Do you understand the word "broken"? Your "broken" list includes cards that are barely tournament worthy, and it misses some of the strongest cards. I'm at home tonight, so I'm going to take the bait and write about these in the context of Movie Block.
"Broken" means a card that requires the opponent to take it into account and can dominate a game.
Corsair Marauder is broken, because it makes all possession-based strategies difficult.
Galadriel, Lady Redeemed is broken, because she shuts down many different shadows.
1.
Gimli's Helm – strong, but it's unique, requires Gimli, and can be removed by
Corsair Marauder. No possession can be broken in Movie Block because of
Corsair Marauder.
2.
Shoulder to Shoulder- If you're playing dwarves, you don't want to play expensive Elf allies that don't help the main strategy. No good there. If you're playing Elves, with the exception of Gimli ringbearer you don't have good Dwarf cards to help you. And you might want to play Galadriel ringbearer or Frodo for burden defense. Besides, it doesn't remove wounds, just transfers them. If
Galadriel Lady of Light were around, then it would be broken. But she's gone.
Eowyn, Lady of Rohan is stronger, because the transfer is on the card itself.
3. Barliman Butterbur- It's a 1-for-1 that requires a commitment to Gandalf to be effective, and gets back a limited set of cards. Compare this to
Final Account, which was broken because you could return any card in the game.
4.
Sleep Caradhras or
Grown Suddenly Tall- Requires Gandalf, is expensive, and removes Free Peoples conditions, too. It can win a game, but it weakens the FP as well.
5.
Blade tip and 6.
Black breath- Condition removal is not that hard in Movie Block. Elves are fine. Gandalf is fine. Gondor has
Athelas. Dwarves have
Blood Runs Chill, a card close to broken. Only Hobbits have trouble, and they're supposed to be afraid of Nazgul.
7.
Frodo Old Bilbo's Heir and his ally friends - Discard the allies. Use
Their Power is in Terror. Besides, allies don't help Hobbits win skirmishes, making double moves tricky. And there are only 4 hobbit companions in Movie Block. It's much stronger in 1-13 format.
8.
Merry Friend to Sam- "with mass healing,
escape you will always have a +10 free pump". Sure, if you set up your deck to use Merry he's strong. Let's see ...
Desert Lord, Bill Ferny,
Hate, swarm so Merry must fight ... And four exertions is not free.
9.
PATHS- This meets the many-to-one definition of broken. But it clogs your hand for a long time, and most minions have multiple vitality. If I have 3
PATHS in my hand at site 9, I feel good. But I'd generally have to hold them all game and play a 5-card Shadow, which means a strong opponent should have beaten me.
10. Bill Ferny- offcolor +4 for 2 is not broken. I'd often rather have a
Goblin Runner.
11.
Shire Countryside- it's not that easy to remove burdens in Movie Block. And there's condition removal. This is bad news in 1-13, like Frodo.
12. Dunlandings- Knights crush them.
Durin III,
Deathless Lord should be able to beat them. They do beat certain decks, but that's acceptable. It's not all decks, and they collapse upon themselves occasionally.
13.
Legolas Dauntless Hunter- This is close, because he's quite annoying. Fortunately, in movie block there are only 2 unbound hobbits. Swarm can work, too, because you need to protect the hobbits.
14. Grima 1 and 15. Grima 2 - completely avoidable.
16.
Easterling polearm as a whole +bow+captain - Yes, this is really powerful, but requires 3 cards to set up. If the Captain allowed you to get the polearm automatically, that would be broken. Durin or a set up Man can handle him. And there's always
Faramir, Son of Denethor.
17.
Sam Son of Hamfast- A lot of people would agree with you here. I believe that corruption should be rare, and he is acceptable, but I wouldn't be unhappy to change him to remove burdens only from Hobbit ringbearers.
18.
Dont look at them- 3 cards for one wound? And on Smeagol, a difficult to defend character? Do you ever want the FP to win?
19. Orc site engine spam as a whole- Annoying, but sometimes it falls apart on its own, and key condition removal can make it tolerable. Besides, most of this plays in Standard, too.
20.
Slaked thirsts with
Gimli, feared axeman and
preparations- I know this is all the rage on GCCG, but I still don't see why losing automatic Durin to get some wounding is broken. Besides, this works better in Standard, so it's not Movie-specific.
21.
Roll of thunder- "in standard only men can directly discard possessions," AND that's wrong. Gandalf is powerful. He should be able to discard a possession. Plus it's 1-for-1.
Galadriel Lady Redeemed is broken because she can either 1-for-1 or use the Event as intended. This is just 1-for-1.
22.
Merrys sword and the famous rohan liking merry- if it wasn't for
Corsair Marauder, I would agree with you.
23.
Galadriel, Lady Redeemed - I agree with you.
You did not include Saurman's Power,
Goblin Scimitar with Scavengers, or Ulaire Enquea, which are all a lot closer to Broken then most of the cards you mentioned.
In summary, there are a few really powerful cards, but
Ithilien Blade and Gamling with Horn are much worse. And I do agree with you, Shadows are more powerful in Standard - but that's different. Not necessarily better.
Topic: Brokeness Contest ( Movie vs. Standard ) (Read 24342 times)
