The Way Into Mordor - Gandalf (8/28: "You still speak in riddles.")

[DáinIronfoot]

Hearken All!
Condition
Resistance +1
To play, spot Gandalf. Bearer must be a Man companion. Limit 1 per bearer.
Each time Gandalf wins a skirmish, you may choose one: add to heal bearer; or make bearer strength +1 until the regroup phase.
"‘Here now I name my guest, Gandalf Greyhame, wisest of counsellors; most welcome of wanderers, a lord of the Mark, a chieftain of the Eorlingas while our kin shall last....'"

Very nice. But I don't think the bearer should be just a Man, but any unbound companion (or at least any companion with the Gandalf signet - in fact, that might be best).

As do I. Good idea!

[Elf_Lvr]

•All In White
Condition
Resistance +1
Spell. Bearer must be Gandalf.
While you cannot spot a threat, Gandalf is strength +1.
While you cannot spot a twilight token, Gandalf is damage +1.
While you cannot spot a burden, Gandalf may not be overwhelmed unless his strength is tripled.
"‘Yes, I am white now. Indeed I am Saruman, one might almost say, Saruman as he should have been.'"

The last one is OP, I think, because of the Gandalf R-B (it's easy enough to keep burdens off him if you try) and for the fact that if you're playing against anything besides corruption and you just bid 0 this works easy. Gandalf is way to good at managing burdens.

I'd drop the twilight token thing, because, heck, it doesn't FIT Gandalf, at all! Look at all this followers, plus cards of his that require a certain number of twilight tokens to be played, or add strength for twilight tokens... it's totally out of culture.

I'd change the no burden thing to pair with the damage bonus. The last one, IMO, should be "While Gandalf is unwounded..." because then you could really only pull it off once, because if you REALLY needed it, you'd probably be taking a wound.

Been wanting to do a card that rewards Gandalf for a lack of remaining twilight for a while now, since he seems to have so many cards that reward for heaping on the twilight instead.

Since I just now read this part of the post I just have to chuckle to myself a bit.

Hearken All!
Condition
Resistance +1
To play, spot Gandalf. Bearer must be an unbound companion with the Gandalf signet. Limit 1 per bearer.
Each time Gandalf wins a skirmish, you may choose one: add to heal bearer; or make bearer strength +1 until the regroup phase.
"‘Here now I name my guest, Gandalf Greyhame, wisest of counsellors; most welcome of wanderers, a lord of the Mark, a chieftain of the Eorlingas while our kin shall last....'"

I think we learned from Erkenbrand's Shield that adding twilight during a skirmish for any beneficial effect is just OP. Even if it has to trigger from a skirmish being won, I don't like it. Healing is WAY better than strength +1. Change that bit and it's fine.

[Thranduil]

Perhaps then the resistance bonus should be taken off the card and added to one of the three lines of the burrito to replace the overwhelming.

Thranduil

[DáinIronfoot]

I'll get back to conditions shortly, but since the short-lived Balrog Moria culture for this set is coming to a close, let's send it off with some related cards, eh? Enjoy!

Smote In His Ruin
Event • Skirmish
Spell.
Make a minion skirmishing Gandalf strength -1 for each twilight token you can spot.
"‘I threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place and broke the mountain-side....'"

Obviously inspired by Threw Down My Enemy, but goes with the twilight pool theme that so many people seem to like with Gandalf. Need a cap, do you think? Or does the Shadow player deserve to be punished if they leave tons of twilight for you to work with?

Time Not Counted
Event • Fellowship
Spell.
Spot Gandalf to reveal the top or bottom X cards of an opponent's draw deck, where X is Gandalf's vitality. Discard a Shadow card and a Free Peoples card revealed. That opponent may reshuffle that deck.
"‘Then we plunged into the deep water and all was dark. Cold it was as the tide of death: almost it froze my heart.'"

Ah, nothing like a little Gandalf telepathy. Well, kind of. This is a wonderful counter to the Foundations of Stone/Darken the Light of Day cycle I just posted over in the thread, and while I designed it with that specifically in mind, it's certainly plenty helpful the rest of the time, too.

[sickofpalantirs]

Smote In His Ruin
Event • Skirmish
Spell.
Make a minion skirmishing Gandalf strength -1 for each twilight token you can spot.
"‘I threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place and broke the mountain-side....'"
OK I know there have been rulings on this, but does the twilight from the event count? I'm too lazy to look it up

Time Not Counted
Event • Fellowship
Spell.
Spot Gandalf to reveal the top or bottom X cards of an opponent's draw deck, where X is Gandalf's vitality. Discard a Shadow card and a Free Peoples card revealed. Your opponent may reshuffle that deck.
"‘Then we plunged into the deep water and all was dark. Cold it was as the tide of death: almost it froze my heart.'"

fine

[DáinIronfoot]

Smote In His Ruin
Event • Skirmish
Spell.
Make a minion skirmishing Gandalf strength -1 for each twilight token you can spot.
"‘I threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place and broke the mountain-side....'"

OK I know there have been rulings on this, but does the twilight from the event count? I'm too lazy to look it up

Whoops...yes it does. (link) Guess I should probably drop the cost some, huh? Maybe even to ?

[sickofpalantirs]

1 would be fine.

[Thranduil]

Obviously inspired by Threw Down My Enemy

This is so weird: I have never seen that card before! And it's an uncommon!

Your cards are fine, by the way...

Thranduil

[Elf_Lvr]

Smote In His Ruin
Event • Skirmish
Spell.
Make a minion skirmishing Gandalf strength -1 for each twilight token you can spot.
"‘I threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place and broke the mountain-side....'"

Very nice.

Obviously inspired by Threw Down My Enemy, but goes with the twilight pool theme that so many people seem to like with Gandalf.

Hey! Blame Decipher, not me!

Time Not Counted
Event • Fellowship
Spell.
Spot Gandalf to reveal the top or bottom X cards of an opponent's draw deck, where X is Gandalf's vitality. Discard a Shadow card and a Free Peoples card revealed. Your opponent may reshuffle that deck.
"‘Then we plunged into the deep water and all was dark. Cold it was as the tide of death: almost it froze my heart.'"

Very interesting. Not sure how worthwhile it is... but certainly has a lot of fun stuff like this already, and this one fits right in.

[lem0nhead]

Smote In His Ruin
Event • Skirmish
Spell.
Make a minion skirmishing Gandalf strength -1 for each twilight token you can spot.
"‘I threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place and broke the mountain-side....'"

Hmmm ok.

Time Not Counted
Event • Fellowship
Spell.
Spot Gandalf to reveal the top or bottom X cards of an opponent's draw deck, where X is Gandalf's vitality. Discard a Shadow card and a Free Peoples card revealed. Your opponent may reshuffle that deck.
"‘Then we plunged into the deep water and all was dark. Cold it was as the tide of death: almost it froze my heart.'"

Id state "that opponent" or similar, as in multiplayer you have more than 1 opponent.

[DáinIronfoot]

Time Not Counted
Event • Fellowship
Spell.
Spot Gandalf to reveal the top or bottom X cards of an opponent's draw deck, where X is Gandalf's vitality. Discard a Shadow card and a Free Peoples card revealed. Your opponent may reshuffle that deck.
"‘Then we plunged into the deep water and all was dark. Cold it was as the tide of death: almost it froze my heart.'"

Id state "that opponent" or similar, as in multiplayer you have more than 1 opponent.

Done. I always forget about multiplayer....

Just one new card today, but it's a pretty unusual one, so it's likely to generate plenty of comments even all by its lonesome. Keep in mind that this is now the 4th character I've made with this title and stats, and the others all passed reviews, so that aspect is pretty rigid at this point. Try and just judge the text and such, if you can. Thanks, and enjoy!

•Gwaihir, Friend At Need
Ally • Home 5 [LA] & 3 [FotR] • Eagle
Strength: 11
Vitality: 4
Signet: Gandalf
Unhasty. Damage +1. Each companion bearing a follower is strength +1.
Response: If no card is stacked here and an unbound Wizard is about to be killed or discarded, stack that Wizard here.
Fellowship: Exert Gwaihir twice to play a Wizard stacked here.
"‘Light as a swan's feather in my claw you are....Indeed I do not think you need me any more: were I to let you fall you would float upon the wind.'"

Like I said, the stats are the same as the other Gwaihirs (two allies and one companion) I've already made, and there ARE still ways (mostly from my first set Lasting Alliances, which had several Eagle-related cards) to get Gwaihir into battle, so I think the high stats (plus the toil that other versions thus far lack) make up for the high cost. It's awfully nice to be able to grab a dead Wizard back so easily too!

The follower thing was a last-minute addition. While my sets tend to shy away from followers and favor allies (though they have a good mix of both), I don't want to leave all of Decipher's post-Shadows strategies and ideas in the dust. So this rewards those that combine him with more "traditional" Eagles like Misty Mountain Eagle and handful of Eagle followers I'll have in my next set, The End Of All Things.

If you're interested in seeing my other Gwaihirs (most of which are of a fighting variety), check here and here.

[lem0nhead]

Toil seems a bit much on him is my only comment.

[DáinIronfoot]

Oh? Would you drop it, you're saying? Toil 1 or just no toil at all?

[lem0nhead]

Well i always reckon toil 1 is a useless as no toil as i would never exert to save 1 cost. No exertion is generically worth 1 twilight saved when making a deck imho.

So it makes no odds to me, by all means lower to toil 1 if it doesnt bother you. Toil has to 2 to me to make it worth using for the freeps.

[FM]

I think it has too much going on at the same time, I'd also lose Toil completely. Wordy cards are nice, sure, but I think an Ally with so much game text is bound to slow down play, as he's gonna linger in the Support Area, making it necessary for other players to keep reading him, since they're gonna be scared by that many words on his text.