A man in dark armor and a pale pink cloak spotted with blood stepped up to Robb. “Jaime Lannister sends his regards.” He thrust his longsword through her son's heart, and twisted.
   –George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce The Red Wedding, the fourth Chapter Pack in the Blood and Gold cycle for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game!

Though a scheme may spend months incubating in the shadows, there is a moment of terrifying revelation when your plans come to fruition—a grand reveal that shatters your foes beyond repair. For the secret alliance of House Frey, House Bolton, and House Lannister, that moment was the Red Wedding. In a single night, House Stark suffered a devastating defeat, and though Robb Stark had won every battle, he met his demise beneath the roof of his supposed allies.

With The Red Wedding Chapter Pack, you’ll have the chance to continue the saga of A Storm of Swords with one of the most gut-wrenching and iconic moments of the entire series. Even as you walk among the fallen and the deadly power of House Frey continues to grow, you’ll also find new ways to spend and earn your gold, like the other expansions of the Blood and Gold cycle,. With iconic characters like Ellaria Sand, Strong Belwas, Othell Yarwyck, and Walder Frey entering the game for the first time, The Red Wedding brings new horrors and schemes into every game.

Lords of the Crossing

Throughout the Blood and Gold cycle, you’ll find an array of new cards with the House Frey trait, and as you might imagine, most of them interact with the House Frey agenda, The Lord of the Crossing (The King’s Peace, 60).

While many agendas significantly influence the ways you can build your deck, The Lord of the Crossing offers no explicit deckbuilding restrictions or opportunities. Instead, it dramatically changes the way you approach the challenges phase—each of your characters are weakened during your first challenge, but in exchange, all of your characters grow stronger during your third challenge, and you gain an extra power if you win! Of course, to gain this advantage, you’ll need to consistently make three challenges, which in turn influences your deckbuilding. More than any other agenda, The Lord of the Crossing forces you to carefully consider what characters you put in your deck and what challenge icons they bear.

Fittingly, there’s are few characters better suited to The Lord of the Crossing agenda than Walder Frey (The Red Wedding, 77) himself. Walder Frey has all three icons, meaning that he can fill any gap and ensure that you can make three challenges every round. More importantly, however, while Walder Frey is attacking, each other House Frey character you control is also considered to be attacking! Whether you’ve already used your House Frey characters to make your initial challenges, or you’re holding them in reserve to defend against your opponent, when Walder Frey attacks, he brings the might of the entire Frey family with him. You may even pair Walder Frey with The Red Viper (Core Set, 109) to claim a potentially massive amount of power with a single challenge.

In fact, with a deck using The Lord of the Crossing agenda, it’s not at all uncommon for your total STR to skyrocket during your third challenge. You’ll find a way to capitalize on that extra STR with Frey Hospitality (The Red Wedding, 79). At first glance, Frey Hospitality may appear to be a slightly different version of Put to the Sword(Core Set, 41). You no longer need to win a military challenge by five STR, but instead you must pay three gold and win your third challenge with an attacking House Frey character for the same reward of choosing and killing an enemy character. The real benefits, however, come when you win big. If you won that third challenge by twenty or more STR, you can choose and kill three characters controlled by the losing opponent! Though it may take significant planning to pull off this level of Frey Hospitality, if you succeed you can guarantee that your opponent will be left with a ruined position.  

The impact of Frey Hospitality is significant, but few cards capture the carnage and horror of the Red Wedding better than the plot of the same name. The Red Wedding (The Red Wedding, 80) is a plot that, unusually, offers zero claim, but that’s not to say that your challenges will be useless. When you win a challenge as the attacking player, The Red Wedding lets you choose and kill a Lord or Lady character controlled by the losing opponent. The slaughter is compounded by the next line: “(Any player may initiate this ability.)” Opening the board to this level of destruction may seem insane, especially since your opponent will most likely have a plot that gives him claim in addition to killing one of your Lords or Ladies. Still, there are some ways for you to lay your plots in the darkness and escape the worst of The Red Wedding.

First, it’s important to note that The Red Wedding is a Scheme, meaning that it pairs perfectly (and thematically) with"The Rains of Castamere" (Lions of Casterly Rock, 45) agenda. Although this prevents you from using The Lord of the Crossing agenda, the benefits may be more than worth it. You can manipulate the game to escape any drawback from The Red Wedding—only revealing this plot by triggering “The Rains of Castamere” when you’re the second player. Although The Red Wedding won't be revealed in time for you to trigger it from winning this intrigue challenge, you can certainly use The Red Wedding when you win your other challenges!

The second method for avoiding death at The Red Wedding is simply to build your deck with this plot in mind. Naturally, many decks choose to include Lords and Ladies. These are usually the most iconic characters from the story, and the abilities of cards like Robert Baratheon (Core Set, 48), Victarion Greyjoy (Lions of Casterly Rock, 27) andCersei Lannister (Lions of Casterly Rock, 1) can be awe-inspiring. Still, there are factions, like House Martell and The Night’s Watch, that can easily leave these traits behind. If you’re building a deck that’s focused on wiping your opponent’s board while drawing on cards like Tyene Sand (True Steel, 115) or Qhorin Halfhand (Tyrion’s Chain, 105), then The Red Wedding could be the perfect addition to your plot deck.