So, time for another general question to spark some discussion. I thought we'd go back to pure basics on this one.

What is your favorite House to play, and why?

We've heard a couple of people mention how they just can't bring themselves to play Lannister because they hate them in the books. But what's the flip side? Which House just "clicks" for you? When you got into the game, which House were you think "oh, I just GOTTA make a deck for them?"

As a corollary, which House do you just HATE to play against - that one that when your opponent pulls out the House card, you just think "here we go again..."?

I'm a North player "Stark" and "Greyjoy". Anyway I like to play all houses anyway except Lannister (only a Tyrion clansman deck can make me play them)... maybe because I always liked to be on the "strenght less" part... maybe because I hate Cersei and Twyin in the books :-)

Now I'm playing a lot Greyjoy... They are acting very well... BUT... the matchup against Martell control decks is Impossible :-(

I cannot win against Martell with my Grey... it is frustrating... so, at the moment, I hate them to battle against... but loving them to battle with :-)

Good question for discussion, Ktom.

I like to play as Martell and Stark the most. Martell because I like the characters from the books, and I like their control style of play in the game. Stark mainly because I like the house in the books. I play all houses, but these two are my favorite.

Don't really have a least favorite to play against mechanics-wise, though I have a distaste for Lannister because of the books in general. I guess because I play them all, there are things I appreciate and enjoy about each house, so can't really hate on any of them in the game.

ktom said:

ktom said:

I tried to think all the way back to I&F to answer this, and realized, by duration of predominant deck, it's gotta be Stark and Targaryen. Maybe _I'm_ the secret love child of Lyanna and Rhaegar... Or a Lord Commander. My first deck was Stark after drafting that house at GenCon 2003 (and opening a Great Host and Valar Morghulis in my first couple of purchased booster packs). After getting my hands on an Drogon (modified in his LCG incarnation) I started playing more Targ, particularly with some Night's Watch additions. Valyrian led me to Martell & Greyjoy with the NW Agenda, Winter featured a couple things including a Stark/War of the Five Kings agenda and Targ/Small Council agenda. ITE block gave me my beloved Nuts & Boltons played out of both Stark, Lanni and Greyjoy. And the CCG's denouement was with a "5KE Dragons"-inspired, Defenders of the North-powered deck that took me to the GenCon joust victory.

So yeah, I guess I'd say Stark & Targ/Martell & Greyjoy/Bara & Lanni as my general tiers 1, 2 & 3.

ktom said:

Probably Lanni dating back to I&F. I was missing a lot of Westeros-block cards, so the first Lanni deck I built was centered on the Throne of Blades Iron Throne gimmick with cards like Petty Noble and Lord Tyrion's Host. It's just as annoying to me here in LCG-land, but I certainly appreciate it and will play that deck on occasion. It just always seems to be a slight variation on one or two decks... to the point where I can say "hrm, I think you're likely to play this, this & this on this turn, and use these two cards in the Challenges phase."

Having played Game of Thrones since weeks after the game was released, this question is as hard as it is easy to answer.

Way back when the game started I latched on to Lannister immediately, I loved the picture on Tywin Lannister back in the Westeros edition and the regal authority just caught me and Lannister has always been an very dear friend of mine throughout my playing days. Iwon the first Game of Thrones tourny I was in playing Lannister, a memory I always recall when I sit down at an organized event.

When Greyjoy came out, I latched on to the Valar/Saves combo and just enjoyed the newness of the house. At that time Greyjoy Maesters was a great experience to play and I've always enjoyed Maesters, in the books and in the game.

Throughout the years my interest in Baratheon has come and gone, only to return again and is currently one of my favorite houses. I've never enjoyed rush decks so have always enjoyed the tempo/control style Baratheon offers instead.

But my true joy is in playing Martell. Ever since the house came out I have played them. My Martell decks are usually about just being a sneaking, dirty bastard and if the reactions of many great players I've had the fortune to play against are an indication, I do okay with that. Martell's ability to just wreck well-laid plans, to control the board, often by snatching equality or even advantage from a momentary setback (vengeance!), the bounce mechanic and the consistent draw/reveal to make sure I get the cards I need, is what I love about the house.

Lannister, though Martell comes at a close second. They play very good bluff games with some of there very nasty events and opponents are always cautious when thinking about declaring challenges when you have a full hand. Not House specific but also decks with the shadows mechanics, they play the same mind games except the threat is a very real facedown card on the field ready to come out at any time.

As for what decks I dislike to face against, House Lannister as well for they tend to draw out longer games and its not easy to tell whether after 2 to 3 plots whether you are sure that you can either win or lose. More specifically, I dislike playing my own decks. I tend to succomb to my own psychological tricks but I greatly enjoy the chance to play an opponent's deck and it is a great learning expierence when I decide to make decks for other Houses and learning new strategies.

Im most Lannister/Martell player. Lannisters, because i like Jaime, Tyrion, and Cersei in books. Martells - because my second best character is Viper himself, some hot women of them, and i like dirty tricks they have.

I hate Targaryen because of burn. My babes got hot to the ashes:P

But i like to play all houses:)

At first I thought this was going to be an easy question to answer, but as I think it about it there are aspects about each house that I like. However the question deserves the answer so....

Currently I think my favorite house is Greyjoy, followed closely my Stark and Martell. My least favorite house to play at the moment is Lannister. Prior to LCG I enjoyed playing Lannister, but quite honestly Kneel is getting old in my book.

Currently while I enjoying playing Martell, that house is also the house i dislike playing against the most.

This topic is an oldie but a goodie.

My favorite House to play pre-format change was always Baratheon. I love the characters (Davos Seaworth, Queen of Thorns, Melisandre, all three Bara Brothers) and the Asshai trait is one of the most fun and nedly sub-themes to play with in my opinion. The Brother's At War Agenda is still my favorite agenda to date, as it changed up the deck building strategy so aggressively.

Sadly, these days Bara is not what it once was. I have faith that it will be again though, and I eagerly watch all the cards for the breaktrhough I am looking for. Right now I am toying with an anti-shadows deck out of Bara. that has promise (but only if you have an opponent running some shadows tech).

Currently my House of choice is Martell. A core martell house structure works well with splashes of shadows tech and Kingsguard agenda. I have won the last two tournaments I have played in using a Martell deck. They are right there with Lannister in terms of 1v1 play, but in multiplayer I believe they are the strongest house, for pretty obvious reasons related to their revenge mechanics.

Once upon a time, my friend handed me a Martell deck..... so Martell became my favorite house to play.

For some reason right now Martell isn't really floating my boat. I'm not quite sure why. Perhaps it's because they're new and a lot of other people are playing them right now? Perhaps it's because I feel like I'm forced to play the same cards everyone else is out of Martell (although Twn2dn's deck from the last OCTGN tourney showed me some variation out of Martell)?

I've played a lot of Lanni, but feel dirty playing straight Lanni kneel these days. Lately, I've been gravitiating towards Baratheon.

In melee I've always played Stark or Bara.

The house I most hate to play against traditionally has been Stark (I hate Stark kill 'em all decks). As that's not much of an issue now, these days I hate playing against Martell more.

For me I LOVE playing Bara. I'm a huge Stannis fan in the books, and in the game they seem to be pretty flexible. They are really good at going with the punches, rather than just single mindedly going after one goal like military or intrigue. They obviously are really good at winning power challenges, but they have more than that. They seem to have lost a bit of that with the move to LCG, but I'm thinking its going to really pick back up eventually.

As for the house I absolutely hate, it HAS to be Martell. I just hate all of their effects and it seems that no matter what you do, you get hit with some bs event. Like red vengeance! that card is soooooooooo annoying! at least its not locked in the tower I guess.

Staton

It could have been worse. Pinces of the South could have brought back Injurious Poison.

White Phoenix said:

~ Oh, didn't you hear about the randomly packed variant boxes? A bunch were specifically sent to Illinois stores to mess with Staton.

In Classic and Classic highlander I play mostly Stark. In LCG I like Martell, Greyjoy, and Bara right now.

My favorite house is Targ, though I'm sort of taking a break from it at the moment. (All my Targ decks end up feeling pretty similar, so I've decided to put them away for awhile in hope that new cards change the way the house feels or I burn through enough other decks that Targ feels new again.) I suspect I'll pick Targ up again in a month or two, though.

My second favorite, and what I'm really loving at the moment is Martell. I enjoy it for the same reason people above hate playing against it. I tend to prefer unconventional (even off-the-wall) builds with lots of combos. Given that combos tend to take time to get going, most of my decks tend to be control oriented, and Martell seems to excel at that.

Given my preference for Targ and Martell, I'd have to say that I dislike playing against Bara. The near auto-steal of one of my characters (to the Bara Fury plot) makes it feel as if I'm at a disadvantage the whole game. (The feeling is worse when I play Targ, since the Targ Fury plot can't bounce the character back to my hand like the Martell one, and preventing my opponent from winning a power challenge generally seems more difficult when I play Targ, as there are no Game of Cyvasses, or tricks to deal with high-STR characters.) Lanni is my second-least favorite matchup. It isn't so much that it's a tough matchup (though it often is tough), but rather that all the Lanni decks feel the same to play against...there are few surprises, it's just like banging against a door and either you eventually get through it or you don't.

I don't know if I have a favorite house to play. I've always been partial to Stark and I've played them the most but since I don't play competitively often I tend to make theme decks. Almost all my decks are unique centric and are of limited effectiveness. One of my favorites I played at Origins a few years back was based around putting every attachment I could find on free attachment Sansa and letting her run amok. I lost every game but it was great fun to play. My most effective deck was a noble crest themed deck of Bara and Martell that used almost exclusively noble crest characters and events. I never got to play it in a tournament but it held its own against Luke** when he stopped for a visit just before his GenCon joust win.

Least favorite is usually Lanni or Martell. Really good control decks annoy me because when they work it becomes a one player game and I'm not the player.

** In Luke's defense there were about a dozen time in three games when he kept me from doing something stupid. It was still good to know that the deck itself was pretty good even if its player wasn't always.

I guess my favourite house has to be Targaryen... always had a bit of a weak spot for flying lizards that breathe fire... (or just look cool, either way is fine!) Somehow I just haven't yet had a proper vision for a good Targaryen deck that's gimmicky enough, but still feels sleek. I always tend to end up with something a bit too slow, and requiring huge amounts of concentration to play - and still only almost competitive. Hopefully the cards are going to come together one of these days...

Meanwhile I've been liking playing Baratheon and Martell, for quite different reasons... Baratheon for the huge amount of pomp and bluster, together with some quite interesting combo possibilities that usually get forgotten under all the renown. Martell for the way they seem to bend all the rules of the game.

I guess the house I least like to play against would have to be Lannister, as you can easily predict 70% of the cards choices as soon as you see the house card. Less fun that way. Then again, the nedliness of going "oh no" whenever I see a Lannister House card never loses its novelty.

I am a born and bred Martell player. I love them in the books, I love their mechanics and play-style. I also love Greyjoy. Funny thing is I've loved Greyjoy since I started playing the game (right before Crown of Suns and the intro of the Martells) but it wasn't until ITE that I could put together a winning Greyjoy deck.

I hate playing Lannister. The mechanics of control coupled with the ridiculous draw AND gold advantage means the average Lannister player has to try half as hard to do twice as much than most other houses, and it is the rare Lannister deck that surprises me by truly being different. Those decks I love playing against.

With 14 votes in, favorite houses are running at:

Stark: 2

Lannister:1.5

Baratheon:1

Greyjoy: 1.5

Targaryen: 2.5

Martell: 5.5

And least favorite house is (2 abstentions):

Lannister: 5.5

Martell: 4.5

Targaryen 1

Bara: 1

Maester_LUke said:

I realize this is just a straw poll, but I find it interesting that while Lanni appears to rank low on the "favorites" list, it is nonetheless a fairly popular house at tourneys. I credit this to the power level that Lanni has been at since the transition to LCG, and even while many people may not love to play Lanni, they enjoy winning enough to bite the bullet and play what might be their second-, third-, or fourth-favorite house (or possibly even their least favorite) to stay competitive.

Hopefully as more cards are printed, Lanni's edge in terms of draw/resources will erode somewhat. When that happens, maybe the competitive scene will reflect the above distribution a bit better. (It seems to me Martell is already making a dent in Lanni's victories, and maybe the reason people enjoy playing it so much is because it is fun AND can hand Lanni a lost consistently enough to take to a tournament?)

Deathjester26 said:

Funny...you didn't have a problem w/ it at the Lannisport Tourney in Seattle I was just glad my 'clean' Lanni beat up on your 'dirty kneeling' Lanni

I have played almost all the houses - reading the books I have favorite characters in each and I pretty much have to include those for sure (Tyrion and Jaime, Viper, Renly, Khal) even if they are not good. Bara is the closest I have to a house I won't play - power rush bores me to death for some reason, and they really haven't had much else in awhile (I don't like recurrsion either, another house strength...standing is okay though).

More than that, I have a rule (which many people know) not to play non-uniques except at the 0-1 cost spot with very few exceptions at the 2 spot. I want to play with the characters I have read about, not Tully Chud #57.

Twn2dn said:

its not just the draw, its the reduncency built around the draw. even if they only draw 2 cards per turn there is a great chance that those two cards will be superior to the game position then the opponents 2 cards. Draw just enables them to be faster (why rush just won't work right now, rush needs at least a turn or two of set up, and control decks don't...odd)

Martell, even with the lemonwood guy, still has a couple of holes in the attachment and location control areas (location control is plot and event based right now, and they are just tough spots to include things for martell)

rings said:

That was cha0s getting all down and dirty with you. I played Bara and got my but kicked..... I felt dirty for having played Lanni at Kubla, and had to switch it up!

rings said:

Matt, you are almost single-handedly responsible for the increasing presence of "chud" in my personal vocabulary, land totally responsible for the connotation of non-unique AGOT characters.

I think one of the most interesting part of what you're saying about uniques is a function of design/development. Does a card's stats/ability/cost match up well with what we think of the character? When you consider the balance between the benefit (possible duping) versus and drawback (potential dead cards), you expect a certain premium on the upside... and it's much easier to articulate what we expect in a unique character at a given point on the cost curve.

A 4-cost unique is usually gonna be 3 STR (or a bombtastic 2, like Robb and Ilyn), bicon with a crest, keyword and an ability of varying strength. You see a couple 4 STRs usually for theme, and your rare 5 (Ser Arthur and Rhaegar). I personally find Shadows Tyrion to be one of the best. a "4" cost, 3 STR, Stealth-y tricon, who's essentially 5 STR during challenges with an additional keyword (assuming he's properly surrounded in the deckbuild, or your opponent is running some Shadows cards).

Forgot to mention two things, Imagine if they'd printed Castellan of the Rock as "[unique] Ser Kevan Lannister" (since I believe this was the title he was taking up when he headed west in AFFC). Making him a unique with bomb ability could have kept him at 3 for 3, made him MIL/POW instead of INT/POW, and Lord. Knight instead of Ally, in exchange for the fact that you'll only see one, other than a Bodyguard or Retreat.

Also agree on the multiple versions, this has always been a problem with the game, but I still love the chance to run multiple versions of a unique to represent the different sides of them (thus preferring different ideas, rather than multiple takes on the same one. See both Red Vipers rather than both Robert Baratheons. When do we get to see Hot Pie? Or Queenscrown? Or "Robert's Warhammer?"