Mirror of Galadriel 01: Left-Handed Advantage

“What you will see, if you leave the Mirror free to work, I cannot tell. For it shows things that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be.” – Galadriel, The Fellowship of the Ring

Did you know that in 2008, Redemption almost printed a card that said “Cannot be negated if played with your left hand”?

Welcome to the Mirror of Galadriel, a new series of Redemption articles in which we will explore things that were, things that are, and things that yet may be.

In each article, I will share a secret tidbit from playtesting years ago, connect it to something cool and current in the game, and then provide a prompt for creating a custom card as an idea for the future. If you like to make custom cards, send one in, and I might feature yours next time.

But first, as this is the inaugural article, introductions are in order. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Kurt, and I’ve been playing Redemption for longer than I can remember. In 1998, when I was a few months old, “I” gave my dad, Bryon Hake, his first Redemption cards for Father’s Day. He would go on to become a national champion, judge, playtester, and eventually lead set designer. But he was also training me to play from the beginning. He made me some “Redemption Jr.” cards to teach me basic concepts like card types, matching brigades, and simple addition. Soon I was playing in real tournaments with my classic FBTN deck (that’s “Fight by the Numbers,” meaning cards like The Strong Angel and King of Tyrus). My first Nationals was 2005. That was the first year Type A was offered as a category, but I had to play regular Type 1 instead because I had too many RNRS points. I’d like to apologize to anyone I played back then, because I had no poker face whatsoever, and had way to much energy to sit still in my chair.

I continued to play competitively for several years, and became more involved in helping my dad with card design and playtesting. However, our last Nationals was 2011, and after that we became significantly less involved in the game. We attended a handful of tournaments over the next few years, but then became so busy that we stopped playing entirely. But thankfully, last year my cousin Tucker (Mr. T on Discord) convinced us to get back into the game. I’ve started hosting tournaments at the same church where my dad used to host them, and several members of our old playgroup have come back together. Tucker and I attended Nationals in Arkansas this year, and it was wonderful to see so many familiar faces after 14 years, as well as meet many new players. The game changed a lot while I was away, but it is cool to see the ways it has evolved, and especially to see that the community is as fun and friendly as ever.

Without further ado, let’s get into the article.

Things That Were: Ehud’s Dagger

“Cannot be negated if played with your left hand.”

That was the modifier almost printed on the Rock of Ages version of Ehud’s Dagger.

If you are familiar with the story of Ehud, you know that the effect would be a thematic one (if you aren’t, you should check it out in Judges 3:12-30). However, before printing the card, it was decided that such a modifier was too gimmicky for Redemption. There was also a concern that it would give an advantage to left-handed players, who would be playing all their cards with that hand anyway. The modifier was changed to “Cannot be negated if used by a Judge” instead. I’m curious: do you think that was a good change, or would Redemption be more fun if it had some gimmicky thematic abilities like this?

Ehud’s Dagger has had many versions over the years. Its iterations are actually a pretty good reflection of the ways the game has changed.

First up was the red version from the original set. Like almost all enhancements at the time, it had no special ability. This was never a useful card, as it was only a 2/0, and you’d always rather have one of the many 2/2 enhancements.

The second version was from the Warriors set. That set introduced the first negates, of which Ehud’s Dagger was one. It was changed to blue brigade, which is why when Ehud himself was first printed in the Patriarchs set, he was made blue as well.

Like many cards from Warriors, Ehud’s Dagger was reprinted in the Kings set, which introduced warrior class and weapon class to the game. Notably, Ehud’s Dagger was not made weapon class. This may appear to be an oversight, but it was actually intentional. Spoiler alert for the story of Ehud, but let’s just say he didn’t get to keep his dagger after he used it. It’s a thematic win that it doesn’t remain attached. That said, the card did receive one change from its Warriors version: it specified evil enhancement, so that it wouldn’t ever be stuck negating a good enhancement.

Eventually it was established that the judges theme would be in the gold brigade. Because of this, Ehud’s Dagger was reprinted as gold in Rock of Ages. It remained a negate, but this time it could also discard a king, a much more thematic effect. It also became CBN if used by a judge, which made it one of the best negates in the game at the time. But perhaps it would have been more fun if the CBN were conditional on remembering to play it with your left hand.

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Ehud’s Dagger was most recently reprinted in Roots, where it finally received a rotation version. This one is the best, both in terms of power level and theme. This time it was made weapon class, but it discards itself if it discards a king, so the thematic loss of the dagger remains. The card is not seen in many competitive decks, but it is solid and has its uses. I like to pick it up in booster draft, especially because it is a great way to deal with King of Tyrus.

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Notably, Ehud himself does not yet have a rotation version. Perhaps he will finally be reprinted in a future set that makes the Judges theme competitive again.

Things That Are: Advantage

Ehud’s Dagger was changed to avoid giving an advantage to left-handed players. But these days, Redemption has a different kind of hand advantage. For those unfamiliar, “advantage” is now an official term that refers to which player has more of something. For example, hand advantage refers to who has the most cards in hand. Technically this concept existed in the scroll days as well; it was just wordier.

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Some cards also refer to board advantage or redeemed soul advantage.

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I think all of these types of advantage are great for the game, though admittedly board advantage is sometimes tedious to count. Having different types of advantage to check adds more dimensions to the game and increases the variety of card abilities. Most often these effects reward you if your opponent has the advantage, which also makes these cards a catch-up mechanic that helps disadvantaged players stay in the game.

This is why I was excited to see a new type of advantage, brigade advantage, introduced in the new set, Times to Come. Opponent’s brigade advantage is punished by each of the three versions of the evil character “The Depraved.” I think brigade advantage is an excellent mechanic, similar to board advantage but easier to count. Between these cards and the popularity of other brigade-punishing cards like Prince of the Air, we’ll likely see players cut down even more on the number of brigades they play.

The first time I saw one of the brigade advantage cards in Times to Come, I was immediately inspired and began thinking of other types of advantage that could be introduced.

Imagine:

An army commander who rewards you for having the biggest army (warrior advantage)
A Gideon who only works if opponent has warrior advantage
An evil version of Solomon that rewards you for having female advantage
A postexilic builder who needs fortress advantage
A Noah who needs animal advantage
An idolater who needs idol advantage
Or covenant advantage, curse advantage, reserve advantage, banish “advantage”, angel advantage, etc.

The possibilities are endless! In my opinion, an ability that is conditional on an advantage is much more fun and interactive than one that simply requires you to control something. For example, an evil Solomon requiring female advantage would allow for more interaction with opponent’s board state than one who just requires you to control a female character.

Do you think any of these types of advantage would be fun, or are they too niche?

Things That Yet May Be: Judges

Normally this is where I would feature custom cards made by the community based on the previous article’s prompt. However, as this is the first article, there are none to feature. Instead, I’ll share some ideas I had to refresh the Judges theme, which as mentioned above could use some love.

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Purah is a hero who has never had a Redemption card before. This unique ability represents the scouting he did with Gideon, and has synergy with Jephthah and Samson, Son of Manoah. I specified gold brigade for the exchange to avoid splashing him into green prophet decks via Deborah, the Victorious.

Gideon and his sword emphasize the aspect of the story that God wanted the Israelites to be outnumbered so that they wouldn’t in pride try to take credit for their victory. The ideal line of play would be to equip the sword to Gideon in territory, enter battle with Purah, put a couple of opponent’s evil warriors into play, exchange with Gideon, underdeck Purah to toss non-Judges enhancements, and finally use the sword to discard any evil card and negate evil banding.

The warrior advantage part obviously wouldn’t work if opponent doesn’t have any warriors to play out, but there would be the option of pairing this with a Canaanite defense and giving some Canaanite warriors to opponent.

These cards as-written would not be the most consistent, but I think there’s some potential here. Feel free to discuss on Discord what changes you would make. For this week’s custom card prompt, I’m asking you to create a rotation version of Ehud. His classic choose-the-blocker effect is very thematic, but I’m curious to see if he can be differentiated from Jael, the Shrewd without being strictly better than her.

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If you’d like to create an Ehud, DM me your version (I’m Ear-A-Corn on Discord) by the end of Friday, 8/15. I’ll feature it in the next article, except in the unlikely event that there are too many submissions, in which case I’ll share my favorite few. If you’ve never made a custom card before, check out the card-creations channel on Discord. There are links and helpful folks that can get you set up to use Daniel the Creator’s Redemption Card Designer. I’d like to thank him for making such a great tool for the community.

Join us next time to find out which Redemption card was originally titled “Crumbs.” Can you guess which one it is?

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