This question goes to the players who already are good tournament players. How does one get better at the game? Yes, I know by playing a lot but I think that's not enough... there must be more to it.

I think that to be really good in this game is to know about all the cards. When you play and opponent you have to anticipate what card he might have in his deck according to House card, agenda and some cards he has in setup. That should give you some clue about what might you come across in the following match. So when you play agains martell you should propably try to get some stealth characters to protect yoursefl from lost oasis and to get by the vengeful chars. Also knowing all the cards gives you better review of the game at any moment so you know what can happen what passive and trigger efects are there and can be used and not to forgot about them. After that it is only basic math.

you know some of its just stright up luck

i know this guy here in minnesota he can go toe to toe with any one but in torny he just can not put any thing together his deck just fall apart

Play a lot - as much as possible

Attend as many tournaments is as many different places as you can get to - the game has always had regional differences,a dn these are even more pronounced in the new, more casual format.

Play players who are better than you - more experienced, better card players, having more rsources - you will lose a lot, but that is really for the best. you learn so much more by losing - you see card interatcions better, you remember threat cards much more clearly, you learn to see combos - in both plot deck and draw deck better, you learn to time resets better - all by losing.

Honestly you its actually worse to win at a local level and codify the wrong lessons. i have seen newbie after newbie come to tournaments or post here with wildly incorrect card assesments or evaluations - based on their limited expereince. Learn by losing - this learning curve on this game is steep.

Pay attention to what the champions have to say. Take very seriously anything rings, dobbler, finitesquarewolf, oldben, maesterluke and other proven winners ahve to say - even if you disagree, consider carefully their comments and think baout hwo they arrived at tehir conclusions.

mischraum.de said:

Play a lot ... and play a lot against good players ... and if it's possible, play a lot against the best players.

Iron sharpens iron.

I think a large part of getting to a competitive level is how you think about deckbuilding in this game. Sure, some of the game revolves around luck, but you can minimize the luck by making consistent decks.

Synergizing your deck is extremely important - making sure that not only do the individual parts work, but the parts work well together as a whole. With deckbuilding, I guess I take a very chess-like approach to it. For every piece I add (not necessarily every card, but all the key points to the deck), I think about what kinds of things can beat it, what types of decks will have those kinds of things in them, and then understand what's necessary to beat those decks. Over time, as you then play your initial version of the deck against those decktypes, you can see if your decisions were accurate; if they weren't, you evolve the deck until it doesn't struggle too badly against any decktype, and does well against most decks. I call this phase the Bessemer Process, after the first cheap process for turning iron into steel: You have something you think is hard (your original deck), and now you're turning it into something that is also flexible and much less brittle (hopefully).

Playing against many different opponents and understanding the psychology of the game is also important - maybe that person will flip the Valar one turn later than you're expecting, and knowing your opponents will help understand the best time for that Valar. In addition to this, playing a lot also gets new ideas into your head so that you can understand more about the game in general, but also understand how things will affect your decks specifically.

I guess the main points in my opinion are this: Understand the synergy between many different cards, make your decks as consistent as possible in order to know what its limitations and where it excels, playing a lot in order to galvanize the deck and expand your understanding of the different parts of the game, and knowing how to manipulate a person's psychology as well as understanding what they might do in any situation.

I bet 5 different champs would say 5 different things (or very strong players - there are a lot of good players who either can't make the main events, or have shown consistantly at the top but never have got over the hump).

Dobbler thinks about the game a lot. Plays a lot. Knows the combos, knows the metagame.

Mathlete was a great driver. Not to say his decks were bad, but he played them almost perfectly every time.

~Luke just got lucky.

Personally, I don't get to play often, and rarely get to see decks outside of my area consistantly. I don't particularly 'drive' the decks well either. However, I do pride myself on very tight decks (both draw and plot) that knows what it is trying to do. I rarely meta cards in, preferring to let my deck win rather than try to make their deck lose. And I do play enough to know cards that I like (even 5% more than a different card), and I stick with them. ~Plus, I hate locations

All of us read the boards, and listen to both the stronger decks and combos here. These boards are easily the best in any CCG/TCG/LCG that I have played at putting things out in the open and discussing them.

Play good players. See what they do. Find out ways to do it better, or to counter it. Come up with new ideas, and playtest the hell out of them.

One good way to accomplish this is to make a playtesting group of you and several other good players. See how they respond to strategies you use, etc.

1. card draw

2. "direct" damage

3. resource curve

4. live in your parents' basement so you can focus on the game and won't be bothered by trivial things, like having a social life or making a living. In fact, focus on the game so intently that you feel a sense of ownership in your card combos and become sociopathic about letting other people see them, even in big tournaments. Thrones should be your #1 priority... forget about the opposite sex and instead fantasize about fictional characters on television who are more than half your age. If you must get married, compensate for that by having your own gaming 'sanctuary', better yet, open a gaming store where you can practice to your heart's content while your wife who has a real job can support you. Other things you can do to make yourself a better player would be to: work for FFG (and discover loop-holes that allow you to play in tournaments), or be a full-time grad student (just don't forget to use some of your free time between playing thrones matches to work on your thesis). It also helps if you have a job where you can work from home so you can familiarize yourself with all the cards by creating and regularly updating a working card database (although apparently this can cause severe burn-out), and finally being asian substantially increases your chances of winning Worlds.

Follow these rules and perhaps someday FFG will create a card and image (that you will have to pay regular retail price to get) in your honor.

Sithlord Threadkiller said:

Ouch!

Ba-Zing-A!

Hehehe! I know a few guys who certainly weren't too far in giving a though or two about it (point 4 - Sithlord Threadkiller)! On the other hand...that 's the reason why in tournaments girls usually find great players unattractive.(Joke!)

Hey, my great grandmother was native american.... and they came from siberia. Plus I've got a 50% chance of being descended from Gengis Khan. (So that makes me asian right :-P ) +5

I do have my own card database. +1

But its not anyway near ready for the public (I've got an annoying thing called a job) -1

I have to wait at least 6 years to legally fantasize about women 1/2 my age. (Unless I'm in Arkansas). -1

My mom's basement is only 3ft high, and has a dirt floor. -3

Almost 80% of the time I do play thrones its against better players +4

But as my meta died... I don't get to play as often -1

I don't play Lannister -10

But I don't play Stark +13

So adding these arbitrary numbers I get a agot gamer score of....7!

Silent_Winter said:

Its why whenever a lady turns me down I take it as a compliment to my playing skills.

King Blith said:

~Thanks for ratting me out to the community.

I am looking for hints how to play better after the deck is built. (I started a different thread about deckbuilding). Things like "Do not overextend"... Or "Poke your opponent in the eyes when no one else is watching" Or have always that Seductive Promise glance in your eyes when you make a power challenge...

well - that can only come with expereince. Every game situation is dynamic and fluid and giving you blanket advcie will only hurt you more than help you.

a big part of Thrones is timing - knowing when to play a certain event, knwoing whne to duck down and turtle for a turn or two, knowing hwo to time a reset and play around it....and you can only pick this up through lots and lots of game play.

bloodycelt said:

Hahaha! Great answer! Loved it!

I was reding this topic again and I remembered...some time ago my boyfriend found an article about winning games, not just LCG's, or chess, or videogames, but games in general. We were playing WoW TCG at the moment and he was always saying how useful was that article. He plays TCG (and other games) for several years, so maybe even the more experienced can find it interesting. Here's the link where I found it http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/prologue.html . It's called "Playing to Win - Becoming the Champion" and it was written by David Sirlin. I hope it can help!

Silent_Winter said:

Thanks a lot for the link! As far as I can tell by now the book has a lot of truth in it. Just bought a copy today (even though one could read it for free...)

Was an interesting read.

However, one of the things I like about aGoT is that you can 'play by your own rules' and still win. I.e. I have a silly rule that I won't play with any non-uniques unless they cost 1 (with a very few exceptions). I found certain cards abusive enough that I won't play them (i.e. a certain Martell doomed non-unique at a certain time). Luckily with cards like Seductive Promise and now Halfhand maybe that is okay...but it does lower my card pool considerably.

But then again, maybe that makes me a newbie or whatever that article called them!

mischraum.de said:

Read The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse.

While this might sound cheeky I am entirely serious. That book was posted on an old CCG forum 10-11 years ago and recommend to anyone looking to play games. I read it and I must say while it is fiction and not anything to do with specific game strategy, I believe any CCG/LCG player who likes to read fiction would benefit from that book. It won't directly help tournament play, but it provides some fascinating insights that I have applied to become a better tournament player.

rings said:

Does that include Army cards?

I have to say... I do tend to bias towards events and unique characters.

It's usually the second or third time tweaking that I realize I should put some locations or attachments (non resource that is). Or that the martel shadow army is actually really good.

I'm glad you liked the article!

But of course, as jmccarthy said, each player as its own style for playing. Maybe who plays aGoT for some time could share with us your own styles, strategies and tricks that you find usefull, even if you consider them just little things as the rule of "I don't play with non-uniques"...!

I also liked LaughingTree's post! Do you know where we can find that book?

Silent_Winter said:

It's a well-known book by a Nobel Prize winning author so it shouldn't be too hard to find.... It costs as little as $0.75 on half.com, and there's a good chance that it's available in a local library or used book store as well.