Quill & Tankard Regulars - Issue 32

Beware the Sphinx - Changing Card Types, Part One
Beware the Sphinx is a series of articles concentrating on important cards with several peculiar, complex or unintuitive interactions. An emphasis is kept on both new and competitively relevant cards. Remember, the Sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler.

The A Game of Thrones LCG is a complicated game, I think we can all agree. However, one thing we can rely on - card types are sacrosanct. Characters are characters, locations are locations, attachments are attachments and events are events. Right? Of course not! The game is full of examples of these concepts being fluid, from Jousting Steed (TTotH) to Banner for the North (CtB) to Iron Fleet Scout (TCC). In this two-part edition of the Quill & Tankard Regulars, we tackle these monsters, starting with a specific subset in part one - events that turn into attachments.



There are nine events in the LCG that turn into attachments (well, technically eight, but one functions similarly enough that it's being included here). They are Fire and Blood (TPoL), Guided by Quaithe (TCC), He Calls It Thinking (PotS), I'm You Writ Small (Core), Rhymes with Meek (ARotD), Risen from the Sea (KotS), They Shall Not Cross (LoW) and Ward (VM), with Return of the Kraken (AKitN) being the technical exception that is being lumped in with them. Each of those has specific interactions that we'll get to (and you'll be astonished to learn that the more text the card has, the more nuances), but first of all it's important to understand some basics that apply to all of these cards.

First of all something really simple - these events are cards at your command, both before and after they are played. If you are wanting to avoid the wrath of Rally Cry (TBG) or Shadow Killer (TK), these cards can perhaps be inefficient. Also, with the exception of Ward where attaching is the entirety of the effect, each of these events have the word "then" in them to describe becoming attachments. If the initial effect of the event is cancelled, the event does not get to the "then" point and therefore doesn't become an attachment. On the flip side, this also means that for those events where you don't need a character to attach it to in play in order to trigger the initial effect - for example He Calls it Thinking - you can play the event without needing a target for the attachment. Be wary though - in the case of He Calls it Thinking, if you have no Martell character in play but your opponent does (and the opponent isn't No Attachments), you must attach it to your opponent's character. This is not optional.

Now, let's consider when exactly the event becomes an attachment. Firstly, the initial effect of the event resolves (again with the exception of Ward which doesn't have one). Then, the event turns into an attachment as it attaches. What this means is that cards that are immune to events cannot be targetted by the first part of the event (for example The Red Viper (PotS) or Damon Dance-for-Me (VD)), but can receive the attachment form afterwards; characters with no attachments or immune to attachments can be targetted by the initial effect of the event, but cannot receive the attachment (or in the latter case, will be completely unaffected by it). If the event requires you to target the same character for both parts of the effect (such as Fire and Blood or Risen from the Sea), you cannot target immune to events characters, but can target characters with No Attachments or Immune to Attachments. Of course if a character is immune to both then you're out of luck. Also note that our black sheep, Return of the Kraken, doesn't care if a location is No Attachments/Immune to Attachments, because it's becoming a Duplicate not an Attachment.

Finally for the general stuff, let's look at what happens to the text boxes of these attachments. If you blank them, do they fall off? Do their effects not work for the length of time they are blanked, then start working again after? Does anything happen to them? Can you trigger the initial effect of an event once it's already in play as an attachment? The answer to all those questions is "no".

The way these attachment events function is that, upon being played and resolving successfully, they create a lasting effect - these events are no longer the events they were when played, but are instead now attachments, with the gained text specified on the card and nothing else. As this text is not on the printed textbox of the card, blanking the event once it's become an attachment does nothing whatsoever, as the initial text is no longer present, you cannot replay them. Please do not waste your Frozen Solid (LoW) on such an attachment, lest you wish to be the attention of all the scorn of the Citadel.

Let's end by looking at issues with these specific events.

Rhymes with Meek (ARotD) and Risen from the Sea (KotS)
share a very rare ability in this game, that of being able to save from Terminal Burn (discarded/killed if STR = 0). They do this by saving the burned character and immediately providing a way to increase the character's STR above 0. In the case of Risen it's a simple +1 boost, but in the case of Rhymes it's by saying that the character cannot have its STR altered by card effects. Since burn effects provide constant effects, the moment a character's STR cannot be altered any previous burn is removed, and thus (if the character didn't have 0 printed STR to begin with) the character is moved out of the terminal region for the burn. Be wary though - the constant effect doesn't go away, it just doesn't change the character's STR while Rhymes with Meek is attached. If Rhymes falls prey to attachment removal then that STR value will immediately change back again, possibly back into terminal range.

One of the most common terminal effects is Threat from the North (PotS), and while Fire and Blood (TPoL) can stop a character from being discarded from it, be careful - it isn't a response, and if a charcter is already in the terminal state then there is no window to play it before the character is discarded.

He Calls It Thinking (PotS) and The Red Viper (PotS) is a combo people often wonder about, and though it was stated earlier in the article it's being stated again since it's one of the most common questions - you can attach HCIT to the Viper. That is all.

Ward (VM) is slightly different to the rest of these attachment events, as the entirety of its effect is the attachment part. However, it still functions the same as the rest of these events - note that you have to be able to choose the character, so again the character cannot be immune to events, and it must be able to take a Condition attachment. Also note that the character only needs to have STR 2 or less at the time they attach (not necessarily printed STR), and if their STR is raised afterward the attachment does not fall off. A certain WWDrakey made good use of this in Melee at Stahleck last year, burning power-laden characters down before stealing them.

Return of the Kraken (AKitN) attaches as a duplicate, not as an attachment. In practice this changes very little, except that attachment hate won't touch it, and it makes the location gain a location ability to save itself from leaving play rather than it being an effect of Return of the Kraken.

Guided by Quaithe (TCC) is the most complicated of these events, as its novella textbox would indicate. It's worth mentioning that cards in hand are not subject to immunities, so you can put a character or location with immunity to events into the shadows with this card. You can also put a character or location with No Attachments (or No Condition Attachments in one case) into Shadows, because the card's keywords are not present while it's in Shadows. While the card that GbQ is attached to is in Shadows, GbQ is still considered "in play" and therefore counts towards Cards at Command and can be hit by attachment hate. Once the card is put into play as a Shadows action, Guided by Quaithe remains attached - there is nothing saying it should be discarded at that point, unless of course the character/location cannot hold a Condition Attachment. If you have any effects that bounce attachments, you can at that point return it to your hand should you desire and play it all over again! Finally, note that this is unique - only the second event to be unique, and the first one to be unique despite not being Deathbound. The reasoning for this is simply so that you cannot have two different cards being 'guided by Quaithe', as it were, at the same time.

That concludes our rundown on Events that turn into Attachments, part one of our examination of changing card types. Look out for part two in the near-future - in the meantime, keep studying!

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 2011 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).