The Ace-King
The Ace-King is what happens when the Chancellor and the Sovereign are on the same side — a single combined card that hits harder in a Siege and forces open your opponent's Court in the same motion.
RULES
Formed by playing an Ace onto a plain Sovereign sitting on your Throne. Each player may only ever have one Ace-King on their own field at a time.
While your Ace-King holds the Throne, your hand's poker rank is boosted one full tier for Siege comparisons only — a Two Pair resolves as a Three of a Kind, a Flush as a Full House, and so on.
Forming an Ace-King immediately triggers Family Reunion: your opponent blindly discards up to 2 of your Court cards at random, and in exchange you may either search your Royal Archives for a Knight to place directly into Court, or immediately Upthrow an eligible Knight — bypassing the normal one-turn survival requirement.
The Ace-King still falls to the Dungeon like any other Throne card if its side loses or ties a Siege, taking both the hand-rank boost and the Family Reunion option with it.
LORE OF THE COURT
Blood and the crown are not the same thing, but the Court has long since stopped pretending it can tell them apart when an Ace kneels to a Sovereign and something changes hands that no ledger ever fully records.
What Family Reunion actually costs the losing side is never spoken of gently. Court cards vanish at random, chosen by no one, decided by nothing anyone can argue with afterward — that's precisely what makes it feel like family.
An Ace does not kneel to many. For a Sovereign, it makes an exception — and asks something in return. The Ace-King is that exception, made visible on the board for as long as it lasts.
STRATEGY
When to play it
Form an Ace-King when you're already leaning toward a Siege that turn — the one-tier boost can turn a modest hand into a genuine threat, and the Family Reunion fallout (a free Knight into Court, or an instant Upthrown Lady) compounds the swing. It's one of the strongest single tempo plays available in the Main Phase.
Counters
Since only a Sovereign already on the Throne can receive the Ace, denying the Ace-King means pressuring that Throne before the Ace arrives — once formed, your best answer is simply to win the Siege that removes it, since it falls to the Dungeon like anything else.
Synergies
The Knight benefits most directly — Family Reunion can search one straight into Court or Upthrow one instantly, skipping its usual survive-a-turn requirement entirely. Treat a spare Knight as pre-loaded ammunition for the moment your Ace-King completes.