Picture it. GenCon, 2009. (Anyone who gets that reference watches too much television.)

A good portion of the players are gearing up their shiny new winter or summer decks. The latest cycle has opened up a wealth of new possibilities in deck building. It was a good change.

Now, picture GenCon 2010. Some players are gearing up shiny new wildling decks. Now I opted to live out the GenCon experience more than I did play Thrones this year but, can anyone say how many seasonal themed decks there were? Or decks that didn't run an agenda? (That one may not be the best example but, it's more of the idea.)

My question is, with the release of new cards for houses, do you feel that old cards are being looked over more and more as "not good enough"? Do you feel like a season deck just couldn't stand up to decks in the current meta? How long before Bara knights becomes another strategy that was used at one time but, is generally looked over now?

I don't think "Power Creep" is the best way to describe it but, I feel like there is something happening along those lines. New cards simply replace old cards because they are just better.

I think you get the point. Discuss?

Well sure to an extent that happens, if it didn't what you would have are new sets which everyone considered boring. I wouldn't really call this power creep though, it is just the meta changing as new cards and themes are introduced. I'd only consider it power creep if they were printing cards which were strictly better than very similar old cards, but I can't think of any which they've done this on.

I agree with Darskbane. Many core set cards still see plenty of play (Flame-Kissed, Dany's Chambers, Forever Burning, Viserys, Khal Drogo to name a few). Though there could be minor power creep, I think the main thing is that outside of a few specific builds, seasons and (to a lesser extent) shadows are just not very flexible/playable in most houses, while Wildlings is playable out of every house. A shadows or seasons card here and there could probably go a long way to make those decks much more playable, actually.

Husemann, what I find most exciting about AGOT LCG right now is that the size of the meta is growing so large, there are so many possibilities.

If you show up to a tournament using wildlings, and people have metad against that, you will do poorly. If you show up using MWNK+Stark+imposter+etc and everyone is using heavy neutral, your deck will shine. I don't know if these are good examples, but with so many possibilities out there the strength of a deck is really dependent on what the other people are showing up with. Which makes it a really unique environment. I am not running Wildlings, I am actually working on a Stark Gates of Winterfell deck and a Targ Burn deck at the moment. If I can convince myself to break the bank as a new player I might even run some Lannister KOTHH. But a greyjoy winter deck will ruin my targ deck any day - its really gold intensive. That said, when I start killng off more characters than you can keep putting on the board with my Gates/Umber/Arya/Icy Catapult/BearIsland/LethalCounterattack/Siege that winter strategy doesn't really work as well. I think people stopped running the Winter because you losing gold/turn hurted you more than your opponent losing the same gold/turn because his armies were dicons or tricons that were stronger and cheaper. When that phases out because I singlehandedly take my Targ Burn deck and personally redefine the meta that will change, and winter will come back in.

By the way, I am kidding about single handedly changing the meta... well... partially kidding...

In my opinion wildlings are just not well tested, that's why people may talk about power creep. For me few Martell cards are somewhat power creep.

Mathias Fricot said:

I think such deck would never shine. Any good use of Imposter! that I'm missing?

Seasons were kind of a lwo impact mecahnic anyway. They shone becuase early LCG was a shallow pool and some of the seasonal effects were better than anything else out there. Cards like Wintertime Marauders and Summer's Champion stood out in the Core ste dominated early days.

It was only a matter of time before more efficient cards filled out the pool and replaced soem of teh seasonal effects. baratehon has much more relaible renown options now in the environment and doesn't have to rely on Raven + Summer's Champion to get a rush going.

That being said, i still see pelnty of tech from earlier cycles - teh City Plots and Shadows decks have not exactly disappeared you know.

Stag Lord said:

I mean, we don't hear a lot about the Siege-Epic-Fear of Winter deck/combo anymore. It's not like it got less powerful, or that there are all that many more things in the environment to deal with it, or that any of the cards received significant errata. It's that people moved on to other things to keep themselves interested as more cards became available.

Well, with any card game there is going to be SOME power creep. I think FFG has done a pretty good job of keeping it contained, mainly by making totally new and for the most part viable NEW themes and sub-themes and actually having some 'bullet' counters already built in. Other than the Wildlings, I think pretty much every house is playable and fairly balanced, with almost everyone having some seriously powerful cards and strategies.

However, this can't last forever, and getting into the game will be more and more intimidating for new players. SOMEDAY (read: not today) FFG will have to make an announcement about competative play. My favorite idea that I know has been championed by Dobbler and others is to allow 3-4 blocks of cards in any one deck. That way the whole pool is still active, but you have to make a tough choice on what cards you really want to play. And newer players can just focus on cards they are interested in - be they old or new (especially with the new 3X chapter packs).

Darksbane said:

Well i can.

Host of Stroms End (CS) and Knights of the Strom (KingsOTS).

ok the Host was not very hot, but now they are OUT.