I think the generality of all agents for all Ringwraith decks (and only Ringwraith decks) was an oversight, not meant to overrule previous specificity, and instead propose what I think the intent of this was meant to be (change underlined):CRF wrote:The following count as 1/2 a creature for deck construction: hazards that can be played as creatures or events, At Home Dragon manifestations, Ahunt Dragon manifestations, and agents. Note that agents count as characters in Ringwraith decks, not as 1/2 creatures.
CRF wrote:The following count as 1/2 a creature for deck construction: hazards that can be played as creatures or events, At Home Dragon manifestations, Ahunt Dragon manifestations, and agents included in deck as hazards. Note that minion agents always count as characters in non-Balrog Ringwraith decks (and thus Fallen-Wizard decks), not as 1/2 creatures.
Based on (underline as my emphasis):
MELE wrote:Minion agents included in a Ringwraith’s deck count as characters for the purposes of meeting deck requirements. However, during play, each minion agent may be played as either a character (i.e., as a minion character) or as a hazard (i.e., as an agent).
METB: Your Starting Company, Play Deck, and Sideboard wrote:Your starting company and play deck (and your sideboard) may be constructed like any other Ringwraith’s - with the following exceptions:
...
* Agents count as hazards, not as characters.
---CRF wrote:Fallen-wizards use minion rules for agents, except where specified by the White Hand rules insert.
To be fair, the specificity is lacking elsewhere in the original, so I think my opinion of the intent could be readily challenged:
So perhaps my proposal also should include the amendment to MELE:MELE wrote:You must have at least 12 hazard creatures in your play deck. Several types of cards only count as half a creature for this purpose:
- A creature that is also playable as an event (e.g., Nazgûl, Mouth of Sauron, Shelob, etc.)
- A Dragon “Ahunt” or “At Home” manifestation
- An agent (Wizard player only)
--- A minion agent (Wizard or Balrog players), or a non-minion agent (always)
If this proposal is not accepted, an additional implication is that it would be reasonable for players to argue that the two non-minion agents were granted character status by the CRF, and could be played as characters by non-Balrog minion/Fallen-wizard players. However, this would fall outside the given definitions of characters, further evidence for the current CRF language being an oversight:
[edited: added Konrad's additional clarifying clause to proposal]MELE wrote:Minion characters have a rusted purple background while hero characters have a blue stone background.
[edited: clarified Balrog and Fallen-Wizard handling]
[edited: clarified second section based on Khamul's suggestion]