Hi, I'm Ethylbenzene bringing you another class based on A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones. As always Fans please enjoy, critics please comment, and any and all suggested feedback is welcome and wanted. Below is the hero, hero power, ten basic cards, six commos, five rares, three epics, and one legendary for set with all explanations, balancing, and flavor in spoilers tags. I appreciate all comments and please let me know which cards are your favorite, which you feel are bland, and which you feel should be rebalanced.
The fourth week's hero is Petyr Baelish (Littlefinger). He should be representing Arryn, but as he does preside over 2 of the kingdoms, he represents his own house Baelish. I moved him slightly out of order because his class is very similar to the new Inspire mechanic. Baelish is a combo-oriented class, who's hero power allows it to stay on curve, and the nature of it's cards interaction with the hero power suggests large hand sizes. He also has an affinity for Secrets and Mercenaries.
Hero and Hero Power
Petyr Baelish- Unlike previous houses, there were not too many choices for the hero of the Arryn House. Jon Arryn is the clear choice, but he is a figure of history and little is known about him besides his fostering of Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon. His heir, Robert Arryn, is of dubious descent and his frail health and spoiled nature make him as ill-fit to rule the Vale as Joffrey was to rule anything. Robert's heir, Harry Harding, is a mysterious almost unknown figure. So that leaves Jon Arryn's crazed widow Lysa, and the current Lord Protector of the Eyrie Littlefinger. Littlefinger is more interesting to base a class around so he was chosen, and as such none of the Arryn cards made it into his possession and he is now his own class. Arryn would've been boring anyways.
Collect Dragons- The hero power basically adds a coin to your hand for 2 mana. But as Littlefinger is a genius merchant above all else, spending these coins will often benefit your cards' effectiveness. At the base level, it allows you to get ahead of curve and stay on curve.
New Mechanic- Hire
Many of Petyr Baelish's cards contain the key word Hire. Hire, unlike other mechanics, can be activated multiple times per card. Hire activates whenever you spend a dragon when the card is in your hand. For example, take the card Invest
When you draw Invest, it costs 7 mana to draw 3 cards. Yet everytime you spend a Golden Dragon, recieved from your hero power, the cost of Invest decreases by 1. If you spend 7 Golden Dragons while Invest is in your hand, it will be a 0-mana draw 3 cards. While most of the Hire cards involve a reduction in mana per dragon spent, some increase the amount of damage the card deals, while a choice card actually increases in mana cost. Spending dragons effeciently will lead you to a quick victory as a Baelish.
Legendary Card
Littlefinger's Schemes- Innervate's big sibling wants to play and costs the same. Of course the downside is the Overload(3), which can be devastating at any point in the game. Schemes is best played early on to send out a 5 or 6 mana creature in the first couple turns in the game and then essentially skip the next turn. Later on it is not worth using, and the one copy per deck makes it inconsistant. Overall it is a very risky card, but when it pays off, Turn 1 Loatheb is happy. And yes, a 0-mana spell can be a legendary.
Epic Cards
Checkmate- Littlefinger, once he spends enough, has many ways of destroying anyone in the world. As he has shown in canon, he is even able to topple kings for a price. If you play Checkmate you win the game. Checkmate could win the game by turn 12 if it was drawn at the very beginning of the match and a Golden Dragon was played every turn. Yet, that would require a useless card in your hand for at least 10 turns, most of those turns being the initial turns. And anyone who has ever played Mind Control knows how annoying it is to have an end-game card in your hand the entire game.
Faceless Man- The Faceless Men of Braavos are world-renowned assassins that charge costs based on their client's wealth and the target's value. If the client is as rich as Littlefinger, their cost is more expensive that buying a small army of mercenaries. Therefore the Faceless Man is there as a check against abusing the Hire mechanic. It is an unbelievably powerful card, adding a free 4/4 body to Assassinate, but becomes inordinately expensive as the game wears on. As clarification, the effect triggers when the card is in the deck OR in your hand.
Mercenary Giant- The strongest of the Hire minions, the Mercenary giant blends right into the other giants with his stats and cost reduction methods. Of course now that this is objectively worse than Frost Giant, I'll have to try and change it.
Rare Cards
Escape Routes- Littlefinger always has his escape routes, and most involve invoking some protection and taking advantage of the fact that his "friends" fail to see him as a threat and so will help him. Therefore when he is attacked, he will equip a 0/2 Paper Shield as shown in the Tokens. This Paper Shield negates all damage at the cost of durability, and has 2 durability. So basically this secret negates the damage done to your hero and 1 additional attack. This secret, like most of Littlefinger's secrets, draws him a card on activation. This can be a hindrance as much as a boon, as the opponent can use the secret to burn cards.
Warrior's Tax- Warrior's Tax isn't a thing, but if it was Littlefinger would be behind it. This card essentially doubles the cost of the minion played by the enemy and draws you a card, yielding both card and mana advantage. For example, if the opponent played a sludge belcher, this card would activate and overload the opponent for 5 mana and draw you a card. Like most "When the opponent plays a minion" secrets, most effective when a large minion is played.
Well-Placed Quarrel- "A bag of dragons buys a man's silence for a while. A well-placed quarrel buys it forever." Also if I'm misspelling quarrel, can someone tell me? This card acts as the only AoE available to the class, always dealing 5 damage to the primary target. Every Golden Dragon spent makes the card deal 1 additional damage to the minions adjacent to the target(if the target is a minion). A very good card in control matchups.
Secret Operative- Secret Operative is the Baelish 1-drop minion. In addition to the usual shenanigans your hero power will grant you, it will power up the secret operative to continually challenge the mana-drops every turn. Of course it suffers from the usual hardships a 2/1 suffers from.
Loyal Guardsman- Loyal Guardsman is a powerful Taunt, slightly more powerful than Druid of the Claw. This means that if it costs 5-mana or less, you are getting a really good Taunt minion.
Common Cards
Hidden Dagger- Hidden Dagger is the only Baelish secret that doesn't let you draw a card upon activation due to its power being on level with other 3-mana secrets. It deals 3 damage to the enemy hero for every mercenary minion, friendly or enemy, on the field. It does 0 damage if there are no mercenaries on the field so to avoid it the hero power just can't be used while there are mercenaries and a secret on the field. Easier said than done. If there are a lot of mercenaries the effect can be disastrous, but if there is only one or two the effect is quite weak despite being direct damage.
Mocking Distraction - This secret is useful for stalling the enemies board as there are few ways to avoid it. The freeze effect that it creates prevents one action turn for the minions. That means if the minions have already attacked, they are frozen their next turn. If they have yet to attack, they will be frozen this turn. The minion that attacks the hero will always be frozen this turn.
Hired Strike- Hired Strike is a direct damage spell in the Baelish arsenal. It is a fireball that costs 8, but reduces its cost when you spend dragons. Pretty self-explanatory.
Mercenary Captain- Mercenary Captain finally puts to use all of the Mercenary tribe units in the Baelish arsenal. Similar to the Secret Operative, whenever you play a Golden Dragon the Mercenary Captain gives +2/+1 to all Mercenary minions in play, including the Mercenary Captain himself. Despite his relatively weak stats, the Captain can provide a large tempo swing.
Promiscuous Spy- While Varys has his little birds telling him the secrets of King's Landing, Littlefinger has his various operatives in brothels throughout the land. These Promiscuous Spies grow stronger the more enemies there are.
Master of Coin- Without any Hire cards, the Master of Coin itself is a mediocre card, giving you a 4/4 and +2 mana for 6 mana. The additional Dragons, though, can activate many of the Hire abilities, making this card a staple in the Baelish arsenal.
Basic Cards
Shadow Cloak- Shadow Cloak is a unique "weapon" (more of an armor) in that it is active during the opponents turn and does not take up durability for it's use. Every time an enemy attack should land on you, but Shadow Cloak is equipped, there is a 33% chance that the enemy will miss. The only way to remove this item is if a weapon is equipped over it or it is destroyed.
Staged Coup- Probably not only the hardest to activate secret in the game, but the most annoying. It activates whenever the opponent has 5 minions and another minion is SUMMONed. Once that minion is summoned it immediately ends their turn and you draw a card. Then it's your turn and you draw another card and you get to end their flooding shenanigans. Hard counter to Patron Warrior.
Take Credit- Oh Littlefinger. Littlefinger will always boast any helpful deeds as his own and any harmful deeds as his enemies. He will take all the credit for your ingenious idea to marry the king to the Tyrells and prosper from it. In this instance, he steals cards from the opponent and shuffles 3 copies of the next card the opponent plays into his deck, in addition to draw a card. A very good control card, unless he ends up shuffling 3 Shield Slam into his deck.
Bribe- Self-explanatory. Think Mind Control with a variable cost.
Buy Soldier- The Baelish buffing card, Buy soldier not only gives a minion +2 attack, but converts it to the Mercenary tribe. This can be easily combined with Mercenary Captain and Hidden Dagger.
Invest- Invest is the primary card-draw mechanism of Baelish, with the cost of Sprint, but the effectiveness of Nourish. Not the most efficient card draw in the came, but as the hero does draw a card every time a secret is activated he should have enough card draw.
Shadow Strike- Shadow Strike is the primary direct damage spell of the Baelish arsenal. Every Golden Dragon spent while this is in the hand increases it's damage output by 1, while it's cost remains constant. If your endgame isn't Checkmate, but you are still a stalling archetype, a pair of Shadow Strikes can be a solid burst.
Kettleblack- The Kettleblack family are hedge knights in the service of Petyr Baelish, but Tyrion and Cersei both believe they belong to them. Anyways I can't insult the family too much, because as they might not be richeous characters, compared to the Freys, Boltons, and Qybern, they're saints. The Kettleblacks, being constantly tempted by other sources, require a flow of mana to keep on the field but they are worth it in their fantastic 5/3 stats for 2-mana. Just don't keep them alive for too long and you should be fine.
Impregnable Eyrie- Never let it be said that the Eyrie is easy to surpass.
Vicious Sellsword- The last Baelish mercenary, this 5/1 Taunt gets cheaper as you spend more coins acting as a powerful burst.
Tokens
And there is the Baelish class, the most shadowy of the Great Houses of Westeros. With it's required hero power, powerful draw secrets, and debilitating spells, the class proves to be one of the more annoying and combo-oriented classes. I hope you enjoy and comments are very welcome :)
Haha awesome is good :) Which cards do you think were OP? I'm planning on making some patches/adjustments to them when the Winds of WInter(6th book) comes out and I would love to hear which ones I should focus on.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hi, I'm Ethylbenzene bringing you another class based on A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones. As always Fans please enjoy, critics please comment, and any and all suggested feedback is welcome and wanted. Below is the hero, hero power, ten basic cards, six commos, five rares, three epics, and one legendary for set with all explanations, balancing, and flavor in spoilers tags. I appreciate all comments and please let me know which cards are your favorite, which you feel are bland, and which you feel should be rebalanced.
Links to old heroes:
Stark
Greyjoy
Lannister
The fourth week's hero is Petyr Baelish (Littlefinger). He should be representing Arryn, but as he does preside over 2 of the kingdoms, he represents his own house Baelish. I moved him slightly out of order because his class is very similar to the new Inspire mechanic. Baelish is a combo-oriented class, who's hero power allows it to stay on curve, and the nature of it's cards interaction with the hero power suggests large hand sizes. He also has an affinity for Secrets and Mercenaries.
Hero and Hero Power
Petyr Baelish- Unlike previous houses, there were not too many choices for the hero of the Arryn House. Jon Arryn is the clear choice, but he is a figure of history and little is known about him besides his fostering of Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon. His heir, Robert Arryn, is of dubious descent and his frail health and spoiled nature make him as ill-fit to rule the Vale as Joffrey was to rule anything. Robert's heir, Harry Harding, is a mysterious almost unknown figure. So that leaves Jon Arryn's crazed widow Lysa, and the current Lord Protector of the Eyrie Littlefinger. Littlefinger is more interesting to base a class around so he was chosen, and as such none of the Arryn cards made it into his possession and he is now his own class. Arryn would've been boring anyways.
Collect Dragons- The hero power basically adds a coin to your hand for 2 mana. But as Littlefinger is a genius merchant above all else, spending these coins will often benefit your cards' effectiveness. At the base level, it allows you to get ahead of curve and stay on curve.
New Mechanic- Hire
Many of Petyr Baelish's cards contain the key word Hire. Hire, unlike other mechanics, can be activated multiple times per card. Hire activates whenever you spend a dragon when the card is in your hand. For example, take the card Invest
When you draw Invest, it costs 7 mana to draw 3 cards. Yet everytime you spend a Golden Dragon, recieved from your hero power, the cost of Invest decreases by 1. If you spend 7 Golden Dragons while Invest is in your hand, it will be a 0-mana draw 3 cards. While most of the Hire cards involve a reduction in mana per dragon spent, some increase the amount of damage the card deals, while a choice card actually increases in mana cost. Spending dragons effeciently will lead you to a quick victory as a Baelish.
Legendary Card
Epic Cards
Checkmate- Littlefinger, once he spends enough, has many ways of destroying anyone in the world. As he has shown in canon, he is even able to topple kings for a price. If you play Checkmate you win the game. Checkmate could win the game by turn 12 if it was drawn at the very beginning of the match and a Golden Dragon was played every turn. Yet, that would require a useless card in your hand for at least 10 turns, most of those turns being the initial turns. And anyone who has ever played Mind Control knows how annoying it is to have an end-game card in your hand the entire game.
Faceless Man- The Faceless Men of Braavos are world-renowned assassins that charge costs based on their client's wealth and the target's value. If the client is as rich as Littlefinger, their cost is more expensive that buying a small army of mercenaries. Therefore the Faceless Man is there as a check against abusing the Hire mechanic. It is an unbelievably powerful card, adding a free 4/4 body to Assassinate, but becomes inordinately expensive as the game wears on. As clarification, the effect triggers when the card is in the deck OR in your hand.
Mercenary Giant- The strongest of the Hire minions, the Mercenary giant blends right into the other giants with his stats and cost reduction methods. Of course now that this is objectively worse than Frost Giant, I'll have to try and change it.
Rare Cards
Escape Routes- Littlefinger always has his escape routes, and most involve invoking some protection and taking advantage of the fact that his "friends" fail to see him as a threat and so will help him. Therefore when he is attacked, he will equip a 0/2 Paper Shield as shown in the Tokens. This Paper Shield negates all damage at the cost of durability, and has 2 durability. So basically this secret negates the damage done to your hero and 1 additional attack. This secret, like most of Littlefinger's secrets, draws him a card on activation. This can be a hindrance as much as a boon, as the opponent can use the secret to burn cards.
Warrior's Tax- Warrior's Tax isn't a thing, but if it was Littlefinger would be behind it. This card essentially doubles the cost of the minion played by the enemy and draws you a card, yielding both card and mana advantage. For example, if the opponent played a sludge belcher, this card would activate and overload the opponent for 5 mana and draw you a card. Like most "When the opponent plays a minion" secrets, most effective when a large minion is played.
Well-Placed Quarrel- "A bag of dragons buys a man's silence for a while. A well-placed quarrel buys it forever." Also if I'm misspelling quarrel, can someone tell me? This card acts as the only AoE available to the class, always dealing 5 damage to the primary target. Every Golden Dragon spent makes the card deal 1 additional damage to the minions adjacent to the target(if the target is a minion). A very good card in control matchups.
Secret Operative- Secret Operative is the Baelish 1-drop minion. In addition to the usual shenanigans your hero power will grant you, it will power up the secret operative to continually challenge the mana-drops every turn. Of course it suffers from the usual hardships a 2/1 suffers from.
Loyal Guardsman- Loyal Guardsman is a powerful Taunt, slightly more powerful than Druid of the Claw. This means that if it costs 5-mana or less, you are getting a really good Taunt minion.
Common Cards
Hidden Dagger- Hidden Dagger is the only Baelish secret that doesn't let you draw a card upon activation due to its power being on level with other 3-mana secrets. It deals 3 damage to the enemy hero for every mercenary minion, friendly or enemy, on the field. It does 0 damage if there are no mercenaries on the field so to avoid it the hero power just can't be used while there are mercenaries and a secret on the field. Easier said than done. If there are a lot of mercenaries the effect can be disastrous, but if there is only one or two the effect is quite weak despite being direct damage.
Mocking Distraction - This secret is useful for stalling the enemies board as there are few ways to avoid it. The freeze effect that it creates prevents one action turn for the minions. That means if the minions have already attacked, they are frozen their next turn. If they have yet to attack, they will be frozen this turn. The minion that attacks the hero will always be frozen this turn.
Hired Strike- Hired Strike is a direct damage spell in the Baelish arsenal. It is a fireball that costs 8, but reduces its cost when you spend dragons. Pretty self-explanatory.
Mercenary Captain- Mercenary Captain finally puts to use all of the Mercenary tribe units in the Baelish arsenal. Similar to the Secret Operative, whenever you play a Golden Dragon the Mercenary Captain gives +2/+1 to all Mercenary minions in play, including the Mercenary Captain himself. Despite his relatively weak stats, the Captain can provide a large tempo swing.
Promiscuous Spy- While Varys has his little birds telling him the secrets of King's Landing, Littlefinger has his various operatives in brothels throughout the land. These Promiscuous Spies grow stronger the more enemies there are.
Master of Coin- Without any Hire cards, the Master of Coin itself is a mediocre card, giving you a 4/4 and +2 mana for 6 mana. The additional Dragons, though, can activate many of the Hire abilities, making this card a staple in the Baelish arsenal.
Basic Cards
Shadow Cloak- Shadow Cloak is a unique "weapon" (more of an armor) in that it is active during the opponents turn and does not take up durability for it's use. Every time an enemy attack should land on you, but Shadow Cloak is equipped, there is a 33% chance that the enemy will miss. The only way to remove this item is if a weapon is equipped over it or it is destroyed.
Staged Coup- Probably not only the hardest to activate secret in the game, but the most annoying. It activates whenever the opponent has 5 minions and another minion is SUMMONed. Once that minion is summoned it immediately ends their turn and you draw a card. Then it's your turn and you draw another card and you get to end their flooding shenanigans. Hard counter to Patron Warrior.
Take Credit- Oh Littlefinger. Littlefinger will always boast any helpful deeds as his own and any harmful deeds as his enemies. He will take all the credit for your ingenious idea to marry the king to the Tyrells and prosper from it. In this instance, he steals cards from the opponent and shuffles 3 copies of the next card the opponent plays into his deck, in addition to draw a card. A very good control card, unless he ends up shuffling 3 Shield Slam into his deck.
Bribe- Self-explanatory. Think Mind Control with a variable cost.
Buy Soldier- The Baelish buffing card, Buy soldier not only gives a minion +2 attack, but converts it to the Mercenary tribe. This can be easily combined with Mercenary Captain and Hidden Dagger.
Invest- Invest is the primary card-draw mechanism of Baelish, with the cost of Sprint, but the effectiveness of Nourish. Not the most efficient card draw in the came, but as the hero does draw a card every time a secret is activated he should have enough card draw.
Shadow Strike- Shadow Strike is the primary direct damage spell of the Baelish arsenal. Every Golden Dragon spent while this is in the hand increases it's damage output by 1, while it's cost remains constant. If your endgame isn't Checkmate, but you are still a stalling archetype, a pair of Shadow Strikes can be a solid burst.
Kettleblack- The Kettleblack family are hedge knights in the service of Petyr Baelish, but Tyrion and Cersei both believe they belong to them. Anyways I can't insult the family too much, because as they might not be richeous characters, compared to the Freys, Boltons, and Qybern, they're saints. The Kettleblacks, being constantly tempted by other sources, require a flow of mana to keep on the field but they are worth it in their fantastic 5/3 stats for 2-mana. Just don't keep them alive for too long and you should be fine.
Impregnable Eyrie- Never let it be said that the Eyrie is easy to surpass.
Vicious Sellsword- The last Baelish mercenary, this 5/1 Taunt gets cheaper as you spend more coins acting as a powerful burst.
Tokens
And there is the Baelish class, the most shadowy of the Great Houses of Westeros. With it's required hero power, powerful draw secrets, and debilitating spells, the class proves to be one of the more annoying and combo-oriented classes. I hope you enjoy and comments are very welcome :)
awesome, but bit too OP I guess :P
Gamers never die, We respawn!
Dreadsteed
Haha awesome is good :) Which cards do you think were OP? I'm planning on making some patches/adjustments to them when the Winds of WInter(6th book) comes out and I would love to hear which ones I should focus on.