Patience: "House Martell only.
Any Phase: Choose and return 1 character you control to its owner's hand"

Anyone have any awesome ideas for this card? It seems like its built to be used in an awesome combo, but so far I can't think of any better use of it than a slightly better "Retreat." Any thoughts?

Could be used with any leave play or come into play effect. Might not be worth it for House Messenger, but a second-round Flea Bottom Scavenger might be alright, or even just playing Arys twice in a row. In terms of combos (if that's what you're looking for), Steward of the Watch, Balerion (out of house), and other similar come into play effects could be cool. This could also be decent if you played it with Narrow Escape.

Honestly though, I think this card will be more situationally useful...for example, if someone plays a problematic attachment (Milk of the Poppy or Something) or to play around Valar.

I like this card, but it unfortunately doesn't seem as good as other Martell events (which arguably has the best events of any house in the game). So I don't think it will see much play.

Maybe with orphaned Recruit ( javascript:void(0);/*1294700425093*/ ) you can hit opponent's house several times,

or with Ser Arys Oakheart to discard multiple allies. Who knows?

I'm not entirely sure if I find this card creepy or crapy

Don't forget the Viper's Bannerman. It can turn into a pretty sick card advantage. Trigger the reveal once when it comes into play, use Patience, trigger the Bannermen for leaving play, then play the army and trigger it again (likely next turn). That's a net advantage of 5 cards that don't touch the dray cap. Not a terrible plan.

I've seen it used in a Brotherhood Martell Deck, where it's seriously crazy. It's also good for snatching up a key character (say, an unduped Viper) just before a Valar.

*I've seen it used with a Flea Bottom Scavenger - Play and Draw 3. Pick it up with Patience and use it again next turn.

Tomdidiot said:

Tomdidiot said:

The really fun combo with this is Parting Blow.

Another fun possibility is to use it on Starfall Advisor (once the gold on him is depleted). And in a Martell Wildling deck, you could have some serious fun with this to keep Varamyr Sixskins and Balerion (who is not "House Targaryen only"...) going.

About the POTS Red Viper's immunity: A plot effect would be considered an event? I wouldn't have thought his immunity protects him against Valar (or any other plot).

Saturnine said:

I assume that Ktom was talking about the use of "Patience" to get PoTS red viper back into your hand, wich is not possible due to viper's immunity to events.. Valar is just the threat in this case, not involved.

@Ktom: Maybe he was thinkin of the Pit viper, how to be sure

Kordovan said:

Ah, yes, of course.

Kordovan said:

@Ktom: Maybe he was thinkin of the Pit viper, how to be sure

Ooops, I forgot the Red Viper is immune to my events as well as my opponent's events

Actually I liked Retreat better, you could actually get claim out of it and still keep the character for later. With Patience (unless it is your only characters I guess) then you still have to kill someone right?

~The worst kind of card you can possibly print - horrible now, but playtesters have to think about it forever in case it somehow makes a broken combo/loop

rings said:

Yeah, claim is still there.

Patience combos well with a lot of characters, but I've only once came close to putting it in one of my decks; even then, it ultimately didn't make the cut. Retreat can be more useful for the claim soak, but usually in-and-out combos tend to exist more on non-unique characters than their unique counterparts.

FATMOUSE said:

For sure on 'come into play' effects (Oakheart non-withstanding). But if your deck was more based on a single character (or a few), it was always nice to be able to bring him back even if they had targeted removal (Blackfish, Arianne, ect.).

rings said:

Yeah, it depends on the build. Retreat has its uses; it's just different from Patience. Patience is more combo-based and more pre-emptive (i.e. She's going to get rid of X this turn, so let me bring it back). Retreat is more a defensive ploy that mitigates a killing effect.

Martell simply has so many good cards that it's difficult to reasonably fit in Patience, despite the apparent combos it offers. As for Retreat, which can be played in any House, I'd probably just run a dupe or two of the important character. I would probably even consider Iron Mines before Retreat as one is a Setup card and the other isn't; that said, Retreat gets a big thumbs up against terminal effects.

ktom said:

I can't get your point here. Except for a player who dares running Eastwatch-by-the-sea in his deck, i can see no real threat. And I play Martell Brotherhood for a little while now. it could make a nice draw engine each with fleabottom I guess, as Tomdidiot said.

Kordovan said:

Isn't that essentially what you just said, too?

yes don't worry, just a misunderstanding on your sentence

I thought you said In a Bro deck that specifically keeps off power, which is implicit . My mistake!