Hello everybody! Suffering under the depredations of “The Goat that Rides” jcwamma, it seems that House Maester Xelcor has failed to keep up the unrelenting pace, and has been shipped off for corrective behaviour at The Dreadfor-oh no, wait, he’s back already. Meanwhile, Grandmaester Johannes has been rendered incapacitated after staring at the Citadel astrolabe for hours on end, but we do actually have five of us after all. So without further ado, let’s see how much the quality of work has dropped…
Blackhaven Rider (2.6 Average)
Hagen – 2.5 out of 5
The effect is ok I guess, but missing the Rhllor trait makes him just a bad Asshai Priestess. Of course the advantage could be much higher with a single loyal bomb in play, but I’d prefer running a safer and more effective card instead of one that could not hit at all.
hagarrr – 3 out of 5
The monocon status does limit this character a bit, but then again it is really easy to play this card and get some incremental advantage in the board state for the turn. A consideration for Bara Brotherhood I imagine depending on available deck slots.
jcwamma – 3 out of 5
This is a high 3 – it’s just missing a second icon to get higher up. But this is pretty reliable impactful kneel. The dual-sidedness can easily be mitigated through clever deckbuilding, and the fact that it’s Enters Play not Marshalled gives it further playability. Nice card all-round.
Von Wibble – 2 out of 5
Seems good on paper for Brotherhood, after all you get a free kneel, right? But for every time you get a kneel on Balon Greyjoy, there will be times where its just a Messenger Raven, and on top of that you just get a monocon with nothing special.
Xelcor – 2.5 out of 5
It is for sure better against some factions then others. GJ has very few playable loyal chars under 5 cost while some other factions have a decent amount of loyal chuds. If you hit a 6 cost or higher it has quite some worth but it can miss or hit targets that are not worth the 3 gold you pay for this body.
Robert’s Rebellion (4.4 Average)
Hagen – 5 out of 5
A claim 2 meant to be played early for no downside brings me back to 1.0 Retaliation times. With crazy stats and safe traits this might be my new favourite faction plot. A shame I don’t play Baratheon.
hagarrr – 4 out of 5
An excellently statted plot, with a downside that shouldn’t theoretically ever trigger unless you’ve messed up badly. It has better gold and claim than A Clash of Kings, and as such is probably a good finisher for the faction. I’m not sold on it being an early game play to avoid the drawback; aggro isn’t really a thing in Baratheon decks, and I don’t think this plot would push that enough. But then if your opponent sets up weak in military and/or intrigue, having an opportunity to punish that on turn one is really nice.
jcwamma – 4 out of 5
You play this in decks where you don’t get to the end of that challenge phase when you flip it, if that wasn’t clear. So my advice is, read this as a blank 5926 and judge accordingly.
Von Wibble – 4.5 out of 5
Great stats for a closer plot, or for just making a big aggro push. If the opponent can win a power challenge against a Baratheon deck after having to defend against or eat a 2 claim military challenge then you timed this plot wrong or were going to lose anyway.
Xelcor – 4.5 out of 5
A very good in-faction plot for Bara, good as a opener for aggression or a finisher later on where you don’t have to suffer the drawback.
The Knight (3.2 Average)
Hagen – 2.5 out of 5
The design is super interesting, but compared to other claim raisers (Barristan or Garlan) this doesn’t work in early rounds and giving back 2 cards to the opponent is worse than discarding one card yourself. The cost/keyword ratio is not ideal and I’m also not sure your main priority in a pillage deck would be raising claim.
hagarrr – 4 out of 5
This design is really good for using the House Harlaw theme of reserve choke, and applying that to make an impact on the current game state. One problem in Harlaw decks is that once you’ve spent a turn blowing out the opponent’s hand by lowering reserve, the lowering reserve tech doesn’t do much thereafter, so it is great to have something that keeps those effects useful. Being able to apply claim raises in each challenge as the attacker is really strong, but the risk/reward of giving your opponent characters is a fine line to tread. I am especially grateful that The Knight is not usually active on turn 1 for blowout games too!
jcwamma – 2 out of 5
OK, dead dupes exist. I know dupes exist, sometimes I even play them. But I think more often than not, you’re going to be stuck giving your opponent back actually helpful things here, just for claim raise. I’m comparing it to, say, 6g Garlan and I think this is a more wanting trigger. There are some obvious applications here stopping me from rating it a 1, and it could particularly be a very interesting Melee card.
Von Wibble – 4 out of 5
So, to get the claim raise, The Knight doesn’t have to be in the challenge, and this can be triggered once in each challenge. The only restriction is just how quickly you can build up a large number of characters in your opponent’s discard pile. If anyone can do this its Greyjoy. Chances are the characters you give to your opponent will have to be discarded for reserve so once you get this engine going it is here to stay. The obvious comparison is to Garlan Tyrell, the main difference being that you don’t need a knight attacking alone to get this going. However, the other obvious comparisons are Greyjoy’s other 6 and 7 cost characters, all of whom are really good. Can you find room for the Knight as well?
Xelcor – 3.5 out of 5
Even though it looks good on paper I haven’t seen it be that powerhouse of a claim raise it could be. Giving your opponent back resources can backfire a bit, and if it is to early in the game you might not even be able to trigger it. Overall very solid for the reserve choke decks.
Harren the Black (2.8 Average)
Hagen – 2 out of 5
I’m glad Greyjoy didn’t get the strongest tapestry after already getting the strongest Stronghold. Finding a target for this wouldn’t be difficult, the problem is it only fits a pillage deck we don’t quite have at the moment. The passive could work great in a choke theme, but at the same time your investment could be higher than the reward without the assurance of seeing it work (see the difference with Bara tapestry).
hagarrr – 3 out of 5
This Tapestry is a fascinating one; en masse deck discard providing you have the board state to initiate the effect. It seems very scary to me once it gets going, but I suspect that getting it going is much easier said than done. For the tempo faction to get a unique location and set this Tapestry on it will likely mean being behind on the board and struggling to get pillage triggers through consistently. A card for a longer game then, and don’t sleep on that passive effect either, as I think it might be more impactful than people think from turn 3 onward.
jcwamma – 3 out of 5
One of the nastier tapestries. Blocking economy is the main draw for me here, but obviously combining it with any number of Pillage cards will be great too. And Greyjoy are one of the faction more likely to have interesting unique locations to stick this on, upping the value more.
Von Wibble – 3 out of 5
Of all the factions, Greyjoy are the ones who will find it easiest to get a unique location out to attach this to. The passive is annoying early game as it can prevent a lot of decks from getting any kind of decent economy going. But can Greyjoy afford the tempo hit themselves?
Xelcor – 3 out of 5
This is quite a big tempo loss for GJ and they don’t like that normally but it is a great effect and they don’t lack unique locations. People experiment with it and it can win you some games on its own if you hit the correct locations.
Qyburn (3.0 Average)
Hagen – 4 out of 5
Great addiction for every shadow deck and maybe even non-shadow ones. Reviving a character that could you win you the game is extremely thematic and seems strong enough. Of course you need to have a worthy target and against some decks it might not be easy, but shadows decks are always prepared with a few resets anyway. Bonus point for making a Qyburn playable.
hagarrr – 3.5 out of 5
Is that Aegon in disguise? An Aegon that is more appropriately balanced for the game of course… With one icon less, a point of STR more, and the character being removed from the game, I’d say it is still a good card. For just 3 gold in any given round you can enter multiple characters to the board of decent value, and I don’t think that will ever be bad.
jcwamma – 4 out of 5
The sneaky downside of taking uniques out of the dead pile is the only thing to really dislike here. For a total of 5 gold (but also a leaves-shadows trigger), you get a free body that can be claimsoak or potentially turn the tables on an opponent, if you’re able to get a Drogon or whatever. And obviously Clever Feint exists. Good stuff.
Von Wibble – 1.5 out of 5
Compared to Aegon he comes out quite poorly, having a non-Army restriction and removing the card from play instead of to your hand, as well as requiring a dead pile search instead of a full deck search – plus it being an opponent’s dead pile makes it much harder to set up any great tricks. The shadow ability is over-costed.
Xelcor – 2 out of 5
It looks very unreliable to include in decks most often. Sometimes you will hit something amazing and a renown character can win you the game but probably he will be cut from most lists in the end.
Lann the Clever (3.0 Average)
Hagen – 2 out of 5
Lannister for sure don’t have problems with the cost or finding the right target, but are they really willing to run this? For 3 golds there are plenty of other options that barely see play: Chamber for getting powers, Lannisport for draw, Tower for jumping your own characters back. And if you really want the gold bonus, there are cheaper ways to do this anyway.
hagarrr – 3 out of 5
Another interesting Tapestry, albeit one that initially appears less scary than Harren the Black. Again, I’m not sure how viable it will be to get the inherently vulnerable Tapestry set up and have the board state to consistently trigger it (which reduce the board state again), but opening up opportunities to access gold for intrigue winning tricks (A Lannister’s Honor, Hands of Gold, Trial by Combat etc.) or even just gaining power seems really nice. I am particularly taken with the idea of using this on Queen’s Assassins and Red Keep Spies too for recurring removal triggers so I like this card quite a bit.
jcwamma – 3 out of 5
I mean yes, it’s got clear applications. And it’s one of the safer to use in terms of tempo, given that it can pay for itself and Lanni can already cheat things into play for free. But it’s also one of the less “ambitious” tapestries. A useful tool, not a powerful swing. Which, y’know, is fine. But a middle rating.
Von Wibble – 4 out of 5
The Winkler himself! Works very nicely with Lanni’s many put into play tricks to negate the costs and provide yet more money for further challenge tricks. Usefully for Lannister many of the put into play tricks are themselves unique locations so its all good.
Xelcor – 3 out of 5
It is a good card and does exactly what Lannister wants to do. Just getting all the pieces together is quite hard sometimes and when you rely on it to work with other cards and you don’t find it your deck can just fall apart.
Ser Willam Wells (3.8 Average)
Hagen – 4 out of 5
A Shadow City Bastard on steroids is probably welcomed in almost every build. In comparison he loses the surprise factor and can’t be triggered more than once, but hitting without restrictions is definitely strong.
hagarrr – 4 out of 5
Wow, another overpowered Martell card, what the hell?! Probably a 1x in all Martell decks until the end of time. What’s not to like about a card that can compete in a challenge and then afterward, kill himself to remove the icons from your opponent’s best character so you can win the game? Not as flashy or wide-ranging as Imry Florent, but still an excellent card for all Martell decks.
jcwamma – 3 out of 5
I wanted to rate this low, then I remembered Orphan of the Greenblood from first edition and thought maybe it was great. Then I remembered that Orphan costed 0. Being able to use this in a challenge and then trigger it, or use it straight away, or even just use him for claimsoak, makes him quite a versatile little 2-for-2 bicon. The only real problem is obviously him being unique. But I think it’s a very solid 1-of.
Von Wibble – 4 out of 5
Decent icons and a useful ability. Easy 1 of in Martell.
Xelcor – 4 out of 5
I cant really imagine a Martell deck without him from now on. Good trait good stats and a universal icon removal. I would say Willam is one of the best 1 of characters in the game.
Red Mountains (1.5 Average)
Hagen – 1.5 out of 5
Super confusing card (sorry DT). By just reading it you’d give it a 1, then you start thinking on some cool combinations and be like, this is a 4 in the right deck, then you realize it doesn’t work on A Southron’s Peace turn and go back to 1, then you understand opponent cannot pass challenges, and go back up. Anyway the times when people where afraid of Viper Eyes or Vengeance for Elia are definitely passed, so why waste a card in forcing them to do something they’ll do anyway?
hagarrr – 2 out of 5
I don’t think I would like to play against this card. I know I’m going to be hit with Vengeance for Elia, a Bastard Daughter, His Viper Eyes (yes all three of them probably), Ghaston Grey, or any of those vindictive Martell effects we all know and hate so much. Fortunately, I’m not convinced this card is that good in the current meta environment, and I fervently hope it never ever is.
jcwamma – 1 out of 5
Don’t get me wrong, decks can run this and use it to troll you and it will feel annoying. But Martell have so many more potently-annoying cards than this, I doubt it finds a home.
Von Wibble – 1.5 out of 5
Despite the rating I like this card. This ability works really nicely with Martell’s various lose to win tech, such as Desert Raiders. The only issue is that most other instances of this tech don’t see so much play. A few more cards like this and I’m more on a 4 out of 5.
Xelcor – 1.5 out of 5
This card can have some use but it is very niche, you can force your opponent to do the military challenge and set it up that you get huge benefits out of it. The problem is getting all the pieces together.
Maester Harmune (3.2 Average)
Hagen – 3.5 out of 5
The nice artwork shows the face of your opponent when he discards your Tywin and also draws a card for that. Provided that you’re running this guy only in choke decks with White Tree and Meager Contribute, he will do a lot of work there. I don’t like luck based cards, but the potential of drawing one per round in marshalling is amazing.
hagarrr – 4 out of 5
A fairly cheap card that can provide you with card draw in a choke deck is really good I think. He has similar stats to Grand Maester Pycelle (Core), but doesn’t need to win a challenge, can trigger twice per round, and can often get you the card/s in the marshaling phase where you can bolster your options and decide if you need it this round or not. Great.
jcwamma – 4 out of 5
Harmune only really goes in one deck, but I think he’s smashing in it, frankly. Marshalling phase (probably) draw, seeding the discard pile, and not even limited 1/round. All on a relatively cheap body, to boot.
Von Wibble – 1.5 out of 5
A very specific trigger here, but if you can get that going you have a fairly reliable card draw going. Thing is, happy as Harmune looks, his booze just can’t compete with Three-Finger Hobb’s stew.
Xelcor – 3 out of 5
Very nice card, fuels the discard and can give you draw. I don’t think you will have him 3 times even if you can benefit from both effects.
Saved by the Watch (2.9 Average)
Hagen – 4.5 out of 5
Not happy about all this characters stealing support, and this one looks absolutely scary. It’s basically a Ward with no limitation and no downside, and it also costs 0? Sure, you’re only taking a character that’s already leaving the board so the impact is lower and it can be canceled for 0, but there’s no reason not to try the “trick” anyway and run this 3x in every steal deck.
hagarrr – 3 out of 5
Kneeling your faction card to take control of a discarded or sacrificed character seems quite potent. The disclaimer is that if the opponent has any efficient form of attachment removal, they will get the character back. Easy to use attachment control is still fairly rare I think among all factions, but if you can still use your Coldhands or Mutiny etc before they do so then you’re still up in the exchange. The Maester Colemon trick is unsavoury, and I really hope that never happens to me otherwise I’ll flip a table.
jcwamma – 3 out of 5
This is a weird 3, because it’s either a 5 if the opponent has no attachment control or a 1 if they do. I don’t think the event sees tournament play because you can’t guarantee which one it is, but I think in the average game fired up on the Iron Throne it’s a 3. Yes there’s a thing you can do with Colemon, I don’t care.
Von Wibble – 2 out of 5
Works with Marched to the Wall, and makes the Stark match up a lot easier. But being a condition means you probably get rid of the character as soon as possible, so other recruitment tech may do a better job for you.
Xelcor – 2 out of 5
This card is very hard to use, and if it gets removed you give back the character that could have been just gone. There is some trick with it and Maester Colemon to get whatever you want but it is very fragile.
Bolton Loyalist (3.1 Average)
Hagen – 2.5 out of 5
Military/Intrigue is a weird combination to see on a white card, and the huge strength makes him very interesting if you’re looking to increase your green icon presence. That said, is he going to be enough to defend your hand? And would you be happy of giving him to the opponent in a deck that tries to clear the board? I see the point of triggering a sacrifice for Robb Stark, but there are probably easier ways to do this.
hagarrr – 3.5 out of 5
An over-statted character with a “drawback”? What could go wrong? I like that it can provide another source of sacrifice triggers; whether it’s to trigger Robb, Fat Cat, or Wyman, it doesn’t really matter, and it can threaten ‘win by 5’ effects alone too. I would say it’s not great if you get behind on the board state, however not many factions can pump out low cost units like Stark can.
jcwamma – 4 out of 5
Sweet tempo body, just don’t lose intrigue challenges jackass.
Von Wibble – 3 out of 5
Great stats for the cost, he can trigger win by 5s alone! Also provides an on-demand sacrifice, so the “drawback” isn’t even that bad. However, there can be times where your board position doesn’t let you take full advantage of that – this is not a great draw if you are losing.
Xelcor – 2.5 out of 5
Stark can get quite some benefits from sacrificing effects, and if you don’t mind removing Bran the 3rd time then this is quite a good body. But I don’t think it is filling a slot that needs to be filled more often then not.
Raventree Hall (2.5 Average)
Hagen – 2.5 out of 5
In the right deck this could be a guaranteed gold every round, even 2 sometimes, but differently than Stone Drum or Balon Solar, you’re likely getting it in challenge phase when Stark probably don’t need it. This would have fitted more a faction like Lannister or Tyrell, here I’m not so sure.
hagarrr – 2 out of 5
This will probably gain a gold each round in a Tully deck. Maybe even two sometimes. But what will they spend it on? I’m not inspired by this.
jcwamma – 2 out of 5
If only it wasn’t 1/phase and was 2/phase or even 3, there’d be a lot of fun stuff you could do with this in rush. But the benefit just isn’t big enough to really leverage properly. Maybe in Stark Faith, if that’s even a thing.
Von Wibble – 3 out of 5
Goes in a Fat Cat based deck and is decent in that.
Xelcor – 3 out of 5
It is a Tully card, it is good in Tully and also very nice for setup. If you play big Cat you want this card.
Pink Graces (1.7 Average)
Hagen – 1 out of 5
Oh, the infamous Graces. I know this is a new theme still in development that will probably get better in future, but if I have to rate the card now… well it’s just unplayable. It’s like asking to a Baratheon not to declare power or to a Martell not to declare intrigue. Some things just can’t be changed.
hagarrr – 2 out of 5
Every time I see this card I am struck by the mohawk worn by the Pink Grace on the right. That is probably more impact than this card will have in competitive play though, as the deck that wants this doesn’t exist yet. I do think this card could be interesting in the future though!
jcwamma – 2 out of 5
Love the idea. Either build away from Targ’s strength, or actually bother to use their claim replacement effects. One for the future. But for now, most Targ decks would rather smash.
Von Wibble – 2 out of 5
A 2 for 2 bicon in Targ is already decent as they have lacked for power icons in particular. However, for most Targ decks that passive text is a drawback. I’m not convinced a deck exists for them yet.
Xelcor – 1.5 out of 5
Targaryen isn’t quite ready for this card outside of having temple of Graces as well. So outside of having both out this doesn’t do much, and against some decks you gift your opponents cards mostly in control matchups and you really don’t want that.
Temple of the Graces (1.9 Average)
Hagen – 1 out of 5
I guess everything that I said earlier applies to this as well, with the addiction of: if you’re actually able to win military, why would you apply intrigue? Nice artwork though.
hagarrr – 2.5 out of 5
Another card that seemingly goes against the entire ethos of the Targaryen faction. I like the possibility of a Targaryen deck in future to play the intrigue/reset game by clearing out the opponent’s hand before controlling the remaining options. I also think some Dothraki decks might use this as a 1x to turn excess military claims into intrigue claims. However, like Pink Graces, I suspect the time for this to truly shine isn’t now.
jcwamma – 2 out of 5
More or less see above. This deck doesn’t exist yet. But it could!
Von Wibble – 1.5 out of 5
As above, clearly this is pushing a different direction for Targ, but I don’t think the pieces are there yet. If it just knelt any character I’d be very interested to use it but having to run a lot of Graces just for the chance makes it a harder sell.
Xelcor – 2.5 out of 5
Changing claim from 1 challenge type to another most often is quite strong. Targaryen can get quite some claim raise and they are very strong in military. But they also wanna get the board cleared first so it feels a bit like a win more card after you established control already.
Margaery Tyrell (3.9 Average)
Hagen – 4.5 out of 5
The first shadow queen of the game looks impressive both for the artwork and the design. The huge difference with other expensive shadow techs is that she doesn’t trigger with a card coming out of shadows but with cards revealed, making her a much easier and cheap trigger that potentially saves up to 4 golds per round (and draws 2 if they come from deck). I’m eager to see her in play.
hagarrr – 4 out of 5
By revealing cards, Margaery is essentially skipping the steps of drawing a card and paying 2 to place it in shadows, up to twice per round. That seems… really strong. From memory I think there are plenty of effects that reveal cards (Exchange of Information will probably get abused a lot here), but Margaery only works with those cards with the shadows keywords. That likely reins her back from being too abusive, although I suspect many Tyrell decks will be drawing well over 50 cards per game real soon!
jcwamma – 3 out of 5
I like this for card advantage from the deck more than economy advantage from hand. But this being 2/round instead of 1/round is a really cool wrinkle that encourages you to lean into the effect more, and I appreciate that. It’s not a powerful card but it makes me want to build around it.
Von Wibble – 4.5 out of 5
A card to build around, and in a deck with plenty of reveal tech this is effectively providing 2 cards and 4 money per round. However you need a few other pieces to make it work out and have competition with other Marge’s, so its not a card you just slot into a deck.
Xelcor – 3.5 out of 5
Margaery is very cool and plays nice, if you have all the correct things out. She needs a very specific type of deck, you want shadows and cards that reveal but they don’t overlap much and some are not cards you would normally play for value. So it is this weird mix of putting in “not the best” cards in to attempt to make her work. It makes cool decks but the spot of Margaery is a tough battle with 2 other cards that share the name and are quite good.
Gilbert of the Vines (2.5 Average)
Hagen – 2 out of 5
Don’t know the lore, but why is he a character on an event? About the card, let’s run some tests: if you pay 1 to draw 1 it’s not worth it. Pay 2 to draw 2, probably still not worth it? If you start paying 3, 4, 5 you draw 2 choosing the best cards which is great, but you can be cancelled for 0. Let’s not forget that A Rose of Gold costs 1 and let you draw 1 amongst 3 cards.
hagarrr – 3 out of 5
If you squint, it’s pay 2 gold to draw 2 cards, which I’d probably quite like to do in many games. The fact that this card is in Tyrell, which has the most bountiful economy in the game, is just great as it can turn your excess money into draw. You can afford to invest even more with Margaery from this pack, as any shadow cards revealed she can also turn into draw and economy. Good.
jcwamma – 4 out of 5
Pay 2 to draw 2 seems good, am I missing something?
Von Wibble – 1.5 out of 5
A rich man’s MUCH AND MORE!!!! (or whatever people call it these days). The latter is better for Margaery above and the gold cost of 2 to net 1 card seems expensive.
Xelcor – 2 out of 5
It is quite expensive draw in challenges phase the reveal works with some other Tyrell cards but overall it is on the more expensive side for draw in Tyrell.
Little Bird (1.8 Average)
Hagen – 4 out of 5
I have a weakness for Shadow (1) cards, and this is even a non-unique repeatable character! Both players draw a card but you may choose if doing that, and you still got knowledge about the opponent’s next draw. What’s not to like?
hagarrr – 1 out of 5
I’m not sure what happened here. Paying a total of 3 gold to look at the top card of the opponent’s deck and then you both draw a card seems an awful lot like something you wouldn’t want to do, like, ever. I can’t even think of any cute little niche tricks with it. Bin.
jcwamma – 1 out of 5
Nah, the hand knowledge is nowhere near good enough to justify paying 3 for “you each draw one card and I get a bad intrigue monocon”. At least important steps were made to stop it being played with an icon-granting attachment, that would’ve been OP. The one exception, and I’m not going to amend my score from this, is that it’s foolishly opening the door for a potential future infinite combo of taking it in and out of shadows, no? Haven’t all previous “your opponent draws a card” potentially-repeatable effects had to be errata’d to stop this?
Von Wibble – 1 out of 5
There are better ways to get a shadows (1) trigger, and giving your opponent a card for you to gain a card (and have a weak body on the board for 3 cost)? Hard pass.
Xelcor – 2 out of 5
[Editor: Xelcor didn’t write anything here so I can only assume he got distracted whilst trying to consider the proportions of limb length in the art]
The Blue Fork (1.4 Average)
Hagen – 1 out of 5
If money was better than initiative, where does reserve stand? Probably lower than Red Fork, because not many decks can afford the luxury of having a full hand at the end of the round. And most of those decks (NW, Martell) already have better ways to increase reserve.
hagarrr – 1.5 out of 5
A plus 2 to your reserve is pretty good, but I don’t think I’d pay 2 gold for it. As always, I think of a faction that might want to discard it and jump it back into play, and I land on NW (not usually blessed with winning POW by 5) and Lannister (Gold Mine <3). I’m not really sure this is worth it unless you can make The Trident become a thing.
jcwamma – 1 out of 5
What I said about The Red Fork in a previous review, only instead of initiative this is reserve.
Von Wibble – 1.5 out of 5
Same thoughts as the Red Fork, its just too expensive and fiddly for the benefit in general.
Xelcor – 2 out of 5
The forks decks still need to reach a breakthrough in terms of deckbuilding; outside of the Trident I think it will only find a home in NW decks as it is quite a good reserve buff for them. I cant really see it outside of very niche scenarios right now.
Enemies in Every Shadow (3.6 Average)
Hagen – 4 out of 5
I love the design not entirely situational like Duplicity and the fact it provides a benefit when facing non-shadows decks. 4 reserve is harsh but balanced by the income. Considering next cycle is about shadows, I expect this to see a lot of play.
hagarrr – 3.5 out of 5
A plot that targets shadows cards whilst being useful whilst there are none seems really good to me. Eerily similar to A Song of Summer, but with more gold and worse reserve. As a player that likes cards in hand, that reserve is probably going to ensure it never ever makes one of my decks unless shadow decks take over the game. I like the subtle Varys in the art there though.
jcwamma – 4 out of 5
I appreciate the design a lot here, that it’s an anti-shadows card that still has value if against an opponent with no shadows cards. Although honestly, it might actually be the other way round, in that you play this for the STR boost and if your opponent has a card or cards in shadows to disrupt it, at least you might get to discard/kill something from shadows. Honestly the more I look at it, the more I see this as “6 gold conditional blanket +1 that sometimes switches off to grant card advantage” and think it’s probably actually really good. Just need to not care about (or otherwise mitigate) that pesky low reserve.
Von Wibble – 2.5 out of 5
Forces your opponent to use it or lose it as far as shadows tech goes. I like that as a silver bullet it does something even if your opponent has no shadows (does that make it a bronze dart instead?) I’d only take it if the meta is shadows or burn heavy nonetheless – I think there are better 6 gold plots out there.
Xelcor – 4 out of 5
I think this is a very strong plot, if you can somehow benefit from the low reserve and use the discard pile. Against shadow it forces your opponent to use the cards when they maybe not wanna use it or they just lose them. And the STR buff is not to be underestimated. Also the trait isn’t hit by many other plots and with 6 gold it is quite on the high end of utility plots.
The Last Greenseer (3.0 Average)
Hagen – 2 out of 5
Allow me a bit of playful debate here. This plot was limited a month after its release, so it must definitely be a 5, right? Well… no. There was a prospective of having another mind trick start with Behest, but without it just feels too risky. It’s clearly meant as an alternative opening a la Summer Harvest, because you’ll never risk it midgame where the chances of hitting Valar, Coppers or You Win or you Die are higher, but the handicap of playing it blindfolded is much higher. Super niche card that was crippled even before it proved to be dangerous at all.
hagarrr – 3 out of 5
Hilarious three eyed birb. Swapping the base values in terms of gold values can be a bit hit or miss, and initiative is already determined by the time those values are swapped. Swapping claim values is great fun though; snatching someone’s 0 claim from them sounds like an epic mistake only a co-reviewer would make! I don’t think this will be in too many competitive decks just because of the unreliable/inconsistent nature of the effect, but this is a fun card to have in the pool for sure.
jcwamma – 3 out of 5
Well this is a lot of fun. A good meta-call card, or alternatively if you’re playing a disruption deck that doesn’t care about your own gold just being able to say “for this next round I want my opponent to have a 4 gold plot, regardless of anything else”. And of course against aggro getting to limit them to 1 claim is lovely too. Just don’t flip it against Valar M!
Von Wibble – 4 out of 5
This is one for the high skill players (or Tricksy Bird fanciers). If you see a lot of the Maiden as an opener then you get a 4 gold swing from this, which is decent tempo at that stage of the game. It’s also a great one to reveal against an aggro plot to switch the claim around. In a Wars to Come deck I think this is an auto-include, and it’s a tough one to turn down in Martell in general thanks to Behest.
Xelcor – 3 out of 5
With the interaction with behest being removed you kind of have to guess when you will hurt your opponent the most. Most often you wanna hit the gold plot but against some control decks maybe hitting Counting Coppers is the better target. Overall playing it blind you will always gamble and it can backfire as well (like hitting VM or a plot with even lower gold value).
Card Averages
4.4 Robert’s Rebellion
3.9 Margaery Tyrell
3.8 Ser Willam Wells
3.6 Enemies in Every Shadow
3.2 Maester Harmune
3.2 The Knight
3.1 Bolton Loyalist
3.0 Lann the Clever
3.0 Qyburn
3.0 The Last Greenseer
2.9 Saved by the Watch
2.8 Harren the Black
2.6 Blackhaven Rider
2.5 Gilbert of the Vines
2.5 Raventree Hall
1.9 Temple of the Graces
1.8 Little Bird
1.7 Pink Graces
1.5 Red Mountains
1.4 The Blue Fork
Wow, who knew that despite getting the most 1’s, Little Bird wouldn’t even be in the bottom three of this pack? Why is Von Wibble so angry in this review with some miserly ratings? And are plots with good numbers just the best cards in the game irrespective of ability? Oh, and if you want to engage in Hagen’s playful debate, don’t hesitate to tag him in Discord for some nice lengthy Maesterly discussion…
