traitor is unloaded, and Curunír's resistance is not reduced by the number of burdens).
Play with the top card of your draw deck revealed. Curunír is resistance -X, where X is the twilight cost of the revealed card.
Each time a spell is played, unless Curunír is corrupted, you may add a burden to discard a condition (companions with resistance 0 are corrupted).
T R 45

[Thranduil]

Okay, I'm now going to continue into the culture. As always, however, if you have any suggestions for previous cards, please make them!

The way I design cards is through a mirror, so I think of an idea and I give one version to Sméagol and a mirror version to Gollum, and this is always the case. However, The Twilight World is a Shadow heavy set, and so there are 2 Shadow cards that are not mirrored (1 common, 1 rare), which will be shown later, after a suitable amount of suspense!

Until then, let's have a couple of mirrors. The first is part of the culture-hate pump cycle. Obviously, the only choice for a culture that particularly hates is, well... !

Go Away! (FP)
Event • Skirmish
Make a character strength +2 (and wound a character he or she is skirmishing).
T C 26

You Haven't Got Any Friends! (SH)
Event • Skirmish
Make a character strength +2 (and wound a character he or she is skirmishing).
T C 35

And now another mirror. Now one of the biggest issues about losing King Block with this set is that obviously Captured By the Ring is now out of standard, and so there needs to be some way of fetching and/or replaying Gollum to make him competitive. And so I do have a replacement - not nearly as good (but CbtR is one of the strongest commons ever printed) but I think useful enough that it would get played. But tell me what you think!

Hiding from the Shadow (FP)
Event • Regroup
Choose one: play Sméagol from your draw deck or discard pile; or spot Sméagol to take into hand a stealth card from your discard pile.
T U 27

Searching for the Precious (SH)
Event • Shadow
Choose one: play Gollum from your draw deck or discard pile; or spot Gollum to take into hand a search card from your discard pile.
T U 30

[ket_the_jet]

Go Away! and You Don't Have Any Friends! could be something like this...

Event, Skirmish
Make a character strength +2 (and wound a character he or she is skirmishing).

That would be kind of cool because it is neither good nor evil.

I like the new Captured By the Ring/We Must Have It.
-wtk

[Thranduil]

Go Away! and You Don't Have Any Friends! could be something like this...

Event, Skirmish
Make a character strength +2 (and wound a character he or she is skirmishing).

Hahahahaha! You are quite right, and it will be changed.

These threads seem to be so quiet at the moment, I'm not quite sure where everyone is. But nevertheless, I didn't expect a riot over those 2 pairs of cards, so I'll probably just continue onto some more interesting ones.

These first two are rares, and can therefore break from the usual mirror design for my cards. They do however make up part of their own respective cycles. Leading in Secret is of the ilk as Ghosts of Men and the epic United in Bravery seen above. Craving the Ring is part of a Shadow cycle of events with as its twilight cost. If it's not totally clear, when you play that card, you choose the value of X and then remove twilight to play it. Now naturally this only works for Shadow cards (which is why the FP has a different cycle) and it works particularly well with toil (one of the set's mechanics) and aggressor (one of the block's themes, namely "For each aggressor minion assigned to a skirmish, each Shadow card is twilight cost -1") and it is, I think, a generally cool idea (stolen from MTG, of course ) and so that's why it's here.

Leading in Secret (FP)?
Event • Regroup
Stealth.
To play, spot Sméagol.
If the total resistance of Ring-bound companions is 21 or more, remove and heal each of those companions.
T R 28

Craving the Ring (SH)
Event • Response
(You choose the value of . Except when you play this card, its twilight cost is ).
Search. Twilight.
If the Ring-bearer puts on The One Ring, spot Gollum to exert the Ring-bearer X times and make Gollum strength +X until the regroup phase.
T R 24

We Must Hurry! (FP)
Event • Regroup
When you play this card, you may exert any number of characters to make this card's twilight cost -2 for each character you exerted in this way.
Make the move limit +1.
T U 33

Dirty Tricks (SH)
Event • Regroup
When you play this card, you may exert any number of characters to make this card's twilight cost -2 for each character you exerted in this way.
Make the move limit -1.
T U 25

Those two, you may notice, essentially have toil, but not quite. Toil allows you only to exert your own characters, but this one allows you to exert Sméagol, Gollum, and, I dunno... some other character which will be the subject of the next post?

[ket_the_jet]

I'm definitely packing four of Go Away! and You Don't Have Any Friends! into any Ninja Gollum deck.

I have to drop some cards off at the Post Office. I will review upon returning.
-wtk

[Thranduil]

I'm definitely packing four of Go Away! and You Don't Have Any Friends! into any Ninja Gollum deck.

Ah no, the wording change is superficial only - it will not allow you to use FP cards during your Shadow turn, nor Shadow cards during your FP turn. So you'll only be able to use You Don't Have Any Friends! for your Ninja Gollum, I'm afraid!

Thranduil

[legolas3333]

Leading in Secret (FP)?
Event • Regroup
Stealth.
To play, spot Sméagol.
If the total resistance of Ring-bound companions is 15 or more, remove and heal each of those companions.
T R 28

hmm could possibly be broken in a ring-bound hobbits deck, id lose the remove part since it costs

Craving the Ring (SH)
Event • Response
(You choose the value of . Except when you play this card, its twilight cost is ).
Search. Twilight.
If the Ring-bearer puts on The One Ring, spot Gollum to exert the Ring-bearer X times and make Gollum strength +X until the regroup phase.
T R 24

broken when paired with expanded twilight wraiths... but then again everything is broken in expanded

We Must Hurry! (FP)
Event • Regroup
When you play this card, you may exert any number of characters to make this card's twilight cost -2 for each character you exerted in this way.
Make the move limit +1.
T U 33

at first is was like what... why would the shadow player add to the move limit???
then i saw it was freeps
nice card!

Dirty Tricks (SH)
Event • Regroup
When you play this card, you may exert any number of characters to make this card's twilight cost -2 for each character you exerted in this way.
Make the move limit -1.
T U 25

again, nice

Those two, you may notice, essentially have toil, but not quite. Toil allows you only to exert your own characters, but this one allows you to exert Sméagol, Gollum, and, I dunno... some other character which will be the subject of the next post?

[ket_the_jet]

Ah no, the wording change is superficial only - it will not allow you to use FP cards during your Shadow turn, nor Shadow cards during your FP turn. So you'll only be able to use You Don't Have Any Friends! for your Ninja Gollum, I'm afraid!

I don't see why not? It's still the Gollum culture. Of course, I can't think of any cards currently that you could conceptually use both ways (I'm sure there are a few).
-wtk

[Thranduil]

Ah no, the wording change is superficial only - it will not allow you to use FP cards during your Shadow turn, nor Shadow cards during your FP turn. So you'll only be able to use You Don't Have Any Friends! for your Ninja Gollum, I'm afraid!

I don't see why not? It's still the Gollum culture. Of course, I can't think of any cards currently that you could conceptually use both ways (I'm sure there are a few).
-wtk

No trust me it's against the rules. Doesn't matter what culture they are, Go Away! is a Free Peoples card and cannot be played during your Shadow turn.

Thanks for your thoughts L333! I'd almost forgotten what reviews were...

Thranduil