I'm bored at work, so what's your favorite House specific keyword? Which is the most powerful? Will we ever see a good Stalwart card?

Gotta say I love Ambush; maybe not the most powerful keyword, but I think its the most fun. Vigilant, Vengeful and Intimidate sit there on the board for everyone to see, but Ambush can be constant guesswork for your opponent.

My personal opinion is vigilant is the most powerful keyword and it is my personal favorite. I think it goes well with the house, and has the potential to be amazing. Honestly banner of the storm is the only bannerman I've ever seen played.

We had a strong stalwart card in the CCG, it was Arya Stark from 5 kings edition. 2 cost, 2 str mil/pow Lady. Stalwart. Response: after she leaves play kneel 2 influence to choose and kill a character with str 3 or lower.

I think all of the keywords are good. However, Stalwart and Infamy simply have little support. You can get a bit tricky with Infamy by dumping power on a hard to kill character but there really needs to be stuff that keys off of power on characters. Stalwart is even worse. You dump Banner for the North on your favourite character (ex Lucas Blackwood) and cross your fingers.

I also believe the best is Vigilant. I like Infamy and Stalwart though, because I think they have more interesting possibilities in the long run.

I agree that Stalwart and Infamy seem -and I believe they are- less impressive than the other four.

As for the big four, I haven't decided yet. Ambush is awesome, but costly. Vengeful is very good, but depends on your opponent winning his challenge while attacking, so the situation is not in your hands. If he doesn't decide to attack for his own nefarious purposes, it's a dead keyword.

That leaves Vigilant and Intimidate. I cannot seem to decide between the two, mainly because in my meta GJ are not overly represented and I haven't had a chance to face it yet.

I 'd say Vigilant. It's a keyword that empowers both characters and locations, contrarily to Intimidate. Try Vigilant on the Black Cells or King's Landing. A pain. This is why I never tire of claiming that The King's Ground is a great attachment.

Then again, Ambush is sooooooooo much fun. You keep opponents on their toes. Priceless.

Of course, in the course of the game and the more I play, all the above may change.

I don't really include any cards with Stalwart or Infamy in my Stark or Lanni decks; if I do, they're definitely not there for that keyword. And I don't really play Martell much at all, so I can't say I have strong feelings about Vengeful, though I have been on the receiving end of it being used very effectively against me.

As for the others, I love them all. I'm very fond of Intimidate, but that's largely because Greyjoy is my favorite House, and I'm just in love with their whole unopposed sub-focus, which Intimidate is obviously awesome for, particularly if you can get some power boosts up. Though I would maintain that Balon's pseudo-Intimidate effect is even better (despite being shut down by another King being around): it actually prevents weaker defenders from being declared, as opposed to not letting them count their strength, and unlike Intimidate it doesn't effect your own characters when they attack en masse.

Vigilant, on paper, is obviously extremely badass, though it's big short-coming is that it is available on so few cards. Understandable, given that it could easily get way out of control if it was given to too many characters. Ser Cortnay Penrose is one of my favorite Baratheon characters, and Arena Knight seems pretty cool though quite expensive. Still don't own Calling the Banners, so I don't have Banner of the Storm, but I imagine it will feel mighty nice to slap that bad boy on Ser Eldon Estermont or Fat Bob and go to town.

Ambush could definitely use some more support. Or, perhaps more specifically, Targ just needs more influence. I love dropping in some Dothraki or Dragons, it's a great feeling and I think that aspect of Targ, having all these cards to play out of your hand, Ambushed or otherwise, is very appealing, though perhaps it isn't as strong in practice as I would like. I think in a perfect world, Ambush would be my favorite, but something more needs to be done for the House.

So, looking over this, I say Intimidate is best. Or maybe it's the best supported. It works well, and it ends up on cards I want to use, as opposed to something like Vigilant that is scarse.

I'd vote that Vigilant is the best at the moment, with Ambush possibly in a close second. It's hard to decide.

Infamy and Stalwart or certainly bringing up the rear, which is a shame because there is a ton of cool room for those to grow. Much more than any of the others except Ambush, probably, so it's a shame that they've been used so little so far.

I'd like to see stalwart changed slightly to make it more playable.

Stalwart would be more flexible if it allowed the owner to choose whether the just-killed Stalwart character went to the top of the deck (as per the rules now) or the bottom of the deck (a preferred modification to the standing rules). Not exactly a huge boost in power, but it does allow the player to get around the draw choke when the situation warrants it.

Ruvion said:

I think that change would be perfect.

For stalwart to be better designers just need to create effects that trigger specifically off of a stalwart character leaving play, and make them worth it. The Arya mentioned above (5KE I think?) is a good example of this. The keyword itself doesn't need a change, the way the keyword is handled does.

all house keyword can use in char/attachment/location,but greyjoy............

db123456 said:

I was thinking how silly an Ambush Location would be, then realized Myrish Villa is pretty much already that.

Well, Intimidate is really the keyword that is most like the non-House specific ones, or at least Stealth and Deadly. They work in challenges, it's what they do. What the heck would a location with Stealth do?

db123456 said:

Intimidate allows you to do unopposed challenges. Greyjoy has effects that key off of unopposed challenges. Somehow I think they're doing alright given this limitation. Having Stalwart on a location or attachment doesn't mean anything if you can't take advantage of its leaving play.

1. Viligant - there is a reason that FFG is very careful with this keyword. Being able to possible participate in 4 challenges is, um, pretty good.

2. Ambush - evens out gold curves, plus the surprise factor and other tricks regarding to coming into play during the challenge phase (First Snow, etc.).

3. Vengeful - regular and chump blocking, and many times forgotten by your opponent. Probably the most balanced IMHO, although Intimidate is as well.

4. Intimidate - getting more unopposed is great, but many times not the difference. Sometimes a nice surpise when combo'd with STR increase effects.

BIG DIVE IN EFFICENCY HERE

5. Infamy - could be good, but hard and limits your deck if used as your primary strategy (which it is best at, so you opponent can't move power).

6. Stalwart - easily last, many times an actual negative (I don't want that guy next turn, I want a GOOD card).

Rankings could easily change with the cards printed with them of course - as with Crests.

rings said:

I think each keyword really depends on your deck strategy.

Ambush is no big deal if you don't have the influence, but do find it to be a great sneak defend etc.

Infamy can be filthy if used properly and if you can protect the card you stack power on. Especially if said card gets stronger with the amount of power put on them. I've used Jaime Lannister(TFtH) very effectively with this keyword and that was ONLY because I was able to protect him with dupes and attachments. The fact that it keeps power off your house card is huge.

Vigilant only works if you keep winning, which you better plan on doing. It is most effective when used at the same time with multiple characters. It does make the opponent want to defend challenges against Vigilant characters for sure.

Vengeful is the easiest to pull off, and helps keep unopposed power off the opponents house card.

Intimidate has a level of greatness if you can continue using that character and they have a lot of strength. Otherwise it may only be any good for one challenge a round, which hopefully is the one that you want to make count. It can take a lot of effort to get the number of attachments needed to make this work best.

Stalwart is by far the most worthless keyword. There aren't many builds you can use to take advantage of it. Great, your character doesn't hit the dead or discard pile. Meanwhile, I need to draw locations or cheaper characters to try and rebound. I hope that if they try to make this keyword work they start adding some cards that make you want to use those characters more often. Maybe by making them cheaper so you don't mind using them too much. But my biggest problem is really how if you are Valar'd, you already what you are drawing. Maybe create a location card that says "When you draw a card, and it is a card with the Stalwart keyword, draw an additional card. This card does not count toward your draw cap." or something. That would make Stalwart usable.

Bomb said:

Thats not half bad... something like a 0 or 1 cost location:

Dominance: Reveal the top card of your deck; if that card has the Stalwart keyword, add it to your hand, otherwise return it to the top of your deck.

It could even be useful if the top card didn't have Stalwart, at least you would know what was coming and you could maybe plan your next plot accordingly. Even the designers seem to have given up on Stalwart... the last card with the keyword is from Seasons cycle.