The Way Into Mordor - Wraiths (10/9: "Always creeping, creeping.")

[Thranduil]

•Blade of Dol Guldur
Possession • Hand Weapon
Strength: +2
Bearer must be a Nazgûl.
While bearer is Úlairë Attëa, each time he wins a skirmish, the Free Peoples player must exert a companion or add a burden for each culture in the fellowship.
"Few now have the skill in healing to match such evil weapons...."

I think you should make it clearer whether you have to exert a companion for each culture or just exert 1 companion.

Fell Beast (reprint)
Possession • Mount
Strength: +2
To play, discard 2 cards from hand.
Bearer must be a Nazgûl.
Bearer is fierce.
"‘And these winged creatures that they ride on now, they can probably see more than any other creature. They are like great carrion birds.'"

I love that card! It does cost , though.

•Ring of Coercion
Artifact • Ring
Strength +1
Bearer must be a Nazgûl (except the Witch-king).
Assignment: Spot 6 burdens and 3 minions to assign a companion to skirmish bearer. The Free Peoples player may add a burden (or 2 burdens if that companion is Ring-bound) to prevent this.
Response: If a player reconciles, return bearer to his owner's hand.

I would just completely remove the parentheses - it just seems unnecessarily good and complicated. I also don't think this ring should add strength as it already says "Assign a Nazgûl to the Ring-bearer" so extra strength is just evil. Vitality instead wouldn't bother me.

Thranduil

[DáinIronfoot]

•Blade of Dol Guldur
Possession • Hand Weapon
Strength: +2
Bearer must be a Nazgûl.
While bearer is Úlairë Attëa, each time he wins a skirmish, the Free Peoples player must exert a companion or add a burden for each culture in the fellowship.
"Few now have the skill in healing to match such evil weapons...."

I think you should make it clearer whether you have to exert a companion for each culture or just exert 1 companion.

Done!

Fell Beast (reprint)
Possession • Mount
Strength: +2
To play, discard 2 cards from hand.
Bearer must be a Nazgûl.
Bearer is fierce.
"‘And these winged creatures that they ride on now, they can probably see more than any other creature. They are like great carrion birds.'"

I love that card! It does cost , though.

Whoops. Probably a leftover from my attempts at redoing it.

•Ring of Coercion
Artifact • Ring
Strength +1
Bearer must be a Nazgûl (except the Witch-king).
Assignment: Spot 6 burdens and 3 minions to assign a companion to skirmish bearer. The Free Peoples player may add a burden (or 2 burdens if that companion is Ring-bound) to prevent this.
Response: If a player reconciles, return bearer to his owner's hand.

I would just completely remove the parentheses - it just seems unnecessarily good and complicated. I also don't think this ring should add strength as it already says "Assign a Nazgûl to the Ring-bearer" so extra strength is just evil. Vitality instead wouldn't bother me.

Changed to a vitality bonus instead of strength. I'll leave the parenthesis for now, but I'm not at all opposed to changing it if others agree.

[Elf_Lvr]

Cut the 2 burden part out, and you can let it be borne by the Witch-King.

One MAJOR problem - you need to say "and assign this minion." after the prevention text, otherwise, the ability is usable infinitely.

I also think you could drop it to only spotting 4 or 5 burdens to trigger (like Toldea, MoM), instead of 6. Heck, even the Shotgun himself only requires 5.

[DáinIronfoot]

I also think you could drop it to only spotting 4 or 5 burdens to trigger (like Toldea, MoM), instead of 6. Heck, even the Shotgun himself only requires 5.

Respectfully disagreed, since this has one key difference: it can be used to assign the Ring-bearer. Against weak RBs like Frodo, Galadriel, and Sam that means overwhelming risk. Against skirmish-penalizing RBs like Faramir, Isuldur, and Gimli that means extra burdens, threats, and/or wounds. I think it's evil enough to warrant the high burden number.

Changed the rest, though. Good catch on the "and assign bearer" thing.

[lem0nhead]

•Blade of Dol Guldur
Possession • Hand Weapon
Strength: +2
Bearer must be a Nazgûl.
While bearer is Úlairë Attëa, each time he wins a skirmish, the Free Peoples player must exert X companions or add X burdens, where X is the number of cultures in the fellowship.
"Few now have the skill in healing to match such evil weapons...."

Why not phrase it is the number of free peoples cultures you can spot?

•Ring of Coercion
Artifact • Ring
Vitality +1
Bearer must be a Nazgûl.
Assignment: Spot 6 burdens and 3 minions to assign a companion to skirmish bearer. The Free Peoples player may add a burden to prevent this and assign bearer.
Response: If a player reconciles, return bearer to his owner's hand.

Lower to two minions but fine. Lovely and nasty.

[DáinIronfoot]

Some support stuff for our "wraiths on wings" today. Enjoy!

•You Cannot Kill Them
Condition • Support Area
Response: If a Nazgûl is about to take a wound, discard a card from play to prevent all wounds to that Nazgûl until the end of the current phase.
"‘What new terror is this?'"

This one's inspried by a conversation between Gandalf and the Three Hunters about the "winged messenger" Legolas shot from the sky near the end of their journey down the Anduin. Gandalf explains that while the fell beast may have been slain, the Nazgûl riding it surely was not....

     'The Winged Messenger!' cried Legolas. 'I shot at him with the bow of Galadriel above Sarn Gebir, and I felled him from the sky. He filled us all with fear. What new terror is this?'
     'One that you cannot slay with arrows,' said Gandalf. 'You only slew his steed. It was a good deed; but the Rider was soon horsed again. For he was a Nazgûl, one of the Nine, who ride now upon winged steeds. Soon their terror will overshadow the last armies of our friends, cutting off the sun.'

I'll likely be drawing another card or two from that discussion, but I figured a card that let you discard other cards (like Fell Beasts) to save your Nazzies certainly made sense. It's both a little weaker and a little more powerful, depending on the circumstances, than similar cards like His Terrible Servants and They Feel The Precious.

Calling for The Precious
Event • Skirmish
Make a companion skirmishing a Nazgûl strength -2 (or -4 if that companion has resistance 2 or less).
"‘Wraiths on wings! The Precious is their master.'"

I had toyed with a maximum of strength -3 on a -cost card, but I couldn't resist going for the jugular with a potential -4.

[sickofpalantirs]

Some support stuff for our "wraiths on wings" today. Enjoy!

•You Cannot Kill Them
Condition • Support Area
Response: If a Nazgûl is about to take a wound, discard a card to prevent all wounds to that Nazgûl until the end of the current phase.
"‘What new terror is this?'"
so would that be a wraith card in play?

Calling for The Precious
Event • Skirmish
Make a companion skirmishing a Nazgûl strength -2 (or -4 if that companion has resistance 2 or less).
"‘Wraiths on wings! The Precious is their master.'"

balanced with the 2 cost...

[Thranduil]

•You Cannot Kill Them
Condition • Support Area
Response: If a Nazgûl is about to take a wound, discard a card to prevent all wounds to that Nazgûl until the end of the current phase.
"‘What new terror is this?'"

I would specify from play to be precise, and you don't need to specify "until the end of the current phase" because that is also the default meaning for any ability.

Calling for The Precious
Event • Skirmish
Make a companion skirmishing a Nazgûl strength -2 (or -4 if that companion has resistance 2 or less).
"‘Wraiths on wings! The Precious is their master.'"

Yeah, it's solid.

Thranduil

[Elf_Lvr]

Both look fine to me.

[lem0nhead]

•You Cannot Kill Them
Condition • Support Area
Response: If a Nazgûl is about to take a wound, discard a card to prevent all wounds to that Nazgûl until the end of the current phase.
"‘What new terror is this?'"

Wow powerful, its definately worth 1 wraith card going, as it makes your most important wraiths invincible. Would really have to keep a close eye on this.

Calling for The Precious
Event • Skirmish
Make a companion skirmishing a Nazgûl strength -2 (or -4 if that companion has resistance 2 or less).
"‘Wraiths on wings! The Precious is their master.'"

Wow thats nasty not really sure what i think of that, parenthesis is ok its the general power im scared of..

[DáinIronfoot]

A couple more mostly random Nazzie cards today. Enjoy!

All In Darkness
Event • Regroup
Discard a minion to discard an ally or follower. If you can spot no such card, the Free Peoples player must discard a companion.
"‘Soon their terror will overshadow the last armies of our friends, cutting off the sun.'"

•Messengers of Mordor
Condition • Support Area
Toil 2.
Each time the fellowship moves to the next region, discard this condition.
Regroup: Exert a Nazgûl to add a token here.
Skirmish: Remove a token from here to make a Nazgûl strength +X, where X is the current region number.
"‘The storm is coming. The Nazgûl have crossed the River!'"

[lem0nhead]

All In Darkness
Event • Regroup
Discard a minion to discard an ally or follower. If you can spot no such card, the Free Peoples player must discard a companion.
"‘Soon their terror will overshadow the last armies of our friends, cutting off the sun.'"

Wow its really cool but i feel the companion bit is a teeny bit unbalanced. Change it to something else or up the cost to 3.

•Messengers of Mordor
Condition • Support Area
Toil 2.
Regroup: Exert a Nazgûl to add a token here.
Skirmish: Remove a token from here to make a Nazgûl strength +X, where X is the current region number.
Each time the fellowship moves to the next region, discard this condition.
"‘The storm is coming. The Nazgûl have crossed the River!'"

Put the "each time" bit first. In fact id order them chronologically. Sound otherwise.

[Thranduil]

All In Darkness
Event • Regroup
Discard a minion to discard an ally or follower. If you can spot no such card, the Free Peoples player must discard a companion.
"‘Soon their terror will overshadow the last armies of our friends, cutting off the sun.'"

This is fun. Do you have spells? The title feels like it could be a spell.

•Messengers of Mordor
Condition • Support Area
Toil 2.
Regroup: Exert a Nazgûl to add a token here.
Skirmish: Remove a token from here to make a Nazgûl strength +X, where X is the current region number.
Each time the fellowship moves to the next region, discard this condition.
"‘The storm is coming. The Nazgûl have crossed the River!'"

I agree with lem0n about the order of the abilities. Very interesting card, but I wonder if it needs to cost . Thinking about it practically, you can only ever use this card's skirmish ability for a maximum of 2 sites in a row, a maximum of 6 sites in the game, and that's very unlikely. And in region 3 the FP player is most set-up so the chances of Nazgûl surviving to the regroup phase should be slightly less. Perhaps is enough?

Thranduil

[sickofpalantirs]

A couple more mostly random Nazzie cards today. Enjoy!

All In Darkness
Event • Regroup
Discard a minion to discard an ally or follower. If you can spot no such card, the Free Peoples player must discard a companion.
"‘Soon their terror will overshadow the last armies of our friends, cutting off the sun.'"
OUCH...works

•Messengers of Mordor
Condition • Support Area
Toil 2.
Regroup: Exert a Nazgûl to add a token here.
Skirmish: Remove a token from here to make a Nazgûl strength +X, where X is the current region number.
Each time the fellowship moves to the next region, discard this condition.
"‘The storm is coming. The Nazgûl have crossed the River!'"

wickedly awesome with enduring nazgul...cut cost to 5 IMSO

[DáinIronfoot]

Reduced the cost of Messengers of Mordor to , which I was thinking about anyway before SoP's review. Great minds, I guess. I moved the "each time" text to the top, but I'd rather leave the others as they are when keeping in mind similiar conditions like Winged and Ominous and Rank and File. I think the order on those makes the most sense even though they're technically OUT of order, and I think the same is true here.