Hey I just got into the game with my gf and we each bought a core set to make the 4 awesome decklists on cardb. I was just wondering about where to go from here because we do enjoy the game but it seems that me playing as Stark is way better than the rest of the decks.

I was just wondering if getting the deluxe expansions will help with balance or will it just add more cards? I'm just worried because at first my gf wanted to be the Targaryen's but I just completely destroy her by rushing out direwolves. Now she plays as the Lannister's and it's a closer game (usually ends 16-8 me) but she still feels like she doesn't have a chance.

Her main issue is that the Stark deck seems to flow nicely while the rest of the decks are just a lot of different cards. As an example each direwolf of each Stark works well if they're with or in play alongside their "master." How Jon Snow and Ghost mesh amazingly well and then their are locations that let me get more direwolves into my hand just flows nicely but every other deck is just kind of "loose" and seem like just a deck of independent cards.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something or if maybe the Stark deck just makes the "flow" more obvious but I'm worried that after sinking another $60 buying a few deluxe expansions will just result in more cards as opposed to a more fun experience.

I was also wondering what opinions their are about deckbuilding? I understand LCGs are well-known for the deckbuilding possibilities and that that's where a lot of the fun comes from but neither her or I have the necessary will or knowledge to make decks. We like playing as if It's like Marvel Legendary where it acts somewhat as a board game.

Sorry for the long post but my last question is what are the difficulties of the different LCGs? I read that AGoT seems to be the most advanced so is there another LCG that's easier to play and easier to make decks for? I figure if I invest in the core set for an easier LCG that I can get used to deckbuilding for them and then I could come back to AGoT once I'm more of a seasoned LCG player.

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the game .

I believe that your girlfriend has been a bit unfortunate as i would suggest that the core set in general is very balanced and in fact i would argue that Stark was one of the weaker houses.

I would persevere with AGOT as it is very rewarding and would suggest the next packs you purchase are the main expansions ( 1 for each house ). Based ion your preferences i would buy the Stark and Targaryen and see how you get on. With the Targaryen in particular you will see loads more synergy.

AGOT can be complex but i wouldn't suggest getting another LCG as with just cores and a couple of expansions you should find deck building quite easy and alot of fun.

I would suggest reading the FAQ and posting any rules questions in the forum as there are a number of people willing to help.

Hey I just got into the game with my gf and we each bought a core set to make the 4 awesome decklists on cardb. I was just wondering about where to go from here because we do enjoy the game but it seems that me playing as Stark is way better than the rest of the decks.

I was just wondering if getting the deluxe expansions will help with balance or will it just add more cards? I'm just worried because at first my gf wanted to be the Targaryen's but I just completely destroy her by rushing out direwolves. Now she plays as the Lannister's and it's a closer game (usually ends 16-8 me) but she still feels like she doesn't have a chance.

Her main issue is that the Stark deck seems to flow nicely while the rest of the decks are just a lot of different cards. As an example each direwolf of each Stark works well if they're with or in play alongside their "master." How Jon Snow and Ghost mesh amazingly well and then their are locations that let me get more direwolves into my hand just flows nicely but every other deck is just kind of "loose" and seem like just a deck of independent cards.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something or if maybe the Stark deck just makes the "flow" more obvious but I'm worried that after sinking another $60 buying a few deluxe expansions will just result in more cards as opposed to a more fun experience.

I was also wondering what opinions their are about deckbuilding? I understand LCGs are well-known for the deckbuilding possibilities and that that's where a lot of the fun comes from but neither her or I have the necessary will or knowledge to make decks. We like playing as if It's like Marvel Legendary where it acts somewhat as a board game.

Sorry for the long post but my last question is what are the difficulties of the different LCGs? I read that AGoT seems to be the most advanced so is there another LCG that's easier to play and easier to make decks for? I figure if I invest in the core set for an easier LCG that I can get used to deckbuilding for them and then I could come back to AGoT once I'm more of a seasoned LCG player.

Thanks in advance.

The deluxe expansions are fairly equivalent. I don't think anyone can really say for sure just how they will mesh with just a core set. No one really plays with just the deluxe expansions.

As for what is in them? More cards, but more importantly, 3 copies of each card. This allows you to build much more custom decks. The Targ box is heavily dragon focused with a lot of cards that buff the dragons. The Stark box is Tully heavy and favors a lot of Tully synergy.

They should be fairly evenly matched, but you could run into weird issues where one of the boxes has more synergy than the other, but because it adds so many more cards to your card pool you can likely tweak the decks as necessary to get them more in line with each other. For example you could pull out Core Set Eddard (a beast of a card when the deck is built to handle him) and replace him with the expansion Eddard (an okay card, but no one really plays it).

I'd say go deluxe first personally. The chapter packs are all over the place. You'll absolutely get your moneys worth with the deluxe expansions and you can decide where to go from there. The CPs are great, but I personally tend to cherry pick them as the good cards tend to be spread over a number of packs.

Edit: Deck building. Well if you like more drafty type play you could always just play the core set as draft.

The way draft works is generally you can play two houses as if you had both house cards. This means everything for those two houses is playable without penalty. Then just shuffle up all your core set cards and sort them into 10 card packs. Draft (like 7 Wonders) until all the packs are gone, then build decks and play against each other.

As far as difficulties, all the LCGs are fairly high level at the top end. Netrunner probably has the simplest base mechanics technically. AGoT or Cthulu would be next with Star Wars being the most complex.

That being said, they're all about equally strategically complex. I wouldn't recommend Star Wars or Netrunner if you don't want to handle too much complexity. They're both very abstract. Cthulu and AGoT are both very heavily thematic, so if you love Lovecraft you should probably give Cthulu a try. It's arguably the best of the LCGs that FFG made themselves. If it weren't set in the Lovecraft universe I feel it would have been much more popular. I really liked the mechanics from the games I've played of it. AGoT's theme is pretty spot on as well.

Edit 2: Actually, you should probably draft half the core set cards. All of them is way too many.

Welcome to the game!

If your girlfriend wants to play Targaryen but feels that the Core deck is too loose, she's not alone. The Targ Core deck is really wonky.

The good news is that the Queen of Dragons box literally seems to fix all of these problems. It is themed around the Dragons and has a Daenarys who rules rather than the middling Core version. I think you'd find it $$$ well spent to try that box and see where it goes.

As for deckbuilding, you won't have a lot of options with your current cards, and while the Deluxe will boost those, they also come with two lists of suggested decks to make deckbuilding super easy to start with.

So, go for it! Get a Dragon box and see if your wolves can handle it

Hey thanks for all the replies! I actually went to a local store and tried out SW LCG with my gf and we both found it a lot simpler?!

I love AGoT but the fact that you have to weigh the STR and abilities of "if I do this, this or this challenge with these characters on my turn then I won't have this person or this person for when the other person attacks me" is veeeery confusing for my gf and all my friends I've tried showing the game to. Not only that but when you get into a joust game I'm even insanely confused as my friends and gf always just team up on me because I "Always win in melee games ," and so I feel like I constantly just pass on my challenges phase otherwise they keep getting free power from me being undefended.

As for Star Wars, I only played 2 games to try it out but it seems to me that it's a lot more simple because of you only doing one attack to each objective and then that's it. No "I could use him for power with these people orrrr if I do him and him and him with military or save him for if I possibly have to defend to that person with that X effect, etc."

Maybe the game gets way more difficult with the added cards as we played with only the Core set but the cards also only really have one simple thing to do. The cards were all just things like "When you're the attacker you can deal 1 damage to an opponent's objective." There is no cards like Lannister's I think it's called "I'm You Writ Small" ?? which is some crazy paragraph that although I understand everyone I play with is flabergasted by it.

One attack to each objective isnt' that far a cry from 3 challenges, the difference is mostly in who can participate (challenge icons).

Star Wars certainly has its charms (I like the deckbuilding system, many don't, I dislike Edge battles, many like them, I don't mind small blaster equipped troops taking down star destroyers, others do). I'd say it has two major advantages, objectively, over AGOT for new players

1) Smaller existing card pool (so smaller buy-in, and smaller barrier of entry)
2) Newer, so has gained some cleaner templating from some of the earlier LCGs, like Thrones.

Thrones itself has the advantage of a proven track record, a less restrictive IP (I imagine licensing for SW to be quite complex), a deep card pool with a lot of variety, and the plot deck. I love the plot deck.