PC Errata/Notes
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X-List[edit]
Unlike all following PC errata batches, the initial X-List batch has notes from Decipher explaining why they banned the card. Those notes are shown alongside the PC's own.
Original | Errata | Current | Decipher Notes | PC Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Original | Errata | Current | Decipher Notes | PC Notes |
Elrond, Lord of Rivendell (1R40) | Elrond, Lord of Rivendell (1R40) | Yes | Decipher Notes: The cultural enforcement on this card is not strong enough for the ability provided. Such an ability should require more of a commitment to the culture. Also, when combined with other cards such as Shoulder to Shoulder (1C59), the healing function of this card provides too much utility, both for Elrond, and other site 3 allies. | Put a limit on the healing and added additional cultural + strategic enforcement to the card draw. Full article here. |
Galadriel, Lady of Light (1R45) | Galadriel, Lady of Light (1R45) | Yes | Decipher Notes: This card has no cultural enforcement. The special ability allows a player to play high utility site 6 allies, who also lack cultural enforcement, for free. This level of permanent resource denial undermines the Shadow number curve on sites. Also, when combined with other cards such as Shoulder to Shoulder (1C59), the healing function of this card provides too much utility, both for Galadriel, and other site 6 allies. | In short, Galadriel both enables mass minion wounding by healing all the exert-to-wound Home 6 allies every round, and her discount is too much. In shorter, characters are balanced around their costs and Galadriel removing those costs makes them unbalanced. In shorterer, heal bad; choke worse.
To address the Shoulder to Shoulder (1C59) issue (obsolete though it may be), Galadriel's heal is reduced to mirror Elrond's freshly-nerfed position. She can now heal herself and up to 2 others, which won't affect most decks but should shave just a bit off the top of the mass ally strat. The discount eventually settled on -1 out of simple pragmatism: every Elf in Fellowship block has a twilight cost of 2, except for Elrond (4) and Lórien Elf (1C53) (1). -2 would thus be essentially no change, so -1 it is. (There are additional higher cost Elves in Towers block, but the vast majority remain 2). |
Ottar, Man of Laketown (1R80) | Ottar, Man of Laketown (1R80) | No | Decipher Notes: This card makes large-scale card draw too accessible to all Free Peoples strategies. It requires a very low cultural commitment to a culture that is not supposed to be the strongest at Fellowship phase card draw. | The complaint is straightforward: it permits lots of card draw (and card cycling, even if that goes unmentioned) when Gandalf is not supposed to. He's even worse with Elrond, Lord of Rivendell, whose Home 3 healing ensures that Ottar + Elrond permit a 4 card draw / 3 card cycle every Fellowship phase, which makes most other methods pale in comparison. Our errata is equally straightforward: knock Ottar down to essentially an out-of-phase reconcile once per turn. |
No Stranger to the Shadows (1U108) | No Stranger to the Shadows (1U108) | Yes | Decipher Notes: This level of permanent resource denial undermines the Shadow number curve on sites. | Short, sweet, to the point. Running 1-3 of these on any or all of Arwen, Aragorn, and Boromir is a pain in the twilight pool, and when combined with other Shadow number affecting cards, it just stacks up too much. We've taken the smallest possible change here and made the card unique, restricting its impact to no more than per move. The stealth keyword has also been added for future tinkering. |
Saruman's Snows (1C138) | Saruman's Snows (1C138) | Yes | Decipher Notes:
This card had perhaps a slower rise to power than some, but before long players knew this was one of the most effective conditions in the game. Its impact was so deep, more than one top-level tournament deck has been seen stocking multiple copies of Boromir's Cloak (1U98) exclusively to deal with it. For a “swarm” style of Shadow strategy, quite potent enough on its own, Saruman's Snows ensures the Ring-bearer will be overwhelmed. Saruman's Snows does not necessarily interact directly with any of the new rules in Shadows. We have witnessed over the years, however, that it is a figurative mallet where a scalpel is called for. Denying an opponent a resource or opportunity he was counting on is of course what the game is all about. A missed chance to heal here, a lost special ability there; in the right quantities, these are the things meant to decide games. But Saruman's Snows is a card able to cut off an entire phase of the game – neither skirmish special abilities nor events can slip by it. Consequently, it’s a constant impediment to new card design. In a way, it doesn’t matter how interesting or impactful a new card we release is – if it happens in the skirmish phase, there’s a frequently used card out there that can shut it off. You may well see aspects of this card reappearing in the future, but not all together in a gift-wrapped single package like this. | Snows is a card that sits at the center of a small cluster of instant-kill strategies: put down Isengard Warrior (3U61) and another Isenorc, play Snows, and then 4-5 other minions: boom, instant overwhelmed Frodo. No archery abilities can be used to thin the herd of minions, and all the ways you might keep Frodo alive (Power According to His Stature (1R308), Hobbit Stealth (1C298), Boromir, Son of Denethor (1U97), Merry, Friend to Sam (1R302)) can’t be used. The only defenses available are cards that trigger during the Maneuver phase, because all other phases have been systematically denied you.
Snows is also powerful within more general strategies that aren’t attempting a Stupid Swarm insta-kill, but it’s the straightforward power of the insta-kill that really needs addressed. Thus, our errata addresses that specific use case without touching any others. Stupid Swarm relies on having a variety of cheap minions (mostly Moria), with a limited number of Isengard Orcs in the mix. By making Snows only apply to those Isenorcs, it should be possible for the Free Peoples player to assign those few that remain away from the Ring-bearer, leaving Frodo available to use any of the tools in his toolbox to avoid a gristly death. |
Savagery to Match Their Numbers (1R139) | Savagery to Match Their Numbers (1R139) | No | Decipher Notes: The secondary function of this card is too strong for its cost, and makes the card superior in almost all situations to any other strength event. | Savagery has long been a power card that requires the Free Peoples player to play around in FOTR block. Most anti-Fellowship-size cards are at the 6 companion limit, but Savagery triggers at 5, meaning that fellowships have to either go with a meager 4 companions or risk losing a couple companions anyway to one instance of this card. The PC has opted to keep the 5 companion spotting element and eliminated the +4 strength boost that lingers to the Regroup phase as the most frustrating aspect of the card. Fierce is scary, but not as scary as one event automatically winning the fierce skirmish for you by dint of the +4 persisting. |
Relics of Moria (1R195) | Relics of Moria (1R195) | Yes | Decipher Notes:
Relics of Moria – I’m sure there are a lot of people who would be glad to see less of Moria in the coming year, but most would not have considered this the lynchpin of the deck. What prompted this card being added to the X-list? Trevor: We knew going into this that Relics of Moria would be the most controversial decision to be included on the list. Moria is an incredibly popular strategy for players the world over. Removing something that players are accustomed to including in every Moria deck is bound to stir some controversy. But the bottom line is Relics is far too efficient, it just does too much. Moria can still do what it did before; the goal wasn’t to kill Moria. But now they have to work at it, a permanent way to start the cycle was just too much. Geoff: The core of Moria is its ability to extend the Shadow player’s hand. That theme was never really expanded upon after FotR was released for obvious reasons: too much of a good thing can be bad. Without the Goblin Scimitar (1C180), there really is no reasonable way for Moria’s hand extension to happen, except through the use of 1 event (Threat of the Unknown (1C197)). Just so we’re clear, when I say ‘hand extension’ in relation to Moria, I’m referring to the Shadow player being able to have drawn cards from their deck in the Shadow phase. They Are Coming (1C196), on the other hand, is Relics’ partner in crime. What do you do with all those extra cards you get from the four copies of the Scimitar you can play each turn? Play more minions. This, in turn, allows you to cycle your deck so that you’re able to dig for an even greater number of minions on subsequent turns. | Relics is one card that doesn't seem to match Decipher’s analysis so much. Even in FOTR where it is permitted, it seldom seems to kick-start the Moria twilight engine, which instead is usually triggered by Goblin Scavengers (1C179)–either played from hand, from Goblin Swarms (1R183), Hosts of Thousands, or They Are Coming (1C196). Far more often Relics is used in a secondary respect to pull weapons that Scavengers can’t get–Cave Troll's Hammer (1R166), for instance. In this case the PC has decided to experiment with releasing it with the game text unchanged. Instead, the card is given a very slight nerf by making it unique. This isn't likely to have much of an impact, but then if we're right, neither will re-releasing the card. |
Úlairë Nertëa, Messenger of Dol Guldur (1U234) | Úlairë Nertëa, Messenger of Dol Guldur (1U234) | Yes | Decipher Notes: The special ability of this card has no cultural enforcement. This makes him too accessible to non-Ringwraith swarm decks. His ability also empowers the swarm by triggering the "best option" swarm minions repeatedly. | There's not a great option available to nerf Nertea without entirely eliminating his ability to integrate with multicultural Swarms of any flavor. Even just restricting his ability to Ringwraith minions, which would integrate with later sets, means that the Free Peoples player is doomed to see Morgul Brute (7R188) and Morgul Destroyer (7U190) over and over. Nertea is thus currently in an overly-nerfed state that is only slightly better than its banned form. If you think you can crack the code, let us know! |
Forces of Mordor (1C248) | Forces of Mordor (1C248) | Yes | Decipher Notes: This card was written before the swarm dimension was added to the Sauron culture. As such, it is too powerful in those decks. | Forces of Mordor wasn't really ever much of a problem in FOTR, but later incarnations of Sauron could use this to squeeze out an extra minion or two to powerful effect. We've added an exertion cost and a limit to the output (3 should be enough for one small minion), and ensured it doesn't trigger off of Troll swarms. The card is likely to be powerful regardless, but we’ll keep an eye on it and adjust it further if warranted. |
Sam, Son of Hamfast (1C311) | Sam, Son of Hamfast (1C311) | No | Decipher Notes:
This card has been on our X-List radar for quite some time. The deck lists turned in by the top 16 players of each major event this year were a perfect example of why – in every case, at least 15 of them were stocking one or more copies of Sam. He is simply too versatile, offering huge benefits regardless of Free Peoples strategy, and regardless of who your Ring-bearer is. And he’s even better if your Ring-bearer happens to be Frodo. With Shadows, the need to address Sam became even more pressing. With resistance becoming an important feature of all companions (not just Ring-bearer) and it being directly tied to burdens, Sam easily undermined a large number of Shadow cards in the set, and made many Free Peoples cards too reliable (and thus, too strong). | Sam is tricky, because not only is he approximately the best burden removal option, for many cultures he represents almost the only burden removal option, as many cultures plain do not have access to native anti-corruption options. Sam probably deserves to be nerfed more than he is, but it's not possible to do so reasonably until other burden options have been added to more cultures in the future. Full article here. |
Sting (1R313) | Sting (1R313) | Yes | Decipher Notes: There is no cultural enforcement on this card because every deck is required to play with Frodo. This is true of any card that requires only the Ring-bearer with no additional enforcement. The cost of the special ability, exerting a Hobbit, is undercosted for the utility it provides. | In other words, Sting is a braindead choice. You will always include Sting, because you will always have need to give Frodo a +2 strength boost and the only other +2 option has no game text. In addition, the ability itself is bonkers because who wouldn't want to just look at your opponent's hand for what is effectively free? Combine it with the twilight-clearing element and we have a card whose auto-inclusion is rivaled only by The One Ring itself.
In the end, we have opted to make Sting strictly worse than Glamdring (1R75), which has the exact same ability without being problematic (since Gandalf's vitality is so much more precious). Frodo's version is unreliable: 4 cards will let you see half of your opponent's hand, but if you wish to repeat the action to try and get a closer look, you will be left wondering if the second batch of cards contain any overlap with the first or not. The twilight reduction cap has also been halved, limiting its ability to play cards for free, particularly when combined with the unreliable repeatability. |
A Talent for Not Being Seen (1U316) | A Talent for Not Being Seen (1U316) | Yes | Decipher Notes:
Any single type of function of the game can be looked at as falling somewhere on a scale. For example, take healing: on one end of the scale, you have a card which removes 1 wound, while on the other you might have a card which removes 20. Cost is just as important as scope in determining where on the scale a card falls, of course. A card that heals a wound for a twilight cost of 2 is lower on the scale than a card that heals a wound for a twilight cost of 1. With A Talent For Not Being Seen, the scale in question is denying twilight tokens to the Shadow player. Talent has a very low cost, and over the course of the game it can deny a lot of twilight tokens. Thus its scope leaves us very little room to make cards any better than it without “exploding” this aspect of the game. At the same time, its cost is so low that it leaves us very little room to make cards of lower scope than it – there’s not much lower the cost for such cards can get. It’s sort of a big, rotting tree in the middle of the “twilight denial” acreage. With very limited possibilities for building around it, it had to be torn down to make space for the house we intend to build on the land. For those who feel I’ve stretched my analogy a bit thin (or who draw an unpleasant comparison with Saruman uprooting the forest near Isengard), let me say it another, perhaps simpler way: Talent has been a card near the edge of “trouble” for some time, and with recent efforts to increase the strength of other aspects of the Hobbit culture, it was judged too powerful to remain in the environment. | Talent wasn't X-ed until Shadows was released, so it was clearly more of a sleeper hit than some of the other more famous choke cards.
As Decipher points out, the card leaves very little room to work with, even when attempting to nerf it. The cost of the card itself could be increased, but then it runs the risk of never having an effect (if it's discarded before the twilight is "paid off"). The exertions could be increased, but again you might just be stabbing yourself in the foot (for even less reason than usual). And, as successfully argued by members of the community, the "spot 4 for -2" clause is among one of the only reasons to bother keeping Pippin alive in FOTR block, so it's got endangered species protection as well. One of the things we don't want to do with the PC's errata is nerf cards to oblivion. These cards are already banned, and if they are nerfed to the point of never being used then we've wasted a bunch of time and effort just to end up right back where we started. So, we had to rework the card slightly. It now attaches to either Merry or Pippin (losing its uniqueness in the process), and requires you to play 2 copies of the card to get the same full effect as before. Since it requires more copies of the card, the exertion cost is dropped to compensate. And then of course, good ol' Pippin is enshrined as necessary to its use, restricting its ability to be used (or abused) by the various Expanded-era Hobbit companions. |
Flaming Brand (2R32) | Flaming Brand (2R32) | No | Decipher Notes: This card has no cultural enforcement, may be played in addition to another weapon, and has no cost. The resulting combination provides too much utility. | Flaming Brand has no downsides to including--it is never dead weight, as it is at least a +1 strength to any Man of any culture, and potentially quite a bit more. Its dead-simple ease of use makes it an auto-include, which dumpsters Nazgul in any format where Brand is legal.
The bearer restriction has been reworked to Ranger, which allows Arwen but disallows Eomer. A twilight cost has been added to make sure it's no longer zero-downside. And then the ability has been adjusted to burn the brand to kill a nazgul for one turn--not provide an endless beatdown. Full article here. |
Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow (2R75) | Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow (2R75) | Yes | Decipher Notes:
There was talk of adding Bill Ferny to the X-List while we worked on Reflections. Clearly, he works well against the alternate Ring-bearers and deters some players from using them. But at that time, we felt that the scales were not tipped far enough against the new Ring-bearers to warrant removing Ferny. But now Shadows gives resistance a much larger role in the game, and the fact that Ring-bearers other than Frodo have a lower resistance is becoming a greater liability in and of itself. That new liability, combined with the existence of Bill Ferny, threatened to make one of the most well-liked aspects of Reflections too unreliable in a tournament environment for most players to consider. Also, as one more strike against Bill Ferny (though an unneeded one), Shadows introduces a couple of new cards to the Wraith culture (renamed from the Ringwraith culture) which, because they work for the whole culture and aren't Nazgûl specific, would have made Ferny a truly frightening force to be reckoned with. | Simply put, Bill Ferny is a nightmare for Alternate Ring-bearers that take wounds or burdens when assigned to a skirmish, since Bill can saunter on up and trigger those deleterious effects whenever he feels like it. The errata ensures that the self-assign only works if Frodo is around, or if you’ve brought Sam, Son of Hamfast (1C311) or some other Hobbit splash along for the ride. Either way, the Free Peoples player now has a bit of counterplay available by not including such cards with their ARBs. |
Filibert Bolger, Wily Rascal (2C101) | Filibert Bolger, Wily Rascal (2C101) | Yes | Decipher Notes: There is no cultural enforcement on this card as all players have one or more Hobbits. For a special ability on a permanent, the cost is too low compared to the power provided. Also, this is a permanent that cancels the Ring-bearer's skirmish at site 9. | Short and sweet. Filibert keeps Frodo from dying at site 9, so we will prevent him from being able to use it. This should relegate Fatty to Hobbit-only decks as a result. |
O Elbereth! Gilthoniel! (2R108) | O Elbereth! Gilthoniel! (2R108) | Yes | Decipher Notes: There is no cultural enforcement on this card as all players have a Ring-bearer. Also, this is a permanent that cancels the Ring-bearer’s skirmish at site 9. | Another site-9 game winner. Rather than auto-winning the skirmish, we’ve opted to make it so the Ring-bearer can survive the skirmish instead. +4 strength will permit a naked Frodo to survive against any Nazgul except the Witch-king (fittingly), and depending on which version of the One Ring is used, he might even survive that. |
Gimli, Dwarf of the Mountain-race (2P121) | Gimli, Dwarf of the Mountain-race (2P121) | Yes | Decipher Notes:
Dwarves as a culture have never excelled at keeping site Shadow numbers low and “choking” off the twilight pool. Gimli was a fun anomaly for the Fellowship block, where the number and placement of underground sites was known and limited. Those same boundaries held true on the Tower and King site paths. But with Shadows, all that is changing. Shadows has a big focus on what design and development call "terrain" – that is, whether a site is a battleground, forest, mountain, river, or any of the other similar types of keywords. Terrain is so important with the new adventure path that in playtesting, players were frequently bidding to go second, and "pathfinding" (selection of the next site by the Free Peoples player) was valued as it has never been before. If a player wants to run an adventure path of nothing but one type of terrain, that may well be possible – if not with Shadows, then likely once Black Rider and Bloodlines are added to the mix. In short, having a single, easy-to-start card (one with out-of-culture gameplay, at that) which could potentially deny 2 twilight tokens at every single site simply proved too strong. | Gimli is an odd duck. Rather uniquely among the rest of the cards on this list, he isn’t a problem in FOTR in the slightest. We can of course argue whether the same is true for these other cards, but you can’t deny that most of them have at least been complained about quite loudly and often; the same is not true for Gimli.
Since he is a problem primarily in the post-Shadows world of site manipulation, we are left with reducing his choke impact and granting him an additional bonus to compensate. (It's probably a moot point anyway, since if you're playing Dwarves that means Bearer of Grudges, but let no one say we didn't at least take Decipher at their word.) |
Galadriel, Lady of the Golden Wood (3R17) | Galadriel, Lady of the Golden Wood (3R17) | No | Decipher Notes: Again, terrain is hugely important beginning with Shadows. And as with Gimli, this card was both too strong and out of culture. Pathfinding has never been a part of the Elven culture aside from this card, and suddenly Galadriel was enabling Elves to put out an uninterrupted string of forests onto the adventure path. She could even do this for free, since the cost of her exertion could be negated by using her to heal herself. | One wonders at this point if perhaps it's the title of “Galadriel” that needs nerfed rather than any other aspect of the card. Regardless, the Big G was a problem for the Shadows path more than anything. To reduce her ability to trigger literally every turn, her ability has been turned away from herself so that she cannot self-heal, and requiring her to exert twice. Now if you want to abuse her site manipulation, you'll have to pack other means of healing. |
Aragorn, Heir to the White City (3R38) | Aragorn, Heir to the White City (3R38) | Yes | Decipher Notes: There is no cultural enforcement on the game text of this card. This level of permanent resource denial undermines the Shadow number curve on sites. | Here he is, the big man himself. There have been dozens of proposals for the best way to hit ol' Hair of the White Creepy right in the kneecaps, and the PC went back and forth for a long time. In the end, we’ve got a simple numeric nerf. 1 twilight is not a lot, and considering that it only works on twilight from cards that you played that Fellowship phase, you will probably be better served by using other Aragorns.
Please. We're begging you. |
Horn of Boromir (3R42) | Horn of Boromir (3R42) | Yes | Decipher Notes: There is no cultural enforcement on the special ability of this card. This permanent effectively circumvents the rule of 9 by allowing non-companions to skirmish. | The permanent Rule of 9 circumvention is the worst aspect of this card. We have started with requiring a discard, so that multiple such usages require multiple backups, but this may prove to be insufficient. If the PC needs to return to this card in the future, it will probably be with a complete rework to the concept. Full article here. |
The Palantír of Orthanc (3R67) | The Palantír of Orthanc (3R67) | Yes | Decipher Notes:
The Palantir of Orthanc – Many people have been calling for this to be added to the X-list for months. In fact, it was highly rumored that it would be added last fall in anticipation of Return of the King and the Initiative mechanic. Why add it now and not then? Trevor: The Palantir just offered a huge level of control for a player. They were able to control the tempo of the game for their opponent and that is not a good thing. There are a few Initiative strategies out there than can abuse the Palantir and that is something we really want to curb. What strategies do you think this will open up for the Free Peoples? Geoff: Supposedly, events will become more playable…so that means event-driven strategies like PATHS Hobbits, all-Dwarven fighting, and All-elven fighting will get a bit of a boost. Tom: It should free up their ability to include a few more events in their decks. That should open up deck building a little bit, but it is really up to the players to explore exactly what that means. Trevor: I agree that it should really open deck construction for the Free Peoples player. Not having to worry about the Palantir will be a nice change when building a deck. | Two main issues with this Palantir: first, it interacts negatively with initiative, and second it slows the game down tremendously while your trolling opponent puts all of your cards back on top of the deck one at a time. The cost of the action has been increased to 2, and you now must have 2 Isengard minions to even use it. This should avoid most initiative-sensitive manipulations, since Isengard themselves only have Suffered Much Loss (10U35), which is itself expensive. If some game-breaking combo is discovered, however, we'll be back to show this crystal ball who's boss. |
Saruman, Keeper of Isengard (3R68) | Saruman, Keeper of Isengard (3R68) | No | Decipher Notes: This card effectively doubles the number of skirmishes a fellowship faces by making all Uruk-hai fierce and then nullifying play that would serve as protection against those Uruk-hai. | Damage +1 and Fierce are no joke, and TTT's focus on uruks makes Saruman a no-go. By merging both of his abilities to use the same resource pool, the player is now forced to make an interesting decision--keep uruks alive, or keep them fierce? Full article here. |
Bill the Pony (3U106) | Bill the Pony (3U106) | Yes | Decipher Notes:
Bill the Pony – Choke appears to be a major focus of the X-list. Why? What is it about cards like Bill that make them prime candidates for the list? Trevor: Resource denial has proven to be a huge issue with Lord of the Rings TCG. Geoff: I think the most important thing to note here is that when people play card games, we actually want them to be able to play their cards. It’s one thing if passive denial (playing little to no cards) leads to a small pool of resources for your opponent. It’s another thing entirely if active denial (playing cards that reduce the opponent’s resources) is forcing an opponent’s entire deck to shut down. Unfortunately, in the system we have, your Free Peoples ‘choke’ strategy does more than just hinder your opponent’s Shadow strategy. It hinders their deck’s cycling…in turn hindering their Free Peoples strategy’s ability to handle your own Shadow strategy. It has a very negative cyclic effect that many players can’t fathom a way out of once they’re stuck in it. | Decipher here simply mentions the problems with choke in general, as opposed to specific problems that make Bill worthy of getting singled out. They do later mention that at least Talent For Not Being Seen requires more than just Frodo, and so we’ve taken that logic at face value.
Bill's errata here is designed to kill two birds with one stone: first, by requiring it go on Sam, the lore nerds in all of us are finally satisfied. ...what, did you need a second reason? Well in that case, notice that this can no longer be used in a solo Frodo context, nor can Bill be bounced around between whichever hobbits happen to be the least expendable at the time. Sam in general should end up as less of a pump-n-dump, which should continue to make Son of Hamfast a tiny bit worse. Just a little. |
Frying Pan (3C108) | Frying Pan (3C108) | Yes | Decipher Notes:
Frying Pan – A great deal of people use this card as the be-all and end-all of anti-Moria cards – why add it to the X-list when Moria is still so prevalent at tournaments? Tom: It is just way too easy. The cheapest resource in the game is Hobbit vitality, and to be able to translate that directly into wounds is just too much. It really hampers a lot of things that we would like to see people be able to do. At the same time, you are right about Moria, so this change couldn’t happen in isolation. Trevor: This card just fits all of the criteria when considering a card for the X-List. The Pan is under-cost, not enforced, and you must take it into account when building a shadow strategy based around orcs. It is also an automatic choice for just about every deck. Geoff: The 'pan' was created as an over-compensating answer to the Moria ‘swarm’ strategy (as if there’s some other kind of Moria strategy…well…I say that almost in jest), and when I say over-compensating, I mean it should've only affected Moria and no other type of Orc. In the long-term, it's having a negative impact on every other non-Moria Orc strategy (probably with the exception of Isengard) that relies on 1 and 2 vitality minions. A new balance will evolve between 'non-pan' fellowships and ‘non-relics’ Moria decks in the future. | There's the usual reasoning of lack of cultural enforcement and undercosting, but reading between the lines a bit, it almost seems like Pan was banned as compensation for Relics also getting banned. We're letting Relics off lightly, and so we may as well do the same for Pan, with a 1-twilight cost to give it a little impact when it gets tossed between Hobbits. Orcs are bigger and badder than they were when the Pan was removed, and 1-vitality Moria swarms are less prevalent, so as far as we can tell this shouldn't be as big of an issue. We'll keep an eye on this one just in case. |
The Shire Countryside (3R113) | The Shire Countryside (3R113) | Yes | Decipher Notes:
It has been determined that The Shire Countryside (3R113) will need to be added to the X-list as well. It was the key card in a deck using Erland, Dale Counselor (11R30) which allowed the Free Peoples player to overwhelm every minion and heal all companions in play every move. The Shire Countryside has been on the Rules Committee's radar for a long time. Healing non-Shire companions is not 'in culture' for the Shire culture. When we originally decided on the changes to the X-list for Shadows, The Shire Countryside was on the borderline of being too strong, but we had hoped to keep it in the environment. Additional playtesting proved otherwise. | [The below was written before the Decipher notes were found.]
As far as we can tell, Decipher never recorded their reasoning behind why they burned down The Shire Countryside... ...but we can make some educated guesses. Really, it's got to come down to the ease of which this can be used to just wipe the whole board of wounds. Shire is already among the only cultures that are able to handle burdens, but the ease with which that burden removal can be turned to healing means that often Frodo will intentionally load up on more burdens than he needs just to be able to fuel the healing engine. That’s clearly over the line. Here, we've made the card unique (preventing 4x stacking) and placed a phase limit on the trigger to keep it from being so gratuitous. To compensate, one burden can now be used to heal two separate companions, meaning that if you want to take advantage of what the Countryside has to offer, you'll have to take a leisurely stroll rather than a mad dash. |
Legolas, Dauntless Hunter (4R73) | Legolas, Dauntless Hunter (4R73) | No | Decipher Notes:
One can look at deck lists before and after The Two Towers expansion and see a sudden, sharp drop in the number of conditions used by the average Shadow build, a trend which to this day many Shadow strategies don't dare to challenge. Playing against a Dauntless Hunter deck can be particularly negative to a new player, who is usually unaware that such a powerful deck type exists to stall playing Shadow events and conditions. In Expanded formats, 5 different unbound Hobbits are there to add to Merry and Pippin, and push the power of this Legolas to the max. I don't think conditions and events clocking in at a total of 7 twilight would be the greatest playing experience. | A simple band-aid of applying a limit of 2 means that it sticks to the original intent of "Merry and/or Pippin" without permitting half the Shire to get in on it in Expanded. |
Uruk Regular (4C192) | Uruk Regular (4C192) | Yes | Decipher Notes: Not found. | Based on what we can scrounge up from old forum posts, Uruk Regular seems to mostly be an issue when paired with Deep of Helm (4U347), which when combined with a chain of Regulars could squeeze out just a few too many Uruks on the regular (pun intended). Decipher removed Uruk Regular from the X-List almost as soon as Deep of Helm was no longer legal, so there must not have been any other scenarios which were particularly abusive. Nonetheless, since we aim to have errata apply to all formats (including Towers), we have applied a -2 limit to the twilight discount, meaning that Regulars are at best compensating for the roaming cost. |
Fortress Never Fallen (4U276) | Fortress Never Fallen (4U276) | Yes | Decipher Notes: Since the release of The Two Towers, we have been refining the cultural identity of Rohan. Among other evolutions, we want them to be absolute top dog at dealing with Shadow possessions, but hard-pressed to deal with Shadow conditions. Let Us Be Swift (5C85) and (in a very limited way) Arrow-slits (5U80) are also capable of discarding conditions, but neither is as reliable or effective as Fortress Never Fallen. The card is so effective, it was impeding future design – it was hard for us to push Rohan to be strong at the things they're supposed to be strong at while they were also so strong at this particular thing they're supposed to be weak at. Any good push ran the risk of simply making them good at everything. With this "obstacle" removed, the road will now be clear for us to roll through with great new cards for fans of the Rohan culture. | We've added a limit to the card to ensure it doesn't nuke an entire support area in one go, but being as the card is itself a condition that is susceptible to being removed, we haven't applied any other changes at this time. |
Get On and Get Away (4R304) | Get On and Get Away (4R304) | Yes | Decipher Notes: As with Galadriel, here was a pathfinding card that proved very powerful with the new adventure path. And like Galadriel, it's in a culture that should not have pathfinding at all. After all, who knows how long Frodo and Sam might have staggered lost through Emyn Muil without Sméagol to guide them out?" | Well, if the complaint is that Sméagol needs to be present, then we'll just spot Sméagol (or at least the Hobbits he is supposedly guiding). |
Steadfast Champion (7U49) | Steadfast Champion (7U49) | Yes | Decipher Notes: Not found. | This card is part of an infinite loop with Treebeard, Keeper of the Watchwood (10R18). Basically, invoke Treebeard's ability to discard a shadow condition and pull SC from discard, then invoke SC's ability to discard a minion and heal Treebeard back to full, wash, rinse, repeat. By making the ability of SC only work at the beginning of the regroup phase, the original intent of the card is preserved while eliminating infinite recursive abuse. |
Gondorian Captain (7C96) | Gondorian Captain (7C96) | Yes | Decipher Notes: Not found. | This card is part of an infinite loop with Base of Mindolluin (10U117): Invoke Base to add a threat and play a fortification, invoke Captain to discard a fortification and remove a threat, and do this repeatedly until every fortification is in your discard pile and you have effectively filtered your deck down to only Shadow cards. By moving Captain's ability to the Maneuver phase, you still get the original intent of burning fortifications to remove threats, but can no longer be cheeky about it. |
Aggression (8C1) | Aggression (8C1) | Yes | Decipher Notes: Not found. | With the Reflections Dwarven Rings of Power easily permitting Dwarves to get to high levels of damage bonus, each usage of Aggression easily hit the Rule of 4 cap. And since Dwarves have plenty of means of recycling conditions (such as Defending the Keep (5C6)), the card draw was simply too much. We have reduced the draw to 1, since the actual damage bonus from the card itself is also quite impactful. |
Memories of Darkness (10U2) | Memories of Darkness (10U2) | Yes | Decipher Notes: Not found. | Each of the "do an effect when you lose initiative" cycle of cards are prone to abuses, but considering how many conditions discard themselves as a cost, this card trivializes retrieving them. Thus, the card has been altered to instead only play conditions from hand, and as compensation the effect has been expanded to also possessions. |
Galadriel, Lady Redeemed (10R11) | Galadriel, Lady Redeemed (10R11) | Yes | Decipher Notes: Galadriel, Lady Redeemed has proven over time to be too cost-effective at counteracting too broad a range of possible strategies. Much like Legolas, Dauntless Hunter (4R73) before it was added to the X-List, this Galadriel's impact on the tournament environment could be seen in the shrinking number of decks making any serious use of Shadow conditions (and possessions). Removing Galadriel from the Standard format makes way for many dozens of possible condition-oriented strategies to become competitive. | Oh, GLR. Has there ever been a more controversial card?
GLR is in an awkward spot. On the one hand, she's an apex predator that synergizes far too well with Círdan, The Shipwright (10R8) and other Elvent staples. On the other hand, she's an apex predator that helps keep Corsairs, Grond, and others in check. In the end, we have restricted her ability usage to once per phase. We will come for her again in the future, but not until the the cure isn't worse than the disease. |
Mordor Fiend (10C91) | Mordor Fiend (10C91) | Yes | Decipher Notes: Not found. | Infinite twilight glitch! It's surprising that this card wasn't simply errata'd as similar cards were in the past. If you're missing the trick, you play Fiend on the table, spot no other minions, add (or ), play an event or condition, add (or ) again, and repeat until all of your non-minion cards are paid for for free, and then finally add the twilight once more to get another minion out.
However, it got even more ridiculous when you consider cards such as The Underdeeps of Moria (1R200), The Dark Lord's Summons (1U242), or Not Easily Avoided (18R32) to pull a near-infinite number of shadow cards into your hand from your draw deck or discard. This was a simple errata restricting the invocation to its intent, that of the minion paying for itself if it's the first. |
Final Account (11C31) | Final Account (11C31) | Yes | Decipher Notes: Final Account was also showing itself to be too broad in scope and too low in cost. While discard retrieval is well within Gandalf's cultural identity, it is the means by which cards can be played in a game many times more than the "4 card limit" ordinarily allows. That type of power must carry with it an appropriate cost, and Final Account's cost (1 twilight token, 2 discards from hand, and an exertion on a high-vitality character) simply wasn't appropriate for such unrestricted retrieval (any Free Peoples card and any Shadow card). | Rather than crank up the costs involved, we've opted to remove the "any free peoples" portion and reduce the card to only retrieving Shadow cards, which is an interesting twist on the normal way of things. |
Strange-looking Men (11R100) | Strange-looking Men (11R100) | Yes | Decipher Notes: Not found. | Strange-looking Men is part of a series of infinite loops that involve passing Pavise (11C94) around. The basic idea is to have something like Ceremonial Armor (17R41) or Wildman's Oath (17C66) in your support area to catch discarded minions, and then one or more copies of Sunland Guard (17C55) with Pavise in play. Use Guard's ability to play Sunland Trooper (17C59) or Easterling Dispatcher (17U42), then use SLM to bounce the Pavise around, killing the Guards (which get put back on the support area possessions), wash, rinse, repeat to generate infinite twilight. Simplest change is to alter SLM's ability to only work once. |
Demoralized (11U114) | Demoralized (11U114) | Yes | Decipher Notes: Not found. | As a non-unique card, up to 4 copies of Demoralized adding per companion exertion is pretty juicy on its own, but when you combine it with cards such as Rallying Orc (12R100) which force exertions, you can basically guarantee that your whole hand will be paid for (assuming it's mostly lurkers). To avoid such abuse, Demoralized was altered to simply be unique. |
Orkish Smith (11C132) | Orkish Smith (11C132) | Yes | Decipher Notes: Not found. | Orkish Smith must have been combined with some later card (Ordnance Grunt (13R117)? Retribution (12R101)?) but if there was a specific combo involved, its history is lost to us. To head off any particular issues, the card now only shuffles conditions back into the deck from discard, tho for compensation the card lets you retrieve 2 such cards. |
Courtyard Parapet (13U188) | Courtyard Parapet (13U188) | Yes | Decipher Notes: Not found. | 8 site moves + site manipulation = 8 guaranteed burdens, on top of whatever else your own deck throws at the Free Peoples. This card's effect has been modified to only work in region 2, capping the burden total at 3. |
Madril, Defender of Osgiliath (15R64) | Madril, Defender of Osgiliath (15R64) | No | Decipher Notes: Not found. | Madril basically guarantees that everyone is roaming so long as there's enough threats on the table, and if everyone's roaming then Ithilien rangers have enough tools to discard those minions or otherwise deal with them, ensuring the threats never actually threaten. Thus Madril's ability is capped to an effect of +1. |
PC Errata[edit]
All later PC errata were done at the PC's discretion
Original | Errata | Release Date | Current | PC Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Original | Errata | Release Date | Current | PC Notes |
Dwarf Guard (1C7) | Dwarf Guard (1C7) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | Each of the basic Dwarf companions has had its strength buffed by +1, in an effort to give Fellowship-era Dwarves a little more of a fighting chance. |
Farin, Dwarven Emissary (1C11) | Farin, Dwarven Emissary (1C11) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | Each of the basic Dwarf companions has had its strength buffed by +1, in an effort to give Fellowship-era Dwarves a little more of a fighting chance. |
Gimli, Dwarf of Erebor (1U12) | Gimli, Dwarf of Erebor (1U12) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | Dwarf of Erebor had a time in the spotlight once before his errata by Decipher, albeit as a machine for setting up Moria Underdeeps strategies. He seldom sees use when Gimli, Son of Gloin (1R13) is a more dependable option, so we've added the card draw to try and sweeten the deal a little. |
Lórien Elf (1C53) | Lórien Elf (1C53) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | Each of the basic Dwarf companions has had its strength buffed by +1, in an effort to give Fellowship-era Dwarves a little more of a fighting chance. And also Lorien Elf (they’re an honorary dwarf, mmmkay). |
The Mirror of Galadriel (1R55) | The Mirror of Galadriel (1R55) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | We couldn't hope to call ourselves Decipher's successors if we didn't continue a long and storied tradition of trying to make Mirror work. Decipher gave up as Fellowship block gave way to Towers, but that shan't stop us! By reducing the impact of the offense from discard to deck-stacking, while also increasing the total view surface to 3 cards, this should make Mirror more usable than the most recent version, without just nuking half of your opponent's hand. |
Mordor Enraged (1R254) | Mordor Enraged (1R254) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | The original version of Mordor Enraged failed at what its intent was, to provide any sort of counter to Free Peoples archery, and subsequently became a bit of a joke. Any card which relies on the composition of your opponent's deck has the possibility of becoming dead weight, so the least it can do is be potent against the thing it's defending. Shut down Legolas, Greenleaf (1R50) or Aragorn’s Bow (1R90) by effectively causing those abilities to cost more than they're worth, or keep Elven Bow (1C41) contributors exhausted as their more accomplished teammates mow down your Orc-line, giving you an opportunity you might capitalize on later. |
The Weight of a Legacy (1R282) | The Weight of a Legacy (1R282) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | The one, the only! Weight of a Legacy has always been the archetypal trash rare, providing a measly -1 strength on the companion who is probably most equipped to deal with it. Our changes here haven't necessarily brought it from zero to hero, but it is now usable in more contexts than just against Aragorn, and can be used to negate The Last Alliance of Elves and Men (1R49) bonuses. |
Frór, Gimli's Kinsman (2C6) | Frór, Gimli's Kinsman (2C6) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | Each of the basic Dwarf companions has had its strength buffed by +1, in an effort to give Fellowship-era Dwarves a little more of a fighting chance. |
Glóin, Friend to Thorin (2R7) | Glóin, Friend to Thorin (2R7) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | Each of the basic Dwarf companions has had its strength buffed by +1, in an effort to give Fellowship-era Dwarves a little more of a fighting chance. |
Wastes of Emyn Muil (3U120) | Wastes of Emyn Muil (3U120) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | Isenorcs as a strategy usually struggles to close out the game, particularly once site 9 is reached and the regroup actions remain out of reach. Wastes of Emyn Muil is altered to permit the Shadow player one last Hail Mary opportunity to whittle the Fellowship down to nothing before the final battle. |
Northern Ithilien (7U359) | Northern Ithilien (7U359) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | This errata addresses a certain obnoxious combo where you put The Watcher in the Water into play and then invoke the site's text over and over, converting all threats into burdens all at once. This now ensures that discarding Gollum after the first play no longer has any effect. |
Promise Keeping (8R24) | Promise Keeping (8R24) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | One of the highlights of the Ninja Gollum strategy, the idea is that you stack up a bunch of threats and then bully a weaker companion either by winning skirmishes with Shelob or a pumped Gollum, playing direct wounding cards as a response to kill that companion, and then doubling the effectiveness of all threats, since the threat wounds count as being applied "during a skirmish".
Not every use of Promise Keeping has been abolished with this change, but now the only wounds that can be doubled directly are those of the skirmishing companions. Threats applied to other companions now won't count. We will continue to keep an eye on PK, but this should hopefully pump the breaks. |
Corsair Marauder (8R57) | Corsair Marauder (8R57) | 2021-12-19 | No | Corsair Marauder of course is one of the reasons Castamir of Umbar (8R51) could be so deadly, since there was little chance to keep hold on your swords and other trinkets keeping you alive. Marauder's ability effect is unchanged, but moved as a trigger to assignment. This gives the Free Peoples a chance to counter his effect by killing him in the Maneuver and Archery phases. In exchange, the ability could be triggered twice per minion if the Shadow player can find a way to make him fierce. |
Grond, Hammer of the Underworld (8R103) | Grond, Hammer of the Underworld (8R103) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | GROND GROND GROND
Thematically it's always been a little strange that Grond could snipe every artifact on the table out of the hands of the companions holding them, but more importantly Grond is the ubercounter that can stop literally anything anywhere, so long as it's not a companion. Grond has been reworked to focus on support area cards specifically, with the one-off option to snipe Anduril at the cost of losing Grond's destructive future threat. |
Círdan, The Shipwright (10R8) | Círdan, The Shipwright (10R8) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | Cirdan has synergy that works just a little too well with all the other Elven cards that want to stick events in the discard pile. It can be demoralizing to have one's minions systematically and repeatedly brought down to 0 strength, providing an automatic overwhelm almost regardless of how strong Cirdan himself is. Cirdan's ability is now self-limiting, in that every time it's utilized to get a slam-dunk skirmish, it reduces the effectiveness of all future uses of the ability. |
Out of the High Airs (10R17) | Out of the High Airs (10R17) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | Compared to the other entries on this list, High Airs may come as a surprise to some. However it’s an entry on the same watchlist as Horn of Boromir (3R42): it strikes at one of the fundamental assumptions of the game, that double-moves are doubling up on the chances the Shadow has to stop you. |
Focus (15C15) | Focus (15C15) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | Focus has been made unique due to its interaction with Forth the Three Hunters! (15C60): use Forth and exert Aragorn 3 times to make any minion strength -9, win the skirmish with Legolas and heal Aragorn back to full strength, wash, rinse, repeat. |
Ithilien Blade (15C62) | Ithilien Blade (15C62) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | It will be a long, long time until all of the problematic issues in Expanded are dealt with, but that's all the more reason to start now.
This card in combination with Madril, Defender of Osgiliath (15R64) basically ensured that no minion made it past the Maneuver phase unless the Free Peoples player wanted it to. Madril has already been nerfed in the past to limit how freely minions may be made roaming, and this alteration to IB continues to pump the breaks somewhat. This change will not affect how minions with 1 or 2 vitality are dealt with, of course, but it will ensure that anything meatier will have to be hit 2 or more times, which seems fair. |
Gil-galad, High King of the Noldor (18R12) | Gil-galad, High King of the Noldor (18R12) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | Sets 17 and 18 are going to require a lot more elbow grease than other sets (they are after all mostly composed of first drafts that haven’t had the edges sanded off yet), and it’s only fitting that Gil-galad lead the charge.
Gil-galad's ability to recycle both skirmish events and conditions is a bit much, particularly when there are conditions that self-discard in the regroup phase as a cost, which Gil-galad can just negate for very cheap. Now his ability to recycle conditions is preserved, but they will have to go into your hand to be played again in a future Fellowship phase, which requires the Free Peoples player to be more circumspect about when they are willing to invoke the ability. |
Deceit (18R29) | Deceit (18R29) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | Deceit is just a little too good at its job, especially considering that 2 copies in play can defend each other nigh indefinitely. By making it unique, this self-defense goes away, and the twilight cost of each condition saved has been increased as well. |
The Faithful Stone (18R50) | The Faithful Stone (18R50) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | In spite of Decipher's errata, The Faithful Stone could use a little more doubt. By making it unique, you can no longer have multiple copies double-dipping on the token generation for each minion played. |
Frenzy of Arrows (18U79) | Frenzy of Arrows (18U79) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | The original Frenzy was absolutely bananas, but the nerf issued in one of the last official Decipher communications ever had a fatal flaw: there aren’t any archers printed, and there are no ways to make minions gain archer.
Which means that Frenzy of Arrows went from powerhouse to having the dubious distinction of being the only card in the game that was literally unplayable. The errata issued here is a nerf from the perspective of the original printed version, but given that it restores the card to playability, it’s technically a buff. Granting Orcs archery both covers the blind spot that the original errata stumbled on, and limits the initial effect of multiple played copies to no more than the total number of Orcs you have in play (which admittedly can still get pretty darn high). The Follower bonus is also reduced, albeit you may find less of a reason for this to be an issue if you keep reading… |
Erkenbrand's Horn (18R96) | Erkenbrand's Horn (18R96) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | What is it with horns and being game-breaking?
Erkenbrand's Horn has been altered to only work with Rohan followers, which means no more draining your deck completely dry of Free Peoples cards (realistically, no more than 9 followers now assuming healing is provided). The ability to offensively discard Saruman has also been removed as excessive. And to top it all off, it's been given a twilight cost. Why there have been so many broken Free Peoples cards produced that happened to also cost 0 is a mystery we may never unravel. This change more than any of the others on this list will be a death knell for a certain deck. Our sincerest apologies if that was your favorite deck, but we hope you can understand why the rest of us bid "good riddance". (Also, we have taken the liberty of finally fixing the wording to eliminate the redundant "Reshuffle" and "from play" clauses.) |
Scouring of the Shire (18R112) | Scouring of the Shire (18R112) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | Scouring of the Shire is an even worse example of self-defense than Deceit, and with 4 copies in play you can effectively ensure your opponent has to discard 16 cards before they’re even allowed to actually discard the one they want. The self-defense angle has been preserved, but by making it unique and reducing the per-card defense to 3 total preventions, the rest of the Shire support area should be much more vulnerable as a result. |
Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman (19P38) | Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman (19P38) | 2021-12-19 | Yes | The bane of all mono-culture decks everywhere (and let’s be real, that’s almost all of them in later formats; the impact of Gríma, Chief Counselor (5R51) never really went away), Nertea has been shifted from an ARB killer to a lesser burden adder. 1-2 conditional burdens per site is still pretty good, all things considered. Plus, giving your opponent interesting choices is always a good thing. |
Castamir of Umbar (8R51) | Castamir of Umbar (8R51) | 2022-07-07 | Yes | Oh, Castamir. Architect of many a site 2 Movie block defeat, usually combo'd with Raider Halberd (7C156) to add an arbitrary number of exertions, which are then worth +2 strength apiece due to the enduring keyword.
Originally we had thought to reduce the enduring bonus from 2 to 1, but the complaints that "only" 19 strength wasn't enough to justify his use were not lost on us. Instead, enduring is retained but fierce has been removed, meaning that early Castamir plays will only kill one companion per site instead of two. As with Promise Keeping, we'll keep an eye on good ol' PJ Pirate to see if he warrants further adjustment. |
Corsair War Galley (8U59) | Corsair War Galley (8U59) | 2022-07-07 | Yes | Raider has a lot of powerful initiative effects available to it, and War Galley makes it just a little too easy to activate, considering how prolific tokens are to Corsairs. This change requires that cards reinforce a specific War Galley to gain the same automatic initiative, which gives Free Peoples a chance to take it out. To compensate, the total number of tokens has been reduced from 6 to 4, which is 2 activations of one of the various double-reinforce effects (such as on Castamir of Umbar (8R51)). The twilight effect has also been limited to the Galley itself, rather than providing an easy deluge of twilight to halt stops. |
Great Hill Troll (8C102) | Great Hill Troll (8C102) | 2022-07-07 | Yes | With the right setup, Trolls can be played at or near free, AND overwhelm anything strength 8 or less, AND are fierce, AND discard a condition for free on play. There's altogether too much going on for a non-unique minion, so brakes have been pumped for the twilight discount, and the condition discard now requires you to give up one of your engines (and thus, make future Trolls more expensive as a sacrifice). As a bit of compensation, the site requirement has been adjusted to "any site 5", meaning that it will work in any site format and not just King block. |
Ottar, Man of Laketown (1R80) | Ottar, Man of Laketown (1R80) | 2022-08-19 | Yes | As a way of walking back the previous errata a bit, additional vitality is being added to permit Ottar's ability to be used multiple times in a burst, while still only permitting 1 use per turn if Elrond, Lord of Rivendell (1R40) is in play. |
Galadriel, Lady of the Golden Wood (3R17) | Galadriel, Lady of the Golden Wood (3R17) | 2022-08-19 | Yes | This tweak was made to the wording of Galadriel to enable its usage outside of Movie block with Shadows-era sites. |
Corsair Marauder (8R57) | Corsair Marauder (8R57) | 2022-08-19 | Yes | The assignment restriction was a little too much, so instead the possession discard was altered to match the normal "costs should be bad"/"effects should be good" paradigm. |
Madril, Defender of Osgiliath (15R64) | Madril, Defender of Osgiliath (15R64) | 2022-08-19 | Yes | The errata for Madril combined with Ithilien Blade was a bit too much, so Madril's is altered to at least permit you to potentially push a single minion into roaming territory. |
Mountain-troll (15R112) | Mountain-troll (15R112) | 2022-08-19 | Yes | Mountain-troll is often combo'd with various Orc Orcs that pay for themselves with their exertions, which can then all be re-played with Mountain-troll for essentially no cost. Besides the twilight cost combo being nerfed, this minion's power level has also been yanked down to match earlier formats, which may be futile on its own, but you have to start somewhere. |
Dwarven Axe (1C9) | Dwarven Axe (1C9) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. 1 top card -> Shadow must exert a minion or discard the bottom card. Remember that if you win a skirmish, you get to choose between resolving this card or the skirmish first, and you almost always want to choose the skirmish, lest your opponent choose to exert the minion you’re about to turn to paste. |
Greatest Kingdom of My People (1R16) | Greatest Kingdom of My People (1R16) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. 1 top deck per Orc played -> 1 recycled Dwarven card from discard or else bottom 2 cards. This is restricted to once per turn, because otherwise it loops too easily with Nobody Tosses a Dwarf (below). |
Grimir, Dwarven Elder (1U17) | Grimir, Dwarven Elder (1U17) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | To give you an option of Dwarven ally to use besides just Thrarin, Grimir has been reworked slightly to replace the top card of your draw deck with an event, which can then be retrieved or interacted with by other cards such as Delving (1C6) or, well, Deepest Delvings (V1_2). |
Nobody Tosses a Dwarf (1R23) | Nobody Tosses a Dwarf (1R23) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. 3 top deck -> discard a Shadow card, or else bottom 3 cards. |
Ancient Enmity (1U29) | Ancient Enmity (1U29) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. 2 cards at random from hand -> heal an Elf or else discard 1 chosen card. The prevention clause applies only to the heal and not the event as a whole. |
Curse Their Foul Feet! (1R36) | Curse Their Foul Feet! (1R36) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. Discard 1 card from hand per Orc in hand -> reveal 4 cards from hand and make the Fellowship archery total +1 per Orc revealed unless a card is discarded for each Orc. |
The White Arrows of Lórien (1C68) | The White Arrows of Lórien (1C68) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. Discard 2 cards at random from hand -> exert a minion, or else discard a card from hand to prevent it. This particular errata is more harsh than some of the others in this same batch, which is mostly down to White Arrows being a critical part of what makes the discard deck work. |
Hunt Them Down! (1U126) | Hunt Them Down! (1U126) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | To give Savagery to Match Their Numbers (1R139) a little competition, we’ve buffed the almost never-used Hunt Them Down: its twilight cost was reduced from 3 (essentially the cost of another minion) to 2. |
Savagery to Match Their Numbers (1R139) | Savagery to Match Their Numbers (1R139) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | This is a day for revisiting Overtuned Errata of Christmas Past, apparently. Two changes have been made: first, the card has essentially been reverted to the original form, except that the strength bonus for the first skirmish is +4 while the second skirmish is only +2 (instead of +4 for both), and the twilight cost of the event has been increased to 2, requiring that you either utilize Saruman's Ambition (1C133) or give away what you're doing. |
Uruk Rager (1C150) | Uruk Rager (1C150) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. 2 top deck -> exert a companion, or else discard top 3 cards from deck. |
Uruk Soldier (1C154) | Uruk Soldier (1C154) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. 1 top deck -> pick a companion to exert, or else they discard 2 top deck. |
Uruk-hai Sword (1C160) | Uruk-hai Sword (1C160) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. 1 top deck -> exert a companion, or else discard top 2 cards from deck. |
Through the Misty Mountains (1U198) | Through the Misty Mountains (1U198) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. Discard 2 cards at random from hand -> draw a card or else discard a card at random from hand. This card was also altered to work at “any site 4, 5, or 6”, as part of our initiative to abolish block-restricted effects. |
Band of the Eye (1R240) | Band of the Eye (1R240) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. This had a few different changes. First, the Response (which could trigger multiple times, infinitely even if you have enough twilight) is changed to a more intuitive Each Time trigger. To compensate for the lack of repeatability, the effect is doubled to 2 burdens or 2 cards at random from hand. |
Desperate Measures (1R245) | Desperate Measures (1R245) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. 5 top cards -> take a Sauron card into hand from discard, or else Freeps discards 8 top cards. |
The Irresistible Shadow (1R252) | The Irresistible Shadow (1R252) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework.
Finally, the capstone, the win condition for the discard deck. In a lot of ways, this is the reason for the discard deck's existence; it's only upon seeing this card as a new player that your mind thinks back to all the discard cards you've glossed over, and possibilities start flying to mind. In this case, it is justified to put that to rest. An empty deck is its own reward, if that's the sort of reward you really must pursue, but this siren's song will no longer call out, beckoning new players to join its ranks of victims. It was Irresistible, but not to the right target. Instead, a temptation is offered to the Free Peoples player, and a dark horse hail-mary win condition is offered to a variety of decks. Keep the card on the table, the card whispers, and your Ring-bearer will be able to handle what will come. But if he is alone, then resistance crumbles. The math works out to essentially making Frodo have 4 Resistance, and Sam 2. How many matches have ended with Frodo all alone, exhausted, with only a burden or two from corruption...? This might have saved you. Maybe you won’t be able to resist including it for next time... |
Orc Butchery (1R265) | Orc Butchery (1R265) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. 3x top deck for each card in the dead pile -> 1x burden or discard 4x top deck. The Free Peoples player decides for each card, so they could alternate choices or split it up however they like. |
Orc Inquisitor (1C268) | Orc Inquisitor (1C268) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. Discard a card at random from hand -> draw a card, or else prevent that by discarding a card at random from hand. The interrogator either gains knowledge or makes you lose a pieces of yourself... |
Tower Lieutenant (1U280) | Tower Lieutenant (1U280) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. 2 cards at random from hand -> choose a companion to exhaust unless Freeps discards 2 cards at random from hand. |
Midgewater Moors (1U333) | Midgewater Moors (1U333) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. Discards a card from hand -> exert a companion or else discard a card from hand. |
Beneath the Mountains (2R1) | Beneath the Mountains (2R1) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | This errata is part of a trio addressing the self-mill archetype, adding helper abilities that permit the player to choose how many times to invoke the self-discard. The functionality isn't affected, but on GEMP it no longer lags so much for both players. |
Realm of Dwarrowdelf (2R12) | Realm of Dwarrowdelf (2R12) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | This errata is part of a trio addressing the self-mill archetype, adding helper abilities that permit the player to choose how many times to invoke the self-discard. The functionality isn't affected, but on GEMP it no longer lags so much for both players. |
Flaming Brand (2R32) | Flaming Brand (2R32) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | The first errata for Flaming Brand may have gone a bit far–it restricted its usage to only a single skirmish, and since most Nazgul are fierce, that meant losing half of your skirmishes even when utilizing it.
Instead of "throwing" the Brand, you now "light" it, getting bonus strength and damage so long as you hold it (so Úlairë Cantëa, Lieutenant of Dol Guldur (1R230) can still ruin your day!), and then the Brand will "burn out" in the Regroup phase. Multiple Brands may be lit if the situation warrants, but only lit Brands will self-discard. Overall, this feels like a better place for the Brand to be in. |
Lurtz's Sword (2R43) | Lurtz's Sword (2R43) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. 2 top deck -> wound a companion or 3 top deck. This is a better Uruk-hai Sword, of course, but it can be very difficult to justify including such restricted possessions in your deck. We've thus backported a common design pattern from later in the game to make it work on more uruks than just Lurtz, reducing the number of stars that have to align for you to play it. |
No Business of Ours (2C44) | No Business of Ours (2C44) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | In an unorthodox move, we have decided to make the hand-concealing effect of No Business available to any deck, albeit much cheaper for Isengard decks. The primary reason for this is not actually within Fellowship Block, but to be used as a counter for Drawing His Eye (10R29) and A New Light (17U15) (see below) in later formats. No doubt it will see some use in the smaller formats to avoid getting Stung so much. |
Too Much Attention (2R45) | Too Much Attention (2R45) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. 5 top deck -> tutor a minion of any culture from deck into hand, or else discard 5 top deck. |
Foul Things (2U59) | Foul Things (2U59) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Opening Foul Things up to work with more than just minions opens up some potential interactions with more esoteric Moria cards, while still probably being too expensive to use with the standard swarm strategy. |
Southern Spies (2C91) | Southern Spies (2C91) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. Discard the whole hand -> Add a burden for each card in hand, or else discard it all. |
Not Feared in Sunlight (2U107) | Not Feared in Sunlight (2U107) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Not Feared in Sunlight is a powerful Nazgul counter, with the major downside of requiring you to hold onto it until the time is ripe, much like an event. To alleviate this, it has been given the same treatment as There and Back Again (1C317) to let you get a slot in your hand back until you're ready to use it. In the meantime, The Pale Blade (1R221) might snipe if you wait too long! |
A Royal Welcome (3U4) | A Royal Welcome (3U4) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | A Royal Welcome, barely used, is granted an ability that permits Dwarven companions to get a strength bonus against strength 10+ minions, which is most Nazgul and many other beefy minions as well. To be able to use this more than a handful of times, a third ability has been added to let you heal up those allies with your companion's vitality. |
Hollowing of Isengard (3R54) | Hollowing of Isengard (3R54) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Hollowing of Isengard was always painful to use–spend a lot of twilight now, hope to get some of it later, but probably not before it gets hit with Sleep, Caradhras (1C84) or Secret Sentinels (2R20). Now the interruption is still possible, but the twilight payout can now happen each phase, so long as you sacrifice one of your Isengard cards to do it. |
Saruman, Keeper of Isengard (3R68) | Saruman, Keeper of Isengard (3R68) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | The thrust of Saruman's errata is still more or less fine, but he’s essentially useless once he's blocked 3 wounds or made 3 uruks fierce, unlike the original who would at least still provide the fierce bonus. We've added the ability for Saruman to protect one more uruk wound by self-discarding (the wording only permits it to be used if he is exhausted), which means you can play a second copy next turn if the Fellowship decides to move again. |
Malice (3U79) | Malice (3U79) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Another of the unused dual-culture card cycle from ROTEL, Malice's payoff simply wasn’t worth the deckbuilding restrictions. Now, 2 items (possessions or artifacts) from either culture may be played from discard–-recycling out-of-reach Scimitars of either flavor, or in later blocks perhaps retrieving a used Ithil Stone (9R+47)...? The number of wounds is bumped up to 1 per retrieved item, which is enough to put any overreaching Greenleafs or Gorn Bowmen to task. The ability has also been moved from Archery to Maneuver. (This was entirely done because otherwise you could retrieve Cave Troll's Chain (2R53) without giving Freeps a chance to skip the Archery phase; it was funny to see this done after Gondor Bowmen (3R41) had been used twice, but it was still perhaps too punishing.) |
News of Mordor (3U82) | News of Mordor (3U82) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | What's this, a buff to a Ringwraith card...? Yes, and one that hardly ever saw the light of day. The original text has been buffed to exert that minion to make a Nazgul damage+1 for both of its skirmishes, and a new choice has been added for a Nazgul to instead exert to make an Isengard minion untouchable. There are a few Isengard minions that could mesh well with Nazgul with this effect – Uruk Spy (1R155) and nearly any Isenorc would mesh well with a Twilight Nazgul strategy, particularly Isengard Warrior (3U61). |
The Dark Lord Advances (3C87) | The Dark Lord Advances (3C87) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. Discard X cards from hand -> take a minion into hand costing X, or else discard X cards from hand to prevent this. Since hands will usually be 7 or less, this can be unblockable. |
Get Off the Road! (3U88) | Get Off the Road! (3U88) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. This card was completely reworked, not for any power concerns but because the name "Get Off The Road" just screams move limit shenanigans. The spotting requirement has been reduced to a Sauron card instead of a Sauron minion, too. |
Hand of Sauron (3C90) | Hand of Sauron (3C90) | 2023-01-11 | No | Part of the discard deck rework. Discard a random card from hand -> exhaust a companion, or else discard 2 cards at random from hand. The cost was increased to require a unique Sauron minion, as well. |
His Cruelty and Malice (3R91) | His Cruelty and Malice (3R91) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. Another overhaul, although in this case it was due to the standard choice (originally "exert or discard") being way too powerful. The new version is randomly self-limiting; if no Freeps cards are in the top 2, then further uses of the ability won't work, but so long as any do show up, you can use up all your spare vitality with impunity, either getting more exertions or making Freeps discard their hopes and dreams. Cruel indeed. |
Massing in the East (3U92) | Massing in the East (3U92) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. X top deck -> return X minions to hand, or else discard X cards to prevent. The cost was increased from exerting a minion to discarding it. |
Terrible as the Dawn (3R103) | Terrible as the Dawn (3R103) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | As much as one might hate Galadriel, the ARB version doesn’t deserve to have a card that outright wins the game against her, especially when it's easily carried by Besiegers, who do just fine without it. If Galadriel is Ring-bound (probably the Ring-bearer, but you never know!), the Free Peoples player now has the option of choosing to discard 2 Elves or add 2 burdens, which can still be punishing but isn't an insta-win. |
Tower of Barad-dûr (3R104) | Tower of Barad-dûr (3R104) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Part of the discard deck rework. Discard a card from hand -> Draw 2 cards, or else Freeps discards a card from hand. This is still non-unique, which can make the bonus multiply and may turn around to bite you. |
Ever My Heart Rises (4R46) | Ever My Heart Rises (4R46) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | This errata is part of a trio addressing the self-mill archetype, adding helper abilities that permit the player to choose how many times to invoke the self-discard. The functionality isn't affected, but on GEMP it no longer is so much of a pass-fest for both players. |
Come Down (4R146) | Come Down (4R146) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Isengard in general is really only used in Movie when there's a need for Saruman's Power (1U136) to counter a condition-heavy Free Peoples meta. This is a shame, and one of the things that set V2 will be looking to rectify in the months to come–but that’s no reason we can't help them out now! Come Down has had an ability added to permit the discarding of Fortifications, which means this is really targeting Gondor Knights. The price is costly, but also avoidable–the wounds are not a cost to the fortification discard, so if you can find a way to prevent wounds, well. Maybe that fortification isn't so unassailable after all. |
Scaling Ladder (5U57) | Scaling Ladder (5U57) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | An errata requested by a member of the community, this card bolsters the Berserker cycle of cards by permitting multiple wounds to be healed, instead of just one per Ladder. |
They Sang as They Slew (7C256) | They Sang as They Slew (7C256) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Another barely-used card, and like Isengard, Rohan struggles somewhat to stand out in Movie. This also continues our long-term plans to make burden removal (and other kinds of removal) available to more cultures to lower the bar for what cultures are "allowed" to participate at high levels. This is the cheapest of the burden options we have introduced, with both Sam, Son of Hamfast (1C311) and Gilraen's Memorial (V1_22) requiring 2 (or so) exertions per burden removed. They Sang is 1:1, at the cost of needing multiple mounted companions with spare vitality, and not being (easily) repeated as an Event. |
Rohirrim Road (7U332) | Rohirrim Road (7U332) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | This one is a twofer, as both a nerf to Elves (who need no help dealing with conditions and possessions, and who are particularly disgusting when combining this with Dauntless Hunter) and a buff to Rohan. |
Swept Away (8C48) | Swept Away (8C48) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Another community suggestion, this helps out the Gondor Wraiths by making their cornerstone condition a little harder to remove. And although it might be resistant to removal, it does require you to discard cards from hand, which very well could bring you out of initiative, losing its ability anyway for a turn (even if you do rescue the condition itself for later). |
Rohirrim Army (8R91) | Rohirrim Army (8R91) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | "We never thought we’d be buffing cards from set 8."
"Well how about buffing a friend?" "Aye, we could do that." (The number of Rohan companions required has been reduced from 3 to 2.) |
Glimpse of Fate (10U12) | Glimpse of Fate (10U12) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | One could argue whether initiative itself was a mistake, but one would have an easier time arguing that making losing initiative good was a mistake, and an even easier time arguing that Elves, of all people, do not need the help trivializing minions. Both the strength loss has been reduced and the ability to repeat the ability more than once per turn via Shenanigans has been eliminated. |
Éowyn, Lady of Ithilien (10R72) | Éowyn, Lady of Ithilien (10R72) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Eowyn's ability has always been powerful and flexible, and perhaps a bit too flexible, when it could be combined with archery or direct wounding or just a horse and multiple uses. Her ability is left available to splash, but restricted to once per turn unless you pair her with another of the Rohirrim. |
Anduin Banks (11U227) | Anduin Banks (11U227) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | This is a slight nerf, except in the situation where there are 8 or 9 companions in region 3, which seems fair. |
Cavern Entrance (11S232) | Cavern Entrance (11S232) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Ah, Cavern Entrance. Wonder of many an uncounterable bomb. The effect has been altered to a skirmish-by-skirmish trigger, which means that the Free Peoples player may be able to dodge its ability in the right circumstances, by carefully assigning any exhausted minions (or minions who might become exhausted). |
Neekerbreekers’ Bog (11S249) | Neekerbreekers’ Bog (11S249) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | One of the commonly-abused sites in Expanded site manipulation, this has been restricted to only working its magic in regions 1 and 2 (i.e. while sanctuaries might still help you shrug it off). |
Little Golden Flower (15R148) | Little Golden Flower (15R148) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | This card is plenty powerful as it is, but adding vitality to an already very vitality-heavy culture is pretty over-the-top. It’s annoying to track as well, as it is the only card in the game that grants vitality without having the symbol on the side while attached to the affecting card. The problematic effect has been replaced with a wound-prevention one instead, which is still in the realm of vitality-expanding without being so egregious. |
Namárië (17U10) | Namárië (17U10) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Namárië is busted strong; in a culture that specializes in removing conditions, it still manages to stand out from the pack. The conditinitial token generation has been capped, and each condition discarded now costs a card from hand, which is harder to game via reinforcement. It's still probably too powerful in combination with other token-spawning cards, but we’ll just have to keep chiseling away at PC-Expanded's high-octane power level until it's safe to revisit. |
A New Light (17U15) | A New Light (17U15) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | A New Light is just flat out too strong, replacing whatever your opponent's most powerful minion is with whatever the weakest minion in his discard pile is (not to mention the intel of revealing their entire hand). The ability has been nerfed to return 2 minions to their hand, which at least has a chance of being a better trade. |
Galadriel's Silver Ewer (18R11) | Galadriel's Silver Ewer (18R11) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | A simple number nerf and requiring Galadriel to at least exert if she’s gonna boost Namárië (or others). |
Beorning Axe (18R18) | Beorning Axe (18R18) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | What's this? Being able to take Servant of the Secret Fire back into hand to re-use on each of Beorn's skirmishes, or any number of other useful Gandalf spells, on top of the +1 vitality from an...axe? This has been rightfully dunked down to only triggering once per turn. |
Prized Lagan (18U110) | Prized Lagan (18U110) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | A threat for a skirmish is a pretty good deal, especially if you were going to lose the skirmish. To make the deal a little less of a steal, a twilight prevention clause has been added which, ironically enough, can be provided by the healing ability if it is so used. |
Robin Smallburrow, Shirriff Cock-Robin (18U111) | Robin Smallburrow, Shirriff Cock-Robin (18U111) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Cycle any number of cards, every site, all for the low low cost of 2 twilight! This has been reduced to merely be as good as an Ottar every Maneuver phase. |
Final Triumph (18R115) | Final Triumph (18R115) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | This card is essentially an insta-kill in most situations that it's used; a 4 vitality uruk against a 2 vitality character, or a 2 vitality uruk against an exhausted character, ends in an overwhelm, and no amount of wound prevention or other tricks can save you. Preventing the overwhelms like this does nothing by default–both of the above examples still result in a dead companion (assuming the uruk has any damage bonuses), but now Armor (1C92) or Intimidate (1C76) or whatever can be burned as a resource to keep companions alive. |
Doorway to Doom (18U134) | Doorway to Doom (18U134) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Another frequently-abused card, this one has been given a treatment that makes us wonder why it wasn't default, considering its proximity to, well, Mount Doom: this site may not be replaced (like how Mount Doom (15R193) blocks all sites in the current region from being replaced). |
Mithlond (18U136) | Mithlond (18U136) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Another of the usual suspects when it comes to site manipulation, Mithlond now only works in region 3, meaning that it can't be used as a mini-sanctuary until all your regular sanctuaries have run out. |
Steward's Tomb (18U139) | Steward's Tomb (18U139) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | That's right, ladies and gentlemen, it's a Greatest Hits series of abusable sites, and this one's the Big One. So big, in fact, that we couldn't help but split its effect in two: one card (the original) for the original heal-and-burden-removal-blocking effect anywhere except sites 3 and 6, and another (Rath Dinen) that only works at 3 and 6, reducing–but not eliminating!–the Fellowship's access to standard Sanctuary healing.
This way an option is left open to Shadow decks needing to cut down on removing their hard-won wounds, without the utter demoralizing move of eliminating healing entirely. (Although, it does seem like something's missing, yeah? And there's still half a line open…anyone have any suggestions for what we might put there to sweeten the deal?) |
The One Ring, The Great Ring (19P1) | The One Ring, The Great Ring (19P1) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | The Great Ring is the best skirmishing Ring ever produced by far. With a maximum strength bonus of around 33 strength depending on how much resistance you have, there is literally no skirmish that you could possibly be surprised by so long as this is in your back pocket, and that doesn’t even take into account removing burdens mid-skirmish. To cut down on its ability to build up endlessly, a clause has been added such that putting on the One Ring prevents burdens from being removed so long as its on, and also requires that the Ring be worn to be able to utilize its strength boost. No more endless strength, and you have to risk at least a little resistance if you’re going to be using it to fight. |
Brought Down from Inside (19P24) | Brought Down from Inside (19P24) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Short and sweet: it’s now unique. No more +4 rotating bonus. |
Pippin, Steadfast Friend (19P30) | Pippin, Steadfast Friend (19P30) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | If there’s anything more emblematic of the power creep of late-era LOTR-TCG, it's Pippin. Set 1 Pippin prevents your tales from being discarded. Set 19 Pippin casually walks around with as much strength as Sauron. Pippin is now restricted to no more than +9 strength, and more realistically +4 or so. |
Úlairë Lemenya, Dark Enemy (19P37) | Úlairë Lemenya, Dark Enemy (19P37) | 2023-01-11 | Yes | Of course, at least Pippin requires cards to be in play, while Mr. Discarded Armory here flirts with the low 50s in strength if you play your cards right (or don't, as the case may be). Another +9 limit. |
Shoulder to Shoulder (1C59) | Shoulder to Shoulder (1C59) | 2023-06-07 | Yes | Shoulder to Shoulder has long been a thorn in the side of Elf-based balancing concerns, even partially fueling Decipher's decision to add Elrond, Lord of Rivendell (1R40) and Galadriel, Lady of Light (1R45) to the X-List. There are several ways that we considered altering STS, and if the result isn't great we can try one of those other angles, but for now we will push the ability to the Fellowship phase instead of Maneuver. No more infinitely tanking Shotgun Enquea, and no more dumping twilight into the pool after Shadow has already played their minions. |
Sam, Son of Hamfast (1C311) | Sam, Son of Hamfast (1C311) | 2023-06-07 | Yes | Sam, Sam, Sam. Even with his X-List nerf, he has remained the most popular burden-stripping splash option, showing up in 7 out of the top 10 decks in the May qualifiers. We knew at the time that we made the original errata that it wouldn’t be enough, but we felt like we had to wait until there were more burden-removal options for more cultures before we could feel comfortable taking him further.
With the introduction of Gilraen's Memorial (V1_22) and the errata to LOTR-EN07E256.1 also removing burdens, that time might well be now. Sam will now exert twice per burden removed, but like Dauntless Hunter, the second exertion is paid after the fact, which goes unpaid if he is exhausted. This means that upon playing him, at most 2 burdens can be removed without additional healing, unless played in a Shire-heavy deck. |
Vilya (3R27) | Vilya (3R27) | 2023-06-07 | Yes | Vilya and its usual bearer Elrond, Herald to Gil-galad (3R13) are a common splash combo. For a one-time cost of 4 twilight, you get 1 heal per regroup phase and the ability to infinitely juggle a Shadow condition back to its owner's hand. This particular form of removal is far more annoying than simply discarding would be, since it bypasses discard protection and clogs your opponent's hand right before switching sides. Worst of all, with the +1 vitality, it grants Elrond the flexibility to do it twice in a pinch.
To rework this interaction, Vilya's exertion cost has been dropped to disconnect the HtGG requirement, and the Shadow player is granted the flexibility to either ditch the returned card or cycle another card out if they'd really rather keep it. And then to curtail Vilya's own flexibility, the ring itself is returned to hand, requiring the Free Peoples player to stop and hold onto the card for a turn if they wish to use it on multiple successive sites. (The clog is now on the other foot; let’s see how you like it.) Careful that you don’t accidentally kill Elrond while doing this; bonus vitality removal is one of the few guaranteed unblockable sources of death in the game. |
Hand of Sauron (3C90) | Hand of Sauron (3C90) | 2023-06-07 | Yes | One of the many discard-based errata made around Yuletide last year, Hand of Sauron's new paired ability was a little too good: you couldn't ever risk permitting the exhaustion to go through, because a Sauron deck would of course be packing Hate for a one-two instant kill combo, meaning that this card effectively read "discard 2 cards at random from hand". The effect has been reduced to an exertion and a possession discard, which is a rare effect in FOTR block, making the choice more of an actual nuanced decision. |
Legolas, Dauntless Hunter (4R73) | Legolas, Dauntless Hunter (4R73) | 2023-06-07 | Yes | Oh, Dauntless Hunter. Love him, or love to hate him, he’s been a controversial card since his release. Way back when we first issued an errata to get him off of the X-List, we were clear that this was only taking the bare minimum action to bring him in line. Time has proven that he is no less viable than at his peak, and so we will finally take action against this menace.
The change here is subtle but distinct: rather than increasing the up-front cost of all events and conditions played against you, it instead tacks those costs onto the end of the transaction. The crucial difference is that if there is no more twilight left in the pool, the card is not prevented from being played. This means that the last condition or event played by the Shadow player will always be able to go out, and 0-cost events and conditions will always be playable. This should grant enough breathing room for opposing condition-heavy shadows to avoid being completely choked out, while still paying through the nose for any indulgences. |
Morgul Destroyer (7U190) | Morgul Destroyer (7U190) | 2023-06-07 | Yes | Morgul Orc-based decks have been on the rise, largely due to the fall of some of the shadow decks that were above them while they themselves remained untouched. In particular there is a common style that pairs 4x Morgul Destroyer with 4x Morgul Brute (7R188) and a mess of support Nazgul, aiming to bury the fellowship in a horde of cheap Ring-bearer wounds and efficient 'roided Orcs.
Of the two, Brute is harder to touch due to burdens and corruption being more nuanced of a strategy, so Destroyer gets the nerfbat. Its twilight cost is increased from 2 -> 3, making it harder to dump a bunch all at once, and the ability has been reworked. Instead of 2 threats for 1 Ring-bearer wound, the ability is now 1 threat for 1 wound that the Shadow player gets to place (which can still optionally be placed on the Ring-bearer). The reduced threat generation will make the minion's self-pump harder to utilize (especially en masse with the cost increase), but in return the payoff can occasionally be much sweeter if it nets you a dead Gandalf when the fellowship is backed into a corner, and players will be tempted to combo it with Brute a little less when the situation rises. |
Shadow Host (8R43) | Shadow Host (8R43) | 2023-06-07 | Yes | One of the few straight buffs in this batch, Shadow Host's play requirements are made a little more lenient, mirroring the change made to Rohirrim Army with the same intent. |
Corsair War Galley (8U59) | Corsair War Galley (8U59) | 2023-06-07 | Yes | One of the missteps by the PC has been our bungling of the Corsair errata, which centered around addressing 3 cards: Castamir, Corsair Marauder, and Corsair War Galley. Each of these cards have since gone through a second round of errata: Castamir lost fierce instead of nerfing enduring, Marauder was reworked to more fairly address the core of why he was frustrating, and now to complete the hat trick we return to Corsair War Galley.
The Galley was originally nerfed for two reasons: first, Corsairs were just crazy. But second, it also was a part of the powerful Moria Navy archetype, and this (and the nerf to Marauder) was viewed as a two-birds-one-stone situation. However, the results have not been what we wanted. Corsairs were sunk and dead, never to rise above the waves again. We are thus entirely reverting the alteration to the War Galley’s game text, and instead restricting it to be unique. With this more gentle touch, we hope that this will permit the Corsairs to sail the high seas once more (if a little humbler). As for Moria Navy, well, it was brought to our attention that the real lynchpin wasn’t the initiative-enabling Galley, but instead: |
Glorfindel, Revealed in Wrath (9R+16) | Glorfindel, Revealed in Wrath (9R+16) | 2023-06-07 | Yes | This is one of the shake-up errata intended to knock loose a stuck strategic decision. If you are running a mono Elf deck, who goes in your starting fellowship? Answer: Glorfindel, a 2-cost Elf of your choice, and GLR (assuming you are not running the Galadriel Alternate Ring-bearer). There is no better starting choice than Glorfindel, because there are no other starting options with such a high strength for so cheap. (On a side note, there is now plenty of room for a lore addition here. Let us know what quote you think we should put!) |
Radagast, The Brown (9R+26) | Radagast, The Brown (9R+26) | 2023-06-07 | Yes | Since Radagast was released, move limit increases have been trivialized: build up your fellowship as you please, drop Radagast, and then triple-move to victory.
Counterplay has now been added by making the move limit increase dependent on his continued survival; there are rules ensuring that move limit alterations are permanent, and so text is added making a move limit -1 kick in if he is discarded, killed, or returned to hand. Shadow can now use their tricks to remove him from the field, halting any triple move in its tracks if successful. While the move limit is the most obvious contribution of the Brown Clown, an 8-strength Wizard has plenty of tricks up his sleeve, and so we’ve weighed him down to be less of an automatic inclusion in Ent and other Gandalf-heavy decks. His strength is reduced from 8 -> 7, and the 2-card cycle is altered to trigger on every move, not just regroup. |
Sent Back (9R27) | Sent Back (9R27) | 2023-06-07 | Yes | Sent Back does just a little too much. On top of its (nearly unmatched) ability to resurrect a key dead companion, it also permits for defender combos to send hordes of minions to a shallow grave, only for the wizard in question to pop right back a phase later.
The resurrection text has been altered to require a stop and rest before returning during the Fellowship phase, which should curtail whirlwind combos. In addition, an awkward edge case that technically permitted the Skirmish ability to target Saruman and place him permanently out of reach in your own dead pile has been worked around (it now requires the target be "your Wizard" instead of "a Wizard"). |
Galadriel, Lady Redeemed (10R11) | Galadriel, Lady Redeemed (10R11) | 2023-06-07 | Yes | As mentioned above, GLR is another very common mono Elf choice, although unlike Glorfindel she has not exactly flown under the radar. Our initial X-List errata reduced her ability to only working once per site, but in spite of this she still rubs people the wrong way, which may be a long and salty history speaking more than the specific power level of the card.
Nonetheless, we are taking a second stab at her. Her ability is restored to being a repeatable Fellowship/Regroup action, with the additional cost of an exertion, putting a ceiling on repeated use. The big change however is the alteration of her previously-free starting fellowship inclusion, instead reducing her down to a starting cost of 1. The cost (more than the tweaks to her ability) should tone down the salty feelings of seeing her on the board: rather than being a fourth companion, played for free, she now represents an investment that requires some other person to be bumped from the starting roster, or else paid for fair and square in the normal manner. |
Under Foot (10C52) | Under Foot (10C52) | 2023-06-07 | Yes | So to address the problem of Moria Navy (and even other Raider strats) from playing multiple copies of Under Foot per turn to reconcile one's hand over and over, this card has been altered to only be possible to invoke once per site. Since the card stays in play to self-discard during Regroup, the Shadow player may as well double-dip to use the strength boosting ability early, but more importantly never getting more than one early reconciliation. |
Úlairë Enquëa, Thrall of the One (10R68) | Úlairë Enquëa, Thrall of the One (10R68) | 2023-06-07 | Yes | Enquea TOTO is a staple of the "turbo-corruption" genre, which aims to place enough burdens onto the fellowship in one turn that it doesn’t matter how many Sons of Hamfast you brought along. With Between Nazgul and Prey and other tools on the field for adding exertion fodder for Enquea's ability, 4 or more burdens can be added each turn the fellowship faces him, which is more than all but the most staffed of Hobbit Hospitals has even a shred of a chance of defending against. TOTO seldom hits such lofty heights, but when he does he’s a menace. In a straightforward move, his ability now has a 1-twilight tax per burden added, which won't always reduce his solo efficiency but will affect his ability to be combo'd alongside a swarm of Morgul Brutes without cutting corners one way or another, not to mention risking his ability to pay for BNAP. |
Dwarven Axe (1C9) | Dwarven Axe (1C9) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor (1U70) | Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor (1U70) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
A Wizard Is Never Late (1R87) | A Wizard Is Never Late (1R87) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Armor (1C92) | Armor (1C92) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Coat of Mail (1C101) | Coat of Mail (1C101) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Great Shield (1C107) | Great Shield (1C107) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Strength of Kings (1R115) | Strength of Kings (1R115) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Goblin Patrol Troop (1C177) | Goblin Patrol Troop (1C177) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Secret Sentinels (2R20) | Secret Sentinels (2R20) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Helpless (2U76) | Helpless (2U76) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Elrond, Herald to Gil-galad (3R13) | Elrond, Herald to Gil-galad (3R13) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Phial of Galadriel (3U24) | Phial of Galadriel (3U24) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Vilya (3R27) | Vilya (3R27) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Gondor Bowmen (3R41) | Gondor Bowmen (3R41) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Can You Protect Me From Yourself? (3R50) | Can You Protect Me From Yourself? (3R50) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Such a Little Thing (3R80) | Such a Little Thing (3R80) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Too Great and Terrible (3R85) | Too Great and Terrible (3R85) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Terrible as the Dawn (3R103) | Terrible as the Dawn (3R103) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Cavern Entrance (4U355) | Cavern Entrance (4U355) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Forearmed (6U16) | Forearmed (6U16) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Castamir of Umbar (8R51) | Castamir of Umbar (8R51) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Gimli, Bearer of Grudges (9R+4) | Gimli, Bearer of Grudges (9R+4) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom (9R+14) | Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom (9R+14) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Sméagol, Bearer of Great Secrets (9R+30) | Smeagol, Bearer of Great Secrets (9R+30) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Boromir, Bearer of Council (9R+31) | Boromir, Bearer of Council (9R+31) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Isildur, Bearer of Heirlooms (9R+33) | Isildur, Bearer of Heirlooms (9R+33) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Bilbo, Bearer of Things Burgled (9R+49) | Bilbo, Bearer of Things Burgled (9R+49) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Galadriel, Lady Redeemed (10R11) | Galadriel, Lady Redeemed (10R11) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Cavern Entrance (11S232) | Cavern Entrance (11S232) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas (17R24) | Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas (17R24) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Legolas, Keen-eyed (V1_9) | Legolas, Keen-eyed (V1_9) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Gandalf, Olorin (V1_14) | Gandalf, Olorin (V1_14) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Aragorn, Estel (V1_19) | Aragorn, Estel (V1_19) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Crebain Flock (V1_25) | Crebain Flock (V1_25) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Crows of Isengard (V1_26) | Crows of Isengard (V1_26) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Just a Wisp of Cloud (V1_28) | Just a Wisp of Cloud (V1_28) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Murder of Crows (V1_29) | Murder of Crows (V1_29) | 2024-04-21 | Yes | |
Goblin Patrol Troop (1C177) | Goblin Patrol Troop (1C177) | 2024-09-14 | Yes | |
Helpless (2U76) | Helpless (2U76) | 2024-09-14 | Yes | |
Can You Protect Me From Yourself? (3R50) | Can You Protect Me From Yourself? (3R50) | 2024-09-14 | Yes | |
Such a Little Thing (3R80) | Such a Little Thing (3R80) | 2024-09-14 | Yes | |
Too Great and Terrible (3R85) | Too Great and Terrible (3R85) | 2024-09-14 | Yes | |
Terrible as the Dawn (3R103) | Terrible as the Dawn (3R103) | 2024-09-14 | Yes | |
Why Shouldn't I Keep It? (3R105) | Why Shouldn't I Keep It? (3R105) | 2024-09-14 | Yes | |
Why Shouldn't I Keep It? (3R105) | Why Shouldn't I Keep It? (3R105) | 2024-09-14 | Yes |
Formats |
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Sets | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 17 | 18 | 16 | 19 |
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Historical Decipher Formats | Fellowship Block | Towers Block | King Block | War of the Ring Block | Hunters Block | ||||||||||||||
Towers Standard | |||||||||||||||||||
King Standard | |||||||||||||||||||
Movie Block | |||||||||||||||||||
War of the Ring Standard | |||||||||||||||||||
Standard | |||||||||||||||||||
Expanded | |||||||||||||||||||
Open |
Player's Council Formats (including PC Errata) | 1 | 2 | 3 | V1 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
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PC-Fellowship | ||||||||||||||||||||
PC-Movie | ||||||||||||||||||||
PC-Expanded |
Unofficial Formats | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 17 | 18 | 16 | 19 |
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French | French | ||||||||||||||||||
Austrian (Movie) | |||||||||||||||||||
Austrian (Shadows) |
Other Variants | |||||
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Sealed • Booster Draft • Cube Draft • Culture Shock • Highlander • Poor Man's • PC Errata |