Reach of the Kraken Card Reviews

A Song of the Sea - Reach of the Kraken Staff Review

74% 441 out of 600

Our staff has put together a first blush analysis of the newly released chapter pack Reach of the Kraken. We’ve used a one through five scale; five being the best. The cards are listed in numeric order. Our reviewers are listed in alphabetical order. Disagree with our assessment? Let us know!

It is a 3 way tie for the top spot this month and even the cards on the bottom were rated fairly well.

Top 3 - 3 way tie
Victarion Greyjoy 27 out of 30
Melisandre's Scheme 27 out of 30
Missandei 27 out of 30

Bottom 3
Lady Olenna's Guard 15 out of 30
Fleet from Volantis 16 out of 30
Lady Nym's Guard 17 out of 30

[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_little-bird-rotk.jpg']Little Bird 24 out of 30

Clu - 5 out of 5 rating
And the rich get richer. This Little Bird went to market and got all the goods. Granted Lanni has some staples in the one slot, but his out-of-house usage is silly. I’ve been using Greenblood Merchant for dragons, maesters, and some challenge denial. This guy does what I want in those situations AND throws around keywords AND there isn’t a built in cancel. You know who looks good with stealth? Asha.

Ire & WWDrakey - 5 out of 5 rating
This card has a lot of competition for its 1 cost character slot in Lannister, but it is well worth it. Lets look at what we can do with this little guy. The intrigue icon is something that will benefit Clansmen decks a lot since now they can do high-claim intrigue challenges with the likes of Burned Men. The icon can be of use in PBtT, making sure that you have as many intrigue icons as you could need. Stealth is universally godly in any kind of deck. Infamy will mostly help the Brotherhood build by giving even more ways for increasing Beric’s notoriety. Best of all, this guy can use all of those abilities, while still functioning as a good claim soak.

JCWamma - 4 out of 5 rating
Lannister 1-cost, 1-strength, 1-icon might be the most over-saturated position in all of Thrones; that said this card is very useful in the right deck. Being able to give Stealth is a great boon given there are very few commonly-played Lanni cards with Stealth, and in a Martell-heavy meta being able to return intrigue icons could be a useful Orphan defense. Ally trait is a negative, but not a significant one due to the Birdy's cheapness.

OKTarg - 4 out of 5 rating
1-cost 1-STR with a useful ability. I like the giving of stealth as much as any of the other choices, but Clansmen, PbTT, and even Knights can use extra icons as well.

Rave - 3 out of 5 rating
Lannister’s 1 slot is getting pretty crowded nowadays. But I do I like this guy, and I think he will be fun for Shagga-type decks. Giving stealth is pretty good. I can see this guy with Yezzan’s Grotesquerie creating annoying situations for the attacker.

ShadowcatX - 3 out of 5 rating
Solid card that will see play without a doubt. Still, not a super exciting card, IMO.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_blackwater-bay-veteran-rotk.jpg']Blackwater Bay Veteran 19 out of 30

Clu - 2 out of 5 rating
This is another tool in the Lanni box of goodness. War crest, Infamy, efficient cost, and we don’t really know the depths of naval. The veteran won’t see play very often because of the other great two drops. He does open up a war crest deck and will instantly boost Brotherhood. Is the house so good that the only secondary characters they can make are gold in certain builds?

Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 rating
This is kind of a rare thing for the Lannister, a 2 cost non-ally with good stats. It seems that FFG has finally got into giving infamy another purpose than just hiding power from your opponent. The war crest here is the cherry on top, giving Lannister a way to access to location control which it is mostly lacking. A cheap nonunique with the crest can do a lot in increasing the effectivity of running Price of War (just look at Knight of the Tumblestone), and let’s not forget that Lanni has some of it’s own War tech in Lion’s Law.

JCWamma - 3 out of 5 rating
2/2/2 is an adequate set of stats, and the possibility of a Naval Enhancement is very nice, especially when you throw in the cheap warcrest. My concern is it's too vanilla until you stick a power on, and you're unlikely to want to throw away your power on a 2 cost non-unique.

OKTarg - 3 out of 5 rating
Not bad at all. I think that the War crest has a bit to go to be viable for this house, but no Ally trait will make Lannister aficionados happy. Though the House Brax subtheme still needs some work.

Rave - 4 out of 5 rating
Well, this is interesting. Having a cost effective Naval character with decent stats like this will be nice if you decide to try out the Black Sails agenda. Loving the cheap war crest too. I’m not sure if there’s quite enough support for War in Lanni yet, but it’s getting close.

ShadowcatX - 3 out of 5 rating
The warcrest and the naval icon may be better than I’m giving credit for, I just can’t bring myself to give it more than a 3.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_fleet-from-the-arbor-rotk.jpg']Fleet from The Arbor 24 out of 30

Clu - 2 out of 5 rating
Efficient large dudes are always good. The four slot is jammed with better characters. I love that these armies are non-unique so you can put multiples into play. Agendas are reaching a weird tipping point. For the most part there isn’t a reason to not run them, until now. I applaud FFG for introducing another decision making point. This guy won’t make it in many decks, maybe I’m wrong but a seven cost during setup is detrimental.

Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5
With these fleets it is good to remember that most of the time they will get stuck into your hand if your opponent is not playing an agenda. Now the thing is that the most likely houses to do that currently are Lannister (the most common agendas don’t slot all that automatically) and Stark (Maege and The Kindly Man provide a nice incentive). Naval intrigue with 7 str and deadly is pretty good, but a War crest without a Military icon on the other hand is a strange choice.

JCWamma - 5 out of 5 rating
All these Fleets are pretty great, but this is in contention for being the best. Deadly on intrigue and power is always very welcome, especially being able to drop the Deadly in after the opponent has declared defenders on the intrigue challenge - does the defender want to let your Cersei challenge go through and give her power and Stealth/Deadly, or sacrifice their character to your Fleet? Note that the card is nowhere near as good if your opponent lacks an agenda, but agendas are so prevalent in the meta right now that my ratings for the fleets assumes they’re 4 cost. Drop them all down a point or two if you’re in an agenda-lite meta.

OKTarg - 5 out of 5 rating
I think this is one of the best fleets. Deadly is a great keyword in Intrigue challenges, and that looming threat will make it hard for opponents to defend. These fleets crimp your setup for sure, but mostly will cost 4 since everyone is running an agenda, more or less. We’ll see how the Naval mechanic helps or hurts certain houses, but Lannister is already set up pretty well here. The fact it helps against Burn is nice since that’s hard for Lanni to deal with outside of the Tunnels build.

Rave - 5 out of 5 rating
This is a great fleet. War without a Military icon seems like kind of a waste, but these are the best icons to have for deadly. There is great synergy here for Brothel Guard as well, especially if you are somehow initiating multiple intrigue challenges. This card is also good insurance for Game of Cyvasse, and will be nice against burn, since Lanni tends to struggle with it in general.

ShadowcatX - 4 out of 5 rating
Now we get to an exciting card. I love the fleets and Lannister, maybe more than any other house can get mileage out of the standing and removing effect with their power behind the throne and brothel guards (also with conclave if you decide to do a maester build).
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_apostle-of-the-drowned-god-rotk.jpg']Apostle of The Drowned God 18 out of 30

Clu - 2 out of 5 rating
I’m glad to see Greyjoy get more cheaper holy guys. This is a part of their wheelhouse that needs to be fleshed out. The response works very well holistically in a balanced deck. One strength means they will probably be one of the first ones to die on your side. I really like this dude and he will more than likely become a staple for a naval orientated deck.

Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 rating
This card is something that the Greyjoy Holy build has been missing, a solid 2 cost character (lets not speak of drowned crewman. ugh). What he mainly offers is power gain and the crest. Especially in late game this card can have a fun psychological effect on your opponent as he has to read his ability as a renown, no-one wants to lose a game to a luck-of-draw (or mill in this case). Now this gets even more effective if you simultaneously have more than one of these on board and a Power of Faith revealed. The naval here also makes sure that he will be participating when you already know that you are going to win the challenge. In addition to the obvious use with Confession, there has also been partly spoiled Prayer events that seem to have a cost of kneeling a Holy character.

JCWamma - 2 out of 5 rating
The Holy Crest is nice for a cheap character and the Naval Enhancement is fun, but 2/1/P is a dreadful spread. The card could be nice for a mill deck, but the conditionality of the power-grab means you can't rely on it even a little bit.

OKTarg - 4 out of 5 rating
I hardly ever play Greyjoy, but when I do, I use Greyjoy Holy. They have basically been a solid 2-cost away from competing. That, coupled with the naval enhancement (and corresponding use of Black Sails card advantage) means things are looking up for the Ironborn.

Rave - 3 out of 5 rating
Interesting card. Ironborn is always a great trait to have on a cheap character, and control will welcome the extra holy crest for Confession, but as a character, 1 STR Power is about as lame as it gets. It seems like it will get played for it’s utility, but it’s not going to turn any heads. Might be fun to play with in dedicated Mill.

ShadowcatX - 3 out of 5 rating
I’m excited that mill is getting new tricks because I’d like mill to be good. However, I hate it that this card is so over costed.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_fleet-from-pyke-rotk.jpg']Fleet from Pyke 22 out of 30

Clu - 3 out of 5 rating
The fleet is neat. Greyjoy was supposed to be a big army house and yet, none of them are costed within reason. I enjoy being able to use Ocean Road more though! For some reason Greyjoy suffers the most from resource strangle. See Fleet of the Arbor for my concerns.

Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 rating
The best fleet we got this time around, and unsurprisingly it went for the house with strongest fleet in Westeros. Greyjoy gets more War crest support and deadly, both of which are good. The common stand ability these fleets have goes best for the House of Kraken as they can use it to secure unopposed challenges and trigger some nasty effects from that, or outright rush with it.

JCWamma - 4 out of 5 rating
Other than this card want to guess how many Greyjoy cards have Deadly? The answer is 2. A no-brainer for War Crest decks, a no-brainer for unopposed decks, and at the very least worth considering for any other deck. The ability is slightly less useful in a Winter deck not using War Crests, and a Maester deck will struggle to find room for it, but still very good.

OKTarg - 3 out of 5 rating
I’m not convinced by the Deadly keyword on the military icon. (Yeah, you can use it in POW challenges also, but it’s not the looming death knell that the Fleet from the Arbor is) That said, this will boost Greyjoy War crest and will be a very solid option.

Rave - 4 out of 5 rating
Solid. This fleet is nice for the War option and deadly Power. One other strong use that I think the Fleet will see for Greyjoy is letting them reuse their Stealth bicons. If there is any sort of unopposed tech in your deck, I can see it benefiting from being able to restand Stealth characters after the defenders window. (or cards like Wex Pyke.)

ShadowcatX - 4 out of 5 rating
Again, I love me some fleets. And warcrest with a military icon > warcrest without a military icon.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_victarion-greyjoy-rotk.jpg']Victarion Greyjoy 27 out of 30

Clu - 4 out of 5
I need to temper my excitement from imagining every challenge will be bumped by one claim and the sweet art. Instilling the fear of a claim three military or power at the right time is devastating. The war crests are becoming quite the thing in the house of the kraken. It’s tough to talk myself out of giving this guy a five. He isn’t an auto-include, but, I could be wrong. Oh yeah, Greyjoy is building a stable of lords to reduce with Norvos.

Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 rating
This card is really good, but it does have some competition in the victarion title. KotS one is a power gain with uo abilities thanks to intimidate, Holy can rush victories in the right deck. This brings to the table some more aggressiveness with the cost of not gaining power as the other Victarions do. There is also a character with fairly similar stats, but she does her thing a lot better - Arianne Martell, who this Victarion seems to be lite-version of. Arianne has stealth which is better than naval Military, Noble crest also is better most of the time than War and her claim raise ability is not conditional. Still, overall a great card which will see a lot of play. Ire rant: How about giving Greyjoy some unique characters with different titles for a change? Currently GJ and Martell have the lowest number of unique characters in the game while the other big houses have plenty of options.

JCWamma - 4 out of 5 rating
Claim raising is always good. Note that he doesn't have to be declared as a Naval attacker for his passive text to work. On top of that we have another War Crest, and 3 traits ranging from nice to great. All hail Chintarion!

OKTarg - 5 out of 5 rating
I always have perceived Greyjoy as needing to be an aggressive, high claim house. You know, the Pike Phalanx seems like it should be a Greyjoy card, and this Victarion is even better. This will help move them even further towards an aggressive, war-cresty, killing machine and I like it.

Rave - 5 out of 5 rating
Soooo good. 2 claim military is strong for the early game, and 2 claim power is strong for the late game. The War crest is great too, and if you’re going to try for War effects or an aggressive deck, this Victarion will likely be the go-to.

ShadowcatX - 5 out of 5 rating
He’s a captain, an ironborn, a lord, he’s got a warcrest, he’s got a pair of icons, he’s got a naval enhancement on military, and he has an amazing ability. What more could you ask for?
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_lady-olennas-guard-rotk.jpg']Lady Olenna's Guard 15 out of 30

Clu - 4 out of 5
Yikes! How do you stop this piece of cardboard? Oh, you need a single strength five dude. Are you kidding me? I see a single copy of this in most Bara decks. He’s better than a lot of the kings. As a unique it can be targeted by several effects to grant vigilance. Nary a terrible trait either. Like this guy mucho.

Ire & WWDrakey - 2 out of 5 rating
Outclassed in powergain, protection and challenge pushing by the myriad other 4g Baratheon uniques. Doesn't even have any synergy from traits. The only thing that can make this card worthwhile is some hardcore House Tyrell synergy. Heck, if strength was what Baratheon Rush needed, then Knights of the Storm would actually see play. If this card was really any good, we’d have seen a lot more of Champions-Cycle Thoros of Myr by now...

JCWamma - 2 out of 5 rating
You know what Baratheon's missing? 4 gold, 3 strength mil/pow power-grab cards. Melee is interesting for combining with something like Banner Bearer, and ...it's immune to Terminal Schemes? It's not bad, per se, but I just don't know why you'd ever want to use it over Fat Bob, Lord Stannis, Eldon Estermont, Arena Knight, and so on.

OKTarg - 3 out of 5 rating
Yet another 4 for 3 Bara guy, but the melee makes him really interesting in my opinion. There’s probably not enough different to warrant really changing up your Bara decks, though.

Rave - 2 out of 5 rating
This card is pretty unremarkable. Bara’s high costs are so good that this guy is pretty outclassed.

ShadowcatX - 2 out of 5 rating
I like the melee keyword more than most people I think, but I see it more as a defensive keyword than an offensive one, this can defend against strength 3 challenges successfully and win you a power doing it. Still, without a crest or better acceleration than just renown I don’t think it’ll see as much play as I think it probably deserves.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_fleet-from-lysene-rotk.jpg']Fleet from Lysene 18 out of 30

Clu - 3 out of 5 rating
Oh, so close to a four! For some reason the Mercenary trait scares me. Besides that, this guy can be stood with Massey’s Hook and creates power mismatches. On the plus side, Smuggler will gain popularity in the next cycle.

Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5 rating
An Army of Smugglers! Now, as great as the idea of that is, they are Mercenaries as well. Sigh. There is some nice synergy with stealth and the stand ability and possibly some War crest shenanigans, but unfortunately the Mercenary is a really big downside.

JCWamma - 3 out of 5 rating
This could be low-balling it, it depends on just how awesome the Smuggler trait becomes over the course of this cycle. But Mercenary is fast becoming a terrible trait with the increase in them making Dissension/Jorah Mormont safer and safer includes in your deck. The Stealth will be very appreciated in Bara, but if you're declaring them as a Naval Attacker then it's useless and the Response doesn't really play into a typical Bara deck's hands as ideally you don't want to remove your Renown characters. The following card does put it on the verge of being a 4 just because it lessens the impact of it being discarded.

OKTarg - 3 out of 5 rating
Stealth doesn’t matter in Naval challenges, but it does help keep this fleet from being bypassed, giving you a defensive boost. Not to mention Massey’s Hook.....but the negative trait isn’t the best thing ever.

Rave - 3 out of 5 rating
I don’t think anyone will argue that 7 STR stealth power is anything but awesome in a Bara deck, but at best, this is still a 4 cost mercenary. With Dissension so popular, it’s kind of a gamble. 7 strength military will be nice as a wall to protect your renown characters though.

ShadowcatX - 3 out of 5 rating
Smugglers is becoming a theme for Baratheon, I like that. This can also be stood for that one location, so that’s good, I like that as well. However, I dislike stealth and a naval icon together, and the mercenary trait isn’t a good thing just yet (though it may become so).
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_melisandres-scheme-rotk.jpg']Melisandre's Scheme 27 out of 30

Clu - 2 out of 5
I remember this card when it was covered with the much more controversial art of two dudes making out. (Well, giving fiery life to, same thing.) It never saw much play and this won’t either. If only it was a Power Struggle. Meh.

Ire & WWDrakey - 5 out of 5 rating
Now this is exactly what Baratheon Recursion really needed. It synergizes perfectly with everything from Fiery Kiss and Asshai Initiate to duplicates and Wildling Bard. Best of all? Since it’s a plot (with good stats to boot), it can be relied on during deckbuilding, so you don’t have to draw for all of the pieces of your puzzle. Exactly the kind of card advantage that helps Baratheon last in longer games, while not providing them too much steam in the first few turns and thus pushing rush speed over the top.

JCWamma - 5 out of 5 rating
Card of the pack. I literally cannot think of a Baratheon deck that wouldn't want to run this. I also now cannot think of a Baratheon deck that wouldn't want three Highgarden Refugees in, for that matter.

OKTarg - 5 out of 5 rating
An excellent type of Bara card advantage! This also makes dupes stronger since you can discard them for saves and then play them back out during this plot’s marshalling phase. I agree with Ire and WWDrakey that the card advantage gives midgame staying power without speeding the rush too much. Well done.

Rave - 5 out of 5 rating
Well, there goes a large chunk of Bara’s draw problem. Good synergy with refugees and dupes. If you feel like running Asshai Initiate for some reason, you can get back anyone with this.

ShadowcatX - 5 out of 5 rating
Decent stats and possible card advantage make this a good choice (auto-include?) for the House of the Stag. It doesn’t allow playing out of the dead pile though so it encourages cards that get discarded for effects like dupes, etc.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_wyman-manderly-rotk.jpg']Wyman Manderly 23 out of 30

Clu - 3 out of 5 rating
This guy is good. I hate that Stark is getting better and better at intrigue. It really depends on the deck build. Kindly Man gets another character. And he’s another unique character to save with Rhymes with Meek.

Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 rating
So a 3 cost Int, Pow Noble lord with naval and really powerful ability? We will be really surprised if this guy doesn’t find his way into many Stark decks. Was there supposed to be some sort of intrigue weakness in house Stark? If there was, it is filling and fast with these newest sets. Wyman Manderly does have the traitor trait, but we currently have only one hate card for it and that’s mostly run out of one House. His ability stops chump blocking completely, or just places his too fat to ride body to stop a weenie horde. It is also good to note that Stark has some ways to lower character strength (like Shaggydog), which could get more mileage thanks to Wyman. His ability can be a downside when against Targ since 1 strength drop will mean that he cannot count his own strength in a challenge.

JCWamma - 4 out of 5 rating
3 cost, 3 strength, 2 icons, noble crest is perfectly solid; throw in the fact that it includes what is still Stark's weakest icon (although it's fast-losing that weakness), the Naval Enhancement, and having pseudo-Intimidate outside of the Greyjoy house, and this is a great card. Could also be a boon out of house in Targaryen Burn. Only negative is his Traitor trait, but it's not that big a deal until there's more than one card that discards Traitors, ideally one that can be used by more than one house.

OKTarg - 4 out of 5 rating
The main thing I’ll add is that I’d like to see Traitor become a negative trait on par with Ally. And howbout some Bastard hate while we are at it?

Rave - 4 out of 5 rating
I really like the idea of this guy for dealing with intrigue on attack and defense in the early game. Traitor isn’t too bad of a trait yet, so I’m not all that worried about it. Being able to pull out characters via the naval enhancement is pretty interesting, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

ShadowcatX - 4 out of 5 rating
Very solid card, I just wish it had an orange border and the sun and spear in the upper right hand corner.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_fleet-from-wolfs-den-rotk.jpg']Fleet from Wolf's Den 26 out of 30

Clu - 3 out of 5 rating
This army will see plenty of play. Stark has some sneaky power rush builds. Giving them another army to throw into play with Robb seems good. Northern Cavalry is still better but adding another threat is interesting.

Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 rating
High strength renown in current Targ heavy meta is a good choice and this will probably be a great force when Stark gets more naval support. The problem with this card is the fact that it is competing for the same slot as Cavalry Flank and usually the Flank will be a more solid option. Now running both of them together in a same deck might not be too smart since then you are leaving yourself open against no-agenda opponents.

JCWamma - 5 out of 5 rating
About the only negative I can think of for this card is that it's competing for deck space with Northern Cavalry Flank. Renown, War Crest, high STR, no bad trait... great card, competing with the Lanni fleet for being the best.

OKTarg - 4 out of 5 rating
I think High STR armies are very viable right now in the environment and I love to see a boost for Siege builds as they were really my first love.

Rave - 5 out of 5 rating
Well hello Stark Siege. This will be such a solid tool for Stark in general. It gives a win accelerant, an almost auto-win of either challenge, and War. I don’t know if Stark really needs anything else that those traits in a character. The best fleet of the set IMO.

ShadowcatX - 5 out of 5 rating
And this is what Stark has been needing, a way to get some speed. Probably the best fleet.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_areo-hotah-rotk.jpg']Areo Hotah 23 out of 30

Clu - 4 out of 5 rating
The ally trait makes him somewhat questionable. The combination of Vengeful and a built in kill effect is a beating. The three cost makes him infinitely playable in every build.

Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 rating
Kill effect that doesn’t require the character to kneel, awesome. Good stats and that rare icon pair will certainly help in Martell. The ability is great, but not for the weak of heart or people who are afraid of mill. We on the other hand will gladly throw our decks away for some targeted kill. Sidenote, why are Areo Hotah cards so unnedly? Always losing a challenge when in books he is mostly winning them...

JCWamma - 4 out of 5 rating
The Ally trait stopped me from giving this 5. The response is money, and unless you're playing against a mill deck the cost won't hurt enough to stop you doing it regularly (although it is at least prohibitive enough to stop you being able to spam it every single challenge). Him having Vengeful means you can easily do this twice in a phase.

OKTarg - 4 out of 5 rating
I love extra targeted kill in Martell and a more playable Hotah is something I’ve wanted for awhile. Vengeful is great, and unless you’re playing stealth, Hotah will really ruin your day. Ally keeps it from being overpowered, but I don’t like the design decision of negative traits as a balancing mechanism since they force you to run Ally hate.

Rave - 4 out of 5 rating
Not every deck will be able to take this drawback (run Prince’s Plans?) But that’s a very strong ability. Ally on a 3 cost character isn’t the end of the world either. Who knows, you might flip Darkstar..

ShadowcatX - 3 out of 5 rating
I don’t like this guy, he’s an ally, his ability mills quite a few cards out of the deck (enough that after a couple activations you’re going to start worrying, especially if it is a grindy game), and he doesn’t have an intrigue icon, which I really want on my Martell characters. However, he’s a 3 cost, 3 strength dude with vengeful and an ability that will be helpful when facing down the big mean fleets that everyone else got, so while I don’t like him, he’s probably going to be fairly important. Still don’t like him.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_lady-nyms-guard-rotk.jpg']Lady Nym's Guard 17 out of 30

Clu - 3 out of 5 rating
Come on folks. Another stealth army in the house of the sun. The ability is building towards Dayne becoming more relevant. This card has a nice niche where Martell doesn’t have a beater they can afford every turn.

Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5 rating
Oh this is one of those cards. Everyone will look at its ability once and go meh and ignore the other things printed on the cards. The ability is situational, but a 4 cost stealth army is nothing to laugh at. It also gives Martell more ways to be aggressive instead of reactive by having a War crest.

JCWamma - 3 out of 5 rating
Lacking a Naval Enhancement compared to the other big armies hurt this card. In a Sand Snake deck it's a great response, and as always Darkstar means those discard effects hurt Martell less than the other houses. Unfortunately, Sand Snake decks still aren't that great, so as it is this card is just a big chunky army. And that's fine, but between Southron Mercenaries and especially The Viper's Bannermen, Martell has better options to fill that role.

OKTarg 3 - out of 5 rating
I like anything that boosts theme decks, and this certainly does. The stealth is nice, but I don’t think it quite holds up to the other armies. I wonder, was the decision to not give them a fleet a Nedly one (which I’m OK with) or a “Martell is too good” decision?

Rave - 2 out of 5
The fact that it takes out a “card effect” is nice, but the cancel is right there out on the table, and will truly just keep your opponent from playing effects until it dies or Valar comes out.

ShadowcatX - 3 out of 5 rating
This is a hard card for me to rate. As a general thing it is a 4 cost, 7 strength army with 2 keywords, which isn’t bad at all, but it is also the worst of the 4 cost, 7 strength armies by a good bit.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_missandei-rotk.jpg']Missandei 27 out of 30

Clu - 4 out of 5 rating
For the cost of two you get influence and a learned character. The ally trait is annoying but Targ has so many already what’s one more? Not too many Queen characters hit play so that nullifies Dissention for the most part. A great utility character.

Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 rating
Mostly a support character that can help fix the double resource curve some Targ decks are running. It has both synergy with the jumping KotHH deck and Maesters thanks to being a cheap Learned. Overall, a solid card that manages to ignore most of Ally hate.

JCWamma - 4 out of 5 rating
Listen up Apostle of the Drowned God, this is how you justify a 2/1/P spread. Ally trait isn't the downside it normally is thanks to the text, learned crest is always nice, and the last thing Targaryen needed is more influence. Will probably find one copy in almost every Targaryen deck.

OKTarg - 5 out of 5 rating
She may not be ‘exciting,’ but for me is the card of the pack. She supports so much other Targ goodness (incinerate, ambush, Learned crest in a Maester deck) that she’ll be run in every deck I build from here to eternity. 1x Missandei, 1x Great Pyramid of Meereen....and so on.

Rave - 5 out of 5 rating
Man, what a great card. More influence for Targ, what else is there to say. Missandei is even immune to your own Threat from the North, which is nice not to have to worry about with cheap utility characters like this.

ShadowcatX - 5 out of 5 rating
And Targ KotHH (and Maesters) get another awesome tool. Maybe now Targ KotHH and Targ Maesters can finally be competitive after they languished in the dark for so long. . . Oh wait. . .
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_captain-groleo-rotk.jpg']Captain Groleo 20 out of 30

Clu - 2 out of 5 rating
Huh, the four slot is too crowded for Groleo to be played consistently. The restriction on the response is tougher to achieve than you think because Targ doesn’t boost strength, they burn. Now, in a attachment orientated build he’s invaluable.

Ire & WWDrakey - 2 out of 5 rating
Stats are ok with this one, unfortunately only ok and the search effect is way too situational. Targaryens will most likely only want to find Flame-kissed attachments, so his ability would be as a Flame-kissed fetcher if he gets to trigger it. There might be some utility in running him in a summer deck to fetch more black ravens, but then again if you manage to make it summer once the Red Warlock will be a better choice. Minus for working so horribly together with Black Sails (only being able to search something like a quarter of your whole deck).

JCWamma - 3 out of 5 rating
Attachment tutoring response is great from Targaryen. Having the Naval Enhancement makes this even better - the opponent has to overdefend a power challenge to stop you fetching a Flame-Kissed (or whatever else), and then you can just use him in Intrigue instead. That said, this is one expensive card. 4 cost characters usually have a bit more of an impact than some attachment-searching.

OKTarg - 4 out of 5 raging
Solid, solid, solid. If you’re aiming to win by a lot, then Flaming Pitch Tower becomes better, and Targ has plenty of STR boosting attachments if you wanted to do that. I don’t get the anti-synergy with Black Sails--Naval icon to search from the hold, regular abilty to search from deck.....then stand with Long Lances and get another from your deck. I see him as a near autoinclude in many Targ builds. 4 is kindof expensive, but Targ doesn’t have that many good 4 cost guys to bump out. GoTC Dany? I’ll take Groleo for the card advantage....
Harried by Dragons and Greyscale can really do the role of Forever Burning and Flame-kissed, particularly if you can search for them. Add them to 3x Flame-kissed and Lady Dany’s Chambers and you have something I can’t wait to build.

Rave - 5 out of 5 rating
Now this is a character that is worth his 4 gold cost. Pulling any attachment for Targ from the deck is very good. He can grab ravens too, which is nice.

ShadowcatX - 4 out of 5 rating
Super solid character that allows Targ to go fetch cards because while Targ might have the best card advantage engine in the game they don’t have a whole lot of search in house and you need to find the cards before you can recur the cards.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_fleet-from-volantis-rotk.jpg']Fleet from Volantis 16 out of 30

Clu - 3 out of 5
I like the interaction with Heir to the Iron Throne and the fact you can run several in the deck. Mercenary, welp, Targ has a ton of possible discarded characters so it’s not that big a hit. Melee shouldn’t be a big boost but it does take care of the other seven strength armies this pack. The Fleet from Volantis fills a gap in intrigue for Targ and raises their value.

Ire & WWDrakey - 2 out of 5 rating
Worst of the fleets. Melee is probably the worst keyword to have on a 7 strength body and it has strange anti-synergy with the Targaryen War decks thanks to not having a military icon. It is a Mercenary and since the recursion cards will only see it as a 7 cost... using Recruitment on this one will never work.

JCWamma - 3 out of 5 rating
A strong card, but that Mercenary trait is hurting it (and unlike other Mercenaries from Targaryen it's too expensive to realistically fetch with Recruitment). So it's quite fragile given its expensive cost, and otherwise it's just...good, but not incredible. In KotHH there's a better chance of being able to afford it (and also of being able to bring it back with Ambush From The Plains), but these high-cost spots are filling up fast in Targaryen. Although I do worry that this game is perhaps suffering from power creep when I'm awarding a card like this a 3...

OKTarg - 2 out of 5
There’s some use for this card, but it’s the worst of the fleets to me. Lannister’s Deadly is so much better for the same icons. Probably best in an army/Heir to the Iron Throne build. Just sort of meh.

Rave - 3 out of 5
Loving the Melee keyword on a 7 STR character. So... there’s a good chance this card wont lose any challenge ever, but it’s still Dissension-bait, doesn’t do anything else, and like the Lannister fleet, the War crest is wasted.

ShadowcatX - 3 out of 5 rating
As I mentioned earlier, I do like melee more than a lot of people and this is the only fleet that can successfully defend challenges from other fleets. However, it still has the mercenary trait, so I’m only going to give it 3 stars.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_summer-sea-corsair-rotk.jpg']Summer Sea Corsair 23 out of 30

Clu - 4 out of 5
Not every house needs more draw effects. However, three gold, card draw, and hidden intrigue is pretty outstanding. Baratheon is going to abuse this guy. Blackwater Bay could make him sick. I love the Corsair as a reasonable option of houses looking for supplemental card advantage.

Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5 rating
Now this one was a tough choice with rating. Even when it is Ally and strength 2 the comes into play ability and naval icon makes him well worth it. This card supports the new agenda well as it can help every house and is a form of card advantage. Now Baratheon with their Smugglers (and lack of draw) will get the most out of this as they can make a small search effect with the ability instead of just revealing the top card.

JCWamma - 3 out of 5 rating
Smuggler support is nice, the response is nice. The Ally trait isn't, having to show off your deck to your opponent in order to get actual choice isn't, and 3/2/2 is a fairly meh spread. I'm worried I'm underrating this card a bit, but it just doesn't 'wow' me. We'll wait and see how good that Smuggler trait gets, I guess.

OKTarg - 3 out of 5 rating
I’m not a big fan of neutral draw effects. This plus Black Sails is pretty good....I’m glad they jammed the pack full of naval enhancements with the agenda, so you can already build a decent Black Sails deck that will only get better as the cycle unfolds.

Rave - 5 out of 5 rating
Very strong neutral draw. Gets around the draw cap, works with Kingdom of Shadows, and gets you another Naval crest, if you want to try Black Sails. This is a good option for Lannister shadows to get some draw into the character base, (especially because of it getting around the draw cap.)

ShadowcatX - 4 out of 5 rating
This card alone tempts to me to pick up another copy of the chapter pack just so I don’t have to keep moving it around.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_black-sails-rotk.jpg']Black Sails 23 out of 30

Clu - 2 out of 5 rating
I love it personally. Logistically it falls short. First of all you need to have naval characters. So far, there have been some reasonably costed ones. Second, you have no idea how your cards were split, the slight mill that Greyjoy is running cuts your playing options to an abysmal size. Lastly, I hate random chance deciding whether I’m going to have a good game or not. There are better, more consistent agendas out there. Will I run it? Heck yes! Will the grand scheme become apparent this pack? Heck no!

Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5
There are some issues we have with the Agenda, but let’s first look at it’s power-level unbiasedly. Yet another card advantage Agenda (Sigh), and theoretically of the strongest caliber, since Search is a really strong effect to play around with (as we have learned from TMP). So it’s not like we can rate this below a 4, even if it’s quite dependent on running a lot of Naval characters and will thus depend a lot on the quality of Naval support in the cycle. Optimum deck size for a well-drawing Black Sails deck will probably be somewhere near 70-80, so that you have less risk of emptying your deck before the game ends, and that will also allow you to wield some nice toolboxing in your deck through the search. Note also that with the Black Sails you can run 2-3x of uniques much more than previously, so the overall quality of your deck won’t really decrease, although randomness (drawing too many locations, events etc.) can.
NOTE: (from the Finnish Q&T regulars) The design on this card is a bit... risky. It’s pretty similar to TMP in allowing you search, but tries to balance this by limitations... If the support for it ends up being good, the decks will probably be at a slight risk of being broken. As people who don’t like TMP to begin with, this seems like a... risky direction for the game to develop in.

JCWamma - 3 out of 5 rating
I hope that in retrospect I look back on this agenda and wish I'd rated it 5, because I really like it as a concept. Half your deck suddenly becomes a toolbox, awesome. Not so awesome is the conditionality of getting to use that toolbox, the fact that your opponent getting to choose which stack is the hold means you realistically have to split it 50-50, the once-per-phase limit, not getting the chosen card until the end of the phase (which could be a plus or a negative and certainly makes Dominance events a lot more playable, but I'm leaning towards being a bad thing overall), or the impact it has on your mulligans. I'm not worried about the risk of putting all your characters in the hold, because that's no more likely than putting all your characters on the bottom of your deck. But I have no idea whether this should be a 1, a 5 or anywhere in between, so I've gone middle for diddle. I doubt it'll see much play until more Naval Enhancement characters come out, but for those of you who are impatient, note that not one of the Naval characters are "House X Only", so you can run this out of Neutral House and have practically all your characters have Naval Enhancements, if you so wish. I won’t be held culpable if it doesn’t work though...

OKTarg - 5 out of 5
The other guys have basically said it all. The card advantage it affords combined with the search means it will almost certainly be a top-tier agenda. It’s also kind of funny that mill is the best decktype to counter Black Sails and the new Areo Hotah.

Rave - 4 out of 5
This is a difficult agenda to rate. To start, a Black Sails deck has the potential to be the fastest deck in the environment. But you have to either dilute the deck to 80+ cards to get more stability, or cut at 30 and risk putting the majority of your characters into the hold. There is a lot of probability you can take a risk and play with here. For instance, Black Sails seems like a fun deck to add 1x silver bullets to. If your Slander and Lies or something ends up in the hold, you never have to draw it, and can access it almost at will. I think playing Black Sails for speed, with a healthy chunk of 0 cost reducers will be strong. That way, if the reducers make it into your main deck, great, otherwise, it’s not a huge deal because you can access them from the hold. This review could very well be a 5 once we get all the naval characters and support for the set.

ShadowcatX - 5 out of 5 rating
There’s not much difference in having cards be “in your hold” and having cards be at the bottom of your deck except that you can get cards out of your hold. How often do you get to look through the bottom of your deck? That said, I don’t believe this agenda is 5/5 just yet, but I think in 5 months (or 3 years if FFG keeps to the release schedule they set in place with this chapter pack) this agenda will be all that and more.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_naval-reinforcements-rotk.jpg']Naval Reinforcements 26 out of 30

Clu - 2 out of 5 rating
Um, it’s completely fine in a Black Sails deck. Because it has a niche at least doesn’t make it a one, barely. The numbers are good and may see play with a deck that needs high initiative.

Ire & WWDrakey - 5 out of 5
Given its text it can only be run well in a Black Sails deck, but in those decks this plot is a beast. This makes sure that you will have a naval character for your first challenge phase (or after a Valar) and it also gives you a freedom of choice from your great arsenal also known as The Hold.

JCWamma - 5 out of 5 rating
4/5/1 is a very nice spread, as Search and Detain will prove; on top of that, immediate card advantage, immediate toolboxing. Outside of a Black Sails deck this card is obviously poor, so my rating is assuming you're using that deck - if the agenda sucks then so does this, but I'm being optimistic right now.

OKTarg - 5 out of 5 rating
This is basically a one-sided Summoning Season. Yes, please! It also adds stability to Black Sails deck (what if everything’s in my Hold???) and lets you search your hold to see what you are dealing with (knowledge is power). I love it. I can’t wait to use it.

Rave - 5 out of 5 rating
Amazing. Welcome back Summons, we have missed you. This card alone does a lot to strengthen the agenda. At the very least, you can grab a Naval character if you don’t have one. Also, similar to how I mentioned 1x silver bullets for the agenda, this card can be vicious with characters. Playing Lanni Black Sails, coming against Baratheon? Hopefully flip this for first turn Lannister Jalabhar Xho. Or if you’ve got seasons, grab your Samwell.. anyway, lots of possibilities here.

ShadowcatX - 4 out of 5 rating
Great card and glad to see support for the new agenda early on. Keep it coming.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_crossing-the-ruby-ford-rotk.jpg']Crossing the Ruby Ford 23 out of 30

Clu - 2 out of 5 rating
The only time this card will be played is when paired with other River plots or in a character lite deck. Song of Summer and Take Them by Surprise both have higher initiative. While I personally love the River cycle it won’t unsea(t) the Cities anytime soon, (you wait Cities...the River is rising...).The higher gold will help the folks that were too shy to explore this theme originally.

Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5
Thanks to its income it can be run in a deck without other river plots and it will work really well in ones that decide to mainly use rivers. The ability is great to have in melee games, as it will possibly slow down some of your opponents and allow you to catch up. Also fits a deck hell-bent on cycling River plots nicely, since it will slow down your opponents power-gain, while letting your card advantage plots bite in.

JCWamma - 4 out of 5 rating
What the River plots lacked in the last cycle was good numbers. 5 gold makes this card immediately useful, almost ignoring the text. The effect is fairly nice, albeit nothing special - and when you consider it can target the opponent's house card, it's not as conditional as you might think. River cycling decks just became a little bit better. And as an aside, in a pack full of really awesome ships this might be my favourite artwork of the lot, that’s one beautiful landscape.

OKTarg - 5 out of 5 rating
I’m a fanboy for the rivers and can’t wait for the day that they are viable. That day is closer. Given the dearth of 5 gold plots, this may be a good choice for the income alone.

Rave - 4 out of 5 rating
Well, it’s a 5 gold plot with average initiative. There’s no drawback to it, so I don’t think I could really rate it below a 4. (Though it’s sitting on the cusp of 4, really.) Even with the stats it has, I don’t know if I would let the river plots anywhere near my plot deck yet, but for the decks that have niches that river plots can fill, this will be very good.

ShadowcatX - 4 out of 5 rating
Solid stats and a good ability just seem so out of place on a river plot I really don’t know what to think. Hopefully this trend will continue.
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