[UEP, Failed] One The Fiery Blade for each Ringwraith

[Thorsten the Traveller]

Name: One Fiery Blade for each Ringwraith

Status: Proposed

Proposal maintainer: Thorsten the Traveller

Categories: Consistency, Gameplay, Theme

Errata: Minion Permanent-event
"Playable on your Ringwraith or a Ringwraith follower. Each strike against the Ringwraith receives -1 body (-2 body and -2 prowess against The Witch- king). Discard The Fiery Blade after a strike against the Ringwraith fails or if the Ringwraith has Morgul-blade. Cannot be duplicated on a given Ringwraith."

Rationale:
Gameplay: if my opponent sits his Ringwraith at a Darkhaven and plays this card on his Ringwraith, he'll effectively deny my active Ringwraith the use of this card, as he won't ever face a strike. This is of course rediculous.
This could be solved by making it "not duplicated by a given player." However, if you have a company with multiple Ringwraiths, there is a small cardadvantage involved in being able to play several Fiery Blade's simultaneously before facing any strikes, which would give active Ringwraiths a small push, thus if there is an erratum, it might just as well be not duplicable on a given Ringwraith. Reasons of theme and consistency support this further.

Consistency: the Morgul-blade card, which does basically the same (except without Witch-king bonus but with extra -1 prowess bonus), does have the phrase "cannot be duplicated on a given Ringwraith." The only reason I can think for this inconsistency is that the Fiery-blade is thematically linked to the Witch-king, who is unique after all. Yet the Fiery Blade can be played on any Ringwraith, so it's rather nonsense.

Theme: each Ringwraith had his own blade

Pros: active Ringwraiths will get a slight push, as their cardflow will improve a bit (in case opponent does not play Fiery Blade), and your active Ringwraith cannot be denied the use of this card anymore by a Ringwraith opponent who sits at a Darkhaven. The active Ringwraith company will become slightly stronger, as you can have more Blades simultaneously on characters. However, as far as defeating strikes is concerned this does not matter, as you can play a Fiery Blade before facing a strike anyway (so only cardflow advantage).

Cons: none that I can think of. Active Ringwraiths will get a slight push, as their cardflow will improve a bit and they may become a bit more resilient to attacks, as one Fiery Blade on a wounded Ringwraith tends to stick around a bit longer, while you can still play another Blade on your other Ringwraiths. All this is of course inmensely terrible, if you are a devout Return of the King squatter and think active Ringwraiths are the bane of any game of meccg...

Discussion: why the hell is this non duplicable by any player?

Voting started at: 14/09/10

Voting ends at: Roughly 14/10/10

[Vastor Peredhil]

Oh wonder I am in favor of it

[Vastor Peredhil]

sad, so sad,

why say no and give no reasons?

people we want discussion not plain no, or yesses

mfg Nicolai

[Thorsten the Traveller]

Technically that's not a no, though, but a "I don't know/ don't care/ haven't made up my mind."  

But I do encourage voters to state their reason for objecting, otherwise it could be perceived simply as a vote against the whole concept of UEP, for example.

[Bandobras Took]

Voted no on theme.  I view it as a specific gift or sign of favor from Sauron.

[Thorsten the Traveller]

Well, if there was only 1 Fiery Blade, they might as well have made it unique. It's non duplicable for some (unexplicable) game mechanical reason I suppose.

[Bandobras Took]

Unique only allows you to put one in the deck, though . . .

[Thorsten the Traveller]

Don't I know it! How great it would be to have 3x Wormsbane in the deck, you can always play it immediately  :D
(cynical mode off)

If it's unique it's unique, if it's not it might be. For game mechanical reasons you can decide to make it unique or non duplicable. I don't see such reasons here.

[Bandobras Took]

I didn't vote no on mechanics, just on theme.

[Thorsten the Traveller]

Yes I know, but voting no on theme is a bit thin, if the theme isn't clear. If the blade was clearly a unique item, then fine, but it isn't.

[Thorsten the Traveller]

Ok, it is safe to say the voting period is over, and this one has failed for lack of votes.