Well compare the cost of buying a championship deck for M:tG in single cards and then look at how much you can buy in any of the LCG's. Or look at the cost to buy a championship M:tG deck in singles, and then a LCG deck by buying the entire packaged product. And then remember that with M:tG you get one and only one deck. With the LCG game of your choice you will almost certainly be able to put together multiple decks, and many of them will probably also be tournament worthy.

Any game that you want to keep up with the new hotness is going to require an investment... but there is just no comparing the outlay of cash to play the two games at even a moderately competitive level.

Amen to that. CCGs are exhausting financially and heavy on your free time. I quit magic because of the time thing, it's hard to keep up with this kind of hobby while having a regular job and other duties. That's while I really think the LCG is an awesome format - it really appeals to me because it captures a lot of magic from ccgs while being cheaper both on your wallet and time.

Still - Mtg is a very mature game and I miss that feeling of having boxes of cards to choose from and build fun decks. The sheer volume of possibilites made the game a superb experience. It's much more fun building your own decks than just grabbing a list off the internet. Sure you can't really compete on the top level like that, but if you have a group of friends who aren't too obsessed with winning you can have lots of fun. We used to build a lot of different decks, often using a cards from the cheaper range and had a great time coming up with combinations that beat the crap of our opponents.

You can still do that with A Game of Thrones. There is a bit over a thousand cards at this point to make your deck from.

While I too will be missing the feeling of opening a booster box and getting that rare Nazgul or Bilbo card I got with ICE's Middle Earth CCG (a beautiful game I still love to play), I must say the knwoledge of owning every card with each new chapter pack excites me more. Just knowing having all the cards available to construct decks without overpaying... It's just ideal for a co-op game like this

I'm a board gamer originally, and I wouldn't touch a CCG with a ten foot pole, because of the expense involved. When I heard about the LCG format, I decided to give AGoT a try, and boy, what a blast I had over the last few months. I love that game to death. And it goes on: I just ordered the LotR Core Set. So, in my book, LCG is the best thing since sliced bread.