Over their heads a dozen golden banners whipped back and forth in the northern wind, emblazoned with the crowned stag of Baratheon.
- A Song of Ice and Fire, Volume I: A Game of Thrones

A storm is coming, raging under the banner of House Baratheon. From the Iron Throne at King's Landing to their ancestral home of Storm's End, the lords of House Baratheon bring power awesome enough to rein in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros under one rule, but as civil war threatens to tear the land apart, even brothers bound by blood will be drawn against each other into the conflict...

Kings of the Storm is the fourth large expansion for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game , featuring 165 cards new to the LCG® card pool - three copies each of 55 unique cards - that add new deckbuilding opportunities and strategic depth to your game.

The cards included in Kings of the Storm deepen the existing strengths of House Baratheon, as well as adding some new tricks to the House of the stag. At the core of Kings of the Storm are the lord brothers of House Baratheon: Robert, Stannis, and Renly. Each brother claims the Iron Throne for himself and their abilities based on being the only king in play represent in game terms their strained relationships with each other. Any one of the brothers can form the hard core at the center of a strong deck through exemplifying one of the strengths native to House Baratheon.

Ours is the Fury

Included with the Kings of the Storm expansion are two decklists, created with the aid of 2009 Melee World Champion Jonathan Benton and Wade Freeman, that you can use as jumping off points to explore Baratheon's various strengths. These decks can be constructed using only the contents of one A Game of Thrones Core Set and one copy of Kings of the Storm. Below is the complete decklist for one of the two decklists included with Kings of the Storm . The first deck, "Power Rush", is representative of House Baratheon's high-speed (but somewhat fragile) power-claiming abilities.

Plot Deck	Lost Captain
Summoning Season	Stannis' Cavalry
Mutual Cause	Melisandre
Wildfire Assault	Sallhador Saan
The Power of Blood	Knights of the Storm
Lineage and Legacy	Robert Baratheon x3 (Kots)
Counting Favors	Army of the Faithful
Rule by Decree	Locations
Characters	Narrow Sea x2
Bearer of the Light x3	Aegon's Garden x3
Herald of Storm's End x3	Street of Sisters
Bastard of Robert	Stormlands Fiefdoms x2
Old Red Priest	King Robert's Chambers
Edric Storm	Smuggler's Cove
Maester Pylos	Storm's End x2
Maester Cressen	Crossroads x2
Marya Seaworth x2	Events
Selyse Baratheon	Seductive Promise
Maester Aemon	Obey the King x3
Ser Emmon Cuy	Superior Claim x3
Asshai Initiate x2	Narrow Escape x2
Jon Snow	Retreat
Ghost	Distinct Mastery
Benjen Stark	Attachments
Ser Cortnay Penrose	Bodyguard
Ser Parmen Crane x2

From the commentary included with Kings of the Storm :

"This deck is built around the blitzing ability of Robert Baratheon , so get him out early with Summoning Season and keep him protected with duplicates and cards like Lightbringer , Bodyguard , Ser Parmen Crane , and Power of Blood . Surprise effects like Superior Claim and Seductive Promise speed up the deck even more, and the deck rounds out with some useful Night’s Watch and Asshai characters. Use Obey the King to either kneel an opposing character so that you can drive home an important challenge, or use it to stand one of your own characters. Marya Seaworth and Distinct Mastery can also be used to get extra use out of your renowned characters, bringing you one step closer to victory. "

Much hangs on bringing out your renowned characters quickly and challenging hard. You will have to protect your characters carefully as power on characters is much more at risk than on your House card.

In addition to power-rushing, House Baratheon also gains increased speed through Renly Baratheon's cost-reducing ability and new anti-Shadows cards like Sister of Truth and The King's Law .

Depending on which of House Baratheon's native strengths you want to build your deck around, you will find lots of new options in Kings of the Storm.

Knights of the Realm

The second decklist included with this expansion, "Knights of the Realm", highlights the deepened synergy developed in Kings of the Storm for the Knight and Asshai traits.

Each of the Great Houses of A Game of Thrones feature cards with traits that work well together. For example, in House Targaryen there is the Dothraki trait and in House Stark there is House Tully . Traits that have no particular House affiliation include Night's Watch and Maester . Cards with the same trait tend to help each other out and provide efficient cost vs. power returns.

In the case of House Baratheon, the in-house trait featured in Kings of the Storm is Asshai , the Eastern worshippers of R'hllor, making their way slowly into Westeros under the leadership of the Red Woman, Melisandre. Asshai is strengthened through cards like Ruby of R'hllor and Bearer of the Light . 

 

Where House Baratheon really sees a strength boost in this expansion is in the more open trait, Knight . While most Houses have a few Knights , House Baratheon gains a number of new ones, beneficiaries of cards which play directly off the Knight trait like Tourney for the Hand and Muster . Kings of the Storm also introduces the Knights of the Realm agenda which, with your cavalcade of Knights in play will increase your draw power and your tactical options.

 

Through Kings of the Storm you can recreate the epic battles and power struggles depicted in George R.R. Martin's thrilling fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire , and take command! Under your guidance, can you unite the feuding factions within House Baratheon against the other Great Houses and bring Westeros under the banner of the crowned stag? With the cards introduced in Kings of the Storm , you will have ample opportunities to find out!