Rise of the Kraken - FAQ 4.2

On the 14th of October, 2013, FAQ 4.2 was posted on the FFG website. There were some wider changes in the game's rules, but this article is going to be restricted (pun, ha) to examining the changes to the restricted list and evaluate what this means for the House of the squids.

Joust

The Joust restricted list had the following changes:

• Manning the City Walls (CD) entered the restricted list.
• Aegon's Hill (TTotH) was removed from the restricted list.
• Bear Island (AE) was removed from the restricted list.
• Knight of Flowers (SaS) was removed from the restricted list.
• No Quarter (TBC) was removed from the restricted list.
• Pentoshi Manor (AHM) was removed from the restricted list.

So, no Greyjoy cards entered the list (yay!) and no Greyjoy cards were removed (boo!). You might think this means it doesn't affect us so much, but you would be wrong.

Firstly, let's look at the top builds in recent times from the house. One of the most successful has been using the Black Sails (RotK) agenda, which was piloted expertly by Alexander Hynes and Jon Andrews at Gencon this year, and also achieved two top four placements at a recent major tournament in Europe. One of the most key plots in Greyjoy Black Sails? Manning the City Walls. Being able to reliably afford King Balon's Host (TWot5K) and Victarion's Reavers (CD) was great, as was being able to play Fleet from Pyke (RotK) against decks that weren't running an agenda. Manning being restricted is a big hit for this decktype. Honestly, I think this might be one of the few decks that can justify keeping Manning as their restricted card, dropping their previous restricted - but pretty much any deck will function worse when losing their restricted card.

Other decks don't lose too much directly from Manning being restricted, but take a moment to consider the wider implications for the game. Manning being restricted means less Army characters will see play. Less Army characters seeing play will mean characters will skew towards having less STR. Characters having less STR will improve Targaryen Burn, a deck which has been slightly on the backburner recently (although certainly not frozen out - a House of The Dragonpit (TftRK) deck recently won a tournament). This point will also be accentuated by the unrestriction of Aegon's Hill, and also Pentoshi Manor to an extent. Burn coming back into the forefront of people's minds will be painful for two long-standing Greyjoy builds - Winter Choke, and Maesters. The former has gained the new Balon Greyjoy (FAI) recently, but I'm not sure one unique character will be enough, and he's also on the expensive side; the latter has gained no new cards for a while now. Neither of these decktypes are dead in the water, per se, but both have a weakness that will likely be very prevalent in the meta.

Pentoshi Manor entering the meta again is a problem for everyone, essentially. For Greyjoy in particular, it hurts unopposed builds somewhat since Stealth and Intimidate can be removed. The Manor laughs at a lost of things, but a good example would be Bloodthirsty Crew (OSaS). All houses of course have their own keywords to lose, but only Baratheon's Vigilant and Greyjoy's Intimidate will matter on attack most of the time. Knight of Flowers being unrestricted doesn't matter hugely for most Greyjoy decks - he's a powerful card, particularly against Greyjoy that rarely runs Shadows tech, but with the Kinsguard chapter pack entering the meta shortly his general influence will be limited (as will Distinguished Boatswain (TftRK)'s, sadly). The big removals from the restricted list are Bear Island and No Quarter - the latter much more than the former. These unrestrictions bring Stark Murder back into the fore. For a while her influence on the outcome of a game had been compromised, but look for Brienne of Tarth (PotS) to quickly become Greyjoy's worst enemy once again - no saves or cancels to stop those No Quarters hitting home. What can Greyjoy do about her? An old standby that's been forgotten in recent times but might once more prove invaluable is Milk of the Poppy (Core). Otherwise, if you see Brienne, kill her!

One final note about Joust - with 3 locations leaving the restricted list, look for House of Dreams to become a 'thing' more prominently, and therefore for the likes of Search and Detain (HtS) to become more popular once again. Additionally with most Lannister decks having 3x Pentoshi Manor on top of their other great locations and burn becoming more popular once more, if you weren't running a lot of location hate before then now might be the time to consider it.


Melee

The Melee restricted list had the following changes:

• Pyromancer's Cache (TWot5K) was removed from the restricted list.
• Battle for the Shield Islands (TGF) entered the restricted list.
• Battle of the Bay (TBoBB) entered the restricted list.
• War of Five Kings (RoW) entered the restricted list.

The changes here were a lot smaller, but the news is still good for Greyjoy. All three cards that entered the restricted list were Epic Battles, and this is designed to put a stop to the absurdly fast Stark decks that chained multiple epic battles and The Siege of Winterfell (LoW) for a quick victory. What this allows is for other previously-strong Melee decks to step up. One such deck would be the Greyjoy unopposed build, using cards such as Rise of the Kraken (KotS) to push for a quick victory. Greyjoy is poised for some fantastic Melee results in the near future, I have no doubt.

Finally, Pyromancer's Cache leaving the restricted list. If you are running multiple King and Queen characters then I could see this being a contender to splash out of house, but it is seriously expensive. In most cases this will simply mean you should treat Lannister decks with a bit more respect, and possibly run more location hate as in Joust.


That's it for this rundown of the new restricted lists. Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed that this is the first new Rise of the Kraken in quite some time, and that's been for a few different reasons, but one of them has been a dearth of article ideas. If there is any topic you would like this series to cover, please let me know in the comments section (along with your normal feedback of course!) and I will try to tackle your subjects in the near-future.