Need assistance in understand the timing interaction of characters coming into play when Threat from the North is active.

Card in question is the new The Hound, which returns to owner's hand when a character's strength is lowered.

Consider the following cases:

1) The Hound is in play, Threat from the North is revealed. Seems clear that The Hound returns to owner's hand.

2) Threat from the North is in play, The Hound comes into play. Is The Hound's strength lowered, or is it simply 1 less than would have been?

3) Threat from the North is in play, The Hound is in play. Another character comes into play, is that character's strength lowered?

When a card has a play restriction of "after a character's STR is lowered," the practical application more or less translates to "whenever a -X STR modifier is applied to an individual character for the first time." So every time a character becomes subject to the -1 modifier of Threat from the North (or Winds of Winter for that matter) for the first time by coming into play (or the plot being activated), it's STR is lowered.

So in all 3 of your scenarios, the House goes back to hand because in all 3, a character's STR is lowered as defined above (note that lowering the Hound's STR bounces him, too). Of course, because of scenarios 1 and 2, scenario 3 is very unlikely to happen.

BTW: The distinction of "when a -X STR modifier is applied to an individual character from the first time" is important because it means that when a +X STR modifier wears off, that doesn't count as "lowering" a character's STR, even though the character's STR is less than it was a moment ago.

About this, and because i don't want to open another thread about this ... if I play an Aegon's legacy over a creature, and i have not cards in the shadows, the hound will return to the hand with a -0 STR modifier?

KyK said:

No. X must be greater than 0.