Being mindful that most of the cards I’ve been buying lately have been Star Wars, I’m trying to find interesting stuff I can throw in to keep all you non-Star Wars fans happy! It has been a while since I’ve talked Game of Thrones and I saw that a new premium set will coming out soon (in addition to one for the final season and hopefully more after that). I have some great early season GoT cards but I’d like to get some good ones from the later seasons so that news is exciting for me.
For today’s card, I’m picking a set that I think hasn’t quite hit its full potential but I still like anyway. The Relationships insert set is one that has been done for several seasons now and the idea fits Game of Thrones perfectly. I can’t think of many shows that have more of an emphasis on relationships and family. The card design is simple and classy but also maybe a bit ordinary at the same time. The white border is a nice choice that stands out compared to most card sets. I also like that the white border has etched house symbols in it which is something I haven’t seen other cards do much. They’re a little hard to see in the picture below but they are more noticeable in-hand. So what is the problem with these cards?
The images are not bad but they generally just show the characters talking which isn’t super exciting. There also isn’t a sense that anything is special about these cards other than the etched symbols. Maybe if there was a unique symbol depending which house the characters belonged to that might help. The back of the card is fairly standard with a summary of the two characters’ relationship. I don’t think this area can be improved much but it doesn’t help the feeling that the Relationships set isn’t quite as cool as it could be.
So why did I choose this card? I really liked the relationship between Jon and Mance in Game of Thrones and I wish Mance had been on the show more. The nice thing about this set is that chances are good there are cards of characters that you really like too no matter which house(s) you support. The Relationships set is a bit of a mixed bag but it does just enough good things to find a place in my collection.
Daily Trading Cards 