1 core set of the CCG is $40, with 4 decks. Great value. BUT, for a person who is just giving the game a chance, they are not going to pay $40 dollars for 4 decks. They might pay for a regular starter faction deck, however. So if I were to convince someone to get into the game after giving them a try of my core set, I need them to get a 40 dollar core set of their own... when all they wanted is to play the game as Stark and get a Stark deck. And I'm certainly not going to give someone cards from my core set.

What do you do?

And FFG, why not give these, let's call them "new players who's got a friend who already owns the core set" an easier entry point?

Some of us said way back when the Core Set was first released that $10-$15 "Core Decks" (essentially a "Chapter Pack" style box that contained one of the 4 pre-made decks from the Core Set) would have been good, allowing someone to buy a Core Set and extra copies of the House they wanted to concentrate on without ending up with all the extra cards and cardboard.

They listened when they changed the format between the Kings of the Sea and Princes of the South expansions. Maybe, once Greyjoy and Martell are back in the environment, they'll run with that idea?

It would be nice. It would definitely solve the problem of people not wanting to buy multiple Core Sets to get a playable deck for one or two houses.

As of right now, Greyjoy is the only House you can do this with, but I expect Martell's expansion to get its release date announced sometime this month, looking at the calendar from when Christian announced the changes in it and it showing as at the printers but due for a Fall 2009 release (I'm guessing around Thanksgiving myself in time for the Christmas buying rush).

Greyjoy apparently did really well in some places despite widely perceived short-comings. If Martell with the changes made to it does as well or better I wouldn't be surprised if something long the lines of what you were asking for were to happen. It's all speculation at this point. FFG hasn't said anything about it here or in any game magazines... but money talks.

dormouse said:

And if there is one thing we have heard consistently from FFG since the Fall of 2008, it's that the LCG model for AGoT has been financially successful. (We don't know if that's a major success, a minor success or just a respectable success, but still....) I think they probably will see an advantage to products that aid the new players make the transition to deck construction and modification for individual Houses.

That success is probably more or less due the Core Set (attractive to board game players etc.), so FFG wouldn't want to change that.

Dreamed solution would be: selling Core Set and "1 House starters" concurrently.

If the goal is to entice board gamers to "make the transition" to collection and deck construction, the other product I would love to see is a subscription model: i.e., you pay a fixed amount and get a new chapter pack delivered to your house each month.

How well does the new cards work with the old CCG cards?

I'm thinking perhaps I can have people get the CCG premium starters, but I haven't tried the LCG with the old cards.

Well the mechanics haven't changed, but the philosophy behind creating cards seems to have changed a bit. You may find cards in the starters that don't follow the newer philosophy so may end up with cards that are above or below the level of player interaction or power level or both.