Quill & Tankard Regulars - Issue 26

In the corner of Quill and Tankard there be a table in the shadows, far away from even the furthest flickering lanterns. No matter how full the tavern ever gets, even when tens of initiates be left without a seat... only one man ever do sit by that table.

It be his table, and no one else dare approach. To all other patrons, except that one dark robed figure, that table is untouchable.

His name? Aye, Marwyn he is. Archmaester Marwyn of the black glass candle. Archmaester Marwyn who holds the secrets of magic.

The Bad Side of Oldtown: Immunity

There is a side to Oldtown, where only the suicidal and morbid dare to tread, where the streets form a labyrinth, and even fervent Archmaesters hold tightly to their Valyrian Steel Links. This is where the rules can twist into surprising shapes, or terrible specters. This is the Bad Side of Oldtown.

This week on The Bad Side of Oldtown we are going to take a look at an uncommon keyword, which can sometimes work a bit strangely in our game - Immune to X.

Let's start by taking a glance at what kind of different immunities we have in this game.

• We have immunities to certain traits or lack of traits in the case of White Raven (TWoW) and Black Raven (ASoS) which are Immune to non-Raven cards.
• There is immunity for specific card types like Euron Crow's Eye (KotS) who is Immune to events.
• Immunity for specific effects in the game, for example Stannis Baratheon (VM) with Immune to location abilities and Joffrey Baratheon (TftRK) that has the powerful Immune to triggered effects.
• We also have player-specific immunities in the form of cards that are immune only to your opponent’s effects. Cat o' the Canals (RoW) is a good example of this with her Immune to opponent's card effects.

As we can see, the immunity keyword has many shapes and forms where it is either working as a protection from certain card types or completely stopping a large portion of effects from affecting the card.

A card’s immunity has been defined in the Core Set rules as:

“A card with immunity ignores the effects of card types
to which it is immune. Additionally, a card cannot
be chosen as the target of any effect to which it is immune.“

In A Game of Thrones, immunity does not only stop you or your opponent from targeting the card with effects it is immune to, but also completely protects the card from the the effect as well. If it only stopped targeting then Immune to events would not be too great against a card like Westeros Bleeds (Core), which does not target any specific card. Remember: An effect only has a target if it uses the word “choose”, and only what is chosen is considered the target of the effect. If there’s no “choose”, there’s no target.

With the targeting restriction it is good to also remember that it will stop several effects from being played entirely. For example if there are 3 characters on board and one of them has Immune to events, then a player cannot even attempt to play The Hatchlings' Feast (ASitD) since there are not enough legal targets on the board for its effect.

“Immunity only extends to effects: It does not
apply to the other elements of an event card
or character ability, including costs and play restrictions.” -FAQ §3.18

From this FAQ entry we can notice that immunities don’t extend to costs. A practical application for this might be to use a To Be a Kraken (SB) event to stand Euron Crow's Eye (KotS). Even though Euron is Immune to events he can still pay the cost for events and in this case the cost of To Be a Kraken is standing a GJ character.

Immunity also doesn’t stop play restrictions of effects. What this means is that an event can still “get information” from Immune to events card. A House Divided (WLL) can be used against a Martell who played another Lord and controls The Red Viper (PotS). The card will see that another Lord was played, so the restriction is met, but it still is unable to touch The Red Viper and so the effect must be used on the other Lord.

“A card with immunity is not immune to its own abilities.” -FAQ §3.17 (the one that is after FAQ §3.18...)

This part is really self-explanatory. Joffrey Baratheon (TftRK) is the perfect example in showing the point of this rules text. His ability reads: “Response: After an opponent's character is knelt, pay 1 gold to stand Joffrey Baratheon. Then, he claims 1 power.” without this rule his Immune to triggered effects would stop this response from happening completely... so it would be pretty much useless. There is one important thing to remember - duplicates give the saving ability to the character, so characters that are Immune to triggered effects or Immune to character abilities can still be saved with duplicates as they are considered to be the characters’ own ability.

“Immunity is only considered when a triggered effect (or a passive ability) first resolves. A
card cannot gain immunity to a triggered effect (or a passive ability) with a lasting duration
once that effect has first resolved.

Constant abilities are constantly affecting a card, and immunity from a constant ability
can be acquired at any time and cut off that ability's effect.” -FAQ §3.19

Again we encounter the difference between constant and lasting effects. For an example that considers both of these statements, look at Snakeskin Veil (CbtC). If you have a Sand Snake in play and drop the Veil on them using a Pale Steel Link (FtC) while the opponent has a copy of The Dragonpit (TftRK) out, your Sand Snake will immediately stop being subject to the constant effect of the ‘Pit. However, if the opponent had brought a card out of the shadows at the start of the phase and triggered The Black Cells (TftRK) targeting your Sand Snake, the Sand Snake is still subject to the lasting effect of the Cells until the end of the phase. (Sidenote: the Veil has been errata’d from “Sandsnake character only” to “Sand Snake character only”, FAQ §3.3.1, before an eagle-eyed person comments on this!)

“Immunity only protects a card itself. Peripheral entities attached to or associated with a
card, such as attachments, duplicates, power counters, gold tokens on the immune card,
and also including triggered effects originating from the immune card, can still be affected by
cards of the type to which that card is immune,as long as the affecting cards do not target the immune card.”
- FAQ §3.20

The scope of immunities are quite interesting, as we can see from the FAQ. The most important part of it is that only the card itself is immune and nothing else.

• Attachments on a character which has Immune to events can be removed with Ill Tidings (IG).
• A duplicate can still be removed from Immune to character abilities cards with Wintertime Marauders (ACoS) (all duplicates count as nonunique cards - Core set rules p.19 and FAQ Q&A).
• Power counters can be moved with Ellaria Sand (PotS) even when the character has Immune to character abilities.
• Gold tokens can be removed with Old Bill Bone (ARotD) even from a character who would be immune to his effect.
• Effects originating from the immune card don’t have the immunities the card has. It is a perfectly valid play to cancel a triggered effect from House of Dreams (ARotD) Bear Island (AE), as the effect itself is not immune.

So, as we can see, entities that are not considered to be the card itself are not protected with the immunity the card has.

Questioned by the Conclave

Questioned by the Conclave is a series of quizzes for our readers, loosely based around the topics of the Issue in question. Correct answers will be posted in the comments, after enough readers have had their chance of testing their knowledge. The difficulty of the questions will vary from those directed at Apprentices, to those best suited for Archmaesters.

1) Archmaester Marwyn (MotA) is killed and his response is used to initiate the When revealed effect of Valar Morghulis (Core). What happens to The Red Viper (PotS) on the board?

2) A player controls Maester Luwin (FtC) with Lead Link, Apprentice Collar, Iron Link and Bronze Link. He also controls Leyton Hightower (GotC). The opponent starts to play Bastard (LotR) on Maester Luwin, what happens next?

3) Is it possible to attach He Calls It Thinking (PotS) to The Red Viper (PotS)?


Antti Korventausta (WWDrakey) is a self-proclaimed Finnish AGoT philosopher and nitpicker, who also used to practice Quantum Mechanics, but found that it paled to AGoT in both interest and complexity. As a Stahleck regular and judge, he sometimes has oddly vivid dreams of understanding portions of the game. In AGoT, he'll play anything as long as it's suitably twisted... often ending up with something that has horns on it.

Helmut Hohberger (Ratatoskr) started playing AGoT in September 2010 and has never looked back (although his wife has, longingly). As a German, he loves rules - and I mean *loves* 'em. Try triggering a Response at the end of a phase on his watch, and he'll probably invade your country. He has actually read the FAQ, and was made a judge at Stahleck and at various other events. He sometimes answers rules questions on boardgamegeek and the FFG rules board. Some of his answers haven't even been contradicted, corrected or expanded upon by ktom - there is no higher accolade for a rules board morlock.

Every Maester needs a Raven on his shoulder. As a Finn, Iiro Jalonen (Ire) got pulled under the waves by Krakens years ago, and has never looked back. A self-inflicted Shagga and active member of the global AGoT community, he has always strived to know the rules of the game, in order to make them do ridiculous things.

James Waumsley (JCWamma) started playing Thrones in January 2012. Although he’s not got many links on his collar just yet, he’s a fiendishly competitive player who delights in making sure the rules are upheld, so that his opponents have no excuses (or in practice, so that he has no excuses himself).