Hi all,

Great game and great comunity here. I have been lurking for a few weeks now and everyone seem very helpful.

Some friends and I just started playing the LLC version of the game and we are not so slowly building up our collection of cards hehe. With so many new cards to take in and try and figure out which ones work best with what decks/houses I was wondering if anyone would be will to post the their must haves?

Maybe something like what are the 3-4 different cards that you feel you MUST have in any deck that are not house restictive. And then maybe list the 2-4 must have cards that are house restricted?

Thanks and I look forward to your imput!

Couple things come to mind

Clash of Arms Chapter pack, Ancient Enemies, For the "Fury of ...." plot cards.

Time of Ravens chapter packs, Song of Summer, Winds of Winter, and Change of Seasons packs for the Raven cards and the Season mechanics. 1st two are essential, the third one has a plot that helps you get your Raven out but not as necessary as the 1st two.

Any of the deluxe expansions like Lords of Winter and upcoming Kings of the Storm are great as they have 2 deck lists each to build full sized decks using just the Core set and the expansion. Princes of the Sun is good as you get two of every card, Kings of the sea is more of an investment as you need to buy 3 to get a playset. Its got one of every card only.

A second Core set is likely one of the most useful purchases. The core set has most cards only 1x which would be extremely useful to use in multpiles. Multiples of the plots are useful to build multiple decks without having to switch out plot cards all the time, and great cards like Milk of the Poppy and Bodyguard put duplicat Core pretty high on my list. After that it really depends on the deck you are building/house you are focusing on. If you are doing Stark I'd definately pick up Lords of Winter.

It is hard to say specific cards for each house that are must haves without knowing the type of deck.

Thanks for the replies so far but to clarify I am not looking for a list of packs to buy as I intend to buy all the chapter packs and expantion sets over time. But what I am looking for is if there are any cards that, when you are making a deck "any deck" that you almost always put in.

In other card games there were always a few key cards that 99% of the time made it into most if not all decks. I wonder if there are any in this game? SO far one of the ones I would identify as a card that makes it into most decks would be the building card called Cross Roads.

I will check out those plot cards you mentioned too, they sound interesting.

Thanks for the replies!

Crossroads is the only one that really comes to mind to me that meets that criteria, since its neutral.

Ivengar said:

I wouldn't even identify Crossroads as a "key card that goes in 99% if not all decks." I certainly don't play it in even 50% of my decks. Not all Houses need both the influence and the gold, so paying 2 for the mixed resource ends up not being cost effective and the card is left out of the deck. The three "streets" from the Core Set (Street of Steel, Shadowblack Lane and Street of Sisters) are more key cards that Crossroads.

The closest I can think of is Varys from the Secrets and Spies chapter pack and Syrio Forel from the Tales from the Red Keep chapter pack. They are useful utility characters that happen to be unique. For awhile, Carrion Bird (from both the Song of Summer and Winds of Winter chapter packs) was in most decks, too, but he is seeing less play as people get further away from all decks being "season" based. Plots are more likely to be key cards, too.

You're more likely to find "key card concepts" in this game than key cards. For example, take the card Narrow Sea and Lord Eddard's Chambers. Those basic Stark resources are going to be in 99% of all Stark decks, but not in a single Lannister deck. However, 99% of the Lannister decks will be running the Sunset Sea and Queen Cersei's Chambers, which are essentially the same cards with Lannister affiliation instead of Stark.

Oh, well a few off the top of my head from the couple of houses I try to play (usually poorly )

For any house the Street of Steel/Sisters/Shadowblack Lane one or all of these can almost always fit in a deck.

Milk of the Poppy although not an auto include can be useful in multiples in many decks.

I wouldn't put the cards I'm listing below in every deck for that house, but I seem to put them in alot of them.

Martell:

Venomous Blade - Great for picking off small characters

Arianne Martell - Extra claim is never a bad thing

He Calls It Thinking

Stark:

Lethal Counterattack - I've found this can be a big suprise and can nuke quite a few characters

Winter is Coming -yay more suprise claim

Bara

Margaery Tyrell DotN- Sometimes her plot switching ability backfires but she can really screw up an opponents strategy.

Melisandre DotN - The extra power can really add up

Stannis Baratheon Core - There are alot of Lords out there that kills his ability but when you can catch your opponent without on it really hurts.

As far as Crossroads goes it isn't an autoinclude IMO. It can be a good card when you need extra gold and influence production but most decks do fine with mostly in house locations providing their income/inf.

That kind of limits it to neutrals, here is my list of cards that make more than their share of decks:

Sam + 3X Carrion Birds + Time of Ravens - easy, solid draw. The Carrion Birds are just good (1 for 1 with military and stealth) and Time of Ravens is one of the only one-sided search plots in the game (plus it is a 4/2/1). Sam works on your opponents Raven cards as well. Some decks run 3X Sam, but I don't think so.

2 Shadow cards - Syrio and Varys. Syrio is solid and good protection vs. Valar (yours or your opponents). Varys gets rid of Allies (make sure your opponent has one, right DeathJ?).

Maester Aemon - good claim (and Valar) soak turn after turn (saving himself). Not as good with Traitorous Crows running around, but not bad.

Gilly - 0 cost w/ an intrigue icon (where it does the most damage)? Yes please!

Craster - 2 cost 5 strength intrigue icon? With a drawback that I have seen triggered all of once ever? Yes please!

Orell the Eagle - just a really good ability, almost like super stealth.

Val - probably the best nuetral draw in the game. She will have a HUGE target on her, but I have drawn 10-12 cards of her. Obviously a lot of these are Wildlings, so they can be even better (stealth, cheaper, +1 strength) if you want to put the Agendas in play.

Beric - haven't played a lot with him, but know it would make a 1st or 2nd turn Valar or Marched a lot more servicable.

(other characters make some decks - Coldhands, Mance, Old Bear, Selmy, Dayne, Jon Arryn...but depends on the deck - sometimes I just want some dang renown!).

There are a TON of good events (and almost every house has great in-house events)...here are my top 5 nuetral ones:

1. Seductive Promise - stealing is good I have heard

2. Hand's Judgement - probably the #1 card I wish I hadn't cut at Worlds.

3. Narrow Escape - okay, technically not printed yet, but I can't list all the games I used to win on the back of this card.

4. Wrong Dwarf - Never sad to see it. Great tempo card, and even can win you the game!

5. Condemned by the Council - best location control in the game (maybe tied w/ Stark's Frozen Solid).

Plots might be the biggest 'play-style' choice you have, so this is my top 5 only:

1. Every house has a Fury plot. Use it. Seriously, just use it. No reason not to.

2. Time of Ravens - only if you are running Carrion Birds. Only one-sided search in the game? If not, close.

3. Valar - enough said.

4. Fear of Winter - there is a reason people hate it. It is really good. I don't think i have ever seen a game where it was my 7th plot.

5. Playstyle choice alert!!! Wildfire, or Fleeing the Wall or Assault from the Sea.

I don't like attachments much (other than Bodyguard, that makes almost every deck I build), but you have to mention Milk of the Poppy and (in the right deck) Climbing Spikes I guess.

Good luck!

the experienced players in the community really need to get around to making a comprehensive guide for new players one of these days, to be posted in a very public place, and referred to often when new players come on the forums...

I agree that would be a great resource, but I also know from experience on other forums, they get ignored and questions will still come up.

Thank you all for your replies this helps a ton!

Extra props to Rings for the very detailed reply. Thanks again.

This gives me some focus and should help me with my deck building.

Honestly the best source I have found so far with deck building at least for me was the decklists published for Lords of Winter and Kings of the Storm, since seeing those it really helped me out with where to start.

Ivengar said:

No problem - great to get some new players! Hope to see you @ worlds soon