So, new to the game. Never got into 1.0 but decided to take the leap with 2.0 and pre-ordered a couple Core Sets. Was reading the PDF rules in the meantime and most of it seems pretty straightforward other than Duplicates which were a kind of confusing sticking point for me.

Some vigorous google and forum searching later I THINK I understand them, but the one thing I couldn’t find an answer for was how Duplicates interacted with change of control over an element. For instance, if a Greyjoy player were to play “We Do Not Sow” to discard a unique Location that I had placed a Duplicate on, I would then discard that Duplicate. Could they then use “Euron Crow’s Eye” to steal that location from the discard, even if I still technically had it in play?

Or more generally, if a card comes out that straight allows another player to take control of an opposing element in play and the element they chose was duplicated, would discarding that duplicate stop the change in control? Or would the opposing player gain control of both the element AND the Duplicate. Or Would players split them and now both players would have the SAME element (and how would THAT work with unique elements?)

Yeah—I’m confused. Help?

Welcome to the game and the community. I think you'll really enjoy it.

The rules around duplicates and unique cards can get a little confusing.

For instance, if a Greyjoy player were to play “We Do Not Sow” to discard a unique Location that I had placed a Duplicate on, I would then discard that Duplicate. Could they then use “Euron Crow’s Eye” to steal that location from the discard, even if I still technically had it in play?

The short answer here is that the copy in your discard pile is not considered a duplicate from the point of view of Euron's controller. Remember that, "A player may use additional copies, by title, of any unique card he or she owns and controls in play as duplicates." (RRG, p. 7). It may be a duplicate from your point of view, but your point of view doesn't matter for what your opponent is doing.

For the longer answer, remember that the rules for unique cards say:

"- A player cannot take control of a unique card if he or she already controls or owns an in-play copy of that card.

- A player cannot bring into play or take control of a unique card if a copy of that card is in his or her dead pile."

(RRG, p. 22).

Applying this to your Euron situation, it is Euron's controller that is trying to put a copy of that location into play - by effectively taking control of the card from you. The rules for unique cards look to see if he already has a copy in play (he doesn't) or if he already has a copy in his dead pile (he doesn't). Since he meets both of these criteria, he is able to take control of the copy in your discard pile and put it into play. It doesn't matter that you already have a copy in play because when Player A tries to marshal or put a unique card into play, the rules don't care what Player B has in play or in his dead pile.

So that's the tricky thing here. For Euron, you can't think of the copy in your discard pile as a duplicate because your point of view doesn't matter.

Or more generally, if a card comes out that straight allows another player to take control of an opposing element in play and the element they chose was duplicated, would discarding that duplicate stop the change in control? Or would the opposing player gain control of both the element AND the Duplicate. Or Would players split them and now both players would have the SAME element (and how would THAT work with unique elements?)

- The definition of duplicates says that you may discard the duplicate to save the original card from any effect that would make it leave play . A control change effect such as you a suggesting would not make the card leave play, so a duplicate cannot "save" from a control change.

- The rules for marshaling and/or putting duplicates into play say that you cannot place a duplicate on a card you do not both own and control. So if you have taken control of an opponent's card, you cannot put a new dupe on it.

- There is currently no rule in 2.0 that changes control of an existing duplicate along with a change in control for the original card (unless I'm completely missing it). However, the rule against marshaling and/or putting duplicates into play on card you don't own or control doesn't apply to dupes that are already there when a change in control takes place, so they are not illegal cards and would not be discarded. They stay on the original, but controlled by the owner. This would mean that the owner is still the controller and could use it to save the original, but the original's new controller cannot.

Hope all of that helps.

Duplicates are also not attachments. There is no definition for an "illegal duplicate" or rule for dealing with it. I'm surprised FFG didn't keep the rule about taking control of duplicates along with the original from the first edition. It doesn't matter for now, since there is currently no way to take control of a unique card already in play (Taking the Black only targets non-uniques; Yoren and Euron target cards in the discard pile).

I'm surprised FFG didn't keep the rule about taking control of duplicates along with the original from the first edition.

I'm actually not overly surprised by this because of the way the dupe effect is handled in 2.0.

In 1.0, the original gained the save effect from the dupe - i.e., the dupe save was used an an ability of the original card. Taking control of dupes therefore preemptively answered a whole bunch of questions about paying the cost of a card's ability by discarding a card that you don't control (i.e., the controller of the card can't trigger the save because he can't discard the dupe he doesn't control to pay the cost, but the controller of the dupe can't trigger the save because you cannot trigger the abilities of cards you don't control). Essentially, taking control of the dupe automatically in 1.0 made sense so that you could pay the cost of an ability on the card you (now) control.

But in 2.0, dupes give the player access to the save as a game effect. Since the dupe save is not considered an ability of the original card, you don't have the same incongruity of needing to pay the cost of a card ability by discarding a card you don't control. The controller of the card granting access to the effect (i.e., the dupe) can still use the effect, no matter who controls the original.

TL : DR - In 1.0, the automatic control change of the dupe was necessary in order for the dupe to still function as a gained ability of the original card. In 2.0, no automatic control change is necessary because the dupe save still functions - as a game effect accessible to the player controlling the dupe - no matter who controls the original card.

Thanks for the help guys! Appreciate it.

Now the cards just have to get here so I can put my new-found knowledge into practice!

The big change is who gets to decide to save the card. The new controller can't just decide to use a character for claim and not save it, or decide to save a character from being returned to hand with Ghaston Grey, like they would in 1st Ed.