The Banners Gather Review

Our staff has put together a first blush analysis of the (sort of) newly released The Banners Gather Chapter Pack. We’ve used a one through five scale; five being the best. The cards are listed in numeric order. Our reviewers are listed in alphabetical order. Let us know in the comments how you feel about the cards in this pack!

61% 666 out of 1100

Top 3
Southron Stronghold 53 out of 55
Brightwater Keep 52 out of 55
Rally Cry 47 out of 55

Bottom 3
Poisoned Well 21 out of 55
Hammerhorn 22 out of 55
Rain of Fire 24 out of 55

[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_alester-florent-tbg.jpg'] Alester Florent 34 out of 55

clu - 3 out of 5
I love this guy for combo. He gives you a discard outlet and then can kneel to power any of the Prayer recursion effects you may be running. Plus, his best friends are Royal Guard and River Runner to give your weenies a powerful punch backed up by vigilance. Now, go back and look at the 3 slot just for house Bara. He is grossly out matched by most of the uniques without looking at the non-uniques.

emptyrepublic - 4 out of 5
The basics are there in terms of cost versus STR versus icon balance. Decent traits (we’ll see if Bannerman ever becomes a negative one) and a crest are pluses. The on-demand +3 during power challenges to any character definitely will have utility. We’ll see how high that utility is as the cycle progresses and we hopefully see more characters with Bannerman.

Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5
For your average Baratheon deck the ability will not do much, as there already exist tools that pump your STR during power challenges, and they do them better and aren’t in a cost slot that is mostly tight for Baratheon. Still, it can make sure that you will win a power challenge when you need it and possibly even trigger some nice events like Seductive Promise. The traits are great and having a Holy crest with a Military icon is good for the non-Power of Faith turns. It is also a nice discard engine for a recursion deck. Overall nice card, but has to compete against a tough crowd.

JCWamma - 3 out of 5
A very solid character. I'm not sold on the Bannerman tech yet, but we'll see. Holy crest is appreciated in Bara, as is a Lord costing 3 rather than 4. That discard effect hurts them less than the similar characters, but ultimately the effect isn't doing enough that he'll warrant an inclusion in most decks. I think for most - not all - Bara decks of this sort Wildling Bard (CD) offers more.

mnBroncos - 3 out of 5
Assuming we see more Bannerman cards coming up it could get better. Discard a card for plus 3 STR isn't bad for 3 cost with those stats. With the prayers and how Bara can abuse the holy crest is actually a very nice icon to have.

OKTarg- 3 out of 5
It’s difficult to come up with something the other guys haven’t said--great to start a discard theme (putting what you want in your discard pile), but typically other cards will offer more in the same cost slot. In a Holy/Recursion deck, he’s great.

Rave - 3 out of 5
This guy is a pretty solid toolbox character at least. The ability will always be useful to push a challenge through if need be. The holy crest can also be put to use, and the Any Phase trigger on his ability can help you avoid being the guy with the most cards at their command.

Reldan - 3 out of 5
Solid, but Bara isn’t exactly hurting at the 3-cost spot. Bara certainly can make use of free discard effects, but this one just doesn’t really do a whole lot. I’m having a hard time envisioning the deck that would use him unless the Bannerman thing gets more love later.

scantrell24 - 3 out of 5
Alester’s certainly not a bad card, but he’s not something Bara desperately wanted either. Seductive Promise, Make an Example, and Ours is the Fury are now easier to trigger, but Bara already has other power challenge pumps, namely Smuggler’s Cove.

Staton - 3 out of 5
I agree with everyone that this card seems to have a lot of potential, but right now is just kinda good. I’m really glad he is Any Phase: and not just Challenges. If we see two or three more useful bannerman, then he’ll definitely see play.

tomdidiot - 3 out of 5
More holy crest support in Bara is nice, but the ability is kind of lackluster. +3 STR in a challenge Bara should be winning anyway isn’t going to be very useful, though it can be used in combination with effects like Seductive Promise. He also has anti-synergy with the Laughing Storm, which hurts his playability.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_brightwater-keep-tbg.jpg'] Brightwater Keep 52 out of 55

clu - 2 out of 5
Meh, the best way to stop intrigue challenges is to win them. I find it rare that a good deck doesn’t already have countermeasures for discarded cards, most likely in the form of draw. The No Attachments keeps it from becoming painfully abusive so it’s mostly a stopgap. Keep the card slot open and make good decisions. Slightly interesting as your House of Dreams target.

emptyrepublic - 5 out of 5
This in conjunction with Alester Florent (or any discard prevention for that matter) is great, but the Shagga possibilities with this will be what’s really interesting. No attachments is welcome for Frozen Solid protection. On it’s own it’s nothing special; definitely needs to operate in a larger context. Cost feels right and makes it setup friendly.

Ire & WWDrakey - 5 out of 5
There doesn’t exist a reason why you should not run this in your Baratheon deck. It is cheap, it cannot be dealt with by attachments, it works together with discard engines and with high-claim intrigues it allows you to choose which card to return. Now all that said, it will make intrigue-heavy decks cry the moment they see it on the table. Which is either good, or bad... depending on which side of the table you’re sitting on. With Negotiations still being a viable restricted-choice in Baratheon, it also has nice synergy in always allowing you to have a card to keep in hand.

JCWamma - 5 out of 5
Bara gets in with its "insanely good card of the cycle" early, it'd seem! An absolutely phenomenal card. It's essentially a repeatable save for intrigue rather than military, and given Bara's susceptibility to the green challenge in a fair few of their decks that's a tremendous boon. On top of that this is unfreezable, and with all the Bara discard tech floating around (see above for one of the tamer examples!) this will have a lot of combo-potential. Being able to pick and choose which card is returned in scenarios such as a high-claim intrigue challenge or Threat from the East (QoD) is invaluable, and it also allows cards such as Ghost of High Heart (WLL) to be used as Draw engines if required. Auto-include in any Bara deck as far as I can tell.

mnBroncos - 5 out of 5
I’m just confused by this card, it isn’t like making me scream ban or even restrict just the utility of it is so great that every Bara deck should find room for at least one of these, at least it has to be knelt for its effect so it can’t stop multiple claim int or other effects but still wow.

OKTarg - 5 out of 5
Just as the others have said--autoinclude.

But how about putting a dirty Martell player’s Darkstar (PotS) back in their hand!

Rave - 5 out of 5
Even without the possible Shagga applications of this, it is incredibly solid, especially for the cost. Saving that one card could mean a lot, especially with Negotiations still floating around the cardpool. That one card could make or break a game.

Reldan - 5 out of 5
Bara tends to struggle with card advantage and a relative weakness to Intrigue challenges. Between this and The Laughing Storm (GotC) that problem fades away at an extremely low cost. Also can be used as a backup plan with Val (RotO) to provide at least one free card draw each turn. The No Attachments is what cements this as a solid 5 out of 5 card to me. I suspect this will be a prime target for the new Rally Cry plot.

scantrell24 - 5 out of 5
The only question is: how many copies? Brightwater Keep has a huge target painted on it, so most Bara decks will probably pack at least 2. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Martell Treaty/Alliance with Hellholt Engineer to fuel some combos.


Staton - 5 out of 5
There’s not much to say about this card. It’s just a straight up autoinclude in any Baratheon deck. A cool interaction here is that it doesn’t stop the card from being discarded, it just returns it once it has been discarded. So for cards like Alester Florent, you are still considered to be paying the cost of his ability.

tomdidiot - 5 out of 5
This card is bonkers. Apart from its use in intrigue challenges, it’s also ultimate protection against effects like Confession (KotS) and Altar of Fire (RoR). It also combos well with shenannigany draw effects like Val (RotO), and, in a pinch, Ghost of High Heart (WLL).
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_into-the-breach-tbg.jpg'] Into the Breach 34 out of 55

clu - 2 out of 5
I don’t know if I can rightly justify this taking up a card slot out of my 60. If I think about it as an infinite resource to play a character for one phase it makes me think about retrieval Dale (which you’ll only be able to trigger once) and dudes who cannot be discarded, ala King’s Champion. Or, I could just build a good gold curve into my deck. Interested that it is a Siege and Tactic trait.

emptyrepublic - 4 out of 5
So if you aren’t on board with Baratheon recursion yet, you should be. This event will fuel so many of those decks in the future. It’s a great way to abuse Dale from the last cycle to bring in a lot of manipulation of the discard pile for free, on demand. Traited event cards usually exist as a point of initiation for other events or effects as well (think Small Council).

Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5
Good for Baratheon recursion decks or just for some nice surprises. Now it does have a lot of competition with events that mostly do the same thing. Bound by blood does it differently, and it can be argued that for recursion effects, fiery kiss does it a lot better. Now this has some Shagga uses as the event itself is not limited to house Baratheon only, so you could be sneaking in some powerful Baratheon guy for a turn. However, this kind of trickery will be really hard to make competitively viable, which is reflected in the score.

JCWamma - 3 out of 5
This is an Any Phase event with a lot of utility. Lowering your hand before a Rule by Decree, dropping in a surprise dupe before a Valar, suddenly having a character in play to make your two claim challenge with, and so on. That's not even getting into Bara's increasing level of recursion and comes into play effects like the illustrious Dale Seaworth (AToTT). This is an event that might be on the bubble of a lot of Bara decks, but I think it has potential for a lot of fun.

mnBroncos - 3 out of 5
Not powerful enough to be put into all Bara decks, but with recursion being tops in Bara for long time now this card helps that. I see this best as a defence card for when they throw a week challenge at you and you can surprise defend it.

OKTarg 3 out of 5
First off, let me say that this looks like incredible fun. However, it strikes me more as the type of card I play in casual melee or a fun/tricky deck rather than a tournament-level top tier deck. I’d say Fiery Kiss and Bound by Blood are a bit better for what they do, but we’ve seen what a certain level of redundancy can do for archetypes.

There is also a certain level of fun to be had with Cannot be Discarded characters like Knight of the Rainwood or Stannis’ Northern Cavalry, though it seems that nobody really takes advantage of those with Fiery Kiss, so it’s probably more fun than actually effective.

Rave - 4 out of 5
There are so many applications for this. On offense, there are several Baratheon characters who can carry the game by themselves like Core or King Stannis, Robert, Melisandre, or KOF. In that sense, this card is a free 3 or 4 gold first or second turn that one could carry to to the win. How many Bara decks really need more than 3 turns to win when they get a good start out of the gate? The fact that the character needs to discard afterward is pretty negligible, even without recursion. Late game where your opponent really needs to win that power challenge, this will be a nice surprise as well. I wouldn’t rate this card as an auto-include, but very good.

Reldan - 3 out of 5
Bara event slots are pretty tight as is, because they have a lot of good ones already. The obvious combo with Dale Seaworth (AToTT)is great, but the downside I see is that since the leaving play effect is end of phase you won’t be able to trigger his response again. This makes it a 2-for-1 proposition (the event plus Dale snags you one card back from the discard). I do think this will work great in Bara KotHH decks built around Westeros Bleeds that run the Cannot Be Discarded characters King’s Champion (AE) and Knight of Rainwood (Core).

scantrell24 - 3 out of 5
Meh. We already have Bound by Blood and that rarely sees play.

Staton - 3 out of 5
I really wanted to give this card a 4, but just couldn’t do it. There are a lot of really good events out there right now, which means you are only going to use this in a niche/gimmick deck. Great points by Reldan with the CBD characters though.

tomdidiot - 3 out of 5
This card could be good - it’s flexible as a finisher and to drop in a surprise military claim soak. It works very well with Dale Seaworth (AToTT) in this regard. Also, it works well with dupes drawn after the Mashalling phase, as it allows you to dupe characters out of phase to save from a Valar. It can be fun, but I don’t think it’s amazing.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_gorold-goodbrother-tbg.jpg'] Gorold Goodbrother 28 out of 55

clu - 2 out of 5
Define “Too many cooks in the kitchen?”. I love this card as a 2 cost or even 4 cost. The ability is down right brutal (I hear people play River Blockade) but there is only one bannerman playable in Greyjoy. The three slot is jammed to GJ goodness already. He just isn’t going to see play outside of an out-of-house location heavy deck. However, I do like his boost during pre-plot Valar for Seasick on those pesky dupes.

emptyrepublic - 2 out of 5
This is going to be a common theme with these new Bannerman. The utility of their character abilities is going to be highly dependant on the number of Bannerman characters you can field. They are all 3 gold, 3 STR, with two icons with “good traits” but many characters fit that description. The 3 gold slot is really full in most houses so the new characters need to stand out. To me, this guy doesn’t. If it’s just him on the table you are discarding a card to temporarily kneel a single location. Hardly seems like a good deal to me and, unlike Baratheon, Greyjoy has little incentive to deliberately discard cards.

Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5
On demand soft location control is highly undervalued. This one is also repeatable, as long as you have cards to throw away and if you have more than one Bannerman in play, every card in your hand turns into Balons rebellion (which is hugely underused) without the kneel cost. Now where is the point of this when you have NML and Support of kingdom as forms of hard control? This can be setup’d and it can hit anything except a HoD location. Kneeling locations from the control houses are a real pain and GJ can sometimes have a problem dealing with them. Now you can more easily kneel their influence sources, if you fear that something big is coming. Good for choke and good against most decks there are. If only GJ had better draw or a recursion theme as Baratheon/Targ, then this card could easily be 5 for the choices it offers. Also is that a chainless maester there in the art? what is Qyburn doing in the iron islands?!?

JCWamma - 3 out of 5
This rating is slightly misleading - consider it a 4 in Choke decks and a 2 elsewhere. Kneeling locations is a good ability, but most Greyjoy decks lack the draw to be able to freely discard cards - and unlike Baratheon they don't have the recursion to get them back. As a result this card will only really be worth an include in a deck that gets a lot of mileage out of kneeling locations - namely, a choke deck that kneels reducers.

mnBroncos - 2 out of 5
With no longer having the Long Voyage Greyjoy’s main weakness again is card advantage and this card costs too much for the effect.

OKTarg 2 out of 5
So, how many Bannerman are out there? Uh, this one? And I fail to see how he is better than Theon unless you have multiple Bannermen in play. All that said, in a Choke deck I think he’ll be good, and I think there’s something to be said for these guys who keep your CAC lower than your opponent, but still, I’m not that thrilled with this one.

Rave - 3 out of 5
Too many variables here to be a beast. You need to have cards to burn, and Bannerman traits to choke with this. Unlike Alester, against certain decks, the ability will be a wash anyway. The houses running heavy control you would be crippling by kneeling out their location base (with the exception of maybe Lannister) will often have easy answers for single characters. For a soft sort of control, the Theon with the similar ability does this better, since he is cheaper and requires no babysitting.

Reldan - 2 out of 5
I think his ability is much better than the Baratheon’s Alester Florent, but GJ just doesn’t have the synergy with discarding cards or discard pile recursion that Baratheon does. GJ has so many good options at the 3-cost level, and when would you ever run this guy when you’ve got 3 Newly Made Lord (TftH) to deal with locations? If this were any house other than GJ I’d probably give him a 4.

scantrell24 - 3 out of 5
Spectacular ability, but a steep price. Greyjoy is one of the weakest houses for draw and card advantage, so they’ll be loathe to discard extra cards from hand. I can’t see Gerold Goodbrother sticking in many decks.

Staton -3 out of 5
This guy is pretty awesome, since there are actually quite a few nasty locations lying around. Plus, you really only need that one turn of not having to deal with that Mereen Tourney Grounds to get through that one challenge. I’m really loving that you don’t have to kneel the actual Bannerman for their abilities. If this guy had a crest I’d probably give him a 4.

tomdidiot -4 out of 5
Soft location control is always welcome. He has a similar effect to Theon Greyjoy (KOTS), but you’re discarding a card rather than paying gold, which makes him a lot more flexible, as you can do it any phase. He also isn’t limited in any way, so you can kneel out your opponent’s entire board by chucking your hand. He’s scarily good in Greyjoy choke, and probably useful enough as a 1x in other Greyjoy decks.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_hammerhorn-tbg.jpg'] Hammerhorn 22 out of 55

clu - 1 out of 5
What? No. Wait. Maybe? Plan to win the game not lose. So, no don’t put this in your deck...unless you House of Dreams it with dupes and play some sort of gross GJ hand control based around this and discard Alannys. Would have been a natural counter to TLV but we don’t have to worry about that.

emptyrepublic - 2 out of 5
First, for those of you who didn’t read the initial press release on this chapter pack cycle; FFG introduced a new rule for “cards at [his/her] command”. That simply means the total number of cards that a player has in his/her hand, in play, and in shadows.

This would have been a hilarious TLV counter given that most TLV decks could flood the table like crazy and maintain healthy hand sizes. With TLV pretty much out in the cold now this doesn’t seem as necessary. Greyjoy has so many locations it just seems to pale in comparison. Since it’s passive you also have to deal with the fact you can hit yourself with this which might require you to deliberately hold back.

Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5
Really powerful effect, but it will need a good deck builder and also a good pilot to abuse it fully and make his opponent cry in agony. This location is not an easy slot for every deck, but the deck builder has to figure out if his deck can handle it. With the right build and a playstyle that is more reactive it can leave a trail of crushed decks behind it.

JCWamma - 1 out of 5
First, I really like this card, as a concept. But I can't see myself ever playing it, the potential for it to backfire is just too high for my liking. Especially out of a house with two of the best inefficient cards from a "at your command" standpoint - namely The Iron Cliffs (HtS) and Risen from the Sea. It's the sort of card that heavily, heavily restricts your deckbuilding options, and you may never see it when you play - unless you use it as your House of Dreams location in which case you practically might as well shake the hand of your [GOT=MotM]Knights of the Hollow Hill[/GOT] opponent before you sit down. Only other way to reliably get it is to run lots of draw, and last I checked that goes against what the location's for. So yeah, really awesome concept, but I can't see it ever working in practice.

mnBroncos - 2 out of 5
I want to give this card a one but I just can’t. It has very obvious downside in that it can affect you, and since Greyjoy seems to flood the board better than most decks it seems like you have a good chance of hurting yourself with this. Before long voyage was errated i’d have given this a 5 and probably would have seen many decks paying 3 for it.

OKTarg - 3 out of 5
I think that out of the cards so far this one will require actually playing with it to see what happens. The effect is amazing, but the downside is pretty sharp as well. It’s like Kings of Summer in that regard--when you’re on song, it’s great but that one fewer card is terrible. Unlike KoS, however, this steadily works you TOWARDS your downside. So if this card is working, it is working itself out of a job.

With all of that said--the effect is great and I’m sure a clever deckbuilder can come up with something for it. LOL at Martell KotHH with their hundred cards in hand [img]http://www.cardgamedb.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.png[/img]

Reldan - 3 out of 5
I can see this hitting the table in GJ Choke since “At Your Command” also counts cards in hand. How good this winds up being is probably going to depend on whether a strong KotHH deck makes a showing in the new meta. On the flip side, this could be devastating in a GJ KotHH build since KotHH effectively cheats the “At Your Command” logic. Note to self: Build a GJ KotHH deck.

Rave - 2 out of 5
I don’t think Greyjoy can afford having this backfire on them. A choke deck cares less about cards in hand then potential income anyway. I don’t know if hand control is really a thing for them. Still, if you’re losing or playing against heavy control, often this will help you make up lost ground, but being Greyjoy, it might be better to just try and have an offense oriented solution to that situation.

scantrell24 - 2 out of 5
It’s certainly a powerful ability, much like TLV, so I’m wary of dismissing Hammerhorn without giving it a shot, but the potential to backfire half the time is simply too great. Your deck will have to be specifically tailored to Hammerhorn, and at that point you probably don’t have a good deck anymore.

Staton - 2 out of 5
While a decent card, not exactly something I’m dying to throw into my GJ deck. GJ already uses a lot of locations and I just can’t see them dedicating a slot to a location that could hurt them as well. It could probably be used in a very specific deck though.

tomdidiot - 1 out of 5
It’s too likely to blow up in your face if you ever get an advantage in cards at your command (especially a post-Valar turn). I think it was printed as a TLV hoser, but then they erratad TLV anyway.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_scaling-ladder-tbg.jpg'] [b]Scaling Ladder 28 out of 55[/b]

clu - 2 out of 5
Dang attachments! I really like the idea and I’m glad Siege is popping up again and I’m SUPER excited that this isn’t a trigger. This gets more playability with Gorold and cramming a Helloholt Docks into your 60.. You just can’t rely on your opponent to kneel their own location.

emptyrepublic - 3 out of 5
An interesting alternative to force unopposed challenges for Greyjoy. A single one is probably not as big of a hinderance as it might seem to your opponent, but if you managed to get all 3 then you could really make life hard. On the fence with this card. Feels like it might make its home better in choke decks instead of unopposed oriented decks. Possible combo with Gorold Goodbrother, but not sure if it’s worth making space for it.

Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5
Support for the old unopposed theme is always a welcome sight. It has some uses in choke and it will definitely be fun to place this on a kneeling HoD location. Now this card is ok in Joust, but it has tons of potential when you move into melee. It gives big target sign on one player and correctly used it could overthrow the current threat out of the game in one turn just because now they cannot defend military challenges coming from players who can get it through with a simple weenie and also gain unopposed power. This will also stop the player from supporting or using the Captain of the Kingsguard title in Melee.

JCWamma - 3 out of 5
I'm not sure about this card. In Melee it looks like a lot of fun, but in Joust you need to be running a fair amount of location kneel tech to justify it - [GOT=AToT]Balon's Rebellion[/GOT], [GOT=PotS]Attack from the Sea[/GOT], Gorold from earlier in this pack, and so on. Those cards are better suited to choke decks, and this card doesn't fit in choke because you should be stopping them from getting the military icons on the board to begin with. That said, there could be merit in simply placing this on an important card for your opponent - something like [GOT=ODG]The Scourge[/GOT], say. Other common kneeling House of Dreams cards like [GOT=AE]Bear Island[/GOT] and [GOT=TftRK]Aegon's Hill[/GOT] will be less affected since their effects can (or must) wait until after your military challenge, but there's certainly a lot of potential. And any unopposed support is welcomed by me!

mnBroncos - 2 out of 5
I don’t see this getting much play. It is a great ability, but Greyjoy can usually win a Military battle anyways so this probably sees play in decks built for unopposed. Maybe be nice to just send a 1 strength guy in to win a challenge, but for your few slots that you have for attachments greyjoy has some really evil ones that I'd play before this one.


OKTarg - 2 out of 5
This is cool, but I don’t think too strong. It gives the opponent a choice whether or not to turn it on, and I think you need some effects triggering off of MIL wins to make this worthwhile--You know, something like Wintertime Marauders and Die by the Sword. Those would work, but in those types of decks you’re winning MIL anyway and this can become a Win More card.

I actually think this would be great in Stark for those reasons. Pale Steel Link that bad boy in there.

Rave - 2 out of 5
I don’t see this being useful outside of decks with effects that trigger off of unopposed power. As Greyjoy, I feel like generally only Baratheon, Stark, or other Greyjoy will have the means to consistently defend your military challenges, and I can’t think of a location so good in those houses that you would get good use out of this attachment.

Reldan - 1 out of 5
I simply don’t see what deck would run this card. Too many variables to get it to function, the effect is too narrow in scope, and even when it works it only helps you for a single challenge.

scantrell24 - 3 out of 5
The current rating on agotcards is 4.19, but I expect that will drop. It’s a well-designed card with a huge positive (and a nasty combo with Assault of the Kraken) but also a huge drawback (the opportunity cost of attachments + your opponent can avoid kneeling his location).

Staton - 3 out of 5
This is a pretty flexible card that can be used to either try and choke someone out, or as support for unopposed tech. Putting this on something like Smuggler’s Cove will essentially stop them from using the location. Almost as good as a frozen solid in that situation. I’m guessing you’ll see a lot of decks try to use it and then it will see a huge drop off except in very specific decks, but it will be really good in those decks.

tomdidiot - 4 out of 5
This card is scarily good. It has a lot of flexibility - it can either be used as a location denial effect in choke (or in general) and is a great way to push through a challenge in a GJ unopposed deck. The 4 rating is because of its utility in choke - your opponent either uses the reducer and plays a character, but then has to let a military challenge through unopposed, or your opponent doesn’t use a reducer. Either way, it’s win win for you! It also synergises very well with cards like Gorold (see above).
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_damon-marbrand-tbg.jpg'][b] Damon Marbrand 33 out of 55[/b]

clu - 4 out of 5
Unlike the problem with Greyjoy, Lannister’s three slot is pretty open unless you go with the kneel package. Damon assists with the Power Behind the Throne decks and engines arguably the most powerful challenge available to you.

emptyrepublic - 3 out of 5
I’m rather ambivalent on this one. It fits the theme for the house: the discard to +3 during intrigue challenges. Good if you need to clear the 4 STR threshold for Terminal Schemes or Wars Are Won with Quills. Disappointed that more of these Bannerman are not getting crests. Not awful, but again doesn’t really stand out. I don’t see him floating to the top in the heap in the mosh pit that is 3 gold characters.

Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5
The lack of crest on this is what keeps it down from a 4. Its ability is ok to make sure that you win every challenge with your PBtT deck. Then again if you have plenty of non-kneeling intrigue characters, how often do you have the need to boost them? rarely. This makes it so that his ability will be used more in bluffing to see whether your opponent will overcommit or not.

JCWamma - 3 out of 5
Lannister can certainly afford to pay the cost better than the other houses, but when have they ever needed help with intrigue challenges? I'm unconvinced on this one. He'll have a place in Power Behind the Throne decks as a one-of to help make sure you get both challenges through each round, but beyond that he offers little.

mnBroncos - 2 out of 5
No crest hurts and Lannister doesn't really need the help in pushing through intrigue challenges. I only seeing this card being played in power behind the throne decks for when you don't have Cersie out there and have to win that second intrigue challenge with your weaker characters.

OKTarg - 3 out of 5
Lannister often needs something to do with their excess cards, and Damon gives them something. How useful is it? Well, most often you’re winning INT anyway, but a spare Lord never hurts, and I’d really like to see him with the Clansmen theme to help turn on effects like Burned Men.

Also, note that Burn is a big problem for Lannister and this buff can make the difference between keeping Cersei alive for the INT challenge or having her go up in flames. So, altogether solid but unspectacular.

Rave - 3 out of 5
Well.. he’s a 3 cost character with no bad traits that can push through a challenge by himself. He can also like the others, dodge “cards at your command” effects, which I feel Lanni will have among the hardest time dealing with. That said, pretty boring.

Reldan - 4 out of 5
This is my favorite of the discard effect cards simply because Lannister currently is in the best position to make the most use of discarding cards. This also lets you push through Intrigue challenges with Doubting Septas, and the ability is effectively free if you use it with [GOT=Core]Pentoshi Guildmaster[/GOT].

scantrell24 - 3 out 5
PBtT might make use of Damon, and he’s a good bluff even if you don’t intend to use the pump, but a crest really would have put Damon over the top. Maybe he’ll be cool with Clansmen to intentionally dump cards?

Staton - 2 out of 5
This guy really doesn’t seem that useful to me. Lannister has better characters for that cost, with those icons. They also have better str pumps, imo. This seems to be the least useful of the Bannerman.

tomdidiot - 3 out of 5
He’s OK. Lannister rarely needs the pump for intrigue anyway, but I suppose it’s good to have the flexibility, especially for PBJ or Clansmen. He works very well with [GOT=LotR]Cersei Lannister[/GOT] and other non-kneeling characters, because you’re potentially getting +3 STR in two challenges.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_ashemark-tbg.jpg'] [b]Ashemark 29 out of 55[/b]

clu - 2 out of 5
Sure, I’ll take a fourth Golden Tooth Vault to be the driving force behind my Lanni recursion deck full of holy dudes. This card is unremarkable only because it is slightly better than a card already in the same gold slot. Now, I’ve been experimenting with Lanni holy recursion for a couple weeks now and it’s really neat if you want to play prayers over and over again. You just need to figure a win condition. Lanni already has the best discard outlet available in Tribeless Vagabond; this is just setting up for some sort of soft lock. If I can only figure it out… Don’t forget the Any Phase timing, pre-plot could be pretty devastating.

emptyrepublic - 2 out of 5
If you are going heavy Clansmen this is 4 out of 5 maybe even 5 out of 5. Otherwise I don’t see how it’s worth it. There are two Lannister events that generate gold for you (Wealth of the Rock and Oath of Fealty). Aside from narrow edge cases I don’t see how useful this is. Unlike the other 1 gold locations being introduced here this can take attachments which isn’t so great apart from Increased Levy. I’ll grant there maybe other utility cases that I’m just not seeing at the moment though I’m hard pressed to think of them.

Ire & WWDrakey - 1 out of 5
This has very little utility as a trade of 1 card for 1 gold is not good as we have learned from the Golden Tooth Vaults, which themselves have barely ever seen play. There are better discard and gold engines in Lannister if you need them, and making a deck that relies on this interaction doesn’t sound tempting. The art is great and saves this from being 0.

JCWamma - 3 out of 5
The "cards at your command" effects synergise very nicely with this card for Lannister. Any Phase discard has a fair amount of utility in the current card pool, and being able to get gold before the marshalling phase is fantastic for cards like [GOT=TBoBB]Pyromancer's Apprentice[/GOT], and being able to conditionally add gold to your gold pool is great for Lannister's increasing Gecko theme - cards like [GOT=LotR]Tywin Lannister[/GOT] and [GOT=LotR]Ser Addam Marbrand[/GOT] will get a kick out of this (fittingly since Ashemark is the seat of House Marbrand). Additionally, with cards to discard like [GOT=ASitD]Greedy Councilor[/GOT] and [GOT=THoBaW]Dragonbone Dagger[/GOT] the cost might not mean much in the right deck. That said, these are perhaps some over-specific uses of a card that won't find its way into the majority of Lanni decks.

mnBroncos - 1 out of 5
Until there is a lot of powerful cards that matter with cards at command, I would almost never discard a card for one gold unless REALLY need to get out that one more character on the board.

OKTarg - 3 out of 5
This has some utility, but not in every deck (how often do we say that these days? Always?). Great in Shadow decks for Any Phase shadow triggers (how about Shadows with the upcoming Song of Fire!) and great for controlling cards at your command. It also works pretty well with the Dominance effects like Sitting the Iron Throne, Tywin, and Daven Lannister. I give it a 3 since you don’t normally want to trade a card for a gold, but I think any lower is to overlook some of the synergies with this card.

Rave - 4 out of 5
I feel like this one could be a sleeper. With this location, for 1 gold, you can dodge having the highest cards at your command, power shadows effects like the Pyromancer’s Apprentice pre-marshalling, win dominance, dodge or force Rule by Decree or Rally Cry, or really even just get that last gold you need to play something. In Lannister running Cache especially, 1 card for 1 gold is not necessarily a bad trade. It goes without saying that this is good for Clansman as well.

Reldan - 5 out of 5
This card seems so simple but can accomplish so much. It’s a better in every way [GOT=AKitN]Golden Tooth Vaults[/GOT], which is another card that has always been on the cusp of being played. The value of being able to easily obtain gold prior to Marshalling cannot be understated, greatly increasing the utility of cards like [GOT=TBoBB]Pyromancer's Apprentice[/GOT] and making [GOT=FtC]Jaqen H’ghar[/GOT] playable insofar as he’s quite a bit better when you can trigger him during Plot after a Valar. [GOT=ASitD]Greedy Councilor[/GOT], [GOT=THoBaW]Dragonbone Dagger[/GOT], and [GOT=Core]Pentoshi Guildmaster[/GOT] are all stellar targets to use and abuse this round after round. In addition, being able to fiddle with the “At Your Command” math as an Any Phase action that actually provides tangible benefit any time you use it is great. The greatest thing this card enables is Lanni to abuse the hell out of Supported by the Smith, which will allow them to run powerful out-of-house locations and have a reliable way to get them into the discard for recursion. Lanni already has the best cheap Holy characters in the game, and this just gave them what they needed to shine.

scantrell24 - 3 out of 5
Ashemark earns top marks for artwork, at least. Otherwise it’s a janky card that will certainly see play in combo/Shagga decks. Perhaps an Alliance with Martell to abuse Darkstar, and then you can double up on Bannermen (Edric and Damon)?

Staton - 3 out of 5
This card is pretty much a staple in a Clansman deck, and trash in almost any other Lanni build. However, I’m still giving this a 3 because it will be amazing in a Clansman deck. It lets you store your Clansmen in the discard pile, where you can get them with Crawn, and helps hit the less cards in hand threshold the Clansman like to have. I’d probably be putting 2 or maybe even 3 in every Clansman deck.

tomdidiot - 2 out of 5
This is kind of iffy. It has a similar (but significantly stronger) effect to [GOT=AKitN]Golden tooth vaults[/GOT],. You’ll probably never use it for the gold, except in clansmen decks, because clansmen curve badly (and because it buffs clansmen), or shadows decks, to bring something out of shadows pre-Marshalling. Most of the time, you’ll probably be discarding to manipulate the number of cards at your command.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_trebuchet-tbg.jpg'][b] Trebuchet 27 out of 55[/b]

clu - 1 out of 5
Pump is good because it acts like challenge control. And much like spice, he (sexist saying…) who (grammatically incorrect too) controls the challenge, controls the game. One shot pump that is being telegraphed is hardly worth taking up a slot in your deck. Lanni could use pump more than other decks though to power their win by 4 effects. However, if you are losing the game you probably can’t pump for enough to go over the top.

emptyrepublic - 3 out of 5
Timed correctly this could be truly devastating. It needs to be discarded though which is not so nice. It is a cheap effect though that can hugely swing the outcome of a challenge. Since it scales on cards in hand and participating characters a +6 STR bonus is easily doable with this. Since it’s also unlimited you could activate a second one to compound the effect.

Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5
Very flexible single-use “I win this challenge” location. As it can only be used once, your opponent will likely not want to use a card to get rid of it, but it is always there to make every choice of theirs a lot more difficult. It will certainly ruin some plays and might be reason alone to start looking at Support of the Smith in Lannister. As said before, challenge math against this will be nightmare. Especially if you’re also sporting some Manor’s or Toll Gates on the side...

JCWamma - 3 out of 5
In theory, this is a one-cost location that reads "discard from play to win the current challenge". That's a pretty damn good location. Problem is it's far from foolproof, requires a large hand and/or large number of characters in a challenge (the latter option often meaning you'd win anyway), and is cancellable. In aggro-PBtT style decks this will find a good home, and being a cheap non-unique set-uppable location is never bad. Otherwise it probably won't see much play.

mnBroncos - 2 out of 5
It is a good effect but I don’t like the cost of discard (but only real balance option) but when I make a Lannister deck the biggest problem to me usually is what locations to put in, they have so many good ones that control the game I don’t find many decks that can find room for basicly an event with this effect.

OKTarg - 4 out of 5
So apparently I like this better than everyone else. I think I am just tired of losing MIL and POW challenges by the boatload in Lannister, and this will let me pick one to not lose. It’s also great for the Win by 4 events, if you want to give those a run out.

Rave - 2 out of 5
It’s alright. Even 3-4 cards in hand is a pretty massive boost for this. Maybe more so for defense than offense. Lanni’s location base is so good that you’re going to have a hard time finding space for it though.

Reldan - 1 out of 5
Combat tricks that are public information are crappy combat tricks. They’re worse when they cost you gold and it’s entirely possible they can get destroyed before you even have the chance to use them. People don’t even play [GOT=Core]Insidious Ways[/GOT] and most of the time that would do what this does except as a surprise, for free, and nets you a card rather than costs you a card to play.

scantrell24 - 3 out of 5
I want to like Trebuchet. It just doesn’t benefit any particular decktype, your opponent will see it coming (maybe that’s ok?), and it’s a one-shot pump because it gets discarded and lasts for only a single challenge. I do love cheap locations for setup though.

Staton - 1 out of 5
Guaranteed that this card will see no play whatsoever. It’s complete overkill with no extra effect, and only lasts until the end of the challenge. It would’ve been much better to just kneel the thing to give one character the pump. Maybe if Lannister had some card that worked off of winning by X, but they don’t. This card would just be clogging up Lannister’s already tight location slots.

tomdidiot - 3 out of 5
This card says “You win a challenge”. It’s very similar to [GOT=HtS]Corrupt Contender[/GOT] in that respect, but it works off any challenge, is much cheaper, and significantly less cancellable (Only [GOT=ODG]Alannys Greyjoy[/GOT] and [GOT=KOTS]Seasick[/GOT] can cancel this). I actually kind of like it for that 1 challenge you MUST win to close off a game/to fight back
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_edric-dayne-tbg.jpg'] [b]Edric Dayne 32 out of 55[/b]

clu - 2 out of 5
He only gets out of the one basement because he can toss Darkstar into play. I understand the idea of Westeros Bleeds in the house that touts the most bannerman available. The scenario isn’t likely to come up. Besides, the other Edric is soooo much better, and he’s a searchable knight.

emptyrepublic - 3 out of 5
More House Dayne! Martell’s Bannerman offers interesting possibilities as well. First thought is on demand protection before you Bleed. Discarding cards isn’t as big of a deal for Martell as it is for others. PoS Darkstar is a clear contender for “these discard to activate an effect” cards. Problem remains that I don’t think he stands out enough either. A noble crest, or something else would have definitely made him more interesting. As it stands I think the original Edric is the better one still.

Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5
A decent unique character for Martell which can at times rival the old Edric. It is good to note that currently Martell has the biggest amount of Bannerman characters in the game so it is very likely that when you trigger him you will get the benefit on several characters you control. There are some obvious offensive uses with Westeros Bleeds, but it can also be in the deck to protect you from your opponent’s mass discards like Westeros Bleeds, the new GJ/Bara event or even Archmaester’s Wrath. Naturally, all of these uses will require you to have initiative... Another possibility is to use this for protecting a Combo-piece from aggressive removal.

JCWamma - 2 out of 5
Traditionally the two best icons (although with cards at command that might be becoming less true), solid 3/3/Bicon which is very much becoming Martell's specialty. House Dayne is always a welcome trait to see, and the effect is reasonable. Unless you know for a fact the opponent has a nasty event in hand though, you're only going to use that text offensively, i.e. before playing [GOT=Core]Westeros Bleeds[/GOT]. The type of deck that runs it will generally be reasonably character-lite, their character base being made up of disposable weenies and the already-immune Viper. As a result I don't think Edric will see as much play as he probably deserves, although I could quite easily be wrong with an immune House Dayne deck becoming a thing.

mnBroncos - 3 out of 5
I’d give this guy a four if he was a new unique but this will be a guy that conflicts with the noble version very often and I don’t know how many times people will pick this one. This is clearly best for a Bleeds deck is all I can really say about it, but that is a very nice thing. It just would have been nice if was different character.

OKTarg - 3 out of 5
A very visible positive usage, but I’m not sure that he outstrips the other Edric in most decks. Another cool option, and the House Dayne a welcome bonus.

Rave - 4 out of 5
This guy dodges Westeros Bleeds, and we’re talking Martell here. This is a great card for Martell heavy control. Martell also doesn’t lose much having to trigger it multiple times because of their discard recursion. Use him on some renown dudes, trigger bleeds, and next turn To the Spears. Go!

Reldan - 3 out of 5
His usage is pretty much limited to a Martell KotHH [GOT=Core]Westeros Bleeds[/GOT] deck, but in such a deck he’s a rockstar. Building up the count of playable House Dayne characters is always something I like to see. I’m actually a fan of using [GOT=APS]The Red Viper[/GOT] with House Dayne since if you rig things right he becomes a monster with [GOT=ASitD]Starfall[/GOT].

scantrell24 - 3 out 5
A keyword or a crest would make Edric top notch, but without them he’s just a niche card for Martell KotHH or whatever wants to run Bleeds.

Staton - 3 out of 5
I am really wishing these guys had crests, but still a pretty fantastic card. The Westeros Bleeds combo has already been mentioned, and that alone makes this guy worth the slot. Especially since Martell has no problem discarding cards. even if you only have out two bannerman, you can discard 2 cards and save almost all important characters. This guy will definitely see play in the right deck. It’s just a question of if that deck will actually be good.

tomdidiot - 3 out of 5
He doesn’t really do much, apart from being a good 3 STR Mil/Int body. Immunity to Events can be useful, especially in conjunction with a bleeds, and it could prevent an irritating [GOT=LoW]Die by the Sword[/GOT] from ruining your To the Spears turn. He has slightly more utility than other Bannermen, though, as Martell actually have a Bannerman that is already run by many decks in [GOT=TbC]Dagos Manwoody[/GOT], so you can protect 2 characters with 1 discard. That House Dayne trait is also nothing to sneeze at, though I think I’d prefer the toher Edric because he has a more useful icon spread for Dayne.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_southron-stronghold-tbg.jpg'] [b]Southron Stronghold 53 out of 55[/b]

clu - 5 out of 5
Stop it. I have been ranting about how much better Martel’s resources are compared to every other house you just had to give them another one?! I don’t even want to talk about the other text on the card it just makes me too angry. On the plus side it’s not a Targ only card.

emptyrepublic - 5 out of 5
It’s a second Doran’s Chambers, pure and simple. It has the added benefit of being reusable in the same round. Some of you are probably thinking it now, so keep in mind that when you pay influence costs you need to pay it all at once. You can’t kneel this and then trigger it and kneel it again to pay for the same effect. It’s phenomenal if you want to chain play several single influence cost effects though.

Ire & WWDrakey - 5 out of 5
Chambers are always good. Chambers that can stand are even better. Funnily enough this card is an influence card that doesn’t fit well for KotHH as they cannot utilize the income bonus from it. Now, it pushes Martell players into running more of the 1 influence cost events than the heavier ones. By itself, this location might have some fun possibilities for being a mini KotHH ‘lite’ with the use of HoD. One thing however seems to be certain. Whatever your Agenda, FFG wants Martell to be influential.

JCWamma - 5 out of 5
It's kind of a trite thought, but cards like the Seas are easy 5 out of 5 cards, with the appropriate Sea often being 3x in a deck. The Chambers cards are less on the auto-include level, but still very, very close. In Martell, a house with a lot of great influence effects, it's definitely a 5 out of 5. This offers a tremendous amount of redundancy, simply by effectively letting you have a second chambers out. The text is slightly different, and honestly I think in most cases that won't matter, but for what it's worth I think this is slightly better than Doran's Chambers, because short of mass-location hate ([GOT=Core]Fleeing to the Wall[/GOT], [GOT=QoD]Favorable Ground[/GOT], etc.) the attachment form isn’t better than being a location, and being able to discard to stand is an ability that will see a fair amount of play. There are the obvious combos with the likes of [GOT=PotS]Darkstar[/GOT], but beyond that the average Martell deck will often have cards it doesn't mind chucking for extra influence. This card suddenly makes a lot of previously-safe situations for the opposing player dangerous - they only have 1 influence standing, but they can stand a second, so maybe there's still a [GOT=PotS]Red Vengeance[/GOT] coming? Look for this to go in most non-KotHH Martell decks.

mnBroncos - 3 out of 5
I am not sure why I am rating this much lower than everyone else but I will just give my thought process. Decks that use the most influence out of Martell are usually KotHH. I can see myself running this in KotHH but with the gold being turned off it is a lot less appealing. So the great thing is with this card Quentyn or Summer or whatever else people use for their agenda can now use influence effects, but like emptyrepublic has already stated you have to pay all influence costs at once so those other decks still can’t reliably trigger Red Vengeance or whatever else they wanna use their influence for. Plus it is unique I don't think you’d wanna run 3 copies or maybe even 2 in your deck and if you're building a deck around relying on always having an influence you can retrigger if you don’t get this out early your deck will probably suffer. And lastly discarding a card is a very high cost for anything and if you're using the influence to play another card your down yet another card If you use this location even couple times you will see your hand disappear fast. I could be totally wrong after playing with it but my first reaction is it is solid card that will always throw one in of every non-kothh deck just for the extra chambers but i don’t see using its stand effect often. I'd give it a four just because is an auto-include but don’t think the effect will be used as much as bara’s brightwater keep.

OKTarg - 5 out of 5
Not much to add that the others haven’t said, but a reliable influence on setup is great and this helps with that. It also helps with one of my favorite tricks, Dry Season.

Rave - 5 out of 5
Sweet Jesus. Any non-KOHH Martell deck that runs influence until the end of time will run this.

Reldan - 5 out of 5
Do you run [GOT=PotS]Lord Doran’s Chambers[/GOT]? Of course you do. Now you’ve got two of them.

scantrell24 - 5 out of 5
It feels weird giving a resource location a 5, but this will see a lot of play in Martell non-KotHH that still want to use influence events. Red Vengeance is about to become much more prevalent.

Staton - 6 out of 5
Because Martell has tons of resource problems, they get a second chambers. /sarcasm

tomdidiot - 5 out of 5
It’s a better Chambers for non KotHH builds. The ability to use the influence several times a turn is really useful, and having another 1 cost gold producing location helps setup.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_poisoned-well-tbg.jpg'] [b]Poisoned Well 21 out of 55[/b]

clu - ? out of 5
I need a ruling on this card. Will this put a card who’s costs includes self discard? If so, I give this a 4 out of 5. Greyjoy could make a living off this thing, what’s better than one save? Two saves! If not, I’ll go with a 2. Martel is getting some serious location control, something they haven’t had for a long time. Now, it’s getting scary.

emptyrepublic - 2 out of 5
This is a card that is perfectly annoying under a specific set of circumstances. I can’t think of many though and aside from just forcing someone to replay a location next turn it’s not clear what real damage you could do with this card. Feels like a card that needs something else in order to make it interesting.

Ire & WWDrakey - 2 out of 5
With the restriction on Negotiations at the Great Sept this card loses some of the value it might have had. Still, the “bounce and discard” tactic is valid, but it lets your opponent trigger the problematic location and would need some very specific timing. This might see play in Martell choke or some location combo decks, but usually there will not be room for this. Bonus points for running OOH with Oakenshield Port (or running Oakenshield Port OOH with this as support).

JCWamma - 2 out of 5
If I had to describe this card in one word it would be "pesky". It's a minor annoyance, and will very rarely be better (or worse) than that. The only time it will mean more is when a location has an attachment on it, be it positive (an [GOT=LotR]Increased Levy[/GOT] for instance) or negative (the Scaling Ladder earlier in this pack). Otherwise you're paying a gold (and, more importantly, a card) to have an opponent replay a location. Okay, I guess?

mnBroncos - 2 out of 5
I want to like this card and I was pretty close to giving it a one, I just don't see ever playing this card competitively. For casual play it might be useful when facing that one deck that is using Highgarden or Bear Island. Making them repay 3 gold would be nice but besides that ah not great. Maybe a weird Martell winter deck will be competieve with hellholt docks and this card, hmm now that I think of it I will stick with the 2 rating because maybe that deck will be a thing.

OKTarg - 2 out of 5
At first when I saw it I thought it was GREAT. But then I realized that you won’t want to use your deckspace on soft location control. Still, it’s more options than Martell had even if I much prefer Hellholt Docks.

There is a decktype running around out there: Treaty with Greyjoy Choke. This might make the cut in that build.

Rave - 2 out of 5
Eh… Decks that can run Favorable Ground will run it instead. It’s alright, but I don’t think there’s room with all the good Martell events out there.

Reldan - 2 out of 5
The only use I can think of for this would be in some combo deck where you used it to return your own locations to hand during Marshalling so you could play and use them multiple times. An actual combo where this would be worth setting up is escaping me though. I’m giving this a 2 instead of a 1 because it at least is making me try to think of some way to abuse it.

scantrell24 - 1 out of 5
This will surely win the cycle’s award for being “cute” without doing anything effective. Unless Martell choke is about to become a thing?

Staton - 1 out of 5
This card would be a 4 if it only returned itself to your hand, along with the location. As is though, its one of those annoying cards that doesn’t really do anything. It won’t see play except in new players’ decks.

tomdidiot - 2 out of 5
This card can be funny on a incredibly expensive location controlled by an opponent (e.g [GOT=LoW]Winterfell[/GOT]), or to get rid of an obnoxious attachment like [GOT=FtC]Burned and Pillaged[/GOT]. Otherwise, you’re throwing away a card to bounce a location. It can work with locations that have limited uses, like [GOT=TPoL]Oakenshield Port[/GOT], bt otherwise is too conditional.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_mors-umber-tbg.jpg'] [b]Mors Umber 29 out of 55[/b]

clu - 4 out of 5
Fact: Stark have more tutor effects than any other house. Fact: Stark can search their discard pile with Glover or Kindly Man. Fact: Direwolves are best wolves. er…The across the board pump makes this the most versatile Bannerman. Granted it will probably only be for +1 but that should be enough for him to prove his worth.

emptyrepublic - 2 out of 5
Stark is rich with characters in this cost range with the same icons and strength. At least Baratheon and Lannister got +3 for a specific challenge to boost them to the 4 STR threshold to activate effects. +1 STR feels weak when you have Robb Stark, Endless Endurance and other boosting effects that don’t require a card to be discarded; which probably hurts Stark the most of all the houses.

Ire & WWDrakey - 2 out of 5
Has some combo use with the new event and the new keep, but how often do you want to go 1-for-2 to deal with something? The value will go higher as we get more Cards at Your Command cards, but so will every other bannerman as well. This will definitely be annoying to face as every card in hand can be a str boost, but that’s about it. Now Stark does have a lot (and we mean a lot) competition in its character base for 3 cost.

JCWamma - 2 out of 5
Stark struggles to pay discard effects generally, unless it's got something like Endless Endurance (in which case why not play that instead of discarding it for this?). This working for any challenge obviously pushes this card more towards defensive decks, where for any challenge you can boost by the amount you need. But to get a real benefit from this card you need multiple Bannerman characters out, and right now the only in-house Bannerman Stark has is [GOT=CtB]Banner for the North[/GOT]. There is, however, utility to be found in this card - namely, the following two cards in this pack.

mnBroncos - 2 out of 5
I don’t know how many Stark decks will run this guy Like Greyjoy Bannerman card discarding a card for just this effect isn't great at all. It also seems like Stark can just get so many characters out what is that one little strength going to do for you? Most times that the card you discarded would have had a bigger impact.

OKTarg - 2 out of 5
Probably his best use is in decks that want to take advantage of Cards at Command and use Mors to keep under your opponent. The small buff won’t be enough in most instances.

You *might* want to use it to buff an opponents’ character and kill them with the new event in this pack, but I doubt that would be good. You also might want to use it in Kindly Man decks. But, you might not.

Rave - 3 out of 5
He’s alright, for the same reasons as the others. The synergy with the new cards is neat, but I don’t think it’s enough to shift my rating.

Reldan - 4 out of 5
The problem with this guy is that when you’re looking through the pack he shows up before you see Northland Keep and Breaching the Wall. To anyone who is rating this guy low, please make a note that this guy can pump the STR of any character, controlled by any player, participating or not. Now go read Northland Keep and Breaching the Wall, the next two cards down from here. Don’t worry, I’ll wait. Back? Excellent. Glad we settled that.

scantrell24 - 3 out of 5
Yet another niche card that won’t see play unless you’re building around him.

Staton - 3 out of 5
I’m giving this guy a 3, only because he combos so well with the next two cards. Thanks for the heads up, Reldan. heh. Still, you’re dedicating a lot of deck space to the combo. I’m not sure it will actually pay off. Although, this will fit in perfectly to those Kindly Man decks.

tomdidiot - 2 out of 5
This has the smallest “pump” of the three strength pump bannermen in the pack. Yes, he combos well with the next 2 cards, and can be useful in general, but 1 STR is generally not worth chucking a card for - and if you think it IS worth chucking a card for, you’re probably better off running [GOT=LoW]Endless Endurance[/GOT]
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_northland-keep-tbg.jpg'] [b]Northland Keep 41 out of 55[/b]

clu - 1 out of 5
I still stand by Frozen Moat as the most undervalued location at this cost. I’m not saying this will be completely useless. I can think of a handful of times where this thing comes in handy. Unfortunately, I can think of too many times you’ll just get stealthed. I hear Martel has a lot of that now.

emptyrepublic - 4 out of 5
This is phenomenal challenge control right here simply because it’s cheap and non unique. Given the load of effects that boost character strength already (before we even consider the Bannerman ones included in this chapter pack) as well as the number of characters that “naturally” have more STR than cost there will be plenty of targets for this location. I think most Stark decks would do well to sneak in a copy or two of this card. Loses a point only because STR has to be higher than cost.

Ire & WWDrakey - 5 out of 5
Amazing challenge control location. Very flexible in its uses and will stop most of the armies and cheap annoying weenies. It will definitely see its share of play and even has the potential to be played OOH, it is that good. It may have room in a Lannister character-lite build that is running this, Toll Gate and Manors, talk about repeatable challenge control. Extra fun with Winter Cache.

JCWamma - 4 out of 5
Removing characters from challenges is a very powerful effect, and one Stark isn't used to. Yes, this is for specific characters, but it's not that hard to find good targets - aside from the obvious ones such as [GOT=SA]Northern Cavalry Flank[/GOT] the recent armies each house got and all decks that use [GOT=CoS]Tunnels of the Red Keep[/GOT], there's also the ability to force opponents into removing characters through the likes of Mors Umber, or even [GOT=LoW]Frozen Outpost[/GOT]. Repeatable challenge control is a very powerful tool - see [GOT=AHM]Pentoshi Manor[/GOT]'s restriction if you don't believe me - and for a cheap non-unique this will serve Stark VERY well.

mnBroncos - 4 out of 5
This is great card. Gentle Prison is a card I love and that costs 2 influence, sure this is more conditional but repeatable and if you have a target one turn, odds are good that target will be there again next turn.

OKTarg - 4 out of 5
Great on setup, great that it is repeatable, but the condition holds it back from a 5 star card. I’ll try it out in a KM deck with Mors Umber and see how it goes.

Rave - 4 out of 5
Wow. Very good card. As many have mentioned, similar to Pentoshi Manor. My only gripe is that I don’t think the common Stark deck gets as much out of a reactive type playstyle as Lanni did when Pentoshi Manor came out.

Reldan - 5 out of 5
This is the best card of the set. I think it’s going to go the way of [GOT=AHM]Pentoshi Manor[/GOT] and get restricted. It pretty well shuts down most armies on both attack and defense plain and simple. I actually think this is better than [GOT=AHM]Pentoshi Manor[/GOT], especially if you run some cards that let you manipulate STR during challenges. This should have been Unique.

scantrell24 - 3 out of 5
Bah, another anti-Tunnels card. Lanni just can’t catch a break. I think Northland Keep is getting a lot of high ratings for being cheap and repeatable, but sometimes you simply won’t have any targets -- at least not without putting in some work to bump the strength of opposing characters, and then you run the risk of this getting canceled.

Staton - 4 out of 5
This probably should have been unique, but still, not broken. You have to run str pumps to really get any effect out of this card, and combo decks still aren’t all that great, imo. It’ll probably get changed to say “printed str is higher than printed cost”, but until then have fun with this!

tomdidiot - 3 out of 5
I don’t actually like it. It isn’t common to see characters with higher strength than their cost (except out of Greyjoy or Wildlings), so it’s very difficult to use. I get how strength pumps can be used to make this target more characters, but strength pumps are something that you don’t want to be using on your opponent’s characters just to remove them from a challenge - it’s better to use them on your own so you can win. I’m not saying this is awful, not by any means, but I don’t think it’s as mind-blowing as others seem to think it is.. With Mors Umber, though, htis card bcomes “discard a card to remove a character form a challenge”, which I suppose can be quite a fun combo.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_breaching-the-wall-tbg.jpg'] [b]Breaching the Wall 38 out of 55[/b]

clu - 3 out of 5
This is way cool. I love this card. Put one into a deck where you are also running some sort of neutral pump card. It’s not reliable enough mark higher.

emptyrepublic - 3 out of 5
Limited Response isn’t so nice, but if you can time this just right you’ll devastate your opponent. It loses points because it’s situationally dependant and the impact is highly variable so you either have to time it when your opponent is burning a lot of boosts or is running a plot like Tourney for the Hand. Personally I think the classic Stark kill events are still better for deck space, but maybe one copy of this on hand might just be all you need.

Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5
Great effect with a great limit. Like the keep this will wipe most of the armies of the table from your opponents side as well as anything boosted. It will be a card that especially GJ and Stark players will have to watch as they are most likely running characters that can be hit by this. This is the second Limited Response that Stark has, the other one is Icy Catapult, so there is not much worries on having too many of them.

JCWamma - 3 out of 5
See the last card for the usage. Being a one-shot effect, and using up the Limited Response (which admittedly Stark has little competition for), makes me rate this lower than Northland Keep. Potential Mass Kill is an amazing effect though, and in the right hands this is a fantastic card.
One point that I think deserves a separate paragraph - somebody NEEDS to create a deck (Melee or Joust, I think Joust would be funnier though) that combos this card and [GOT=TGM]In the Name of the King[/GOT]. Get on it, people.

mnBroncos - 3 out of 5
This can be devastating and really hurts all those Tunnels players. To me the funnest thing about the card is that off the top of my head seems like another Stark deck would have the most trouble with this effect. It is a good card and an all out murder deck will run it but isn't as crazy as I thought it’d be when 2C1C spoiled it.

OKTarg - 3 out of 5
Honestly, I think the anti-synergy with Icy Catapult is worse than the others do, apparently. It also is a bit conditional so you can’t be relying on this like you used to be able to with No Quarter. Still, it’s VERY strong and I’d love to see it in melee which is a format with more UberCharacters.

Rave - 3 out of 5
It’s good for sure, if not a bit situational. But Stark has way too many great options for events/attachments. The Shagga potential though, oh man...

Reldan - 5 out of 5
Stark has pretty much no other Limited Responses that would compete with this, so I don’t even see that as much of a drawback. It absolutely blows my mind they made this work on both attack and defense and made it key off of STR rather than printed STR. Mors Umber makes this card go from good to great. JCWamma, I’m already on building an [GOT=TGM]In the Name of the King[/GOT] Joust deck around this card. I’m almost tempted to do deckbuilding article using this as the subject. The 3 Stark cards this pack have so much synergy it blows my mind.

scantrell24 - 4 out of 5
All you have to do is win a military challenge. That’s it. And you’re Stark, so you’re going to win a military challenge. Then you get to kill stuff. How much stuff? That answer is going to vary, and without some shenanigans, the answer will probably be zero more often than “not zero”. I suppose you can always pick off Lost Spearmen and Distinguished Boatswains at least.

Staton 3 out of 5
Its a pretty good card in the aforementioned combo deck, but nigh on useless in any other deck. It all depends on how good that deck is going to be. I think it will be solid, but very inconsistent. Hopefully someone will prove me wrong, because I think it’ll be a fun deck to run.

tomdidiot 4 out of 5
This can be pretty bonkers. The important thing is to look at this card as a half-hearted one side board wipe effect, rather than as a targeted kill effect. While using a strength pump to remove a character fomr a challenge can be meh, using a strength pump to remove characters permanently can be excellent. This works particularly well against defending characters with melee, Maesters, efficient characters, Targ with Dany out, Song of Summer, Power of Arms. Looking forward to using it!
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_ser-raymun-darry-tbg.jpg'] [b]Ser Raymun Darry 28 out of 55[/b]

clu - 2 out of 5
He stays out of the basement because he’s a knight. I can’t think of too many one cost attachments I want to wing into play for the cost of one other card. Nope, doesn’t seem good.

emptyrepublic - 3 out of 5
Probably need more Bannerman to make this really interesting but it is an alternate Ambush mechanic for attachments. Maybe use it for Dragonbone Bow for a very surprising Deadly in the middle of a challenge. Perhaps drop in a Sunstroke pre-Valar or right before you lose a challenge to get in a revenge kill. There is potential here but like the other Bannerman; we need more Bannerman to make things really interesting.

Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5
Alone as a Bannerman this can make some neat tricks, most obvious being getting some free Pyromancer’s Caches and draw to Targ. The more Targ gets cards like this, the easier it is to get some OOH attachments going and doing their dirty work. If Targ gets some more Bannerman characters then it gets into the sweet spot of cost 2 at which point you can drop such nice things as a free Flame-Kissed. He can also be coupled with Maesters so that you can more easily drop your important Chains back to your Maesters after you have gotten them back from discard pile. The Knight trait is nothing to laugh at since Targ knights was already piloted by a certain someone (*Cough*) to a Melee second place at Stahleck last year...

JCWamma - 2 out of 5
Targaryen needs more Bannerman characters to make real use of this. The attachments for which this effect will see real use are generally in the two or three cost range, and just Raymun won't be enough. There are a few attachments that would be nice to jump in unexpectedly by discarding a card, but for the most part this card is "discard a card from hand to circumvent the cost of playing an attachment", which isn't that great even without the Bannerman condition. That said I think Targaryen players will be happy to see their house get another Knight. Right now though that's the best thing about him.

mnBroncos - 2 out of 5
It isn't bad but lot of the good attachments already have ambush, and if only putting in one cost attachments options are pretty limited.

OKTarg - 4 out of 5
Now I know that I always overrate the Targ cards, so bear with me. The others are seeing its limits, which is fair, but I see its potential. With the new Attachment reducer from last cycle, this guy acts like another Pale Steel Link. Pyromancer’s Cache, Sun Stroke, Milk of the Poppy, Enslaved, Fishing Net--the list goes on. And what house recurs from discard better than Targ? Yep, nobody.

Sure, we need more Bannermen, but that’s why God gave us the Copper Link and Rhaegar’s Harp.

Niche? Yeah. Janky? Yeah, probably. Fun? You bet.

Rave - 2 out of 5
Man, that is one situational ability. Even with 2 Bannerman, you won’t get to use it often. Well.. it’s kind of a cool choice for Maester decks!

Reldan- 4 out of 5
I could see this being a powerhouse in a trait-manipulation deck. For one thing, getting extra Bannerman characters is made easier if you simply make your guys a Bannerman temporarily. The other primary benefit I see is that the ability gets around out-of-house gold penalties, say on something like [GOT=ASoSilence]Horn of Dragons[/GOT] or [GOT=TWot5K]Pyromancer’s Cache[/GOT]. [GOT=THoBaW]Dragonbone Dagger[/GOT] to me is an obvious combo with Ser Raymun, as it can easily be used and reused to pay for the effect, and also is the perfect thing to drop in the middle of a challenge.

scantrell24 - 3 out of 5
Sun Stroke, Dragon Fear, Dragon Bite. There is definitely fun to be had giving attachments “ambush”. The cost is steep, as with all of the Bannermen, but Targ minds less than other Houses.

Staton - 2 out of 5
This guy’s pretty blah honestly. If he had a war crest, he’d at least be interesting to look at for a Knights deck. As is, he gives you the opportunity to ambush in some attachments that are awful. Almost all the useful Targ attachments already have ambush. I doubt this guy will see any play at all except in some weird combo deck.

tomdidiot - 3 out of 5
You’re basically discarding a card to ambush in a card of equal or less cost. Which could prove to be useful, but the only ones that I think are remotely playable with this ability will be 1 cost attachments - so a possible 1x in dragons as a surprise kill event with [GOT=QoD]Dragon Fear[/GOT]/[GOT=AE]Dragon Bite[/GOT]
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_castle-darry-tbg.jpg'] [b]Castle Darry 25 out of 55[/b]

clu - 1 out of 5
This isn’t unplayable. How many games have you lost by one power? This thing is your answer. I generally ignore power grabbing (is it grabbing at one a turn?) but I like how easy this is to trigger. I’ll try it a couple times and then probably shelve it forever. Is it House of Dreams worthy? We’ll find out. However, this is an auto-include for good ole King Vis. Man, how good is that deck right now?!!!

emptyrepublic - 2 out of 5
Being immune only to plot card effects is a bit odd. I suppose it makes this an ideal HoD location, but I think that would be silly as you’d be basically sacrificing 2 gold on setup. Free power sounds like a great thing but it depends on you maintaining attachment dominance which isn’t too hard for Targ in Joust but is a bad deal in Melee. If you are going attachment heavy to begin with a single copy might be okay, but even then I’m not sure if I’d take it.

Ire & WWDrakey - 4 out of 5
This gives some Targaryen builds just what they needed - speed. With some of the more powerful and also slower Targ decks this gives a great helping hand with a steady supply of power. It also costs nothing, so it is easy to slot 1 of in a deck to help setups. Since this is the first ever card that is immune to plot effects, it could possibly be part of a larger puzzle created by the designers - maybe even HoD worthy, going all-in on pure character removal and just frustrating your opponent with your guaranteed power? The most likely home for this would currently be to give some more speed to those military-heavy Dothraki Aggro-decks.

JCWamma - 2 out of 5
"Immune to plot card effects" is just begging for this card to become a House of Dreams location. That said I don't anticipate it happening, because slow power grab is hardly what an attachment-heavy Targaryen deck needs. I could see it going in as a single in a [GOT=CD]Griff[/GOT] deck, perhaps. The timing of this card is interesting - at the end of the standing phase. Other than making it so you have an advantage in battles against Stark decks running [GOT=THoBaW]Poisoned Coin[/GOT], what makes that the sensible place to put the power grab? Oh well, hardly matters.

mnBroncos - 2 out of 5
I don’t get why you would play this? It just is too slow to be worth a spot in your deck. Its like winning dominance every turn which is nice but this doesn't prevent your opponent from winning that power. I just don’t see ever running this unless playing a fun deck based around Viserys Targaryen getting loaded with attachments, and it is nice for setup at least which is why will give it a very low 2.

OKTarg - 2 out of 5
Eh. This is OK, and I think will give some speed to some decks, but the decks that it will speed up won’t care about speed.

Could be good in some off-the-wall melee builds.

Rave - 3 out of 5
I would probably only run it in really heavy control, where that boost of 1 power can really mean a lot. You lose nothing except the slot by playing this. But yeah, it’s a bit slow.

Reldan - 2 out of 5
Very slow, although I don’t think it’d be hard to meet the criteria to earn the power from this in any deck that would use it. Perhaps this would fit into some sort of King Viserys deck?

scantrell24 - 3 out of 5
Zero-cost locations are inherently awesome already, so any small advantage they can give is just gravy. A deck designed around attachments should trigger Castle Darry 90% of the time, but the key is to get started early. After turn 3, Castle Darry is not a card that you want to draw.

Staton - 2 out of 5
This card is alright. If you are running a ton of attachments I guess you could put in one. You could also probably make some hilarious 30 attachment deck that tries to just burn down every single character the opponent ever lays out and just stalls for 15 turns.

tomdidiot - 2 out of 5
It’s the perfect [GOT=ARotD]House of Dreams[/GOT] Location! Shame it doesn’t do very much. The power gain is nice, but it’s very conditional, very slow and you really have to build your deck around it. And seriously, there are better ways of gaining power quickly. Renown characters, I hear, are good.
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_rain-of-fire-tbg.jpg'] [b]Rain of Fire 24 out of 55[/b]

clu - 2 out of 5
Oh my gerd!!!! This thing is so studly. This is what we need to see more of, ultra-powerful effects triggered on a small subset of traited cards. Like challenge control with Bannerman! Oh, wait. Not every Targ deck is going to play dragons or run enough of them to warrant a slot for this card AND Dragon Thief. If you could run dragons easily out-of-house this cardboard would rocket in my estimation. It’s that good.

emptyrepublic - 2 out of 5
So, mass attachment discard for Dragon decks. Dragon decks don’t seem to be in at the moment and I doubt this card will help that. On top of that the self milling is a rough cost if there turns out to be a lot of attachments in play. If the effect targeted “any number” then it might be more ideal as you probably don’t want to get rid of any attachments you might be running yourself.

Ire & WWDrakey - 3 out of 5
This is purely a meta card. It is probably the best anti-maester silver bullet there is, but against most decks you will rarely see more than 1-2 attachment on the table in which case your usual tools are just more flexible.

JCWamma - 3 out of 5
Mass attachment discard is rare, so it has that going for it. In the current meta though, attachments aren't really prevalent enough for that to matter. The subsequent mill effect is weird - is that good or bad? Having to have a character with the printed Dragon trait limits the uses of this card somewhat, too. It ultimately feels very janky to me, but for a powerful effect such as this I'm reluctant to go below 3.

mnBroncos - 4 out of 5
I’m probably rating this too high but I HATE maester decks. I refuse to play maesters and only build maester decks to test against them. I would love to run at least one copy of this in any Targ deck with any dragon in it, and many seem to have at least few dragons and could help a lot against that maester deck that you will go up against.

OKTarg - 1 out of 5
In a Dragon deck, I’d rather just kill the character with the attachment than mass discard it.

That said, in melee this will rule since Dragons are actually good there and I hate those souped-up Martell builds with 58 Tastes for Blood or Maester builds with chained up guys or even Banner Bearers running around. So maybe it’s better than I thought but still, Targ has better tools for most instances.

I see the mill actually as a bonus since Targ has such good discard recursion and MILL STATISTICALLY DOESN’T MATTER AT ALL.

Rave - 1 out of 5
Extremely limited in it’s use. Probably only worth 1 copy if at all. The discard is negligible, but besides the rare location attachment like the Cache, why would you care? Incinerate or Threat from the North already do a good job at taking care of anything related to characters ever. Besides, Dragon Thief already does a good enough job at dealing with the rare problem attachment.

Reldan - 3 out of 5
It’s protection against a hypothetical future where attachment-oriented decks take over. In such a future this becomes a 5 out of 5. In the present world this is somewhere between a 1 and a 2. It’s never bad to have a potent tool in the toolbox though, even if it’s a tool that doesn’t currently fit anything.

scantrell24 - 2 out of 5
It’s a bold effect, but more of a Melee card. Targ already has Dragon Thief and Meereneese Brothel that do the same job just fine without taking up a valuable event slot. Lanni and Martell actually run a few attachments now, and Stark has Frozen Solid, but there’s at least a 50% chance that it will sit in your hand.

Staton - 1 out of 5
This card is worthless. Hey you know how you can already discard attachments? Well how about this! Now you can discard all two or three of the attachments on the field, and mill yourself at the same time! Targ doesn’t really need attachment control, especially attachment control that hits their attachments also, and then punishes them for it. Cool artwork though!

tomdidiot- 2 out of 5
This card is hilarious. Burn all the attachments! It’s also awkward, because it gets rid of all attachments - including yours, and negative attachments played by an opponent. It is a maester hate card, but it’ll be a dead draw against anyone else. Might be useful in a melee dragons deck (which wouldn’t care about attachments)
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[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_storm-the-gate-tbg.jpg'] [b]Storm the Gate 41 out of 55[/b]

clu - 2 out of 5
Well of course *I’m* going to play it; but that doesn’t mean everyone should. Hilarious when paired with Valar Dohaeris. I’m a fan of any card that can two-for-one your opponent. I think the cost of the card is incredibly balanced. Bara can take advantage of it with their standing and non-discarding effects and Greyjoy can try and save through it. But, the goal of the game is to just have superior characters in play already, so, you probably need that influence or gold to focus on just winning the game.

emptyrepublic - 3 out of 5
Seems like this might really wreck a lot of decks but I don’t think so. It’s 1 influence cost short of Westeros Bleeds which is unconditional discard. Strikes me that this is an event you need to be ready for should your opponent decide to sit on their hands for a turn and leave everything standing. In limited cases this can be a big deal but personally I can’t imagine that many people will run it mainly because it’s an expensive effect that requires some relatively precise timing.

Ire & WWDrakey - 5 out of 5
This card single handedly makes it more possible to create character-lite (or characterless if you are as brave as clu was) decks for both GJ and Baratheon and actually make them competitively viable. Most likely this will see more play in Baratheon than GJ thanks to their easier access to influence and influence effects, but there is definitely some unused tricks that GJ can utilize with this. Now as we mention with other cards, this one gets even better the more you have players and now you should fear for your life if GJ or Baratheon go for the influence title in Melee.

JCWamma - 4 out of 5
This is a really strange card. Baratheon has the vigilant connection, but otherwise what does the effect have to do with Greyjoy or Baratheon? Bara and GJ decks generally don't run influence, and generally don't have a gold surplus left over. Despite that, this is a card you simply have to take note of. This is potentially a one-sided Westeros Bleeds in decktypes not known for mass-resets and doesn't even necessarily need influence to work. That is a powerful, powerful effect and only the sheer awkwardness for those two houses in getting the effect to work is stopping me from rating it 5.

mnBroncos - 3 out of 5
This is a 2 in Greyjoy right now I feel but a 4 in Bara so gave it a 3. With standing effects in Baratheon its easier for them to get away with this event, and currently Baratheon has a number of good effects that can recover cards from the discard pile. The real problem is the cost of gold or influence two things both houses usually are short on, but maybe with more effects like this they will build decks for influence effects.

OKTarg - 4 out of 5
One-sided resets are awesome. One-sided resets that are hard to trigger are a bit less so, but there’s a fun deck hiding in here, I just know it. This will be one of those cards that messes with the psychology of your opponents as well. That said, I agree with James in that the awkwardness of the trigger holds this back at first blush.

Rave - 4 out of 5
Wow. Cool card. Requires building around, but might actually be worth it. Others have mentioned Valar Dohaeris, and Bara running that, 3x this, and 3x Black Cells sounds like a fun backbone for a deck. It’s pretty much a slap in the face not giving this to Lanni though. Friggen jerks.

Reldan - 4 out of 5
I’m rating this highly simply because the effect is so powerful. This would be hilarious alongside [GOT=TWH]Valar Dohaeris[/GOT], especially if you had some way to kneel your own guys in between playing the event and the end of Dom. Between “cannot be discarded” and Vigilant characters I could see Baratheon pulling this one off. This is a bit funkier for Greyjoy as they are not a house that typically would have 3 influence or gold to spare.

scantrell24 - 4 out of 5
Beautiful card.Bara KotHH is still one or two pieces away but they’re getting close.

Staton - 4 out of 5
I’m going with Reldan with this one. I’m really liking all the discard stuff going around for Baratheon. They’ll absolutely love this card, especially when comboed with Valar Dohaeris. I think it’d be fun to switch into this with one of the Vale locations that lets you switch plots. Plus, Baratheon has a decent amount of influence to pay for it as well.

Tomdidiot - 4 out of 5
This is abusable on so many different levels. The problem is that this is out of two houses that don’t traditionally use influence (as mentioend by James et. al.). This can easily be a one-sided bleeds, though if timed properly. Looks very good for melee, though, where the hand of the king can give you the influence you need to drop this on an unsuspecting opponent.
[/CRB]

[CRB='forums/uploads/got/med_rally-cry-tbg.jpg'] [b]Rally Cry 47 out of 55[/b]

clu - 1 out of 5
You should be planning on winning the game not planning for a turn three discard that is savable against. More cards at your command means you have more options. This is a really cool effect but I can’t wrap my head around it as of yet.

emptyrepublic - 5 out of 5
Buy turn 3 this plot will be able to knock out a lot of stuff on the board. Cards at command will be very predictable to calculate so timing this should be easy. In Melee this will be even more bonkers; at the start of turn 2 locations/characters of at least cost 4 are vulnerable. Three gold and a single claim are fine. 0 initative is no big deal since you will be potentially wrecking someone with this.

Ire & WWDrakey - 5 out of 5
A plot that will be an answer to everything you could ever want to wipe from the table, as long as you don’t need to get rid of it in the first round. This couples well with some plot cycling shenanigans. It will be nice to see how much Cards at Your Command effects we will get. With the current amount this card is easy to slot into a deck, but if there comes a time when people are going more heavily for those effects then slotting this in will be a much harder choice.

JCWamma - 5 out of 5
Fantastic plot, simply fantastic plot. If you're behind then you force the opponent to drop their most valuable card (potentially their House of Dreams location); if you're ahead, you lose whatever you don't need. The numbers are just right for this kind of effect, it will be a card you can strongly consider in just about any deck without being a stupid auto-include.

mnBroncos - 3 out of 5
I got to be honest I don’t know what to rate this card and I can be completely wrong, but since everyone else pointed out the good things I will point out the bad. First thing is it is wasted the first few rounds, turn 3 (when most likely using this) is actually pretty late to use a plot if is a big target your trying to use this on and only one card swing, and control deck opponents command). I do see this plot as a 4 in KotHH decks though because most likely can trigger it more often, and a 4 in melee since it is usable on turn 2. I can see many melee tables where everyone plays this turn 2 lots of things get discarded from the person that made a strong first turn. Second, its discard and can be saved. So if you're planning on getting rid of a big unique character it can just be replayed or even saved if duped. And the stats, 3/0/1 isn’t great either by any means. Most importantly to me is I feel this will make you play negatively, there will be times that you will want to play this plot so what you do is play less cards so that you have less in command, so then you intentionally set yourself behind just to play a plot that hits 1 card.

OKTarg - 5 out of 5
Point, click, problem over. Since this measures both player’s used plot piles, this can hit a nasty location on turn 2 (Lost Oasis, Lannisport Brothel, Longship Iron Victory, Kingsroad Fiefdom, just to name a few) and most problem characters on turn 3, and that’s just in Joust. In melee it gets powerful faster, but I actually think it’s not as good in that format since it just hits one opponent.

How about running Bungled Orders and some other plot cycling out of a control deck? That would be sweet.

I wonder if this is a preview of the type of Cards at Commands things that we will get--bonkers effects with a significant downside for you. If so, I like where they’re going with it.

Rave - 5 out of 5
Amazing. Great third turn plot. The more I read it, the more I know I’m going to hate it. In the rare chance this backfires on you, you still get to pick the card you lose. There is sadness for every deck in here: especially HoD.

Reldan - 5 out of 5
This is the new auto-include plot, but I can’t say I mind it all that much. [GOT=TPoL]Negotiations at the Great Sept (KotS) bothered me not because it was so blatantly good, but because it made a mockery of balancing the need to maintain card advantage against establishing board position. This potentially gets rid of the one dude or location that’s giving you the most problems. What’s more, your opponent knows you’re running this card, because he’s also running it because everybody is running it. This makes having “Command” precarious, and makes you have to plan around relying too heavily on any single card. Probably going to get Restricted or Banned in Melee though as it’s a tad too good there, and the fancy mathematics you get to do during the Plot phase is extremely painful to fathom when you start factoring multiple search plots that affect the command count of multiple people on the fly since they add cards to players’ hands. This is probably the most effective location removal card yet printed, seeing as it has no targetting restrictions, can only be stopped by Outwit, and nothing is immune to it. Good news for houses that don’t normally have good location control options.

scantrell24 - 5 out of 5
I’m wondering why we needed Rally Cry. It effectively ends HoD Decks and uber-character decks (although at least the card can be saved). It’s similar to Search and Detain, but instead of winning initiative to appoint first player, you have to have less cards at your command, and you have to wait until turn 3 probably. And there’s 1 less gold. So maybe it’s balanced?

Staton - 4 out of 5
I’m giving this one a 4, not because I don’t think it is an auto include (hint: it definitely is an auto include in most decks), but because sometimes this thing just won’t be that useful. Sometimes you just win so hard that this card won’t do anything. First world problems, huh? Still, a great card, and nothing too strong or fancy about it either. I like that it isn’t traited at all, so as not to mess with City plots or anything.

tomdidiot - 4 out of 5
Like Search and Detain, but getting rid of it (sort of permanelty!) It’s also more conditional, and only really works on big characters after turn 4 or so. It’s a card control decks would kind of enjoy having. It’s flexible, and its got good stats, but is far from an auto-include
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