V1: Alive and Unspoiled

[Tbiesty]

Since this is from fellowship block, it should only involve mechanics available in fellowship block.

The idea behind this card is that Saruman told the Uruk-hai not to harm the hobbits. He wanted them "alive and unspoiled". So combine that with an poorly supported fellowship Uruk-hai mechanic and here you go.


Alive and Unspoiled
Condition  
Search. To play, exert an minion.
Plays on a Hobbit.
Response: If bearer is about to take a wound in a
skirmish involving an Uruk-hai, prevent that wound to
make the Free Peoples player discard the top card from
his or her draw deck.

[V-R4NG3R]

  Alive and Unspoiled  
Condition
Machine To play, exert an   minion.
plays to your support area.
Each time an urukhai wins a skirmish place a token on this card.
Regroup exert an   minion and spot X tokens on this card to make the free people player discard the top X cards of his or her drawdeck (max 5). Discard this condition.

[macheteman]

Alive and Unspoiled
Condition 
Search. Plays to your support area.
Maneuver: Exert an Uruk-hai, to take a
search card from your discard pile into hand.
Response: If your search card is about
to be discarded from a companion, discard
this condition to prevent that.
"'Bring them to me.... Kill the others....'"

before getting into my reasoning for my card, i'd just like to caution designers with regard to the deck screw theme. first of all, yes, of course   has deck screw. but this particular card, alive and unspoilt is quite different, it allows a revealing of X cards in hand, and then discarding 1 of them. its more of a tactical card, rather than a strategy. its purpose was never to obliterate an opponents deck. second, i'm pretty cautious when it comes to deck screw cards. i'm sure we all agree that they are one of the classic examples of NPE, and, in my opinion, adding MORE options for that beyond the already plentiful deck screw strategies is not a very good idea.

that said, in my version, i tried to give it a decent amount of playability while not letting its power run out of hand. its basic search card theme i believe fits very well with the title and lore. it protects search cards, but doesn't allow for easy search condition recursion because it's ability is a maneuver action. additionally, its number of uses is limited by the vitality of uruks in play.

it does have some cross-cultural ability, but if you want to try to do that, the card loses power. first of all, only has search conditions that play on comps, second, if you want to hybridize and use it with, lets say , you won't have as many uruks to exert as they will have to share the twilight pool with the other culture.

[jcb213]

Having cards discarded from the top of your deck is one of the biggest NPEs in LOTR.  Please, please, please don't make new cards that discard cards!

[leokula]

Alive and Unspoiled
Condition 
Search. Plays to your support area.
Maneuver: Exert an Uruk-hai, to take a
search card from your discard pile into hand.
Response: If your search card is about
to be discarded from a companion, discard
this condition to prevent that.
"'Bring them to me.... Kill the others....'"

I like this card, but I think it would be a little more balanced if it had only one of these two abilities. Having the recursion PLUS being able to avoid a Seclusion is too much IMHO.

[FM]

I don't get it. THe whole idea of the card is to capture Hobbits and take them WITH their stuff to Saruman, why would the card mess with discarding cards? If anything, it's the OPPOSITE of the idea. No. I think this card should deal with possessions (it doesn't have to be so narrow as to ONLY deal with the culture, though), REWARDING Uruk-hais for characters BEARING possessions (meaning, they still have them) in some way. Sure, the effect can be discarding cards from the top, whatever, but no PLAINLY doing that.

[FM]

It actually doesn't. They were supposed to GET the Hobbits, not let them go/avoid them.

[Tbiesty]

Ok, so something that involves the Uruk-hai trying to capture the Hobbits and kill the others, but also something the Hobbits from Towers block would be later able to avoid or escape from:

Alive and Unspoiled
Condition  
Search. To play, exert Saruman or an Uruk-hai.
Plays to your support area.
Each time a Hobbit (except the Ring-bearer) loses a skirmish involving
an Uruk-hai, you may may discard that Uruk-hai and remove to stack
that Hobbit here.
Skirmish: Make an Uruk-hai damage +1
for each Hobbit stacked here. Discard this condition.

[FM]

You're building a card that outright "kills" companions? No questions asked? Ouch!

[Kralik]

Taking out a companion via simply winning a skirmish is a bit much, don't you think?

[TheHobbit13]

Alive and Unspoiled
Condition  
Search. To play, exert Saruman or an Uruk-hai.
Response:
If a Hobbit is about to exert you may spot an  Minion to prevent that.

[ket_the_jet]

Alive and Unspoiled
Condition
Search. To play, exert an Saruman twice. Plays to your support area.
Shadow conditions played on companions cannot be discarded.

It works better with the trackers in Towers Block, but can also be nice for decks featuring cards like Black Breath, Blade Tip, You Bring Great Evil, or Men conditions, amongst others.

I made the cost specific to exerting Saruman twice so that you wouldn't just splash an Uruk Savage or something like that in your Blade Tip decks. It probably is best in Towers Standard (Saruman, Black Traitor is pretty splash-able) but could still be pretty fun in some News of Mordor deck or something.
-wtk

[Tbiesty]

You're building a card that outright "kills" companions? No questions asked? Ouch!

Ok, perhaps that one would be over the top.  Ah, the brainstorming process...

Still trying to figure out if there could be a way to have it "don't hurt hobbits but do something useful",
so it fits the feel for the card name.

Involving the search keyword, Saruman, and protection for borne conditions, all sound like very good ideas.

Alive and Unspoiled
Condition  
Search. To play, exert Saruman or 2 Uruk-hai.
Plays on a Hobbit companion.
Bearer cannot take wounds while skirmishing an Uruk-hai.
Response: If a Shadow condition borne by a companion is about to be
discarded by an opponent, discard a search card to prevent that.

[Hobbiton Lad]

Alive and Unspoiled
Condition 
Search. To play, spot Saruman or exert an Uruk-hai.
Plays to your support area.
Each time a stealth event is played, spot Saruman or an Uruk-hai to exert a companion for each Hobbit in the fellowship.
Skirmish: Spot two Hobbit companions and exert an Uruk-hai to discard a possession. Discard this condition.

My primary reasoning behind this card is to punish the Free People's player for putting Hobbits in harm's away against Uruk-hai. One of the most used (and most annoying) strategies in FOTR block is to use Hobbit Stealth or Hobbit Intuition as a "get out of jail free" cards against big minions. Since the intent of this card is to specifically chase down the Hobbits, the Free People's Player should face consequences for using such tactics against Uruk-hai. Also wanted to punish the Free People's Player for the "Suicide Sam" tactic while this card is in play, as spotting 2 Hobbit companions will allow the Shadow player to discard important possessions like Sting or Thror's Map.

[Gerontius]

-Alive and Unspoiled
Condition
Search.
Plays to your support area.
Assignment: Discard this condition and spot a companion with strength 5 or less (except the Ringbearer) to assign an Uruk-hai to that companion. Until the regroup phase, each time that companion is about to be killed, place him or her and all free peoples cards borne by him or her under the free peoples player's draw deck.

Here's the best I could come up with quickly. The idea is to take the hobbits "alive and unspoiled" and put them where the freeps player could still possibly get them back. <5 strength means most major characters who aren't hobbits are safe. It's too wordy though.