Quill & Tankard Regulars - Issue 27

Where is it?

It took n’ likin’ fer me noggin, but then when ye came it went and flew up inta tha’ rafterries!

Bloody bird, did you see what it did this time?

Nuh-huh. Whazzat than?

It shat on the bloody banner of Lord Hightower, that’s what. That stuff’ll take ages to clean! You know who will have to clean it, don’t you?

Whozzat than?

Well you of course. Now get to it. Oh, and find that bloody raven. I’m sure it has another message for us.


The Raven’s Message

The Raven’s Message exclusively reveals and discusses an up-and-coming, either mechanically or rules-wise interesting, card. The cards are from future products, and have been obtained directly via raven from the Archmaesters at the (FFG) Citadel.

Our spoiler from The Banners Gather, the first chapter pack of the new Kingsroad Cycle, is a House Greyjoy location called Hammerhorn. Hammerhorn is a 1 cost location with a rarely used Stronghold trait. It has the No attachments keyword and a passive ability: The player with the most cards at his or her command at the beginning of the draw phase draws 1 less card (to a minimum of 1) when he or she draws for that phase. At first glance it should be pretty easy to see this card’s strength in the current metagame.

The Banners Gather will be introducing a new mechanic for us in the form of “Cards at your command”. This mechanic refers to the total number of cards that a player has in his hand, in play, and in shadows. What this mechanic is bringing to the game is a challenge to the old perception of winning the game by having card advantage. With cards at your command, the trend seems to be to reward the player who is in a weaker position at that moment and punishing the player who is ahead. Hammerhorn does this by lowering the card advantage of the player who is in the lead (in cards, that is). Hammerhorn might even give the Greyjoy player an incentive to actively seek card disadvantage to make sure his opponent has fewer choices available to him. Maybe even have his/her deck built around the concept of opting for card quality over quantity.

Now in the current meta this card can be a great answer to the rampantly-running The Long Voyage (TPoL) Agenda, by punishing them for their card advantage bonus and forcing them back down to that natural two card draw. This card will have interesting restrictions on the GJ players deck building if he wants to fully take advantage of Hammerhorn. For example, the choice to go for fewer locations might be good in order to make sure to not flood the board with cards that are going to stay there. Also cards like Risen from the Sea (KotS) will lose some value, as it will become one more card at your command... and one that does not actually do much. Not to mention how this card is getting GJ away from their one sided Valars, as that if anything is most likely going to lead them to be the player who has the most cards at his command.

It is also interesting to note how the mechanic once again raises the value of low-claim plots with soft-control effects, instead of the high-claim and high-resource plots that are currently in vogue. All in all, the mechanic seems to drive the game into a more cerebral and skill-laden direction, finally adding some real risks to that easy approach of just opting to bulldoze through their opponents by benefit of both drawing and playing more “stuff”.

In Melee Hammerhorn can create interesting situations where everyone is trying to be the player who does not control the most cards at his command. There can also be situations where there are more than one Hammerhorn on the table. Since the card has “to a minimum of 1” it will rarely matter, but again against a card advantage agenda like The Long Voyage (TPoL) or Kings of Summer (ASoS) it can hit their draw hard. Now the card does not have much effect on a Kings of Summer (ASoS) player when it is winter since he is already drawing only 1 card during draw.

The No attachments keyword is rather a boon than a detriment, since it protects Hammerhorn from rather common location control attachments like Climbing Spikes (AKitN) or Frozen Solid (LoW), whereas there’s precious few positive attachments you might want to slap on there.

What do you think of the Hammerhorn and the new “Cards at your command” mechanic?

Scribe's Heart - Keywords

Scribe's Heart is a series of articles delving deeper into specific topics, from game mechanics to specific types of card effects and beyond. An effort is made to explore the discussed topics in-depth, in order for these articles to function as important study material for both apprentice and acolyte.

This time we're considering Keywords. There are a variety of different Keywords in the game. Many of them seem self-explanatory at first - and some even are. But this being the Game of Thrones, there are always Potential Pitfalls to look out for. Let's examine them...

Deadly - If, at the resolution of the challenge, the attacking player controls more characters in the challenge with Deadly than the defending player does, the defending player must choose and kill a participating defending character in the Passive step of the challenge resolution.
Potential Pitfalls:
- In Military challenges, claim happens before Deadly. A character who becomes moribund:dead as a result of claim cannot also be selected for Deadly; however, a character chosen for military claim but then saved can be selected for Deadly.
- Deadly only works on attack, not on defence - the exception to this being when you have Bronn (LotR) on the table.
- As covered in a previous Q&TR, if Walder Frey (ACoS) is participating in a challenge it doesn't matter which side of the challenge he's participating on - if you control him he counts Deadly for your side, even if he's been lured into betraying you by your stronger opponent. However, this leads into the next point...
- Should the attacker have more participating characters with Deadly, the defending player has to choose a participating defending character - but at no point does it say they have to control the character. So Walder Frey can very easily find himself dying for his own Deadly.
- Deadly occurs in the Passive step of the challenge resolution - the same step as Frey Hospitality (LotR). Should these become conflicting passives, then as is normally then the case the order of resolution is chosen by the first player.

Deathbound - When a card with the Deathbound keyword in play would normally go moribund:discard, it instead goes moribund:dead.
Potential Pitfalls:
- Currently there are only 4 cards in the game with the Deathbound keyword - Forever Burning (Core), Battle of the Ruby Ford (BoRF), The Prince's Plans (TIoR) and Sitting the Iron Throne (ATotT). All of these are events, and the important thing to note here is that in order for an event's Deathbound keyword to take effect, it must be successfully played. If an event is cancelled, it will go to the Discard Pile.
- Also note that The Prince's Plans was originally not Deathbound but has since been the subject of an Errata in order to stop Martell players chaining consecutive copies of it to clear their discard pile into their hand.

Immunity - A card with Immunity ignores the effects emanating from card types to which it is immune. When a card's effect requires a target, a card immune to that card's type cannot be selected as the target.
Potential Pitfalls:
- There are more potential pitfalls than there are dimples on a golf ball. Thankfully, our last article looked at this subject in detail, and we've had a few too many cups of strong cider to repeat ourselves so soon. If you have any queries about immunity check there and report back.

Joust - If a character with the Joust keyword is attacking alone, the defending player can only declare at most one defender.
Potential Pitfalls:
- Only one character may be declared as a defender. If the opponent has a sneaky work around (for example, they have a Catelyn Stark (LoW) in their hand), they can still use that to get additional defenders. On a similar note, if a second character is participating as an attacker, the Joust keyword 'switches off' as it were. If the opponent has already declared defenders they do not get a second "declaration of defenders" step though.

Limited - You may only setup at most one card with the Limited keyword. You may only play at most one card with the Limited keyword per round.
Potential Pitfalls:
- This one is fairly straightforward, but note that it doesn't matter whether your proposed second Limited card has a different title or not - if you play a Great Keep (Core) you cannot play a second card with the Limited keyword, regardless of whether that second card is a second Great Keep, a Northern Fiefdoms (Core) or even a Burned and Pillaged (FtC) you've snuck in there. One means one.
- Also don't forget that "play" and "put into play" are two different things. So a card like Supported by the Smith (AJE) will get round this restriction, as would introducing a Burned and Pillaged via a Pale Steel Link (FtC).
- There are cards with Limited Response: - not being a keyword this is not the same thing, however it has a similar principle in that you can only trigger one Limited Response per round. You can however trigger such a response and play a Limited card in one round, as they do not overlap with each other despite the similar names.

Melee - During a challenge, a participating character with the Melee keyword gains +1 STR for each participating character controlled by an opponent.
Potential Pitfalls:
- Note that “control” is the crucial word here. It doesn’t matter what side a character is participating on, it matters who controls it. So again with the Lord of the Crossing, if your Walder Frey jumps into a challenge on your opponent’s side, he doesn’t count for your character’s Melee keyword. Neither do characters with the Naval Enhancement that you declare as participants on an opponent’s side. Conversely, any Naval Enhancement characters that are jumped into the challenge on your side by any opponent *do* count for your Melee characters - fittingly enough, this allows for interesting options in a Melee game.
- This ups the STR of the character directly, rather than that character's side of the challenge getting the STR boost. This means that, for example, if you gave Khal Drogo (QoD) the Melee keyword, defended a Military challenge with him in which the opponent had declared 5 attackers, lost and chose him for claim, he would have 8 STR for the purposes of his Response.

No Attachments/No Attachments except [Trait]/No [Trait] Attachments - A card with No Attachments cannot have attachments played on it. A card with No Attachments except [Trait] cannot have attachments that do not have that Trait played on it. A card with No [Trait] Attachments cannot have attachments of that Trait played on it.
Potential Pitfalls:
- This one is fairly straightforward also. Note that each of these keywords is a different keyword, albeit they're all obviously related. This means that you cannot just make up a new one using the new Jaqen H'ghar (SB) - no "No Attachments except Warhorse" or "No Decree Attachments" for you (unless FFG print a card with those Keywords, of course...)
- If a card gains one of these Keywords, all attachments attached to the card that contravene the keyword immediately fall off. For instance, if you blank Littlefinger (SaS) and then attach a Condition attachment to him, it will immediately fall off when he regains that keyword (although if that Condition is Milk of the Poppy (Core) it will of course take a while for that Keyword to come back). Additionally, if the opponent has put a non-Condition attachment on him that you'd rather he didn't have (maybe if he's your Littlefinger they gave him a Dragon Skull (CoS), or maybe it's an opponent's Littlefinger and they gave him Widow's Wail (LotR)), you can give that attachment the Condition trait and it will fall off.

Renown - After you win a challenge, each participating character you control with Renown claims one power when the challenge resolves.
Potential Pitfalls:
- If you have a character with Renown participating on the opposite side of the challenge to you, they still claim Renown if and only if you won the challenge. So no jumping a Naval character with Renown into a challenge against you just for them to grab some power.
- Also, Naval characters jumping into a challenge on your opponent's side when they are winning against you do not claim power for renown either. So no cherry picking.

Setup - Cards with the Setup keyword can be played during the Setup.
Potential Pitfalls:
- Pretty much none, but note that a card having Setup still requires a valid target - you still need a Location (that doesn't have No Attachments) on which to play your copies of Increased Levy (LotR), for instance.
- It’s also worth noting that a location chosen as the figurative House of Dreams (ARotD) is not considered to be “in play” during setup, so you cannot play Increased Levies on it in setup.


Stealth - Before defenders are declared, you may choose one character without Stealth controlled by the defending player for each of your attacking characters with Stealth. The selected characters cannot defend.
Potential Pitfalls:
- Characters who have been Stealthed may not be declared or otherwise inserted into the challenge as defenders, but if they are already in the challenge (say, because of a Naval icon), they are not then removed from the challenge.
- There is no Player Action Window between declaration of Stealth and declaration of defenders. For instance, if your opponent attacks you and declares Stealth on a character, you cannot then play Bound by Blood (KotStorm) to return that character to your hand and put another character into play and declare that character as a defender.


As well all these Keywords, each house has their own House-Specific Keyword.

Ambush (Targaryen) - A card in your hand with the Ambush keyword effectively has the text "Any Phase: put [card] into play by kneeling its printed cost in Influence (cannot be cancelled)."
Potential Pitfalls:
- That "cannot be cancelled" part. It's not in the Coreset rules for Ambush, and only in the FAQ.
- This is considered putting a card into play through a card effect. This is not considered playing a card. So if you Ambush in Company of the Cat (THoBaW) you can trigger their Reponse:, but not that of Lady Daenerys's Chambers (Core).
- As putting a character into play using Ambush is a triggered effect, Brienne of Tarth (PotS) stops it just as she stops almost everything else.

Infamy (Lannister) - When you would claim power or move it to your house, you may instead move any amount of that power onto a card with Infamy. Regardless of a card's type, power on a card with Infamy counts towards the victory total of that card's controller.
Potential Pitfalls:
- None really, this is one of the more simple Keywords.

Intimidate (Greyjoy) - If a character with the Intimidate keyword is participating in a challenge as an attacker at the point of resolution, characters who have a lower STR than the Intimidate character do not count their STR.
Potential Pitfalls:
- Note that your character has to be attacking for Intimidate to work.
- This affects your own characters with lower STR as much as it affects the opponent's characters.
- This affects characters who aren't in the challenge as well as those who are - of course, the times when that will matter are slim to none, given that characters not in a challenge do not count their STR anyway. You might get stars in your eyes when looking at Sacrificed to Two Gods (ARotD) and think that this means you can target any character with less STR than your Intimidate character, regardless of whether or not they're in the challenge - however, in that case it would not be "because of Intimidate" that they did not count their STR as the card insists, it would be because they weren't in the challenge anyway. And that's the only thing stopping that card from being the most overpowered targeted kill in the game...

Stalwart (Stark) - When a Stalwart card would become moribund:dead or moribund:discard, it instead becomes moribund:top of deck.
Potential Pitfalls:
- Because this only applies to cards leaving play, if a card with the Stalwart keyword is discarded from your hand (or moved into the dead pile with Aegon's Hill (TftRK)) it would indeed go to the discard (or dead) pile rather than the top of the deck.

Vengeful (Martell) - After you lose a challenge as the defender, you may stand any number of characters with the Vengeful keyword that you control.
Potential Pitfalls:
- Note the word "may". You may stand zero characters for Vengeful.
- The characters do not have to have participated in the challenge in order to meet the condition - they could have been knelt for any reason, losing a challenge as the defender will still allow you to stand them.

Vigilant (Baratheon) - After you win a challenge as the attacker, you may stand any number of characters with the Vigilant keyword that you control.
Potential Pitfalls:
- Note the word "may". You may stand zero characters for Vigilant.
- The characters do not have to have participated in the challenge in order to meet the condition - they could have been knelt for any reason, winning a challenge as the attacker will still allow you to stand them.

Dear Archmaester

Dear Archmaester collects interesting, unusual and unexpected rulings.

Q: Dear Archmaester,
I have a maegi chanting in a tent, I heard it is called Blood Magic Ritual (TCC). Now I really would like it to bring back a Dragon from my deadpile; I’m aware that my Dragons don’t take attachments on them, but on the other hand they don’t have the No Attachments keyword while in deadpile. Can I use Blood Magic Ritual to return a No Attachment character from deadpile and what happens if I can?

A: Yes you can. Blood Magic Ritual will come out of the shadows and bring back a character from the dead pile. Then it will try to attach to the character, but since the character has No Attachments it cannot be attached to it and is discarded from play instead. This will make it so that the No Attachments character will remain in play unconditionally.

UPDATE: As of FAQ 4.1, this is no longer the case. Blood Magic Ritual was the subject of an erratum that changed the card to work as intended - that is, to make it so that the No Attachments character would still die.

Q: Dear Archmaester,
I’m playing as a Greyjoy and planning a battle of epic proportions. I think I will call it a Battle for the Shield Islands (TGF). Now I’m wondering if my Fleet from Pyke (RotK) that is kneeling is able to use his Naval icon to naval attack in Battle for the Shield Islands?

A: No. Kneeling naval characters are only allowed to be declared as regular attackers or defenders.


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).