Do you like Magic: the Gathering and George R.R. Martin's world of 'Ice and Fire' (or the 'Game of Thrones' tv show)? Then I have good news for you: over the course of three years, I've been homebrewing my own MtG 'Thrones' set, which includes all the memorable characters, events, major houses and locations from the stories. Also: spoiler alert.
What makes this better than other 'Thrones' MtG homebrews?
I've taken care to use correct templating and game technology and most, if not all cards are actually appropriate for their color(s), casting cost and power level. Another unique feature is that I have created new abilities and keywords to let the cards stand out as well as enhance their flavour.
What makes this better than other 'Thrones' MtG homebrews?
I've taken care to use correct templating and game technology and most, if not all cards are actually appropriate for their color(s), casting cost and power level. Another unique feature is that I have created new abilities and keywords to let the cards stand out as well as enhance their flavour.
Is this set playable?
Yes.
Is it based on the tv show or on the novels?
A bit of both. Many images are stills from the show but many flavour texts were taken from novel-sourced material as well as the fantastic Wiki of Ice & Fire. Other images come from Googled sources, so if you happen to see an image that you created, tell me and I'll update the card. I'm not making money off of this and I have no intention of doing so.
Unique supertypes and types
The Sigil supertype is used for cards that are based on House words. There are 17 Sigil cards. Most of them are enchantments but there are also 4 sorceries, 2 instants and 1 artifact. The Houses that have gotten Sigils are all the Great Houses (Stark, Greyjoy, Tully, Tyrell, Martel, Lannister and Arryn) plus a few other notable Houses; Bolton, Royce, Tarly, Karstark, Mormont, Frey and the new House of king Bran the Broken.
In addition, some cards interact with Sigils in meaningful ways, such as Astrolabe's Spinning, Open the Scroll, Riverland Trout, Cersei Lannister, Peasant Revolt and Tome of Heraldry.
The Seven enchantment type and the Kingdom land type are of course heavily tied to the flavour of George R.R. Martin's legendarium. There are 7 Seven cards (Judgment of the Father, Presence of the Stranger, Ferocity of the Warrior, Calm of the Mother, Wisdom of the Crone, Craft of the Smith and Innocence of the Maiden), all tied to the septry of Westeros's biggest religion. There 11 Kingdom cards. If you control 7 permanents of either Sevens or Kingdoms, you win the game.
Demise is a type of instant or sorcery that refers to the death of a major character. All colors except blue have 4 Demise cards. Demise cards make it easier to deal with the threat of creatures with kingship (I'll discuss them in an instant). Characters who have gotten Demise cards are Aerys, Dany, Mance, Stannis, Joffrey, Renly, Robb, the Slavers, Balon, Euron, Tommen, Viserys, Cersei and Jaime, Khal Drogo, the Night King and Robert.
Lastly there is the Plot instant or sorcery type. Plots interact with Demises and with each other. There are 10 Plot cards, each colour pair has one, and each of them lets you search for a Demise card, while most of them also let you search for a card with kingship, representing the very political nature of the world 'Ice & Fire' is set in. Players can always choose two our of a Plot's four possible acts. The following characters have Plot cards: Brienne, the Night King, Ramsay, Tormund, Lyanna, Tywin, Littlefinger, Olenna, Yohn and the Three-Eyed Raven.
Kingship
Kingship is a static creature ability that reads: 'Whenever you would lose life or a permanent you control would be put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may instead sacrifice a permanent'.
In effect, this allows you to treat your permanents are a resource in lieu of life, or can let you keep permanents alive by trading them for another. Obviously, this ability protects the king (or queen) itself, but you can also use it for other measures. There are 25 cards with kingship, most of them centered in white, black and red, since they are the colors that are concerned the most with bare political power. The enchantment Council at the Dragon Pit and the Kingsmoot sorcery can grant a creature kingship. Dany has three cards with kingship, reflecting her evolution as a character. Most creatures with kingship are Nobles, though 2 of them are Pirates (Euron and Balon Greyjoy), 2 of them are Soldiers (Robert and Stannis Baratheon, reflecting their martial background) and 5 of them are Barbarians (the Khals and the Free Folk Magnars).
Many other cards interact with the kingship ability, such as the aforementioned Demise and Plot cards, in fact, more than 50 cards care about kingship in one way or another, reflecting the huge importance of the ruling class in the societies of Westeros and Essos. These cards include the Master titles for people on the Small Council.
Chainlink
Chainlink is a creature ability closely associated with the maesters of Westeros, named after the chains they wear, where each link represents mastery in a certain field of study. The ability is centered in blue but bleeds out to white and green as well. There are 11 creatures with the ability and one Equipment that can bestow it. Most of them are Clerics.
The ability reads: "Chainlink X (Whenever you cast a spell, you may cast another card from your hand with converted mana cost X or less without paying its mana cost.)" It is obviously a very powerful ability and tends to go on creatures with a rather weak body, or, at any rate, little power.
Formation
Formation is a creature ability that reads "Formation X (~ gets +X/+X until end of turn for each other attacking or blocking creature you control.)" and is meant to invoke the spirit of battlefield solidarity and the professional soldiery classes of Westeros and Essos. The ability is centered in white and there are 23 creatures that have it.
Strength
Strength functions like a mini-prowess, but cares about spells of a certain color instead ("whenever you cast a N spell, ~ gets +1/+1 until end of turn). 23 creatures have it, as well as 4 artifacts. The ability is centered in blue and red but also appears in white and black. Strength can cover multiple colours at once. It refers to religious or psychological devotion to a certain strand of magic and can often be found in followers of the Drowned God or followers of the Red God.
Greensight
Greensight is the in-universe ability to interact with far-away places in space and time and is tied to the worship of weirwood trees and the Old Gods. It is written like this: "Greensight X (Whenever you cast a spell, you may pay X. If you do, proliferate.)". Unsurprisingly, this ability is centered in green. 11 creatures have it. Incidentally, I believe this is the first time in MtG that a keyword ability refers to another ability (proliferate)!
Other cycles
There are two other noteworthy creature cycles. One of them is one of off-colour activators, with an activated ability in a colour adjacent to the colour they are: the High Sparrow, Blessing of the Drowned God, Commander Locke, Greatjon Umber and Anguy the Archer. There are also five creature cards with abilities located in 'shard' colours: Jon Snow, the White Wolf; Edd Tollett, Lord Commander; Janos Slynt, Goldcloak Captain; Commander Jaime Lannister; and Tormund Giantsbane.
Snow
The Snow supertype, officially first seen in MtG's Coldsnap (the belated third set of the Ice Age block), though the use of Snow-covered lands was already built into the previous Ice Age sets, makes a return with the creatures from the Lands of Always Winter, mainly the Others (called White Walkers in the tv show) and their armies of wights. There are 56 cards with the Snow supertype and while they appear in every colour, they are most frequent in green and black.
Dual, tri- and quadra lands
There are 10 dual lands, one for each colour pair, 10 tri-lands and 5 quadra lands (Casterly Rock, Qartheen Market, Harrenhal, Sunspear and Winterfell). The quadra lands let you add any of four colours if a certain condition has been met, while the dual and the tri-lands each have an additional ability as well. There are also four different basic lands and one snow basic land for each color of mana.
House and city animals
Although in terms of creatures, this set is overwhelmingly populated with humans, there are animals as well. These include the animals associated with each of the Seven Kingdoms (Eyrie Falcon, Crownland Stag, Riverland Trout, Sunset Sea Kraken, Rose of the Reach, Dornish Snake, Westerland Lion and Northern Direwolf) as well as animals from Essos, such as the elephant and tiger associated with Volantis and the Qohorik black goat.
Returning MtG card technology
Some older keywords I have re-used, mostly for flavour reasons. These include infect, poison, exalted, convoke and shadow. Sometimes, the wheel doesn't need to be reinvented at all. For instance, shadow was a perfect fit for the shadow-born assassin birthed by Melisandre, while exalted snugly fits the personalities of solo players like Sandor Clegane or Brynden Tully.
Set composition
My 'Thrones' set includes 55 cards of each colour, 27 artifacts, 5 other colorless cards that aren't lands, 71 lands and 223 multicolour cards. There are 226 commons, 162 uncommons, 119 rares and 24 mythic rares, all neatly divided across colour. Each multicolour pair has 13 cards and each tri-colour combination has 5 cards. Each quadra-colour combination has 1 card.
Is it based on the tv show or on the novels?
A bit of both. Many images are stills from the show but many flavour texts were taken from novel-sourced material as well as the fantastic Wiki of Ice & Fire. Other images come from Googled sources, so if you happen to see an image that you created, tell me and I'll update the card. I'm not making money off of this and I have no intention of doing so.
Unique supertypes and types
The Sigil supertype is used for cards that are based on House words. There are 17 Sigil cards. Most of them are enchantments but there are also 4 sorceries, 2 instants and 1 artifact. The Houses that have gotten Sigils are all the Great Houses (Stark, Greyjoy, Tully, Tyrell, Martel, Lannister and Arryn) plus a few other notable Houses; Bolton, Royce, Tarly, Karstark, Mormont, Frey and the new House of king Bran the Broken.
In addition, some cards interact with Sigils in meaningful ways, such as Astrolabe's Spinning, Open the Scroll, Riverland Trout, Cersei Lannister, Peasant Revolt and Tome of Heraldry.
The Seven enchantment type and the Kingdom land type are of course heavily tied to the flavour of George R.R. Martin's legendarium. There are 7 Seven cards (Judgment of the Father, Presence of the Stranger, Ferocity of the Warrior, Calm of the Mother, Wisdom of the Crone, Craft of the Smith and Innocence of the Maiden), all tied to the septry of Westeros's biggest religion. There 11 Kingdom cards. If you control 7 permanents of either Sevens or Kingdoms, you win the game.
Demise is a type of instant or sorcery that refers to the death of a major character. All colors except blue have 4 Demise cards. Demise cards make it easier to deal with the threat of creatures with kingship (I'll discuss them in an instant). Characters who have gotten Demise cards are Aerys, Dany, Mance, Stannis, Joffrey, Renly, Robb, the Slavers, Balon, Euron, Tommen, Viserys, Cersei and Jaime, Khal Drogo, the Night King and Robert.
Lastly there is the Plot instant or sorcery type. Plots interact with Demises and with each other. There are 10 Plot cards, each colour pair has one, and each of them lets you search for a Demise card, while most of them also let you search for a card with kingship, representing the very political nature of the world 'Ice & Fire' is set in. Players can always choose two our of a Plot's four possible acts. The following characters have Plot cards: Brienne, the Night King, Ramsay, Tormund, Lyanna, Tywin, Littlefinger, Olenna, Yohn and the Three-Eyed Raven.
Kingship
Kingship is a static creature ability that reads: 'Whenever you would lose life or a permanent you control would be put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may instead sacrifice a permanent'.
In effect, this allows you to treat your permanents are a resource in lieu of life, or can let you keep permanents alive by trading them for another. Obviously, this ability protects the king (or queen) itself, but you can also use it for other measures. There are 25 cards with kingship, most of them centered in white, black and red, since they are the colors that are concerned the most with bare political power. The enchantment Council at the Dragon Pit and the Kingsmoot sorcery can grant a creature kingship. Dany has three cards with kingship, reflecting her evolution as a character. Most creatures with kingship are Nobles, though 2 of them are Pirates (Euron and Balon Greyjoy), 2 of them are Soldiers (Robert and Stannis Baratheon, reflecting their martial background) and 5 of them are Barbarians (the Khals and the Free Folk Magnars).
Many other cards interact with the kingship ability, such as the aforementioned Demise and Plot cards, in fact, more than 50 cards care about kingship in one way or another, reflecting the huge importance of the ruling class in the societies of Westeros and Essos. These cards include the Master titles for people on the Small Council.
Chainlink
Chainlink is a creature ability closely associated with the maesters of Westeros, named after the chains they wear, where each link represents mastery in a certain field of study. The ability is centered in blue but bleeds out to white and green as well. There are 11 creatures with the ability and one Equipment that can bestow it. Most of them are Clerics.
The ability reads: "Chainlink X (Whenever you cast a spell, you may cast another card from your hand with converted mana cost X or less without paying its mana cost.)" It is obviously a very powerful ability and tends to go on creatures with a rather weak body, or, at any rate, little power.
Formation
Formation is a creature ability that reads "Formation X (~ gets +X/+X until end of turn for each other attacking or blocking creature you control.)" and is meant to invoke the spirit of battlefield solidarity and the professional soldiery classes of Westeros and Essos. The ability is centered in white and there are 23 creatures that have it.
Strength
Strength functions like a mini-prowess, but cares about spells of a certain color instead ("whenever you cast a N spell, ~ gets +1/+1 until end of turn). 23 creatures have it, as well as 4 artifacts. The ability is centered in blue and red but also appears in white and black. Strength can cover multiple colours at once. It refers to religious or psychological devotion to a certain strand of magic and can often be found in followers of the Drowned God or followers of the Red God.
Greensight
Greensight is the in-universe ability to interact with far-away places in space and time and is tied to the worship of weirwood trees and the Old Gods. It is written like this: "Greensight X (Whenever you cast a spell, you may pay X. If you do, proliferate.)". Unsurprisingly, this ability is centered in green. 11 creatures have it. Incidentally, I believe this is the first time in MtG that a keyword ability refers to another ability (proliferate)!
Other cycles
There are two other noteworthy creature cycles. One of them is one of off-colour activators, with an activated ability in a colour adjacent to the colour they are: the High Sparrow, Blessing of the Drowned God, Commander Locke, Greatjon Umber and Anguy the Archer. There are also five creature cards with abilities located in 'shard' colours: Jon Snow, the White Wolf; Edd Tollett, Lord Commander; Janos Slynt, Goldcloak Captain; Commander Jaime Lannister; and Tormund Giantsbane.
Snow
The Snow supertype, officially first seen in MtG's Coldsnap (the belated third set of the Ice Age block), though the use of Snow-covered lands was already built into the previous Ice Age sets, makes a return with the creatures from the Lands of Always Winter, mainly the Others (called White Walkers in the tv show) and their armies of wights. There are 56 cards with the Snow supertype and while they appear in every colour, they are most frequent in green and black.
Dual, tri- and quadra lands
There are 10 dual lands, one for each colour pair, 10 tri-lands and 5 quadra lands (Casterly Rock, Qartheen Market, Harrenhal, Sunspear and Winterfell). The quadra lands let you add any of four colours if a certain condition has been met, while the dual and the tri-lands each have an additional ability as well. There are also four different basic lands and one snow basic land for each color of mana.
House and city animals
Although in terms of creatures, this set is overwhelmingly populated with humans, there are animals as well. These include the animals associated with each of the Seven Kingdoms (Eyrie Falcon, Crownland Stag, Riverland Trout, Sunset Sea Kraken, Rose of the Reach, Dornish Snake, Westerland Lion and Northern Direwolf) as well as animals from Essos, such as the elephant and tiger associated with Volantis and the Qohorik black goat.
Returning MtG card technology
Some older keywords I have re-used, mostly for flavour reasons. These include infect, poison, exalted, convoke and shadow. Sometimes, the wheel doesn't need to be reinvented at all. For instance, shadow was a perfect fit for the shadow-born assassin birthed by Melisandre, while exalted snugly fits the personalities of solo players like Sandor Clegane or Brynden Tully.
Set composition
My 'Thrones' set includes 55 cards of each colour, 27 artifacts, 5 other colorless cards that aren't lands, 71 lands and 223 multicolour cards. There are 226 commons, 162 uncommons, 119 rares and 24 mythic rares, all neatly divided across colour. Each multicolour pair has 13 cards and each tri-colour combination has 5 cards. Each quadra-colour combination has 1 card.
Here is the complete set:
Magic: the Gathering of Ice and Fire
