So I built my first deck last night using some of the Shadows cards.

One of the first things that jumped out at me was the increase in cards used during set up. First, attachments and events that otherwise would be unavailable for setup, are now a possible drop if they have the Shadows crest. Second, Shadow cards that have a total cost of 3+ can now be dropped during setup for 2 Gold, with the rest being paid to bring the card out of Shadows.

This is just a fairly minor benefit of Shadows, but it really jumped out at me, particularly as it wasn't something I had thought of when doing my first analysis of Shadows.

Until I see the rest of the Shadows cards in the next few chapter packs I can't say this for sure, but I definitely expect Shadows to have a major impact on the Championships at Gencon

I think that will be dependant on how many Chapter PAcks are legal and what they have in them... but yes in general Shadows is going to take this game in different direction strategically. I'm envisioning a Stark deck that keeps important cards in Shadows where they are protected from intrigue challenges, effectively minimizing one of their major weaknesses. I wonder if any of those Shadow cards they will use will involve kill or means of gaining power. IF so they may become much more dangerous to Lannister... especially if they remain Stark affiliated and can be used in conjunction with a Bear Island based deck.

They already have Hidden Chambers to help with their gold problem. I can actually envision a time where with copious search, shadow reduction and protection from intrigue Stark has few weaknesses left and goes on a major tear... dependent of course on how much love they get versus Lannister.

Yeah, I noticed this in Targ, which I assume is what you're playing. Still, it may not be as strong as you're thinking. As convenient as the attachment is to play as a setup card, the attachment (or any shadow card played in setup) is still likely to stay in the shadows for awhile. Unless you can save 1+ gold on the first marshalling phase to bring the card out of the shadows, it'll probably be there for round 2 or 3. In terms of speed and utility, Flame-Kissed remains thebetter option early game, but late game Dragon Skull's lack of "with no attachments" could make it the stronger play.

I don't mean to say that shadow cards won't have an impact on GenCon, but if they do I think it will be for reasons other than the ability to marshall attachments and events during the setup phase. (Decks that run a lot of shadow will need to run a lot of gold, so most people will likely marshall gold locations during setup as they always have anyway.) Rather, the "come out of shadows" effects are very strong and it is easy to see how various cards (not only Tyrion, but also Selmy, and even the events) could tip the balance in a close game.

Twn2dn said:

agreed with twn2dn fully -- at the moment they're just a sideshow, and in fact after playing a hell of a lot of games over the last two weeks the number of shadow cards in my decks have been decreasing as i get over the initial novelty. particularly in targ, our use of the attachment has gone from 3 to 1; it's just too pricey, despite the ability to lay them during setup.