Lands of Shadow - Something to Fear. (10/24)

[Gate Troll]

•The Witch-king's Beast, The Devourer
Possession • Mount
Strength +2
Bearer must be The Witch-king. When you play The Witch-king's Beast, discard a Free Peoples mount.
The Witch-king gains flanking, and each time he wins a skirmish, you may return a card in your discard pile to your hand.
"Suddenly the great beast beat its hideous wings, and the wind of them was foul. Again it leaped into the air, and then swiftly fell down upon Éowyn, shrieking, striking with beak and claw."
M1R127

Now I can't wait for the Witch-King! That is one nice card, perhaps tipping the balance of card-power a little, but then again, not all cards have to be equal. 

[lem0nhead]

•The Witch-king's Beast, The Devourer
Possession • Mount
Strength +2
Bearer must be The Witch-king. When you play The Witch-king's Beast, discard a Free Peoples mount.
The Witch-king gains flanking, and each time he wins a skirmish, you may return a card in your discard pile to your hand.
"Suddenly the great beast beat its hideous wings, and the wind of them was foul. Again it leaped into the air, and then swiftly fell down upon Éowyn, shrieking, striking with beak and claw."
M1R127

Id add "you may" before discard a freeps mount. I think this card is cool.

[menace64]

I decided not to put "you may" for the mount-discarding clause because I wanted to retain a bit of "scary, uncontrollable beast". This is a living, breathing demon that wants to eat, and it deciding to chomp down a horse isn't something anyone but it can decide to do.

That being said, I'm glad you guys enjoyed the first card in the cycle. Here's possession #2.

•The Pale Blade, The Abhorrer
Possession • Hand Weapon
Strength +3
Bearer must be a Nazgûl. He gains dominate.
Shadow: If bearer is The Witch-king, exert him and spot a companion with resistance 3 or less. That companion and all companions of the same culture lose a keyword of your choice (and cannot gain that keyword) until the start of the regroup phase.
"In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face."
M1R117

Dominate: (A character skirmishing this minion may not exert.)
All right. The first version wasn't well-received by you guys, so I wrote up something new. I think it's more in line with the scene the lore was taken from. This weapon (along with The Witch-king's latent terror) can rip apart the morale of an entire line of defense. So, for instance, if you see a valiant companion that isn't feeling very valiant (low resistance) you can use that companion to instill fear in everybody else.

[Thranduil]

•The Pale Blade, The Abhorrer
Possession • Hand Weapon
Strength +2
Bearer must be a Nazgûl. He gains dominate.
Shadow: If bearer is The Witch-king, exert him and spot a companion with resistance 4 or less to play a possession or artifact on The Witch-king from your discard pile.
"In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face."
M1R117

Hmmmm.... I'm afraid I don't see why a sword should be able to get you back rings and mounts and stuff - I don't get the flavour. The Pale Blade has always been a deadly weapon in itself causing havoc through discarding conditions, adding burdens, damage, +3 strength; this one doesn't feel quite right to me.

Thranduil

[lem0nhead]

Agree with Thran but id also add i dont think it should be borne by anyone but the wikkie. I dislike specifically targeted items as it reduces there usability, but i feel the wikkie is the only one who would ever use this sword.

[sickofpalantirs]

ditto my lemony and elveny colleagues.

[DáinIronfoot]

I'm actually okay with it being borne by potentially any Nazzie, but I DO agree that the Shadow ability just seems a bit off. I'd rather it do something directly nasty to the FP player then pull stuff from the deck.

I also think it should get its normal +3 strength back.

[Gate Troll]

•The Pale Blade, The Abhorrer
Possession • Hand Weapon
Strength +2
Bearer must be a Nazgûl. He gains dominate.
Shadow: If bearer is The Witch-king, exert him and spot a companion with resistance 4 or less to play a possession or artifact on The Witch-king from your discard pile.
"In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face."
M1R117

Mehr. You changed it heretic. All Pale Blades give +3 strength bonuses. The subtitle is kinda awkward too.
I don't know about all these new keywords though, I's have to have some game exprience with Flanker and Dominate and all that jazz to be able to rate it well. Besides that, okay, I guess. 

[menace64]

I'm still not showing The Witch-king - he should be up tomorrow or so.

Until then, here's another card for your viewing pleasure:

Feast on His Flesh
Event • Regroup
Spot a mounted Nazgûl and a companion (except the Ring-bearer) with 2 or more wounds. If that Nazgûl has at least twice the strength of that companion, that companion is killed.
"Down, down it came, and then, folding its fingered webs, it gave a croaking cry, and settled upon the body of Snowmane, digging in its claws, stooping its long naked neck."
M1R110

Perhaps a better wording would be "place that companion in the dead pile", but I liked the straight-up sound of killing him.

Do you think this card should have a lower twilight cost?

[sickofpalantirs]

yeah 3 twilight cost should be fine.

[Thranduil]

Agree with SoP, and I also like the new Pale Blade. Fun stuff.

Thranduil

[Elf_Lvr]

The cost could definitely come down. It'd still be pretty hard to use.

[lem0nhead]

Feast on His Flesh
Event • Regroup
Spot a mounted Nazgûl and a companion (except the Ring-bearer) with 2 or more wounds. If that Nazgûl has at least twice the strength as that companion, that companion is killed.
"Down, down it came, and then, folding its fingered webs, it gave a croaking cry, and settled upon the body of Snowmane, digging in its claws, stooping its long naked neck."
M1R110

"of" that companion not "as". Seems fine otherwise except....

Perhaps a better wording would be "place that companion in the dead pile", but I liked the straight-up sound of killing him.

I think it should be changed as you suggest.

Do you think this card should have a lower twilight cost?

Yes definately. A mounted nagzul is quite a requirement for the regroup so 2 would be perfectly fine.

[DáinIronfoot]

Señor Juicy Fruit's got this one covered.

[menace64]

With all the other Shadow cards spoiled, we've arrived at last at The Witch-king himself. This minion is the only fierce minion in the whole set, and sports a brand new keyword that is sure to change just about everything:

•The Witch-king, The Undoing of Man
Minion • Nazgûl
Strength 14
Vitality 4
Site Number 3
Fierce. Unliving.
Each minion assigned to skirmish a Man gains pillage 2.
Each time a Nazgûl wins a skirmish, you may exert The Witch-king to return a Free Peoples card (except a companion) to its owner's hand.
"He bent over her like a cloud, and his eyes glittered…"
M1R126

As a reminder, pillage adds when the minion wins the skirmish.
The Undoing of Man truly can undo a fellowship's strategy, picking it apart piece by piece. But that's not what the highlight of this card is, most certainly. Unliving is the only other new keyword in this set and it is part of the very fiber of the new Dead Army subculture. What does it do? Well:

Unliving (When this character is discarded from play or killed, you may discard a card from hand to shuffle it into your draw deck instead.)

Yup. Unliving makes it extremely hard to actually kill a character. And, when applied to companions, pretty much circumvents entirely the Rule of 9. So here we go: it's time to plow through the Dead Army!

Cursed Warrior
Companion • Wraith
Strength 7
Vitality 3
Resistance 5
Unliving. While you can spot 3 unliving companions, this companion is twilight cost -1.
For each wound on this companion, it is strength +1.
"‘Strange and wonderful I thought it that the designs of Mordor should be overthrown by such wraiths of fear and darkness. With its own weapons was it worsted!'"
M1U108

A homage to the enduring Wraiths of old, this guy has less to do with the Dead Army's central mechanic and more to do with simple power.

Wraith of the Twilight City
Companion • Wraith
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance 5
Unliving. To play, exert Aragorn or spot 3 companions.
"‘Some I saw riding, some striding, yet all moving with the same great speed. Silent they were, but there was a gleam in their eyes. In the uplands of Lamedon they overtook our horses, and swept round us, and would have passed us by, if Aragorn had not forbidden them.'"
M1C128

Nothing to say about this one.