V1: Alive and Unspoiled

[FM]

You also need three minions to exert, each condition will trigger separately, and resolve separately, so you have to meet conditions to all three of them. It's not broken, but not quite flavorful enough (and kind of overlaps with Wariness).

[Elessar's Socks]

Can anyone list any strategies in FotR and Movie (and, to a lesser extent, Extended) that need some help/some work? Let's try and focus on making our card fit both the flavour and that strategy.

In Expanded, one situation I find discouraging with Uruk-hai is having to boost their strength over and over again while the fellowship cruises along, permanently tanked. You might burn a bunch of resources trying to take down Durin III, but if your minion loses or fails to kill him, it's hard to keep up an attack of that magnitude.

One way of dealing with this is to mess with assignments, as in Tbiesty's version. I think the text as it stands is too narrowly teched against Hobbits for me to run it, though.

I also like Ket's idea of canceling events, which has precedence in as well (e.g. Saruman's Snows, Wariness).

Your card-drawing take really fits the theme (the text took me by surprise), but I guess I'm leaning towards making up for some culture deficiencies--more to do with my mood than the card.

[Tbiesty]

The first thought I had was that Uruk-hai discard (e.g. Uruk-hai Sword, Lurtz's Sword) and simple Uruk Swarm are FOTR/TS strategies that could use a little help from Hobbits canceling skirmishes (FOTR/TS) or bouncing (TS).  The idea is for the Uruk-hai to leave the Hobbits alone until they kill off the big folk.  Here's a varitation of that:

Alive and Unspoiled
Condition 
Search. To play, exert an Uruk-hai.
Plays to your support area.
Uruk-hai may not be assigned to skirmish Hobbit companions.
Response: If a companion is killed, discard this condition
to make the Free Peoples player discard the top 2 cards of
his or her draw deck.

[Hobbiton Lad]

The first thought I had was that Uruk-hai discard (e.g. Uruk-hai Sword, Lurtz's Sword) and simple Uruk Swarm are FOTR/TS strategies that could use a little help from Hobbits canceling skirmishes (FOTR/TS) or bouncing (TS).  The idea is for the Uruk-hai to leave the Hobbits alone until they kill off the big folk.  Here's a varitation of that:

Alive and Unspoiled
Condition 
Search. To play, exert an Uruk-hai.
Plays to your support area.
Uruk-hai may not be assigned to skirmish Hobbit companions.
Response: If a companion is killed, discard this condition
to make the Free Peoples player discard the top 2 cards of
his or her draw deck.

I really like this one.

[ket_the_jet]

Sorry. Meant for mine to be an event.
-wtk

[Kralik]

You also need three minions to exert

Actually, I think you'd only need 3 spare vitality. Lurtz could take a couple, for example.

Tbiesty's idea is intriguing... maybe not powerful enough to actually play it, though. It's a weak Uruk Rager (that is, its use is quite limited). One is rare and the other is common...

[Tbiesty]

Tbiesty's idea is intriguing... maybe not powerful enough to actually play it, though. It's a weak Uruk Rager (that is, its use is quite limited). One is rare and the other is common...

Good point, it needs just a little more zip... double the Uruk Rager feels about right.

Alive and Unspoiled
Condition  
Search. To play, exert an Uruk-hai.
Plays to your support area.
Uruk-hai may not be assigned to skirmish
Hobbit companions.
Each time a companion is killed, discard this
condition and the Free Peoples player must
discard the top 4 cards of his or her draw deck.

[macheteman]

Dead pile. hobbits should not be in it, other comps should.

Alive and Unspoiled
Condition 
Search. To play, exert an Uruk-hai.
Plays to your support area.
To play, exert an Uruk-hai.
Skirmish: Exert an Uruk-Hai to make it strength +2 for each character in the dead pile.
While you can spot a hobbit companion in the dead pile, all minions lose damage bonuses.


i think this captures the flavor, is usable, and i believe balanced. it addresses ellesar's socks qualm about keeping strength up. but it is dependent on 1 characters in the dead pile, and 2 available vitality. has a nice drawback for killing hobbits.

pretty nice rare i believe. what do ya'll think?

[Not a Zombie]

Lurtz would get huge quick, and the freeps could easily kill sam (which almost every fotr deck packs) to make you lose a very good bonus. Might be fine tho, seeing as the two may balance out. Would need lots of playtesting

[Thranduil]

Hmmm... So some thoughts include repeatable strength pumps (because Uruks are generally low strength) and dead pile and/or mill (discard from top of draw deck). Alive and Unspoiled seems to me more dealing with living companions than dead ones.

Also remember that I think certainly for the 1st virtual set, we should keep the type the same (so no condition-event bleeding). But, I see no reason why we shouldn't use later technology (eg. "Condition • Support Area", or "Event • Phase", or controversially, my notation of "Condition • Companion")

I'm going to post a riff of my earlier ideas:

Alive and Unspoiled (V)
Condition
Search.
To play, exert an minion. (Or exert an Uruk-hai, doesn't matter)
Bearer must be a companion.
Bearer may not take wounds in a skirmish.
You may choose when to resolve skirmishes involving bearer.

Not sure if this card would ever be relevant, whether it messes with both sides for no gain or loss or whether it's actually a really useful assignment trick for Uruks. Could also have a strength reduction attached? Not sure—just more random thoughts.

Thran

[Tbiesty]

Looks like no additional ideas have been suggested for several days.
Could a moderator open a discussion for the next card please?

[Kralik]

Isn't there a plan on what to do before moving on to the next card? Some sort of top three, call to playtesting, etc?

[Tbiesty]

Since there will only be 10 cards in all, my preference is continue opening discussion every few days to brainstorm ideas, like we've been doing. Once we have had discussions for all 10 cards, we pick our favorite of each card. Then the set can be playtested as a whole for a couple months, where we can suggest any final tweaks.

[FM]

Could work. Forums HAVE been dead lately. However, it's as I told on the other discussion, THIS card right here shows that the group is not ready yet to tackle V cards, we can only make "awesome" cards or "crappy/niche" cards. We had serious trouble with this one, specially understanding the concept.

[Kralik]

I think I'm going to try this card in my Fellowship White Arrows / Uruk Discard deck. One burden is easy enough with site 4, and then it's an easy discard for . No minions required once it's down! :hey: