Valar is a good card, but it has itr's drawbacks, the no claim part hurting the most.

Also there are ways around it. I liked the plot because it made your opponent think of what to on the board. If a person got a ridiculously good flop, you didn't lose the game just because of that. Now if I have a very good setup and narrow escape in my hand, it's going to be that much harder for you to recover. If I have two, it's already laughable. I think that's about as talentless as having valar in your plot deck.

in the end - its a card game. Part of playing a card game is getting lucky wiht your draws. you have total control with the plot deck - and there was no counter to Valar. I'm thrilled to see control decks lose a little in favor of aggro decks - any day of the week. (Though it still needs the once per phase limit).

Stag Lord said:

Yes, there was and is -- Saves, Power of Blood, and Old Bear Mormont (and of course now Narrow Escape).

Stag Lord said:

I agree that it's a card game (big surprise no ). What I like about aGoT is the strategy element of the game, and I think this is why most people play it - besides the awesome background story of course .

All I'm trying to say right now is I think you put "talentless" in the wrong sentence. Getting a lucky setup is talentless (of course depends on how you build your deck - but what I'm talking about is having an expected setup of 4, and getting a flop of 7 with some of your good cards there). Playing Valar is not talentless since it matters when you play it and you have control over it.

I don't remember any quotes from the book saying something like "All men must die, but then get to come back".

Crutch or no, Valar is Neddly. Viva la Valar!!!

still not convinced ANYTHING needs to go at this point - but ****: I am starting to come around on Blood of the First Men .

Narrow Escape does seem much too powerful, considering that it costs nothing and can be played twice. Just limiting it to once per phase would at least require the player to make a decision about using it - right now, if you have 2 in your hand, playing it seems like a no-brainer.

Case in point, I had it thrown on me after I won a solid military challenge (2 claim and 1 other kill from an effect) that would have really swung the game. Out comes Narrow Escape; no problem, I thought, my hand was crap anyway so I tossed it. Just kidding - there's another NE and it's like the whole thing never happened. Except that now my characters are knelt out and I have no hand, and the opponent got all characters back - at absolutely no cost.

you know if narrow escape is really that bad in the challenge phase then start running The Hand's Judgment. and don;t give me the you have to draw it and save a gold argument because most of the times people are talking about narrow escape its with 2 in their hand and thats a pretty neat feat of draw.

also, doesn't any one intrigue challenge anymore?

But Hand's Judgment can't cancel Narrow Escape after Valar, because there's been no marshaling, and no counting gold yet. I agree with you on the intrigue, though. This is exactly what it's for.

Narrow Escape wouldn't have been as needed if Valar didn't exist. I'm definitely with everyone who sees it as a crutch. It's too point and click. I'm all for reset to even out a bad start, but there needs to be more of a cost than choosing it from your plot deck. Old plot cards like Winter Has Come or Winter Storm would have been way better. I've always hated Valar personally the way it is.

Replace Valar, and NE can go too... not that again, either one really breaks anything, but just for the topic of this thread, if I had to pick something, then both.

Winter Storm - now there's a reset that takes a little thought to play but is still damned effective. Honestly - wouldn't the environment bet ebtter with Wildfire and Winter Storm as your choice of reset plots...backed up with Bleeds and Threat?

And yeah - Hand's Judgement should be considered for every deck and the intrigue challenge shoudl be your first choice in challenge phase. Plus Confession is legal.

Take away the unlimited aspect of Narrow Escape (an obvious R&D error) add back in a little more event cancel - a lot for Greyjoy, some stuff for neutrals - and I don't see the issue. Its not like the environemnt doens't need more event cancel anyway.

And again - the wildling agendas are way worse than Narrow Escape in terms of NPE and unbalancing the environment.

Paper Shield...

Paper Shield...

Paper Shield...

Probably my #1 event that should ALWAYS be legal. Simple, never over-powered (it is only as good as the free event you are canceling), easy. Sometimes card games like to be too cute, and not just keep the stuff that is perfectly balanced as is.

Although Interrogage and Ransack are close 2nd's in my mind

Imposter needs to go.