They are better riders than any knight, utterly fearless, and their bows outrange ours. ... The Dothraki fire from horseback, charging or retreating, it makes no matter, they are full as deadly...and there are so many of them ...
- A Song of Ice and Fire, Volume I: A Game of Thrones

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

The final Chapter Pack of the Defenders of the North cycle of expansions should be hitting your Friendly Local Game Store's shelves within the next few days, so for this week's card preview we thought we would look ahead to the upcoming Brotherhood Without Banners cycle, the first Chapter Pack of which, Illyrio's Gift, is due about a month from now.

This is an exciting set of releases, and not just because Brotherhood Without Banners will mark the first cycle of Chapter Packs for A Game of Thrones that will feature 60-card packs (3 copies each of 20 new and unique cards). Apart from this new distribution of cards, Brotherhood Without Banners is themed around the people on the margins of the clashes between the Great Houses of Westeros - people like the mountain Clansmen, Dothraki, and the outlaws of Beric Dondarrion's Brotherhood. In game terms, Brotherhood Without Banners will continue to expand on the inherent strengths of each House, introduce new ones, refine and expand some of the Trait synergy that was put to use with great effect in Defenders of the North.

For this week's card preview, we will be taking a look at one of the Traits that will be expanded significantly in this pack: Dothraki. Dothraki is one of the Traits (aside from Dragon) that is exclusive to House Targaryen and throughout the course of Brotherhood Without Banners there will be plenty of cards to strengthen this particular Trait.

One of the subthemes of this cycle of expansions is a continuation of the "extra claim"* for Dothrakis introduced in Defenders of the North with the new version of Khal Drogo (Wolves of the North, F9). In the case of Khal Drogo, after a successful Power challenge in which he is involved, you also get a free kill of a weaker character out of it. Slightly stronger than an ordinary Military claim in that you get to choose who dies, but balanced by the fact that it has to be a character with lower strength than Khal Drogo. Even so, with Blood of the Dragon or Aegon's Blade attached, Khal Drogo can take out pretty much anyone.

Added to this mix we have Rakharo who essentially adds a free Intrigue claim to a successful Military challenge. Given the number of Dothraki in this expansion and the spread of Military icons that will provide, this should not be too hard a combo to pull off. Moreover, it adds a little more card-denial coverage to a House that isn't as strong in Intrigue icons as some others, especially if you are building your deck solely around the Dothraki trait, whose cards tend more towards Military and Power icons. This doesn't add to your defense against Intrigue challenges, but for that there are still a few helpful Targaryen characters Intrigue icons to help with that.

Finally, we present Vaes Dothrak, which also triggers off of the successful Military challenge involving Dothraki. It mimics Rakharo's ability (if he's involved, you could discard two cards from your opponent), or you can also draw a card (an ability heretofore sorely lacking from House Targaryen), or move a power from your opponent's House card to yours. If you didn't throw all of your Dothraki into the Military challenge, you can follow it up with a real Power challenge and speed your way towards victory.

As we can see from just these three cards, if you're building your deck around the Dothraki Trait, you will be rewarded with a very efficient deck with which to bludgeon your opponents. Once Brotherhood Without Banners starts rolling out, you can warn your opponent's not to wake the Dragon!

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

* Throughout this article, references will be made to the "extra claim" of these cards. In game terms, these are not actually claim effects, but card effects, and should be treated separately, even though they imitate claim effects.