The Twilight World - COMPLETE LIST

[Thranduil]

You can get Shadow cards because they're culture just like the Free Peoples cards, but you can't play Go Away! when it's not your turn for the same reason you can't play SftF during your Shadow turn or any other FP card.

Thranduil

[ket_the_jet]

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 15 or more, remove and heal each of those companions.
T R 28

I feel like 15 is pretty easy to achieve with just Frodo and Smeagol...just my opinion though. A Salt From the Shire here, a Salt From the Shire there...I'd like to see it something where it has to be Frodo, Sam, and Smeagol...

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

Okay...this card is twilight cost zero for the sake of...let's say, Might of Numenor in Expanded. I don't mind this card because it is specific to when the Ring-Bearer puts on the One Ring, but there is usually plenty of extra twilight in a Ninja Gollum deck.

I am not really looking at this in Expanded because, like you said, 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

I was trying to figure out why this wasn't Toil, but then I read your statement underneath. Whoops!

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

Fair enough. A lot of culture cards play off the move limit, so these seem like nice events.
-wtk

[Thranduil]

Okay, upped the resistance to 21, which is probably high enough. Or do you think it should be 25 (ie. Frodo (10) + Sam (10) + Sméagol (5)) which leaves no room for any burdens?

Anyway, I was hinting that another character would be popping up in this post. But before we get to that, let's take a look at these:

Pleasing to Masster (FP)
Condition • Support Area
Stealth.
Regroup: Exert Sméagol or Gollum twice to foresee 2. Then reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is a or card, you may remove a burden. (To foresee 2, look at the top 2 cards of your draw deck; place any number of those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order).
T C 29

Wicked Masster! (SH)
Condition • Support Area
Search.
Regroup: Exert Gollum or Sméagol twice to foresee 2. Then reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is a or card, you may add a burden. (To foresee 2, look at the top 2 cards of your draw deck; place any number of those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order).
T C 34

That stuff is mainly to cement some cross-culture shenanigans and reinforce the culture's love for the regroup phase. But it actually has very little to do with the main subject of this post...

Now I talked earlier about that this block rotates King block out of standard. This unfortunately means that we've lost a whole subculture that began in the Siege of Gondor, namely of course, Her Ladyship herself! So, I needed to rectify this, because Shelob is simply awesome, and with the support she got in Hunters block, I only really needed to make a couple of cards to keep her in the format (and I also didn't want to spend much time on her because the main focus is Gollum and the Ring). And so, because this is a Shadow heavy set, I have made 2 versions of her that obviously have no FP mirror, and I've tried to go for something slightly different that I hope encompasses her flavour quite well, but you tell me!

•Shelob, Guardian of Cirith Ungol
Minion • Spider
Str: 8
Vit: 8
Sit: 8
Fierce.
Skirmish: Discard a minion from play or from hand to make Shelob strength +3 (or +4 if the current site is a mountain or underground).
T C 31

•Shelob, Terror of the Mountains
Minion • Spider
Str: 8
Vit: 8
Sit: 8
Fierce.
Shelob is strength +1 for each companion with resistance 6 or less.
Skirmish: Discard a skirmishing minion to play Shelob from your hand. If the minion you discarded was unique, you may have Shelob replace it in that skirmish.
T R 32

You may also ask, "Who the #$&*@! is Ufthak?" Should I post him as well? OKAY!

•Ufthak, Tasty Snack
Minion • Orc
Str: 5
Vit: 1
Sit: 6
While a card named "Ufthak" is in your discard pile or stacked on a possession, Shelob is strength +2 and damage +1.
B R

Yes, and he's from the next set, Back to the Light.

And you know what, maybe I'll post a site as well! Because I'm feeling particularly crazy today:

•Shelob's Lair
Battleground. Underground.
Shadow: Discard a minion to play Shelob from your draw deck or discard pile; her twilight cost is -X, where X is the discarded minion's twilight cost.
T R 118

So tell me - did I do a good job on Her Ladyship et al?

[ket_the_jet]

Okay, upped the resistance to 21, which is probably high enough. Or do you think it should be 25 (ie. Frodo (10) + Sam (10) + Sméagol (5)) which leaves no room for any burdens?

The 20 region should be fine!

Pleasing to Masster (FP)
Condition • Support Area
Stealth.
Regroup: Exert Sméagol to foresee 2. Then reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is a or card, you may remove a burden. (To foresee 2, look at the top 2 cards of your draw deck; place any number of those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order).
T C 29

I might have it exert twice because that seems like an awfully easy way to remove burdens. As I've been looking at these cards, I've just been imagining a deck with baddies...seems like an easy way to remove burdens, especially since it is a condition. I wouldn't mind it as an event!

Wicked Masster! (SH)
Condition • Support Area
Search.
Regroup: Exert Gollum to foresee 2. Then reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is a or card, you may add a burden. (To foresee 2, look at the top 2 cards of your draw deck; place any number of those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order).
T C 34

I think exerting twice or making it an event is necessary. The fact that I could alter my deck to show up as or to add a burden, then do it two more times...I don't know about that. Powerful common!

Edit: With the King Block being phased out, how many more cards are there? Just a thought...it seems like the Dark Lord himself is about the only one!

•Shelob, Guardian of Cirith Ungol
Minion • Spider
Str: 8
Vit: 8
Sit: 8
Fierce.
Skirmish: Discard a minion from play or from hand to make Shelob strength +3 (or +4 if she is skirmishing a companion with resistance 6 or less).
T C 31

That seems like she could get a tad powerful, but I guess that the Shelob is a powerful beast. I would prefer +2 (+3) because Sam should be able to kick her #$&*@! around. But I guess that's no better than an Enduring Shelob...

•Shelob, Terror of the Mountains
Minion • Spider
Str: 8
Vit: 8
Sit: 8
Fierce.
Shelob is strength +1 for each companion with resistance 6 or less.
Skirmish: Discard a skirmishing minion to play Shelob from your hand. If the minion you discarded was Gollum or Ufthak, you may have Shelob replace him in that skirmish.
T R 32

I think I would rather play the common Shelob than this one, honestly. The other one can get to be beastly, and the strongest this one could be is 17...but it will never likely get that high!

•Ufthak, Tasty Snack
Minion • Orc
Str: 5
Vit: 1
Sit: 6
While Ufthak is in your discard pile or stacked on a possession, Shelob is strength +2 and damage +1.
B R
Yes, and he's from the next set, Back to the Light.

Hmm. He's cool.

•Shelob's Lair
Battleground. Underground.
Shadow: Discard a minion to play Shelob from your draw deck or discard pile; her twilight cost is -X, where X is the discarded minion's twilight cost.
T R 118

Nice. That will prevent double moving if there is an exhausted Nazgul or something out, might as well get a refreshed, recharged Shelob!

I like all of those cards, but I am afraid the first two particularly are far too powerful.
-wtk

[Thranduil]

Okay, I've changed the first 2. Now it requires 2 exertions, but to make it slightly more powerful you can now exert your opponent's Sméagol/Gollum. And I also changed to because there are more cards (though there are about 20 cards in this block) and because it also makes more flavour sense.

As for Shelob, I've been thinking about Terror of the Mountains, which I've generally been unimpressed with. I always loved her second ability, but never her first, and there have been several incarnations. And so, I've just come up with an alternative, and let's hear what you think:

•Shelob, Terror of the Mountains
Minion • Spider
Str: 8
Vit: 8
Sit: 8
Fierce.
Shelob is strength +1 for each minion in your discard pile.
Skirmish: Discard a skirmishing minion to play Shelob from your hand. If the minion you discarded was Gollum or Ufthak, you may have Shelob replace him in that skirmish.
T R 32

[ket_the_jet]

•Shelob, Terror of the Mountains
Minion • Spider
Str: 8
Vit: 8
Sit: 8
Fierce.
Shelob is strength +1 for each minion in your discard pile (or stacked on a possession).
Skirmish: Discard a skirmishing minion to play Shelob from your hand. If the minion you discarded was Gollum or Ufthak, you may have Shelob replace him in that skirmish.
T R 32

Now she is scary! Talk about really strong! I mean, if I run 20 minions in a 30/30 deck, she would probably get up to be around strength 22 or 23 by site seven or eight maybe...Do you want her being stronger than Sauron because that is a possibility. Especially since I am going to splash her in every Moria Swarm deck I've ever built!

Edit: Or, imagine how scary she would be with The Witch-King, Dark Lord! I'd splash her in a deck with that beast!

Edit 2: Aw, #$&*@! it! Every deck has minions. I am going to stockpile more of these than I did Goblin Armory and Power According to His Stature combined and sell them at $100 apiece!
-wtk

[Thranduil]

But, is she that much scarier than Eater of Light? 4x Web, 3 minions on each (including copies of herself) makes her strength +36!

Thranduil

[Not a Zombie]

Web is a possession, and when playing swarm, my friend has gotten her to be 34+ str consistently by site 5 or 6.

[eomund]

First off, I want to say that I love the concept of Shelob eating things ... it really should have been her flavour from the start. But while I really like the idea of the new Terror of the Mountains, in my opinion it's too powerful. Maybe if it were changed to "Shelob is strength +1 for each or [GOLLUM] minion in your discard pile" ... It wouldn't adjust her power much in decks built around her, but at least it would (partially) limit which decks she would show up in.

[ket_the_jet]

...changed to "Shelob is strength +1 for each or [GOLLUM] minion in your discard pile" ... It wouldn't adjust her power much in decks built around her, but at least it would (partially) limit which decks she would show up in.

Strength +2 for each minion in the discard pile? At most +14 (although no one really plays four copies of Gollum so maybe that doesn't work).
-wtk

[lem0nhead]

•Shelob, Terror of the Mountains
Minion • Spider
Str: 8
Vit: 8
Sit: 8
Fierce.
Shelob is strength +1 for each minion in your discard pile.
Skirmish: Discard a skirmishing minion to play Shelob from your hand. If the minion you discarded was Gollum or Ufthak, you may have Shelob replace him in that skirmish.
T R 32

Ive always wondered if "skirmishing" is a valid term in LOTR, I think for old school sakes it should be a minion involved in a skrimish. I like this card very much but it does seem ridiculously excessive. Regardless of her ability the text could abuse her massively. Id be conjuring a swarm deck up the moment this got released. Shes a "overwhelms 2 guys a turn" unless youre playing targetted discard minions like gandalf/elves or something.

[Thranduil]

I don't think that her strength pump is that ridiculous - in a normal deck, she would not be that big until late in the game. The two things I see that need watching out for are: 1) splashability, which I think I have a solution for which I will post in a second, and 2) combo deck potential (what I mean by this is a deck of say 90 cards made up entirely of minions that just burns through the deck and can reliably play Shelob every site. Now I don't know whether this possible, I'm just saying it's something to watch out for).

So, my new proposed version of Shelob is:

•Shelob, Terror of the Mountains
Minion • Spider
Str: 8
Vit: 8
Sit: 8
Fierce.
While you can spot another card, Shelob is strength +1 for each minion in your discard pile.
Skirmish: Discard a skirmishing minion to play Shelob from your hand. If the minion you discarded is unique, you may have Shelob replace it in that skirmish.
T R 32

Now you have to at least work to within the culture to make her into a beast. I do love the text, and I think general reaction to the concept is good, and I'd rather not have a limit, but if need be that's definitely an option. I don't know where this leaves problem 2, but what do you think?

Thranduil

[ket_the_jet]

I was thinking about it more. I am torn. Do I want to see it "While you can spot a minion..." because Gollum leads her prey? Well, yeah, kind of because Gollum leads the free peoples' side there.

The orcs just tragically venture too far. But man...I am really torn on whether the I like the discard pile idea too. I hate Cirdan, the Shipwright, because you constantly have to wait while the other player counts events...I don't know. Maybe I am jaded.
-wtk

[Thranduil]

I know what you mean about the counting, but there is also an element of fun in that - enough that MTG continues to print cards like Mortivore and Lord of Extinction that do pretty much exactly what this Shelob is doing.

Thranduil

[DáinIronfoot]

These threads seem to be so quiet at the moment, I'm not quite sure where everyone is.

Had my vacation last week, nutso work stuff since going back, and a BAD case of diaper rash with little Elaina for the last week or so. My time has really not been my own until about 24 hours ago.

But now I'm back! From outer space! I just walked in to see you here with that sad look upon your face. I should have changed that stupid lock, I should have made you leave your key....

...wait, where am I? Oh, right. Dream cards.

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

Cool beans.

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

No issues here. This one might even work if the wounding triggered with characters, too.

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

Awesome! You could even make this a stealth card itself for flavor.

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

Again, this could be a search card itself for fun.

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

I'd go for 20 total, just because 21 seems like a really weird number.

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

Odd, really odd, yet somehow it works.

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

Uh...why can't you just do toil 2 instead of the first long line of text? After all, by defintion, toil X means "For each [culture] character you exert when playing this card, its twilight cost is -X." So that would do...exactly what your first line of text does. Covers Shadow AND FP characters too, I believe.

Anyway....

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

Same comment here. Yeah.

Pleasing to Masster (FP)
Condition • Support Area
Stealth.
Regroup: Exert Sméagol or Gollum twice to foresee 2. Then reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is a or card, you may remove a burden. (To foresee 2, look at the top 2 cards of your draw deck; place any number of those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order).
T C 29

Looks good to me. A nice use of your foresee.

Wicked Masster! (SH)
Condition • Support Area
Search.
Regroup: Exert Gollum or Sméagol twice to foresee 2. Then reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is a or card, you may add a burden. (To foresee 2, look at the top 2 cards of your draw deck; place any number of those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order).
T C 34

No issues here.

•Shelob, Guardian of Cirith Ungol
Minion • Spider
Str: 8
Vit: 8
Sit: 8
Fierce.
Skirmish: Discard a minion from play or from hand to make Shelob strength +3 (or +4 if she is skirmishing a companion with resistance 6 or less).
T C 31

Since your other Shelob below already triggers off resistance, I think it would be fun to tie this version in with sites, which meshes (in my opinion) with the subtitle. So I would recommend the +4 trigger if the current site is a mountain or underground site instead.

•Shelob, Terror of the Mountains
Minion • Spider
Str: 8
Vit: 8
Sit: 8
Fierce.
Shelob is strength +1 for each companion with resistance 6 or less.
Skirmish: Discard a skirmishing minion to play Shelob from your hand. If the minion you discarded was Gollum or Ufthak, you may have Shelob replace him in that skirmish.
T R 32

I actually don't like how it specifically mentions Ufthak (though I don't have a problem with an Ufthak minion that works with Shelob, if that makes any sense). I would simply change that to "a unique Orc minion", or perhaps "a unique minion".

•Ufthak, Tasty Snack
Minion • Orc
Str: 5
Vit: 1
Sit: 6
While Ufthak is in your discard pile or stacked on a possession, Shelob is strength +2 and damage +1.
B R

One thing I worry about: that ability stacking. Right now, I think it does, and that's very, very bad. A strength +8 damage +4 Shelob is not something I want to even think about!

•Shelob's Lair
Battleground. Underground.
Shadow: Discard a minion to play Shelob from your draw deck or discard pile; her twilight cost is -X, where X is the discarded minion's twilight cost.
T R 118

Whew, last one! I think this would be the first ever unique site...did you intend that, or was that a mistake? No issues with the rest.

Nice cards, my friend!