For this week's break from competitive play, let's take a look at the Hand of the King alternate rules.
In many ways Hand of the King is the complete opposite to the Civil War rules we talked about last week. Hand of the King adds very little time to setup but complicates play. (both through the rules that dictate when and how a Hand enters and leaves play AND because the Hand is immune to non-hand rules gold moving card effects)
Due to it's potentially complex interactions, deep strategic options, and on-the fly customization (you could start with a different unique character from your deck in every game) Hand of the King is definitely a competitive build. However, it could be argued that HotK is best suited for an unusual and rarely talked about scene: the comfy couch meta. That is to say, a small group of players with moderately strong understanding of AGoT's core rules and enjoy slightly competitive play, but don't construct custom decks and/or have a small card pool to draw from.
The argument to support this is simple: in a true competitive meta, HotK presents hyper OP/broken play opportunities, which dramatically disadvantage new and less experienced players even more than the base game does already. (eg Reek can infinitely steal an opponent's characters, since he only loses a gold instead changing control) Furthermore, since it is not an tournament legal play style, it may be difficult to entice a competitive group to invest in it.
Regardless, for those small groups of players who enjoy the game at home, a single core set box can provide many interesting options. (eg Stark's lack of intrigue icons getting you down? Choose Catelyn and by round 3 you will always have at least 1 intrigue icon in play, and a useful character ability to boot. Or heck, just choose Bran and churn through your plot deck as rapidly as you want)
As stated earlier, HotK is not great for new players. However, given
experienced players, it can combine with Civil War rules for added flavor and stability. (eg since Civil War decks can have draw issues, starting with a character with on-card draw like Tommen is a huge thing) While it's probably too clunky for brick and mortar retail, it's not impossible and the added 'newness' to each Civil War + HotK game may excite experienced players to participate with new players. (especially if you draft your hand)
As a closing thought, imagine Hand of the King's rules repurposed as an agenda. Would it suffer the fate of House of Dreams and feel like it had miles of potential but only a few really bonkers good starting choices, or would the natural delay of more expensive characters balance it out? Love to hear your comments below.
Hand of the King as an agenda sounds kinda interesting, although I'd imagine just like HoD you'd have to somewhat build around it, no?
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ReplyDeleteThe challenge would be making 1-2 cost characters less advantage, as they can get rolling way earlier than 3+ cost characters and bypassing normal penalties can really over power some effects. For example:
ReplyDeleteStark: Discard to kill Arya becomes a regular extra target kill without need of recurrsion or dupes; 5-claim Bran has no downside since being killed only resets him for the next round; Jayne Westerling basically gives you free Kings and Riders of the Fork all game long; Ser Kyle Condon improves your draw without clogging your deck top; Lucas Blackwood gives you and extra military challenge every round (which is huge, even without Siege) and Reek is bananas. Heck, even Shaggydog and Hodor give you big fire power right away.
Lanni: Penny gives them turn 1 kneel/hand control; Tommen gives them turn 1 card advantage and Myrcella gives them turn 2 triple intrigue challenges.
Bara: Probably has the best 3+ cost characters but still, Willis Tyrell is no longer truly limited by his Ally trait making Lanni/Martell decks nearly auto screwed.
GJ: Turn 2 extra save or cancel?
Martell and Targ are weakest over all but what's not to love about Missendai or Maester Kendry? They become weaker Knights of the Hollow Hill... with setup.
So yeah, I think the idea is sound, and I like the risk factor for bigger characters but it's probably too big a risk, given how good the weenies are. In some cases, the weenies are just better than regular agendas too. Tommen, for example, is almost always better than Kings of Summer or Knights of the Realm, since you dont need to build the deck any which way to get his card draw. Penny is certainly a nightmare too...
maybe if the Agenda actually had a "Restricted" keyword?
[test]: p-843-213-423
ReplyDeleteI think the Hand of the King would have to be a Restricted agenda. Some of the examples you mention I think could be abused if matched with other restricted cards.
ReplyDeleteI've never played any of the "alt" games myself--since the core game has already been so deep, but your posts are pushing me towards trying them out sometime...