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Black Rider Comes Out of the Shadows

"The Nine are abroad again..."

What began in Shadows is expanded and enhanced in the next War of the Ring block expansion: Black Rider. The set features essential reprints from the Fellowship block, enhanced strategies using the Muster, Lurker, Toil, and Resistance keywords, and a host of new companions and minions to invigorate and intensify gameplay.

Heading the list of the minions are, of course, the Black Riders themselves – all nine of the Nazgûl from Attëa to Witch-king, plus the non-unique Black Rider first introduced as a premium card for the Black Rider tours. Your Black Rider will finally be tournament-legal one week from the March 18, 2005 release date! But Black Riders aren't the only dangers lurking in the shadows; The Balrog, Cave Troll of Moria, Saruman, and Gríma are back, and they've brought The Mouth of Sauron with them.

Meanwhile, the Fellowship is strengthened by new companions such as Elrond, Faramir, and Bilbo, plus some secondary characters formerly seen as allies, such as Thrarin. And some favorite sites return to their Adventure Path, including The Bridge of Khazad-dûm and Shores of Nen Hithoel.

Like Shadows, the Black Rider set will include an 18-card foil subset, but with two "levels" of foils instead of one. For the first level we have selected 18 of the best rare cards in Black Rider to receive a diffraction foil treatment as the "Legends" series of foil inserts, which will appear in approximately 1:9 packs on average. The collector's information on the Legends series of foils will be similar to that of the Shadows foils (12 RF 1-18).

The second level is the "Legends Masterworks" series: nine of the eighteen Legends cards will also receive a diffraction foil treatment featuring alternate template art (similar to the Countdown Collection templates, though without the gold crown above the collector's number). Legends Masterworks foils will appear in approximately 1:35 packs on average, and the collector's information will have a Ring symbol for the rarity (12 [Ring] 1-9). Overall, either a Legends or a Legends Masterworks foil will replace the rare card in approximately 1:7 booster packs.

The 194-card expansion includes 60 rare, 60 uncommon, and 60 common cards, plus 14 cards found only in starter decks. Black Rider will be available in two different 63-card starter decks featuring starter-only versions of Saruman and The Mouth of Sauron. Each deck will contain 3 random rare cards, 60 fixed cards, and a starter rulebook. Also available will be 11-card booster packs containing 1 rare, 3 uncommon, and 7 common cards. MSRP is $10.99 per starter deck and $3.69 per booster pack.

Check the Black Rider home page for more information, spoilers, and strategy. The Black Rider message board is also open for discussion.

Kathy McCracken
Web Writer

January 11, 2005
Updated January 19, 2005