Awesome! Glad to hear it! Might I inquire why it was so enjoyable to you, Mischraum? We're still slowly compiling a list of what all people like when people happen to really enjoy an episode.

Saturnine said:

There was also a Martell agenda, apparently, allowed you to have an extra copy of a plot in your deck. Looking back on the CCG agendas over on Dobbler, there were some crazy one. Lannister had one that let them play with 8 plots. Stark could discard 15 cards out of their deck before set-up, as long as they stayed at 60 cards total. Greyjoy could have a 45 card deck. And Baratheon could play with two 30 card decks. (Targ got the short end in terms of crazy agendas; they're equivalent agenda just reduced the OOH penalty by 1 gold.)

I can't believe you guys don't like the icon providing chains. Those are amazing, as far as I'm concerned. Also, agree with others on the archmaester...he's definitely not bottom-5 material (though I guess I wouldn't put him in the top 5 either).

One important thing is that if we're going to be consistent in having a Top and Bottom 5 in our chapter pack reviews is that something has to go in those bottom 5 slots. Likewise, we're just talking in the context of this one pack, not the entire game. I think overall, this was a very good pack, so making those bottom 5 decisions is much more difficult.

Any thoughts from everyone else on what your bottom 5 would have been?

Kennon said:

Here would be mine (no particular order, and I haven't listened yet - tomorrow I swear!):

- House Payne Enforcer - a 2 cost, 2 icon deadly guy, with the Ally trait. I.e. he isn't going to replace anyone.

- Restrict and Restrain - so many good events! I am going to burn a card so that we both have a negative!

- House of Shadow - not a bad ability, but two cost and a kneeling L character to use? Bleh.

- Iron Link - like them, I don't like icon giving abilities. This one give Military which has its uses (claim raising Arienne comes to mind), but usually those charcters have icons already, so they get to be in one challenge instead of another. Not horrible, but not good.

- Dragonstone Watchtower - Great, you get to restrict your opponent's hand somewhat. Could be good in combo with Altar of Fire or the such...but too many moving parts.

TOP:

Rickon - duh.

Archmaester - for reasons above, mainly him/Valar.

Archmaester's Wrath - pretty amazing control card, espeically out of Martell with their Refugees.

Bloodrider - I don't love, but a decent ability.

Ob's Guile - I usually don't go for 2-cost attachments, but this thing if not dealt with can just mess people up. I remember the days of Drawstar.

SIDENOTE - yes, 2 plots sucked. I railed against that, and 40 card decks for quite some time. The old-timers might remember it called the 'rings FAQ' for awhile since I was so adamant about it. I get it and the 10/10 FAQ (?is that what it was called, I am old?) mixed up, but both were pretty huge.

Yeah, 10/10 was the introduction of the draw cap, right?

Yep, the 10/10 Ruling was Known as the Rings Ruling and introduced the Draw Cap.

My unlearned opinion:

Bottom 5

- House of Shadow - nice, sure, but too much cost for too little effect, even though it would add nicely to a number of burn effects to get that magic number of 3

- Restrict and Restrain - like Rings said; I'd like it more if it only hit one player, but then it would probably be OP

- Ser Jon Fossoway - I always want to like Baratheon, but Str 2 and a mediocre ability do not make me love this.

- Citadel Law - I get the feeling I might be proven wrong on this, but I just don't see this being all that useful unless you really design your plot deck around it

- Lonely Hills - geez oh man I want to love this card, especially because it would seem to be tailor made for Siege decks. The thing is, though, doesn't Stark have enough kill as is? The "end of phase" part gets me too...makes it useless for epic phase shenanigans.

Top 5

- Rickon Stark - even if you can't endlessly recur TBAW like the guys mentioned.

- Bloodrider - a Targaryen cancel plus it's Dothraki

- War of Attrition - Just what Martell needs, another "heads I win, tails you lose" card

- Archmaester's Wrath - A bit of a "win more" card and somewhat situational, but definitely can be very powerful with the Maester style of loading up one or two characters

- Black Iron Link - not necessarily for printed Maesters, but for all these mega-Maester builds that rely on characters without a printed Intrigue icon (Robert, Joffrey, Killer of the Wounded,) this seems like a no-brainer.

I was really torn about much of the pack...so many cards seem very middle of the pack, or very good, just not great.

@Rings: I think you're underrating the Iron Link. Don't think of this as an extra military icon...if you use it like that, then it belongs at the bottom. Instead, think of this as a +2 STR boost that you can control when you need it. In other words, this is a Bastard of Godsgrace that can attach directly from your house card and target anyone you like (not just in-house characters). Also, since you'll be playing it with a bunch of other chain attachments, it has the added ability of providing a +1 STR boost (with the Collar), making your characters immune to burn effects/Castellan, and is recursible with Bronze Link/Targ recursion. 90% of the time, this chain is MUCH better than the Copper, Tin, and Pale Steel Links.

Basically the same for the Black Iron Link, which excels not because it gives characters intrigue icons, but because it takes away the opponent's intrigue icons. Stripping The Red Viper, Pyat Pree, Arianne, Ellaria (or any vengeful character), Reek, or any number of powerful characters of an intrigue icon is FREQUENTLY the difference between winning and losing an extra challenge and/or getting rolled by a response effect. Though I gotta admit, I do like giving my Killer of the Wounded an intrigue icon to protect him from Game of Cyvasse (just use Lead Link to burn someone at the beginning of the phase, then stand him and you'll always have the strongest intrigue character on the board).

Anyway, since people asked, here are my top/bottom 5.

TOP

• Iron Link
• Black Iron Link
• Rickon Stark
• Bloodrider
• Oberyn's Guile

BOTTOM

• House of Shadow (annoyingly, this also has the added downside of making it really hard for designers to create new, cheap learned crest characters)
• Lonely Hills
• Restrict and Restrain
• Ser Jon Fossoway - This guy isn't terrible, but with 3/2 stats, I just don't think he'll see any play. It doesn't help that you can only use his ability if you don't want to attack with him, but it takes attacking with him to be able to use his ability in the first place. At 2 STR, he's just not likely to stick around long enough to have his ability work.
• Iron Fleet Raiders - Again, not *horrible* but not great, and even at 2 gold not likely to make a big impact on

OK, here's mine.

- Restrict and Restrain: What everybody else said.

- House of Shadow: dito

- Iron Fleet Raiders: 2 gold for a character *this* unreliable? It's an utter certainty that they will turn on you just when you'd absolutely require them to stand true. Basically giving my opponent the choice which challenges he wants to win against me? Bah.

- Lonely Hills: Can be nice, but is way too conditional and one-off for a 2-cost-location.

- Dragonstone Watchtower: The effect is not that bad. I mean, giving your opponent an incentive not to play these nasty events on you? And if they do anyway you'll get some small compensation? Yeah, I might take that. But hell, it's just *so lame*. Name one to three cards each and every **** *phase*!? Anything that makes my matches long and boring is a minus in my book.

Dis-honourable mention: I don't know about The Mad Mouse. Sounds like a cool effect, but how often will you get it off? Might be really nice in a Burn deck, but otherwise? I just don't know.

I agree that Fossoway's not that hot, but at least he's a (kinda) cheap dude with renown, and Bara can use these. And the ability can save your butt in a pinch. He'll probably not get used much in super-tight, über-competitive builds, but he's not useless.

Ratatoskr said:

I totally agree, and probably am undervaluing the card for this reason. The text should read 'add 10 minutes to any given game'. Sort of like old Sam Tarly ('any phase, look at the top 5 of your deck, replace one in hand, and then put them back in any order'). Gosh he made games long...

Kennon - totally right, the 10/10 FAQ did put in the draw cap (mainly due to the very silly King's Landing - play a location, draw a card). The Rings FAQ was plots and deck-size. This was in the very olden days when we got one FAQ every year...