A new Stark specific expansion announced for this Spring

http://fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=1096

Yeah - that's pretty neat and raises a few questions.

First off - nice to see that they have gone to the 3x model for each card in these standalones. Thank the seven that collectibility is nearly gone from this game and we will never have to sink money into buying duplicate product again. Very good for the consumer - maybe not so good for the vendors.

Really pumped that the Tullys will get their own tehme deck - dollars to donuts the new Blackfish ends up in there and we can only hope the deck will be competitive for oturneis. It will be nice to see stark become a force again here in the states.

Now I am wondering if Starters will follow for the other three Great Houses that don't have their own starters yet. And that makes me furtehr wonder oif a Core set reprint will ever be needed or if it will ever see the light of day. if we get to a point where each House has its own starter - will there really be a need for the Core set?

Very, very cool. I'm excited.

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Awesome that Starks will likely get a boost and plethora of new options and themes. Awesome that the deluxe expansion format of releases is continuing on (and improving to 3x cards) as well!

YES! YES! YES!

stag pretty much covered all the bases.

One thing I am wondering though is the make up of the cards. KotS and PotS had a good deal of reprints of 'standard' cards for both houses. with stark already having a lot of cards, especially their unique, in the LCG pool I wonder if the amount of reprints will remain or if we will be seeing a lot of new cards?

Stag Lord said:

Couple of thoughts on this:

- Notice that they said the set included decklists for Tullys and Direwolves. To me, this implies that not all the cards on the decklists will be available out of the expansion set (otherwise, why not just build the decks in the expansion) and will probably pull from the Core Set. The decklist idea might not only be intended to encourage customization (personally, mixed feelings about decklists to do that...), but also to encourage purchase and use of the original Core Set.

- If they're doing Stark, I'd be surprised if they stopped there. Especially if there is a resin House card involved somewhere.

- Wonder what the "ratio" of reprints/modified reprints to new cards will be. Obviously, the only one spoiled is a new card, but will the makeup be similar to the other expansions?

ktom said:

yeah i had the same thought especially as there is a big focus on direwolf synergy in the core set. when i read this it made me go..."oh, i hope we don't have a ton of new wolves..."

ktom said:

~stop thinking the same things as me I would bet its a reprint of a tully (is it the standing tully???) and a new eddard and catelyn. I'm also curious how Arya is going to be handled. I'd tend to think she will be a reprint (1 reprint to 2 new versions of her) and kind of hope for stalwart Arya to come back. it might make Stark murder work again.

Stag Lord said:

I dunno, I always liked having the ability to build a deck out of spare commons and uncommons to give to a friend that I was teaching to play. With the way the LCG model is moving, I either have to just buy the cards for their first deck, or they have to commit before they're fully certain. *shrug* It's a trade off, but I thought the 3x and 1x model was a reasonable middle ground.

I was not expecting this but very happy to see it. I love Stark and this is a great idea. I really hope to see a Stark resin house card along with this.

I post this question already at the announcement site, is this some kind of starter?

C

It is not been specified... I think yes relating to char and events and attach, but I'm not sure there will be the resources needed to a starter. But maybe I'm wrong :-)

Castorp said:

It's an expansion like the Kings of the Sea or Princes of the South expansion. Like those two, it's probably a deck that could be played "as is," but since it is only one deck for a 2+ person game, it is not really a "starter." You could substitute it for the Stark deck in the Core Set, or use it in place of one of the others if 2 people wanted to play Stark, but it isn't enough to be the only product of AGoT you own.

Ok, that's basically what I meant. So it will contain a deck, which you can use on its own. I wonder if there are new Gold producing locations in it.

C

Stag Lord said:

Well, congratulations to FFG. Thanks for making LCG like most of us wanted from the beginning. Now I only hope that its price is not x3...

Considering that the price of the BP/CP only changed by a bit I wouldn't forsee a huge change in this either.

Toqtamish said:

My guess is around 35 bucks

It is priced on the FFG site (under Deluxe Expansions) at 29.95

This keeps getting better and better.

I actually wonder...

While I think this most likely has new cards and perhaps some Tully reprints, I wonder how long till they refresh the starter product.

I think it would be nice to keep the CoreSet as it is, but update house specific packs for A Clash of Arms, and possible A Time for Ravens.

Is it expected that everyone getting into the game now hunts down Ancient Enemies and Sacred Bonds for the Fury and To Be A cards?

bloodycelt said:

What do you mean by update?

bloodycelt said:

Is it really that weird/problem?

Do you think that other old packs don't contain cool cards?

Considering that we don't have any problems ordering the older CPs from our distributors, there shouldn't need to be any "hunting down" of the older chapter packs just ask you store to special order them for you. If they can't, well, I'd say give me a call, but there are plenty of outlets to get the cards.

I suspect we'll see a reprint ratio in this deck similar to what Sea/Sun had. The thing I really like so far is that each expansion has 7 new plots, and plenty of cards for other houses to use. I just wish that there could be some repackaging for the Greyjoy expansion; at least Martell isn't so bad, if you can find a friend to buy a second one with.

I would hope that the next expansion is for Targaryen. Lannister has some great builds, and Bartheon is getting a solid footing with some fun and fast decks, but Targ seems to need the most help after Stark. Plus, their Dothraki is already a useable theme and the game seems to be getting more tribal effects (I wish we had a better name for than for this game), so the Dothraki move into that slot perfectly.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were about 15-20 reprints in the Stark deck, especailly with the plots. And I hope we get more of the traited plots. In fact, I think this wuld be a great set to bring back another type of traited plot OTHERS! So far we have Fleeing to the Wall all by its lonesome. Bring back Others plots, whether they be new ones or reprints. Whose Name May Not be Spoken and Blue Eyes, Black Skin could be fun, possibly even Wraiths in the Midst. We don't need the uber Winter Has Come, or even Sacrificed to the Others (unless they change it to "choose an opponent" type text; that would be wild). But I'd like to see them come back.

bloodycelt said:

It's not that important at the moment, but I think this is a really good idea that would be nice at some point. Personally, I was pretty excited by the announcement of the card distribution change to 3x of every card. As it is now, I usually don't buy more than one of a chapter pack. I wouldn't mind getting a deluxe expansion that had a bunch of cool new cards and also happened to have 3x of White Raven and A Time for Ravens.

But The Winds of Winter came with 3 white ravens, you don't have to buy three copies.

I wouldn't be upset of future deluxe expanions reprinted some earlier chapter pack cards, but at this point I'd rather see the 1x cards reprinted than the 3x cards, or else reprints ones where the original CP is definitely OOP. Let's face it as long as FFG wants to include summer/winter as a mechanic, they will need to keep the ravens and carrion birds in the available card pool.

JerusalemJones said:

True, but I wrote that with the understanding that all cards from now on (after the current chapter pack cycle) will be printed as 3x. I agree that it would be nice to see 1x cards reprinted if they started reprinting cards (esp. stuff like Condemned by the Council which could conceivably show up in multiples in multiple decks) At the same time though, I'm pretty that if FFG continues to support the seasons mechanic that I will be able to put a second set of White Ravens to better use than a lot of other cards that could be reprinted (yes, it's possible to shuffle cards between decks but it gets cumbersome when several cards start be shared amongst several decks).

Oh, I agree totally. I hate to scavenge deck a for deck b, which is one of the reasons why I hate that The Hand's Judgement pretty much the only generic cancel card in the game only came one to the pack.

But I also think it will be some time before we start to see the previous LCG cards get reprinted. All of them are still currently available, so that would hamper the reprint chances. Yes, that is going to annoy some players the same ones it annoys now, and perhaps a few more but at the same time it doesn't put newer players way behind the older players as far as access to the card pool is concerned. If I want 3 Hands Judgement, I buy three copies of the CP. If a player who starts in June wants 3 of the Hands Judgement, he buys three of the CP. But all the new cards will be 3x, and that is definitely an improvement.

The only thing that irks me is the Greyjoy deluxe expansion, but again I just don't see FFG breaking them all apart o sell like Martell, or they would have done so by now. Also, that is somewhat a slap in the face to anyone who did buy 3 of them for $90. Something like it may happen eventually, but I don't think anytime soon.