Can I get into this game and play with my wife?

By sunny ravencourt, in A Game of Thrones LCG

Hey all.

I'm looking at card games to play with my wife. I tried SW LCG with minimal success because she's just not into star wars. She asked about a battlestar game, but that's typically for 3 or more people. However, I think there's a legit chance that if she watches the game of thrones dvd's she might get into this card game.

Is there a link as to what it's going to cost me to start to competitively play this game? I'm an avid x-wing player and I'm going to worlds this year. I'd like to see what I need as far as core sets, expansions, etc. in order to get into this game.

Thanks for any and all of your help.

Sunny

Have you considered the Lord of the Rings LCG instead? With the fact that it's coop, you can actually build something together, and you can guide her through the complex world of LCG.

She's not really into LOTR. Plus, there's no real competitive scene for that game best I can tell for me.

Here's another point that some friends have brought up. Am I "too late" in getting into this game? Will it cost me a thousand dollars to catch up?

It might cost you $1300 retail to catch up. People are selling their collections used on ebay and on this forum and on cardgamedb for way cheaper.

FYI, here's a group in your area: https://www.facebook.com/groups/207953279238403/

Thanks!

So to answer a couple of your questions; the cost of getting a 'full' cardpool is, as stated above, about 1300 retail, and probably closer to about 500 used. That gets you every card x3 (the max you can fit in a deck), which is considerably more than the "cost of getting started".

Since you have an active local playgroup, my advice would be to start there; let them lend you a deck or two and see what it is you like, and then, if your wife does take to it once you've mastered the game enough to teach it, indulge in a pair of Core Sets to teach from, and then expand it to support you and your wife's favourite houses (with deluxe boxes). From there, see what themes you like and check up the new player buying guide to see what are good packs for those two houses, and if you feel like branching out, do it through your playgroup; borrow a deck/cards, proxy a few cards, etc.

You *really* don't need to have every card in this game to build a competitive deck, so no matter what my (or your?) OCD says, start a little slower and work your way up!

Two big pieces of advice; check out the New player Guide , check in with your local playgroup asap, and avoid 'overbuying' - especially since the thrones community is expecting big news in November at worlds about the longer-term direction of this game (possibly rotation, or some other form of constraining the ever-growing cardpool to make the buy-in easier for players like yourself).

Ok, that was three pieces of advice, so I'll indulge in a fourth in an act of shameless self promotion; check out our podcast, Beyond the Wall !

Hey! I actually DID listen to your podcast prior to reading this. Very nice!

I appreciate all the help. I'm intrigued that the prevailing wisdom is that something big will happen in November. Seems like everyone is thinking whatever it is will make new players more welcome (which can only help the longevity of the game imo). I'm going to check out my local group. I've taken a look at the new player guide as well.

One question. I know this is an LCG, so you know what is in a pack, but this game doesn't work the same way as star wars LCG with "pods" does it? You can put individual cards from different packs in your deck right?

Correct; the 'pod' concept doesn't exist (although people do tend to build decks with certain 'modules'; eg, these 6 cards that synergize particularly well together appear in certain decks together or not at all). The deckbuilding is fairly open; a minimum of 60 cards, no more than 3 cards with the same title, then your plot deck of 7 plot cards, no more than one copy of each (some exceptions, but they're clearly indicated on the plot card text, eg. power of blood). You mix and match across chapter packs, deluxe expansions, etc.

In practice, players have optimized things a bit so it's not quite that 'free'; you can play out-of-faction cards (eg a lannister card in a stark deck), but with a limited set of exceptions, that's very rarely done because of the additional 2g cost for doing so, very few decks have fewer than 30 characters, 9 resources locations, or more than, say, 18 non-setup cards (attachments and events, or big high-cost armies you can't place in setup).

Edited by -Istaril

Well, that's going to explain the cost then. The pods thing makes it less crazy to get in, but limits the deckbuilding considerably I suppose. Tradeoffs. I'll be very interested to see what they do in November. Honestly, I'm not really sure if investing in October makes any sense if they're going to shake things up right away. What if I buy stuff that's not allowed anymore or phased out.

Well, that's going to explain the cost then. The pods thing makes it less crazy to get in, but limits the deckbuilding considerably I suppose. Tradeoffs. I'll be very interested to see what they do in November. Honestly, I'm not really sure if investing in October makes any sense if they're going to shake things up right away. What if I buy stuff that's not allowed anymore or phased out.

With the announcement come November in mind, I'd also wait and see if I were you. This may also give your wife some time to read the books or watch the show.

Another cheap and fun idea may be to try a draft with her. It isn't too costly in an attempt to learn the game and the card pool may be small enough to learn from.

Well, that's going to explain the cost then. The pods thing makes it less crazy to get in, but limits the deckbuilding considerably I suppose. Tradeoffs. I'll be very interested to see what they do in November. Honestly, I'm not really sure if investing in October makes any sense if they're going to shake things up right away. What if I buy stuff that's not allowed anymore or phased out.

And now that you've presumably read or heard about the big announcement, you know that you're better off waiting until second edition comes out before investing anything in the game! ;-)