A players plot deck, being the only sure-fire means of controlling what happens on a particular turn that a player has, as well as being the only known quantity at any given moment, is a powerful aspect of GoT.

That being said, what strategy do people use to formulate the plot deck you use?

In the past many players built a plot deck that had a particular goal in mind, then built a play deck around the plot deck. Is this approach something you use? What percentage (if any) thought put into a deck is geared towards plot effects, claim, income, inititative. Are there a certain number of plots you think need to be resets, that need claim 2?

For me, I always build my play deck first. In the LCG environment the plot deck has less means of driving a specific deck type than in prior environments. There are no Others plots and the traited plots out now (other than City) do not form much cohesion of effect to facilitate building a deck around them. I do specifically try to focus on getting two 2-claim plots in my decks and at least one resent (previously this was Wildfire primarily, now Valar almost exclusively). Fleeing to the Wall is REALLY starting to be a necessity. I would say I am somewhat significantly driven by plot stats instead of effects (professional bean-counter here) and thus my plot decks can be somewhat predictable, though the sequence is purely driven by the game state.

Sheik, you might have missed it, but ktom started a thread last month asking very similar questions to you:

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

I don't have any CCG experience, but my LCG experience is pretty similar to yours. The Fury plot and Valar are almost auto-includes, Fury for the stats and Valar to compensate for the lack of deck consistency (I find that when one deck comes out faster than the other, it's almost impossible to catch up without a Valar). I pretty much always have at least one 2-claim plot as well (Power of Arms, Winds of Winter or Mutual Cause depending on the deck). Beyond that, I tend to vary things up between decks, eg my more aggressive decks tend to run Blockade and Power of Blood or Power of Arms 2x if they have enough of the appropriate crests while my slower decks usually have Wildfire Assault in addition to Valar Morghulis.

Sheik said:

schrecklich said:

Interesting analysis from the both of you. In particular Adam, I would say that the necessity of Fleeing is a function of our ability to toolbox. I'm very happy with the growth in the card pool (Price of War, Condemned by the Council, War Horn), but you still can only draw into a solution... and waiting for your answer "begs the question." (Yes, that's not the proper usage, but it's fun to say). With the exception of Chella, out-of-house 5 times in 6, which isn't discard, you can't go find an answer to the a location that's causing you fits. If you "Flee" they'll keep it, but at least you can gain some ground if you saved a few locations to play and can press a different advantage.

On the "bean-counter" front, I remember when i first played trying to assign a numerical value to plot effects and figure out a rough equation in 4 variables. Now, that's a lot easier in a situation where there are some blank plots, and while we don't have any in LCG at this point, there are some of marginal value. And in 2 out of 3 case a fury is such. If a 5-7-1 (no effect), 3-3-2 (no effect in joust), 2-0-0 (kill 'em all) are nigh-auto-includes, it seems like we should be able to do some sort of fun here... heck, if people were posting decks more frequently here or on Tzu-Mainn's I'd be curious to see just what the most and least played plots are.

*On the "I'm gonna be a ****" front, I will point out Adam, that one of the 3 plots you single out by name _is_ an Others plot, though I agree that the plot synergy, both in building and in house deck interaction is not present. I think Defenders would be the place we'd see that, given the parallel between Winter Edition block and the CP themes, but I haven't heard any hints in that direction thus far.

My Plot decks all look pretty simialr these days - even with the slow expanison of Plot options.

One or two Five gold Plots, one reset, two Claim 2 Plots and then the other three or four play to a Hosue theme. Baratehon would ahev Power fo blood and Power challenegs, Targ would have Mad King's and a couple of utiltiy plots depending on the build. Really - those last two or three Plots are the only things that change form deck to deck, form House to House.

And if you are at all running Seasons - the Raven search Plot is pretty much the fifth automatic as well.

My approach is almost identical to Stag's. In fact, riffing on a previous conversation with finite about plot variety, something players seem to want -

I could list (counting Fury as one plot, so slightly cheating) about 15 plots that make up 90% of plot decks.

Fury, Power of Blood, Power of Arms, Winds of Winter, Mutual Cause (the last three practically the same plot, varying only because of presence of seasonal mechanics or WAR crests), Song of Summer, Wildfire, Valar, Fleeing, A Time for Ravens, Building Season, Summoning Season, Rule by Decree, and Blockade, then add the more popular 3-4 City plots, and you've got the vast majority of plot decks out there, so the actual number is 17, but close.

Now, I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, just making an observation. City plots have helped with the variety a lot. But it's inevitable that some choices are going to rise to the top of the heap. The reasons for each plot listed above being listed are quite obvious and dictated by the importance the game places on certain facets like Gold, Claim, Resets, and card advantage.

And of course there are a few choices like Stags said about House plots, so we'll see some Mad King's Legacy in Targ, Hear me Roar in Lanni, and so on, and there are usually 1-2 "surprise" plots that crop up occasionally from opponents. But I do think the above list will account for about 90% of all plot decks at this point.

I'll echo the above. Out of my 6 decks most follow the Fury, Reset (usually Wildfire), 2 Claim, formula. Greyjoy, Martell and Targ share the benefit of having a house specific card that goes in. The only deck that has any "theme" to the plot is when I run Lanni/Shadows I include city of sin, secrets, spiders, soldiers, and lies plus a reset and fury.