For some reason it wasnt letting me comment directly on the article itself, but man! I am in love! It seems like the synergy we were promised is going to happen as 3 of the 4 spoilers lend a hand to the unopposed mechanic.

Discuss!

The author hinted we might find card references hidden in the article. Any longtime players able to help a newer fellow out?

Iron victory is by far and away the best card spoiled. Support of harlaw being solid, Theon being okay and The event being...well i'll have to expriement with it (i think the opposed = draw really hurts it).

Heres hoping they are 4 [balon; who is hurt by his own expansion....oddly] of 20 unopposed cards and not 4 of 10 or less unopposed.

"Claimed to be descended from the Grey King of the Age of Heroes, House Greyjoy of Pyke have ruled the Iron Isles since the Conquest of Aegon Targaryen. In the old days, the Ironmen carved out kingdoms beyond their isles by force of fire and sword. Those days are long past, and yet near at hand as Balon Greyjoy's dedication to the Old Way of reaving and iron prices dies hard. In the card game, the Greyjoys have been represented as an offensively based house, ready and willing to spring in at a moment's notice to attack their opponent's resources and other weak points, while still maintaining their own position through sheer determination to keep their characters on the board. So, without further ado, let's dive in to the briny depths of what House Greyjoy will mean in the LCG environment."

Possible references to cards, based on conspicuous wording:

Pyke - Pyke Castle, Pyke

Force of Fire and Sword - Put to the Torch, Put to the Sword?

Old Way of Reaving - Reavers of Old Wyk?

The Iron Price - The Iron Price ITE?

Briny Depths - ?

Old Way - Warrior of the Old Way?

Also, "sheer determination to keep their characters on the board" = focus on saves?

Oh, I'm sure I could probably help point out what those hints may or may not be, but then again.... that might make things to easy.

i think maybe look right under where Will talks about hints....

"What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger.”

Look to A flight of dragons card "Harder and Stronger":

Marshalling: search your deck for a copy of a unique (Greyjoy) character you control, reveal it to all players, and attach it to the original. Then shuffle your deck.

Am i hot?

King of the Saltwives said:

There's also "And Rises Again" from 5KE:

Response: Save a character from being killed. Then, attach And Rises Again to that character. (Counts as a Condition attachment with the text: "Attached character gains intimidate.")

jmccarthy said:

Hmm. Must be showing my age. My first thought was "Risen from the Sea" - the original GJ save-and-attach event.

Balon Greyjoy (Based on AFoD) State of the Game

- 1 King or Queen per house... so 5 other King's or queens (of non greyjoy variety)

- 6 or more neutral plots.

-1 House Greyjoy plot reprint:

Longships, and Caution to the Wind are too underpowered, even in this environment.

The Tide Brings in the Kraken -> Possible, since it has location control, but it's limitation is horrible.

We Do not Sow also possible, since it provides more unopposed challenges.

Rise of the Kraken... doubtful. I think folks would be howling for blood, its extremly powerful, and broken with that new event. <-- Stag are you gonna play Standard after seeing this combination?

From the second blurb:

Aeron Damphair, Wex Pyke, and Dagmer Cleftjaw

Wex (ITE), I can't imagine them creating a whole new Wex... other characters... sure, but Wex?

Dagmer... I think the best candidates are the original (also printed in ITELP) for warship synergy, or

the latest one for war crest synergy. The AToB variant is doubtful because its a broken ability. Locations are too powerful as it is.

As for Damphair.... I really can't think of one that isn't either too horrible, or too anoying in this limited environment.

My other ideas include:

Warrior of the Old Way, Risen from the Sea, Pillage, We Do Not Sow (event), 5KE Asha Greyjoy, 5KE High Tide, The wildling messenger, wildling scout, wildling emissary. (Makes sense for some neutral location control). Maybe Bandit Lord...

I hope Zealous Deckhand is reprinted.

Wow, when I worked that stuff into the article, I had no idea that it would be such a blast to watch people try to figure things out. Remind me to do that again if I ever get the honor of writing another spoiler article.

I am filled with glee, and not an undue amount of maniacal laughter. I cannot wait for this to come out.

The attachment is awesome, I suppose it would be too much for those raiders that do they same thing when they're opposed to come back? And that even its just fun, I mean, if you can get one unopposed challenge, you should be able to do it again if you have these self-standing guys out right?

When is it coming out?

Greyjoy Chris said:

brings up the question of if the first unopposed was becuase the player couldn't or didn't defend.

Yep, but a little intimidate goes a long way. If a Greyjoy player wants unopposed it was pretty hard to stop him before the LCG. It sounds like that is likely to be the way again. With the STR boost and intimidate it sounds like they'll be hard to stop. God forbid they get some deadly characters to boot.

All I know is that the reprint of Support of Harlaw makes my Winter Armadas very happy...

foxpillow said:

Winter greyjoy is going to be a beast. The armadas, plus the new warship previewed, means lots of force pump/card draw/renown. Not only that, but with cards like the one that retrieves warships from the discard pile, its gonna be hard to keep it down, unless something like High Tide makes it back. Greyjoy doesn't really have much attachment control.

I'm very excited, I can play another deck much like my first ever Greyjoy deck, which was all stealth and unopposed challenges. only lanni with Gutter Rat's cunning and that other attachment are going to be able to defend well against us, and not even then with intimidate. Fun times. Everyone know's I'm all for beating up on some lannisters

Support of Harlaw was a staple card during Greyjoy's run at the top. I am excited to see it coming back and i am sure it will see widespread play.

I'll also bet dollars to doughnuts that Bannermen of the Kraken is going to be in this thing, based on what I have seen so far.

... I predict the first custom bans in "standard" will happen after this gets released.

Granted Den of the Wolf must be causing problems in "standard".

Standard isn't supported, so standard doesn't really matter. This set sort of has to be looked at with LCG goggles. So far, I don't see anything in there that is terribly broken in any environment, anyhow. The event is nice, but it's not gamebreaking. I do like the idea of it in a melee and a high claim plot though. Can really plow through two opponents, but it all requires standing characters and no defenders (which is helped by Support of Harlaw, I suppose.) As a longtime Greyjoy player, I am really, really stoked for this set, though.

I would agree with Bloodycelt that Den of the Wolf is a card to keep your eye on. Support of Harlaw strikes me as a card that could really be exploited with DotW.

I think that there is enough character control that I wouldn't be overly worried about Den of the Wolf; I'll grant you, though, that I never overly worry about anything. I think that the house that may have to worry most about Support of Harlaw is Baratheon, since they don't really have a great deal of removal, but Motley on the SoH character should stop him well enough. I just don't see any 3 or higher influence effect as too scary in the current environment.

Let's not forget that Den of the Wolf is only once per game. I just can't summon up any fear of a card that can only be used once and which by itself is not a deck wrecker. Repeating a challenge phase with a character that may continue to stand, especially with the new event could certainly close out the game allowing 5-7 power gained in that turn can be wicked effective. But Bara can get the same power with the right mix of vigilant and renown without the Den... of course with the Den you may be seeing that doubled, but their lack of use of influence in general to power effects almost requires the deck to be built for this (or the Hand of the King Title).

Either way, it is a combo that while cool if you can pull off no deck should have to rely on.

I was talking in terms of "standard" environment for the people who still care and play "standard".

The Greyjoy event combined with Rise of the Kraken could include an additional 4 power... and then Den of the Wolf to repeat challenges? or dominance with the iron throne?

Scenario: Dominance phase: Cards in Play: 2 noble crest characters, Iron Throne, Den of the Wolf, Win Dominance in 4 player multi, claim 4 power (3 from Iron throne, Devious Mach that to 10, then repeat dominance with DoTW for an additional 4. 14 power right there, and I'm sure someone devious could grab more.

But this is in "standard".

Ah, yeah, getting and keeping all that in hand/play and nothing getting canceled in Standard I think is the equalizer, for what would be tied with ktom's Septon deck for the Shagga play of the Century.

bloodycelt said:

But what does that scenario have to do with the GJ Expansion? Those sort of things are already possible in Standard, so why would "custom bans" wait until after the expansion? And considering that DM is "Martell only" and the new event is "Greyjoy only," I'm not seeing a lot of concern that the two will create some sort of bad juju together.

Now, if you want something REALLY frightening, has anyone considered that there is nothing in the wording of the new event to stop it from being combined with Shadow Politics? GJ has enough intrigue, I think.

dormouse said:

Ah, now there was a deck that had absolutely no right to win as often as it did. (And credit where credit is due - it wasn't my idea originally.)