Hello, Thrones Community!
We are excited to bring you the second entry in the Mists of Memory cycle, entitled Children of Summer. As with the previous chapter, A True Telling, this pack intends to provide players with new variants of familiar characters, create innovative interactions, and encourage experimentation with under-explored elements. As befits the pack’s name, Children of Summer adds a number of small, subtly beneficial characters to your collection – while nonetheless boasting some potentially devastating cards, lest you forget that winter is coming! The pack will be officially released on the 18th of March, 2024; however, the files are available below to download now.
One example of a small but potentially significant new character would be Acolyte of the Shadow, a non-unique R’hllor character for House Baratheon who gains Insight while there are cards in an opponent’s shadow area. While this obviously benefits from facing dedicated Shadow decks, it can also make use of events like Banished from the Light and Full of Terrors. Joining these events is King Robert’s Legacy, which allows an attacking King to take control of a defeated defender, evoking the changes of heart demonstrated by Houses Fell, Grandison, and Cafferen following the Battle of Summerhall.
As one might expect, House Greyjoy’s additions are less concerned with subtly or camaraderie. The mechanical theme of Ironborn invaders utilising Winter plots receives a new entry with Ralf Kenning, Castellan of Moat Cailin. Just as his castle uses Winter plots to reduce an opponent’s reserve and initiative, this castellan uses such plots to reduce reserve and income. Greyjoy’s other addition in this pack is the Old Captain, uninspiring once knelt but gaining both Pillage and Renown while standing, and so ideally paired with cards like Every Captain is a King and Maiden’s Bane.
This pack’s mixture of small helpers and big problems may best be seen with House Lannister, in which we find a new Tywin Lannister alongside the final third of the kitten trifecta with Boots. The Lord boasts Intimidate and the ability to reward victory with 1 power for every 3 gold in your pool, while the Cat humbly offers Renown to the low-cost character to which it is attached.
Embracing Summer more directly is House Martell, with the Old Hawk of House Fowler using such plots to give Martell characters with STR 6 or higher renown; the Lord himself has insufficient STR for this, but could easily achieve it through A Song of Summer. Alternatively, a Martell player could embrace an absence of STR with the Throne of Dorne, using a loss in dominance to move any Martell card – not merely character – into shadows…
The Night’s Watch is quite familiar with the template of small and cheap characters, but the Highborn Recruit continues themes seen with Sentinel Stand by restricting benefits exclusively to characters with 1 or fewer challenge icons. This new Recruit, he can reward such a character with either Insight or Renown. Speaking of restrictions, a new Condition to compliment Craven is seen with Insubordination; if a challenge is declared against you with the attached character as the only attacker, you can simply choose to kill them!
Moving on from the Night’s Watch, we find a familiar face – or rather muzzle – has finally arrived at Winterfell, with House Stark now receiving its own instance of Ghost. This character continues the tradition of saving Jon Snow should he be killed, while also rewarding a successfully-attacking Direwolf with card draw. The other card joining House Stark, Taste the Blood, is far less straight-forward – though hopefully just as useful. It relies upon a successful Intrigue challenge in which you control a participating Old Gods character, and allows you to trigger the when revealed ability of any plot card in any player’s used pile. The potential to trigger this from a successful defence, as well as its interactions with Agendas like Battle of the Trident and “The Rains of Castamere” makes this Dream a potential nightmare for your opponent.
Returning to comfortable simplicity with a small but effective character, we have Arstan Whitebeard of House Targaryen. This Companion of Daenerys Targaryen is extremely cost-effective, but relies on a Lord or Lady in order to kneel – and thus participate in challenges. He is also mysteriously incompatible with Ser Barristan Selmy… But speaking of vanished Lord Commander’s of the Kingsguard, an old tragedy of House Targaryen receives new life with the ruin of Summerhall. This loyal location has the ability to kill any character whose STR is reduced to 0 via card effects, greatly proliferating the faction’s access to burn. Cards like Grey Worm, Astapor, and The Field of Fire now have lethal potential.
Remaining with a theme of tragedy, we move from Summerhall to King Renly’s “knights of summer” – specifically, Ser Parmen Crane, last of the Rainbow Guard. As with the other Kingsguard exclusive to House Tyrell, this characters is relatively weak alone, but gains Renown when accompanied by his sworn brothers. An alternative to having so many small participating characters might be to have none at all, while using cards like Renly’s Peach and A Wall of Roses to remove your opponent’s characters as well; if one successfully ends the challenge with neither winner nor loser through this means, House Tyrell’s new Summer plot card Chivalry of the South rewards you with 2 power for your faction.
And now we come to Children of Summer‘s neutral cards, the first of whom also serves as the chapter’s namesake: Jalabhar Xho of the Summer Isles. An exiled Lord willing to petition whomever sits the Iron Throne for help in reclaiming his homeland, this Ally is versatile and cheap – but willing to follow whomever pays 1 power during the Marshaling Phase to win his support. Moving north to The Eyrie we have a classic set piece of House Arryn in The Moon Door. In addition to allowing you to resolve ties in both dominance and initiative, the kneeling of this location during a challenge – such as through Bronze Yohn Royce, Anya Waynwood, or other House Arryn characters – allows you to kill a participating character with a printed STR of 3 or lower.
Finally, we have the plot and agenda added by this pack, A Southron Peace and The Gold Price. Revealing the Edict and Summer plot allows you choose an opponent and prevent any Military challenges from occurring between the two of you – until you reveal a new plot, of course. The agenda is even more insidious and controlling, allowing you to take control of any character randomly discarded from an opponent’s hand once per phase. At the end of that phase, unless you can pay their cost, they are discarded once again.
With Children of Summer comes a range of small, affordable, characters whose utility is found under specific criteria. It also brings new means of preying upon such weak and easily bought individuals, as well as some high-cost heavy-hitter we hope feel worth the price! We hope you enjoy this second chapter in the Mists of Memory cycle, and look forward to bringing you the third entry in the next few months.
