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The Wizard Comes to Aid the Free Peoples of Middle-earth

by Mike Girard
Decipher Game Developer

"Where are we, Gandalf?" he asked.
"In the realm of Gondor," the wizard answered. "The land of Anorien is still passing by. ... On, Shadowfax! We must hasten. Time is short."

If only Pippin knew how short time was, he would understand why Gandalf was in a hurry to get to Minis Tirith. Sauron's forces were amassing and ready to march on Middle-earth. The people needed a way to defend themselves, a great general to bring them together as one. Gandalf was chosen for this duty.

In the newest Lord of the Rings: TCG set, Return of the King, Gandalf takes on a new role. In earlier sets, he was the leader of the fellowship of nine that would oversee the destruction of the One Ring (Gandalf, Friend of the Shirefolk). Then he was thought to be lost, only to reappear stronger than before (Gandalf, The White Wizard). Now he will bring Middle-earth together to fight the evil Sauron. He has the power to help whole cultures fight this evil, not just helping individual characters.

3
Terrible and Evil
Event-Maneuver
Spell.
Exert Gandalf X times to wound a minion X times.
If that minion is a Nazgul, wound it again.

This gives Gandalf a new pre-skirmish wounding event that will help to deal with the swarm a little easier. This new Maneuver event also helps to deal with one of the large minion strategies in the game today, the Nazgul. With some extra vitality adding permanents like Narya and Gandalf's Staff, Gandalf could take down the Witch-King with just this event. He probably won't be able to fight the remaining Nazgul that are lurking about until he heals at a sanctuary.

0
The Board is Set
Event-Response
Spell.
If an event is played, exert Gandalf to make that opponent remove 2(pool) or cancel that event.

Gandalf works his wizardry against the Shadow player's events. The Board is Set adds a feeling of control to this culture. It allows the Free People's player to feel like he or she is wielding the very magic that Gandalf has in his control. With this card, the Shadow player's strength enhancers like, Ferocity or Burn Every Village, may not be as cheap as they were before.

Stay tuned next week where I will go into some detail about...Smeagol, nice Smeagol. Never wants to hurt the hobbitses...but....they have the precious.

September 16, 2003