Tomorrow marks the launch of the sixth expansion for the extremely successful Legends of Norrath. If you don't already know, LoN is a trading card game existing within the Sony Online Entertainment titles 'EverQuest' and 'EverQuest II'. The new expansion is called "Against the Void" which is a continuation of the Ethernauts story. Featuring new playable avatars and characters, new cards, gameplay and loot, this expansion is sure to be a favorite in LoN circles.

We were fortunate enough to have Joe Alread and Andrea Shubert of the Legends of Norrath team in Denver write us a summery of the cards that we have to show you today. Check out what they have to say after the jump and head on over to the Legends of Norrath website for more information about Against the Void.

Bolan Frostwind
By Joe Alread, Game Designer at Sony Online Entertainment in Denver

Today, we salute the expensive units of Legends of Norrath!

The first thing you'll notice about Bolan Frostwind is that he is Immobile, meaning he can't be moved by any means. Cards such as Decoy or Wind of Force won't work on him. We'll talk more about immobile units and their impact on the game further below.

Before Against the Void, we had only one card that could act alone on a raid against an opposing avatar (Ebon Strongbear). That will all change with the new set as there are a number of new cards that do this, Bolan being only one of them. The biggest difference between Bolan Frostwind and Ebon Strongbear is his ability to ready by paying power. A big difference, indeed! This allows him to win battles much easier than Ebon Strongbear. He'll also be able to exert for damage bonus more easily too.

What makes this ability so important is that with the existence of immobile units, it is going to be harder for unit-based decks to get by chump blockers. Decoy will no longer simply slide immobile blockers away, you'll have to actually raid to destroy them. However, with cards like Bolan Frostwind you'll still be able to get to your opponent's avatar, even if they have pesky Immobile units in the way. So embrace the power of Bolan Frostwind and we hope you're looking forward to Against the Void!

Boots of Despair
By Andrea Shubert, Game Designer at Sony Online Entertainment in Denver

Fighters in Legends of Norrath have had fantastic footwear since day one. Boots of the Storm have been the basis of many decks, leading Fighters to attack their opponent directly. But what if you prefer to be above the fray, and let your units destroy the other player? Against The Void features the footwear for you.

Boots of Despair allows you do dish out targeted damage. While your avatar is attacking, you can turn any spare card in your hand into a Kick . That extra point of damage might be enough to clear a path for your units to go after the opposing avatar after the quest phase. It is also a great way to set up a combo with Hundred Fists . Use boots to deal out damage to a large unit, then score Hundred Fists to destroy that unit once and for all.

One power to one damage is a great ratio. But you need to discard a card and also exert the boots… the best way to abuse this is to find ways to ready your item during combat. Find ways to include Bloodlust, Scream of Hate or Dark Empathy to get the most out of this plan.

Since you are planning to discard cards, use that to your advantage. You can include "corner-case" cards designed to hurt particular strategies. If your opponent isn't using those strategies, discard those cards to the boots. You could also discard units you plan to bring back from the dead using Infernal Sacrament .

Other quick notes: Boots of Despair has 1 defense. If you are depending on units to win the game, every extra point of defense you can get out of your items can mean the difference between surviving those few extra turns or not. Also, If you have a fighter AvA deck that can reliably get into combat without Boots of the Storm, use these Boots of Despair instead.

Boots of Despair is more complex to use than the other foot items available to Fighters. However, they will reward the tricky player who can maximize both its costs and its effects.

Betrayal
By Joe Alread, Game Designer at Sony Online Entertainment in Denver

The last few sets of Legends of Norrath have brought new meaning to a player's faction. Once Light or Shadow, players are now able to "cash in" that faction for some very cool and powerful abilities. While cool by itself, there are other things coming in Against the Void that will allow you to augment changing your faction.

Betrayal is a card that can get out of hand quickly if you have ways of bouncing your faction back and forth easily. The key is to set your faction by playing a card, and then setting it back to neutral with the same card as it's being played (Ogre Mercenary is a perfect example of this). Imagine the following play sequence (assume you're at 9 Shadow faction with Betrayal out):

1. Play Ogre Mercenary and move to Shadow, gaining 1 power.

2. Set your faction back to 5 Shadow with the mercenary to gain 2 power (essentially, making the Ogre a free card play)

3. Because you went from Shadow back to neutral, you gain an additional power.

Now granted this is assuming a lot, but there are plenty of cards that allow you to repeatedly move your faction back (Bixie Collector and Ice Crystal Staff are a couple of examples). So really, in the above combo all you had to do was play 2 cards: Betrayal and a card that can set your faction back to Neutral as soon as you play it. With the actions above you've essentially played a free Ogre Mercenary and gained a net bonus of 2 power!

Betrayal will get better and better too as more cards get created that change your faction, so keep a lookout for those and we hope you enjoy Against the Void!