Sleep came at last, and with it nightmares.

- A Song of Ice and Fire, Volume II: A Clash of Kings

Hello and Welcome Back, Loyal A Game of Thrones Fans!

This week's card preview comes from the upcoming last Chapter Pack in the Defenders of the North cycle of expansions, Return of the Others. Lately we've been doing a lot of characters and locations, so this time out we have decided to present an event card, one which we think might work its way into a few decks: Nightmares in the North.

In terms of its basic strategy and usage, Nightmares in the North fits squarely into the type of deck that has lately been dubbed the "Raid Deck", that is, a deck whose theme or subtheme is the discard of cards from an opponent's deck. This cuts to one of the most basic elements of the game: if your opponent's cards are in the discard pile they can't be used against you. It's not exactly a winning strategy on its own, since you still have to get enough power to win and if your opponent manages to do that before you do, in spite of your card denial, then your raid deck has failed.

House Targaryen, with its stronger-than-average recursion through cards like Street Waif (A Time of Trials, F32) and Lady Daenerys's Chambers (Core Set, T180) can also come back strong against raiding. Granted, it is not super-easy for Targaryen to pull cards out of the discard pile - there are costs and conditions inherent in Targaryen's recursion - but a card in the discard pile, while certainly worse than a card in your hand or deck, represents a known, rather than an unknown quantity. What is more, if you can meet the conditions of recursion, such as being able to play a Targaryen character from your hand for Lady Daenerys's Chambers, then your discard pile can act almost as an ancillary (albeit high-cost) hand that is immune to the intrigue challenge.

Still, recursion or no, raiding your opponent's deck will tend to make things more difficult for her, and hopefully give you the breathing space you need to achieve your other in-game goals.

House Greyjoy is currently the best at raiding, with in-house cards like Drowned Disciple (Kings of the Sea, F13) and Drowned Fanatic (Wolves of the North, F7), but given the neutrality of cards like Frostfang Peaks (The Wildling Horde, F78) and Nightmares in the North, any House could take on raiding as a subtheme.

Where Nightmares in the North probably fits in best is in a deck that has a strong military leaning or emphasis on direct killing as its main strategy. This naturally leads us to House Stark, or again to House Greyjoy, but there is no reason why it couldn't fit in anywhere: a stealthy Martell deck, a Lannister Clansman deck, etc.

Played mid- to late- game, Nightmares in the North can put you at a further advantage after several rounds of successful military challenges both on offense and defense. If you are playing House Stark, for example, and have been pouring your opponent's characters directly into her dead pile while managing to keep your own relatively empty, you can have a pretty strong raid lined up for Nightmares in the North, with the added bonus of being able to draw a card afterwards.

Of course, given the fact that Nightmares in the North has to be played during the Dominance phase, there is always the risk that an unlucky intrigue challenge can throw it right into your own discard pile, so beware. Still, the best defense is a good offense, so if the threat of the intrigue icon looms, just be sure to kill your opponent's intrigue characters through a relentless military assault!

So that's it for this week's card preview. Hope you've enjoyed it and we hope you have plenty to discuss here in the comments or on the A Game of Thrones forums. Until next time!