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What Lurks In the Shadows?

by Richard Peiper

Every once in a while we get the feeling that someone or something has it in for us. It is never very clear who or what that thing is, but we know something is there. Anyone living in Florida these days will say that something's name is Charley, Frances, Ivan, or Jeanne, depending on which hurricane caused them the most discomfort. The release of The Lord of the Rings TCG expansion Shadows brings its own sense of foreboding, with surprises like the Lurker.

Lurker is a minion-only keyword that makes a minion resolve his skirmish last. It's a rather tasty twist to the normal "Kill that guy first because he is trouble." I immediately had flashbacks to some of my favorite cards I wanted to go back and add Lurker to, such as the Guard Commander from the first set. Unfortunately, I couldn't talk the designers into making a Lurker Guard Commander but they did make some REALLY nice cards anyway. Who brought the Faerie?

Lurker minions make an appearance in almost every culture including the Gollum Culture... I will allow you to speculate on what minion THAT might be and what he does. You will find all kinds of game text on Lurker minions; 1) minions that pump other minions, 2) minions who get bigger for each unassigned minion (just flat out insane on a Lurker by the way), 3) minions who get bigger when other minions win their respective fights, and 4) my personal favorite (do I get a drumroll or anything here? Not even a Rubber Chicken?), a minion who can discard himself to pump another minion! He was probably going to die anyways, but now he can go out a Martyr! A Martyr Faerie?

Hmmm... I know I am very excited about this new keyword, and it has to be one of my favorites in this new set. You can be sure you will see plenty of Lurker minions in my decks.

What? Are you guys still here? OK fine... you want more information – you got it. Now someone catch that Faerie! We already have the various terrain keywords like Mountain, Plains, Battleground, etc. Shadows adds a new keyword for sites – Dwelling. This appears on various house-like locations such as The Prancing Pony, Green Dragon Inn, etc. In general, Dwelling sites are higher twilight sites, which assist the fellowship with their game text. Hobbits love the Dwelling sites, but with the higher twilight numbers it becomes a risk/reward scenario. The hobbits do have some cards that will help them offset the Dwelling site risks, but it is still a risk nonetheless.

Hobbits have always been tough little suckers, with a lot of vitality, low strength, and some of the best support cards in the game. The new resistance mechanic gives the Hobbits another leg up on the other cultures by having the highest average resistance of them all. The average Hobbit has a resistance of 9, and with so many cards triggering off of a resistance of 4 or 5, Hobbots have a lot of buffer room.

Gandalf also likes high resistance companions, so players can get an obvious synergy between the hobbits and Gandalf with new cards that remove burdens (such as the new Glamdring), permanent strength boosts, and direct damage based off of resistance. Watch out for the Gandalf/Hobbit decks, they are going to be very good! No... there are no Faeries in the Gandalf deck, but there is a Sam! Rumor has it Sam got up to a base strength of 19 (21 with There and Back Again) during testing. I will give you a hint how... bring along a Farmer, a Wizard, and a Salt Box. Best of luck, see you on the site path, and beware the Martyr Faerie!

Richard Peiper is a regular contributor to DGMA and has been playing Lord of the Rings since early in the Fellowship Block. He is the reigning Back to Back Austin Powers World Champion and can be reached for comments at richardpeiper@bellsouth.net.

October 11, 2004