In thew last game I played, I had Former Champion in play, and my opponent put an attachment on him that read, "Any Phase: Kneel 1 influence to remove an icon of your choice until end of phase". I have a few questions about how this card is played that may clear up many other things in the process.

My opponent obviously kept kneeling an influence right at the beginning of the challenge phase, removing Former Champion's military icon (his only icon), rendering him useless for all of the challenges. My question is, is that how a card like that works? When something says "Any Phase", can the player use it even if he/she is not the first player, or would he/she have to wait until the controlling player takes his/her actions first? Meaning, in this situation, I was the first player this round. It comes to the challenge phase, so I decide to attack. Would that action have to resolve first before the opponent is able to activate an attachment?

Also, while I have you here, am I right in assuming a player cannot have two of the same unique (banner icon) locations in play at the same time, and that duplicates do not work for locations?

Also, what is the benefit of attaching a location to your house card?

I think that's all I have right now. Thank you for any help you may be able to provide.

The way it works here is that in Player Action Windows*, players alternate actions until both players have passed. There is a 'player action window" between the start of the challenges phase and the initiation of the first challenge (which is a framework event), so the sequence looks like this:

1. Phase starts
2. You (First Player) pass your pre-challenge action
3. Opponent kneels an influence to strip your former champion of his mil icon

4. You pass
5. He passes
6 -> The Challenge Initiation Framework Starts, where the active player gets to initiate his first challenge.

So what your opponent is doing is legal, and a pretty smart play. Note this only works because initiating a challenge isn't a player action, but a framework action - if, like marshalling a character, initiating a challenge were a player action (that could only be performed by the active character), then yes - you'd get to initiate your challenge before he could strip your icon. Does that help?

- Question 2: Unique locations act like unique characters; you can't play/take control of a second one (except as a dupe) while you have one in play, and can't play/take control of one while you have one in your dead pile. That's pretty rare though, so normally it's only "can't have two in play". You *can* dupe locations just as you would dupe characters.

- Question 3: Because the cardtype changes from "location" to "attachment". If you're playing a deck that destroys locations , like GJ, (or destroys attachments, like Targaryen) the location/attachment can be much 'safer' as one or the other.

*for more info on player action windows, when they occur, where the framework actions are, check out the timing charts on ~p22-23 (?) of the FAQ.

Thank you Istaril. I printed out the FAQ yesterday, and had it available for reference, but didn't know exactly where to look. Your information is most helpful. Thanks again!

I actually have one more question about attaching a location card to a house card: once you do that, is the location card treated as an attachment, and can it be removed from play with a card that allows you to discard attachments? I feel like I have more cards that remove attachments than ones that remove locations . . . so in that case, attaching a location would probably be a bad idea until I get more cards that mess with locations, right?

Also, instead of starting a whole new topic, I was wondering what the main difference between a joust deck and a melee deck is. If I understand correctly, a joust deck is all about 1-on-1 challenges while a melee deck is more about supporting other houses and opponents. IS that the jist of it, or am I missing something?

Thanks again for the help everyone.

Certain houses are better at removing locations, other houses are better at removing attachments. Attachment removal is somewhat harder to come by outside of Targaryen, whereas location control is actually more common, particularly out of Stark and Greyjoy.

As far as Melee goes, in principle any deck could be played in melee or joust with the caveat that certain cards just don't do anything in Joust. (There's also the differing Restricted List if you like to keep to that in casual play.) In practice, though, melee is a very different animal: the ability to table-talk, wheel and deal, manage challenges and support, and rush to victory before your opponents are able to gang up and keep you from winning. The added complexities of the Title and Support/Opposition and having to deal with fighting on multiple fronts calls for a different skill set.

Yes, once you choose to play it as a location (or attachment) it becomes that card type - and only that card type. There are a lot of considerations (if I'm running Favourable Ground in my own deck, I'm much better off attaching it to my house card, since I'm *planning* to destroy everyone's locations), but in general, you make the decision based on the deck you're going to face. If it's greyjoy, renown for location destruction (through Newly Made Lords, among others), it's safer as an attachment. If I'm up against Targ, renown for attachment discarding (through, eg, Mad King's Legacy or the newest version of Viserys), I should play it as a location.

Finally, Joust vs Melee - there are a lot of considerations, but basically one deck is based on 1v1 combat and certain effects become "better" or "worse" because of it. For instance, a targetted kill card or a cancel that only affects one opponent is much more valuable when you only have one opponent, while building up your own position and one other player's (eg Summoning Season) is much more valuable in melee than in joust, where it doesn't "net" you an advantage.

We actually dedicated a moderately recent podcast episode on Melee deckbuilding , check it out !