Sadly, Cincinatti Joe has taken temporary leave from organising writers for the much beloved Cycle Reviews (cry). Fortunately, he has allowed me, Richard Walker, to call the banners and get some poor fellows together to bring you WRITTEN CONTENT.

There are some new writers and some familiar writers on the team, and we kick off here with a Thrones veteran from Spain...

Martell Cycle 4 Review

Howdy folks! It's Rabs here, some may know me and some not, for those who do not, I'm Spanish (Cáceres/Madrid meta) and have travelled quite a lot (6 years already to Stahleck and some roads to Stahleck) to play this game that we all love. Also, I appeared in some podcasts of our beloved Canadian podcast Beyond the Wall. If we hadn't met in person or online, I'm sure we will at some point.

I love House Martell since 1st edition and play them most of the time in this edition, except at the beginning of the game, where I loved Tyrell until they were too mainstream. And since I love the southerners I was asked by Richard to make a review of the Martell cards of this 4th cycle.

Before having this cycle, Martell was doing well after receiving the [agot]Dornish Fiefdoms[/agot] for their economy, the [agot]Secret Schemes[/agot] for massive draw, [agot]Flea Bottom[/agot], [agot]The Last of the Giants[/agot] and the infamous [agot]banner of the stag[/agot]. However, this cycle changed it a bit, and together with the Martell deluxe box... It's a very strong House right now.

This cycle brought some new tricks for the faction, especially the attrition Martell decks bannering to the wolves, and some nasty control decks. Also, taking into account agendas and neutral cards, The Wars to Come agenda (yes, we love you Donovan) makes Martell quite flexible, [agot]Valar Dohaeris[/agot] and [agot]Breaking Ties[/agot] (also, we love you Luiz) are super scary turns for the opponent facing these sand bastards.

Let's take a review of all Martell cards in this cycle.

Dorea Sand

Cheap Sand Snake that helps make small boards in order to manage the kill of dangerous characters. She doesn't fit in all decks but her ability is super good. You can also return one of your characters in order to save it from any kind of Valar or to reuse its effect.

The Water Gardens

What can I say, I'm super fan of this card. Moar economy!!! Yay! Super good for your Venemous Blades, Dorne and out of faction cards (hello Wards and Harrenhals :-P).

Arianne Martell

Pity her name is Arianne Martell. I mean, it's a [agot]Ghaston Grey[/agot] effect with legs, she's not bad, but you have to create a deck around her and she's competing with her Core Set version (far superior in my opinion). She has Insight (not a bad keyword) and combos very well with [agot]Doran Martell[/agot] (Core Set). The problem I see in her is that Martell, right now, I don't tend to play high cost characters, maybe this changes in a future and she might see more play.​

​Change of Plans

Funny card to cycle your plot card faster. I see this in a super reset focused deck but the problem is to make room in your deck to this event.

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​Darkstar

Love this Darkstar! Cost 5 guy with stealth and icon removal! What else do you want in a 5 cost character?!?!??!?! I see him as one of in every Martell deck. Ok, you tend to go 2nd with Martell, but this guy assures you to win the challenge you want.

​Sand Steed

Attachment, summer plots... Making room in your deck for this... I mean, the effect is not bad, but you need to play more summer plots than you used to in order to accumulate power passively. I haven't ever see it, maybe in a future this changes, who know.

​Planky Town Trader

Alert, 1 cost guy! 1 cost guy! If you are worried about setups, now you have 2 1 cost characters, the reducers and the [agot]planky town trader[/agot]. It has some cool inteactions with, obviously, banner decks. A very good card for some banner decks.

​Shandystone

Strong card for the house playstyle, going second. The problem is as usual, make room for it. With [agot]Maester Caleotte[/agot] this is a beast and makes your opponent win less unopposed power.

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​House Yronwood Knight

4 cost strength 2, Can't say more about this card. Yes, it's loyal for Breaking Ties, but he's 4 cost. We might see him in a future, but right now, he's in all our folders.

​Secret Pact

Problem, it's an attachment. I like this card in an icon removal deck but as before, making room for it is tough. The good thing in an icon removal deck: you can't get rid of all the icons on board? Don't worry, this southerner pact will let you not to fear the fat guy in front you.

I see this as a melee card more than a joust one.

​Host of the Boneway

Cost 6, intimidate in our "favourite" icons (military and intrigue). For this cost, I'd rather play the other 6 cost guys that draw you cards. Again with the high cost characters in Martell, I still don't see how to make room to "fatties".

​Someone Always Tells

WOW, just wow. A potential Hand's Judgment and the most important thing: cancelling triggers in PLOTS! Is FFG nuts? Ok, you need to have the gold in plot phase (not a difficult thing, but you have to include certain plots in your deck in order to play this badass event). Might be a problem because we might see again the Hyper Viper combo deck.

​I'd say that the best cards in this cycle are Water Gardens, Someone Always Tells, Darkstar and Dorea Sand (in that order), the others are not that juicy to include in most of the competitive decks at this moment of the game.​

​Cycle 4 Recap

At the end of cycle 4, Martell has become a scary house in any form (take into account that they received their Deluxe box). Martell Wolf attrition decks are still there and now with even more economy. Martell The Wars to Come has become a new standard in competitive play, creating consistent control decks where they struggled a bit before.

Banners of the passive power and stall are still there and we are not seeing them in competitive play as much as before; are people making secret tech decks? Are these kind of decks obsolete? Are Martell going to dominate the meta? How do we, Southerners, tech against the devastating turns of The King in the North?

We'll see it soon. Maybe Kubla, Gencon, Euros championship....