Defenders of the North Cycle Highlights

The Defenders of the North cycle is the 4th chapter pack cycle for the Game of Thrones LCG. The primary theme of this cycle are the Night's Watch and Wildling traits. Each pack contains 20 unique cards (10 appear once and 10 appear three times per pack).

Wolves of the North
Highlights:

• First of the Night's Watch agendas.
• New Khal Drogo with potentially powerful kill ability.
• Wolves of the North gives stark a great character to run in any Direwolf, Night's Watch, or Wildling deck

Buy this pack if:

You are going to be running any Night's Watch deck especally Stark.
You are building a Dothraki Targaryen deck.

Beyond the Wall
Highlights:

• The Free Folk gives all Wildlings stealth. This is extremely powerful and a must have agenda for Wildlings.
• Nights Watch gets some stealth characters in Benjen Stark and Stonesnake.
• A brutal 2 claim plot in Fear of Winter, this plot can easily swing games if played at the right time.

Buy this pack if:

You are making a Wildling or Night's Watch deck.

A Sword in the Darkness
Highlights:

• The second Night's Watch agenda gives all your Night's Watch characters a Power icon.
• Martell gains the first card in a bigger theme for them. Starfall allows House Dayne characters to hold gold tokens to boost their strength.
• http://www.cardgamed...p;#39;]Margaery Tyrell">Margaery'>http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/GoTCards.html/_/defenders-of-the-north/a-sword-in-the-darkness/Margaery-Tyrell-ASitD']Margaery Tyrell allows Baratheon to really screw with their opponents Plot choices.

Buy this pack if:

You are making a Night's Watch deck.
You need more speed and control in your Baratheon deck

The Wildling Horde
Highlights:

• Wildlings get a boost with their big army The Wildling Horde and Wildling Wisewoman. The Last Giants, the new wildling agenda, isn't spectacular but is still very good in any wildling deck.
• Greyjoy recieves a unique form of character control. Pulled Under can get rid of pesky characters who otherwise can't be killed. It's alittle expensive but can be worth it in the right situations.

Buy this pack if:

You are making a Wildling deck.
You like Dragons.
You are building a House Dayne deck.

A King in the North
Highlights:

• The Stewards agenda gives Night's Watch characters an Intrigue icon. Night's Watch has many good cards, Defenders of the North is good in any NW deck and Stannis Baratheon makes a Baratheon Watch deck a good alternative to Stark.
• Climbing Spikes are extremely useful control in wildling decks.

Buy this pack if:

You are making a Night's Watch or Wildling deck.

Return of the Others
Highlights:

• Blood of the First Men agenda is essential to any Wildling deck.
• A new Melisandre is one of the best cards for just about any Baratheon deck.
• Balerion the Black isn't a very playable card but he is a fun huge character and can be easily comboed with Varamyr Sixskins from the A King in the North pack.
• Val, in the right deck, can be very potent card draw.

Buy this pack if:

You play almost any Baratheon deck (heck would be worth buying 2 of this pack just for a 2nd Mel)
You play a Wildlings or Night's Watch deck

Cycle Thoughts:
Discounting the Night's Watch and Wildling themes for a moment, the houses who seem to have got the biggest boost is Stark and Baratheon. They both recieved some powerful cards useful in multiple situations. As the tournament scene has unfolded it also appears that Martell runs the Night's Watch and/or Wildling deck very well. The house which seemed to get the least is IMO Lannister. They got some OK cards but nothing spectacular and the cards they did get didn't really boost any of their existing themes. I consider Greyjoy and Targaryen stuck in the middle. There are good cards for each house but they can be situational.

If you don't plan on running Night's Watch or Wildling decks you can easily pick and choose which packs to buy, which is the only downside to this cycle. There are so many Night's Watch and Wildling cards and most of them are not something you would want to splash into decks which don't run The North agendas (Val being the one big exception in the right deck). If you are planning a Night's Watch or Wildling deck almost all of these packs are necessary to build a competitive deck.