“The Great Shepherd sent me to earth to heal his lambs, wherever I might find them.”

–George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce Calm over Westeros, the fifth Chapter Pack in the Westeros cycle for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game!

Westeros lies under a deceptive calm. In King’s Landing, Eddard Stark pulls another layer away from the lies surrounding Robert Baratheon’s children. The Eyrie is shaken by the arrival of Tyrion Lannister and his desperate gambit to win his freedom. Across the Narrow Sea, a maegi plots her vengeance against Khal Drogo for the destruction of her peaceful village. Everywhere, events are set in motion that will bear terrible consequences.

In the Calm over Westeros Chapter Pack, the first cycle for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game approaches the end of the first book in A Song of Ice and Fire. Like the other Chapter Packs of the Westeros cycle, this expansion offers new cards and plots to increase your deckbuilding options. You’ll also find instantly recognizable characters and locations entering the game for the first time, including Bronn, Mirri Maz Duur, and The Eyrie. With the further addition of two new plots—one loyal to House Tyrell and one neutral—this Chapter Pack will fuel your future decks and strategies.

Blood Magic Rituals

The unlikeliest person can tip the fate of hundreds in Westeros. Surely none would expect a peaceful Lhazareen healer to undermine the conquering ambitions of a Dothraki khal, but even the most benevolent men and women can be driven to dark schemes.

In Calm over Westeros, you can turn the arcane skills of Mirri Maz Duur (Calm over Westeros, 93) against your enemies. This new seven-cost character for House Targaryen offers you the chance to utterly destroy those who stand against you—not through military might, but through insidious magic. Mirri Maz Duur bears intrigue and power icons and five STR, making her a respectable force on the field of battle. Her true worth lies in her ability, however, which reads, “Interrupt: When claim is applied for a challenge in which Mirri Maz Duur is attacking alone, choose a character controlled by the losing opponent. Instead of the normal claim effects, kill that character.”

Obviously, targeted kill is incredibly powerful, but you still need to win a challenge with only Mirri Maz Duur, and since she doesn’t have stealth, this can be difficult. Fortunately, you don’t need to actually use Mirri Maz Duur for her to make her presence felt. With this deadly Maegi in play, your opponent must successfully defend every attack she makes or risk losing his best character. When you combine Mirri Maz Duur with Khal Drogo (Core Set, 162) and a significant military presence, you can put an unbelievable amount of pressure on your opponent’s characters with every challenge you make.

If you choose to focus your deck’s strategy around powerful high-cost characters like Khal Drogo and Mirri Maz Duur, your opponent will certainly try to kill them however he can. In the face of devious enemy tricks, you may be forced to perform a Blood Magic Ritual (Calm over Westeros, 94). This event costs one gold, and whenever a non-Army character would be killed, you can play Blood Magic Ritual to save it. After that, however, you must attach Blood Magic Ritual to the saved character as a Condition attachment that blanks the character’s text!

Essentially, Blood Magic Ritual can give one of your characters a second lease on life—at the cost of losing any special abilities. For some characters, like Ser Jorah Mormont (Core Set, 165), permanently blanking the character’s text may actually be a better outcome. Other characters, like Daenerys’s hatchlings, have the no attachments keyword, which keeps Blood Magic Ritual from attaching to them after it saves them. Finally, if you do save a powerful, heavy-hitting character like Daenerys Targaryen (Core Set, 160), you can still use cards like Confiscation (Core Set, 9) or Maester Cressen (Core Set, 46) to remove the attachment. No matter what circumstances, you must decide for yourself if a Blood Magic Ritual is worth the price that it demands.

Take Your Revenge

The world of Westeros appears peaceful and quiet, but beneath the surface, forces are stirring that will launch the Seven Kingdoms into open war. Which side will you choose? Look for Calm over Westeros at your local retailer in the second quarter of 2016!