All Things Shagga - The Top Shagga: A Time of Ravens

Welcome back the second in All Thing’s Shagga’s series of chapter pack cycle reviews. For those that are just joining us now, we’re taking a look at the Top 5 Shagga cards in each cycle, beginning with the very first cycle in the LCG. This time, we’re taking a look at the “A Time of Ravens” cycle, which was technically the second cycle, though it was the first to arrive after the release of the Core Set. This cycle introduced the power and thematic Summer and Winter mechanics. After reading back through the set again, I found myself having to make some tough decisions. I really feel that the majority of the interesting cards in this cycle actually skew much harder to the Jaime psychographic. Shagga representation is actually rather sparse. With that said, though, let’s take a look at what we did find!


1. Cat o' the Canals (RoW)- This is a bit of a tricky entry, I admit. Last time around, I asked for some feedback on how you guys would like to see these handled, and I certainly had some folks request that I stick to “build around me” cards, but I can’t bring myself to eliminate other considerations completely. The Shagga psychographic covers big, splashy, shiny things of all kinds. Many times that is a combo, but sometimes, it’s just a mind blowing ability like this. Sure, Cat’s ability isn’t just going to win a game on its own, but there just isn’t another ability its equal in the game. It may seem blasé to veteran players now because she hasn’t turned out to be a Jaime hit in the ensuing years, but at the time of her release, those 5 words (“Immune to opponent’s card effects.”) blew people’s minds. The far reaching implications of this never cease to amazing. Absolutely nothing your opponent does can touch her! Unfortunately, the next place the Shagga mind jumps is toward trying to Voltron her up with attachments, but the developers noticed this and reined in our capabilities there pretty hard. The best option you’re going to have at the moment is to drop 1 Aegon's Blade (Core) on her to make her a 3 STR tricon with Stealth and Renown. All told, that’s still not too shabby. And for the rules gurus in the crowd, it’s worth noting that she can still be killed by military claim because that’s the game rules killing her, not an opponent’s card.

2. Den of the Wolf (ACoS)- Den is another card that really jumped out to us when it was first released. As this was released at the tail end of the CCG era, immunity was actually a far more prevalent portion of the game than now, but that’s more of a Jaime consideration. The triggered ability is far more impressively Shagga. Again, there’s nothing in the LCG to compare to an effect that lets you copy any phase of your choice save Marshalling. While it earned points on sheer outside the box impressiveness at the time, we’ve now seen a handful of other cards that can be combined with Den of the Wolf for some very interesting combo style decks. The most likely culprits are to either play House Stark to utilize The Minstrel's Muse (RotO) and repeat the Dominance phase. All told, you’ll claim 8 power, irrespective of any challenge you might have made that turn. Likewise, you can pair Den with Tywin Lannister (LotR) in house Lannister, you can claim a total of 8 power by repeating a winning Dominance phase. With a power swing of more than half that necessary to win, you’re sure to make an impressive move on an unprepared opponent.

3. Open Market (ASoS)- Ah, what else can I say about this card? In short, combos generally need engines in order to repeat an effect, and Open Market is quite obviously an engine. On the surface, it’s not terribly efficient as it requires you to discard 2 cards to return 1, which is a net loss in card advantage, but the card that you’re returning to hand, is likely to become a truly degenerate effect. For the truly enterprising Shagga, you might even attempt to turn the discard into a positive for your deck as a whole. For more information on that, check out my last All Things Shagga prior to beginning this series.

4. Summer Encampment (SA)- Oh my, here we have another engine, and such an engine it is! This is a card that I haven’t noticed seeing nearly as much play is it probably should have, especially in this day and age. (Spoiler alert- expect me to explore this possibility once this series of articles is finished). Off the bat, some players may not think too much about returning their own characters aside from dodging a reset because of the resource investment loss involved. Thankfully, Shaggas tend to look a little deeper than that. Bloodrider (MotA) can be returned to your hand after canceling a key ability so that it can be ready to cancel again. Daario Naharis (WLL) and Ser Jorah Mormont (WLL) are truly epic new choices since they offset the resources lost in returning them, by removing opposing characters (and thus the opponent’s resource investment) each time you replay them! Dragon Knight (TBC) burns characters over and over, while Dragon Thief (AE) discards any attachments you might need removed. Herald of the East (SB) can repeatedly search out any character based answer you might need. Red Warlock (ASoS) searches up attachments. Any character that triggers once it comes into play or is played from hand becomes a treasure trove of repeatable effects. I’m just skimming the surface of options in one house! For instance, the deck will need to be Summer to activate the Encampment, so the likelihood of playing Samwell Tarly (TRS) and Carrion Bird (ASoS) are quite high. For 2 gold per turn, you can return and replay Carrion Bird over and over to drawcap yourself. The possibilities here are nigh endless.

5. The Tower of Joy (TRS)- The Tower belongs to a particularly interesting subset of cards closely related to the engines that I mentioned earlier. The Tower of Joy is a puzzle card. This is to say that it’s built to pique curiosity by creating or triggering off of a non-standard game state. Winning a challenge with the least number of participating characters is not generally the way that most games I’ve played in go. Most common is probably if an opponent attacks in with a 1 STR weenie you may defend and win with a 3 STR beater, but that still puts the challenge on even 1 on 1 footing. With The Tower of Joy on the table, your opponent is quite unlikely to intentionally set up a situation where their attack will create the game state that you need to trigger it. To abuse The Tower, we’ll likely need surprise strength buffs for our characters or strength reduction for opponent’s characters. This can be tricky to keep up repeatedly. Sadly, it’s not a puzzle that I’ve managed to crack yet, but I’m thinking that any deck which does so will likely utilize Steel Link for extra use out of The Tower of Joy.

Well there you have it, folks another chapter pack cycle down. Let me know what you think, and certainly if you have some ideas on cracking The Tower. See you in two.