I really like all three version of Eddard Stark.

The core set Eddard has Deadly and the nice recursion ability.

Lords of Winter Eddard doesn't have Stalwart, but he's an amazing blocker with his claim reduction.

Tower of the Hand Eddard has save / card draw ability.

My question posed to the community here is: How do you decide which version to run in your deck?

To give you some context as to my own circumstances - I'm working on a Stark Siege of Winterfell deck with 3 copies of Robb Stark and 3 copies of the Blackfish. All three Eddards look really nice to me and I can't decide between them.

In the last year I have always played Eddard cancel/draw one. This is because it can be very good against houses That I suffer like Martell. I based my decks on robb and blackfish so with cancel eddard you can prevent them to be "orphaned", "game of cyvasse", "castellan rock" ecc.

Anyway I'm also looking to try to use last edd lower claim. Most of all with stealth and maybe intrigue should be great in addition to frozen outpost. Maybe with lanni attach can work but it seems very expensive.

Do you mean you're thinking about using the Eddard that lowers claim? You typed Robb - when you say with stealth and intrigue you lost me. Are you talking about adding Gutter Rat's Cunning on Lords of Winter Eddard?

I corrected the typo. Yes, I would like to try Eddard lower claim + devious intention + frozen outpost's.

A Wall in defence, but have to think and try this serousely to see if it is not too much costly.

My favorite is the Hand of the King Eddard. His cancel is situational, as it only affects noble characters, but it is a cancel. You can even use it against another player's noble, just to get the card draw. My biggest complaint about Core Set Eddard is that he is Stalwart. I see Stalwart as something that tends to clog up your draw, especailly when you are drawing a 4 gold character. In the right build this might not be such a problem, and deadly is one of my favorite keywords, but he just doesn't make my decks the way KLE Eddard does.

I should also point out that I don't usually play Stark, and often run the KLE Eddard out of house in other decks.

I like all the Eddards too. I use Core Set and KLE versions the most. I'd use LoW version more if I had an easy, consistent way to give him stealth (or prevent him from being stealthed in some other fashion).

Cancel eddard really seems to be the shining star of the bunch. Core set eddard is good too for the fact that he can help facilitate a small power grab- +1 for coming out plus renown on a power challenge is ~3 power.

"reduce claim to 0 eddard" just isn't good. He has renown, which is dumb because the whole point of him is to block, and if you block and win his ability is useless, and if you block and lose you don't get renown.

Gualdo said:

Could Eddard cancel "Game of Cyvasse"? Since each player must choose a noble character, I don't see how it would work since Eddard's ability requires that the triggered effect choose one noble as the only target.

That being said, KLE Eddard is pretty kickass. I do like LoW Eddard a lot, but I agree that his vulnerability to stealth does limit his utility against certain decks.

Sorry, I meant above that each player must choose a character, not a noble character. However, my question regarding "Game of Cyvasse" and KLE Eddard remains.

You are right, Eddad Stark(KL) has nothing to do about cyvasse.

Anyway, I think he is the best now. The question I make myself when building a Stark deck is: Are nobles key to my strategy? If the answer is yes, I play him, usually twice. If the answer is no, I don't play no one. Both core versions seems poor to me, first one with a negakeyword, like Stalwart, second one working in defense without any significant advantage at that.

JeffK said:

Each player doesn't need to choose a Noble. Each player needs to choose a character with an INT icon. Eddard could cancel the event, but a Noble (with an INT icon) would need to be the only chosen character. Since that scenario is pretty much never going to happen, the practical the answer is "no" even though theoretically the answer is "yes."

I'm partial to LoW Eddard, mostly because it is easy 1 character claim cancel for power challenges. I'm normally running him in a direwolf deck which uses Old Nan to give him stealth via Wolfswood if I need to keep him from being stealthed.

I know I'm in the minority, but I agree with Darksbane. LoW Eddard works to keep everyone alive or keep a power challenge down each round. The other Eddards are good, core is my least favorite, but LoW slots nicely into a lot of decks for me, especially if I don't have a lot of nobles. He's really nice to have out when opponent is running a deck with lots of 2 claim plots. ~And with all those 5 and 6 claim clansman decks out there, reducing claim to 0 is a necessity.

Presumably Eddard could cancel the second part of Game's effect, choose and return a card to the owners hand. If it's a noble anyway.

Alando said:

If there is only one target for the entire event and that target is a Noble, yes Eddard could cancel. But this means that only one Noble character can be chosen for the first part (kneel a character with an INT icon). Then that same character must be chosen to be sent back to hand. Once more than one target has been chosen (usually there are two or three), Eddard's ability can no longer apply.

Alando said:

You cannot use Eddard to cancel the second part, because when the event is played you don't know who will be the target (to return to hand) - there is nothing to cancel yet. Cancel must be played in step 2. If you don't cancel Game of Cyvasse, then the whole effect triggers and it's too late for cancel.

Just run one of each, whichever one you draw you get to use!

Mathias Fricot said:

Funny thing - I was almost seriously considering doing this with Melisandre. All three versions of her are awesome, and you don't know which one you're going to want most.

Which makes me think - maybe we should have a thread just like this one for Melisandre?

*off to create thread*.

I like the Tower of the Hand version: he can be used in Baratheon, and he protects key characters, or just himself. Also, there is a little combo you can use: with Arya(CS) and Eddard(TotH) out, you can turn your influence straight into extra draws. The same goes for Frozen Moat, if you prefer the draw to the effect at the time.

Gargoyle said:

Oh, that's cute. Never thought of that.