This Core Set for agot 2.0 is the first Core that FFG have designed with the fore-knowledge that it would be the first major product that would never rotate out of the card pool. As such, FFG strove to ensure that every faction would feature a number of iconic characters and locations with incredibly strong effects that would serve as center pieces for decks, regardless of the state of the cardpool. If a popular mechanic were to rotate out in the future, players of a particular House could always go back and lean on the strong, signature characters and locations available in the Core Set. For this reason, it was important to include all eight factions to allow for the game to cement the identity of those factions for the entire player base right out of the gate.

Looking at your deck, there are a number of problems I see from the get-go. The biggest issue that I see is that you're running House Stark as your main faction, but barely using any of the core features of it. If you're using a House as your main House, you want to lean on its powerful, loyal cards. For instance, you're using three copies of Grey Wind, but you're not running Robb. Robb turns Grey Wind from a terrible card into a decent one. You're also missing out on the likes of Catelyn and Arya, efficient characters that provide a strong effect and very efficient Stealth. If you are trying to run a "murder" deck, you might want to consider a card like Ice to give you more kill options, or if you are trying to play an aggressive, low-curve deck that then leans on Jon Snow to win challenges, you've left an incredible card like Longclaw behind, meaning that you're not going to be claiming enough power. Sansa is another option to help you claim power.

I would focus on the question of what you want your deck to do, because right now it's a hodge-podge of characters pulling you in too many directions. Do you want to focus on Jon/Ghost? You might then want to consider making it a NIght's Watch deck and splashing some Stark cards. You could then use Messenger Ravens and Samwell Tarly for stronger card draw effects. Do you want to focus on killing characters with Robb, Ghost, and Ice? Essentially, you're not using so many key cards from either faction you've chosen, and your deck is suffering extremely due to their ommission, most notably Robb's. I would revisit the Core identity of your two chosen factions to tailor your card choices to the strategy of a particular one.

There should be adequate counters for anything without requiring a specific build.

Wholeheartedly disagree.

I read "adequate counters without requiring a specific build" as "I should be able to deal with anything you bring to the table without having to adjust my own strategy and tactics." To me, that kind of toolboxing (which I believe is the correct terminology for having an easy answer to every possible mechanic in a deck?) turns every deck into essentially the same thing. Faction, and even deck, identity or variety stops meaning anything real and the whole game comes down to whether or not I draw my counter for what you have on the table before you draw your counter to what I have on the table.

I agree that every faction should have access to counters. I do not agree that it should be just as easy for every faction to counter every thing the game has to offer. If they can, what's the point to having factions in the first place?

It means that you may be overestimating your expertise on this issue and that after you gain more experience with the game, different factions, and different decks, you might see things differently.

The irony here is that the duplicate mechanic is just the kind of "adequate counter without requiring a specific build" that you say the game should have. Every faction has equal and adequate access to a counter for effects that attempt to remove high-value, unique characters from play, and including said counter - though not without its risks - does not require a specific build or a change in strategy or tactics.

Honestly (and I mean this in the kindest possible way), the objection to the duplicate rule as an unbalancing force that is bad for the game kind of comes across here as, "I want to play a Stark murder deck. Stark murder is particularly vulnerable to and countered by the save mechanic, particularly the duplicate rule. Therefore, since there doesn't seem to be a way to counter the counter, the save mechanic is bad."

Also, do you have additional effects in your deck to help you kill more characters? Like Put to the Sword for example? That's a Military challenge additional kill effect that can help you do away with some of those pesky duplicates. How about 2 claim plots? 2 claim MIL challenges really add some necessary pressure if your deck is Military challenge focused.

True, but if you draw a duplicate it's a free play toi keep a key character alive who might then do huge damage. If your opponent has no such protection...

You can have this protection too.

Military is not the only approach, and that sort of one-dimensional tack is likely to suffer to Game of Thrones, Calm Over Westeros, Bodyguards, Maester Aemon, cheap weenies, and, yes, duplicates. The fact that duplicates are "free" is directly offset by the risk inherent in running them - and I find that balance just about right.

I say military because my deck is a direwolf deck

So far direwolf deck is not good due to the lack of direwolves. Plus

Being able to untap your guys is great, certainly. That isn't my problem, it's that it requires you to lose one of your guys to do so.

Some solutions for military heavy deck:

1. prepare some cancel effect like Bran and Hand's to cancel some control effects and save effects (like rise)

2. high claim plot or multiple military challenge to reduce the amount of weenies

3. target kill for the big dudes

4. Marched to the wall for the single 3 duped bodyguard big dudes

I believe there are more.

ps: If you think Jaime is better than Robb, just banner lions and use Jaime yourself.

Too many directions? Interesting. I would have expected you to say the opposite. It's a military deck based around the direwolves. It includes the Watch because Ghost is the best of the dogs with stealth. If i run Watch and banner Stark i don't get to use them all because the stark dogs are loyal.

I took Robb out and put Benjen in because Robb never gets to do anything and costs too much. I can conceivably field Benjen and Ghost at the start.

Catelyn isn't included because she's not military. Arya is ok, but i didn't think she was strong enough.

Honestly (and I mean this in the kindest possible way), the objection to the duplicate rule as an unbalancing force that is bad for the game kind of comes across here as, "I want to play a Stark murder deck. Stark murder is particularly vulnerable to and countered by the save mechanic, particularly the duplicate rule. Therefore, since there doesn't seem to be a way to counter the counter, the save mechanic is bad."

I would say that there should be some cost to using a duplicate, not just 0 gold. I don't oppose it completely because characters die in this game very easily, which is fine and thematic. But an entirely free play?

The irony here is that the duplicate mechanic is just the kind of "adequate counter without requiring a specific build" that you say the game should have. Every faction has equal and adequate access to a counter for effects that attempt to remove high-value, unique characters from play, and including said counter - though not without its risks - does not require a specific build or a change in strategy or tactics.

Not strategy and tactics, but without your choice of deck being dictated by the metagame. I've never liked that. What appeals to me about CCG's (or whatever you want to call them) is that you can come up with your own idea for a deck and build it. Once you have to start worrying about X card or Y combo and having to include specific counters that choice is taken away. For me that's a loss. I'm not arguing that skill should be removed, just that each faction or deck type should be able to include valid counters without having to sacrifice the concept or theme.

Your deck has many problems, which are your deck building issues instead of the dupe issues.

First remember this is a power game not a killing game. If you want to kill them all to claim powers, your killing effects are not enough.

You need draw to get all pieces. You need int icon to at least protect your own hands. You need location control to discard those nasty locations. You need standing effects. You need stealth. Looks like you need a lot of things.

Some cards discussion :

Robb: They won't do MIL easily. Also he can combo with Bean and Graywind. At least you can use greywind to bite someone and then stand him.

Bran: Cancel and draw if you have summer. I am surprised you don't triple him.

Arya :Cheap with stealth.

Sansha :Cheap with int.

Ian surprised you don't have at least one copy.

Money people:when you realized that some of your big dudes cannot come out, why don't triple these? It's much better than 3jon snow. You only have 12 nw, if you want to full use his ability you need much more nw chars.

You don't need so many 3x. Your cost curve is too high. Your plot is not optimized. Too many issues.

The irony here is that the duplicate mechanic is just the kind of "adequate counter without requiring a specific build" that you say the game should have. Every faction has equal and adequate access to a counter for effects that attempt to remove high-value, unique characters from play, and including said counter - though not without its risks - does not require a specific build or a change in strategy or tactics.

Not strategy and tactics, but without your choice of deck being dictated by the metagame. I've never liked that. What appeals to me about CCG's (or whatever you want to call them) is that you can come up with your own idea for a deck and build it. Once you have to start worrying about X card or Y combo and having to include specific counters that choice is taken away. For me that's a loss. I'm not arguing that skill should be removed, just that each faction or deck type should be able to include valid counters without having to sacrifice the concept or theme.

Meta game is not funny, thats true. But it doesnt mean you can win with any decks. For your deck, you wont win easily even if they dont have dupes and saves. You dont want to include cards for some specific cards. Fine. But you shouldn't not be prepared for the fundamental game mechanics.

I would have thought you'd want to focus a deck rather than try and cover all bases. Focus on one challenge type to dominate.

You don't need so many 3x. Your cost curve is too high. Your plot is not optimized. Too many issues.

what's wrong with the plots? They give me initiative, some board control and war trait.

In an attempt to be critical in a useful way, let's look at your deck. It uses the direwolves, which are generally weaker characters cost-for-cost compared to similarly priced characters, but have some interesting synergy to make up for it. Grey Wind's efficiency goes up by leaps and bounds in the presence of Robb, Summer has direct synergy with characters like Arya and Bran. Importantly, the number one reason to play direwolves at all is the incredibly potent "Like Warm Rain" card - which you don't run at all!

Wolfswood is also a high-synergy card, one that is hard to justify right now - you're just not getting good mileage out of it. Your cost curve is steep, and you're likely to rely on your winterfell steward/kingsroad to get your direwolves in play normally. It's a good card at times, but usually in synergy with something like Marching Orders where having Wolfswood means you still get challenge surprises - which marching orders otherwise prevents.

You're using Banner of the Watch simply because of Ghost - but what does he bring to your deck? You're likely already winning military challenges with your other direwolves, and preventing your opponent from blocking other challenges is nowhere near as useful when you have a total of 1 intrigue icon!

You're running Calling the Banners despite being a deck focused on killing your opponent's characters.

The deck is very poorly optimized, even independently of the meta-game and counters. That doesn't mean it's fatally flawed, but it does mean that complaining about the balance of a game mechanic because your deck isn't doing very well is... unfair to the game. Let's improve your deck, make it work so that it's more efficient. The "direwolves" subtheme may not be the strongest way to build stark right now, but it can be done - and it can be done better than you have done it here.

Here is a version of the deck I just built for you, using much of the same Direwolf synergy (but to greater effect). Note, this isn't how I'd choose to build Stark out of the core, but it's the compromise I'd make to take your list and turn it into something still fairly easy to play and passably efficient.

Faction:

Stark

Agenda: (1)

1x Fealty (Core Set)

Plot: (7)

1x A Noble Cause (Core Set)

1x A Storm of Swords (Core Set)

1x Marched to the Wall (Core Set)

1x Marching Orders (Core Set)

1x Fortified Position (Core Set)

1x Wildfire Assault (Core Set)

1x Sneak Attack (Core Set)

Character: (31)

2x Arya Stark (Core Set)

2x Eddard Stark (Core Set)

3x Direwolf Pup (Core Set)

1x Catelyn Stark (Core Set)

2x Bran Stark (Core Set)

2x Grey Wind (Core Set)

1x Littlefinger (Core Set)

3x Robb Stark (Core Set)

1x Sansa Stark (Core Set)

3x Summer (Core Set)

3x Vanguard of the North (Core Set)

3x Tumblestone Knight (Core Set)

3x Winterfell Steward (Core Set)

2x Rattleshirt’s Raiders (Core Set)

Attachment: (5)

3x Ice (Core Set)

2x Milk of the Poppy (Core Set)

Event: (10)

2x For the North! (Core Set)

2x Like Warm Rain (Core Set)

3x Put to the Sword (Core Set)

3x Winter Is Coming (Core Set)

Location: (14)

3x Gates of Winterfell (Core Set)

3x Heart Tree Grove (Core Set)

3x The Kingsroad (Core Set)

3x The Roseroad (Core Set)

2x The Wolfswood (Core Set)

I would have thought you'd want to focus a deck rather than try and cover all bases. Focus on one challenge type to dominate.

This is almost never the case. You get three challenges a turn and so does your opponent. You can focus on killing characters, certainly, and you want military icons to do that, but if you don't run any intrigue or any power your opponent will run rampant over you with unopposed power and they'll discard your entire hand. One of the things about agot that's different from a lot of other games is that winning a challenge by one is just as useful as winning a challenge by ten. The ONLY exception to this is certain events that need you to win by five.

As such, decks don't tend to try and dominate the military challenge, they try and dominate killing their opponent's characters. If you look at istaril's deck above, it's using Robb, Grey Wind, Like Warm Rain, Winter is Coming, Put to the Sword, Ice, and numerous other kill effects more unilateraly than your deck, while also including cards like Sansa to claim power and Arya to force through unopposed challenges for the same. Robb and Eddard's Renown, too, rewards you for winning those very same military challenges. Power wins you the game. As for winning challenges, think about Arya's Stealth can negate an opponent's five or six strength character, making her effectively much stronger than another. Every deck will attempt to run a balance of icons in agot, because you have to at least be able to defend challenges to stop your opponent. There's a lot of subtley to agot. Just having a ton of characters with one icon isn't going to win you many matches, and that conceit is what is hurting you a lot more than the existance of duplicates.

You don't need so many 3x. Your cost curve is too high. Your plot is not optimized. Too many issues.

what's wrong with the plots? They give me initiative, some board control and war trait.

You want to kill, so if you succeed calling the banner and fifty accusation are useless.

Just like me said before, you can focus on killing and ignore others，but your killing effects are not enough. You don't even have ice! Plus like a warm rain is also a good target kill since you will always lose int.

For killing effects, winter is coming is essential in your deck. So protect your winter is coming from being cancelled is another important thing. That's another reason why you should use Bran. Three hand's +three Bran is much better than three hand's only.

There is no points of using Jon snow. He is good only if he participate multiple challenge, while you only do one. Plus you need nw chars to activate him, which you only have 12. I see no points of using him instead of Robb who are easier to react, cheapier since you have Stark reducers and better combo pieces with Bran and Greywind. You can use Jon snow but definitely not 3. If you need more nw cards to fulfill the agenda, nw reducers and Ameon are much better choices.

You don't need to cover all the bases, but you should at least prepare for those fundamental game mechanics. By game mechanics, I am not talking about dupes. I mean, if you don't have hands, it's impossible to play winter is coming and put to the sword. If you lose power challenge each turn, you can't win. Even when you kill four characters in one challenge, they can still fight back if they have five guys or they can ambush, regardless whether they have dupes or not.

As a new player myself, I get where @signoftheserpent is coming from. Eight factions are a lot and to cram them into a single Core Set meant that there were perhaps some gaps left in each of the Houses that will be filled as the cardpool grows. And that can be annoying when the House YOU want to play (thematically or mechanically) is one of those that will benefit more than most from an expanded cardpool we don’t have yet. I DO get it. Even more so since I am a highly thematic person who’s first deck was a Stark/Night’s Watch affair…specifically because I wanted to run Jon and the Starks together.

Right now I think it’s fair to say that both Stark and Night’s Watch have some rough edges that are going to smooth over as the cardpool grows. That doesn’t help them right now though and I share a little bit of frustration with that.

That being said, I think there are some things that CAN make them a little easier to play together. I should preface though, by saying I am in NO WAY an expert. I would defer to the guys above me for the real knowledge. Also, some of what I would say has already been suggested, so feel free to ignore those parts if you like. This is just some thoughts from a guy that has been trying to build a similar deck.

First up—it seems like you are trying to really take advantage of Stark’s superior Military strength. That’s great, but it looks like you may be focusing on it to the exclusion of the other aspects of the game. Remember, first to 15 power wins the game. And you are going to have a hard time getting there without the means to at least consistently DEFEND such challenges. Ditto protecting yourself from getting your hand stripped down by Intrigue. Nights Watch might help a bit there too as they have a higher number of intrigue icons than you currently have access to. And if they do get through, make them pay with Like Warm Rain. Focusing on Military seems fine, but the core mechanics of the game is all about the challenge phases and ALL THREE challenges. Ignoring any of them is ignoring a fundamental principle of the gameplay.

Ditto, and other people have said this more eloquently, with the other Starks your deck is missing. While I can see why you would strip out characters like Bran, Arya, Sansa and Catelyn as they don’t jive perfectly with your theme, you are losing some of the best cards Stark has to offer. A couple copies of each would dramatically boost your deck’s ability to handle any curveballs thrown at you by an opponent while also netting you a few free power and some strong cancel throughout the game. Bran especially is MADE for your deck due to his synergy with Summer. And Robb because he just makes Greywind a much better card. Obviously adding those characters would mean scaling back some of what you have but that’s not a bad thing. I am running with only 2 Core Sets and haven’t found myself too desperate for any given cards most of the time. Scaling back on the triples of those high-costs would probably also help you economy.

Last thing I would say is I would look strongly at the Winds of Winter plot. I initially put it in for Thematic reasons but that 2 Claim is really very nice after a hard military push as it can make opponents give up characters they weren’t planning on having to. And it fits your theme. Other cards you may want to consider—I am running two Put To The Torch and while they aren’t ALWAYS helpful they have saved me a few times. Ice and Longclaw are both great as well and I have had a good amount of success with them on whatever character I happen to have out (Arya especially). For a while I was trying to run The Wall and try for that Night’s Watch defense strategy as well but that felt a little gimped without Old Bear…Still think it may have some potential though. And definitely I would leverage single or double of those Night’s Watch characters with Intrigue and power icons.

Other than that I would just say that I think the triple-every-card deck construction is a little limiting in this game. You are already drawing 2 cards per turn and may have to discard down to reserve. I would suggest a little more variety and a larger variety of costs.

Okay, long post is long. Feel free to ignore any of this as I am also pretty new to Thrones. But I hope I can be of some help as I am just starting to grasp some of the higher-end concepts and am enjoying the challenge.

I would have thought you'd want to focus a deck rather than try and cover all bases. Focus on one challenge type to dominate.

This is almost never the case. You get three challenges a turn and so does your opponent. You can focus on killing characters, certainly, and you want military icons to do that, but if you don't run any intrigue or any power your opponent will run rampant over you with unopposed power and they'll discard your entire hand. One of the things about agot that's different from a lot of other games is that winning a challenge by one is just as useful as winning a challenge by ten. The ONLY exception to this is certain events that need you to win by five.

As such, decks don't tend to try and dominate the military challenge, they try and dominate killing their opponent's characters. If you look at istaril's deck above, it's using Robb, Grey Wind, Like Warm Rain, Winter is Coming, Put to the Sword, Ice, and numerous other kill effects more unilateraly than your deck, while also including cards like Sansa to claim power and Arya to force through unopposed challenges for the same. Robb and Eddard's Renown, too, rewards you for winning those very same military challenges. Power wins you the game. As for winning challenges, think about Arya's Stealth can negate an opponent's five or six strength character, making her effectively much stronger than another. Every deck will attempt to run a balance of icons in agot, because you have to at least be able to defend challenges to stop your opponent. There's a lot of subtley to agot. Just having a ton of characters with one icon isn't going to win you many matches, and that conceit is what is hurting you a lot more than the existance of duplicates.

Thanks for the advice.

I went with the Watch because Ghost also has stealth.

I tried Like Warm Rain, but every time i tried the deck on OCTGN guess which card got discarded after losing the INT challenge!

I guess at the moment there's no real synergy between the two for the sake of including Ghost.

Here is a version of the deck I just built for you, using much of the same Direwolf synergy (but to greater effect). Note, this isn't how I'd choose to build Stark out of the core, but it's the compromise I'd make to take your list and turn it into something still fairly easy to play and passably efficient.

Interesting. I might try it on OCTGN. But is 1x a character really enough? Even with the Gates?

As a new player myself, I get where @signoftheserpent is coming from. Eight factions are a lot and to cram them into a single Core Set meant that there were perhaps some gaps left in each of the Houses that will be filled as the cardpool grows. And that can be annoying when the House YOU want to play (thematically or mechanically) is one of those that will benefit more than most from an expanded cardpool we don’t have yet. I DO get it. Even more so since I am a highly thematic person who’s first deck was a Stark/Night’s Watch affair…specifically because I wanted to run Jon and the Starks together.

Right now I think it’s fair to say that both Stark and Night’s Watch have some rough edges that are going to smooth over as the cardpool grows. That doesn’t help them right now though and I share a little bit of frustration with that.

That being said, I think there are some things that CAN make them a little easier to play together. I should preface though, by saying I am in NO WAY an expert. I would defer to the guys above me for the real knowledge. Also, some of what I would say has already been suggested, so feel free to ignore those parts if you like. This is just some thoughts from a guy that has been trying to build a similar deck.

First up—it seems like you are trying to really take advantage of Stark’s superior Military strength. That’s great, but it looks like you may be focusing on it to the exclusion of the other aspects of the game. Remember, first to 15 power wins the game. And you are going to have a hard time getting there without the means to at least consistently DEFEND such challenges. Ditto protecting yourself from getting your hand stripped down by Intrigue. Nights Watch might help a bit there too as they have a higher number of intrigue icons than you currently have access to. And if they do get through, make them pay with Like Warm Rain. Focusing on Military seems fine, but the core mechanics of the game is all about the challenge phases and ALL THREE challenges. Ignoring any of them is ignoring a fundamental principle of the gameplay.

Ditto, and other people have said this more eloquently, with the other Starks your deck is missing. While I can see why you would strip out characters like Bran, Arya, Sansa and Catelyn as they don’t jive perfectly with your theme, you are losing some of the best cards Stark has to offer. A couple copies of each would dramatically boost your deck’s ability to handle any curveballs thrown at you by an opponent while also netting you a few free power and some strong cancel throughout the game. Bran especially is MADE for your deck due to his synergy with Summer. And Robb because he just makes Greywind a much better card. Obviously adding those characters would mean scaling back some of what you have but that’s not a bad thing. I am running with only 2 Core Sets and haven’t found myself too desperate for any given cards most of the time. Scaling back on the triples of those high-costs would probably also help you economy.

Last thing I would say is I would look strongly at the Winds of Winter plot. I initially put it in for Thematic reasons but that 2 Claim is really very nice after a hard military push as it can make opponents give up characters they weren’t planning on having to. And it fits your theme. Other cards you may want to consider—I am running two Put To The Torch and while they aren’t ALWAYS helpful they have saved me a few times. Ice and Longclaw are both great as well and I have had a good amount of success with them on whatever character I happen to have out (Arya especially). For a while I was trying to run The Wall and try for that Night’s Watch defense strategy as well but that felt a little gimped without Old Bear…Still think it may have some potential though. And definitely I would leverage single or double of those Night’s Watch characters with Intrigue and power icons.

Other than that I would just say that I think the triple-every-card deck construction is a little limiting in this game. You are already drawing 2 cards per turn and may have to discard down to reserve. I would suggest a little more variety and a larger variety of costs.

Okay, long post is long. Feel free to ignore any of this as I am also pretty new to Thrones. But I hope I can be of some help as I am just starting to grasp some of the higher-end concepts and am enjoying the challenge.

Good points.

I've played a few matches against Lannister with this or a variant thereof (i want to focus on the watch/stark right now). And that faction just has so many awesome cards compared to these guys. Queen's Assassin gets a free kill on ambush almost all the time (you wouldn't ambush with it otherwise) and is respectable stats otherwise. Tywin just becomes a huge tank because they never lack money. I don't see anything comparable in the watch or the starks, in fact the watch, who seem to want you to defend the wall (which is of course thematic) just struggle because their effects are so situational - you need to win in defence by 5 to trigger sword in the darkness. You need money in hand to use take the black.

The effects in the game are very brutal and can really shift the balance of play, which is intentional obviously, but without adequate counters to hand or a means to compensate it's game over.

I tried Like Warm Rain, but every time i tried the deck on OCTGN guess which card got discarded after losing the INT challenge!

Reactions to losing a challenge happen before claim, not after it.

Interesting. I might try it on OCTGN. But is 1x a character really enough? Even with the Gates?

I tried Like Warm Rain, but every time i tried the deck on OCTGN guess which card got discarded after losing the INT challenge!

Reactions to losing a challenge happen before claim, not after it.

Interesting. I might try it on OCTGN. But is 1x a character really enough? Even with the Gates?

Enough for what? For Catelyn, Littlefinger, Sansa? Sure, I may not see them every game, but I won't be unhappy to see them. They aren't key to the strategy, and the only reason I want multiples of characters is if they are (you may have seen in this thread, I don't much care for duplicates - even less so in a military superiority deck that has Robb, and should both avoid losing mil *and* be a pretty big deterrent to doing so). If I had to lose Sansa to claim, I won't be then kicking myself when I draw a completely dead card (her copy). Arya's a 2x because she's easier to keep on the board a little longer, so slightly less likely to hit the dead pile.

Well that does make a difference!

But aren't these the characters the faction needs for other types of challenge?

Here is a version of the deck I just built for you, using much of the same Direwolf synergy (but to greater effect). Note, this isn't how I'd choose to build Stark out of the core, but it's the compromise I'd make to take your list and turn it into something still fairly easy to play and passably efficient.

Interesting. I might try it on OCTGN. But is 1x a character really enough? Even with the Gates?

I tried Like Warm Rain, but every time i tried the deck on OCTGN guess which card got discarded after losing the INT challenge!

Reactions to losing a challenge happen before claim, not after it.

Interesting. I might try it on OCTGN. But is 1x a character really enough? Even with the Gates?

Enough for what? For Catelyn, Littlefinger, Sansa? Sure, I may not see them every game, but I won't be unhappy to see them. They aren't key to the strategy, and the only reason I want multiples of characters is if they are (you may have seen in this thread, I don't much care for duplicates - even less so in a military superiority deck that has Robb, and should both avoid losing mil *and* be a pretty big deterrent to doing so). If I had to lose Sansa to claim, I won't be then kicking myself when I draw a completely dead card (her copy). Arya's a 2x because she's easier to keep on the board a little longer, so slightly less likely to hit the dead pile.

Well that does make a difference!

But aren't these the characters the faction needs for other types of challenge?

Sansha is cheap and gives you free power.. Littlefinger draws and provide money. Use Catlin to loose int and make sure your like warm rain won't be cancelled. Arya has red if you duplicate her.

If you totally don't want to do other challenges, fine. Just don't expect others won't attack you. Prepare for them.