So i was thinking last night about location control (again) and it occurred to me that those House location-hate Bandits from a Chapter Pack back were pretty clearly the last "legacy" cards from the CCG days. Those guys would have been super strong auto-includes in just about every deck - if Five Kings hadn't "rotated". But even though locations are super strong, you really can't afford to just run them "in case" - unless you really like silver bullets. And these aren't the type fo silver bullets that will have a deterrent effect just by being in print - no one is going to pull Queen Dany's Chambers or Golden tooth mines form their deck because of them.

As it is, they are must plays in standard (Vale, Reach etc.), but must cuts in LCG. This may or may not change depending on exactly which Kingdom locations we get in kings of the sea. If the 0 cost locations are what we get - maybe not so much. But if the rare 2 gold/2 influence come back - these guys will be everywhere.

I am very curious as to what's going to be in this set. The Bandits are just one instance of a card that will be impacted by the contents of the upcoming set.

Amen. That´s exactly my analysis of the bandits. However i think it´s worth too mention that the bandits are not equally strong. The bara/lanni one (River bandit), is the easiest to pull off. And the plot "raven´s song" will ensure that you´ll get the effect at least in one round- which may be more than enough if you manage to destroy two of the 2/2/2 locations.

I find the other bandits to be more limited. Sure, it´s not a big thing to play a seasonal raven before, but at least it takes a second card and one more gold and you´ll need another plot (a time for ravens) to make it more reliable. You´ll almost also want to dedicade the whole theme of the deck to winter/summer once you included the bandits. I think so they are are of a more limited use, it´s of course not a huge problem if you are playing a seasonal deck anyway.

Yes, River Bandits have been rather effective here due to the popularity of Baratheon and Lannister. I don't think I've seen anyone get into the situation where they had to discard something of their own, though they may have just been opting not to play them in that situation...

I think if you are playing standard Support of the kingdom is still the much meaner card and it works regardless of the season.

Love Support - but things like Lion's Mouth and Bear Island are huge probelms in LCG - and in Standard, nothing beats my beloved ITE Iron Throne. And High Tide.

Gods I hate High Tide. Frak that card! At least Cressen is around. That makes it bearable at least. Also, was it just me, or did it seem like were getting Kingdom locations in the next chapter packs, but they wouldn't be the rare kingdoms? Maybe I just misread, but it just didn't seem like it would be the 222 ones.