Quill & Tankard Regulars - Volume 2, Issue 11

The bloody bird’s gonna poop on me, innit?

Nah, looks like it just likes yer head fer a chair?

That’s bad news, as my head’s too lumpy - it’ll quickly slip off and claw my face to shreds.

Oh come now, it’s just taking a little nap, innit?

“Dark Wings, Dark Dreams”, like they say… it’ll see a nightmare and *then* claw my face off in response.

I’m pretty sure you got that somehow wrong…

*Splat*

Huh. Didn’t know they could %#¤% while sleeping. Fetch me an apprentice, I need to make notes for my research!

With Summer at hand and Regionals season wrapping up, the Quill & Tankard Inn has been somewhat quieter than is typical, as our usual focus on rules minutiae has mostly been spent on… well, actually testing decks, playing the game and other lesser callings.

While we’re still somewhat engaged on that front, there was such a curious Raven sent our way, with a message requiring quick dissemination!

Without further ado, yon Raven’s Message:

The Raven’s Message

The Raven’s Message exclusively reveals and discusses an up-and-coming, either mechanically or rules-wise interesting, card. The cards are from future products, and have been obtained directly via raven from the Archmaesters at the (FFG) Citadel.

Second edition has reached another milestone, having completed its first Chapter Pack Cycle and even started off with the second one. It’s nearing its pre-release 1 yr anniversary at Gencon. While the first Cycle wasn’t particularly kind to the poor bastards manning The Wall, the second one has already started off on a much better note. Hopefully, we’ll be continuing on that trend here… although thematically our card in question would likely have a very different view on his likely impact. He’d probably say that he’s doomed to constantly die in embarrassing and painful ways after futile attempts at making a difference. Oh Dolorous Edd, how we love your staunch pessimism in the face of any challenge.

Dolorous Edd is a unique card in the game in many ways, and one of those cards that brings strong echoes from a differently titled 1.0 card... with some very important differences. What Dolorous Edd does is pretty straightforward: During any intrigue challenge in which you are the defending player, you can kneel your Faction card (as a cost) to put him into play knelt, as a defender. As with cards like the Winterfell Kennel Master, this works around limits on declaring defenders, such as that from Jousting Contest. As a bonus, if you happen to win the Challenge on defense, you can even elect to return him back into the safety of your hand for a repeat performance next turn!

Note that the timing here means the Night's Watch player will choose whether he returns to hand or not before any reactions to the challenge resolution - this means you can't, for instance, let the opponent trigger Maester Caleotte’s reaction to remove Edd’s intrigue icon only to pull him back to relative safety. You must either already have returned him to hand in the “determine winner” step and let them target someone else, or leave him out and face whatever consequences may come his way.

The 1.0 card that Dolorous Edd feels like a descendant of is the infamous “Jumping Cat”, which found it’s way into almost every single 1.0 competitive Stark build - and for good reason. A card that some learned to love to hate… or hated to love. As can be seen when contrasting the cards, Catelyn’s scope was wider as she could defend both Power and Intrigue Challenges, and her returning to hand was unconditional and happened at the end of the turn.

Now, once Valar Morghulis hits, it will likely quickly be found that the return being conditional on Edd makes him a bit less omnipresent. The change in the timing of the return to hand is a double-edged sword on the other hand… in one hand, you get Edd into your hand more quickly and leave a less time for anything bad to happen to him, while on the other hand staying until the end of the phase could have been nice with Castle Black to also be able to do an attack before bouncing away (a move often seen in 1.0 with Jumping Cat & Frozen Outpost, the 1.0 ancestor of Castle Black).

The really interesting part with Dolorous Edd is that he’ll be the first non-Ambush / gold cost Jumper card (one that can enter play from hand during challenges) entering the 2.0 environment. In 1.0, we had plenty of them, and obviously they were some of the most powerful and oft seen cards around. In that regard, it’s interesting to note the Faction card kneel as a cost here. A pattern that seems to be echoed in the Moon Brothers (spoiled by FFG from the upcoming Lions of Casterly Rock expansion). It seems that something has been learned from 1.0 and things are rarely truly “free” in 2.0.

If Faction card kneels are indeed the cost-of-choice for Jumpers, this means some interesting things for the game - most obviously due to the anti-synergy with Fealty. The Night’s Watch is already poised quite nicely to take advantage of either Kings of Winter (for a Choke build) or Kings of Summer (to fix their economic issues), and Dolorous Edd gives further incentive to move in that direction.

So, what does Edd do to the Night’s Watch in the current Meta? Mostly, he seems to fit as another 1x unique, which will further help alleviate the First Snow weakness (making opponents think twice before doing an intrigue during their First Snow round, simply by existing - take that Tyrion!). Together with Arry from the first CP, the Watch’s somewhat weaker presence in the intrigue challenge seems to be quickly closing up… and they are shedding their somewhat “static” Challenges nature by quickly developing more methods of surprise defense during a Challenge.

Whatever Edd himself may say on the matter, it seems like taking the black is looking more and more like a tempting prospect. Well, not Take the Black

- that’s still middling.

Antti Korventausta (WWDrakey )

is a self-proclaimed Finnish AGoT philosopher and doomsayer hermit, who used to practice Quantum Mechanics, but found that it paled to AGoT in both interest and complexity. Having played and judged for more years than he would like to admit, he has found himself on the winning side of rules arguments more than he would expect. In any game he plays, he has a tendency of playing anything he considers to be off the beaten path, whether it makes sense to others or not

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H

elmut Hohberger (Ratatoskr) started playing AGoT in September 2010 and has never looked back (although his wife has, longingly). As a German, he loves rules - and I mean *loves* 'em. He is the quintessential rules board morlock. While the others played and frolicked about outside, he sat by candlelight in a remote corner of the library and tried to get a grasp on the intricacies of the 1st edition rules. He even thought he did not do too bad at it, but then the Call of the Three-Eyed Crow drove him into the darkest depths of madness and despair. But he’s all better now, honest, and looking forward to new challenges.

Iiro Jalonen (Ire) Started AGoT in 2009, got pulled under the waves by Krakens years ago, and has never looked back. While not an Oldtown local, he has often been spotted in the Quill & Tankard Inn making sure that the rules of sportsmanship are maintained with the traditional finger dance games. A self-inflicted Shagga and active member of the global AGoT community, he has always strived to know the rules of the game, in order to make them do ridiculous things.

James Waumsley (JCWamma) is a first edition veteran who has judged at multiple large tournaments including the European championship of Stahleck. A renowned loudmouth and pedant, he will shout about the rules loud enough that he can be heard by those north of the wall.

Alex Hynes (Istaril) co-hosts Beyond the Wall, writes articles for FFG, created and curates the Annals - and even tried to fill in ktom’s shoes in the big ktom drought of 2013. When the Regulars asked him to be an honorary member, he, of course, refused and said he didn’t have the time. Or should have, anyway. Still, how much work can being an “Honorary” member be?