Monday, February 21, 2011

A New Chapter - Sacred Bond

The 3rd of the Clash of Arms black bordered chapter pack, and this one is really good.

First, the breakdown of the cards in the pack.

13 Characters - 3 double House characters, 2 Baratheon, 2 Greyjoy, 1 Lannister, 1 Martell, 2 Stark, 1 Targaryen and 1 banned Jaqn H'gar.
7 Events.

And that's it, nothing else.

But let's look at these characters. Ok, Jaqn is banned, but he's only 1 card in the pack, so he shouldn't be too much of a deterrent in terms of value.

The others, however, contain some of the best fellas to throw into every deck, specifically the Heralds. Every House gets 3 of the 2 for 2 single icon Herald characters that allows you to search your deck for a character and put into hand. I don't think there is a need to elaborate on the strategic value of deck-searching. And even if you're not too worried about the ability of these Heralds, their 2 for 2 with single icon is shabby but not too bad anyway, and could find a place in a deck to buck up the staff strength.

If the Heralds are not enough to motivate you to buy this, there are 3 double House characters for you to play with. They are reasonably cost effective, and all comes with 2 abilities (usually cross-House abilities, giving you a very interesting option to use in a House that otherwise has almost no way of getting them cheap) - Ambush Intimidate anyone?

The Direwolves deck will need 3 of this pack in order to get 3 copies of the deadly Feral Pack, which is an incredible addition to Direwolf decks since it gives Deadly to all Direwolves and remove Deadly from everybody else.

The 6 "To Be" events (of course, each Great House will get one) are events that rely on Plot traits, specifically the Military Battle, Intrigue Gambit and Power Struggle. The effects are varied but are all pretty good to have and most are pretty easy to use. Definitely a good to have if you intend to play lots of Plot Traits-oriented decks. Unfortunately, the pack comes with only 1 of each of these events, forcing you to go get 3 packs if you need them a lot.

All in all this is a very good pack to get. But minus the Direwolf decks and those who intend to play with Plot Traits, there is little need to buy more than 1 copy, since the Heralds - which IMHO, are the best reason to buy this pack, all comes with 3 in the pack. On the other hand, if you have multiple decks, you may want to have a couple of these trios of Heralds, and the other events and stuff are a great bonus.

Too bad Jaqn is banned, or else this pack will be an auto "buy 3" click.

(o.o)

1 comment:

  1. Point to note: the "To Be a" event cards all work with the "Fury of the" plots cards.

    I think To Be a Wolf and To Be a Dragon are reason enough to get 3 Sacred Bonds

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