Welcome to the game divinityofnumber.

This is truly a great game...I find that as your meta or playgroup grows, the game gets cheaper as its easy to pass around the love. but i find it affordable.

Of all the card games i have played...i like this one the best.

There is always a chance to turn the tide.

Picked up the core set, and played my first game last night. Awesome game. I am going to play some more tonight, now that I have had a few rules questions answered.

I love the dynamic of having plot cards!

divinityofnumber said:

The plot deck is a truly inspired piece of game design and helps this game shine compared to any other card or board game I've played I'm the type who can't be bothered to finish a video game that requires more than 15 hours of play time and I've been playing AGoT pretty regularly for nearly two years now.

I don't think Braratheon trabnslates well to white - Barartehon plays a lot more aggro than white ever did. Blue/white is close for Lannister - Red/black close for Targ. Stark is more Green/white/balck to me - they can play pretty defensively, they can kill, htye can have big aggro guys -

I agree with Kzer-sa: I don;t think the colors:Houses hting wokrs very well. The two games are just too differennt.

I think some of these comparisons are dead on, but I also sort of agree with what Stag and others say about comparisons being inherently flawed. The problem with comparing AGOT and MTG is that although the deckbuilding and mechanics may feel similar, gameplay is very different. If I build a Targ burn deck designed to kill all my opponent's characters, this may feel a bit like an MTG red character control build. Against a Lanni opponent, I kill characters at will when I have cards, but my draw is somewhat restricted. In this case, cards are discarded from my hand due to lost intrigue challenges, but the ultimate feeling is a bit like a MTG red-color deck that runs out of draw. If I play against a Stark deck with lots of armies, however, my Targ deck will function very differently than a MTG red character control build. For starters, I will not be able to burn large armies effectively (if at all), and it will be me (a Targ player) that wins on intrigue more often than not. The ultimate result will be that my deck feels a lot less like MTG red-color burn and a lot more like MTG black hand discard/control.

In other words, the matchup makes a much bigger difference in AGOT...not in whether you win or lose (b/c some MTG matchups are auto losses for one side), but rather in how your deck actually functions. Also, because every AGOT house has some characters with each icon (military, intrigue, and power), any deck can feel comparable to MTG X color one game and MTG Y color the next. (The plot phase also plays a critical role: Every house has access to an MTG-style Wrath of God [Valar], blue-style search mechanics, and high gold that resembles MTG's mana acceleration.)

If someone plays 100 games of each game, I suspect they'd come up with rules of thumb comparisons that are fairly accurate, and many of these would likely be similar to what people have suggested above. But mechanics in AGOT are still less rigid, in general, than in MTG. (Of course, some of the sub-themes, such as deck discard, ambush, don't kneel to attack, etc. are very comparable, however.)

(Of course, some of the sub-themes, such as deck discard, ambush, don't kneel to attack, etc. are very comparable, however.)

Well actually, I'd say non-kneeling is a good example of how similar mechanics work quite differently between the games. In Magic, at least back when I played it, not tapping to attack is a good ability to have but generally not a huge deal. Non-kneeling (and standing for that matter) is a lot more powerful in AGoT because of how the challenge phase works.

I am glad I am not the only person who feels this way. I long since gave up the MtG drug in favor of (at the time) a less expensive but enjoyable experience in L5R. Now, L5R is becoming like MtG, and worse, the story line (which is what attracted me to it in the first place) has really floundered and I've lost interest. I am attracted to AGoT mainly because of the story line, and I watched a tutorial on how to play and it seemed really fun. No more complicated then L5R it would seem to me.

That was a really awesome post, Twn2dn. At this point, I think I still haven't played every possible house vs house match up so I can't talk about AGoT at that level of depth. The analogies I was laying out were more just for fun and also an attempt to give a rough rubric for someone coming into the game from MtG so that he/she could get some orientation.

So, having had the core set for a while now, I can say that this game is a lot of fun. I have only played 1 vs 1 games so far, and have only opened the Baratheon and Lannister decks. I wanted to start slow, and just get good with one of the decks as I learn the rules/mechanics, etc.

In the next few weeks I will probably open and try out the other two houses as well. But, I just wanted to add that I love the game!

Welcome!

Well I haven't read the entire thread but my problem is similar to the original posters.

I have been playing CCG's since they came out, Spellfire, LotR, Doomtown, Doomtrooper, Galactic Empires, Rage, LBS, L5R, MTG, etc. My problem is and always has been finding other players. Especially now that I live in Nova Scotia. I quit CCG's for a few years but this year decided to get back in to them. I started by collecting L5R again, but after about 2 months of dumping money into it realized, again, that there is only like 5 other players in the province who meet on Fridays in the city which I can never get to. So then I decided to give MtG a real try, I had played for a couple months a few years ago but got out of it pretty quick as I never really liked it. But this time I actually got into the game and have played some, followed the tournaments, bought tons of cards etc. Now after 3 months I am burnt out already on it. It just seems so expensive as there is a constant influx of new cards, faster than any other ccg I have seen and the singles market is crazy expensive for some cards.

So I picked up Warhammer Invasion last week, my first LCG, now I have been into Warhammer and 40k for about 17 years now, mostly the fluff and stuff but have played a few games over the year and have a decent sized mini collection in the storage room and more White Dwarfs and army books than I care to count, I love both settings. I also like the idea of the LCG format and I am sure the fiance and my accountant would prefer it as well. Now however I am like, okay do I try to keep up with mtg and pick up Lcg's on the side. or dump mtg as a money drain and just go with lcg's.

WI seems like a cool game and I will be glad when its expansions get started. AgoT also seems cool not sure on it yet. And it seems I am quite a few expansions behind on the it already.

I guess the point of this rant is that the LCG format itself seems like a much better way to play and release customizable card games.

Toqtamish said:

MTG can be a pretty fun game. But, if you want people to play with, and you want to have the most fun possible, you need to play in tournaments. Most FNMs that I have encountered are Type II, which is indeed very expensive to keep up with, if you want to win. If you don't care about winning, and just want to screw around, it can be reasonably fun for a medium amount of money.

And, it has been my experience that casual MTG is just not fun.

However, AGoT is really fun, even with just the core set and one to three other players. Meeting up once a week with a few other AGoT players for casual play seems like the most fun thing there is to me, as far as CG's are concerned. I don't have many cards either, but when you play against someone, you can come to an agreement about which sets, etc, that you have, and they can compose a deck that is also comprised of cards from those sets.

Well I picked up the AGOT Core Set today and a chapter pack, The Battle of Blackwater Bay. Its all the store had. Still I think with the LCG format, even at 10 bucks a pack I can afford both WI and AGOT and buy two of every chapter/battle pack for like $50 bucks a month with taxes in. Alot less than I have been throwing at magic these past 3 months. I am sure the fiance will prefer that too and it means I can start buying stuff other than magic, magic, magic...like DVD's and books again.

Abort MtG! Long life to the Living Card Game!

I was a MtG player too...I left for "design flaws" after Mirrodin Block (I didn't like the game anymore)...

I started to look at other types of gaming and started hating some game elements: land system, bad choices they made to refresh the Artifact decks and so on...

Now i'm a happy AgoT and W:I player (I've been in CoC for a year or so and I used to like it as well)...

I tried Lo5R (I play it sometimes), WoW TCG (interesting) and other games...

The "jump" in the LCG model made me go crazy! I really liked it and I'm still a LCG lover. AS YOU SAID, I can afford both games with a little effort and still be competitive.

Lots of people started following 2 or 3 LCG games.

And the most important thing about this thread is: I've never found in MtG the strategic depth I found in FFG products.

Don't misunderstand me: I follow magic from the "outside". I see Pro Tour videos, take a look to any new expansion spoiler and so on...

But here we I feel like havin' more choices, card design depth, "brain-twisting" games...

Lot5R is the ONLY game that has a similar depth.

IMHO.

I love L5R becuz it has alot of depth, but its been suffering due to steep learning curve, poor communication and delays in product. And its never been on quite the same level as Magic. Course not much has sadly.

I hope that with the LCG model of AGoT and W:I that I can get some of my friends into it as well. It will be an easier sell with the fixed products.