7.8K The Houses of A Game of Thrones: Living Card Game
A primer by Lance Kreutzinger
“Why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?” -Varys
A Game of Thrones: LCG pits the great houses of Westeros against each other in fierce combat across military, intrigue and power challenges. Each house has certain strengths and weaknesses, as well as themes that they use to engage in battle as they each vie for the Iron Throne. This primer will take a look at the eight factions and a few neutrals of AGOT LCG 2.0 and describe these themes in a little greater detail, so that the reader might find which faction suits them the best.
House Baratheon- “Ours is the fury”
- Dominance: This is a theme that has dominated (no pun intended) House Baratheon since the Core Set, and has only gotten stronger as the card pool has grown. Each cycle has added new cards to this theme, to the point where the word ‘dominance’ seems to appear on each of their cards. Chamber of the Painted Table is the lynchpin of this strategy, allowing Baratheon the ability to lean on dominance as its primary win condition, while allowing them to turn the tide of a game at a moment’s notice. I have personally won a number of games where my opponent got to fourteen power, but was unable to gain any traction and the power theft of Table was able to turn the game fully around for me. Sadly, however, Baratheon has also painted itself into a corner: If you want to play a dominance deck, you have to go all-in on the theme, especially because Northern Encampment, an important source of income, requires you to win dominance to be able to utilize it the next round. This also makes for many slow and difficult games, even the ones that Bara wins. If you fail to win dominance for even a turn, their strategies quickly fall apart, and other houses can jump on this opening to swing the game back in their favor. This can also happen if you’re unable to get or keep the Chamber in play for most of the game.
- Kneel: Baratheon is better than any other house at kneeling out an opponent’s board. This form of soft control has improved from cycle to cycle, especially its ability to be recursive and keep a given character knelt turn after turn. It is a strong form of control, and can dominate the flow of the game. The major issue that it has, though, is its reliance on Core Set Melisandre, much as the dominance theme relies on Chamber. Luckily, the card pool has grown in such a way that it’s not an automatic loss if you don’t see her, and she’s become something of a luxury. I personally see kneel as the strongest of Baratheon’s themes in the current meta, especially with the release of 6-cost Selyse Baratheon FOTOG, who can kneel out an entire board in one action, and the plot The Withering Cold.
- R’hllor: This card Trait synergies have come along nicely since the beginning of the game, with the addition of a few key neutral R’hllor characters really filling out the trait package. R’hllor brings a few things to the table, most notably hand destruction in the form of Seen in Flames. The 7-cost Melisandre GTR has a similar effect, with the added bonus of killing a character from the opponent’s hand, if you are able to win Dominance. Most R’hllor based decks prefer Core Set Melisandre, though, as she introduces a bit of spot control, and lessens the need for dominance. Overall this theme is a nice perk, but plays much more of a support role.
- Big Guys Do Big Things: The one thing that should be kept in mind when building a Baratheon deck is that, while many of their characters feel like ‘filler’ cards, their biggest characters are extremely impactful, and thus important to draw and keep around. A timely reset by the opponent to kill off King Robert Baratheon can really throw a wrench in your plans, so I would recommend putting Bodyguard or Spears of the Merling King in any Baratheon deck that you build.
- The Myth Of Strong Power Icons: This isn’t a ‘theme’ per se, but I feel that it’s worth mentioning. There was a time when Baratheon held the honor of being the strongest house in the Power challenge. However, in my experience, this time is past. Sure, Baratheon does have strong power icons, but in no where near the quality or percentage of characters as they did in the first or second cycle. Recently, other houses have added strong power icons to their retinue and can regularly challenge Baratheon when it comes to winning power challenges. This might not be a huge deal, but The Red Keep is often a necessary part of the Baratheon arsenal, so making this draw unreliable has caused Baratheon to slip along with it.
- Banner Stag: Banner Stag is generally decent, as most of the R’hllor and kneel cards (as well as Chamber of the Painted Table itself) are non-loyal, so they can slot reasonably well into any house wanting these effects. They may be watered-down versions of the above themes, but they can still create some interesting deck ideas for houses looking for a boost.
House Stark- “Winter is coming”
- Denial: Stark reigns supreme when it comes to ruining the shenanigans of the other factions, hence the nickname “fun police.” One of Stark’s main themes is their ability to shut down an opponent’s plans with cards such as Core Set Catelyn Stark, Winterfell, Frozen Solid, Last Hearth Scouts and more. This style had moderate success for a while, but has begun to slip in terms of cut-making numbers recently, likely due to its vulnerability to resets, as mentioned before.
- Military might: Stark has always had a strong military presence. Between the Direwolf and Bolton subthemes, this style of Stark deck seems like the best that they have to offer. Wearing down an opponent with high claim, effects such as Ice, and challenge control like King Robb Stark ATSK, the all-in military style has been getting better in recent months. I believe that in the near future, Stark will break through and make an impact in the meta at large with this style. Just remember to pack 3x Winter is Coming in every deck that’s dedicated to this theme!
- Direwolves: Somewhat of a subtheme of Military Might, I think that this style will fully come into its own with the release of Sands of Dorne, the Martell box. Generally speaking, direwolves thrive mostly on the military challenge, and can do it better than almost any other trait theme in the game. Between a well-timed Like Warm Rain, and all of the direwolf tricks, your opponent may not be able to keep enough characters out to fight back.
- Power Gain– This faction was very good at this idea for a period of a month or two, but has since then not made much impact on the metagame. I think that it will start to increase in popularity, though, with the rise of Martell. Since Martell is mainly focused on playing a long game, a power gain/rush deck could run over such strategies before they can get set up. This deck is not quite there yet, although the Tully synergies have really helped it. It feels like it’s still missing a couple of tools, though.
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House Tully: What the direwolves are for Military Might, the Tullys are for Power Gain. Essentially all cards in the Tully subtheme are focused on gaining additional power from a variety of places, or spending that power in specific ways (Examples include: Ser Edmure Tully, House Tully Septon, Riverrun). Since the power gained by these cards is often placed on the characters rather than the faction card, it makes it very fragile, and again vulnerable to resets.
- The Seven: While there are only a few The Seven characters in the game, nearly all of them that aren’t neutral are found in House Stark, and the game seems to be slowly building toward a dedicated The Seven deck with the spoiling of The Faith Militant. There isn’t currently a winning deck using this trait, but it’s clear that it is on its way.
- Banner Wolf: The Wolf Banner is one of the most popular banner agendas right now. Some say that it gets you all of the good Stark cards, without having to worry about their poor economy and draw, and I generally agree with this analysis. The most common Banner Wolf cards to see are Frozen Solid, Core Set Arya Stark, Core Set Bran Stark, Ramsay Snow, Ward, and possibly even Harrenhal GOH for an attrition-style deck. Eddard Stark WOTN from Wolves of the North is another popular bomb, and can really rack up power fast!
House Greyjoy- “We Do Not Sow”
This House has always been very adaptable to what the current meta is at any time in the game. Now this doesn’t mean they win all the time but they don’t auto loose. I can’t remember a meta where Greyjoy was the bottom house but I also can’t remember when they were the top house for a long time, or even a house that you would selectively build your deck to go against. However Greyjoy is always present in the meta besides these things. Next we will look into the reasons on what makes them so adaptable to whatever state the meta is at the time.
- Unopposed: This is a strong theme and there are many cards in the Greyjoy faction that react to winning a challenge unopposed. Because of this they also have many card to help with achieving this goal. Most of the impactful cards for winning unopposed challenges however came from the core set or the first cycle. After that Greyjoy cards just felt like it was doing the same thing when it came to unopposed challenges. The new cards that have come out seem to make it easier to get unopposed challenges but the number of beneficial cards hasn’t. This is possibly because the cards that are already out that trigger off of unopposed are relatively strong already. This is also a strong theme when considering a Power Gain deck.
- Drowned God: This theme started to get introduced during the first cycle but they haven’t come out with anything impressive until this current cycle I feel. Now that Drowned God feels like a real viable theme we have been seeing decks pop up with this traits the backbone. Most of The characters that have this trait normally have power icons with a few that have both power and intrigue. Military icons are rare within this trait so normally decks can’t only be Drowned God. What the theme likes to do however is gain power through other means making these decks win through unconventional means. Drowned God tech also has the ability to bring your character back into play from your dead pile giving them excellent survivability.
- Location Control: This is one of the abilities that Greyjoy has that keeps it as a presence in the meta and particularly now since locations have become more prevalent. Location control in Greyjoy has always been a positive aspect of them even when locations weren’t a big thing, because economy locations have always been important. This ability that Greyjoy has is probably splashed into every deck that performs well.
- What Is Dead May Never Die: Greyjoy is the best house at keeping characters alive. With some of the strongest in house cards like Risen from the Sea and Iron Mines it can be hard to get some of their characters into the dead pile. No Greyjoy deck should go without 3x of both these cards. At least in my opinion, I’m sure some decks don’t run 3x of both and have done fine. They also have multiple cards that allow characters to come back from the dead pile and be put into play. I think this is what allows Greyjoy the ability to adapt so well to any meta.
- Power Gain: Greyjoy is extremely good at building power quickly. With their ability to get power through unopposed challenges and the bonus power from Great Kraken they can get power on their house card with ease. Throw in the high strength renown characters like Balon Greyjoy, Victarion Greyjoy and Euron Crow’s Eye, it gets hard to stop them from gaining power. Other cards have also come out that gain power besides winning the power challenge so be aware that Greyjoy can win a game if given to much room to breathe.
- Dominance: Winning Dominance is a thing Greyjoy has always wanted in some decks since the core box, due to Aeron Damphair ability to bring Ironborn out of the dead pile and put them into play. However this recent cycle really made this a tangible idea with Nagga’s Ribs. But be aware the faction doesn’t have the ability to win a game just on dominance alone. It will help with the deck build your going for but they still are missing a card like Baratheon’s, Chamber of the Painted Table.
- Pillage: This Keyword is on lots of Greyjoy characters and they have a few reactions to pillage so I consider Pillage to be a theme that Greyjoy has but they are slightly still building on it I hope. Now, pillage still won’t win a game by discarding an opponent’s deck but their reactions from pillage are strong enough to help your overall strategy towards winning.
- Banner Kraken: Many have called this “banner iron mines” and it’s a rightful thing to say. Almost all decks that banner Kraken take Iron Mines and that was a huge factor for a deck. Also much of the location control is non-loyal. However as the card pool has grown Greyjoy has also gained more cards that can help any faction. This makes it so banner Kraken is always an option I feel when your building a deck since Greyjoy is so adaptive to any meta.
House Lannister- “Hear Me Roar”
- Clansmen: This synergy was dabbled with since the core box but really hit hard with the Lannister box. They are fun to play and can really surprise your opponent during the challenges phase. With all their Ambush and cards like Hear Me Roar or Harrenhal your opponent won’t know what will be hitting them next. Throw in the seven cost Tyrion Lannister LOCR from the lions box and now Clansmen are even more effective, with the ability to raise claim, draw cards or gain gold to help fuel more challenge phase shenanigans. The board state is always in flux when it comes to a Clansmen deck making them tough to predict. As much as this gives the deck strength, this can also lead to their downfall.
- Hand Destruction: Lannister has multiple cards that trigger from the idea of an opponent having less cards in hand than you or having zero cards in hand and they have the ability to achieve this. With cards like Casterly Rock giving them an additional intrigue challenge or Core Cersei Lannister raising the claim on intrigue challenges the faction was poised for this since the core box. Also Lannister has a high number of characters with intrigue icons making the notion of winning intrigue challenges much easier than most factions. From there more cards have been added to capitalize on the idea of attacking your opponent’s hand and with the addition of seven cost Cersei Lannister LOCR and Small Council Chamber the Lannister faction can now gain power from winning those intrigue challenges. Then if your opponent no longer has cards in hand they can play the event Trial By Combat to start clearing out the characters they have on the board. This idea of building a deck for hand destruction does have its drawbacks. If your opponent has a good amount of card draw you can find yourself not being as effective as you had hoped. But think of these kinds of ideas while building a deck, some slot in perfectly were you wouldn’t expect it.
- Jumpers: This notion comes from the idea of “jumping” characters in and out of play during the challenge phase. Much of this is similar to the idea of Clansmen but I felt it should have its own category since no Clansmen are required. Over the course of the game this theme has popped up from time to time yet only did really well for a brief period of time. Although it has been spotted occasionally getting into top cuts. Cards like Tower of the Hand and The Iron Bank Will Have It’s Due allow you to use cards like Hear Me Roar and Harrenhal to do their job and return the character back to hand preventing the negative effect from the cards that put them into play. If the combination comes out then it can get very hard for your opponent to deal with. Unlike Clansmen, a Jumper deck can still utilize the fact that many of the characters are great to play in general. Making the deck not as oppressive as Clansmen can be but it is not as fragile as Clansmen.
- Power Gain: It can be surprising at how fast Lannister can gain power and they are good at it. With Casterly Rock adding another intrigue challenge this opens the door for The Lord of the Crossing agenda to abuse the three challenges and just adds efficiency to the faction, even if they aren’t playing that agenda. Lannister also has the characters, core Ser Jaime Lannister and seven cost Cersei Lannister LOCR that don’t kneel during certain challenges allowing them to just wreck havoc during the challenge phase. Throw in Shae who can stand at the cost of a gold and you can do so much with just those three characters. Lannister also has a large number of characters that have renown or other ways of gaining power that make them one of the top 4 factions at gaining power rapidly.
- Military Might: Lannisters have always been a great house at clearing a board of characters. Their military strength is relatively high and with cards like Trial By Combat to change intrigue claim into military claim by surprise can really hurt at the right moment. They also have ability to play the plot The First Snow of Winter very easily to remove your claim soak. This is a normal tactic for the faction because it works. For a while Lannister was probably the number one house at killing characters however I think those times have passed, but they are still better than most factions I feel.
- Good Stuff: This is something that Lannister has that most factions don’t. Many of the cards available to the faction are just plain good in the sense of strength, cost efficiency, icon spread and over all power level. Most factions have combination of cards that will achieve a goal while lannister has cards that can achieve the goals they want without relying on other cards. If you look at a list of best cards for a cost slot there is normally a Lannister card that can be argued into that slot. This amount of cards that are “just that good” make it worth noting this when talking about Lannister. Sadly over the last couple cycles Lannister’s power level of cards hasn’t stuck around. I think that’s why lannister isn’t a top house anymore because the powerful cards they can play are normally the same cards they have been playing for a while. The meta evolved but they have not. However don’t count out the “Lannister good stuff” decks, they still pack a punch.
- Banner Lion: It’s not the best banner but if you find your deck wants Lannister cards to help with the over all goal then it’s not to bad. Most factions have answers that the non loyal lannister cards have except Tyrion Lannister and Ser Jaime Lannister from the core box are very common to banner for. I find most banner lion decks are only banner Lion for one or two cards and not really wanting all twelve.
The Nights Watch-“The Sword In The Darkness”
- Rangers: Within the Ranger trait there is a large amount of unique synergy in the idea that Rangers can be built to be very aggressive or be great on defense. On the aggressive side Rangers have cards like Grenn who steals power off an opponent’s house card while winning a military challenge. Also Haunted Forest Scout that if there are enough Rangers in play they don’t kneel to attack, however they also can’t defend. Cards like these is what makes Ranger probably the go to trait for an aggressive Nights Watch deck. On the other side Rangers also have defensive synergies like Thoren Smallwood, who gains a power when you win a challenge on defense and he doesn’t even need to be in the challenge. The Rangers also have a couple cards that blanket all Rangers with the ability that they cannot be bypassed buy stealth. Just in case you find yourself in a heavy Greyjoy meta these cards could help with that unopposed aspect. So if you like the idea of playing Nights Watch but want to be aggressive I recommend looking into the Ranger package.
- Stewards: Now this theme and the synergies that go with it are a little on the tricky side. From what I have seen from the steward deck itself is it’s surprise factor is its biggest strength. Most players don’t anticipate a large amount of Steward synergies and the text on a couple of their cards is oddly written so people might not understand what the cards actually do. Use this chance if you plan on playing a Steward decks. Another thing that makes the Steward trait different from the other two is that most Steward characters are unique so keep an eye on your dead pile. I recommend getting a good amount of experience before going in on a stewards deck competitively.
- Builders: The idea of a complete Builder deck popped up right after The Nights Watch box released and they have been making metas bang their heads against walls ever since, quite literally. I think the designers of the game gave us a little foreshadow of this decks synergies with the card Brandon’s Gift. This card came out early in the first cycle and was rated the worst card in the game. That is until the box came out and builders became a complete theme. Now the idea of a “Builders” deck is out, popular and winning, not just making top cuts but is winning major tournaments. It is no surprise though, the Builder synergies are really good at defending the wall because they have three simple abilities. Deck searching for locations or attachments is quite easy for them with Castle Black Mason and the amount of draw Nights Watch has in general means you can find what you want with ease. Economy is always good and builders have it with Brandon’s Gift from the first cycle along with their Underground Vault they also have a few reducing characters for locations and attachments. And finally they have the ability to get really high strength with the location Abandoned Stronghold that also came out in their box. These Builder synergies I think makes the Builder theme the best they have at defending The Wall.
- Defending The Wall: This is both a theme and a play style that changes how the game gets played. Instead of attacking your opponent your goal is to get out the location The Wall and defend it until you reach 15 power. Now there are cards that can get you power faster but the main idea of a “Wall” deck is to defend. The list of cards that help you do this is long so I won’t mention the cards but defending The Wall is one of the factions purposes. This means that cards have come out since the core box to help with doing this single goal and they are very good at it. Beware however when playing “Wall” decks. Games can last long and can cause a negative play experience very easily. So if your going to play in a large tournament with multiple rounds, know that playing to time is common and then you’ll have to play the next game without much of a break.
- Aggressive, or Aggro: On the other side of the coin Nights Watch can build very aggressive decks. I generalize this as aggressive because Nights Watch has tools to do this style of play in both power gain and military but both are not as fast or as good as other houses can do. These decks change quite often so listing the synergies they use is slightly hard but this is a possibility for Nights Watch to do. I will give one example of people using Jon Snow from the core box. He participates in any challenge that a Nights Watch character is attacking, while he is standing. So people will put Longclaw, which gives a character renown, on Jon Snow and do challenges collecting a large amount of power that way. There are a few other cards that also pair up with this idea as well. But the main idea is that Nights Watch can build aggressive decks and they actually aren’t that bad.
- Playing With Opponent’s Characters: It’s a long title but it describes this idea well. Nights Watch has a theme that takes your opponent’s characters and places them under your control. Now this synergy gets splashed into the card pool from time to time but I’m not fully confident that it is a complete theme. Sure you can splash a little bit of this in a deck but I’m not sure a deck has won much using this theme as it’s backbone. It’s fun in theory tho and always worth a laugh when you find The Queen of Thorns has taken the black and now defends The Wall. However I don’t think this is viable at the current time, I’m always up for being proven wrong though!
- Banner Watch: Around this time last year, before the Nights Watch box was released Banner Watch was mostly used to be able to play The Wall, The Haunted Forest and Craven. This is because other houses performed well at defending the wall, at least better than Nights Watch did at the time. Luckily times have changed. Yes decks still banner Watch to build “Wall Decks” but now they banner Watch for much more variety of cards. What cards is an extremely long list however Jon Snow TWOTW from the Nights Watch box does pop into mind.
House Martell- “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken”
The words of House Martell in the series translates well into the card game. Just when you think you have a Martell player on the ropes or “broken”, they can turn the tide in a single phase. This makes Martell deadly, devious and should not be taken lightly. They have a play style of their own with so many different things they can do. Their power level in the meta shifts like sand in the desert however. I’m not totally sure on why that is but you’ll see Martell make a big splash one month and then the next month they are nowhere to be found. I believe it has something to do with the popularity of their bad matchups. I have also found that many people that play the game either hate Martell or love Martell. It’s an oddity that sticks out in my mind since it is so prevalent when hanging around with many AGOT players. But enough of all that, let’s take a look at Martell.
- Icon Removal: The ability Martell has to remove icons first started in the core set and has been touched upon multiple times in the cycles. This is one of the ways Martell can control the opponent’s characters in the challenge phase and it is quite effective. The best character to do this is Nymeria Sand, her ability to take your icon and share it with all Sand Snakes can swing your challenge phase math out the window and render a character slightly useless. Then to add in Martell has been coming out with cards that take advantage of characters that only have one or no icons. This makes it a treacherous board state for characters if your opponent is playing heavy with the icon removal synergies.
- Sand Snake: This theme of the characters in the Martell faction carry the trait Sand Snake and Bastard. They have synergies that intermingle with both traits however so when I refer to Sand Snake I am also talking about Bastard to make things easier. The Sand Snake trait has been a slow build that I think is finally starting to reach its completion. With the new box there seem to be some really neat and innovative decks that capitalize on this theme. Most of the synergies come from Sand Snakes boosting the other Sand Snakes or just having tricks themselves. Either way I’m excited to see what the future holds for these traits.
- Winning By Losing: Martell has cards that make you not feel the loss of a challenge as bad because they react with some kind of reward that helps to put you ahead in the end. It’s a very unique reaction that looks like it could be a lot of fun but I’m not sure at how well it actually performs in games. With the release of the Martell box lots of cards have been brought into the carp pool that use this theme. But remember you’ll never win the game if you always lose challenges.
- The Long Plan: Martell is the one faction that literally gets stronger as a game goes on. This is because a few of their cards operate on the number of used plots are in the plot pile or get bonuses as that number increases. Cards like Doran Martell from the core box and The Prince’s Plan are perfect examples of cards that get stronger as the game progresses. However beware, the used plot pile eventually disappears and you’ll have to start all over again. So pace yourself well when your playing cards that fit into this category.
- Returning Characters To Hand: This idea of returning your characters to the owner’s hand was dabbled with in Martell. The Martell box changed that though. Now there are a few more cards that return characters to the owner’s hand, be it yours or your opponent. This makes for an interesting and ever changing board state that can be rather potent. It is slightly a Control aspect but I thought it should be mentioned separately since it can be used multiple ways.
- Weak In Strength But Strong In Text: In general you’ll find that Martell characters are lower in strength when compared to other houses in cost slots. But if you take a closer look almost every Martell character has some sort of reaction or other card text that makes them worth more than their strength alone. So while building a Martell deck for the first time don’t toss cards to the side because of Strength but take the time to read what the cards do.
- Banner Sun: A little splash of Martell in a deck isn’t a bad thing but most decks that perform well that use Martell cards are normally main house Martell. I’m sure you can find something of use tho. All of the synergies I have mentioned above have loyal and non-loyal cards in them so you can add a dash of anything you’d like really.
House Tyrell- “Growing Strong”
The house motto fits the journey of Tyrell through the game perfectly. In the core box Tyrell was the house of a couple strength boosts, Highgarden for challenge phase manipulation and a couple good characters. My first major tournament at Kublacon had 42 players and not a single person was playing Tyrell main house. The faction went for a dry spell only getting The Arbor for a noteworthy edition. Until early in the second cycle King Renly Baratheon FFH finally came out, “The Prince that was promised” many would say. This was the character that brought life into Tyrell and from there the faction was only “Growing Strong” and by the end of the second cycle they finally were ranked among the other houses as a contender. While Tyrell kept gaining strong card after strong card during the cycles their box finally arrived making Tyrell one of the top houses it is today. So let’s see what makes the Wardens of the South such a good house compared to what they were in the beginning of the game.
- Knights: This trait has been a noteworthy theme in House Tyrell throughout its life. Yes, other factions have Knights in them but Tyrell definitely holds the prize when it comes to knight synergies, with Lannister being in second place by a bit. The idea of the Knights theme basis is having the Knight characters attacking or defending alone. We saw this with The Knight of Flowers in the core box and splashes of it in the subsequent cycles with cards like Mare In Heat but the theme wasn’t quite complete. The Tyrell box really solidified the idea of playing a Knights deck however. With cards like the non-unique location, Jousting Pavilion that gives Knights +1 strength when attacking or defending alone and Ser Garlan Tyrell HOT that has the ability to raise claim when a Knight character attacks alone. This theme of a Knight attacking or defending alone can become very strong. Also worthy of note is the event that came out early in the first cycle, Lady Sansa’s Rose, that says when a Knight wins a challenge attacking or defending it gains 1 power, or 3 power if you control a lady character. So when your building a Knights deck don’t forget those Lady characters. The Knights have to try and impress someone.
- Strength Boosts: The idea of adding strength to a character as easily as Tyrell does makes people hesitate a little bit when figuring out the strength in challenges and Tyrell is the strongest at making characters stronger. They have held this ability well since the core box randomly getting a card here and there throughout the cycles but now it’s become a real staple in the things Tyrell can do. They even topped it with the non-unique character Highgarden Courtier, who reacts to strength increases buy kneeling her to stand the character that got stronger allowing you to use that character again that turn. It is also good to mention that a few of the Tyrell cards have “win by 5 strength” triggers on them, it’s not hard for Tyrell to do with these strength boosts at your fingertips. You would think that house Tyrell had something about people getting stronger or something in the books.
- Cheating: I’m sure there could be a better way of saying it but it really does feel like these abilities feel like cheating. Certain cards in Tyrell bring characters from your hand or deck and put them into play without paying gold. This idea was in the core box with The Queen of Thorns, that when you won an intrigue challenge that she participated in you could put a 6 cost or lower character into play from your hand. Then over time cards got added that did similar things like the six cost Margaery Tyrell AMAF that has the reaction, when a lord or king character are killed you get to search your deck for a lord or king and put them into play. There are a few other characters and a location that do this theme of putting characters into play without paying the cost and unlike “Jumpers” with Lannister, these characters stay in play. I don’t know any better way to describe this theme Tyrell has besides, cheating.
- Draw Deck Manipulation/Search And Card Draw: I’m lumping all of these together since they all do similar things of getting the cards you want into your hand. Tyrell has had Draw Deck manipulation since the beginning with The Bear And The Maiden Fair that allows you to look at a few top cards of your deck or the opponent’s deck and place them how you wish, be it on the top or the bottom. This idea has continued building with other cards doing similar things. Then there are cards that allow you to just search for cards in your deck and put them into hand, normally these cards have trait stipulations or card type guidelines but the idea of searching your entire deck for cards is a strong one. Then that brings us to Card Draw in general. Now most card game players that play games like AGOT will agree that the strongest affect in any card game is “Draw a card” and Tyrell has that everywhere. Not only are the search abilities and deck manipulation basically saying “draw a card” but Tyrell has cards that just get you more cards in hand. Take Pleasure Barge for an example, it’s a location that gives you -1 gold and you can’t get rid of it but it says, draw 3 cards, no other house has a card like it and it makes the draw back not as big of a deal. If you really are worried about that -1 gold tho Tyrell has plenty of other cards that have those sweet three words “draw a card”.
- Removing Characters From Challenges: This faction has had a card in it that have removed a character from a challenge since the core set in the form of Highgarden. They then got The attachment Mare in Heat in the first cycle and Offer of a Peach in the second cycle but this kind of affect has been dormant with Tyrell until their box was released. The box set introduced more cards that did these kinds of interactions and some cards have come out after the box. All of these cards do the same thing, they stand a character and remove it from the challenge. How and what kind of characters differ from card to card. The best part of this ability is that you can target your opponent’s characters or your own. That means you can send a character to do a challenge, the opponent commits a few characters to win so you just stand your character and remove it from the challenge allowing you to do a second challenge with the same character. Or in defense if there is only one character attacking you, you can stand it and and remove it from the challenge so no one wins the challenge. This ability can really screw up the plans of an opponent and it doesn’t take much to have one or two cards that can do this in your deck.
- Economy: Tyrell has some of the best economy in the game. With cards like The Arbor and Redwyne Straits. These are both locations making them better than Tywin Lannister giving his additional +2 gold since characters are easier to be removed from the play area. Tyrell has still gained economy cards with each cycle as have all the factions placing them above par with economy locations.
- Power Gain: Tyrell is one of the top houses currently in the idea of getting to 15 power. This house is definitely one to look at if you like the idea of winning in the first 3 or 4 turns. They have a few avenues of doing this, there is the Knights theme with Lady Sansa’s Rose and all the other knight tech that gains additional power or you can go with the large amount of Renown on many of their high strength guys. But if none of that fancies your style you can use Mace Tyrell from the Tyrell box who gains a power any time a Tyrell character enters play (once a phase) at the cost of 1 gold. Any way you want to look at it Tyrell can gain power faster than most other factions if you’d like them to with the plethora of options that give an additional power.
- Good Icon Spread: Out of all the factions that have received boxes to add to their card pool, Tyrell has the the least amount of characters that have a single or no printed icons. While many of their cards that have this either gain icons or serve the purpose of kneeling to do an affect this makes Tyrell the highest in multiple icon characters. Now this may not seem like a large deal however having characters with multiple printed icons can really help you adapt to your opponent’s deck. The icon spread is also very even among these characters unlike Lannister that lacks in power icons or Stark that lacks in Intrigue icons. Tyrell has a very nice spread of icons allowing you to attack for different types of challenges or defend yourself from different types of challenges on a whim.
- Banner Rose: Most Banner Rose decks I see are taking Tyrell cards for Renown or the strength boosting. The Knight package is also mostly non-loyal so any house can utilize it. Almost all of the card draw/ deck search and manipulation are Loyal cards and the same for the removing characters from challenges. So if you want to get a little bit more power faster, maybe bulk up that strength or have a love of Knights in general like me. You can play any house and Banner Rose to fill these needs.
House Targaryen- “Fire And Blood”
The Targaryen faction is and always will be, The Burn faction. But that isn’t all that Targaryen has to offer. In the beginning with the core set they had a little bit of burn, a few Dothraki and Khal Drogo to help clean up boards with his ability to allow a second military challenge during the challenges phase. Since the latest 2 cycles however Targaryen has gotten really good in the meta and have broken the mold they had in the beginning of the game. Something tells me things will only be getting better for this faction. So let’s take a look at how this faction can destroy your enemies in a multitude of ways.
. •Burn: This is the term that is used to describe cards that give a -X strength to a character. Then we have the phrase Terminal Burn, this describes a card that gives -X to a character and if they reach 0 strength they are killed with no saves. I think out of all the themes Targaryen has this is the most deadly and hardest to deal with. If you ever question, “well how good is Burn?” they have the card Crown of Gold. It’s so good your only allowed 1 in your draw deck, it is the only card currently in the game that you are allowed only 1 of in your draw deck, Terminal Burn is that strong. Now let’s look at the rest of the Burn in House Targaryen. We started the game with the event Dracarys! and the location Plaza of Punishment in the core box. Over time a little more Terminal Burn has been introduced since but the designers of the game still keep them on a low amount of cards because it is so strong. There is still plenty of other Burn cards in the faction however dispersed over characters, locations and events. This makes Burn the most feared theme in the Targaryen faction.
- Dragons: The 3 Dragons and Daenerys Targaryen make for a brutal combination. Not only do you kneel a dragon to play the event Dracarys! but the dragons also support Daenerys Targaryen with the Stromborn trait, each in a unique way. They also aren’t that bad of characters. Being 2 and 3 cost makes them great to get on the board and since you want to run so many of them it’s not hard to find a duplicate. There is also the event Fire and Blood that takes a unique characters and puts them back in your draw deck, but if it’s a Hatchling, which the current Dragons are, you put them into play. Currently we only have the 3 Hatchling Dragons from the core box but eventually the Dragons will grow up, I can’t wait to see what these Dragons will look like when they are bigger.
- Bloodriders and Dothraki: All Of The Bloodriders are Dothraki also so I think these themes can be lumped together. Bloodrider synergies work off of other Bloodriders in play. Although most Bloodrider characters have unique abilities when they are alone. So they are strong on their own but together they get really strong. It’s good to note this because you can play just one Bloodrider character in a deck and you’ll be fine. The Dothraki are on the stronger side when it comes to cost making them efficient military icons, after all Khal Drogo is a Dothraki. They also have synergies but mostly with attachments and a few locations, not so much with each other.
- Standing Characters: Much like how Baratheon has kneel, Targaryen has the ability to stand characters. This can make their board presence slightly deceiving. Just when you think your ok a character stands and screws up a challenge. The cost to do this changes from card to card, some require you to spend 2 gold or require you to discard a card. Most of the time it’s worth standing the character when you need them and I’m sure more ways to do this will come in the future.
- Low Cost and High Cost Characters: You will notice a large number of Targaryen decks have low amounts of 4 cost and 5 cost characters. This is slightly how the faction works so be aware. Most of their good characters are 2 and 3 cost or 6 and 7 cost with not a lot of excellent choices in between. This wasn’t an accident though, the faction actually has attachments and other synergies that thrive on low cost characters and Targaryen has lots of those. However this does make them weak to cards like The First Snow of Winter and Ser Ilyn Payne From House Lannister.
- Attachments and Anti-Attachments: While Targaryen does have a large amount of anti-attachment cards most Targaryen decks only use 1 or 2 Viserys Targaryen, he reads that when he leaves play discard an attachment. Now there are a few more but none ever see play so I won’t get into them. Just know that if Attachments ever really become a problem in the game Targaryen can probably solve that issue. When it comes to using Attachments Targaryen is no stranger. They have the most in faction attachments tied with Nights Watch at 10, however Nights Watch has a box set and Targaryen does not. Most of these Attachments make your current characters better by a bit and this leads perfectly into our next section.
- Voltron: The term Voltron is used to describe a deck that is focused on one character and all the cards in the deck just help that character to become unstoppable. Most likely you will find Daenerys Targaryen as the main character in this because the current Dragons give her abilities, add in the plethora of Attachments and you can make her into a beast on the board. Not even a Milk of the Poppy or a Nightmares affects her since she gets most of her strength from other cards. This is a deck type that pops up from time to time and it is devastating when it all comes together however extremely fragile.
- Discarding Required: You’ll notice that Targaryen has many strong actions that require you to discard cards from your hand. Don’t be afraid of this, normally what you are discarding is well worth the effectiveness for what your discarding for. Be it standing a character or putting a whole new character into play. Targaryen also has synergies to get cards to come out of the discard pile and there is also the card Flea Bottom that we will touch on later in this article. There are also a few characters that get better if you have a lower amount of cards in hand than your opponent or a low number of cards in your hand in general. I’m sure Targaryen will be gaining more cards that require discarding cards in the future since this is a strong theme in the faction.
- Military Might: With having Khal Drogo’s text saying you get to do an additional military challenge in the challenge phase of course Targaryen will be able to apply pressure through military challenges, but that’s not all they have. Targaryen has some of the strongest military icons in the game for the cost in gold as seen with Second Sons or Ser Jorah. This makes you able to overpower your opponent during military challenges and with the occasional Terminal Burn killing characters you’ll find your opponent’s board cleared rather quickly. To top this off Targaryen’s major economy location Slavers Bay Port gets better when an opponent has 4 or more characters in the dead pile, allowing you more gold during your turn for doing what you want to do in the first place.
- Power Gain: There are a few cards that make it so Targaryen can push hard on the power gain style of play. They are not as fast or efficient as Tyrell or Greyjoy but with the ability to stand characters to do a second challenge or a few Attachments that help with power challenges they can do this kind of style well. Also to note that with The Lord Of The Crossing Agenda, having Khal Drogo able to allow a second military challenge gives more options since you’ll have 4 challenges and not 3.
- Banner Dragon: Although Burn is loyal the Standing cards are not. This makes Banner Dragon an excellent choice since any faction could always use more standing. Many of the low cost characters that are really strong are also non-loyal. Making Banner Dragon a strong and common choice.
Neutral Cards-
No discussion about A Game Of Thrones card pool is complete without talking about the neutrals that any faction can take. In the core box neutrals were mainly stand alone cards that helped an overall goal. Now they have themes and synergies that can stand alone and flow together as one. We will just be looking at one noteworthy powerful card and a few themes that have come out over the cycles and box expansions.
- Flea Bottom: Possibly the strongest neutral location in the game currently. This card has changed deck building and how the game is played since it came out, you really need to read what Flea Bottom can do. The idea alone of having characters enter into play at the cost of a gold is fantastic but then add in all those characters that have reaction to entering play during the challenge phase. This card thrives in almost every faction and is a perfect pair in Martell and Targaryen. Martell because they have so many low cost characters with reactions when they enter play, it allows for the player to really take advantage of these things. Also it allows Martell to get on demand claim soak since Martell normally has smaller boards. Targaryen has multiple cards that require you to discard cards. This location allows you to put those discarded characters to even more use. And you can be selective of what characters are in the discard pile on a whim. These facts alone will probably mean this card will be in lots of decks for a long time.
- Wildling: These are the people of the far north and so they have a few Winter themes so keep an eye on your plot deck if you plan on utilizing lots of Wildlings. A couple cards work well with low reserve while others need a Winter plot to be revealed to work. The Wildling overall theme seem to be aggressive in nature and a few of them get stronger if you are at a disadvantage in board state. Power icons are slightly rare when it comes to Wildlings so most of the decks that I see they are to fill a void of military or intrigue icons or the deck is Wildling heavy with a few characters with power icons to help back it. Nights Watch pairs well with Wildlings since many of their cards are Nights Watch affiliation or Wildling trait.
- House Frey: The cards with the House Frey trait are mostly built for one purpose, the 3rd challenge. This makes Frey characters a perfect match in any deck using The Lord Of The Crossing Agenda. Literally any house can take them if they want to play this agenda but a few houses really don’t have to. They do have a slight draw back tho, they are only good on that third challenge. This makes them risky to play if you find yourself playing against a large number of Targaryen decks running Terminal Burn or Martell who can manipulate your challenge phase. Control decks really hurt the Frey Theme. This is why I think of them as a glass cannon, they can crush your opponent when they start to get going but they can also shatter causing your doom.
- Maesters: Every faction has Maesters except Targaryens and there are a few Maesters that are neutral if you’d like more. There is also the Agenda The Conclave that allows you to take Maesters from any faction and play them in your deck. They have tricks that they can do and most have both the Intrigue and power icons however the overall theme feels incomplete and there has yet to be a deck that has made waves using Maesters as it’s backbone. They are amazing support characters however.
- The Seven: Much like the Stark Faction has, The Seven theme seems to be one of Denial. Not just the cards from the draw deck but The Seven plots also seem to follow this theme along with the agenda The Faith Militant. They go a little further than Stark does though in the sense that they can deny things about your board state such as collecting gold or drawing cards. This makes The Seven very interesting and could really shake up the meta. For now they are just fun to have around to screw up your opponent’s plans.
This concludes the break down of each faction and a few neutral themes. Everything is subject to change in strength as the card pool grows and the meta evolves remember. I hope this helps you find a faction, style or deck type that you are looking for to enjoy A Game Of Thrones LCG 2.0 as much as I have over the life of this game.
wow, this is an impressively detailed article – thank you very much for sharing your insights!