Ours is the Fury - Calling the Banners

Calling the Banners of the Storm

This week in Ours is the Fury we're doing something a bit different again. We're starting off a string of 'Bannerman' spots, for which anybody can apply to talk about all things Baratheon.

The idea here, is to help provide different viewpoints and playstyles on our House, instead of being stuck with one... and the emphasis is not as rigidly centered around competitive play. If you're interested in writing a piece for Baratheon, please contact WWDrakey via the CardgameDB messaging system, with a pitch for the topic of your article. (Click Here To read more about the new Bannerman system or contact Darksbane to learn more.)

We're kicking this idea off by having Paimen talk about Baratheon Shadows, something he ran in our local League pretty succesfully:

Bannerman Paimen: Ours are the Shadows

This week your loyal servant Maester WWDrakey is buried under mountains of scrolls and parchments, so he give an opportunity to one of his apprentices to help him out with Ours is the Fury. As you already guessed, we are concentrating on Shadow cards in Baratheon decks.

I'm only forging my first links in my apprentice collar, and most of my studies so far have concentrated in the lands of Dorne. So, most of my knowledge on the matter comes from a task WWDrakey gave me, to come up with a Baratheon deck to run in our local League, and I ended up going with shadows.

“Shadow?” Davos felt his flesh prickling. “A shadow is a thing of darkness.”
“You are more ignorant than a child, ser knight. There are no shadows in the dark. Shadows are the servants of light, the children of fire. The brightest flame casts the darkest shadows.”

People tend to treat House Baratheon as big noisy house that grabs power with a quick and aggressive rush lead by Robert Baratheon (Core) or relies on the holiness of Asshai and prayers of Melisandre (RotO). That is only part of the truth because House Baratheon has also a nice ability to lurk in shadows and hide out of sight, until it is time to grab hold of the Iron throne.

Characters

There are only 3 House Baratheon shadow characters, but quality is more important than quantity. Also, with the help of a bunch of neutral characters you can pretty easily get a solid Shadow character base.

The Queen of Thorns (TftRK) – In books she likes to stay out of the spotlight and in Shadows, pulling strings and orchestrating plots. In the game her true strength is a steady stream of power from cards popping in and out from shadows. Also she can trigger the first power from herself when coming out of shadows, so she functions nicely as a closer.

Sister of Truth (KotStorm) – 3 gold for a 2 STR bi-icon might sound like she is bit too expensive to see much play, especially since she has the Ally trait. Still, her ability to move shadow cards back to shadow could be essential if you rely on a steady stream of cards coming out from shadows, such as with The Queen of Thorns. It can also be used to bounce opponents shadow cards back to where they belong... for example, it can be quite devastating for a Martell player who brought Southron Mercenaries (TBoBB) from shadows on a To the Spears! (PotS) round, just to get it bounced back to shadows and spending 4 gold for nothing.

Stormlands Smuggler (ASoSilence) – Solid 2 STR bi-icon that has stealth and immunity events. Beside the immunity there really is nothing special about this Smuggler if you do not look into his Raider trait, which sounds like blasphemy if Smuggler theme support for Bartheon is boosted.

Locations and Event(s)

The Black Cells (TftRK) – The Black Cells are the real heart of any shadow control deck. It is a non-unique location so with 2 or 3 of them on board you can get quite a good hold on your opponents board, and force power gain via unopposed challenges and renown. This however does not work with non-kneelers, so be vary when selecting targets for The Black Cells' response.

Kingswood Trail (CoS) – Kingswood Trail works beautifully in combo with The Black Cells. It gives you easy access to a card that can be brought out from Shadows repeatedly, with an ability to kneel those pesky non-kneelers. Again, it's non-unique so if you have gold in the start of the Standing and Taxation phases, bring one or two of these out from shadows to be ready for the next round and feed The Queen of Thorns (TftRK) response for power gain.

The Iron Throne (TTotH) – This version of the Iron Throne gives Baratheon again shadow recursion allowing card go in and out shadows. It also attacks your opponents hand by random discard response when it comes out of shadows. Again a good card to bring out of shadows in the beginning of the Stand or Taxation if your gold pool allows, so as to be ready to go back in shadows if your opponent draws from Golden Tooth Mines (Core) or Pyromancer's Cache (TWot5K).

Small Council Chamber (SaS) – With Small Councill Chambers, I think you are already beginning to see a pattern with shadow recursion. This location hides back in shadows after you win an intrigue challenge, and it's self-referential response gives you the ability to bounce back used Small Council events. This might be useful to tighten your control of your opponents board with either denial of 2 challenge types via Questioned Claim (AE) (with Margaery helping get rid of pesky Kings) or by hitting locations withCondemned by the Council (AToT) time-after-time.

Abandoned Forge (AToT) – The Abandoned Forge has been long abandoned for reason. Tin Link (CbtC) was just too powerful tool for attachment removal. Now after new FAQ this might have new life although it's response telegraphs attachments you are going to play and only gives them to your hand. Even then it might be good tool to bring Lightbringer (Core) or Warhammer (TGM) to your hand.

NOTE from WWDrakey: There's more than meets the eye with Abandoned Forge, especially regarding specific Weapons like Seafarer's Bow (KotS) (that can boost strength while attached to the Forge) and Venomous Blade (TBoBB) (that can bounce into Shadows from the location).

Fiery Kiss (ODG) – Last but not least Fiery kiss is the most essential tool for Baratheon recursion. It gives one character back from dead and also gives him Vigilant for a phase. Wait it is not over yet. It also moves the character it brought to life to the discard pile at the end of phase, instead of the graveyard. This means that now you can play again those dupes of Unique characters from hand or use Melisandre's Scheme (RotK) to play it from the discard pile in the next Marshalling phase. This gives your Shadow deck the opportunity to run several waves of rush, instead of a single 'win or lose' gamble.

Final Thoughts

In the current environment Baratheon Shadows gives you good tools to bring some soft control or recursion to the board. Although they are best used to support your strategy, there is still a lot of tools to build a full blown Shadow deck with a few neutral shadow locations and characters. Also, do not forget Blackwater Bay (TBoBB), which is a great location that can put your shadow cards back into shadows from your discard pile. Combine it with Kingswood Trail (CoS) to ensure power challenge win and Fiery Kiss (ODG) to fuel The Black Cells (TftRK) and The Queen of Thorns (TftRK)... all this and it did not cost a half penny.

I hope you enjoyed my dissection of the Baratheon Shadow cards and I can now forge my link for shadow studies. My Baratheon shadow deck that inspired this article can be found here and I would like to hear how you use Shadows to support your quest for the Iron Throne.