All Things Shagga - Gameplay Variants Pt. 1

Welcome back once again, intrepid explorers of All Things Shagga. This week we continue our efforts to expand the ground which a Shagga directed column is able to cover. Once again, we’re passing on a decklist for this week and instead are taking a look at a much larger Shagga perspective on the game. What might that be, you ask? Gameplay variants. Being a Shagga player generally means a love of all things awesome, exciting, inventive and unusual- and it’s hard to find something much more inventive and unusual than an entirely different way to play the game that we all know and love.

So what does a game variant do? Generally, the majority of the core mechanics stay the same- players still draw, count gold, play cards, attack and defend, but generally one major variable of the game is altered while the others stay the same. For instance, in the Highlander format, all of the game rules function the same except for one small piece of deck construction- you can only play one copy of each card in your deck.

While there are several variants to choose from, this week we’re going to look at the Hand of the King variant. For those that want to read the full rules document, you can check it out here. For those who want the short and easy breakdown, here are the five easy steps to play Hand of the King:

• Choose any non-Creature, non-Army unique character. This character starts next to your house card, outside the game.
• When you count gold in marshalling, put one gold token on your Hand, which cannot be spent. When your Hand has gold on it equal to or greater than its cost, bring it into play.
• If a Hand would leave play for any reason, instead remove one gold token from it.
• Each player may declare one challenge per turn against the opposing Hand. The Hand is automatically considered a defender. If the attacking player wins, they move one gold from the losing Hand to their own as well as regular claim effects.
• In order to win, you must reach your normal win condition as well as have a Hand of the King in play with more gold on it than the opponent’s.

For anyone else that may be familiar with Magic the Gathering, you may notice some passing similarity to the EDH (Elder Dragon Highlander) or Commander format. One particularly important difference is that your choice of Commander in MTG limits your factions for deckbuilding, but since that’s already largely taken care of by the house card in AGOT, players are actually able to use a Hand from any house they would like, regardless of what house it belongs to.

Of course, playing hand of the King does bring another important feature to the table for the Shagga player- inevitability. Much like an agenda, you know that whatever Hand of the King you choose will be available to you without any need to draw or search for it. This creates an easy “build around me” situation that Shaggas love. Conveniently, with many characters it’s actually quite a Nedly format to emphasize this title and the unique characters from the books.

Here are a few of the more interesting Hand of the King options:

Asha Greyjoy (WLL) - As the cheapest non-kneeling character in the game, Asha Greyjoy can help you really close out even a standard joust game. In Hand of the King, she can easily be used with a Lannister Power Behind the Throne deck in order to make multiple intrigue challenges with renown.

Myrcella Lannister (LotR) - An interesting quirk of the Hand of the King rules means that you can discard her as the cost of her ability, but the rules replace her discard pile destination with the removal of a gold token instead. This means you could use her repeatedly to make extra intrigue challenges.

Edric Storm (Core) - Much like Myrcella Lannister, Edric can be used over and over, thanks to the HotK rules.

Daario Naharis (WLL), Ser Jorah Mormont (WLL), and Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS) - I’ve lumped these three together as they function very similarly in this format. Since they trigger off of coming into play and don’t care where they came from, they’ll trigger when they reach the appropriate amount of gold tokens on them. If your opponent challenges your Hand, you choose them for military claim, or find other ways to cause them to bounce out of play, you can keep returning them to play and discarding multiple characters.

Old Nan (BoRF) - Sure, she won’t be doing much that’s exciting all by herself, but being able to guarantee getting her into play second turn is bound to let some decks pull some pretty sick trait manipulation, possibly with Daario, Jorah and Aerys listed above.

Grand Maester Pycelle (TRS) - If you can find the right deck, I think there may be something in re-using Pycelle to recycle plots over and over.

Lucas Blackwood (GotC) - If you can find a way to keep killing Lucas over and over, you can generate extra military challenges at some really odd times. With the Siege of Winterfell agenda, this could lead to some pretty explosive turns.

Myrcella Lannister (ODG), Edric Dayne (IG) - These Martell nobles can be used with Ghaston Grey similarly to the other Myrcella and Edric Storm. Instead of returning to hand, they’ll lose a gold token and leave play, then come back ready to bounce an opponent’s character next turn. Technically, this works with Arianne Martell, The Red Viper and Doran Martell as well but since you’d be waiting until turns 4 and 5 to start the shenanigans, I’m not really sure it’s worth it.

Reek (MotM) - Last but not least, Reek lets us abuse these rules to the utmost as the “leave play” clause that discards a gold token also extends to losing control of that character, so if you can win the intrigue challenge, you can exchange Reek for control of an opponent’s character, then discard a gold token from Reek and have him back gain next turn, ready to thieve again.

Those are just a few of the more interesting Shagga applications of the Hand of the King variant. What interesting applications do you readers have in mind?