[Casterly Rock] The Place Where the Prostitutes Go...

"Let me give you some advice, bastard: Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you."

Tyrion Lannister – A Game of Thrones.


Tyrion Lannister is one of those characters, like almost all members of the Lannister family on the other hand, that has more charisma of the entire saga. He is one of those characters that are created to be liked, to empathize with him, to enjoy with his success and to suffer with his disappointments.

And he is a character that develops tremendously from the first page where we get to meet him until the end of Dance with Dragons (this is not a web about the TV show or the books, so we will take for granted that all the published books are available for reading. If this is not your case, you might see small spoilers. Forewarned is forearmed...).

The first time that we meet with our favorite dwarf he is a cynical, intelligent and smart character that brags about how sharp his mind is. He makes his defects a part of his identity and these help him to better build his qualities. He is witty as well as a courtier. Tyrion moves easily in all the environments and he is able to adapt himself to all situations. It doesn’t matter if he is in the court, if he is to deal with the “honorable” men of the Night’s Watch or if he ends being the leader of the tribes of the Vale of Arryn while he treats with mercenaries and whores.

As we already did with his older brother Jaime, today we’re going to draw the profile of this fascinating character through the different versions that we know in A Game of Thrones LCG, highlighting his competitive value, his applications as well as trying to see what facet of the character would go with each of these cards.


Tyrion begins the saga being a kind of unusual hero: ugly, deformed, the imp… but that always manages things to get his way and, thanks to his intelligence and wit, we always see him landing on his feet. He’s the perfect heir of Lann the Clever, the one that in the legendary Age of Heroes managed to steal from the Casterly’s their precious Rock, the one we are writing from, using for that only his intelligence and wit. But as the books go by, things start to get really complicated for Tyrion. We see his arrival at Kings Landing, where he literally laughs down at Eddard Stark’s management as Hand of the King: and it is that the comparisons are hateful.

Nevertheless the spider web that forms around him ends exploding after the events that took place during the Battle of the Blackwater Bay. What happens then is that the only person that has always put into the shadow our dear Tyrion arrives to the city: his lord Father.
The continuous disappointments that the imp will suffer in A Storm of Swords end with his public humiliation and stoning being accused of a crime that he didn’t commit. His most vain hopes end crushing like a broken mirror, and Tyrion breaks the chains that tie him to his past, running away, but not before killing the person that gave him his life, his identity and that filled him with frustration, abandonment and hate.
We finally witness in Dance with Dragons a trip that will take Tyrion though Essos, but that will also make him discover the darkest paths of his soul, in a deep search of himself. Tywin’s death is a point of no return in the saga, but that is especially important in the personality of the three Lannister siblings that, during the last two published novels, have maintained a continuous search of themselves through the reaffirmation of what they really are, the negation of what they were and a final forge of a new identity. Jaime, Cersei and Tyrion can be, for the first time, whoever they want to be, without his father’s severe glance judging and controlling them.

We’ll try to see then how this evolution has been reflected in Tyrion Lannister’s versions:





We find the first version in the Core Set. It is a character that, in that moment, was very interesting. He has stealth, something that all the versions have in common, and that reflects perfectly his ability to create plans in his enemies’ backs and surprising his opponents with brilliant moves. He also has in common the intrigue and power icons, that will always be inherent to the imp. He also has the learned crest (Tyrion is an extremely well-bred person) and the Lord trait as a distinctive feature of who he is and what family he belongs to.
Tyrion enables to draw cards, to get a profit from his actions, through the payment of golden dragons. And this is a reflection of the first book’s Tyrion, that gets everything he wants thanks to his wit and his wealth. If you’re a dwarf or a cripple, you’d better be an extremely rich one.

This version got a bit obsolete with the years and it has been a while since the last time he was able to make it into a deck. He has been widely surpassed by his later versions, and the draw that he gives can be easily substituted by other and more economic ways.





In the Kings Landing cycle we find the imp’s second version, that has survived until the present in the best Lannister decks. He still has cost 4, but dividing it in two terms, a characteristic of the shadow cards. But he gains a very precious military icon, and changes his learned crest for the mandatory shadows crest. He’s still a Lord, but we can see that something has changed. He’s no longer interacting with the Lannister’s gold, nor is he looking for card advantage. He’s become a leader, a fighting character that is completely flexible and that adapts to any situation. This version reflects with no doubt the time of A Clash of Kings, in which Tyrion acts as the Hand of the King (a trait that would have been awesome!) sorting out issues in Kings Landing and keeping the city safe. As Varys says in a certain occasion: “Shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow”. And that is exactly what Tyrion is here. A very large shadow. A shadow that can always adapt itself to the situation. He can be a commander with renown, be as deadly as any other knight, he can be immune to events and protected against attachments, all in one. And, as in the novel, we see Tyrion rising above the rest of the men, including Tywin Lannister, overcoming in strength any other character in the challenge phase as long as a card comes out from the shadows. With the help of the shadows, The Imp can be bigger than The Mountain.

This character has been a must in most of the Lannister decks since 2009. Always supported by a Kingdom of Shadows, surrounded by lots of other cards of great quality like Varys, Qyburn, etc. A character that is so great that it is really difficult to even think about substituting him for any of his latter versions.




The third version of Tyrion is the one than comes in Lions of the Rock. It is a Tyrion that is almost completely tied with the Clansmen, the savages of the tribes from the Vale. Since his first meeting in the Vale of Arryn with the savage tribes until the Battle of the Blackwater where they were decisive, the relationship between Tyrion and the Clansmen can be well defined with this phrase: “I trusted more in their fierce loyalty and their sense of honor than in the greed of the mercenaries”. Tyrion goes from having his life in the hands of the tribes of the Vale to lead them in battle; and that is what this version reflects, the imp and his savages that are ready for anything, even to die for him.
This playing strategy that was introduced by the Brotherhood without Bannerscycle never got to be really competitive. And in an attempt to relaunch this strategy and make it playable comes this Tyrion, that surrounded by his cherished savages is almost an unbeatable character. He keeps the military icon (there’s a reason why he’s the leader of the Clansmen) and regains his learned crest. His survival skills get much better, as he can be saved from dying by kneeling a Clansman; also, when he’s participating in a challenge, all his little friends go with him. Sublime. Nevertheless, I almost haven’t seen him in play due to several reasons. The first one is the always difficult competition with his shadow version, that is a lot more adapted to the usual Lannister synergies. In the second place, because in order to be minimally competitive, the Clansman playing mechanic depends entirely on him. And that’s a lot of responsibility, as well as it paints a dartboard exactly on his little head.
In my opinion his best use is framed within an aggro deck with Clansman, but not entirely a Clansman deck. The pack I’ve always considered as the optimum is 3xPainted Dogs + Chella + Shagga + 3xMountain Refugee. And the fact that the refugees have been in the restricted list for more than a year didn’t help very much either. In any case, the Clansmen characters have been out of the control, aggro-control and rush competitive decks for a while. Lannister have better options when we talk about characters, and without his savages Tyrion is practically nothing. We have to do a special mention to his synergy with Timett, son of Timett, that allows to save Tyrion and keeping Timett on the table in a Valar Morghulis. As everything points to the fact that we will see a competitive renovation of the Clansmen synergy in the new cycle The Wardes, that will have as main topic the Vale of Arryn, maybe there is still hope for this version of Tyrion Lannister, commander of the Tribes of the Vale.




The fourth version isn’t exactly Tyrion Lannister, strictly speaking. Hugor Hill is the name that the imp is known by during a big part of his trip through Essos, from Pentos to the bay of Slaves. The name of a King (Hugor, the first king of the Andals) and of a bastard (Hill is the family name of the bastards from the Westerlands).
Tyrion, after killing Shae and his own father, is still in shock. He keeps remembering the scene on and on again in his head for weeks. Hugor Hill has very little in common with the Tyrion that we’ve known up to the moment. He’s left all his kindness aside and there is only hate in his heart. Hate is the only way out that is left after the rejection and the most absolute contempt. But killing his father is far from liberating, as Tyrion has disappeared at this point of the story and only Hugor prevails. And Hugor wants revenge and to mess things up.
This is reflected in the loss of the military icon, as he no longer has savages to control nor armies to command. He’s no longer a Lord either, but a Traitor. He renegades everything that he has been. In fact, his Lannister affiliation is more a joke of what he pretends to be. He keeps the stealth, the learned crest and his all time icons. He’s also a fool, in order to be synchronized with Penny, his new companion.
Hugor is also (and naturally so) incompatible with Tyrion, so they con not coincide in the game in the same side. This version of the imp represents his journey in The Shy Maid along the Rhoyne, as it is reflected in the illustration. Hugor dedicates himself to look for the castoff and the forgotten ones. The discarded ones, like him, disowned by their own houses. And he allows, if he wins a challenge attacking alone, to take control of a character from the opponent’s discard pile, of a cost that is equal or less to the STR difference of the resolved challenge. That is, of course, at the expense of the claim.




At first sight it is an interesting ability that, with a deckbuilding that sustains it, can be devastating. Painted Dogs, I’m your writ small, Widow’s Wail, etc., are very interesting weapons to use on Hugor. Nevertheless, his name is once again his worst enemy, as he has to compete with his shadows version. He can be compatible in certain decks, if they are to appear in different moments of the game. But to be really effective, Hugor requires of a development around him, a motive that has already questioned very much the “Clansmen” Tyrion. He’s not at the level that is expected for this character, and his Traitor trait, that makes him vulnerable of being discarded by the infamous Daario Naharis, delves into the wound.


I’ve always thought that this version of Tyrion/Hugor should have been neutral. He’s not longer a Lannister, not at this point of the story, even when at the end of Dance with Dragons we get to see again the Tyrion that we all know, retrieving his identity, overcoming that blind hate that was Hugor’s insignia.

And so we arrive until the actual momento, when in the Conques and Defiance cycle, we can find the fifth version of Tyrion, that we will be able to enjoy as soon as soon as the fourth chapter of Ancestral Home is published.





And there is something in his design that reminds us tremendously of Hugor Hill. But here his abilities have improved tremendously. He gets back his Lord trait, which points out that he’s a version that’s previous to the parricide. He has Stealth of course, his classic icons as well as the Learned crest. He incorporates a new keyword: Prized 2, that makes his loss even harder, but can very well compensate his amazing ability.
If Hugor allowed summing to our side the discarded characters, this new Tyrion Lannister goes way beyond that. Again, he has to attack alone, and he also has to renounce to the claim. But instead, we will discard a random card from our opponent’s hand and, always if possible, we will take control of that card. A location, a character or an attachment. It will be ours, Tyrion will recruit it for our cause. Without having to win by X STR, and without having to give up completely doing certain damage to our rival, as we will be attacking his hand. He has some cons of course, and it is that the rival, being conditioned by Tyrion, can decide to recruit his best cards. In any case, it will act as an enormous pressure that will force our rival to play differently as how he would have done without the imp pestering him. If we say that he will be the main objective of all the horrible things that our opponent can play, we wouldn’t be saying enough. Nevertheless, and for the first time, I believe that we have a Tyrion Lannister that is able to substitute in a large number decks his version as Hand of the King. Also, and as well of using his ability, supported by the right amount of control, he is much more accessible as he doesn’t need such a prepared deckbuilding to support him. Of course all the tools previously mentioned, especially those that imply an increased STR by surprise (it must be wonderful to play an "I’m your writ small" on Tyrion, killing a confident defender) have a tremendous synergy with Tyrion.

And it is that Tyrion uses again his best asset, his wit, to turn the most difficult situations to his favor. Manipulating the situation he could convince the very own Lann the Clever that no one deserves more than him to be the Lord of the Rock.

This way, as we have seen the five versions of Tyrion form a puzzle that outlines an accurate portrait of the character. Smart, trickster and charismatic. Intelligent, sharp and vengeful. Tyrion Lannister always pays his debts, being it by giving draw, commanding the tribes of the Vale, acting as Hand of the King, or looking for vengeance among the discarded.

And, unlike Jaime Lannister and his neutral version as Kingsguard, Tyrion never bets against his family.



Thanks for reading and make sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments. If you liked this article make sure to check out some of these other recent articles at rocacasterly.com

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