So I am going to need to decide which chapter packs to start buying. Is there any concensus on the most generally useful to pick up first? I won't know which house I'm playing until I see everything as I do poorly just looking at spoilers (one of the reasons I didn't enjoy my playtesting eperience) so I'm thinking just general usefulness. I will probably pick up the house packs first and then start on individual chapter packs (waiting on the greyjoy reprint though).
I hope you've already bought the starter/core set.
If you've picked that up you're already on your way to having a good start for a few of the houses. The starter set decks - along with their respective house expansions (Stark. Bara, and now Targ) allow for some pretty nice decks. Each of those house expansions essentially allows you to build 2 diverse decks that they cannot make easier with instructions for the specific decks using cards from just the core and house expansion.
Thats how I would tell you to start - core + an expansion and you're on your way.
As I've told the guys around here - for $70.00 you can have whichever of those 3 great houses having a nice deck.
From there you can pick up the other expansions and continue to roll with it.
$150.00 will give you the base set, all 3 of the expansion (again Stark, Bara, Targ) and the two chapter packs to change the seasons from summer to winter - more than enough to hold you over if you wanted to spend more than the easier $70 like I stated above.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for your time, but I perhaps should have been more specific. I am a returning player not just starting up. I am wondering if there are a couple of chapter packs specifically that have a higher amount of the "auto-include" neutral cards that I am likely to be using in many different decks. Honestly I won't really be happy with anything I build until I am working with all available cards to build from (and perhaps not even then as I am very out of practice) but I figure it would be best to buy packs with more generally useful things first. And I did indeed buy the core set I should have mentioned that as well.
The Greyjoy, Targ and Baratheon expansions probably have the most versatile sets of neutral cards, I would start there.
For chapter packs, Return of the Others is a really solid choice for Val. Winds of Winter for solid neutrals like Carrion Pigeon, Mance Rayder and Arthur Dayne. Tales from the Red Keep has solid cards for most houses. The newest Gates of the Citadel has some great neutral cards and maesters. IMO the whole Clash of Arms cycle for staple cards of every house. After that it really depends on what you want to focus on first before you get all the cards. For instance the King's Landing cycle has most of the shadows cards. The latest brotherhood cycle if you want to try Brotherhood which is a good neutral build that can slot into many Houses
Hard to know, which what house and/or style you want to try first.
Personally, I would go to one of the databases and find the cards you want to start with.
Here are my two favorites:
or:
info.wsisiz.edu.pl/~szczesnj/index.php
That is the order I'd recommend. If you aren't interested in the house expansions I'd pick up the entire BwB cycle and then KL because they have some really excellent cards for all the houses.
So I put an order in today for 17 chapter packs plus the stark and bara house decks. With the three chapter packs and targ box i got last night at the local shop I'm just shy of completeing the first three "arcs" by four packs and I have all of Defenders of the North. So it's start buying the newer arcs and last housesI'm missing and then I have to start buying multiples to fill out playset, but that will be much easier once I have seen everything.
Thats the part that sucks. I found that some of the cards I wanted multiples of were the only good card in a given pack.
I'd recommend getting the greyjoy house set if you can. Its 3x now and has some realyl good neutrals. Shadowcat, Bay of ice, Kingdom of Shadows, Silent Sisters, etc.
I'm surprised no one has said Refugees of War. Refugees are pretty much auto-include in any deck.
But yeah, other than the big box expansions, the ones to pick up from the chapter packs are: