A Clash of Arms Cycle Highlights

The first chapter pack cycle for the Game of Thrones LCG, A Clash of Arms expanded on some of the inherent themes houses with similarly templated cards. Events, Characters, and Plots all appear for each house providing excellent game play and themeatic choices. This gives each chapter pack a very strong purchase value for almost any house.

The War of the Five Kings
Highlights:

• 8 cost/8 STR armies for each house. These armies all have a cost reduction (-4 Gold if you control a King or Queen) and various fairly powerful abilities too.
• http://www.cardgamed...K"]Jhalabar Xho">Jhalabar'>http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/GoTCards.html/_/a-clash-of-arms/the-war-of-the-five-kings/Jhalabar-Xho-TWot5K"]Jhalabar Xho stops renown rushes very well.
• http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/GoTCards.html/_/a-clash-of-arms/the-war-of-the-five-kings/Queens-Knight-TWot5K"]Queen's Knight">Queen%27s'>http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/GoTCards.html/_/a-clash-of-arms/the-war-of-the-five-kings/Queens-Knight-TWot5K"]Queen's Knight and http://www.cardgamed...5K"]Flaming Pitch Tower">Flaming'>http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/GoTCards.html/_/a-clash-of-arms/the-war-of-the-five-kings/Flaming-Pitch-Tower-TWot5K"]Flaming Pitch Tower are great compliments to Targs Burn and Ambush themes.

Buy this pack if:

You are building a army themed deck for any house.You need some extra targeted kill for Stark or Greyjoy

Note that http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/GoTCards.html/_/a-clash-of-arms/the-war-of-the-five-kings/Pyromancers-Cache-TWot5K"]Pyromancer's Cache">Pyromancer%27s'>http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/GoTCards.html/_/a-clash-of-arms/the-war-of-the-five-kings/Pyromancers-Cache-TWot5K"]Pyromancer's Cache is the first of 3 cards in this cycle which have been banned from tournament melee and joust play.

Ancient Enemies
Highlights:

• The Fury of Plots give a 5/7/1 Military Battle, Intrigue Gambit, or Power Struggle for each house with a thematic reward for defeating opposing houses in specific challenges.
• http://www.cardgamed...nd-AE"]Bear Island">Bear'>http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/GoTCards.html/_/a-clash-of-arms/ancient-enemies/Bear-Island-AE"]Bear Island gives pure Stark decks even more targeted kill.

Buy this pack if:

You need some very good plots.

Sacred Bonds
Highlights:

• The Heralds are characters for each house allow you to search your deck for a house character and place it on top of your deck when they come into play. With alittle bit of draw this can let you grab a much needed character.
• The To Be A ... events give you a fairly powerful effect and allow you to stand a character. Each house has a different requirement of a Military Battle, Intrigue Gambit, or Power Struggle plot being in the used pile but if you bought Ancient Enemies chapter pack that shouldn't be a problem.

Buy this pack if:

In addition to the above Stark also gets a nice direwolf. http://www.cardgamed...r-SB"]Jaqen H'ghar">Jaqen'>http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/GoTCards.html/_/a-clash-of-arms/sacred-bonds/Jaqen-Hghar-SB"]Jaqen H'ghar also shows up in this pack and has the distinction of being the 2nd banned card from this cycle.

Epic Battles
Highlights:

• Each house recieves an Epic Battle event card. These events add a single challenge after the dominance phase which give rewards dependant on the house you are playing.

Buy this pack if:

If extra challenges are your thing this pack is a must buy. This pack also has a large number of Locations in it with some unique effects. The effects aren’t huge but they also key off the epic battles provided in the pack to additionally allow card draw if triggered in the epic phase.

Battle of Ruby Ford
Highlights:

• http://www.cardgamed...oRF"]Battle of Ruby Ford">Battle'>http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/GoTCards.html/_/a-clash-of-arms/battle-of-ruby-ford/Battle-of-Ruby-Ford-BoRF"]Battle of Ruby Ford is another epic battle that is generic so any house can use it and gives you your choice of challenge with claim 2
• http://www.cardgamed...n-BoRF"]Old Nan">Old'>http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/GoTCards.html/_/a-clash-of-arms/battle-of-ruby-ford/Old-Nan-BoRF"]Old Nan gives life to alot of different trait manipulation tricks.
• http://www.cardgamed...RF"]Rhaegar Targaryen">Rhaegar'>http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/GoTCards.html/_/a-clash-of-arms/battle-of-ruby-ford/Rhaegar-Targaryen-BoRF"]Rhaegar Targaryen, a cost 4, 5 Str, tricon with a noble and war crest makes him pretty beefy. His on death ability to end the current round that any player can use can make killing him one of the most strategic actions a player can do.

Buy this pack if:

This is probably the most hit or miss of these packs. There are plenty of good cards in the pack but some are hard to use or of limited appeal.

Calling the Banners
Highlights:

• Each house gets a Banner character that can change into an attachment to give a matching house character that houses keyword.
• Each house also gets a 'Compelled by ...' event that beyond their normal effect stand characters with banner attachments.
• http://www.cardgamed...er-CtB"]Ser Lancel Lannister">Ser'>http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/GoTCards.html/_/a-clash-of-arms/calling-the-banners/Ser-Lancel-Lannister-CtB"]Ser Lancel Lannister can help Lannister decks more easily push through military and power challenges.

Buy this pack if:

Baratheon and Greyjoy players have the easiest time using their banner characters given the mechanics of Vigilant and Intimidate. Compelled by the Rock, house Lannisters event, is the 3rd card from this block which is banned.

Cycle Thoughts:

Every house gets some powerful and frankly must have cards from this cycle. The first three packs are pretty much must buy no matter what house you play.

Unfortunately for House Lannister they had 2 of their cards from this cycle banned. They are not lacking though for powerful cards even with these bannings.

Single pack synergy is pretty high in this cycle. Each pack is fairly self contained with cards that key off each other but have limited interactivity with cards from the other packs, so buying 1 pack at a time wouldn't hurt when building decks. Taking this into consideration, all the houses are fairly equal in the benefits from these packs. So a gamer on a budget should be able to cherry pick which packs they want without feeling like they are missing out when not getting all the packs