Danigral's Reviews for N00bs - A Time of Ravens

This review if especially written for new players who are looking to start buying chapter packs by prioritizing what they want. I remember being a new player and getting a bit lost in all the chapter packs, feeling that I couldn’t make informed decisions about the chapter packs because I didn’t know what was “good” or not. I know that not everyone will agree with my ratings, and some players may feel that they are misleading based on their own experience or gameplay group (aka meta), however this is my review, so I can rate them how I like, and I hope, at least, that they are a helpful starting point for new players to jump in.

(I've also reviewed the first cycle, A Clash of Arms. Click here to see the review for A Clash of Arms.)

I’ve rated all the cards on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being very bad/unplayable, 5 being neutral (some good/some bad), and 10 being very good/must have. I’ve rated each card in terms of theme and efficiency. The overall house rating is an average of all the cards of that one pack; the overall pack rating is an average of all the houses, neutrals, and possibly multi-house cards.

Some considerations about ratings:

Theme – Each house has its own appeal and flavor. The theme rating is based on how much the particular card enhances or aligns with the theme of the house and the overall cycle. These are my guidelines for each house in terms of theme:

• House Stark – Military domination and direct kill (murder). Strong in power. Weak in intrigue. Buffs and burns from Winter. Weak in draw, but has more search effects. Dominant traits include Direwolf, Army, House Tully, House Bolton.
• House Lannister – Intrigue domination and kneel. Strong in power. Weak in military. Wily and tricky, lots of flexibility in a variety of situations playing off other house strengths. Challenge control through tricky effects and events mid-challenge. Very strong in draw and income. House trait is Infamy. Dominant traits include Lord, Ally, and Clansman.
• House Baratheon – Power domination, standing and renown. Strong in military. Good in intrigue and control (with Asshai and shadows). House trait is Vigilant. Dominant traits include Lord, Knight, Asshai.
• House Targaryen – Strong in military and power. Fair in intrigue. Attachment manipulation. Dead and discard pile manipulation including recursion. House trait is Ambush. Dominant traits include Dothraki and Dragon.
• House Martell – Fairly even spread of icons. Challenge control through icon manipulation and deterrence by claim manipulation and hand manipulation. House trait is Vengeful. Dominant traits include House Dayne, Bastard, and Sand Snake.
• House Greyjoy – Strong in military and power. Weak in intrigue. Character saves, resource choke, and location control. Most synergy from winning challenges unopposed. House trait is Intimidate. Dominant traits included Ironborn, Raider, and Warship.

Efficiency – Factors of efficiency are cost, cost-to-power ratio, and ease of triggering effects. Playability is a correlation of efficiency. Building a deck with the most efficient cards tends to work out better (in competitive decks) than building in a lot of fancy combos and synergy (but it sure is more fun!). This is a factor in the efficiency rating. Always keep in mind resource curve and your ability to play a card given restrictions at any given moment.

For Winter and Summer effects, there is a big impact to playability if an ability is only active if it’s a specific season. Basically, a card with that type of ability is “blank” until the season is in effect. Running a deck with a season is a big commitment requiring 2-3 Raven attachments, A Time for Ravens (ACoS) plot, and Carrion Bird (ASoS) x3, and x1-2 Samwell Tarly (TRS), and then there’s Gilly (RoW). This can take 10-15% of your deck space. (There are currently three attachments that affect the season, but are not in effect if ravens are in play, and so are unreliable if you absolutely need the season. Stark has Crown of Winter (LoW), Baratheon has the multi-seasonal Crown of Azor Ahai (KotStorm), and Targaryen has Crown of Meereen (QoD).)

In terms of optimal deck efficiency, there tends to be a cost-cap for each type of card, with some exceptions based on your deck design. In general, locations costing more than 2, characters costing more than 4, and attachments costing more than 1, should be exceptional and limited in your deck build.

Traits are another factor. Ally and, to a lesser extent, Mercenary traits tend to be “bad” traits. Ally-traited characters can easily be removed with the evil twins Varys (SaS) and Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS), so you don’t want an Ally to be the linchpin of your deck.

A Time of Ravens

 

A Song of Summer
Overall Theme: 7.5
Overall Efficiency: 7

This chapter pack introduces the Seasons mechanic, specifically Summer. Summer is the kinder of the seasons: the mechanic generally opens up possibilities, gives you more income, and buffs. Martell and Targaryen see the most synergy with Summer, and none for Winter; whereas, Greyjoy and Stark are the other way around. Lannister and Baratheon see some synergy with both Summer and Winter. Martell and Targaryen really make out in this pack, and is probably the best in this cycle.

View breakdowns of every card in the A Song of Summer chapter pack.

 

The Winds of Winter
Overall Theme: 5.5
Overall Efficiency: 5.5

This chapter pack introduces the Seasons mechanic, specifically Winter. Winter is the harsher of the seasons: the mechanic generally chokes resources, hates on characters and locations, and burns. Greyjoy and Stark see the most synergy with Winter, and almost none for Summer; whereas, Martell and Targaryen are the other way around. Lannister and Baratheon see some synergy with both Summer and Winter. Greyjoy is pretty much the only house that makes out well in this pack, but unfortunately it’s necessary if you want to play winter.

View breakdowns of every card in The Winds of Winter chapter pack.

 

A Change of Seasons
Overall Theme: 7
Overall Efficiency: 6

This pack rounds out some of the new mechanics for Summer and Winter introduced in the first two packs. Greyjoy and Targaryen are the winners in this pack, and it gives you one of the best Martell events in the game.

View breakdowns of every card in A Change of Seasons chapter pack.

 

The Raven’s Song
Overall Theme: 5
Overall Efficiency: 4.5

This chapter pack introduces rookeries, which are a fiddly way to manipulate your plot deck outside of the plot phase. All rookeries require a trigger condition, which have varying degrees of difficulty and cost 1 gold to pull off. I don’t see much value in rookeries for a few reasons: 1) they require a couple of triggers, some of which are determined by your opponent; 2) they require you to hold a gold, so if the other trigger doesn’t happen you’ve wasted a gold; 3) if you are successful at pulling it off, you also have to have the right plot at the right moment; 4) it’s arguable that there aren’t really that many plot effects that you’d want to go through all that trouble to trigger.
Regardless, here are a few ideas for revealing new plots.

• Cycle through City plots faster, which have stronger effects with more City plots in your used pile.
• Play Valar Morghulis (Core) and reveal a new plot to get past the 0-claim. Or reveal Valar Dohaeris (TWH) if your opponent has lots of standing effects for a nasty surprise.
• Reveal something like The Power of Arms (Core) for instant buff and 2-claim surprise.
• Reveal into or out of Fear of Winter (BtW) to prevent your opponent from marshalling or playing events respectively.
• Reveal something like Winter Festival (WotN) or The Minstrel's Muse (RotO) when you are within reach of a win. Often you can turn this situation into an advantage since your opponent could do less to prevent it by challenges phase.
• Reveal Focused Offense (QoD) for the last initiated challenge, which you wouldn’t want to do if an opponent still has their challenges phase.
• If you are Greyjoy, reveal a plot with higher-income, then reveal Rise of the Kraken (KotS) after that first won military challenge. There are probably some other ideas that would work, so you just have to experiment to see if they actually will work in practice.

Except for Samwell Tarly (TRS), Kraznys mo Nakloz (TRS), and Renly Baratheon (TRS), this pack isn’t that great.

View breakdowns of every card in The Raven's Song chapter pack.

 

Refugees of War
Overall Theme: 7
Overall Efficiency: 7

While this is not the “best” in terms of rankings, I think this is the best pack in the cycle, and the first pack I would recommend any new player to buy, simply because it enhances the efficiency of any deck. Suddenly, you have an additional 3-7 more characters that are free on the setup, and there are some other really good cards for almost all houses. *Note: multi-house characters are not ranked in overall house theme or efficiency rankings, only in overall rankings for the chapter pack.

View breakdowns of every card in the Refugees of War chapter pack.

 

Scattered Armies
Overall Theme: 8
Overall Efficiency: 6.5

This pack focuses on Reinforcements, a series of events that trigger off of losing challenges and enter play as characters. Unfortunately, they all come x1 in the pack. There are some decent cards mixed in, but this is a lower priority pack, in my opinion, since there is very little synergy with the other packs in this cycle. The Reinforcements mechanic is nowhere else in the game. However, there are some very interesting and viable strategies with Reinforcements. Each house gets an army that has a house thematic ability associated with playing a Reinforcements event card. These I’ve ranked slightly lower because you have to play with the events in order for them to be any good. While this pack is highest in terms of theme, it’s mostly because of the thematic abilities on the characters in this pack, which requie you to play with the events included in the pack as well. Otherwise, there are some very good cards, even if you don’t like the events. Stark and Lannister are favored in this pack.

View breakdowns of every card in the Scattered Armies chapter pack.