OK, so what are some cards that would be sweet for the shadows mechanic?

I'm thinking that Warships would be awesome coming from the shadows! Although I don't know how many other locations could really work as shadow cards. I mean how do you bring something like The Red Keep out of the shadows? lol Attachments coming out of the shadows would be cool. Maybe something like Fishing Net. I mean how many times have you looked at that In the Name of the King in your hand but still wanted to go first?

Maybe we can get a new Jaqen that deals with Shadows. Although he wasn't really in King's Landing. And neither were warships. Other than the ones that Waters had made. Which would be cool, cause non GJ warships are always good to have I think. Varys pretty much has to have a shadows card, right? Maybe some Little Birds also! I'll be really mad if there are armies coming out of the shadows. Like how do you hide a huge army?! Well I'd be ok with a small army. maybe 3 or 4 str.

Anyway, here are my top 5 wishes for shadow cards.

1. Some sort of lanni warship.

2. Some sort of Varys or Little Bird

3. A negative attachment of some sort for your opponnents cards.

4. An event that puts a character into play from your hand or discard pile.

5. Some sort of Asshai character, because we need more to fuel Army of the Faithful!

you hide an army in the whispering wood (although that, of course, isn't in king's landing)

Eh. Kinda I guess. I still don't like the idea. Its kinda like that one army. Renly's Host or somesuch that had stealth. Even though he marched right up the King's Road(or one of those Roads) partying and carrying on the whole way.

Well, we've already seen the Varys shadows card in a previous article. The State of the Game one, I believe.

Jaqen would be awesome. Preferably not a horrible unbalanced one, so I can actually play him for a while before he's banned. :-)

Maybe Illyrio? Melisandre seems a likely candidate, even if she was never at King's Landing. Quaithe of the Shadows? :-) The Martells should get something as the mechanic seems to fit their scheming well. Not sure if it would necessarily be a good fit for the Viper himself though.

oh yeah. forgot about the shadow varys. Also, Qyburn should get one too. I don't even want to know what that guy does in the shadows! Also, a new thought, what if there was a card that took a shadow card from your discard pile and put it into the shadows area? or maybe even a reset for the shadows area.

You're Not Done Yet

Event

Response: After an oppenent plays a card into the Shadows area, pay 2 gold to put a card from your discard pile into your Shadows area.

Out in the Open

When revealed if you have more than 1 card in your Shadow area, each player chooses one card in his/her Shadow area. Discard all cards not chosen from each player's Shadow area.

I like the Shadow recursion idea as well as weapons... though I think it would be more Nedly if they attached to your character for a benefit or something rather than your opponent. I mean I can pull a hidden knife on you in a fight, but something that attaches to you? IDK.

I think a case can be made for armies, we aren't talking about huge forces of men like War Host, but more like small fighting forces. I'm not sure STR alone has ever been a good indicator of size, I mean we have 4 STR unique characters and armies with the same STR. If the STR was supposed to be indicative of damage in and of itself then I'd say War Host is probably the most Nedly army... and see how disrespected that card is.

Definitely a Varys. Jaqen would be sweet. I'm sure we'll get a Viper, after all everything we know about him revolves around his tim ein KL.

Locations with the Shadow Crest? I think that a case can be made for locations that are hidden, have shadowy goings-ons in them, and which serve as bases of operations for shadowy characters. Non-GJ warships would be awesome. I'd like some sort of Black Cells card. I mean what would be more fitting than the deepest darkest dungeons of King's Landing?

I know the set is King's Landing themed, but I'm not sure that is any guarantee that all the cards will have been in or around KL.

Hmmm another good point on Armies hiding.and touche on locations with the Shadow crest. I hadn't thought about dungeons and such. I'm pretty excited to see some more cards with Shadows. Also, I think it'd be cool, but slightly confusing, to have a card that made all the cards in Shadows be face up instead of face down.

Staton said:

I would really like to see a reset plot, similar to Valar (Shadow Morgulis?), to discard all cards in the Shadow area. It would make playing cards in the shadow area riskier, and if your deck doesn't use or particularly fears Shadow cards, you could run that plot only...

jmccarthy said:

I'm clearly on Facebook too much, I moused over to hit the "Like" button, and couldn't find it.

Completely agreement on this jm, I think one of the most elegant parts of AGOT is it's gentle push toward an equilibrium... for every uber-character (I hate the term Voltron, it denigrates a beloved childhood icon into a epithet) strategy you have Banished or Marched to the Wall, and for every weenie strategy there's Promo Ser Ilyn (another source of angst, but that's for another post) and First Snow of Winter... Locations are equally crowded to the median with Fleeing and point removal. And yet you can build a deck to work the corner cases... I think any _Winter_ deck qualifies, like my Boltons the year before last, and Character Lite before that. If you're prepared to work around your drawbacks, and accept the risk, there are rewards... but there should always be risk.

Another two locations for Shadows could be a brothel, so many shadowy deals and meetings going on there, as well as secret passage with the Red Keep or King's Landing trait representing the tunnels and passages in teh Red Keep where the little birds do their work, Tyrion easdrops, and Varys and Illyrio have their secret meeting.

What about Kingsguard characters? The one who tried to kill Tyrion on Cersei's order? Which was that?

Wasn't it Ser Merynt Trant who tried to kill Tyrion?

*shrug* sure, why not?

I guess it is time to visit Tower of the Hand to find out.

*back*

Nope that was Ser Mandon Moore. I thought it was Trant also... why do I think trant was a total badass? Maybe it was because of his AToS card?

Which makes me a little confused because both Moores save noble characters rather than any sort of deadly or stealth or anything. Weird.

Hate to break this to you guys, And this is a SPOILER ALERT!!!

Cersie did not have Ser Mandon Moore attempt to kill Tyrion. Littlefinger did. When reading book 3 when Varys gives his reports about Ser Mandon, we learn that he was a pretty self-minded man who came from the Vale and kept to himself. It almost screams that his is one of L's pawns. Sure, Jon Arryn could have brought him over from the Vale, but LF really had more reason to see Tyrion dead than Cersei (even the stuff from book 4 notwithstanding).

Back OT -- why not the passages below the Red Keep as a Shadow Location? And Magister Illyrion could also have the crest (him and Varys are the ones Arya listens to in the above said passages, midway through Game of Thrones).

Yeah I mentioned the secret passages as being crest-worthy.

Good catch on the Little finger connection. I obviously need to reread the series. I'm actually thinking of giving them away to a friend and purchasing them on my kindle so i can do word and passage searchs for the entire series at once.

dormouse said:

That may have been one of my more self-serving benefits from FFG... having searchable PDFs of the text.

Maester_LUke said:

Yes, I have the same things, though they weren't a perk. Had to get them on my own. For example:

Varys knew a deal more ... should he choose to share it. "The man
seems to have been quite friendless," Tyrion said carefully.
"Sadly," said Varys, "oh, sadly. You might find some kin if you
turned over enough stones back in the Vale, but here ... Lord Arryn
brought him to King's Landing and Robert gave him his white
cloak, but neither loved him much, I fear. Nor was he the sort the
smallfolk cheer in tourneys, despite his undoubted prowess. Why,
even his brothers of the Kingsguard never warmed to him. Ser
Barristan was once heard to say that the man had no friend but his
sword and no life but duty ... but you know, I do not think Selmy
meant it altogether as praise. Which is ***** when you consider it,
is it not? Those are the very qualities we seek in our Kingsguard, it
could be said - men who live not for themselves, but for their king.
By those lights, our brave Ser Mandon was the perfect white
knight. And he died as a knight of the Kingsguard ought, with
sword in hand, defending one of the king's own blood."

That's it, rub it in.

Reminds though, I'll be in the twin cities twice this year... I need to bring some decks and see if I can't figure out where people play. End of August and sometime in Oct.

dormouse said:

Just submit this as an obvious violation of copyright... by a federal employee, no less!!

Good to know Damon, it will be good to meet up... Enjoy yourself some Kubla for me this weekend.

Oh no, that's fair use. It was quoting (though perhaps I should have been more exacting as to the source) to help prove a point related to the book. Or at least, an arguement that I was making.

If you don't mind a drive (or car pool) our meta plays in Cambridge, about an hour north of the Twin Cities. I've got our website linked in my sig, so you can get directions and all that from there. I work four nights a week (T-Th and Sat), and I'd be willing to play Thrones, even if it meant having to miss a different game (most likely either Arkham Horror or BSG).

I know there is a "new"-er store in Shakope (south-western suburb) where they are getting Thrones going as well. Maester_LUke might know more regarding the other stores in the area.

I also work my day job in the north suburbs, so I might be able to meet somewhere to play, but that is a real longshot. I've often loathe to part with what little Family Time I do get.

Sounds like a lot of fun. I'll make sure to make a post when I've got some hard dates.

jmccarthy said:

See I don't know if I would want a reset that completely reset the Shadows area. That seems like it would be a pretty big deterent to Shadows cards. I think being able to keep 1 each is enough. Maybe make it so you didn't have to have a card in your Shadows area?

Staton said:

It just depends on how good the stats are on the "Shadow Morgulis." If it is 2 gold, 0 initiative, and 0 claim, that doesn't seem too big of a deterrent to me. If, on the other hand, the plot has 5 gold, 6 initiative, and 2 claim, then it would be quite a deterrent.

maybe a shadow card itself would be the better way to handle it. i.e. Event Shine the Light Response: after Shine the light is revealed from shadows kill a chacater you control (cannot be saved) to discard all cards from the shadow area.

To me this would be more along the lines of the shadows mechinic as it fits into the bluffing aspect as well. Plus, unlike a plot its not a huge waste against a non-shadows deck (i'd hate to have a shadow reset plot w/ bad stats against a non shadow deck). You can stick it in the shadows area to mess w/ your opponents head and never trigger it against a non-shadows deck.

Just thinking about Arya's upcoming Shadow card and the AToR CP#5 card Needle's currently pointless synergy(imo) with stalwart. Do you think the new Arya will have stalwart, and if it does do you thing her "when revealed" ability will kill or discard her making it probably quite powerful? Although that would negate the newfound combo with Needle :/ I sorta answered my own question there. I'm just looking for a better representation of the Arya-Needle connection when perhaps there is none to be found.

Egg said:

Solution: Reprint 5KE Arya so she's LCG legal (yes, I'm baiting Staglord ).