Has the drop date for this set been announced or have I missed it?

Lars said:

I've decked people with GJ several times before and still lost the game. Decking is fun and useful, but its best thought of only as a form of resource denial - your deck still has to be capable of winning in the end.

goshdarnstud said:

I think it said somewhere (sorry i can't remember where) that the ship date was september 2nd.

I've recently been toying with Discard again. The key is to bite deep into their deck as soon and as often as you can, to deny them tools to your deck, and then have a way to clear their board of characters (Valar with saves for you) and empty their hand when they get enough cards to put up a strong defense. If you really want tobe able to win you need to be able to gain power and win challenges... Support of Harlaw wit it's stand and stealth and Kraken Tattoo with it's STR boost and Intimidate can be very helpful in this. Military challenges in this kind of deck are useful for two things, clearing characters and powering up Harbor Thugs. Intrigue and power challenges are more important to me because they are a second form or resource denial on top of the decking, and power up the Seaside Urchin, and power challenges because they get me closer to winning, and keep my opponent further away.

I've found playing these kinds of decks with an eye to defense often makes them run more effeciently since if I can keep my opponent from gaining UO and winning power challenges I have a lot longer to deck him. Harbor Thug and Seaside Urchin work well on defense. Alannys does a good job of removing cards from hand outside of challenges, and if they kneel a character to prevent it, I am often able to use my stealth or intimidate to come through with a challenge.

It isn't easy, and it isn't enough to focus purely on discard to win (since at the end of the day you still need 15 power).

That said I want to try a discard deck with Vale Rookery, Bran, copious saves, and Valar every third plot.

I've been having a decent time with my mill deck. Granted, our meta currently plays ITE+ format, which makes my options that much better. The core of the deck is cycling Aeron Damphair to fetch Drownded Disciples. Kraken Tattoo+Whirlpool becomes brutal if left unchecked, particularly on Veteran Looters. Against most opponents, it wins a bit more than 50% of the time. The only deck that's giving it a hard time right now is a GJ UO deck. I've actually won a few games using Pyke.