Quill & Tankard Regulars - Issue 29

Quill & Tankard Regulars - Issue 29

By the Seven, what've you done!

's beer, innit?

I've been copying those pages painstakingly for hours now!

's n' oopsie, innit?

Now I'll have to do it all over again! Do you know how hard it can be to get all the copying done correctly!?

Wanna beer wif' dat?

Well... sure.

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 Fire and Ice, the second chapter pack of the Kingsroad Cycle, is a House Martell card called Oberyn’s Shield Bearer. Oberyn’s Shield Bearer is a House Martell only non-unique, 2-cost, 2-strength, Bannerman and Ally character. It also has quite a rare Any Phase ability - If it is Summer, discard Oberyn’s Shield Bearer (cannot be saved) to cancel the next 3 effects triggered by a single opponent (of your choice) this round.

Fire and Ice chapter pack will be revisiting the old season mechanics of cycles long past. The available Seasons consist of Summer and Winter, and there is no active season unless a card states “it is Summer / Winter”. What might be the strangest thing about seasons is that with the right card combinations it can be Summer and Winter at the same time. In case of Oberyn’s Shield Bearer he needs it to be summer in order to use his ability, and unlike many of the previous Summer-cards he has no drawback during winter.

The ability is very similar to that of The Painted Table (TBC) location that Baratheon has, but Oberyn’s Shield Bearer will cancel the next three effects triggered by a single opponent instead of the next effect triggered. For the sake of refreshing everybody’s memory, a triggered effect is any effect with a bolded <Phase>: or Response:. So by knowing this we can see that this can cancel a lot of things.

There are several great uses for Oberyn’s Shield Bearer - like triggering him before a Valar Morghulis (Core) to stop all of their saves dead (pun intended) or triggering him at the start of the Marshalling phase to choke your opponent by not allowing him any cost-reduction effects… or in the case of a Lannister player, any kneel effects. During Challenges it will have the most versatile uses - either in guarding you from your opponents nasty effects or to make sure that your opponent will be unable to cancel your own dirty tricks. It should also be noted that he is a Bannerman character, and a non-unique one at that, so he will be perfect for powering Edric Dayne (TBG).

Now, an important thing to note is that triggered effects also include some things that are not printed on cards. One example are duplicates, as according to the rules they grant a save Response: to the unique card they are attached to. Another example of this is actually the Targaryen Ambush keyword, which actually gives the card an Any Phase: ability.

What happens if the effect triggered is an effect which specifically cannot be cancelled - like any triggered effect from an agenda, the triggered effect of a Carrion Bird (ASoS) or one of those aforementioned Ambush effects? Since cannot always trumps everything else, the effect will resolve and since Oberyn’s Shield Bearer is looking for the next 3 effects triggered, it is counted as one of those next 3 effects even when it was not cancelled. Now, this might be one way to combat Oberyn’s Shield Bearer - using triggered effects that cannot be cancelled. You could also “feed” triggers to it with cards that can trigger multiple times in a phase so that you will get to your important triggers after the 3 cancelled ones. A good example would be Robert Baratheon (TTotH), who still after errata has a limit 3 times per phase with his stand ability. So, if you have a kneeling Robert in play you can try to trigger him 3 times in order to get rid of the cancels originating from Oberyn’s Shield Bearer. It should be noted that if the triggered effect has “limit X times per Y” a canceled triggered effect will still be counted towards the limit.

What do you think of the Oberyn’s Shield Bearer? What kind of uses can you see for him in your Summer Martell builds?


The Bad Side of Oldtown: Copy Effects

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.

Currently there are only 4 cards in Game of Thrones that use the word “copy” for copying the effects or abilities of other cards. These cards are Good for the Gander (Core), Rickon Stark (MotA), Ours for the Taking (IG) and Maester's Tower (HtS). Copy effects will also bypass any “limit x per y” restrictions that the original card would have since the effects are triggering from the card that is copying it. Note that they will not bypass a Limited Response if they are trying to copy one. There are several other cards that do something similar, without the word “copy”. These cards allow you to “trigger” or “resolve” the When Revealed effect of a(nother) plot card.

Copy effects

Good for the Gander
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This card came in the Core Set and probably while starting to play the game every player has seen it. This is the simplest of all the copy effects since it is a plot ability that copies another plot ability and it is well restricted with its wording so that it is only able to copy a when revealed ability of an opponent’s revealed plot card. The most complex thing that you can do with this is to reveal it when it is not plot phase to get a guaranteed triggered ability from your opponents plots when revealed ability. So far very simple. There’s one catch, though. What happens if you use this plot to copy another player’s At the Gates (GotC) or Manning the City Walls (CD), and you yourself have a City plot in your used pile? Well, it all comes down to the minutiae of the wording. Good for the Gander tells you to copy the “when revealed” *ability* of an opponent’s revealed plot card. That means the whole thing, including the initiation (i.e. costs and play restrictions). The “if you have no City plots in your used pile” provision of Manning or AtG is a play restriction, it will be included if those plots are copied by Good for the Gander. Now, if Good for the Gander told you to copy the “when revealed” *effect* of an opponent’s revealed plot card, then only the effect itself would be copied, without costs and play restrictions, and you could copy At the Gates and Manning the City Walls even with City plots in your used pile.

Ours for the Taking


Now this is a copy effect that gets a lot trickier. Here we have an event which copies any locations kneel to trigger effect and on top of that it is an Any Phase: event.
Since we are dealing with an event that copies a location ability, the ability itself is treated as part of this event. So it is not a location ability anymore, but an event. This matters greatly with characters such as Stannis Baratheon (VM), who is immune to location abilities but is a valid target for a copied Scouting Vessel (KotS); there is also the opposite scenario where a character is immune to events, but not locations. Those characters will still be protected from Ours for the Taking even when it is copying an effect from a source which the card is not immune to.
Timing is also important when it comes to Ours for the Taking. Since the event itself is Any Phase:, any ability it copies will be triggered as an Any Phase: ability. This results in two things:

• Above, we said that copying an ability means that play restrictions are also copied, and that's still true - with one exception. phase restrictions, like Challenges: or Dominance:, are not copied, but replaced with the event's Any Phase: text. Ever thought that triggering Aegon's Hill (TTotH) in the challenge phase is not as effective as doing it in draw phase to stop your opponent from ever playing the character s/he just drew? well with Ours for the Taking you can!
• While, technically, you can also copy a location's Response: ability, it will do you no good, since you will never be able to fulfill a Response's play restriction when the ability is triggered as an Any Phase: action.

With Ours for the Taking it is also good to remember that an opponent’s location that has a discard as a cost such as Rhaenys's Hill (TBoBB) cannot be copied. Since any additional costs still need to paid, you'll have to discard Rhaenys's Hill(TBoBB), and since you can only pay costs with cards you control, you're out of luck here. But get this: You could copy *your own* Rhaenys's Hill (TBoBB) - even if it's kneeling! So, if you run Rhaenys's Hill (TBoBB) OOH in Greyjoy, and if your wicked opponent has knelt it with Alchemist's Guild Hall (TBoBB) or Attack from the Sea (PotS), and if you happen to have Ours for the Taking in hand - then you're one lucky guy or gal.

Rickon Stark


Rickon Stark has a Response effect which allows him to copy a search effect. Since he is a character and his ability is restricted as a response to another effect it is easy to understand that the copy effect is originating from Rickon.

The big difference between Rickon and Ours for the Taking is that Rickon is copying an effect and OftT is copying an ability. So what is the difference between these two slightly different wordings? An ability means that it will copy everything, this includes costs and play restrictions; effect on the other hand copies only, well, the effect. So if you use Rickon to copy To Be a Wolf (SB) you only get to copy the effect (searching your deck) and not the cost (standing a Stark character).
Since Rickon is looking for an effect that allows you to search your deck it cannot copy an effect that was cancelled - if the effect was cancelled then there was no effect that allowed you to search your deck.

With Rickon Stark you have to remember that his ability is limited on searching the deck. You will have to be searching the whole deck if you want to use his character ability to copy the effect. For example, Maester Luwin (FtC) search effect cannot be copied with Rickon as you are only searching the top 5 cards of your deck and not the whole deck.


Maester’s Tower


Now this card has not seen the light of the day much thanks to Baratheon only having one Learned character in their entire card pool (well two now since Jaqen H'ghar (SB) is unbanned). This card works much like Rickon Stark. It's a Response: that copies a triggered effect which returns a character from your discard or dead pile to your hand, deck, shadows area or play. The same rules apply here that applied to Rickon. The effect is copied, and only the effect, not its costs and play restrictions. Getting two Army characters into play with one See who is Stronger (KotStorm) and only paying 3 influence for it sure sounds great. As before, it is unable to copy a cancelled effect.

Note that The Maester’s Tower is looking for a character to be returned, with the original effect, but the copy effect doesn't have the same restriction. So, if you use Maester’s Tower on The The Prince's Plans (TIoR) the original Prince’s Plans must return at least one character in order to be copied with Maester’s Tower, but the copy effect from Maester’s Tower doesn’t care anymore on what it is returning and it doesn’t have to include a character anymore.

You can find more information on Maester's Tower here.

Triggering/Resolving when revealed plot effects

There are also copy like effects that handle it little bit differently from the cards that actually uses of the word “copy”. These cards currently are only limited to plots and to cards that deal with When Revealed Plot effects. It could be said that Good For the Gander is the odd one here as it is the only plot effect copying card with the actual use of the word “copy”.
Cards that let you "trigger" or "resolve" a plot's When Revealed effect work basically the same as cards that let you copy an ability. That means that the play restrictions of the When Revealed effect have to be met (and costs would have to be paid, but When Revealed effects usually don't have any).
Also note that using the word "trigger" in this context might not be ideal, since When Revealed effects are not triggered effects. But that's what the designers chose to go with.

Plots that "trigger" when revealed effects


Most River plots fit this definition as well as the City of Spiders (TftRK) City plot. When you are using the River plots to trigger used River plots you only get to trigger its when revealed effect and nothing more since they have a limit of “if this is your revealed plot card”.

City of Spiders also has the "trigger" wording, and like with Good for the Gander you cannot use it with plots like At the Gates or Manning the City Walls, since those City plots must obviously be in your used pile when City of Spiders resolves. Curiously enough Negotiations at the Great Sept (TPoL) uses different wording. It has “if you have no other used City plots in your used pile” which means that it can be triggered with City of Spiders as long as it is the only City plot in your used pile.

Flood Waters


Flood Waters works like an additional River plot in a sense, since it allows you to trigger a used River plot. The difference is that it also lets you use your opponent's River plots. Again, since you don't actually have the plot card in question revealed, you will not be able to use the River plot to also trigger yet another used River plot.

There is also the point that Flood Waters itself is not a plot - so, will a House of Dreams (ARotD) location be safe if you are triggering At the Palace of Sorrows (VM) with Flood Waters? Since Flood Waters is triggering the plot itself, it is the plot that is doing all the work and not the event, so the HoD location is not safe from Flood Waters.

Archmaester Marwyn


The latest ruling on Archmaester Marwyn is that he his wording of "resolve the effect" is functionally the same as the "trigger the effect" wording used on the above mentioned cards. That means two things:

• It is the plot that resolves, not Marwyn, so cards that are immune to character abilities or non-plot effects are affected
• Again, play restrictions must be met, so At the Gates and Manning the City Walls can't be used with Marwyn

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).