Hey all,

I'm a former xwing player, but I need an LCG to play since I can't get away with setting up a full xwing board over lunch. I was REALLY competitive with xwing and would love nothing more than to play at worlds next year for GoT. My jealousy was at a 9.5 when I watched the feed for some of the worlds stuff this year from work...

I think GoT is the LCG for me because 1: they just rebooted and 2: I have a local group in Iowa City, IA that is pretty well respected from what I've heard.

So, what do I need to get going? What boxes, etc?

Thanks for all your help!

Sunny

Welcome aboard. The second edition is as new as can be - the Core set came out early-October, and the first chapter pack is due this month. In fact, it was just put up for sale at the event centre at Worlds!

As an introduction a single Core is a good introductory starting point, but you're going to need two to feel like you have any real say in deckbuilding, and if you really are a very competitive player, you'll probably want to buy 3 to get a full playset of every card. The need for a 3rd core will diminish with time (as more chapter packs are released), but if you want to be at Worlds next year, chances are pretty good you'll still feel the need for a few cards from that third core then. While "3 cores" may feel a bit off (well, you probably bought 2 x-wing cores!), the value is actually really good compared to other LCGs. As most cards are singletons, there are remarkably few 'wasted' cards in your third core.

From then on, you'll want to buy a Chapter pack - they release roughly every month. Each has a full playset of 20 cards (so 60 cards total), and you won't need to buy more than one unless you love to maintain many similar decks and hate proxies. By Worlds next year, we'd expect to have all 6 CPs from the first cycle, a deluxe box (~50-55 cards, full playset = 150+), and 1-3 CPs from the second cycle available for deckbuilding.

As for advice in general, I'd recommend you check out this great thread , which has links to a number of excellent resources. Include a particularly good podcast, Beyond the Wall , which I single out for... ahem... no reason.

Excellent. This looks like great advice. I played SW LCG very briefly and it was based on a pod system which completely rejected any "individual card" adding. Does GoT do the same thing? I assume its not like magic or it wouldn't be called an LCG.

Excellent. This looks like great advice. I played SW LCG very briefly and it was based on a pod system which completely rejected any "individual card" adding. Does GoT do the same thing? I assume its not like magic or it wouldn't be called an LCG.

The LCG refers primarily to the fixed distribution models (no 'rares' to chase down, no randomized boosters), so that everyone has equal access to all the cards. In that respect, AGOT is like all other LCGs.

Deck construction is a card-by-card basis, not a pod system - nor are there conquest-like Warlords dictating certain required cards. Mixing between factions isn't permitted by default, although with a Banner agenda you can include some cards from a second faction of your choice.

Alrighty. So I'm looking through all the cards, watching tutorials, reading instruction manuals, etc. One thing I can't seem to figure out is that it looks like for competitive play, you have a faction (represented by your faction card) and you can have whatever cards from that faction. But you can ALSO have other "non-loyal" cards from another faction. I've only ever seen ONE other faction in people's decks, but it doesn't seem to address that in the rules.

It looks like I'd be able to have a stark deck, with Jamie Lannister AND Margery Tyrell, but that doesn't seem right. I can't find a rule that says I can't though. Maybe I'm not understanding but I swear you can only "support" with one other faction?

Look at the deckbuilding entry in the rulebook, pp. 5-6. The most relevant part is the last entry:

Unless instructed otherwise by a card ability, each card in a player's deck and plot deck must be neutral or its affiliation must match the affiliation of that player's faction card.

So by default, you may not have any cards from another faction, loyal or non-loyal. However, the second entry in the deckbuilding item is:

A player may choose 1 agenda card, or may choose not to use an agenda.

At the moment, the various banners allow you to have non-loyal members of another faction in your deck, provided you have at least 12 of them. More agendas may be added in the future, but at the moment, there is nothing that could allow you to have Margery Tyrell and Jamie Lannister in a Stark deck.,

Do you see the white banner in the middle-right? It Says "Agenda" like Agarrett said each deck is allowed to have 1 Agenda card.

In this case this Agenda is the "Banner of The Dragon" and it allows you to have Non-Loyal Targaryen cards in your deck; with the limitation that you have at least 12 Non-Loyal Targaryen cards.

Here's another example of an Agenda card, the only other option in the Core Set besides the banner cards like above.

Perfect. Well, my education continues. I've watched games and read threads. Looks like a lot of people go with 3 core sets?

Also. Do you think a good starting strategy is to pick a faction and stick with it, or test out a few different factions? How do people go about building their first decks?

I did go with 3 core sets, but some of my friends I'm playing went with 2. You can make good decks with either, though obviously 3 gives you some extra options. As to a starting strategy, that will probably depend on who you're playing. I'm in pretty much the same boat you are, being new to the game but competitive, so I can tell you what I've done so far.

I started with a faction I thought sounded neat - the Greyjoys in my case, and made a deck out of it. I'm playing against friends who are also new to the game, so I had some successes and some failures. I wasn't the first to go to a net deck, but I was the second.. I recommend it, it's a good way to learn what really works - but I also recommend making your own deck first so you can start to see what problems you'll run into. I have not stuck to one faction. In an LCG that seems less important, and I'm also trying to learn what works and what doesn't. I'm just starting to get back to the point of building my own decks - we'll see how that goes...

Well, my buddy and I played our first games. We each built a deck from our core set (more cores coming this wednesday). I ran East/West with Martell and Targ, and he ran Night's watch and Baratheon. It was an obliteration. I put Khal Drogo out there and got his weapon on him and it was over. Khal would attack with another guy, win, and then kill someone important (Bob died this way). Then Khal would attack AGAIN because he didn't kneel and he had his favorite weapon, win, and kill someone else.

Fun game for me. Not so much for him. Then I would run events off it where I would win by over 5 str and either kill another guy or a location.

Excited to get into full decks!

Then there will be times when the opposite will happen--Baratheon Fealty is an extremely popular build that runs many more R'hllor cards to maximize Melisandre's ability--your extra military challenges can be hard to pull off when Khal Drogo constantly has to bend the knee to the usurpers.

Well, to be honest, the blowout largely happened because we borked one of the rules. We found the error after the game. Still, it was awesome. We're both hooked.

Looks like 3 core sets. I see people trying to pull off 2, but the lists look slightly hamstrung. I mean, if you're going to play baratheon, you want 3 bobs.

Good thing there's only one chapter out. At least I don't have to dump a bunch into that.