So, who wants to wager a guess at how "stackable" agendas work?

LetsGoRed said:

Well, judging by the wolf card shown (which I wasn't impressed with until I saw the term "stackable agendas" in the article), at the very least, it seems like you'll be able to run more than one Agenda. I wonder if "The North" Agendas will be for Night's Watch or Wildlings?

I wonder if you start with none and build over the course of the game (like the 5KE character Agendas) or if you start the game "having formed Voltron," as it were.

At the very least, I'm guessing that both the benefits and drawbacks of the Agendas will "stack."

I'd like to know more.....

is each agenda going to have a 'downside' or are the effects going to be so weak that you have to stack? are you going to be able to mix and match (wildling w/ a NW agenda)? etc. etc.

Lars said:

That would actually be cool. Maybe there'll be an Ygritte and by mixing and matching Wildling and NW Agendas, you could build a "you know nothing Jon Snow" theme deck.

Janos Slynt in the first pack? Why does this keep happening that we get 2nd versions of minor characters before we'd get say, I dont know... The Old Bear Mormont, or even a 2nd Jon Snow, etc? Ah well, the mysteries of the LCG. :-) I'm still really looking forward to this series.

Well, if the set is designed around Night's Watch and Wildling characters, I'm willing to bet somewhere along the line we'll see both characters.

**SPOILER ALERT** And I wonder which trait said bastard will have **SPOILER ALERT OVER**

Another question is whether we'll see more in-house Night's Watch characters. Janos this time around could be either neutral or Lannister. Perhaps Jon could be Stark. What about Cotter Pyke for house Greyjoy? Yeah, I'm stretching it...but I love the Night's Watch, they were my favorite deck to play when Valyrian and Winter were both legal, and I can't wait to build a dedicated NW deck for the LCG.

Hey, sweet. The art looks very cool. I'm liking this so far.

Makes you wonder if the The Gift and whatever the other reducer is called that works with Night's Watch and Wildings will finally see some play and, as a result, also some Epic Battle events (which will give you some draw with those locations).

LetsGoRed said:

Epic battles and reducers for certain traits... I always liked those extra mechanisms. Like I would like to see more support for the Dothraki trait in another cycle of chapter packs. And maybe some day a bannermen deck will be competitive...

mischraum.de said:

you mean other then vigilant?

I'd like to see an Asshai agenda.

Well, I never faced such a deck...

Lars said:

The Baratheon Bannerman is pretty much an auto include in every Baratehon deck. That's what Lars means by it: it has seen tons and tons of competitive play. It is Baratheon's best standing mechanic by far in this format.

Stag Lord said:

Interesting. I have seen a couple of Bara decks in Austria and Germany LCG and CCG. Can't remember seeing them in play... and yes, I attended some tournaments...

That really surprised me as I can't imagine a Baratheon deck that wouldn't run htem. The Vigilant thing is just so important...

As far as the new cycle goes - really not enough info to speculate about yet. Wildlings and Night's watch will be neat to have back in the environment. How cool would a couple of Others Plot reprints be? A Threat from the North or First Snow Plot would be most welcome for swarm control. Its way overdue and this would be a very thematic entry point for it.

Others plots are generally bad for the game. First Snow shouldn't be reprinted as is. It really cripples any character with 2 strength just because it exists, would make a lot of balanced and interesting characters unplayable or close to it. It would be okay with a restriction - maybe sparing uniques, or allowing saves, or letting each player choose one or two low-strength characters to spare (similar to Wildfire).

Threat from the North would probably be too good with Targ.

I generally doubt we'd see reprints in the Chapter Packs. There haven't been any so far. Now, maybe we'll see some sort of modification (Jousting Steed is not exactly Mare in Heat...), but I'm not counting on straight reprints of past plots, even something like Threat from the North, which I agree the environment could use (Targ burn notwithstanding).

Wasn't threat incredibly broken? I think First snow would make more sense.

bloodycelt said:

How do you figure that? Threat never had the impact on the environment that First Snow did - if for no other reason than the whole "printed STR" and "cannot be saved" bit on First Snow left you no options for pump or protection. Threat has options for protecting the characters. Threat was a lot less "broken" than First Snow.

Granted, Threat fits into a Targ deck and gives them easy access to "terminal burn," but that doesn't make it any more broken (or at least not much more) than Valar in a GJ deck.

Kzer-za said:

I completely disagree. Either would be a great reprint. A Weenie Reset is Definitely needed right now.

I personally would like to see All the World Champion designed cards reprinted as is and to Always remain in the environment.

For reset plots id like to see winter storm come back.

Threat from the North would be incredibly annoying... it would almost be like giving Targ a house only first snow. Might as well bring back Rioting while we're at it.

~Oh and give martel a plot that returns all characters in play to their owner's hand.

I'm with ktom, as I've been saying there is extremely little chance we will see reprints in Chapter Packs.With none in KLE (the first set designed from scratch since the LCG) I just don't see it happening. We'll certainly get reprinted plots in PotS but I doubt we'll get First Snow or Threat from the North back in that expansion. IF they keep printing expansions though (Arryn? Tully? Frey? Tyrell?) maybe we will see those plots.

As to World Champion cards always in print and playable as is... I really hope not. First Snow wrecked entire deck types that were nothing about Weenie Swarm. Martell and Greyjoy both had a number of 3 Gold utilitarian characters with 2 STR or less and there was just no way to protect them. My actual swarm decks generally laughed off plot resets because 40 characters with 30 of them at 2 Gold or less always bounced back, and it was extremely easy to force my opponent to play it early.

If First Snow of Winter were 1/1/1 or allowed for total STR rather than printed, or even allowed saves it may be better balanced, but as is, it is ridiculously overpowered for the LCG format. Heck it was ridiculously overpowered in the Standard CCG format.

dormouse said:

Certain Plots wreck Certain deck types all the time. That's part of the point of having a variety of plots.

bloodycelt said:

Funny. Similar things were said about Valar and GJ saves.

kpmccoy21 said:

Absolutely. My problem with First Snow was not that it wrecked a deck type. In fact, the argument for a "weenie control" plot more or less boils down to NEEDING to check a deck type. Rather, my problem with First Snow was that it completely changed the metagame just by existing. It made characters with 2-STR or less seem like a liability and/or bad investment based entirely on STR. A low STR was seen as too MUCH of a balance for a strong ability. And it made it hard to justify 4-cost on a 2-STR character regardless of the ability. It changed the way people evaluated low STR characters to the point of encouraging massive power creep. I really felt like it restricted not only the deckbuilding environment, but the development environment as well. I would imagine that every character Nate ever came up with had to be weighed against First Snow. Consider the (relative) explosion of "cannot be discarded" weenies that showed up after WED - including rings' championship card.