Forgotten Plans - The Island of Lost Plots

Hello Readers, and welcome back to the Forgotten Plans article. Last time we talked about the underplayed House Bolton theme in Stark. Today, however, we are going to talk more about individual cards. Most decks these days tend to be pretty varied, even within the same house. You can play a Baratheon Noble Rush deck, or you can play Baratheon Asshai Shadows. Both of these decks will use a few of the same cards, but play very very differently. Now the one place where we still aren't seeing very much diversity is in the plot deck. People tend to choose from the same pool of ten or so plots, but I think there are quite a few that people could think about using and get some good effect. So let's go ahead and look at these "alternative" plots.

1. Forgotten Plans (KotStorm) - So I figured we could start with the namesake of this article. Its got three gold which is pretty standard, four initiative which is about in the middle, and one claim. Now those stats alone make it pretty good, but the fact that it can blank a plot is pretty amazing. Especially when you start looking at the popular plots these days like The Power of Blood (Core) The Power of Faith (KotStorm), The Power of Arms (Core), To the Spears! (PotS), you start seeing that this plot can really screw with someone's plans. Heck, its even got the power struggle trait as well, which means Baratheon could probably use it pretty effectively.

2. Good for the Gander (Core)
- This is a plot that is hit or miss. If you don't actually hit a when revealed, its a pretty ho hum plot with 4/0/1. However, if you can hit a when revealed, or cycle into this with something like Bran Stark (Core) or Vale Rookery (TRS), you are going to be pretty happy. At the Gates has been getting quite a bit of play lately, and the Summoning Season and Building Season as well, so you should be able to have at least one or two targets for this plot each game.

3. The Art of Seduction (LotR) - Now this plot will probably be pretty heavily debated, but I really wanted to include it on this list. Not only does this combo with the plot switching stuff, if you can time this right, you can really mess with someone's plans. Oh you want to play Valar Morghulis (Core)? Well you're sitting on two turns of claim 0! Plus the person isn't getting the when revealed effect of any plot the second turn, because it isn't revealed then. The stats are a bit low, but this is a REALLY power effect. A bit of a gamble like Good for the Gander, but well worth the risk, imo.

4. Rule by Decree (Core) - This is a plot that used to be in a large percentage of decks, but seems to have fallen out in favor of some of the newer plots. I probably still run this in about 60% of my decks. I find it very helpful against Lannister and Martell, two of the strongest houses right now. They tend to hold quite a few cards in hand in preparation of the Valar, so if you can hit them a turn early, or preplot into Valar, and then reveal Rule by Decree, you are going to hurt them quite a bit. I think the problem here is that Martell and Lannister can't use this quite as effectively as other houses, so we don't see it a lot. If you are playing Baratheon, Stark, Greyjoy, or Targ though, I think you need to look at this plot. The stats are pretty awesome at 4/4/1 as well.

5. Burning Bridges (QoD) - This is probably one of the best Aggro plots in the game. Its the perfect closing plot if you only need a few extra power. Its great by being one of the few 5 gold plots, and the fact that it stops everything but passives and events means that you are going to get hit by Ghaston Grey (FtC), Castellan of the Rock (BoRF), or Euron Crow's Eye (KotS). Its just your characters vs your opponent's characters. A pretty solid card for any deck that relies on challenges like Stark The Siege of Winterfell (LoW), or Baratheon Rush decks.

Well those are some of the plots I feel like are underused. What other plots do you guys think are underused or looked over? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!