Reviews for N00bs - A Clash of Arms: The Battle of Ruby Ford

The Battle of Ruby Ford

Overall Theme: 6; Efficiency: 5

This chapter pack is a hit or miss for some players. If you love Lannister, this is a must have.
If you love Greyjoy, there’s nothing for you here. There isn’t a lot of cohesion in this pack. It
doesn’t develop the house theme as much as other packs, but there are some random good
cards sprinkled in.

House Stark – Overall Theme: 7.5; Efficiency: 6

Old Nan (BoRF) – Theme: 7; Efficiency: 8

• This is one of the best (and only) trait manipulation cards in the game. (Others include Lion's Gate (ASoS), The Songs of Bael the Bard (AKitN), and Rhaegar's Harp (BoRF).) For this she gets a higher rating in theme because she fits into various themes and strategies.
• This can be used to remove a trait, de-buffing a Wildling, removing the Lord trait on someone with a Bodyguard (Core), and various other attachment shenanigans.
• Nan can add a trait to your own characters, such as making a character into a Direwolf so that it can gain stealth with Wolfswood (LoW) or Deadly with Feral Pack (SB). Nan can add a trait to an opponent’s character. Attach a Horn of Dragons (ASoSilence) to her and take control of a character every turn. There are a lot of combinations.
• She has a learned crest, so there may be some synergy with the upcoming Secrets of Oldtown cycle focusing on maesters and the learned crest.

Midnight Sentry (BoRF) – Theme: 7; Efficiency: 3

• This character seems okay: it’s 1 cost, 2 strength, and never goes away. A comparable character is the Direwolf Pup (Core).
• There are a couple of downsides, mostly with the stalwart trait. Running too many stalwart characters can muck up your draw since they go back on top, and Stark doesn’t have great draw. Weenies with Stalwart will continuously die and you will never draw new cards, and 2 strength on military challenges won’t necessarily win you the game. Yes, it does synergize with Eddard Stark (Core) to make him slightly stronger, and he’s a character that you’d rather come back over and over again.

House Umber Berserkers (BoRF) – Theme: 8; Efficiency: 6

• This can be used in combo with Icy Catapult (TWot5K) to do some damage to your opponent’s board. Put Icy Catapult on a Weenie, or a Stalwart character, kill it. Your opponent then loses two characters, one that they choose and one that you choose.
• Army trait. Use in combination with Robb Stark (KotS) to get him out for free, and with Training Grounds (LoW) to have him not kneel on military challenges.

House Lannister – Overall Theme: 10; Efficiency: 10

Castellan of the Rock (BoRF) – Theme: 10; Efficiency: 10

• This is one of the best and most important Lannister cards in the game.
• It immediately triggers itself when it comes into play, and after that, you can kneel characters just by marshalling.
• It is a limited response, so be careful how many you have. You won’t be able to trigger this and Alchemist's Guild Hall (TBoBB) during Marshalling, for example.

Devious Intentions (BoRF) – Theme: 10; Efficiency: 10

• This is a great deal for 1 gold. Especially for the stealth and power buff.
• You can round out a mil/pow character to make it a tri-con with stealth.
• Play it out-of-house for some potent combinations. My favorite is Knight of Flowers (SaS) for a powerhouse tri-con that gets stronger every power he gets. Another popular combo is “Robo-Joff” (aka Voltron-Joff) using Joffrey Baratheon (TftRK). Another is Beric Dondarrion (IG) to make him a one man army.
• Infamy tends to be useless unless you have no other way to get that power on the character. It’s much better to have a character with renown in combination with this.

House Baratheon – Overall Theme: 4.5; Efficiency: 3

Hunting Spear (BoRF) – Theme: 2; Efficiency: 3

• I can see the benefit of this, but Baratheon only has 3 (expensive) weapons in their house, so it’s very likely that your own characters won’t have weapons when you need to have extra characters to win a challenge, so it can backfire on you.
• Playing this out-of-house in a Targaryen deck with a lot of weapons (i.e. Dothraki weapons) could boost the effectively of your burn and terminal kills, making a very good control deck. Attachment control in such a deck could make sure you can discard weapons from other characters. But a 4-cost attachment is not worth it.

Mustering Yard (BoRF) – Theme: 5; Efficiency: 3

• For 3 gold this location must be excellent, and while it has its uses, it’s not worth the cost.
• It can help with intrigue-weak Army decks to get back characters that are discarded all the time, but you have to make sure to get this location out early.
• I could see this in an Heir to the Iron Throne agenda deck perhaps with Training Ground (LoW), but that’s already a very steep resource curve, and probably impossible to pull off.

Martial Law (BoRF) – Theme: 6; Efficiency: 3

• For 2 gold you get to permanently kneel an opponent’s location, and a possible extra 2 power.
• Getting up to 4 strength more can sometimes be difficult and can lead you to over-extend yourself, but if you can figure out a way to consistently win power challenges by 4 or more strength every time, this can seriously contribute to a rush deck.

House Targaryen – Overall Theme: 5.5; Efficiency: 5

Rhaegar Targaryen (BoRF) – Theme: 7; Efficiency: 9

• He is a very efficient character and the only dual-crested character in the game.
• His war and noble crest allow him to benefit from The Power of Blood (Core) and The Power of Arms (Core).
• This allows any player to recover from Valar Morghulis (Core) quickly, which is good for you, but you always want your opponent to sit through a challenge phase with no claim, which is probably why he isn’t played that much. You could blank his text with Milk of the Poppy (Core) if you don’t need his traits, but that’s not very efficient.
• Play with Bodyguards or dupes so that he’ll die when you want him to and not before.

Scorched Earth (BoRF) – Theme: 4; Efficiency: 3

• Can’t be blanked.
• No Battlefield trait synergy.
• 3 cost is a lot, however if you are playing in a heavy Army deck, you can get one guaranteed win every turn if your opponent isn’t playing armies. Or cause a headache for your opponent to think about having to commit to a worthless challenge. While it may have some usefulness in the right deck, I don’t think this would give you that much board advantage.

Rhaegar's Harp (BoRF) – Theme: 6; Efficiency: 6

• If you really need a trait for a bonus, this is a good way to get it.
• Unique so it can only apply to one character at a time.
• In the upcoming Targaryen box set, you could use this with the other Dragons to have one more attacker, or use it on Daenarys Targaryen (Queen of Dragons) to have her not kneel to attack.
• The downside is that it give you negative traits, such as Ally and Mercenary, which makes you vulnerable to Varys (SaS) and Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS).

Disgruntled Mercenary (BoRF) – Theme: 4; Efficiency: 1

• He costs nothing, but only sticks around for one challenge, and if it happens to be an intrigue challenge, then he’s wasted space.
• Could become 3 strength with Power of Arms, and you could use him to pay for The Price of War (KotS) and Die by the Sword (LoW).
• Consider Brown Ben Plumm (Core) or Refugee of the Plains (RoW) instead.

House Martell – Overall Theme: 6; Efficiency: 5.5

Observation Point (BoRF) – Theme: 5; Efficiency: 5

• Some may argue that perfect knowledge is everything; others may argue that seeing it coming and not being able to do anything about is worse.
• I think that there are other locations that are a better use of valuable deck space than this, no matter how helpful see an opponent’s hand may be in certain circumstances. It’s still a one-shot effect.

War Scorpion (BoRF) – Theme: 7; Efficiency: 6

• This can look pretty threatening on a tri-con character to an opponent, and can make an opponent think about which characters they are committing and if they want to lost them. Great psychological warfare.
• You should probably attach it to something more than 1 strength so that it goes off, and if you attach it to a character with dupes, or a weenie there’s not too much of a downside to losing.
• It is 2 cost which makes it expensive for an attachment, but you probably wouldn’t need too many if you decide to put them in your deck.

Neutral – Overall Efficiency: 4

Overzealous Scout (BoRF) – Efficiency: 4

• This is the largest single initiative boost in the game. If you really need a lot of initiative then this card can help. You must ask yourself if initiative is worth having a bad character on the board.
• Consider placing it in a Baratheon Rush deck with The Fox's Teeth (TWot5K), or Greyjoy rush with unopposed.

Herald of the King (BoRF) – Efficiency: 4

• This is a pretty plain character in terms of ratio and icons.
• The ability could be useful to toolbox against some search events or characters, but you have to lose a character to do it, at which point your opponent could trigger it again with a character (examples are Rhaegal (Core) and Jeyne Westerling (ASoS). It may prevent them from playing search event until your Herald is out of play, but otherwise it's not terribly useful.

Battle of Ruby Ford (BoRF) – Efficiency: 7

• This is a one-shot event (it goes to your dead pile so you can’t play it again).
• 2-claim is huge, especially with a 2-claim plot. Consider playing in a Stark The Siege of Winterfell (LoW) deck, or a Baratheon Rush deck to get even more power.

Desperate Tactics (BoRF) – Efficiency: 1

• You would really have to be desperate to play this card and if you need this in your deck, your deck has larger issues.
• The only way I can see this being useful is if you already knelt an army for a challenge and you want to get another out standing for a surprise effect. It would be better to stand the army through other effects – play armies with crests and then use Distinct Mastery. That will give you more flexibility as well in your build.

Lie for Your King! (BoRF) – Efficiency: 2

• This is a card with very limited usefulness. It needs a trigger from a Intrigue Gambit plot (most of which are not good), and then you only get an event back to hand.
• If you have a deck built around 1 or 2 event cards that you really need, this may help to grease the engine, but you probably shouldn’t do that anyway.

Starve for Your King! (BoRF) – Efficiency: 6

• This may work really well in a Baratheon rush deck. They have a majority of the synergy with Power Struggle trait plots and can benefit from the additional income to marshall their expensive characters.
• Consider using it in winter decks to make up for the penalty from the White Raven (TWoW). It would help with Greyjoy who typically has problems with income.

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