I was looking at this, and with so many expansions, kind of confused where to start.

From my understanding, when FFG took it over, they went non-collectible (no random boosters)

Should I start with the LCG material or with the CCG material? Are the old cards from the CCG days tournament legal?

My suggestion would be to purely buy LCG stuff. This is FFG's new format for all tournament play other than special events for the CCG stuff.

There are a few reprints here and there from the old cards, but very few are legal in LCG play.

Pick up a core set first. That will have what you need to get started, and then you can expand your collection through chapter packs (the non random boosters) from there.

Yeah, start with the Core Set. It comes with four decks. I would recommend finding people to play and playing with them with those decks. If you like the game enough, then start investing in some chapter packs. I'd recommend them taking the chapter packs one cycle at a time. You don't have to buy the cycles in order, but I would get all six of one cycle before moving on to the next. The more you play before buying chapter packs, the better you'll be able to decide for yourself which ones to get first. The boxed expansion sets (Lords of Winter, Kings of the Sea, Princes of the Sun) are also good buys. If other players in your area play (since you mentioned tournaments), you could also discuss with them which chapter packs to buy first. For the most part, the community is pretty laid back, so there's not a huge incentive to immediately go out and buy everything.

The Sundance Kid said:

I just started again too so I'll give my advice. Buy the core set and if you want to play martell or greyjoy buy their expansions. This will get you plenty of fun fairly even games with just alittle investment. Then I would get the last 5 or so chapter packs as a start. From there it shouldn't take you long to catch up, just grab a block of chapter packs here or there.

FFG never took the game over, they have produced the game since the beginning CCG days, but the game is non collectible yes. All current chapter packs come with a fixed set of cards some cards coming 1 per pack and others coming 3 per pack. All future chapter packs starting with the next cycle will have 3x each card.

The CCG cards are not tourny legal unless they have been reprinted AFAIK.

Definitely start with the Core Set, and buying the Martell or Stark box can help you build a fairly strong deck in those houses from just that box alone. (The Greyjoy box only comes with one of each card, so you have to buy multiple copies).

As somebody who's pretty new, here's the deductions I made when deciding what to buy

In order of importance imo:

Core set (duh)

Martel set (much better value than greyjoy)

A time of ravens set, especially the first three packs (basic cards needed to use seasons mechanic, some good solid cards for every house when starting out, eg. refugees, carrion birds)

Kings landing set (shadows mechanic, best ratio of good to bad cards imo)

After that priorities come down to what houses you prefer and what kind of games you're going to be playing.

Eg. chapter pack 1.5 (ruby ford) has some great lanni cards but precious little for barra. The Ancient Enemies pack contains some plot cards that are pretty essential for 'serious' games, but if your plan is to build a few fun decks for you and friends, then giving each deck one powerful plot isn't a great use of your money, they'll kinda cancel each other out.

And somewhere along the way, pick up a couple of copies of the greyjoy box - it sucks that it's worse value than the other two, but once you feel you have solid decks for the other 5 houses you mayaswell.

Sorry if all that sounds daunting, but it's easy to do it bit by bit. I'd advise staying away from the first and most recent chapter pack sets btw - the first set is kinda a holdover from the ccg days and is a bit basic, doesn't have anything *that* essential and some of the cards weren't that well thought out; some have even been banned. The most recent set is good, but it's a bit more complex and focuses more on giving you alternatives to the basic house builds than giving you core options. I'd say come back when you have solid decks for each house, though that said some of the packs,like ruby ford,do give important cards for certain houses. .

If you decide you are ready to buy some chapter packs, I highly recommend the King's Landing series. Best packs ever. Good stuff for all houses, adds some new twists, and creates a whole new set of strategies for each house...