Scheming on the Sands – Welcome to Sunspear

Scheming on the Sands – Welcome to Sunspear

Welcome to the first edition of Scheming on the Sands, a planned ongoing series focusing on House Martell; one of the six principle factions you can play in A Game of Thones: LCG. My name is emptyrepublic and I hope to take you deep into the heart of Dorne to explore my favorite faction in the GoT:LCG. Each edition I want to turn the spotlight on different aspects of the Martells and the land that they rule. I plan on pulling together lore with game mechanics to provide a comprehensive understanding of who the Martells are, how they work in the LCG, and the ways they can wreak terrible vengeance upon your foes.

But first, a little background on me. I first started playing the Game of Thrones LCG almost a year ago and like many of you reading this became instantly hooked. When I was introduced to the game I was very much interested in it since I had nearly completed the available books in the series. Also like many of you, I played Magic: The Gathering for many years, long ago, but fell out of it for various reasons. I very much like the LCG formula since it allows for an expanding of the game without budget busting issues that M:TG and other CCG/TCGs have. Since I’ve started playing I’ve been fortunate to play in several different metas but not have had the opportunity to play competitively (something I hope to change eventually).

Why is House Martell my favorite? I like their play style, the vengeance mechanics, odd manipulations and such. They are also the House where I really first “learned” the game. The Princes of the Sun deluxe box set doesn’t come with a deck list like the box sets of the four core houses so I had to figure out how to make Martell work through lots of trial and error. This process very much endeared me to the house and as such I now root for them in the books (despite however dull A Feast for Crows was).

“Welcome to Sunspear”

So who are the Martells? If you’ve recently started playing AGoT:LCG you may have heard from other players complaining about House Martell or specific Martell cards. If you haven't read the books (or not far enough into the series) you don't really know much about these people. Their names are dropped every now and again in the HBO TV series, but we probably won't see any of them until season 4. Nonetheless, to know the Martells requires some knowledge of Dornish history so let us walk down that road ever so briefly.

An Ever So Brief History of Dorne (WARNING: Possible lite spoilers from this point on.)
According to lore, roughly one thousand years prior to the events of A Song of Ice and Fire (i.e the current storyline the peninsula of Dorne consisted of many petty kingdoms and other states. At this time Dorne was inhabited almost exclusively by ethnic Andals (the second human ethnicity to migrate to Westeros after The First Men).

That changed however with the Rhoynar invasion. The Rhoynar were a people who inhabited Essos but were forced to flee due to the expansion of the Valyarian Freehold. This constituted the third major ethnic migration to Westeros. The leader of the Rhoynar was a warrior-queen known as Nymeria (the name Arya gave to her direwolf). Upon landing in Dorne she allied (and married) the most powerful of all the lords in Dorne, Mors Martell. Together they united the entire peninsula into the kingdom of Dorne with house Martell ruling from Sunspear.

The introduction of the Rhoynar substantially changed the culture of Dorne. The Rhoynar adopted the Faith of the Seven and the newly formed kingdom adopted the Rhoynar custom of equal primogeniture allowing the eldest child, regardless of gender, to inherit dominion over the kingdom. Additionally the use of the title Prince or Princess for the leader of Dorne originated from Rhoynar custom.

Centuries later during the War of Conquest when the Targaryens began conquering the kingdoms of Westeros only Dorne was able to resist being conquered. The Dornishmen managed to keep the Targaryens at bay for two hundred years before joining through a politically arranged marriage that saw the Martells greatly raise their status in Westeros. Given this arrangement Dorne was able to retain many of its customs as well as the right of equal primogeniture and the title of Prince/Princess for the Lord of Dorne. As you can imagine they did not take well to losing their status with the fall of the Targaryens.

House Martell Today
In the current story arc of A Song of Ice and Fire the Martells are largely uninvolved in the affairs of the rest of the Seven Kingdoms. They sided with the Targaryens during Robert’s Rebellion and after the Targaryens were all but wiped out made peace with newly crowned King Robert. Years later with war now breaking out between the various houses they’ve remained out of the conflict; in part, due to Myrcella Lannister being sent to Dorne.

Additionally, Doran Martell has been quietly planning a revolt of his own ever since the Targaryen downfall. The Martells have had close relations with the Targaryens since Dorne joined the Seven Kingdoms. Elia Martell (sister to Doran and Oberyn) was married to crown prince Rhaegar prior to his death during Robert’s Rebellion. Elia also died during the Rebellion at the hands of Gregor Clegane along with her and Rhaegar’s child (or maybe not).

These events frame the Martell state of mind. Their interest is restoring the old order and regaining their stature prior to the rebellion.

House Martell in the LCG
Given their state in the story the Martells are very focused in righting the wrongs they feel have been done against them during and since Robert's Rebellion. This is exemplified by their keyword: vengeful.

The quiet scheming of Doran Martell in particular is very evident in the toolkit provided to House Martell in the LCG. The house has the benefit of a variety of cancels to undo your opponents’ schemes. No other house can turn losing into winning like Martell can. This is probably the most difficult thing to grasp with Martell: you must at times lose in order to win. Many of Martell’s most powerful effects are only available after losing a challenge on the defense.

Their power relative to other houses is certainly debatable but many people would argue they are one of the more powerful houses. When people complain about Maester decks it’s usually a Martell one given the existence of the Maester of War (TWot5K). Additionally, Martell has the most cards on the restricted list* and several of their cards have errata. Does this mean they are the most powerful house? Not necessarily, but in another edition we'll talk about why they are so frustrating to play against.

So make yourself at home in Dorne. Enjoy the water gardens as the bastard daughters of The Red Viper play. Delight in the delicious blood oranges and spicy peppers, but be careful not to cross this great house. For while the lion’s roar in Lannisport maybe fierce the bite of a viper in Dorne is most certainly deadly.

* NOTE: When I originally wrote this article the 3.4 FAQ had not yet been released. With the new FAQ Martell still has 4 restricted cards on the Joust list; more than any other house. For Melee it has only one card restricted; tying them with several other houses. In both cases The Viper's Bannermen (PotS) is the common restricted card.

Next Time

On the next edition of Scheming on the Sands we’ll focus on the signature character for House Martell: The Red Viper. Why do people love him, why do people hate him? Did you know there is actually more than one version of him? We’ll explore all that and more!