"Sing louder!" the Queen of Thorns shouted at Butterbumps. "These old ears are almost deaf, you know. Are you whispering at me, you fat fool? I don't pay you for whispers. Sing!"". . . THE BEAR!" thundered Butterbumps, his great deep voice echoing off the rafters. "OH, COME, THEY SAID, OH COME TO THE FAIR! THE FAIR? SAID HE, BUT I'M A BEAR! ALL BLACK AND BROWN, AND COVERED WITH HAIR!"The wrinkled old lady smiled. "At Highgarden we have many spiders amongst the flowers. So long as they keep to themselves we let them spin their little webs, but if they get underfoot we step on them." She patted Sansa on the back of the hand. "Now, child, the truth. What sort of man is this Joffrey, who calls himself Baratheon but looks so very Lannister?"Our staff has put together a first blush analysis of the newly released “House of Thorns” deluxe box. Answers to frequently asked rules questions can be found on the individual card pages on thronesdb.com. Cards are listed in numeric order and scored on a scale ranging from one through five, with five being the best possible score. Let us know in the comments how you feel about the cards in this pack!Now onto the reviews, starting with....scantrell24 - 5 out of 5Unlike Wolves Catelyn and Lions Cersei, Mace isn’t a huge body for winning challenges, but he does accumulate power quickly just like his counterparts. In addition, Mace also facilitates all kinds of tricks, such as removing negative attachments, standing a character, or dodging Varys (though not plot phase resets as there is no pre-plot action window). He’s a powerful character, but isn’t for every deck because he only works with Tyrell characters. Mace wants a deck built around him.Von Wibble - 4.5 out of 5A very impactful character as he should be for the 7 cost. Icons and strength are mediocre although still good enough to be hard to burn and make a difference in challenges. The power gain is nice as it is not unrealistic to expect 3 power per turn (marshalling, challenges through ambush and Flea Bottom, his ability). But what looks really good on top is that 2nd ability, which lets you pull so many tricks, including everything scantrell mentioned above as well as triggering enters/leaves play abilities. House Florent Knight anyone?Why not 5 then? Well, it is a house card kneel and he works best when you are going for ambush and/or Flea Bottom. Also his ability does remove power from characters if used defensively. Finally, if you don’t see economy quickly that gold you have to pay can mount up too much.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 5 out of 5A big 7-coster we actually like, huzzah! He has three main functions: firstly, as a build-around card for a deck gaining passive power (a deck we believe both exists and is good); secondly, as a one-of “yet another good card” effect in a constructive big guys GoodStuff deck; and lastly, for that cool ‘blink’ effect, letting you re-trigger enters/leaves play effects (f.ex. Alerie, Olenna’s Informant, Emissary from the Hightower, etc.) or remove terminal attachments. And he’s great in all three roles. Also reaffirms that 16 is the correct number of House Florent Knights to run.scantrell24 - 3 out of 5Paying an extra gold for Brienne the Buff over Brienne the Wall doesn’t seem prudent unless you’re 100% committed to reaching the 15 strength plateau regularly. As a fan of all things jank, I do love the design.Von Wibble - 1.5 out of 5So, I pay 1 more gold than the current version, and lose renown and the potential to not kneel to defend. Given that the strength 6 condition is basically renown, that means I need to be consistently getting her to strength 10 for this to be worth it, with that +3 pump. I think any deck that can consistently do that is probably doing fine using the other Brienne for a likely str 10 non kneeling defender. I gave this card a bonus 0.5 for the Shagga potential.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 2 out of 5We’ve not given her a 1 because one day we might get enough STR-boosting effects that you can consistently and easily get her to 15 STR, which is the only time she’s worth running.scantrell24 - 4 out of 5Tyrell decks have a variety of ways to win a challenge with a single character attacking alone, so Garlen should be able to trigger regularly, but even if he doesn’t the threat of activation alone will do work by forcing opponents to over-defend. My only concern is that 6 gold might be a touch too high for a character without renown.Von Wibble - 5 out of 5Claim raising is one of the most powerful effects in the game and there are a couple of knights in the game who are good at attacking alone - core Knight of Flowers and Ser Gregor Clegane, plus more combo tricks such as Arbor Knight with Mare in Heat. Even without such ways to win the challenge, you can be sure the threat of Garlan will cause your opponent to overcommit to challenge defense. Discarding isn’t necessarily that bad a thing either, you could use Garlan in an aggro claim 2 deck, and such plots have low reserve anyway. Sad that Garlan has no keyword, but str 5 is solid enough on a 6 coster.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 2 out of 5He’s a solid aggro effect on an expensive body in a faction that doesn’t play the aggro game very well, with another blandly efficient GoodStuff version already in the game. He’d have value in a banner if it wasn’t for his “Knight attacking alone” stipulation, meaning that he remains very niche. However, Istaril completely disagrees with us and would give Garlan a 4, because of the reliability of his trigger and lack of a limit on it.scantrell24 - 4 out of 5Her event swapping ability will be useful in situations where you have a Hand’s Judgment but need a Nightmares, and vice versa. It allows for more niche 1x events too (Dark Wings coming soon?). You can also dump them into your discard pile for a potent Annals of Castle Black turn, and I’m sure there are some crazy combos lurking around. In any event (see what I did there?), she’ll see play for the Insight and Lady trait, even if the event swapping is only marginally useful.Von Wibble - 4 out of 5Being able to find an event of choice just for kneeling is very powerful, with Nightmares, Tears of Lys, Growing Strong, Lord Renly’s Ride, and All Men are Fools being particularly obvious choices. Yes, you are granting your opponent knowledge, but if you are in a position where they can’t stop you anyway, for example a massive 3rd challenge in a Crossing deck, Hand’s Judgement aside they aren’t stopping you anyway. 3 strength is mediocre at best for the cost, but make no mistake, that is a powerful character and one to watch for combo deck potential.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 4 out of 5Insight and an event tutor, with the latter part being the flashy one (though the former might be better in practice, because having events and being willing to discard them is not always a guarantee). The Lady trait is obviously solid too. Her numbers on the other hand are not good, but she just about does enough for a 4 rating.scantrell24 - 3 out of 5It’s strange that we get a new Reach location in this box, but it doesn’t synergize with Highgarden Honor Guard. You could build an Army deck with these guys and Wardens of the Reach, but that’s not exciting yet with the low level of Army support in the game.Von Wibble - 2.5 out of 5Solid enough stats and an intrigue icon on an army, should army decks start to become a thing. You only need a couple of Reach locations in play to make this solid enough, but that relies on a bit of luck given you probably aren’t running 3 of them in a deck designed to get a lot out of, say, Jousting Pavilion. Not bad, but not there yet.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 3 out of 5Ambush and no attachments are the main draws for us here, especially with that icon combination. The reduction part is nice, but there haven’t been any good Reach locations you’d particularly want to play with’em since what, the core? Drakey weeps at this, saying it’s “so 2.0 it hurts”.scantrell24 - 4 out of 51st edition’s Melee Margaery is back! She’s extremely useful, especially when you’re first player, but not as much of a “build around” card as the two other iterations. There are loads of fun combinations, such as in Greyjoy with Raiding Longship or in Targaryen with Dracarys.Von Wibble - 4 out of 5We finally have Because-She’s-Worth-It-Marge. And, in many banner Rose decks I’d agree with that - Targ get to pull in characters for burn, Greyjoy get to troll with Raiding Longship and kill with Throwing Axe if you are feeling more Shagga, Lanni can actually try including Stone Crows in a non clansman deck, Martell can return guys to hand with their Southron Messenger, Bara have another way to kneel a character...However, I’d argue Sultry Marge wins out against her in the banner option unless you are looking for these combinations, and I think Tyrell decks in general prefer either of the other choices.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 4 out of 5JC really, really wants to give her a 5, saying the following: “Unless you have a specific reason to want to run one of the other ones, she supplants both the other Margaerys both in-faction and in banners. Between her and “Lord Renly’s Ride”, you can kneel half the opponent’s board out before they do anything. Do not overlook her because of her title.” The others, however, clearly didn’t read the last sentence.scantrell24 - 4 out of 5It’s difficult to say if the “single defender” ability of Core KoF is worth an extra gold, but I’m leaning towards yes for most decks. The old version pushes through so many challenges singlehandedly that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. Still, this slimmed down version ain’t bad.Von Wibble - 4 out of 5You are playing an event in most challenge phases. If that event is itself a strength pump your Knight of Flowers is probably winning as much as the core one does, on defense as well. He is also another case of a card that forces your opponent to overcommit. I like that the cost is still protecting against First Snow, as well as helping against the forthcoming Valar Dohearis. That said, the core Knight still has his place, helping Garlan as I mentioned above for example.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 4 out of 5Our standard rating for a “4 cost, renown, 4 STR, with one of those being slightly variant or conditional” card. Competing with a highly-playable other version, but being cheaper means that in decks with lots of events or that simply aren’t too fussed about the points of STR, this one’s better.scantrell24 - 2 out of 5He’s alright, considering the Lord trait and the relative weakness of Tyrell’s other 4 gold characters, but most decks will find more consistent options.Von Wibble - 2 out of 5The cost to icons and strength is just about OK, but requires a good textbox to make the card worth it. I don’t think this is good enough given you need other characters out to gain anything. Kneeling for a card or for a power doesn’t feel that strong to me (action taken when you are confident that Loras or Garlan is winning a challenge), so that leaves the stand on Marge, which is fine, but not enough to save him for me. As a cheapish Lord he may see play in Tinder Marge deck that isn’t running a banner.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 2 out of 5Maester Luwin he ain’t - can’t tutor him with a plot, costs more, kneels for effect. His only real purpose is being a relatively cheap Lord to stand Large Marge then die for her.scantrell24 - 3 out of 5In the right deck, if you load up on Lords and Ladies, he could consistently be a 3 for 3 tricon with renown. Worth a look, especially in Tinder Marge decks.Von Wibble - 3.5 out of 5Paying 3 for a 1 strength bicon with renown or a 3 strength bicon is merely OK. You need a lord AND lady in play for him to actually justify a place in the deck, at which point he is nice for the price. I hear Tinder Marge is considering which way to swipe even now.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 3 out of 5You’ll quite often get your money’s worth, because the conditions aren’t too tough to reach. Not the most ideal topdeck, but he’s cheap enough, and is another easy Lord for Margaery triggers.scantrell24 - 2 out of 5Even in a jank deck built around Songs, searching the top 10 isn’t consistent enough. Sometimes you’ll find 2 or 3 Song events, but not the one you need, etc.Von Wibble - 2.5 out of 5I’m not seeing a deck that wants to run more than a few songs? Much as it would be amusing to win a game on a Valar turn when you have 12 power by using 3 x Dornishman’s Wife, I think on balance the ability is merely a nice chance of a bonus card, especially if you use The Conclave or any Tyrell deck manipulation. But with mediocre stats and a possibly OK ability, does he see play? He does have some decent combo ability with Mace, and you could use that as a repeatable search to just hope you hit a song you happened to put into the deck, such as Lord Renly’s Ride.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 3 out of 5We’re torn on our stance here between “lovely” (Ire) or “boring” (Drakey). In any case, he’s clearly a card for the song-heavy combo decks. Might sneak in at 1x in other decks too, if you’re running 6 or more Songs to justify the trigger.scantrell24 - 3 out of 5It’s cool that Tyrell can save gold now and threaten this ability. Some good/easy to trigger options for are Dracarys, Burning on the Sand, His Viper Eyes, Offer of a Peach, and Tears of Lys. But 3 gold for marshaling and 4 gold for ambushing is almost prohibitively expensive considering the weak body. Plus you still have to pay for the event.Von Wibble - 3.5 out of 5I think the ambush cost is expensive for what you get. Unless I have the Queen of Thorns in play, I’d rather have an Informant instead, and I don’t think I have room for both alongside Informer - though that may change if I go all in on Mace and the Hightower.However, if you have any events worth playing a second time in Marshalling I think she really becomes worth her place. Baratheon Rose for example might like to play another Consolidation of Power, and Lanni Rose as first player may want to use Treachery.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 5 out of 5Without Flea Bottom this is a 3 or so; but, hey, Flea Bottom exists. This is non-loyal too, so do a search for the most powerful event in your faction of choice - congratulations, you can now recur it. This looks set to be one of the true sleeper cards of the box.scantrell24 - 3.5 out of 5Anything with non-kneeling potential is worthy of consideration.Von Wibble - 4 out of 5I like this card, not that exciting but certainly effective. Clearly you aren’t running him unless you have a substantial amount of knights, and the viability of such decks isn’t known to be tier 1 for now. But in those decks, he’s a perfect fit.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 3 out of 5Non-kneeling is lovely, even if it’s conditional. You really do need him to be non-kneeling though, or the character is pretty garbage. The deck he goes in is a minicurve Crossing Knights swarm deck that tries to spam as many challenges as possible every round. Which, hey, probably exists.scantrell24 - 3.5 out of 5The ability isn’t super useful, but it’s gravy on an already solid character.Von Wibble - 3.5 out of 5If you ignore the text box you have a cost 2 strength 2 bicon with the 2 positive traits. That already makes her worth including in many decks. Throw in the ability, which might get used in a game, and you have a decent character. Targ could get some use out of her as burn with Overthrowing the Masters - my Shagga choice of the box.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 3 out of 5She could be blank and have the same rating, she’s here for being a cheap lady with acceptable numbers. And hey, occasionally maybe you’ll actually get to trigger her and it might be kinda sorta nice!scantrell24 - 4 out of 5I love this ability, because the threat of activation alone will cause headaches for your opponent, especially on a wider board. Depending on the matchup he’ll range from mediocre to game-breaking.Von Wibble - 4 out of 5Works very nicely with Desmera above! I can see a lot of uses for the ability, for example Greyjoy Rose with Knight of Flowers guaranteeing an unopposed challenge, or enabling Mirri, Dagmer, or Jaqen to win challenges alone (or at least force an extra defender). Easy include for Conclave too if it does become a thing.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 3 out of 5Drakey and Istaril are much higher on Ballabar than JC and Ire are, excited by a chud that actually has an interesting ability that could prove very useful. Meanwhile JC and Ire are unimpressed by the badness of the left-hand side of the card, and think the ability is good but probably not worth actually running him for in practice.scantrell24 - 5 out of 5Wow. I had a Targ Rose deck for a while that used Plaza of Pride to get double attacks out of a character granted Intimidate by Lord Renly’s Ride. Now Tyrell has the stand without going out of faction.Von Wibble - 5 out of 5Who needs Randyll? Given how likely you are to pump strength, it’s a safe bet she will trigger and enable a lot of powerful effects. The character doesn’t even have to be Tyrell, making for a decent amount of Rose banner potential - Greyjoy can use Iron Fleet Scouts for example. You could also use Song of Summer as anti Baratheon “you don’t stand in Standing” tech. All of the other 2 cost stand characters require sacrifice or bestow, this is strong.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 5 out of 5Maybe the best card in the box? Stand stronk. We eagerly await Highgarden Bushi.scantrell24 - 2.5 out of 5He’s alright. Anti-synergy with Mare in Heat, but he survives Blood of the Dragon unlike Arbor Knight.Von Wibble - 3 out of 5Good strength for the cost, and can make a perfectly decent first challenger in a Crossing deck or chud block. There is nothing preventing you putting him into the challenge with another character, just to prevent challenge removal tech having an impact. In a Knight deck he can gain renown from the plot and power from Lady Sansa’s Rose, as well as improving the Green Apple Knight and Hedge Knight.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 4 out of 5Good in draft. JC lower on this, citing that Tyrell already have loads of efficient knights that aren’t so restrictive in their use; Ire and Istaril like it however, citing the efficiency and there often being challenges he’s happy to attack/defend with a single chud character. Drakey’s lost interest, citing being on holiday in Japan, and won’t be able to contribute to the remaining cards sadly.scantrell24 - 4.5 out of 5It’s obviously a powerful card advantage and economy engine, but I’m nervous about investing 4 gold in a location with so much Greyjoy in the meta. It’s also a weak topdeck in the late game.Von Wibble - 5 out of 5Assuming you plan to ambush characters regularly, or use Flea Bottom, this location is netting you 2 gold and 2 cards per turn, making it more effective for your economy overall than the Arbor. It gets even sillier with Mace around. This plus Arbor is a Tyrell players dream setup, though a certain plot released in this box may come back to bite you.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 4 out of 5The cost is both a boon and a bust here, as it protects from the more common location hate cards while being a hell of a tempo hit. With Tyrell already running a fair few Ambush cards and Flea Bottom it’s really not difficult to get 2 triggers a round from this - but to get truly abusive you’re going to need to build around it a lot more.scantrell24 - 5 out of 5Bonkers. 2 gold is a much more manageable tempo hit than the Arbor’s 4 gold, and if it gets blown up by We Do Not Sow / stolen by Euron, you’re only mostly screwed instead of completely screwed.Von Wibble - 5 out of 5Two thirds of an Arbor for half the price, what’s not to like?Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 5 out of 5Yup, indeed. Moving along...scantrell24 - 3 out of 5An obvious 3x card in Knight decks, and not worth running otherwise. Useful but not overpowered, much like Iron Fleet Scout. It’s a passive ability, not a trigger, so it applies even if you don’t want it (ex: to trigger Mare in Heat).Von Wibble - 4 out of 5Excellent setup card, clearly an easy include in a Knight heavy deck. I’d say worth considering if you have 12 or more Knights in the deck - and it will get silly if you have more than 1 out. My rating could be too high or too low based on how competitive knights turn out to be.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 3 out of 5Worse than, say, Iron Fleet Scouts - although non-kneeling is a big help here. This is clearly only going in one deck, but it probably slots in there simply for setup efficiency. Ire somewhat more skeptical than JC and Istaril.scantrell24 - 3 out of 5Worth a look in Rains decks to help get that +5 intrigue win. It’s yet another headache for opponents. Put Highgarden, Ballabar, and this card together in a deck and watch the analysis paralysis set in.Von Wibble - 4 out of 5This card will cause a lot of challenge headaches - as it should do given its cost. Very powerful on the Queen of Thorns as she triggers when knelt, but also acts as another way to ensure characters like Mirri get to win challenges alone. As a non loyal card it should also be noted that characters like Daenerys and Asha can make use of this. Finally there is nothing stopping you removing your own characters if your opponent has chosen to overcommit to the challenge. This card has a lot of potential.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 2 out of 5It’s a fun card, but in practice it’s a worse Mare in Heat. Should’ve been cheaper given the trait restriction - FFG really need to rethink these pisspoor positive attachments.scantrell24 - 2 out of 5A luxury, not a necessity. Combos nicely with the next card though.Von Wibble - 2.5 out of 5Its decent enough, clearly for Knight decks only as so many of the other cards have been. If you give it to the new Knight of Flowers he become the old Knight of Flowers with bonus text, I like that.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 1 out of 5Why would we ever run this rather than, like, a Knight? Please stop overpricing positive attachments, binders only need so much fodder!scantrell24 - 3 out of 5I want to love it, because the ability is flashy and cool. But Growing Strong does almost the same thing (push through a challenge) for cheaper, while also triggering Randyll and Highgarden Courtier. Maybe this belongs in a Knight deck that’s light on renown outside of your Tourney for the King turn.Von Wibble - 3.5 out of 5This card can get silly if you have 1 big guy in the challenge and they try to defend with smaller ones. I see the renown as a bonus really as often your biggest guy will already have it - for example Gregor Clegane. This card really punishes the opponent for overcommitting - which is a shame for them given that so many cards encourage this! However, the cost can be steep and Hands Judgement can make you very sad.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 1 out of 5It’s a nice idea, but it costs one more than you’d like at every step of functionality. Are you cutting Renly’s Ride for this?scantrell24 - 3.5 out of 5Lady-in-Waiting gives Ladies some staying power, so it’s not difficult to keep 3 or 4 on the board consistently in a Tyrell Wolf deck.Von Wibble - 3.5 out of 5Paying 2 gold and a card for anything less than 3 cards seems weak to me. Fortunately Tyrell have a decent chance of having 3 or more ladies, at which point it’s a very solid effect.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 2 out of 5Could be fun with Emissary/Annals to retrigger it, but primarily this is failing the “is the new non-setuppable draw card for Tyrell better than Pleasure Barge” test that we just made up. Could sneak in as a 1x in the right deck.scantrell24 - 3.5 out of 5Hidden Thorns is the inverse of Insidious Schemes - a card I thought would see more play than it has since the Lions release. Taking cards away from an opponent is usually stronger than drawing cards for yourself because it disrupts carefully laid plans, so it’s worth trying in Tyrell Rains, Tyrell Winter, and Lanni Rose.Von Wibble - 3.5 out of 5It may be green, but this is surely a Lannister card! Or maybe Martell. At any rate, having your opponent discard 2 cards, followed by intrigue claim, with maybe a Wardens of the West on top in a Lanni Rose deck - that has to hurt early game. Lanni Rose may finally have an enabler for all those nice “if your opponent has no cards in hand” cards.Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 2 out of 5We’d be higher if it wasn’t for the win-by-5, which pigeonholes it somewhat. You need Queen of Thorns out to make this justifiable, and we’re not sold that’s there yet. To complete CGDB review bingo, you might say it’s the kind of card you have to build a deck around to truly exploit, and we don’t have the support yet.scantrell24 - 4.5 out of 5Compares favorably to Song of Summer. It’s a bigger boost, but only for Tyrell characters, and only when they’re declared in a challenge. I’m not sure if non-Summer decks will want it. Probably yes, as there’s going to be a turn where you need to push through challenges, but it doesn’t do normal plot things like reset the board, draw cards, grant big money, etc. so it may get squeezed out occasionally.Von Wibble - 5 out of 5Mediocre stats, but once you have your Arbor and Redwyne Straits out who needs gold on plots? The effect is really strong, it’s a shame Tony Makos wasn’t part of the design team for this as we all know what his advice would have been. “Put a $*^£%*£ limit on it!”Quill & Tankard Curmudgeons - 4 out of 5So 2.0, wow. It’s a very Tyrell, very good constructive plot. But its Tyrell-goodliness is matched by its blandness. The high rating here may bely how much play it actually sees, with plot decks being so tight - remember when Wardens of the North was going to go in every Stark deck, ever? Now it just goes in some Stark decks, sometimes.Highgarden Courtier 5.0Redwyne Straits 5.0Mace Tyrell 4.7Wardens of the South 4.5Hightower 4.5Tourney Lance 1.8Brienne of Tarth 2.2Melee at Bitterbridge 2.5The Blue Bard 2.5If you're hungry for more content, check out the library of podcasts, articles, game video and more in the Community FAQ . Let us know in the comments how you feel about the cards in this box, and we’ll see you again soon to discuss either The Archmaester’s Key!