Ah, dear reader, if you seek wisdom in these hastily scrawled accounts, know that we are but weary souls, burdened with the weight of many weeks spent in the study of things both arcane and mundane. Our bones ache from the long hours spent in candle-lit chambers, poring over texts that have grown yellow with age and dust. Our minds, once sharp as Valyrian Steel, now wane like the moon in its last quarter, though we yet cling to what fragments of insight remain.
It has been said that the pursuit of knowledge is a noble endeavour, and indeed, there is truth in this, though the pursuit itself has oft left us ragged, tangled in its hidden thorns. What was once a journey of passion and curiosity has, for us, become a tedious trudge—a forced march through the ever-deepening mire of information. The tides of progress, ever relentless, have swept away the calm shores of certainty, and now we find ourselves adrift in the shadowy seas of unending change.
We are not fools. We know well that this age, this era of upheaval and transformation, has brought forth advancements beyond what we could have imagined in our youth. The wheel of time continues to turn, each revolution casting new light over the dark shadows of knowledge. And yet, we cannot help but wonder: in the pursuit of greater heights, have we lost something essential? Has the pursuit of progress eroded the very foundations upon which wisdom once stood?
This pack review, then, is not merely an attempt to catalogue the innovations of our time. Rather, it is a reflection—a weary look back upon what has been gained, and perhaps, what has been lost. We do not claim to have all the answers, nor the strength to offer sweeping judgments. But we do hope, in our exhaustion, to offer a moment of pause—a chance to consider whether, in the rush to forge new paths, we have ignored the wisdom of those who walked these roads before us.
Thus, we invite you to read on, not with the fervour of those seeking triumphs yet to be won, but with the quiet contemplation of those who have seen much, and now only wish to understand the greater tapestry of it all…
Maester Cressen (3.2 Average)
Hagen – 4 out of 5
Last time I said Shadow (1) characters are amazing my fellow companions all rated 1. I’m sure they won’t make the same mistake again. New Cressen is not Little Bird because he only fits Conclave decks, but in them he fits beautifully.
jcwamma – 4 out of 5
Only goes in Conclave decks obviously, but he’s exceptional there and actually probably takes the place of the original. 4 cards plus claim soak for 3 gold is very, very strong.
Johannes – 2.5 out of 5
Solid Conclave card which works as a pseudo draw. I guess you want Marwyn with this though. And then you might want to have the core set Cressen to clear Milk from Marwyn. So might just not make the cut in the end.
Von Wibble – 2 out of 5
If you have access to him and aren’t running Conclave, you run the core version, otherwise you have chosen…poorly. If you are running Conclave you probably run 1 of each version. Conclave isn’t an especially strong deck, so good as the ability is I can’t rate higher than this.
Xelcor – 3.5 out of 5
His rating would be lower if I consider him outside of conclave but I don’t think there is much of a reason to ever play him outside of a conclave deck. He can be quite a good draw engine with getting up to 4 cards and you have an interesting choice if you want him or the other Cressen.
Deepwood Motte (1.9 Average)
Hagen – 2 out of 5
I like the artwork and the effect. What I don’t really like is playing Winter plots in Baratheon. If you’re brave enough you could try to make it work in a Karstark deck (without the Winter agenda).
jcwamma – 2 out of 5
Bara have consistent location kneel already. This giving you a non-smuggler route isn’t bad, and I’ll always be interested in a 0g non-limited location, but I imagine even in a winter deck this is far from an auto-include.
Johannes – 1 out of 5
I just don’t think Bara with Winter plots is a thing. Bara has a lot of better location control with Smugglers with better synergy. I guess it’s cheap and some Bara decks could run double Winter Festival but all in all, I don’t think it will see play.
Von Wibble – 2.5 out of 5
Bara winter isn’t really a thing, so this is a seed card for now. That said, if you just run a couple of winter plots – Withering Cold and First Snow for example, then this provides a setup friendly kicker ability for those. It also provides a cheap option to attach The Laughing Storm to if you run that.
Xelcor – 2 out of 5
For a 0 cost location this can actually do a lot, but Baratheon isn’t the faction to play only winter plots most of the time so the usability is quite limited. I cant imagine it will see a lot of play and it also doesn’t work well as a choke card because it can’t hit limited locations. You could gamble that your opponent plays winter cards but that is very unreliable at best.
Maester Joseran (1.9 Average)
Hagen – 2 out of 5
Another interesting Conclave tool, but this old fashioned maester is loyal, a big statement on where he might end up being played. Right now, the answer is probably “nowhere”.
jcwamma – 2 out of 5
This is a funny way of working well for Maesters while also functioning as mill. Until you remember that Greyjoy can’t really reliably win by milling, rather it’s by the synergistic pillage effects, discard pile manipulation, etc., and this doesn’t play into that. And then you remember that Conclave isn’t exactly built around winning initiative. But it’s a relatively cheap card and the upside is clear.
Johannes – 2 out of 5
Three cost power monocon probably doesn’t make the cut for Conclave decks. But I think it’s a solid one of in a dedicated mill deck.
Von Wibble – 1 out of 5
Do Conclave want to go first? In general I’d say not, so you aren’t going to get reliable triggers. Cressen above is a better shout for that I think. Out of Conclave, are you using a 3 cost slot to “mill” an opponents card? Probably not. It wouldn’t be the first time, but am I missing something here?
Xelcor – 2.5 out of 5
Looks like he is only playable in GJ Conclave, he looks okay. I heard many talk that this is just an extra draw and that he is pretty good I don’t quite know about that. I feel GJ can do more with 3 gold then this in Conclave, but you for sure can get his effect off very reliable. Of course I can see him being a 1 of.
Winterfell (3.4 Average)
Hagen – 3.5 out of 5
This is actually refreshing enough to be a Greyjoy card. It bears a heavy name, but the final result looks interesting and I hope it will open to some cool applications. It just takes a bit of courage from Greyjoy players to see if this actually happens. Losing initiative hurts, but stealth will probably do the trick anyway.
jcwamma – 4 out of 5
This card’s payoff is super-strong, and I like it a lot. The fact that it’s a tempo hit (and non-Warship at that) keeps it balanced. The -2 Initiative *kinda* does, but usually a Greyjoy deck actively trying to win initiative wins it by more than 2, so I feel like that’s less vital than you might think.
Johannes – 2.5 out of 5
This is a very hard card to rate. It’s quite costly and it has anti-synergy with unopposed tech GJ uses. On the other hand, the effect can win you the game. It’s super swingy and I think it will never be consistent enough to see a lot of competitive play. But it will be super annoying for some decks to play against. With no limitations for the character you can steal, you can just take a key renown character and win the game- Don’t like the design.
Von Wibble – 3.5 out of 5
Yes, the initiative hit is real, but you have boosters elsewhere to ensure you still get to go first, and at that point you have repeatable recruiting ability. Oh yeah, you have to win a challenge unopposed. Like that’s hard to do. In Greyjoy, that basically reads “win a challenge or have your opponent play sub optimally”.
Xelcor – 3.5 out of 5
I have a bit mixed feelings about this, this effect can be quite strong at some points and sometimes it doesn’t help you at all, for example when your opponent goes first and kneels everything (in that situation you can still manipulate the board a bit). But you can also steal characters with power on them even if you cant use them and win with your opponents renown.
The -2 initiative hurts a lot though and you do take a tempo hit if you don’t get a challenge out of it when you play it. You can’t underestimate this card but it doesn’t fit that well in established GJ decks right now.
Tywin’s Whisperer (3.0 Average)
Hagen – 4 out of 5
So, without going too into deep on how many ways of returning to hand Lannister has, you can just play First Snow to have a guaranteed free ambush, getting power icon and stealth, saving yourself from military claim or setting up a Marched? I guess it’s time to switch your Burned Men.
jcwamma – 3 out of 5
Finally, the Tywin’s Stratagem synergy we’ve all been gagging for! Cancel the online petitions, folks! I mean, it’s fine. If you’re reliably triggering the reaction it’s actually really efficient when compared to the likes of Burned Men. And obviously First Snow is its friend in a big way.
Johannes – 1.5 out of 5
I guess this has synergy with Lanni’s cards that return characters to opponent’s hand. The thing is, that generally you rather use “Hands of Gold” and Tower of the Hand to bounce bigger characters back to hand and there are not enough slots for cards like Tywin’s Stratagem. And when you have card like Catamere and A Lannister’s Honor, you just kill those chuds instead of returning them to hand. So this card is just going to be too niche to actually see a lot of play.
Von Wibble – 3 out of 5
Works really nicely with Tywin’s Strategem, though of course you’d want more synergy to justify that card’s inclusion, First Snow being a nice option for example. A decent card for the cost, as long as you do run enough tricks to trigger it.
Xelcor – 3.5 out of 5
At first I heavily underestimated that card but knowing how great it is with First Snow of Winter and with that giving Lannister a very cheap stealth on intrigue and power icon this card can enable a lot in those decks.
A Lannister’s Honor (4.6 Average)
Hagen – 4 out of 5
Lannister always had plenty of events triggering in intrigue challenges that followed specific requirements. Between Castamere and this, I wonder what happened to them. This card seems extremely cheap and easy to trigger for what it does, considering it’s a guaranteed kill even on a claim 0 round. The closest comparison is probably Bed of Scorpions, which was rated average 3. This one is definitely stronger.
jcwamma – 5 out of 5
Yeesh. The easy comparison is Tears I guess but this is almost more like Winter Is Coming. Just a basic 1-for-1 trade. Except your half of the trade costs 1, and the opponent’s half could be pretty much anything. A basic attrition card like this is pretty much always a bomb and will win Lannister a lot of games through blowouts.
Johannes – 4 out of 5
I mean it has a target restriction, so it might not be the best kill spell in the game. But I think it just adds up with all the other aggro support Lanni has gotten and can be used in Sea of Blood decks which will miss PttS.
Von Wibble – 5 out of 5
A triggering condition that is about on a par with Winterfell above. Removing a 1 cost claimsoak chud can make all the difference in an attrition deck even if it doesn’t lead to a big character dying to military claim that round. Is it the best kill spell in the game?
Xelcor – 5 out of 5
I think this is the strongest card Lannister got from the cycle. You can argue Myrcella Baratheon can find space in more decks right now but in terms of power level this is above her. It is the cheapest most reliable and easiest to use “kill event” in the game, and how Lannister aggression works right now the “lowest STR” doesn’t matter that much if you want the board to go to 0.
First snow into 1 claim into this event into marched probably clears a lot of boards. And you don’t need some claim raise to do that or some synergies. Just win intrigue with the faction that is made to win intrigue. Can some other events clear more of the board, sure but the condition to trigger it is by far the easiest.
Tyene Sand (3.7 Average)
Hagen – 4 out of 5
Justifying 1 strength for 3 golds seems hard, but the effect looks quite good in the right deck. The useful traits make her playable in different builds and it made sense to keep the stealth keyword to compete with ambush Tyene in the same spot.
jcwamma – 4 out of 5
Good versatility here, with STR 1 for Septon Meribald in The Seven decks, plus Stealth and two icons to make the stand count (and help push challenges through in Bastard decks to boot). The reaction is obviously excellent and doesn’t really need discussion as to why, it’s free power claim every round.
Johannes – 3 out of 5
Losing dominance is a Martell thing nowadays and it works well with icon control. Creative builder like Bookerman has showed Martell Faith can be a thing and I guess this fits at least that deck. One str is not much but at least it has synergy with the Crone. And stealth is always nice especially combined with icon control.
Von Wibble – 4 out of 5
An inverted Painted Table with human legs. The strength of 1 isn’t even necessarily a bad thing given her fit with The Seven, and a stealth bicon can always do good work. Even if you don’t build around the dominance ability it is likely to naturally kick in from time to time.
Xelcor – 3.5 out of 5
A Sand Snake with a power icon and stealth, 1 cost for the crone and “The Seven” trait. Plus she can steal power after you lose dominance. A pretty solid card for Sand Snakes and Martell The seven decks.
The Dornish Wars (3.2 Average)
Hagen – 3 out of 5
Good plot with a decent effect. What holds it from having a higher rating is just a little mistake in the wording: it was meant to be “lose” instead of “win”, right? Like this, it restricts its playability only to aggressive decks that entirely shut the board with Host of the Boneway. Considering it’s a faction plot with 4 gold and 5 reserve, I expected more.
jcwamma – 3 out of 5
The application here is pretty simple. I’m not sure whether an icon control deck can afford to spend a plot on this effect, is my main concern. The true value may well prove to be in a more tempo-driven deck, using it to unlock challenges to push through with bigger bodies and reactions/keywords. Kind of like Cersei’s Scheme in first edition, which on the face of it was a card for kneel decks but was actually a midrange tempo plot.
Johannes – 3 out of 5
The passive is quite strong for icon control decks. I guess this plot has best uses with 7-cost Doran, when opponent is damned if they do or damned if they don’t win the challenge. The four gold might put people off though. At least the initiative helps Martell to go second and get more econ to compensate lower gold value of the plot. Still, it might be hard to find room for this plot. The control isn’t that strong, and the stats are medicore. Kind falls in between of an effective plot or a resource providing plot.
Von Wibble – 3 out of 5
The passive text won’t always matter, but when it does it is very frustrating for opponents. The initiative is nice and high to ensure you get to go first and control better how to get that reaction off. It doesn’t go into every Martell deck, but it’s a decent effect in high strength aggro decks.
Xelcor – 4 out of 5
In Martell decks that wanna go first and hit hard this card is absolutely amazing. Most often they struggle with some power icons but are very strong in some other challenges. Now you just win the ones you win and eliminate all the icons you are weak to. Solid gold plus good initiative and the passive will sometimes be quite impactful. A very good in-faction plot.
Desperate Deserter (2.1 Average)
Hagen – 4 out of 5
If Shadow (1) are amazing, Shadow (0) are mindblowing. Even without caring about choking, if you have ways of gaining benefits from a shadow trigger he will give you instant reward for just 2 golds. And the card itself is beautiful, between the artwork and those satisfying negative icons at the bottom.
jcwamma – 2 out of 5
It’s cute to bring out of shadows after challenges, but ultimately you’re paying 2 to give your opponent claim soak. And if you’re not doing military challenges just because of this, they’re probably fine having 1 less gold if they’re not having to replenish their characters.
Johannes – 1 out of 5
It’s kinda a choke card but doesn’t really fit into a choke deck, since you generally have attrition in addition to choke. So getting and extra body to protect you from Marched or give it back for big Yoren just has too much anti-synergy. I guess it can serve as annoying cheap shadows trigger but since it can backfire, there probably are better options for it.
Von Wibble – 1 out of 5
In theory, this provides a nice choke effect, but in practice it means you aren’t going to do any military challenges as you just gave them some claim soak. It also makes it easier for them to use their Marched. At this point you have paid 2 gold to help your opponent instead of hinder them, and to gain some shadows triggers. There are better ways to achieve that.
Xelcor – 2.5 out of 5
Lets talk about Henry. This is NOT a good choke card in your “typical” choke deck. You are giving your opponent a free claim soak so in deckbuilding where you want to use that card you probably have to find a way to avoid military a lot. But I think especially in NW you can work around that quite a lot. The new Bowen loves this card a lot and you have very easy triggers with 0 shadow.
If you have White Tree and 2 Henrys and maybe even meagre contribution turn 1/from setup and you “Gift” it to your opponent, making them lose 4 gold probably can win you the game, it will be a long and tedious game but it gives you lots of time to setup your wall defence.
Weirwood Grove (3.1 Average)
Hagen – 3.5 out of 5
Straight from a Sonata Arctica song, Weirwood Grove allows you to copy things like Counting Coppers, Exchange of Informations or At the Gates for 2 golds and a faction kneel. If you love to take advantage from opponent’s plots this repeatable Varys’ Riddle looks like a bargain to me.
jcwamma – 4 out of 5
This is a janky card but I’m a big fan of the effect. Yes you can’t make a double-Valar, but you can copy so many useful abilities. Just having this on the table forces your opponent to consider the ramifications of you triggering it. And the combination with Tricksy Bird is obviously fun, too.
Johannes – 3 out of 5
I think it’s a nice utility card that makes your opponent think about their plot choices a bit more. You might even use it with Tricksy Bird to guarantee good triggers. There is a faction kneel clash with Tricksy Bird though, but at least you don’t need to use them the same turn. That been said, a lot of decks will struggle finding room for it. Very likely this is often the 61st or 62nd card that just ends up cut.
Von Wibble – 2.5 out of 5
Not everyone runs eligible targets for this ability, but Counting Coppers, Marched and Exchange are all decent enough. Maybe even Heads on Spikes. Worth 1 or 2 in the deck if you don’t have anything else to kneel the faction card for, especially if the top meta plots are known in a tournament.
Xelcor – 2.5 out of 5
It can be a dead card in some matchups, most often I think you will use it for some draw effects. The 2 gold isn’t really the big problem but the faction kneel is a heavy cost to pay sometimes. Overall it is a fine card and interacting with plots shouldn’t be easy to do anyway.
Roose Bolton (3.4 Average)
Hagen – 3 out of 5
I have mixed feelings. Similarly to what I said for Blackhaven Rider there will be games where he doesn’t trigger at all, making the huge cost a big waste. It’s also true that a tricon with intimidate on the board will always make the difference, even with low strength. I don’t like old Roose so in a removal deck I would probably run this version first, but I’m far from being excited for him.
jcwamma – 4 out of 5
Yes he’s expensive, but sodding hell. A gift for several decks. I get why, but it’s a little unthematic just how well he plays with Brotherhood stuff. Intimidate tricon once he’s Red Wedding’d everyone is nothing to sneeze at either.
Johannes – 3.5 out of 5
Another super swingy card. 5 gold and a shadows card are quite telegraphed though but if you play Bolton deck with Lanni, at least there’s a threat of Robert Strong to confuse your opponent. The body is still decent but since the ability is blank against Brotherhood decks and similar, people might limit the number of copies of Roose in their decks. On the other hand, it can just destroy some deck. Remember when non-loyalty was a disadvantage? Now it seems loyalty is punished with cards like Roose and Lady Stoneheart, who loves killing her own children.
Von Wibble – 4 out of 5
In theory a double sided ability, though it is far less likely to hit you. Often the loyal characters are the most impactful so this trigger can be game-winning. However, Stark don’t often leave 5 gold lying around so its not an ability to bluff, making it a lot easier to play around. That said, even if you just use him to kill a loyal chud, you still get an intimidate tricon, in a faction with access to a decent amount of stand.
Xelcor – 3 out of 5
His shadow ability is a bit of a hit or miss. Against some decks you cant even use him because they play with so many non loyal cards. And against the others….. I mean stark is sitting there with a card in shadow and 5 gold so maybe committing your unduped loyal 7 costs into a challenge isn’t the best. The body is quite strong having intimidate and 3 icons, but it misses Starks favourite keyword renown so the cannot just slam and jam to victory.
Bran the Breaker (3.4 Average)
Hagen – 4 out of 5
Bran the Breaker is the Stark version of Aegon the Conquerer, but requiring more quantity than quality. The abudance of low cost uniques should mitigate the requirement, limiting a bit the number of enhanced challenges you can do each round. But even activating it only on your favourite challenge will be worth it and could make the difference in a tight game.
jcwamma – 3 out of 5
Repeated claim raise is nasty, and unlike the dragon one for Targaryen, Stark having the locations to attach this to. The reason my rating is only middling is because the tempo hit in an aggro deck looking to play this is not nothing. But it’s a high 3, if that helps. If I was one of those deviants who used .5 ratings, it’d be a 3.5.
Johannes – 3.5 out of 5
It certainly has an opportunity cost for Stark. You need a good location for it and that’s also expensive for Stark. But constant claim raise is not to be underestimated. I guess it’s at it’s best with HRD Bear Island or White Harbor deck, that starts slower but gets strong in the end. Getting two unique characters attacking is no problem for Stark at least in military and power challenges. And that combined with Winter is Coming is super strong.
Von Wibble – 3 out of 5
It is very hard to ignore repeatable claim raise, and Stark have plenty of unique characters to make this work. The problem is finding enough unique locations to throw into the deck to make this playable.
Xelcor – 3.5 out of 5
Commiting 2 uniques into 1 challange isnt that difficult for stark but again tapestery tax is a thing.
I haven’t done the math but feeling wise you want around a minimum of 6 unique locations so you have good chances for you Tapestries to go onto something. Stark has those locations for sure but some decks play entirely without unique(stark) locations. So it isn’t just an easy slot in. Of course She Bear can put it in “for free” to not lose tempo that much. Hard to say how much this one will see play in stark.
Aegon Targaryen (4.2 Average)
Hagen – 4.5 out of 5
A Targaryen Knights of Flowers, more expensive to play but cheaper to trigger. Double stand means 3 potential renowns each round, and Loras already proved how this can be quick and dangerous for the opponent. Sadly I don’t think Targ needed more Voltron targets, but the card is undeniably strong.
jcwamma – 4 out of 5
Lots of bombs in this pack, huh? The synergies are obvious and manifest, and standing a renown body multiple times is just clearly good. Plus he’s a King to boot. The only real knock on him is the character of the same name he’s competing with.
Johannes – 4 out of 5
I think it’s just a strong card. I mean the name of the card is the biggest disadvantage, but since the other Aegon is restricted, it opens more room for this Aegon to see play. The triggering condition really isn’t that hard for Targ and even though the cost-str-ratio is bit poor, it still feels like a Randyll Tarly level card.
Von Wibble – 4 out of 5
The triggering condition isn’t too difficult, and he is designed to work with Duckyboos and co, just like the other version. A good Voltron candidate who is also decent in a rush deck.
Xelcor – 4.5 out of 5
King lord big renown char that can stand himself. Pretty solid bomb character Targaryen can do a lot with. I do love that his Kingsguard buddy is giving him his only missing icon plus the protection. It never felt that important with Army Aegon here it for sure does.
Grey Worm’s Spear (1.8 Average)
Hagen – 1.5 out of 5
I like when a card is stronger on a specific rathen than a generic target, but here the difference between the two situations is enormous. Of course Grey Worm will love his spear, but when you don’t see him you’re spending 2 golds for an attachment that just situationally gives -1.
jcwamma – 1 out of 5
Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think you’re playing Grey Worm just for this thing. Beyond that, when’s the last time you saw Daenerys’s Favor in a non-Valyrian Steel deck?
Johannes – 3 out of 5
I like this card since I think 6-cost Grey Worm should see more play. And this is a great fit for him. Not entirely sure which deck wants this? Maybe some new interesting Qohor build? Targ has also tutor for attachments, so you can freely run just one copy of it. I might be overrating this card, but I just love some Grey Worm support.
Von Wibble – 2 out of 5
To be worth the cost this has to go onto Grey Worm really. Intimidate doesn’t really fit a character who doesn’t kneel to defend, so that leaves the Burn Worm. Intimidate pairs nicely with an ability that likely forces unopposed challenges, but how often would he make a deck without this card? As a rule, 2 cards that don’t make decks without each other shouldn’t make decks with each other. However, I’ll give it a bonus point as it can be searched out by Gifts or Qohor, making the combo that bit easier to manage.
Xelcor – 1.5 out of 5
If Christmas comes early then you have this on Grey Worm and the card becomes quite good around a 3.5-4. But the rest of the year this probably stays as a very low rated card, if you just want the -1 there is probably a better slot in Targaryen for this. And with dragons not taking attachments in burn you probably cant even equip it sometimes.
Blackwater Forces (2.8 Average)
Hagen – 2 out of 5
Assuming you have a Courtier to stand someone, why would you stand him? I get the clear synergy is with new Mace and probably Randyll Reach, but even in that case you’d prefer standing a stronger Army if the reward is just temporarly getting a +2 strength. The body is solid, but the effect looks forgettable.
jcwamma – 3 out of 5
I wanted to say “meh” and move on, but being a 4-for-4 is actually pretty fair and the reaction will get annoying quickly. You’re probably ‘meant’ to use this for stand and remove tech, but I think I like just using it with Highgarden Courtiers, when you don’t need to stand renown.
Johannes – 3 out of 5
I think Blackwater Forces is nice utility character for both Army and Knights decks. The latter might struggle finding room for it, since there’s just so much competition for the slot. It had a nice synergy with 5-cost Mace and stuff like Courtiers. But currently Tyrell Army decks are very The Reach oriented, and Blackwater Forces doesn’t have any synergy with it. And The Reach decks might want to play 6-cost Mace instead of the Commander one.
Von Wibble – 3 out of 5
A solid if unspectacular card. It works very nicely with “stand and remove” tech as well as having 2 good traits and a decent keyword.
Xelcor – 3 out of 5
It having Army and Knight trait makes it immediately a top 5 cards in the game card for me. To the effect, it can go quite tall but you have to build around it a bit. Overall I do like this card a lot and it does a lot what Tyrell tricks want but right now the use might still be limited.
Garth Greenhand (3.7 Average)
Hagen – 3.5 out of 5
I have the feeling this won’t see much play, but I actually like it more than I should. It has a double passive, works well in every build and you won’t find a safer target than Arbor or Redwyne Straits. It’s not flashy as other aggressive tapestries, but it’s a tool that once played will give tangible benefits for the whole game.
jcwamma – 4 out of 5
It’s annoying how good this is given how boring it is.
Johannes – 3.5 out of 5
Tyrell doesn’t have a huge opportunity cost for a Tapestry. It also pays itself back at some point. And Tyrell has enough unique characters to benefit from the str buff. And it has natural synergy with Courtiers and Randyll Tarly. And even 1 str buff just helps winning challenge a lot. Getting a 5 str Colen of Greenpools in power challenges or 6 str Randyll in multiple challenges is just good. But in the end, it doesn’t seem as impactful as some other Tapestries and it’s hard to justify more than one copy in the deck. There are also match-ups, it’s completely unnecessary.
Von Wibble – 4 out of 5
Tyrell naturally run a decent amount of unique locations, and the income bonus on top of a static strength pump is nice. An efficient card, if a little dull.
Xelcor – 3.5 out of 5
Probably the safest tapestry of them all, but also with the most non-flashy effect. Don’t get me wrong the effect is strong but it isn’t claim raise or some fancy stuff.
Septa Unella (3.0 Average)
Hagen – 4 out of 5
Shame to 1 strength. Shame on being unique. Shame on the artwork. And yet, in a Seven deck she will do wonders, holding back nasty keywords and even a non-milkable characters in combination with The Starry Sept.
jcwamma – 2 out of 5
Almost a 3, but ultimately there are too many good and impactful characters this does nothing against. And it only really goes in one deck, and isn’t vital there.
Johannes – 3.5 out of 5
I thin Septa Unella is just very useful control card for Faith Militant decks. It slows renown decks down a lot and stops them from outrushing a Faith Militant deck.
Von Wibble – 2.5 out of 5
This feels like an ability that is very easy to underestimate. At worst she is making your opponent consider blanking their renown. If you have a way to force non-renown characters to gain power then all the better. However, as a double-sided effect you aren’t just throwing her into any old deck.
Xelcor – 3 out of 5
Maybe a bit expensive but after your opponents chars have 1 power you can probably defend the biggest threat with her and block strong abilities or stop further renown.
“A Thousand Eyes and One” (2.9 Average)
Hagen – 2.5 out of 5
I was about to rate this very low, but Wamma pointed that if you don’t care about faction kneel you are basically drawing for free. Fair enough.
jcwamma – 3 out of 5
It’s an aggressively-unexciting card, but if you’re running a deck without a faction kneel there’s no reason not to include 3 of this and functionally run a 57 card deck. Plus something something information.
Johannes – 2 out of 5
If you have a deck that doesn’t require a faction kneel, this card is worth considering. Its power level can be upped with the Nope Throne and new Varys or cards like Hired Assassin. But a lot of decks will struggle finding place for it, since you don’t want to run too many events since the make your setups worse. Probably some players will use this effectively, but personally I think I just will leave thin card in the binder.
Von Wibble – 4 out of 5
Costs 0 and replaces itself, so if you don’t need the faction kneel you can think of this as turning your deck into a 57 card deck even if you aren’t bothered about hand knowledge or shadow knowledge. Therefore this is surely an auto include in a deck not relying on that faction kneel, and probably worth a copy or 2 in a deck where you just have 1 other event that does it, for example Martell with Secret Schemes. Sad times if you then get copies of this during your mulligan, though at least you can play it round 1.
Xelcor – 3 out of 5
Knowing what your opponent has in hand is strong, it replaces itself and it is a song. But the faction kneel is a harsh cost, with most decks having a pretty good use for it already. It being a song I can see it slightly better then average, but you need a very specific build for it or somehow have no faction kneel and no TIBWHID.
Burning the Books (3.2 Average)
Hagen – 3.5 out of 5
After the anti-shadow plot, here comes the anti-attachment plot. It looks less effective and more costly to trigger, but the Seven trait will help in making it more intriguing. If you don’t have powers to sacrifice it’s a worse Confiscation, but if you do it’s a great alternative to Pointy End that can even target those nasty tapestries.
jcwamma – 3 out of 5
This is cool. I wish it wasn’t The Seven-themed so it didn’t have the seemingly mandatory low reserve, but the pay-off of spreading power on characters is good here. It’s about time we had another good attachment control plot.
Johannes – 3 out of 5
Very reasonable attachment control plot. The poor reserve doesn’t hurt when you open with The Maiden. Currently many players might wan to run new cool Tapestries themselves, so it might not see that much play. Because of the recent changes in the restricted list, Qohor might see less play so this might be hard to include in some decks. And then again, some attachment decks just swarm you with attachments and you would need to discard a lot of power from characters you might or might not have. Getting rid off early Craven or Milk might be tough if you haven’t had time to gain any power. And reserving a plot slot for a plot that might do nothing in some games isn’t great either.
Von Wibble – 3 out of 5
Comparing this to Confiscation, you get +1 gold and the ability to repeat the effect with the loose power your Poor Fellows got, should your opponent have more than 1 attachment in play. The Maiden boosts the reserve on this, and given Blockade is now a thing that plot could see a lot more play as a safe opener. In a deck running the Seven tech its strong, and it’s a decent choice if you have characters you really don’t want collecting negative attachments.
Xelcor – 3.5 out of 5
So a few points, First it is discard, not sacrifice so you could safe the “unique” attachment (take that QG), although having duped uniques doesn’t happen that often. And you can do it as much as you have power on characters so if you are willing to give up 7 power for 8 attachments you can do that. And this part limits its use, mostly you want renown characters or move power to your characters, and have to struggle vs attachments so you will think about using this. With 5 gold is good gold, but the reserve and initiative is bad. There could be that there is never an attachment but most likely there is some SS or milk at minimum and with 1 power you can get rid of 2 so that sounds fair as a “2nd worst case”
Uniting the Realm (3.9 Average)
Hagen – 4.5 out of 5
The reason we’re all here. In the last month I’ve heard Wamma shouting we weren’t working hard enough more times than my actual boss, so I feel a bit employed by him right now. I get he wanted to see his agenda reviewed before Stahleck, I just don’t believe we actually did it. Unfortunately I wasted all my energies in writing reviews instead of testing a combo that could break the game, I assume I’ll leave the burden to someone else. What about the agenda? A strong building tool with almost no downside that will either give us years of entertainment or simply destroy the Seven Kingdoms. For now it’s been a fun diversion, but who knows what the future has in store for us.
jcwamma – No Rating
I’m recusing myself from rating this one for obvious reasons. I figured I’d just talk about it a bit, as there’s a lot that could be said. The idea behind this agenda was to make something that completely opened up deckbuilding and resulted in decks – and therefore games – that were not close to being possible without the agenda. I knew it was risky, in terms of opening the door for nasty combination decks. But honestly, if a combination deck wins a tournament, I’m fine with it. The problem with a deck like that is never the first time it wins, it’s when it gets refined and proliferated – and we have an active GOT group who can pod anything problematic. My bigger concern is that something like Ghost of High Heart being an auto-include will make the effect annoyingly commonplace. But hopefully the agenda can occupy a happy little niche where it shows up pretty often, has the scope to be competitive, but doesn’t just dominate the meta so the specific cards that work with it aren’t too much of a problem. Overall I’m very happy with how the agenda came out, and if anyone has any other questions or comments on it, please let me know!
[Editor – I’ll add my own personal rating of 3.5 so the averages aren’t screwed!]
Johannes – 4.5 out of 5
This agenda opens so many builds that it’s just cool to see what people come up with. Most of them might just be bit boring though. A lot of bestow stuff, a lot of good stuff bigs etc. At least there are also some Weapons decks etc. I think a lot of builds will be also competitive, thus the high rating. But I think a lot of them could just be build with a different agenda as well. The econ and draw must be from the main faction, or you just use Braavos and the Hollow Hill for it. People are worried about someone breaking this agenda, but I haven’t seen anything like that yet.
Von Wibble – 3 out of 5
In the hands of a much better deck-builder than I (ie, most people), this feels like it will promote jank, combo decks that don’t work well, or combo decks that do work well and ruin the game for the rest of us. Its either a 1 or a 5 so I’ll play safe and go for the midpoint.
Xelcor – 4 out of 5
Ohhh this agenda, I think it can be a 4 but it needs to get figured out a bit more, and then again and then again. Deckbuilding is quite fun, and having access to so much makes it also quite strong. The 3 card restriction is real though. You have to put some thought into it so it runs smooth. At some point it will break something for sure, it is bound to happen.
Card Averages
4.6 A Lannister’s Honor
4.2 Aegon Targaryen
3.9 Uniting the Realm
3.7 Garth Greenhand
3.7 Tyene Sand
3.4 Bran the Breaker
3.4 Roose Bolton
3.4 Winterfell
3.2 Burning the Books
3.2 Maester Cressen
3.2 The Dornish Wars
3.1 Weirwood Grove
3.0 Septa Unella
3.0 Tywin’s Whisperer
2.9 “A Thousand Eyes and One”
2.8 Blackwater Forces
2.1 Desperate Deserter
1.9 Deepwood Motte
1.9 Maester Joseran
1.8 Grey Worm’s Spear
As the ink on these final pages fades, so too does our strength, for the weeks have taken their toll. What began as a youthful ambition to record the truths within the Mists of Memory has become a weary recounting of fleeting moments, now slipping through the fingers like sand. Yet, despite the frailty of age and the endless march of time, we take comfort in the thought that these words, however imperfect, may endure longer than their authors. If they serve even a fraction of the purpose we once hoped for, then our labour—however long and heavy—has not been in vain. It is now time to close the book, for we are no longer the men who began it, and the world has moved on. Let those who come after find their own truths, as ours are now sealed within these pages.
Where can I find the pdf for this pack?