Except from this article :

What are you most excited about with the new edition?

I love having eight factions to work with. They each have a unique personality that we’ll explore in the weeks ahead with the faction previews. Deckbuilding is new and exciting – instead of a gold penalty, players can now run a primary faction and a banner agenda that lets them ally with a second faction. As a result, the number of potential deck options has exploded.

if i read this correctly then 1 CORE SET is enough for casual play amongst 4 friends because each PLAYER can pick up to 2 factions and the combination of strategies would be endless

CORE contains

--------------------------

Stark

Lannister

Targaryan

Baratheon

Greyjoy

Martell

Tyrell

Night's Watch

so you can have a combination of (but not limited to)

---------------------------

Stark-Baratheon

Lannister-Targaryan

Stark-Night's Watch

Lannister-Tyrell

Greyjoy-Night's Watch

Martell-Greyjoy

Baratheon-Lannister

... well you get the picture...

I imagine that would also be applied in tournament rules? (never played in tournament... im just a new casual gamer)

and if thats not enough then we can talk 2 Core then...

Well, yeah, in so many words. But with only one core set, you're going to have very little option but to take all the cards from one faction, all the Non-loyal cards from another faction, so that's 56 different decks. But not all of them will play well together.

I plan to experiment with the prospects of combining the concepts of running AGoT as a bookshelf game - that is, I share the game with my group - and the evolving card pool inherent to the LCG. But for our first night, I think I'll run it as follows:

1) Players randomly determine a first player.

2) First player chooses a faction, and takes all of the cards belonging to that faction, including plot cards.

3) Going clockwise, each other player chooses an unchosen faction.

4) Going counterclockwise from the last player to choose a faction, each player chooses a second faction (this means that the last player will choose his or her factions together).

5) In clockwise order from the first player, each player declares which of his or her factions to play, using the other faction deck's support agenda and removing Loyal cards from that deck. The decks are then shuffled.

6) Players select seven plot cards from those associated with their two chosen decks. The game may now begin.

Sounds good, though I see a few problems:

1) the plots bear no indication of being associated with any faction (unlike in the 1st Ed Core Set)

2) neither do neutral cards (and there is no way there will be 4 copies of each neutral card)

3) there appears to be no way of dividing plots and neutral cards among 8 factions (though dividing them between 4 decks should be possible)

Maybe there will be sample deck lists in the box, like in the 1st Ed deluxes.

There might also be suggested "pods" of neutral cards. I've just started playing Call of Cthulhu, which has some similar deckbuilding suggestions out of one core: choose two factions and a set of neutral cards. You can mix them up of course, but the core rule book suggests that the each set of seven neutrals should be used together.

I doubt that would be the case for plots (given that they seem to be in alphabetical order). They could provide some recommended plot deck lists, or maybe they'll suggest drafting the core plots (that would be fun). But the other neutrals might break up easily into 4 decks. Maybe there's two copies of Varys, two copies of another neutral character (Littlefinger would fit nicely), two of The Roseroad, two of The Searoad, two Little Birds and two Milk of the Poppy, so on and so forth and you split them up. Two people get the Varys "pod," two people get the Littlefinger "pod."

That would neatly answer the question.

I like the idea of drafting the plots. Could be a fun moment of pre-game strategy and interest.