Hi, can Catelyn Stark from LoW bypass the restriction of the plot Focused Offence a thus defend? I guess so...since she is no declared as a defender rather then put into play as a defending character.
2. Is a duplicate a non-unique card for purposes of Wintertime Maruaders etc?
1) Yes, LoW can be used to circumvent the restriction of Focused Offense. Using Catelyn's ability is not Declaring Defenders, and it happens at a different point in the timing structure. NW characters via The Wall and Greatjon Umber would work too.
2) From an earlier ktom post:
ktom said:
Actually, all duplicates are cards in play. You play them from your hand, you discard them, etc. What's more, since all duplicates are supposed to be treated as textless, titleless and traitless, all of them are technically "non-unique cards in play."
Moral of the story: people forget it, and there are usually better choices in play, but Wintertime Marauders can discard any dupe - not just Loyal Guard.
This was also mentioned in a more recent thread, but I couldn't find it just now.
Another thing, just to be nitpicky: When the rulebook refers to duplicates as being "traitless", it means traits in the generic sense of the noun, NOT in the sense of the game term Traits, right? Traits are covered by "textless", as they're part of the textbox of the card. Because, if traitless meant Trait-less, icons (like the unique symbol, and the MIL/INT/POW-icons) would not be covered, so the duplicate technically would still have them, right?