Announcing the Fourth Chapter Pack in the Wardens Cycle

“My lords, with your leave, I propose to travel to the Vale and there woo and win Lady Lysa Arryn. Once I am her consort, I shall deliver you the Vale of Arryn without a drop of blood being spilled.”
    –Littlefinger

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of A Time for Wolves, the fourth Chapter Pack in the Wardens cycle for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game!

While the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros were rocked by war, the lords and ladies of the Vale remained aloof and apart, separated from the tumult by steep mountains and treacherous mountain passes. Now, as the cards in A Time for Wolves explore the power struggles of the war’s aftermath, they find the lords and ladies of King’s Landing hatching new schemes and seeking new political alliances. A new king sits the Iron Throne, but the crown is vulnerable. Thus, in A Time for Wolves, we find some of the realm’s most ambitious lords and ladies casting their gaze toward the Eyrie and House Arryn, eager to reinforce their strength with that of the Vale.

A Time for Wolves introduces sixty new cards (three copies each of twenty different cards) that ensure House Arryn and the Vale will soon make a massive impact upon A Game of Thrones: The Card Game. You’ll find no fewer than five cards with the House Arryn trait, including such notable characters as Petyr Baelish (A Time for Wolves, 77), Alayne Stone (A Time for Wolves, 71), and Lysa Arryn (A Time for Wolves, 76). Furthermore, as part of the Wardens cycle, A Time for Wolves adds more strength to decks that feature characters who cost four or more, more trait-based synergies, more interactions with the game’s Castle plots, and more “limited response” abilities for you to trigger.

New Strength for the Creature Trait

One of the cards in A Time for Wolves that adds to the focus that the Wardens cycle places upon trait-based synergies is the Chapter Pack’s namesake plot, A Time for Wolves (A Time for Wolves, 80).

Designed by 2012 North American Overall Champion Dan Seefeldt, A Time for Wolves offers a respectable three gold, three initiative, and one claim. But its highlight is that it introduces a powerful, new search effect that can add strength and utility to a wide variety of decks:

• Creatures are at the hearts of the vast majority of all Winter and Summer decks, and they can use A Time for Wolves to search for White Raven (The Winds of Winter, 24) or Black Raven (A Song of Summer, 2). Of course, these decks most often run another search plot, A Time for Ravens (A Change of Seasons, 59), but adding A Time for Wolves to such a deck gives it an extra edge in a seasons battle. At the very least, it can allow you to fetch a Carrion Bird (A Song of Summer, 16), which remains one of the game’s most efficient and effective characters.
• In A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, Dragons all share the Creature subtype, meaning that A Time for Wolves has a plenty to offer House Targaryen. Whether you search for the Shadows-crested hatchlings from the Queen of Dragons deluxe expansion, the one-cost hatchlings from the Defenders of the North and Brotherhood Without Borders cycles, or the new three-cost versions from A Hidden Agenda, this plot can help you quickly assemble a full strike force of Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion.
• The plot may also lead to some unexpected twists in deck designs, spurring the introduction of various Creatures, such as Warhorses, into archetypes that wouldn’t previously had made use of them. For example, Lannister decks based around the extra Intrigue challenges granted by The Power Behind the Throne (Lions of the Rock, 48) might add A Time for Wolves and one or two copies of Andal Charger (A Poisoned Spear, 104) so that Cersei Lannister (Lions of the Rock, 6), or another character capable of winning Intrigue challenges while attacking by itself, could carve the cards of your choice out of your opponent’s hand.

However, as you might expect, A Time for Wolves provides the greatest boost to House Stark. Excepting the neutral version of Ghost (Core Set, 137), every Direwolf in the game has given its unwavering support to Stark, and in decks that run one or more Direwolf cards, A Time for Wolves is more than a search effect; it’s also a free card play.

• Notably, in a deck with Direwolves, A Time for Wolves is a free card play in the Plot phase. If you suspect that your opponent is about to play Valar Morghulis (Core Set, 201), you can reveal A Time for Wolves to pull Nymeria (Core Set, 2) out of your deck and attach it to your most important House Stark character.
• In fact, since A Time for Wolves lets you play any Direwolf, not just characters, you can accelerate your Direwolf attachment decks by fetching Shaggydog (Lords of Winter, 3) or Grey Wind (Lords of Winter, 2) and bringing it immediately into play.
• Finally, there is the House Stark version of Ghost (The Wildling Horde, 61), which multiplies the impact of one of the Starks’ strongest characters, Meera Reed (Tourney for the Hand, 2). When she comes out of Shadows, Meera Reed can blank the text box of any non-plot card until the end of the phase, or if it is Winter, she can blank the text boxes of two different cards. This ability is just as powerful as it sounds, and it can single-handedly render your opponent’s biggest threats impotent. However, Meera’s ability to blank cards only triggers when she comes out of Shadows, and even though she can return to Shadows as a Response whenever a Stark character leaves play, a cunning opponent isn’t going to direct any Military challenges at you or otherwise help you remove Stark characters from the table until Meera is headed for the dead pile. This is where Ghost comes into play or, rather, uses its ability to leave play. Once you have both Meera and Ghost on the table, you gain the ability to blank your opponent’s cards turn after turn, bringing Meera out of Shadows, returning Ghost to your hand, returning Meera to Shadows, and playing Ghost again in your next Marshaling phase.

Because of all of the different tricks and tactics that it can promote, A Time for Wolves adds new strength to the Wardens cycle and its focus on trait-based decks, and it is likely to soon earn its place among the game’s most versatile Champion cards.

Anything Is Possible

In A Time for Wolves, the heads of House Arryn begin to extend their reach beyond the Vale, making their first moves in the ongoing game of thrones and their bid for the Iron Throne. Still, the question remains: Whose side will they take? As neutral characters, the members of House Arryn can add their strength to any House. Will they side with the Direwolves of House Stark or the Dragons of House Targaryen? Will Lysa Arryn lend her support to Renly and his Rainbow Guard, or will she help House Martell and its Sand Snakes claim vengeance against House Lannister? Twelve unique characters and locations lend new direction to a wide range of strategies, and anything is possible.

A Time for Wolves is scheduled to arrive at retailers late in the fourth quarter of 2014.

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