Reflections Gold - forgotten for over a YEAR - is now finished. WOOOO!

[Doom]

You know what, I feel that Beregond almost has to have some text spotting Faramir. (ie. you may exert Beregond to heal Faramir, or while you can spot Beregond, Faramir is vitality +1).
He's fine as is of course, but if you really wanted to stick to lore...
Just saying.

[menace64]

You know what, I feel that Beregond almost has to have some text spotting Faramir. (ie. you may exert Beregond to heal Faramir, or while you can spot Beregond, Faramir is vitality +1).
He's fine as is of course, but if you really wanted to stick to lore...
Just saying.

Hmm. Here are a few alternate texts to fit with your suggestion (a suggestion that I readily agree with you on, by the way!).

"While Faramir has vitality X, each minion skirmishing Beregond is strength -X."

"Each time Beregond wins a skirmish, you may spot a follower to heal Faramir."

"Each time Beregond wins a skirmish, you may spot Faramir to play a follower from your draw deck." (Perhaps discard pile instead?)

"While you can spot Faramir (and he is not exhausted), each follower is twilight cost -1."

I'd prefer to tie followers and Faramir into Beregond's text, seeing as his son is a follower in the same set.

[Doom]

Yep, I think that both the followers and faramir is great.
#2 looks the best to me, as it carries a nice balance? The first one looks slightly broken.

[menace64]

I think I prefer #2 as well. My first take on Beregond was somewhat flawed, since followers appear only in Treachery & Deceit, a set that very few people have. I figured something requiring less of them would make him marginally-useful (especially since one is in this set already).

The change has been made! Thanks for helping the design! Along with a piece of gold, your reward is a card I was saving for much later:

*Shelob, Terror of the Pass
Minion * Spider
Strength-8
Vitality-8
Site Number-8
Enduring. Lurker.
At the start of the assignment phase, if the fellowship is at a mountain or underground site, you may play this card from your hand to reconcile your hand.
Skirmish: Spot Gollum (or Sméagol) and discard 5 cards from your hand to exhaust a companion assigned to skirmish Shelob.
"…bestial and yet filled with purpose and with hideous delight, gloating…"
20R+18

Designed specifically to ambush and eat companions. It's powerful, yup, and chances are good that no one will convince me to change it. I want a Shelob that strikes real fear into any fellowship that drops too much into the pool at a mountain or underground site.

EDIT: Added a bit of cultural enforcement; spotting Gollum or Smeagol is now necessary to trigger the exhaustion.

[Not a Zombie]

That is a sweet shelob I was always a bit disappointed with her. to balance the skirmish ability I'd make it spot gollum or smeagol maybe. Otherwise great!

[macheteman]

i like it a lot. i like how by playing during the assignment you can't soak up archery for the enduring text. the only thing i might change is "discard 5 cards to exhaust" to "discard 4 cards to exert a companion 3 times"

i like the idea of spotting gollum.

[Stormcrow]

Shelob's great, although spotting Gollum sounds like a good idea.

[menace64]

I added the requirement of spotting Gollum or Sméagol.

the only thing i might change is "discard 5 cards to exhaust" to "discard 4 cards to exert a companion 3 times"

It just doesn't have quite the punch that way, though. Exerting 3 times is 'meh' compared to an exhaustion (even if it's only 1 or 2 exertions, ultimately). What's your reasoning?

[macheteman]

with 2 abilities she seems a little too strong. but with the spotting requirement, i guess she should be gold.

[Elessar's Socks]

My initial reaction is that Shelob could be stronger, although this is the kind of card that if I pulled in a pack, I'd be staring at for quite a while.

It seems playing her at the start of the assignment phase would still give an opponent the opportunity to assign everyone properly. There's also the risk her entourage would be killed off beforehand, meaning the game would skip directly to the regroup phase. Unless I'm missing some evil play, maybe the ambush aspect could be strengthened somehow. Assignment phase reconciling though should come in handy. They Stole It fuel. Not Easily Avoided fun!

The exhaust ability reminds me of the exertion ones on Desert Lord and Mumak Commander GAtS, which might be included in NG decks. On the downside, it's essentially undirected and eats into TSI; on the upside, it's an exhaust, and it's on a culture card with all the benefits that entails. Hmm.

Another thought--perhaps NG decks could use replacements for Her Ladyship's ability. Dealing with troublesome companions is amazing; being a lifesaver against Faramir SoD makes me feel I have to run her. I dunno if Terror of the Pass could become an updated version, or if it should find its way onto another card.

[Invincible]

Beregil is not a good idea in my opinion. Gondor should not remove burdens, period. Add one to the resistance of a companion until the end of the turn has somewhat the same effect and feels a lot more like Gondor to me.

[Gartax]

I love Shelob great idea and pretty balance as far as I can see it

for Bergil. I also think that Gondor should never have burden removal. It should remain their weekness.

The other 2 gondor cards are great!

[sickofpalantirs]

First Dc's I've reviewed in years!

*The One Ring, The Willing Ring
Vitality +2
While wearing The One Ring, each time the Ring-bearer is about to take a wound, add a burden instead.
Maneuver: Wear The One Ring until the regroup phase.
Skirmish: If wearing The One Ring, add a burden to make bearer strength +2. Any Shadow player may then discard 2 cards from hand to make the Ring-bearer take off The One Ring.
"'A Ring of Power looks after itself…'"
20R+1

Yeah I think that's unbalanced.  I'd let the Shadow played discard 2 to take it off if the RB takes a wound maybe?  so you can't just archery dump on him?

*Passed Out of All Knowledge
Condition * Response
At the start of the regroup phase, if the Ring-bearer is not wearing The One Ring, you may play this condition to your support area. Your hand size is -1. If you can spot your Ring-bearer, he or she may not wear The One Ring; otherwise, the first minion you play each turn is twilight cost +2.
Regroup: Draw a card for each burden you can spot. Discard this condition.
"Myth became legend, legend became myth…"
[/quote]

What's to stop either played from just discarding it right after they play it for ludicrous cardage?  Or is that what you want it to do?

*Shelob, Terror of the Pass
Minion * Spider
Strength-8
Vitality-8
Site Number-8
Enduring. Lurker.
At the start of the assignment phase, if the fellowship is at a mountain or underground site, you may play this card from your hand to reconcile your hand.
Skirmish: Spot Gollum (or Sméagol) and discard 5 cards from your hand to exhaust a companion assigned to skirmish Shelob.
"…bestial and yet filled with purpose and with hideous delight, gloating…"
20R+18

she still needs help to actually have enough strength to beat the companion

whew.  that was fun

[menace64]

I really like the idea of giving Bergil a resistance booster instead of burden removal. That does indeed feel more -ish.

My initial reaction is that Shelob could be stronger, although this is the kind of card that if I pulled in a pack, I'd be staring at for quite a while.

It seems playing her at the start of the assignment phase would still give an opponent the opportunity to assign everyone properly. There's also the risk her entourage would be killed off beforehand, meaning the game would skip directly to the regroup phase. Unless I'm missing some evil play, maybe the ambush aspect could be strengthened somehow. Assignment phase reconciling though should come in handy. They Stole It fuel. Not Easily Avoided fun!

I hadn't thought of her usefulness in those terms, and quite frankly I really like that there's risk to relying on her. After all, she's part of no army, nor is she truly a minion of Sauron's. She's her own master; not even Gollum could say for certain what she would do.

The exhaust ability reminds me of the exertion ones on Desert Lord and Mumak Commander GAtS, which might be included in NG decks. On the downside, it's essentially undirected and eats into TSI; on the upside, it's an exhaust, and it's on a culture card with all the benefits that entails. Hmm.

Another thought--perhaps NG decks could use replacements for Her Ladyship's ability. Dealing with troublesome companions is amazing; being a lifesaver against Faramir SoD makes me feel I have to run her. I dunno if Terror of the Pass could become an updated version, or if it should find its way onto another card.

I'm afraid I don't know what NG stands for!

This is one of the cards I posted years ago, but it's survived the many rewrites of the set and I'm happy to present it again:

*Ufthak, Taken By the Great Spider
Possession * Support Area
To play, spot Shelob. When you play Ufthak, add a token here.
Skirmish or Regroup: Discard Ufthak (or remove a token here) to exert or heal Shelob.
"'D'you remember old Ufthak? We lost him for days. Then we found him in a corner; hanging up as he was, but he was wide awake and glaring. How we laughed! She'd forgotten him, maybe, but we didn't touch him – no good interfering with Her.'"
20R19

Ridiculously simple, giving Shelob's owner the option of strengthening an enduring boost or clearing away a wound or two.

*Déagol, Bearer of the Recovered Lost
Companion
Strength-3
Vitality-4
Ringed Resistance-7
Ring-bound. To play, exert a Ring-bound companion.
Each time the fellowship moves, add a threat (if you cannot, add a burden).
Regroup: Wound Sméagol to heal Déagol, or wound Déagol to heal Sméagol.
"‘And behold! when he washed the mud away, there in his hand lay a beautiful golden ring; and it shone and glittered in the sun, so that his heart was glad.'"
20R+16

I figured if Gandalf could get an ARB card, Déagol has just as much a right to one!

This Déagol is an alternative option to running Sméagol BoGS, and comes with his own ups and downs. For starters, you needn't worry about killing an unbound companion every turn (if you happen to have them). But Déagol doesn't have access to, well, any of the cards that target Sméagol, which means that this Ring-bearer would probably wind up in some bizarre deck centered around Déagol and Sméagol running by themselves, with specific help from outside cultures for threat/burden removal. Déagol's regroup ability was written to tie the two Stoors together, enabling maximum wound-balancing. I chose to make the cost wounding instead of exerting because - as soon as Déagol had found the Ring - it became a struggle against each other, not a true companionship. They may be close friends, but they'll always be hurting each other.

I couldn't really decide what other card to share today, so here's a simple one:

Whispering Mists
Minion * Wraith
Strength-6
Vitality-3
Site Number-4
Enduring.
Each other Wraith minion is vitality +1.
"…some like dimly shining smoke, some like misty flames flickering slowly above unseen candles; here and there they twisted like ghostly sheets unfurled by hidden hands."
20R52

One thing that Decipher did in their last year that I really enjoyed was the Wraith Collection. I bought 4 sets of it immediately. I, of course, whipped together a Shadow deck for them and found that they were nearly unplayable. The fact that they were enduring was meaningless, and their game text was just lacking. Whispering Mists would - by no means - solve the woes of the Wraiths, but it would give them more longevity and a chance to put their enduring nature to better use.

EDIT: I took another look at a few cards and reworked them:

*The Mouth of Sauron, Weaver of Wicked Words
Minion * Man
Strength-9
Vitality-3
Site Number-5
Maneuver: Discard a Shadow card from hand to make an unbound companion resistance -1 until the regroup phase.
Assignment: Exert The Mouth of Sauron to make an unbound companion resistance -2 until the regroup phase.
Skirmish: Remove to make an unbound companion resistance -3 until the regroup phase.
20R+43

Switched the Maneuver and Assignment costs, and gave each ability an ascending strength. I think he's up to a R+ status now. What do you think?

*Passed Out of All Knowledge
Condition * Response
At the start of the regroup phase, if the Ring-bearer is not wearing The One Ring, you may play this condition to your support area. Your hand size is -1. If you can spot your Ring-bearer, he or she may not wear The One Ring; otherwise, the first minion you play each turn is twilight cost +2.
Response: Spot the Ring-bearer wearing The One Ring to draw a card for each burden you can spot. Discard this condition.
"Myth became legend, legend became myth…"
20R+2

Made the drawing boon a response to wearing the Ring, gave the condition a cost instead of . I might have just nerfed it...

*Hid From the Sun (Diffraction FP/SH)
Condition * Support Area
While at a site that is not a mountain or underground site, Gollum and Sméagol are each strength -2.
At the start of your fellowship phase, if at a mountain or underground site, you may heal your Sméagol or remove a burden.
At the start of your shadow phase, if at a mountain or underground site, you may remove to play Gollum from your discard pile.
20R17

Made it a -2 strength modifier. Gave Smeagol the heal or the burden removal, changed the Gollum fetch from to .

[menace64]

First Dc's I've reviewed in years!

Haha this is a nostalgia trip for me too!

Yeah I think that's unbalanced.  I'd let the Shadow played discard 2 to take it off if the RB takes a wound maybe?  so you can't just archery dump on him?

I meant to bring the vitality modifier down to +1. Would that balance it, do you think?

What's to stop either played from just discarding it right after they play it for ludicrous cardage?  Or is that what you want it to do?

Ahh nuts. I can't believe that I missed that (and so did the rest of you!!). No, that was not my intent when I wrote it. I'll think about alternative triggers, since the whole point of the card is suffering a setback before getting that bonus.

she still needs help to actually have enough strength to beat the companion

Well yeah, for sure, but this particular Shelob doesn't really concern herself with winning the confrontation. All she is compelled to do is spring for the nearest prey and assume it'll all work out to her benefit. Her strength can be overcome, and I didn't want her to be a powerhouse (hence the enduring text combined with a post-archery play).

whew.  that was fun

It's been fun posting cards again.