Abandoning Reason for Madness

"Beneath the mountain's arm within the Wizard's Vale through years uncounted had stood that ancient place that Men called Isengard. Partly it was shaped in the making of the mountains, but mighty works the Men of Westernesse had wrought there of old; and, Saruman had dwelt there long and had not been idle... This was the stronghold of Saruman, as fame reported it; for within living memory the men of Rohan had not passed its gates, save perhaps a few, such as Wormtongue, who came in secret and told no man what they saw."  

~ The Two Towers

Book III, Chapter VIII: The Road to Isengard

This opening narrative takes place in The Two Towers after the great battle of the Hornburg.  Gandalf the White leads King Theoden and the Three Hunters into the territory of their defeated enemy, Saruman the White.  They find Isengard absolutely wrecked by the Ents who descended upon the dark wizard, destroying the forge works, cavern catacombs, and vile industries of the White Hand.  By this time, the once supremely powerful wizard Saruman is little more than an old man placed under house arrest.  He has one last foul deed to play out in the Lord of the Rings story line, but for the most part, Saruman's clenching dominion in Middle-earth has lost its tension.

Not long before the events of The Two Towers, Saruman the White was highly respected and sought after for his deep pools of knowledge.  It is unclear just how long Saruman had been on the path of treachery in the dark obsidian halls of Orthanc, but before his fall, he dutifully provided his commanding voice as the head of the White Council.  Likewise, Isengard itself had a rich history as a location of nobility and authority.  It was initially built in the Second Age of Middle-earth by the Numenorians, the kingly line of Men who eventually formed the realms of Arnor in the North and Gondor in the South.

As the centuries unfolded in Middle-earth, the horsemen kingdom of Rohan was established in the immediate region south of Isengard, but Gondor continued to hold claim over the stronghold of Isengard.  In spite of this, warlike tribes of barbarian wild men from Dunland, a region also near Isengard, emerged and began to wage war upon Rohan.  During these battles between Rohan and the Dunlendings, Isengard fell to the control of the wild men, and for the first time, Gondor lost control of the stronghold to the enemy.  However, their defeat was short-lived: the Rohirrim overthrew the barbarians' rule of Isengard and reclaimed the stronghold.

Gondor played little part in these ongoing wars between Rohan and Dunland; however, they still considered their stronghold of Isengard to be an important asset to their kingdom.  Without a proper army to maintain Isengard, however, Gondor instead made a deal with a wizard.  Saruman the White, the head of the Istari Order, arrived from the distant eastern stretches of Middle-earth and offered to protect the fortress of Isengard, serving as the guardian himself.  Gondor agreed to this alliance, and it wasn't long until Saruman took up residence in Orthanc, and thus the valley in which Isengard was located became known as the Nan Curunir, or in the common tongue: the Wizard's Vale.

Saruman's arrival to Isengard marked a stark shift in the role that Isengard took for both the immediate geographic area and perhaps Middle-earth as a whole.  Previously functioning solely as a architectural relic echoing days of greater strength for the world of Men, Isengard now shifted to a location of knowledge, guidance, and wisdom, all of which centered around Saruman.  Gandalf the Grey would often venture to Orthanc to seek Saruman's counsel on various topics, but the chiefest source of the wizard's power within Isengard came from the fact that Orthanc housed one of the palantiri, mystical seeing stones that allowed their beholder to communicate with other such stones throughout Middle-earth.  This magical tool plays a greater role in the events leading up to the conclusion of the Third Age; however, in the early days it served mainly to further extend Saruman's degree of insight on the goings and comings of Middle-earth.

It is into this introductory timeline that players starting the Voice of Isengard expansion to the Lord of the Rings: LCG are confronted with.  Being an untold number of years before the distinct events of the Lord of the Rings take place, Isengard is still ever much a stronghold as it was in the days of Gondorian rule.  Yet, Saruman's presence in Isengard has increased its power beyond the simple physical nature into a more mystifying place capable of deep insights into the future.  Saruman now spends most of his time studying and striving toward powerful perceptions concerning forbidden knowledge.  Coincidentally, to accompany this unfolding story line, a whole host of new player cards have been created for the LotR LCG to thematically instill this dark pursuit of power.  Each of these new cards have very strong effects, but in turn, they also carry a weighty level of threat gain - denoted by the Doomed keyword.

So, in an effort to use a majority of these new cards, I decided to put together a couple player decks that capture the ominously dominant feeling of the Wizard's Vale.  They feature all three of the Istari wizards as well as all of the new Doomed player cards released in the Voice of Isengard expansion.  In order to make these player decks function from a mechanical perspective, however, the hero choices themselves serve a more functional role than a thematic one.  With the ongoing rise in each player's threat level that stems from using these new cards, it is vital to have heroes and other cards to counteract them; therefore, a low starting threat and threat-reducing cards of all varieties are also an element in these two player decks.  

The first player deck is derived from the Leadership and Tactics sphere.  The heroes are Sam Gamgee, Merry, and Legolas.  The starting threat of these three heroes is 23.  The Hobbits will contribute a generous amount of willpower for questing, and as everyone knows, the prince of Mirkwood has many uses, but in this deck he will focus on acquiring a weapon attachment or two and attempting to beat his current kill count recorded in the Desolation of Smaug movie (Can it be done?  Very doubtful.)

• Allies
• Bill the Pony (2x)
• Snowbourn Scout (3x)
• Orthanc Guard (3x)
• Vassal of the Windlord (3x)
• Winged Guardian (3x)
• Gandalf (Core Set, 3x)
• Radagast (3x)
• Attachments
• Celebrian's Stone (2x)
• Steward of Gondor (3x)
• Dagger of Westernesse (3x)
• Rivendell Blade (2x)
• Black Arrow (1x)
• Keys of Orthanc (2x)
• Events
• Sneak Attack (3x)
• Legacy of Numenor (3x)
• Halfling Determination (2x)
• The Wizard's Voice (3x)
• Feint (3x)
• The Seeing-Stone (3x)

The two new Leadership player cards, Orthanc Guard and Legacy of Numenor, serve as great reminders of the history and original purpose of Isengard.  The Numenorians built it as a stronghold, and to this day that legacy endures, allowing players to freely use the Legacy of Numenor to gain a large surge of supporting resources for a colossal threat gain of four.  Likewise, Isengard has always been guarded by a garrisons of able-bodied soldiers who are always at the ready, and the Orthanc guards are ever at the ready to defend the stronghold if the wild men decide to try their luck once again.


When Saruman took over the role of defending Isengard, he gained the Keys of Orthanc from the current Steward of Gondor.  Though this attachment must be played on a hero (rather than Saruman) it still echoes the effects of the Legacy of Numenor event, allowing players to gain one resource whenever a Doomed effect occurs.  Furthermore, this is a unique attachment, signifying that there can only be one true master of Isengard.  The illustration on the card shows several different keys on the ring; so, one can only guess at all the mysterious doors they open within Orthanc...

The two remaining Doomed events in this player deck, The Wizard's Voice and The Seeing-Stone are also direct player card adaptations of Saruman's authority.  Taking a brief aside from the thematic approach to describing these cards, The Wizard's Voice allows each player to block an engaged enemy from attacking for one round, and while this is always a useful ability to have, it does also come with a hefty threat gain of three.  So, perhaps the best use of this would be in a three or four player game in which that many different enemies could be blocked at once without the original threat gain scaling at all.  For one or even two players, Feint will most likely always be the better option.  Anyways, transitioning back to the thematically perspective, The Seeing-Stone carries a uniquely similar ability as the palantir that the card art shows, allowing players to search through their entire deck for the exact Doomed card they desire, adding it to their hand.  The mere act of using this seeing stone carries a threat gain as well, however, so gaze with caution!

Most of the other allies, attachments, and events in this player deck have fairly obvious support roles.  While the main threat-reducing power will come from the next deck about to be covered, this deck will provide some level of defense and attack power during quests.  Radagast took a break from consuming mushrooms in order to assist the heroes in calling in various eagle allies, and a Celebrian's Stone or Steward of Gondor attachment, when purchased, will be relayed to the other player deck.  

Let's transition on to the second player deck, which represents the other two spheres: Lore and Spirit.  The heroes here are Grima, Aragorn, and Glorfindel.  Collectively, the starting threat is 26.  The more specific roles that each of these heroes play in this deck will be expanded upon a bit later. 

• Allies
• Isengard Messenger (3x)
• Ethir Swordsman (3x)
• Arwen Undomiel (2x)
• Damrod (2x)
• Gandalf (OHaUH, 3x)
• Saruman (3x)
• Attachments
• Elf-Stone (3x)
• Asfaloth (2x)
• Light of Valinor (3x)
• Song of Earendil (3x)
• Song of Travel (3x)
• Events
• Word of Command (3x)
• Deep Knowledge (3x)
• A Test of Will (3x)
• Hasty Stroke (3x)
• The Galadhrim's Greeting (3x)
• Elrond's Counsel (3x)
• Dwarven Tomb (2x)
• Power of Orthanc (2x)

The Lord of Isengard himself, Saruman the White, received a neutral ally card in the Voice of Isengard, and this player deck felt like the best fit for him out of the two.  Saruman does require each player to escalate their threat levels by three when he is put into play; however, impressive stats and a unique ability may prove to be worth the foreboding assistance of this darkly powerful wizard. 

Ultimately, players may also choose to disregard Saruman's aid in questing and battle to instead use him for the most powerful card drawing effect in the game: Word of Command.  Though the Gandalf ally included in this deck can stick around for several turns and may be a better choice for this card, he may fail to show up in time.  Furthermore, having three copies of Saruman, three copies of Gandalf, and three copies of this event in the player deck provides a strong likelihood that it will see use, maybe even more than once.  But what are the best cards to pick out of all of the ones still remaining left undrawn?  That really all depends on the current level of threat each player deck is sitting at. 

Grima, Aragorn, and Glorfindel are quite possibly the best three heroes available to use when building this sort of deck with opposing mechanics of threat gain and threat loss.  Grima continually raises the threat to purchase cards more cheaply and once the threat is too high, Aragorn can drop it  like it's hot (once per game.)  Glorfindel, on the other hand, starts out with an extremely low threat cost and can purchase cards like The Galadhrim's Greeting, Elrond's Counsel, and the Song of Earendil to lower not only this deck's threat level but the other one's as well. The Dwarven Tomb event can even bring these threat-reducing events back after they've been used for an additional use.  Finally, even though his ability is highly conditional depending on the quest, Damrod could potentially provide a huge threat decrease as well if their are a wealth of enemies in the staging area.

The Isengard Messenger and Ethir Swordsman will provide a strong boost to willpower to aid in questing, and the Elf-Stone can be employed to put the higher cost allies into play (in either deck) at a very cheap cost.  But let's transition back to the Doomed event cards in this particular player deck.   Aside from Grima and Saruman, this deck contains the last two new Doomed player card effects, both of which are events.

First up is Deep Knowledge, a powerful (and free) Lore event that allows each player to draw two cards at a price of two threat.  This may be one of the best Doomed cards out of all of them because it has a much more reasonable threat cost (when compared to three or even four on others) and it allows every player to have the same advantage of drawing two cards.  Traditionally, Lore does not have many problems with drawing cards within its sphere, but it can be harder to trigger this effect for other players.  Yet, Saruman's studying of the darker sides of Middle-earth is proving to be beneficial for all the heroes, and by the looks of his library of tomes and manuscripts on the card art, there appears to be no end to the unfurling wisdom.  

The sole Doomed event for the Spirit sphere is Power of Orthanc.  Again free of cost except for a threat increase of two for each player, this event allows each player to discard a condition that they're afflicted with.  Previously, everyone chipped the Miner of the Iron Hills into their Lore decks for this role because he was the only option available for removing nasty conditions.  Now, however, there appears to be other ways of removing conditions: the Power of Orthanc Doomed event as well as the upcoming Elrond ally card.  Even though not all quests have conditions, this card will provide an increased level of assurance that treacheries such as Watchful Eyes or the Black Breath will be less of a nuisance than they have been in the past.

Overall, these decks are my initial foray into meddling with the Doomed player cards.  Since the beginning of the game, the Doomed trait has been around but restricted to the encounter deck only.  Now, it seems as though players have the option of abandoning reason for madness on their pursuit of victory, escalating their threat levels in exchange for formidably powerful effects.  I sincerely hope that the Isengard trait receives continual development as the game grows, and I would particularly like to see more player cards that benefit from Doomed effects triggering such as the Keys of Orthanc, Isengard Messenger, and Orthanc Guard.  I believe there is still a vast wealth of creative freedom that could be used in further designing Isengard player cards, while also continuing to keep it on the risky side to use extensively.

What are your thoughts on all these new Doomed player cards as well as the Isengard trait as a whole?  Also, do you have any suggestions on tweakings, additions, or deletions from these two decks?  They are definitely still a work in progress and require substantial play testing before they're deemed to be dependable.  At any rate, just remember: Saruman has given us the chance to aid him willingly; so, it's imperative to do so rather than electing the way of pain!