I was just looking at the ability text for "Men with No King":

"Limited Response: After a Reinforcements event card is played, pay 2 gold to choose a character or location that does not have its owner's House affiliation. Take control of that card. (Limit 1 Limited Response per round.)"

The "Neutral Faction" House Card released in Illyrio's Gift reads:

"You have no House affiliation."

Could this in any way be construed to defend against Men with No King's ability? Can you legally choose a character or location that "does not have its owner's House affiliation" if you "have no House affiliation."

Just wondering.

Actually, Neutral Faction opens every character and location you have on the board to MwNK. MwNK can take control of any card that does not have its controller's House affiliation. With Neutral Faction, you don't have an affiliation to share in the first place! So nothing can have the same one you do.

Wow. That's horrifying. I'm glad I asked first.

Thanks, ktom. You are a scholar and a ser.

I agree with ktom on this one, as it looks like a no-brainer. I believe that overcomplicating the rules can be tedious when playing card games and tend to leave thing as simple as they can be.

However, legally speaking, if we were to go all technical on this issue, having a house card that says "you have no house affiliation" does make neutral cards "house affiliated" in a way. (your affiliation becomes the non-affiliation, making all your characters affiliated to "other" houses [those you would pay gold penalty on] non-house affiliated) Playing a character/location belonging to another house(s) will put you in a position that those cards are not your house affiliated, thus making them vulnerable to the said card. This is sort of a philosophical explanation, but theoretically correct.