Recruiting Cards - Valar Morghulis

Many call this the defining card of AGOT, many claim that it is over-powered, many loved this card to death, and many others hated it to death.

One thing's for sure, this card is almost always in your mind when you're playing an AGOT game, and it is almost always present (or at least you wish it is (or it is not) present) in a Joust.

Some call it a reset card, some use it as a primary strategy, the majority probably has it in their plot deck and hope he never needs to get to it - a double-edged sword sometimes.

There was a time when I had this card in every plot deck that I used, and cursed fiercely and aggressively when it was played by somebody else. Most often than not I couldn't recover from it when Valar hit the table (when it was not played by me), and at some point I did feel a little bitter about the power of this card.

Today, however, Valar is still quite prolific in my environment, it appears all the time, but it is no longer something that I dread, but something that I always planned for in every game that I play.

IMHO, Valar is a great card in a Joust environment, since whenever you play it, you know that (most of the time anyway) you will be having the upper hand on the results, or at least your subsequent position is usually relatively better than before you play it. But in a melee environment, it is significantly harder to be the sole benefactor of the Valar as you play it. Very often, in a melee, Valar is played to prevent one particular player from running away with the game, and does not necessarily give you the upper hand in the game relative to the other players whom are also involved.

Of course, there are certain decks/cards who're just natural partners to Valar Morghulis - Beric for example, or the Refugee decks who use Valar to get ahead. But for all the other decks out there, it pays to be prepared for the eventual appearance of this gruesome destiny.

How do people do that?

Generally, keep a couple of characters in hand if you can, in case everyone got wiped out (especially non-unique characters without save capability). So if you know that (or suspect) that someone is gonna Valar soon, hold back that 1 or 2 characters that you intend to play and prepare for the subsequent power vacuum.

That said, it is not always easy, since one usually need all the help one can get, either to quickly gather those power, or sometimes just to keep up.

Having many ways and means to keep your characters alive is another method - Valar KILLS characters, so there are multiple ways to save your characters - duplicates, save attachments such as Bodyguards, events and locations or save-capable characters like the famous Aemon are all good options. If you can actually time it well, a Power of Blood will totally give you the win when a Valar is in play.

Then there is Narrow Escape, though it is a restricted card, and people has means of getting over it.

But what happens after a Valar, assuming that you're not prepared for it.

If you think about it, unless the Valar is a bigger part of a well-coordinated strategy, it often just puts the leading player back to a level playing field and gives all others a fighting chance.

So I feel that Valar is not really that fantastic a card - powerful it is, but overpowered it is not. With only 2 gold there, the user is not going to get very ahead if he's also losing many of his characters. Moreover, with a claim and initiative of exactly ZERO, the Valar-er is out of the game in this round, no effective attacks and almost definitely not winning initiative to get that extra 2 gold or 1 card that is usually good to have.

Not to mention that you may have no choice but to play Valar if you run out of other Plots to choose from. (not necessarily from a long game~)

So, for decks that are primarily meant for melee, and has no real reason to kill off all characters besides getting back into the game, perhaps a little more consideration could be included before throwing Valar into the Plot deck, especially since there're now quite some good alternative defensive cards, like Loyalty Money Can Buy or Wildfire Assault etc. Stuff like Condemned by the Realm can sometimes be more effective than Valar in melee.

Valar Morghulis, yes, but it doesn't always have to be there~

(o.o)

Calls to Arms - the rationale of SEVEN

Now, why 7?

Because there're 7 days in a week? Or there are 7 sins? Why not ten, to facilitate sleeve buying, why not 5? Or for the matter, why not the auspicious 8?

Why 7 cards in a plot deck?

I can understand why there must be at least 5, or the plot deck would be rather thin and the variety of strategies greatly limited.

But why stop at 7? Not 6, not 8, not 10?

What's the rationale in the number 7 for the plot deck?

Well, I have absolutely no idea. So I'll attempt to speculate.

We know that most strategies involve about 3-4 plot cards to pull off, 1-2 with good income, 1-2 with card search, and at least 1-2 with high claims - that ensures that most basic card strategies require a cycling of the fundamental 3-4, or maybe even 5 plot cards to execute. Take the predictable Baratheon Power Rush for example. Probably you'll see like, a Summoning Season first, followed by 2 Power of Blood or something like that, at the minimum, for the Baratheon fella to win the game with those pesky well-known kings and lords.

Most other decks don't have that kind of speed, so 4 plots are needed (usually, and we're talking about melee here) to execute the grand scheme of things, usually starting with a search (Summoning or Building, or the lucky Family support from the Tullys), followed by a buy (high income plot with benefits, say, a Fury), and then the key attack cards, like a 2-claim plot, or victory-related strategic plot such as To the Spears! or Rise of the Kraken. Very often, 2 of such cards are required to pull a chain or secure a win, like 2x 2 claims plot or something like that.

Therefore we can probably safely say that 4-5 plots are actually the norm for pretty much any deck to score a win - and therefore any plot deck must consist of about 4-5 cards dedicated to the primary path of victory - either with Power-related abilities (like Rise of the Kraken) or Power-grabbing facilities (like Storm of Swords for a Siege Stark) or survival for the grabbing of power (like Power of Blood or Uneasy Truce).

The 2 remaining cards will then provide the "Plan B" for the deck. These are usually either reactionary cards meant to level the playing field (especially in Joust), like the famous Valar, disturbance plots to annoy people and improve current position, such as the Blockade, eliminate key threats with the Wedding, or simply bonus cards like the Winter Festival.

But if too many plots are available in a plot deck then the basic "very good to have" plots will appear in every one, like Valar or Winter Festival, so the number 7, I think, is created to only allow a single Plan B, and not enough to allow a Plan C and/or too many goodies to see, say, Winter Festival in every deck.

So I guess 7 is a well thought out number, not randomly pulled from the numeracy table.

On the other hand, it could simply be convenient. Or maybe Mr. Eric just likes the shape of the number 7, or he hates 8.

(o.o)

Yes! Let's start again!

Ok, now that job hunting is officially out of the way, and I (more or less) have a stream of steady income again, time to defrost this blog and start writing~

(o.o)

Calls to Arms - Greyjoy

I've been asked to provide a simple summary of what to get for new players in starting AGoT over here in Singapore. Well, I'm not much an experienced player myself, but I did buy pretty much everything there is to buy for AGoT at the moment (and pretty much everybody else that I knew did the same, but I seem to be the only one with a blog. Darn.), so here it is, I try to list down what to buy for the Houses in question, and hopefully it helps to give a better idea on how much one should get.

First of all, disclaimer. This list is by no means the holy bible to the purchasing of AGoT, it's merely my own personal opinion. So if someones finds that following my summary here doesn't make sense at all, please do not burn me on the stakes.

So here it is, what I think a starting player should get if he intends to play Greyjoy only.

Well, the victory path most feasible for Greyjoy is the unopposed challenge, normally based on either Raider or Intimidate tech, where the Intimidate tech seems to be a lot easier to build. So here I list down the stuff one should get if he intends to have enough to build a Greyjoy deck centered on unopposed challenge, with options to move between Intimidate and Raider tech.

First of all, how many core sets?

For Greyjoy, I'd stick my neck out and say that ONE is perhaps enough.

As you know, Greyjoy is not represented in the Core set, so you need to get one, well, for the rules and tokens and the House card if nothing else. Greyjoys will also need a lot of those good Plot cards, such as Valar Morghulis, Wildfire Assault, the Seasons and so forth - these are essential for options. The Street of Steel and Street of Sisters are also of excellent use in most Greyjoy deck, and Core sets give you the Streets where King of the Sea doesn't. You'll probably get enough Sunset Sea from Kings of the Sea so this much is not an issue, but great if you're planning for a second Greyjoy deck sometime in the future.

Do you need more than ONE copy of Core? Well, not really, unless you find urgent need for multiple copies of Milk of the Poppy, and some of the events such as Support of the Kingdom. Really, nothing essential requires more than the single copy that you'll get in a Core set here, so you should be able to get by with just a single copy of Core.

Now, the Kings of the Sea deluxe expansion is a no brainer. A new format with 3 of each card will be released soon, so grab a copy of that. There is no reason not to, as there are too many important cards for Greyjoys to list in this set. If you're thinking of playing Greyjoy in any serious form, a copy of this is ESSENTIAL, You DON'T have a choice.

Now for the more tricky part -

Here are the chapter packs that I think one must get in order to play the Greyjoys efficiently. Note that you CAN play without these, just that many of these chapter packs will add good punch into your deck.

1 x Ancient Enemies

You need the Fury of the Kraken Plot. Case close. This pack is also good for EVERY house because it contains the necessary (or I should say, very efficient) Fury Plots for everyone. It also provides 3 copies of the lackluster Salt Wife, in case you really need them.

1-3 x Calling the Banner

The Banner for the Kraken is the most effective Banner, as Intimidate is such a great ability to have. You get 3 copies of the Banner, so no question about this. The Compelled by the Sea event card is very useful for Greyjoys since so many of their non-unique locations can be really useful - for example, the Scout Vessel - moreover, it complements the Banners nicely. Unfortunately, you only get a single copy of this event in the pack, so it's your call how many of the packs you need to get - normally I'd say 1-2 should suffice. Another great fella in this pack is Fish Whiskers, which is a great and cheap character for Greyjoy. Once again you only get 1 single copy of him, but I don't think you need much more than one of him in a deck - 2 is kinda an overkill.

1-3 x Sacred Bonds

Well, the issue here is the event card To Be a Kraken. A great card for Intimidate characters that has the No Attachment issue since they cannot make use of Support from Harlaw. Powerful characters with Intimidate such as Euron's Enforcers or the Pirate (at the right time) really benefits from this card, but you only get one in each pack, so again it's your deck-building strategy that will decide how many you'll need. You do get the 3 Herald for fun and the First Mate (who also comes only in a single copy) might be useful for Warship tech Greyjoy decks.

1 x Tower of the Hand

Ya, the 3 Seaside Urchins. And you get a copy of The Hand's Judgment, which is always handy.

1 x A Song of Summer

The 3 Fishing Nets, one of the most annoying attachment in the game.

1-3 Change of Seasons

Now, Greyjoys are excellent in Winter, and that is because of the 2 cards in this pack - the magnificent 3 x Wintertimes Marauders, and the single Theon Greyjoy in this pack. You probably don't need 3 of Theon unless you're really really into him, so 1, maybe 2 copies of this pack should suffice. But, well, just in case. Anyway, the Den of the Wolf in this pack is great to have too, and A Time of Ravens Plot is essential for Season techs.

1 x Refugees of War

Gee. Who doesn't need this?

1 x Winds of Winter

Greyjoys do good in Winter, so you'll probably be looking at Winter tech at some point.

1 x Song of Silence

Get one of these, there is that Euron in there. Also, Retaliation plot card is there too, not to mention Longship Silence and the Horn of Dragons.

1 x Dreadfort Betrayal.

Honestly, it's only for that 3 copies of Euron's Enforcers. But they're so good in Raider decks, and good enough in Intimidate decks. Well, bite the bullet and buy this one - good thing you only need 1 pack.

1 x Of Snakes and Sand

For the Bloodthirsty Crew, and also for the Refurbished Hulk for Warship tech. If you play with Banners instead, you can ignore this pack too.

1 x Rituals of R'hllor

Only for the 3 Ambitious Oarsmen - but they're definitely needed in any Raider deck - and good to have as warm bodies.

1 x Wolves of the North

Your Ahead of the Tides my friends, plus you get the Winter Festival Plot as a bonus.

1-3 x Beyond the Wall

Pretty sad, since the important thing in this pack is the single copy of Nute. But he's good, really good.

1 x Return of the Others

Tarle the Thrice Drowned is a great character to have, but you probably don't need 3 copies of him - a single one should suffice. The Kingsmoot Support might come in handy occasionally.

That's about it.

I might miss something, but most of the stuff you need should be there if you get all these that I've listed. Hopefully it's enough for you to start taking Westeros!

We DO NOT Sow!

(o.o)

The Ocean Orchestra - Intimidate

Probably the most powerful in-house ability in AGOT, Intimidate is a great power to have, and probably the most worth-it to get ability for characters.

What it does is that it simply makes every defending character's STR counts as zero if their STR is lower than the attacking character's STR (if the character has Intimidate). This creates opportunities for unopposed challenges, as well as giving you great advantage in punching through large number of weenies with a single high-STR Intimidate character.

The Greyjoys have a good number of characters with Intimidate, average STR of about 3, therefore, to maximize this power, you'll need to find means to increase the STR of these characters. There are multiple ways for the Greyjoys to do this - they have their Warships, attachments (Dragon Horn, for example), and events to push the STR of their Intimidate characters up to the sky and the simple sea raid simply becomes air raid. Intimidate STR needs to reach about 4 to become really useful, and 5 is usually enough to penetrate most defenses.

The Greyjoy's Intimidate tech is actually pretty well developed. First they have good Intimidate characters that can pump up their own STR through certain means - for example, Euron's Enforcers gains STR from the presence of other Raiders (including themselves), Nute the Barber can discard cards from hand to increase STR and so on. The standard event "Risen from the Sea" played in pretty much every Greyjoy deck also gives a +1 STR after that, making it an excellent utility card. Longship Victory gives +2 STR to participating character and that is simply awesome when used on a character that has Intimidate.

Due to the power of Intimidate, the Banner of the Kraken is probably the most worth-it bannerman to play, not to mention the protection it gives to the attached characters against cards that cannot target anyone with attachment.

One issue about the Intimidate characters is that many of them has the "No Attachment" clause - though it protects them from stuff like Flame-Kissed, it also opens them to kneeling effects as well as some other functions that plays off characters with no attachments. Another issue is the relatively high-cost of the characters with Intimidate. But hey, you can't have everything.

The Intimidate also works very well into the Greyjoy's standard unopposed challenge victory path - since having no defenders with any STR is as good as giving you the unopposed victory. Couple this with Support from Harlaw for the standing ability and the added Stealth to avoid that one fella that has high STR, this is simply routine killing when you have that all in place.

(o.o)

A New Chapter - Secrets and Spies

The 5th installment of the King's Landing cycle, and it's another good pack to have for most houses, in this case, especially for the Targaryens and Martell.

Distribution of the cards -

1 Martell Attachment,

10 Characters, 2 of them Neutral, Lannister and Targaryens gets 2 each, the other Houses 1 each.

5 Events

3 Locations, 1 Baratheon, 1 Targaryen and a neutral location.

And of course, a City Plot.

The Martell attachment is an average attachment, good to have but nothing crucial.

Some of the characters are pretty good, but the Targaryens get the best from this pack. The King's Landing Assassin is an excellent addition to Targaryen burn or Shadow decks, while the Shadow Prophet is another good addition to Targaryen Shadow decks. The Baratheon gets the "does not kneel to attack/defend" version of the Knight of Flowers (again, that's reliant on anti-Shadow presence) and the Lannister gets Qyburn. The best character in this pack is probably Varys - the discard ally version - excellent to have in any deck who has space. All the unique characters comes in single copies, so, ya, much money to spend.

Aegon's Legacy is a must-have event for Targaryen Shadow burn decks - you get 3 per pack so it's quite ok to just grab 1. Lannister's Death by Payne is another commonly seen event card that is effective. The other events are nothing to write home about.

The locations in this pack is cool, the Targaryen's Visenya's Hill is just plain annoying, combining this little card with the Greyjoy deck depletion tech is just evil, but even with a single copy in a Targaryen deck it can be really threatening at times, especially if used in combination with the other Hills. The King's Landing neutral location is a good card-draw addition to decks that play lots of King's Landing cards.

The City of Spies is an ok City Plot.

Targaryens and Lannisters, grab this one, no question if you're playing Shadows. Other Houses don't really need this pack as badly.

(o.o)

A New Chapter - Tales from the Red Keep

The 4th installment from the King's Landing Cycle, this particular pack is an interesting one, as it packed many very interesting card that is useful for a variety of decks.

But first, as usual, the distribution of cards -

1 Agenda

3 Attachments, 1 for Lannister, 1 for Greyjoy and 1 for Stark.

10 Characters, Martell, Targaryen and Lannister each gets 1, the other Houses gets 2 each, and 1 neutral character.

1 important Martell event,

4 Locations, 1 for Baratheon, 1 Greyjoy, 1 Targaryen and 1 Neutral.

and of course, a city Plot.

The Agenda is the famous White Book, for the Kingsguard. We all know what these fellas are at the moment, so perhaps for the future~

The attachments are no big deal, except for the Lannister's Flogged and Chained, which is a common combo for kneeling decks, though not always a necessity - it does work very well in Joust environment and I might even say it is almost mandatory for Lannister kneel decks to have a couple of these in a Jouse deck. Well, you get 3 of them in a single pack, so it's not too bad.

The characters in this pack is, well, very good, to say the least. Syrio Forel, the neutral fencing tutor everyone likes, is a very good inclusion to almost any deck. We have a single copy of him here, definitely not enough. We also have only a single copy of the Red Viper that is not used in Sand Snake decks, he does a different thing, but does it very well too, and is a cool character for the foundation of some very cool Martell concepts.

The Joffrey Baratheon in this deck is the king of many Lannister decks, and one can argue the Lannisters will need to get 3 packs of this one just to get enough Joffreys. The other characters, with the exception of Daemon Blackfyre, are not as exciting, but many of them are quite useable, such as the extremely cheap Distinguished Boatwain for the Greyjoys and the Queen of Thorns for Baratheon Shadow decks.

The 3 copies of Viper's Rage event for the Martell, is absolutely necessary in pretty much every Martell deck.

The Red Keep and the Dragon Pit locations in this pack are also commonly seen, indicating their usefulness.

The City Plot (City of Spiders) is a very good one, used in every decks that use a good number of City Plots.

All in all this is an excellent pack, I'd say it's a MUST get for Lannisters and Martell, and good to have for almost every other House.

(o.o)