A new character that turns into a Melee title has been spoiled in the most recent article:

An interesting dynamic to add to Melee. I like the idea, but really am not caring for the "wait for X to happen to benefit". I love adding some Titles interaction to the game overall. He's easily killed, so I guess the kill condition is okay.

I like the new plot. It should help a number of Stark decks protect themselves against intrigue challenges for the round. Siege decks may embrace this at least and it is even more useful in Melee games where the chance you'll be attacked more than one time in intrigue is higher.

I find Aurane Waters very interesting. Should help to add a new dynamic to at least our local melee games.

The new plot for Stark I like as well. It fits with what it is trying to evoke from the books also.

Looking forward to Incinerating Orphan of the Greenblood cards by declaring "Master of Ships" as my trait.

I'm hoping from the description of the CP that the bara character is a smuggler and a knight!!! (and more recursion)

Waters is retarded. Why would you put a card in your deck that is probably only useful by turn three and even then could and most likely will be used against you just as often as you get to use it. It's just a horrible idea. Most melee games are all but decided by plot three anyways. If they wanted a new title then add one. This is just garbage.

JCWamma said:

Not sure what you mean. Master of Ships does nothing against Orphan.

Saturnine said:

He means he'll play Incinerate and name Master of Ships as the killing trait.

Ratatoskr said:

Well, hopefully he has already played a Harried By Dragons on the Orphan before that, since Aurane is neutral…

Ratatoskr said:

Oh. Right. Good luck with that. But even if it did work, I fail to see the awesomeness of this.

WWDrakey said:

Or he could use trait manip to give Master of Ships to one of his Targ guys…

Saturnine said:

I guess it's just a silly jest, so don't read too much into it. It's funny to find wacky ways to actually use a trait that is a singular oddity and will remain so.

Uh yeah, didn't think that silly joke would be controversial! Was just the most stupid way I could think to use the new existance of that trait.

Why would I need Harried by Dragons to kill something STR 0 though? Unless I've misunderstood how Incinerate works and there's no kill condition applied if X = 0?

dcdennis said:

Depends on how strong the Naval icon is when we get this far in the cycle. Two N icons, unique and no bad traits, his ability might be useless but the icons might make him playable in melee or joust.

JCWamma said:

Yeah, but the characters with the killing trait must be Targ characters. This gets overlooked pretty often…

Ok, I'm confused now. It says X is equal to the number of Targaryen characters with the named Trait, but where does it say you must have at least one Targaryen character with the named trait in order for the targetted character to be killed if STR = 0? Surely if the targetted character's STR = 0 before you even play Incinerate, you could name literally any existing Trait and, presence of Targaryen characters in play under your control with that Trait or not, the targetted character would still die? Or is the text written really unintuitively (or alternatively am I being a massive idiot and misreading/misinterpreting the card repeatedly)?

Apologies for the off-topic-ness.

JCWamma said:

I apologize. I guess you're right. Reckon I was just following WWDrakey unquestioningly. Again. Gotta stop doing that.

JCWamma said:

Right. I forgot about the Orphan already being at str 0.

As for Aurane Waters -- I'm still not convinced that the whole naval enhancement thing is good/fun, so his ability just makes me go "meh" right now. (The art is great, though!)

Manderly's Scheme looks good for Tully decks. Don't see it being used much apart from that.

Whoopsie.

Yes, I indeed forgot to check that Orphan actually has printed STR 0. Krhm. Sorry about that.

~ Now I know what the 'Walk of Shame' card is all about.

Alando said:

Would it not be useful in a Siege deck? Just curious.

dcdennis said:

I generally have to agree with this. I think he should be a 2 gold cost because of the lack of opportunity and the chance it will be used against you at some point. It might even still be the title that other players don't take because they want the benefits of the other titles(being Supported for example). So maybe it won't work that well against you? Even if he is chosen as someone elses title, that will free up another title that you might find more useful.

Consider his use in a 3 player melee game. He gives(if he is a title at this point) the Round 2 3rd player a choice between 2 titles. That COULD be interesting as it doesn't force the 3rd player to take a title they do not have a choice over.

The whole "character turns into something else if they die/discarded" condition is just too slow to feel like you are maximizing their use. I wish there were other ways to make it happen sooner without compromising a lot of your deck or game flow.

Bomb said:

imo every one of those cards that have the 'turn into something' condition should have been printed with: "Any Phase: Kill this card."

Bomb said:

Not useful enough for a plot space imo.

dcdennis said:

That way you would have first dibs at using the title ability, but wouldn't be pushed into using it or afraid to marshall the character if the effect could potentially help an opponent. In other words, it'd give you more options.

Separately, on his trait, as much as it makes sense from a story perspective, I'm sort of tired of characters with random traits like this. Couldn't they at least have added the captain trait? … ~or maybe even "Storyteller," since I bet this guy tells lots of stories, and that would bring the storyteller count up to 2.

dcdennis said:

dcdennis said:

The old charagendas could enter play right away as an agenda.

This charatitle is ridiculous: "Here, opponents, is a tool to my own defeat. I recommend giving all of your renown power characters the naval enhancement and attacking any player you want…" Playing this card should be deemed collusion because playing it is not playing for first.

I'm guessing none of you have ever played with the core set Greatjon Umber? Shennanigans to say the least. Moreso in melee where the character can participate in any challenge. Then give him a card like Ice or Northern Steel and just laugh… LoL.