Today, we continue our previews of the next Chapter Pack in the Secrets of Oldtown cycle, Forging the Chain, by focusing on another House’s developing theme: House Targaryen's shadow strength through Shadow Seer.

Into the shadows

Since the shadows mechanic was introduced in the King's Landing expansion (new players can find the rules for shadows on the support page, or read developer Nate French's more in-depth design article on it) certain Houses have had a bit of a lead in that area. This ties to the theme of A Song of Ice and Fire: the three Great Houses that run King's Landing - Houses Lannister, Baratheon, and Stark - backstab each other in its shadowy corridors while the rest of Westeros is overrun with open war.

Even so, the other Houses have introduced some great shadow cards - Wharf Rats and Venomous Blade, for example - and as the game progresses, this mechanic will spread out even further, creating some new, devious opportunities for all of the Great Houses. Case in point: with the release of Queen of Dragons, House Targaryen has seen a fresh infusion of shadows via the new Hatchlings and Warlock of Qarth.

House Targaryen has fewer shadows-related cards than the big three mentioned above, but it does have some effective ones that play right into some of Targaryen's key strengths; cards like King's Landing Assassin, Aegon's Legacy, and Dragonpit can really fuel the Targaryen burn.

Shadow seer

An issue that can arise with shadows-based decks is the gold cost of playing all of those cards into and out of shadows, especially given that the options to reduce the cost of shadows cards are pretty much limited to Twilight Market and City of Lies. This can be hard on House Targaryen, as this House (generally) needs to include influence as well as gold to power some key effects. This can lead to resource locations occupying deck slots that might serve some more useful purpose, or inflating decks without the benefit of a lot of additional card draw. Into this niche emerges the Shadow Seer.

On a basic level, Shadow Seer is an efficient, low-cost character, aiding Targaryen's intrigue attack. Of course, where Shadow Seer really comes together is in its bonus to a won intrigue challenge, i.e. putting a card into shadows for free, thus saving you two gold that you can hopefully put to better use.

With the right components in place, you can accomplish multiple goals at once by boosting Shadow Seer in the intrigue challenge and following with a wave of responses; save gold on putting cards into shadows and control locations and characters with effects like Condemned by the Council or A Pinch of Powder.

We hope we've given you plenty to discuss here in the comments and on the A Game of Thrones forums. Until next time!