Seems interesting. Not sure there's enough value in it, but conceptually it lets aggro decks get around some of the most obnoxious midrange bricks.
Sets (LTR) The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth
- Thread starter Velrun
- Start date
Seems interesting. Not sure there's enough value in it, but conceptually it lets aggro decks get around some of the most obnoxious midrange bricks.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
So, a few "fun" details. Gandalf didn't claim part of the treasure, essentially working for free (or really working to push his hidden benevolent agenda), but the treasure wasn't actually split into 14 equal parts. For one, Bilbo's contract stated he could claim up to 1/14th of the treasure, but he claimed only a few bags of the treasure. That was enough to make him rich by Hobbit standards anyway! Also, Thorin, Fíli, and Kíli all suffered an untimely end, and didn't share in the treasure at all (though the Arkenstone was buried alongside Thorin). Finally, Bard claimed part of the treasure to rebuild Dale after it was sacked by Smaug. There's a nice summary on Wikipedia that describes what happened after that.There we go!
There is going to be a gameplay situation one day that will determine a tournament if Gandalf was part of the journey at this point or not because the player missing one mana to win the game
Wikipedia said:
Yoink!
Straight into my D&D set! <3 Look at that art
Not sure what to cut for it yet.
I am a sucker for second spell cards and this one is on a reasonable body at a great spot on the curve. The treasure isn’t always going to be relevant for lower to the ground decks that can trigger Lotho, but there are always uses to Lotus Petals: mana fixing for a Prismatic Ending. Holding up Reprieve. Making your next double spell turn that much easier.
I don’t expect my opponent to trigger it for me, but it’s certainly a nice bonus and can be invisible disruption.
I mean this _does_ get around stuff like first strike, death touch etc. does it not? That seems really good in that case.
Well, trust me the opponent will trigger at the end of the mid-game. Then the treasure you will get is almost worthless, but the life you lose is worth it for the opponent.
It does, so it's great against things like Ophiomancer, Porcelain Legionnaire, or even getting death triggers from a Wurmcoil Engine in the right context, so there is potential there for sure. It helps you overcome some of the most annoying bricks on your opponents' side.
But my cube has much more creatures where it's not relevant against than otherwise. Not sure yet how much I love it, but it's certainly worth considering as they keep giving us more equipment support.
Fool of a Took indeed! I wasn't interested (for cube, at least) until I realized that this counters 69% of my creatures for one mana...that's really not that bad.
Lotho looks like a card I'd be interested in, I like the potential tension where both you and your opponent might be interested or discouraged from triggering it depending on how they view the game-state.
To be honest, this card looks to be on the bad side, considering how much agency your opponent gets over it, but I think I'd like to try it out. I like Sagas that aren't backbreaking, but give something to fight over.
I kind of want to try this one out as well, but it's probably mostly annoying, underwhelming and cute, I'm not convinced the card is all that great even though 6 counters for 1 mana is a lot in an abstract sense. Does play into my sequencing themes though.
To be honest, this card looks to be on the bad side, considering how much agency your opponent gets over it, but I think I'd like to try it out. I like Sagas that aren't backbreaking, but give something to fight over.
I kind of want to try this one out as well, but it's probably mostly annoying, underwhelming and cute, I'm not convinced the card is all that great even though 6 counters for 1 mana is a lot in an abstract sense. Does play into my sequencing themes though.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Again I am impressed with the quality of the landcyclers, and 6 power kinda unblockable for 6 aint bad!
Neato! For combo potential it aint no Birgi, but it's a lot better in a fair context I think.
Interesting! If you were on the Obzedat's Aid train, this looks interesting as a fair recurring nightmare style effect.
I've been thinking about "The Ring Tempts You" (henceforth TRTY), and it just makes me sad. Not the mechanic itself, necessarily, but the fact that it's gotten such a massive backlash for reasons that honestly aren't the mechanic's fault.
In practical terms, it's effectively just an upgrading aura that you pass around your creatures — it seems straightforward to track, doesn't change much or intrinsically rely on remembering triggers, and it's interactive (in the sense that, you know, you can just blow up the Ringbearer). In a vacuum, I don't think anyone would complain about it for reasons other than the flavor¹.
Most of the complaints I've seen have actually been people complaining about Attractions/Day/Night/Dungeons/Stickers. We've just been getting so many mechanics that ask us to track stuff that's not on cards lately, and people are tired. It doesn't help that the Initiative screwed up Legacy and Pauper for a while, or that Attractions/Stickers were an incredibly forced part of the very weird set that is Unfinity. If this set had come out instead of Adventures in the Forgotten Realms two years ago, I feel like people would've been way more open to getting Tempted.
To be clear, I'm not saying that everyone would've loved it or anything. I'm just disappointed because we've already gotten to the point where new "out of game" mechanics inspire immediate revulsion, and it's only been two years. I personally blame Dungeons, honestly — while they're a cute idea, they're also an absolute pain to track, both physically and mentally (and then the Initiative doubled down on it by making it a Monarch-style "fight over this" mechanic).
Honestly, Magic has just gotten more aggravating when it comes to tracking stuff lately. They've been leaning way harder on double-sided cards and counter-based pettifoggery than they used to. Which is a shame, because then they make stuff like Blood tokens that remind you that they still understand how to design intuitive mechanics with surprising amounts of depth, it's just that their business model encourages them to churn through a ton of throwaway mechanics. Heck, most returning mechanics are old faithfuls like kicker — I'm pretty sure that you can count the number of mechanics created since they scrapped the block system that have shown up in more than one Standard-legal set on one hand with fingers to spare (I count Amass, Sagas, and Ward — maybe Undergrowth if you count MAT?).
¹ Granted, I'm in the camp that TRTY being an all-upside mechanic isn't actually as much of a misunderstanding of the Ring as you'd initially think, since most of the side effects for Ring-use are very slow to manifest. In the short term, it appears to be an all-upside magic ring (skulk) that encourages you to use it and draws the attention of fell forces (AKA villain).
In practical terms, it's effectively just an upgrading aura that you pass around your creatures — it seems straightforward to track, doesn't change much or intrinsically rely on remembering triggers, and it's interactive (in the sense that, you know, you can just blow up the Ringbearer). In a vacuum, I don't think anyone would complain about it for reasons other than the flavor¹.
Most of the complaints I've seen have actually been people complaining about Attractions/Day/Night/Dungeons/Stickers. We've just been getting so many mechanics that ask us to track stuff that's not on cards lately, and people are tired. It doesn't help that the Initiative screwed up Legacy and Pauper for a while, or that Attractions/Stickers were an incredibly forced part of the very weird set that is Unfinity. If this set had come out instead of Adventures in the Forgotten Realms two years ago, I feel like people would've been way more open to getting Tempted.
To be clear, I'm not saying that everyone would've loved it or anything. I'm just disappointed because we've already gotten to the point where new "out of game" mechanics inspire immediate revulsion, and it's only been two years. I personally blame Dungeons, honestly — while they're a cute idea, they're also an absolute pain to track, both physically and mentally (and then the Initiative doubled down on it by making it a Monarch-style "fight over this" mechanic).
Honestly, Magic has just gotten more aggravating when it comes to tracking stuff lately. They've been leaning way harder on double-sided cards and counter-based pettifoggery than they used to. Which is a shame, because then they make stuff like Blood tokens that remind you that they still understand how to design intuitive mechanics with surprising amounts of depth, it's just that their business model encourages them to churn through a ton of throwaway mechanics. Heck, most returning mechanics are old faithfuls like kicker — I'm pretty sure that you can count the number of mechanics created since they scrapped the block system that have shown up in more than one Standard-legal set on one hand with fingers to spare (I count Amass, Sagas, and Ward — maybe Undergrowth if you count MAT?).
¹ Granted, I'm in the camp that TRTY being an all-upside mechanic isn't actually as much of a misunderstanding of the Ring as you'd initially think, since most of the side effects for Ring-use are very slow to manifest. In the short term, it appears to be an all-upside magic ring (skulk) that encourages you to use it and draws the attention of fell forces (AKA villain).
On a less gloomy note...
Friendly Rivalry is just cute, and it's probably one of my favorite takes on Legendary Tribal in the set so far — it's already pretty solid if you don't have any legends on the battlefield, but gets stronger if you do. Good show.
Mostly posting Simic Legolas: Wait, Can Simic Do "This Grows When Villain's Stuff Dies?" Edition because I hope that this + Council's Deliberation is a good sign that we're getting Scry Matters as the GU theme, which is pertinent to my interests.
Behold!
The Bath Song -
Enchantment - Saga
I, II: Draw two cards, then discard a card.
III: Shuffle any number of target cards in your graveyard into your library, then add.
I love this thing. It's quite a bit of card advantage (if a bit delayed), and that final chapter is interesting. I don't think it's fast enough for anything other than EDH or Limited, but come on. It's the bath song.
(I will admit that I thought of a different bath song first, though.)
Friendly Rivalry is just cute, and it's probably one of my favorite takes on Legendary Tribal in the set so far — it's already pretty solid if you don't have any legends on the battlefield, but gets stronger if you do. Good show.
Mostly posting Simic Legolas: Wait, Can Simic Do "This Grows When Villain's Stuff Dies?" Edition because I hope that this + Council's Deliberation is a good sign that we're getting Scry Matters as the GU theme, which is pertinent to my interests.
Behold!
The Bath Song -
Enchantment - Saga
I, II: Draw two cards, then discard a card.
III: Shuffle any number of target cards in your graveyard into your library, then add
.I love this thing. It's quite a bit of card advantage (if a bit delayed), and that final chapter is interesting. I don't think it's fast enough for anything other than EDH or Limited, but come on. It's the bath song.
(I will admit that I thought of a different bath song first, though.)
not that I'm disagreeing with you but MAT also had jump-start, so you just barely run out of one hand's fingers if you count this weird fake set giving us 40% of the mechanics
I get where you're coming from, but I think it's a poor mechanic even on the "external card" standard. I still run plenty of stupid mechanics and cards that invite memory issues or have too many complex bobbles to track -- including the new Praetors that flip into sagas, a card type I've had some issues with in my play group themselves!
1. It's a mechanic that requires both an external tracking card but also realistically also needs a token (like, say, a ring!) to actually create clear gameplay as to who the ring-bearer is.
2. Ring-bearer may be a flavorful word but it's a mouthful and it uses a hyphen a full five years after the OED said "you should probably just pretend those no longer exist" (not that they'll ever stop me!!!)
3. What do you do after the 4th time the ring is tempted?? That's stupid. At least you can start a dungeon over again. The last ability doesn't feel terribly final.
4. Do my legendary creatures get legendary all over again? Is my Brushwagg really now worthy of "Legendary" status just because I tossed a counter onto it??
5. The legitimate complaint levied against a recent new card type, Battles, is that they're entirely attacking focused. Is this not more so?
6. The abilities are disjointed as hell, they don't follow a logical progression. I can remember "nine maids a-milking" | "ten lords a-leaping" | "eleven pipers piping" but there's no way I can remember "Skulk plus other bullshit" -> "loots on ATTACK" -> "forces sacrifice of BLOCKERS" -> "extra damage on COMBAT" without having to look at the cheat card each time.
7. They're not the sexiest of abilities? I'm sure it'll be fun to play with in the power level of the set on a client like Arena, but it seems like an awful lot of trouble for less impactful abilities than what I'd get as an ETB on my two drop.
8. The third ability is useless if you're able to get value out of the first ability, making it even less sexy.
9. The ring can temp you even if you don't have a creature. Why? I thought the whole point was the ring-bearer bearing the ring.
10. After my ring-bearer gets Murdered, why does the next guy in line on my side of the battlefield get to pick it up from where the last dude left off? It feels like it should start over, or even that my opponent gets a benefit from that to counteract the benefits I'd previously been getting. Just sits weird for me.
There was no immediate revulsion on my part, I think I shared in the same sadness you did. But I did give the mechanic a chance, emotionally at least, and now I'm revolted
Did you read the lotr? (Or seen the movie?)
The ring grants you shadow on use, but tells the Nazgûl where you are. What is worse is that it immediately makes the wearer (even when not in use) suspicious of their friends. Makes the wearer a target to all since all want it and will kill you. Makes even your friends try to steal your ring. Makes you even weaker with fear for the Nazgûl. Makes you want the ring when you do not have it like a drug. The slow manifestation is the drawing out/shadowing of your life. But becoming the target to everyone nearby, even friends, is immediate. Let alone the Nazgûl or others who hunt you.
Surprisingly, there is no mention of Nazgûl/luring of the ring to your companions in the Hobbit.
It's almost like the fact that you're making one of your creatures super powerful is going to draw a lot of attention from your opponent and make them try to kill it. The Ring literally turns your opponent into the Nazgûl.
Maybe they make a punch-out card with The Ring tokens
Like we had keyword tokens from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
You choose a creature to be the Ring-bearer. Maybe your old Ring-bearer died so you need to re-equip the ring which is only possible with temptation.
I've read the books, some of the supplementary materials, and The Silmarillion twice.
So yes. I have.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
To be fair, they only stopped doing blocks like, what, five years ago? In the olden days they wouldn't revisit mechanics that quickly either between blocks, it's just that they had more sets to explore a mechanic because they didn't switch planes. I'm confident many mechanics from the last five years will return, just not that fast.
The ring grants 2 powers to normal mortals. It lengthens your life when wearing it and on use you become a shadow which the others cannot see/hurt (the Nazgûl can see and hurt you). This is useful to sneak up on someone or to escape. (It does not make you more powerful unless you are a mighty sorcerer, but then it will corrupt you.) This comes at the cost that you will become a target and some of your friends will fight you for the ring.
So the ring should do the following to stay true to the story: the ring grants shadow/escape, your friends will attack you, you will be hunted and finally the Nazgûl come for you. It makes you weak with longing if you lose the ring. The ring desires to go to Sauron (for simplicity the opponent). In a magic card it could be like this:
The game starts with a ring in the ring zone, similar to the dungeon zone (no one can target it and so on). Any player can take the ring from exile by tapping a creature to find it and attach it to that creature.
The ring
legendary equipment
Tap equipped creature: add a ring counter to the ring and do one of the following:
* equipped creature deals damage equal to its power to any target.
* equipped creature gets shroud and prevent all combat damage to and from equipped creature.
If an opponent controls any Nazgûl then the opponent may choose to let the Nazgûl fight equipped creature.
Whenever equipped creature dies attach the ring to the killer*. If this is not possible, then put the ring in the ring-zone. If the ring changes control this way, remove all ring counters.
If the ring leaves play or is unequipped then put it into the ring zone.
At the beginning of your upkeep, throw a 6-sided dice. If you throw a 1 then equipped creature fights another random creature you control.
If the ring received its third counter, an opponent creates a 1/1 orc.
If the ring received its sixth counter, an opponent creates three 2/2 orcs.
If the ring received its ninth counter, an opponent creates a Nazgûl.
If the ring becomes unequipped put a -1/-1 counter on the creature it did equip for each ring counter.
Equip 1.
* the killer is the creature that killed the bearer. It could be pinged, combat, fight whatever.
Do I remember it wrong that the ring has many downsides?
I know what the Ring does in the lore. I'm saying that the play patterns of the Ring mechanic look like they're going to parallel the lore reasonably well even though there isn't an explicit "your creature gets weaker than it was initially if it stops being the Ring Bearer" line of text anywhere.
Do you think that maybe you're setting the bar a bit low if any piece of equipment that grants evasion is considered to sufficiently capture the one ring? One of, if not the, major defining trait of it is that everyone wants it. It's an object that people fight over, obsess over. We have several of those in magic already, between Coveted Jewel, Contested War Zone, Avarice Amulet and the monarch mechanic. The ringbearer isn't something you fight over, just something you try to get rid of, and ideally without putting anything in its way since they'll get edicted. With how high of a complexity budget the mechanic has, I can't see this execution of it as anything but rather mediocre. (Although I must admit I like it more than Rusje's wall of text.)