I absolutely love GRRM's books and recently got into the game by purchasing the Core set and splitting it. I took House Targaryen and Stark, and my friend took Baratheon and Lannister.

We had our first match yesterday with Lannister vs Targaryen and Lannister won. I realise Targaryen isn't really fast, but his Lannister deck could keep on pumping out the power points. But I'll be figuring that out soon and getting my back.

Here's where I need help: I've been told to get three Core Sets and combine them all to get playsets of all the characters. Is this really necessary? Or is it fine to have the Core Set characters at just two a piece and move on straight to the Deluxe Expansions.

I've been told also to focus on the latest Chapter Packs as the earlier ones didn't provide playsets for all the cards. Which ones should I go for to boost Stark and Targaryen?

@FFG forum moderator: It would be *really* great if there were a way to sticky some of these posts. This very question has been asked at least 5 times in the past few months, and each time people take the time to post thoughtful responses. The search engine on this forum is awful, so I don't blame new posters for not taking the time to search the forums. Overall, this forum is not at all user friendly, so I wish someone could take a moment to just sticky an important post from time to time. A thread that reads "For New Players" would be fantastic. Thanks.

@davidlian: Whether you need 1, 2, or 3 Core Sets really depends on which house(s) you end up focusing on, and whether you plan to play competitively. For Stark, Bara, Greyjoy, and Martell you need only 1 Core Set. If you plan to play Martell or GJ, those houses aren't supported in the Core Set at all, but the Core Set is still useful for its plots and neutral cards. For Targ, 2 Core Sets are probably good enough...you'll get only 2x Forever Burning and 2x Flame-Kissed, but I think two of each is probably a good number (you can always run Hatchling Feast or Dragon Skull). For Lannister, you'll likely need 3x the Core Set, since competitive Lannister builds tend to use more Core Set cards (on the flip side, Lannister doesn't run as many non-Core Set cards...in fact, very few chapter pack cards outside of the King's Landing cycle). For Stark, Martell, and Greyjoy the expansions are very useful. I would recommend spending the money to get one of these expansions (buy the reprints, which come with 3 of each card, which is a playset in this game).

Overall, my guess is that Targ and Bara are the most expensive houses to build good decks for, mostly because you will find that the cards you want to run are spread across a bunch of chapter packs and sets. This contrasts with Stark, where the box has a lot of great cards you will use, or Lanni, which seems like only really cares about the Core Set + King's Landing cycle (though there are a few other random chapter packs it's good to buy as well).

If you're looking for more information about starting out, I suggest you check out www.cardgamedb.com. That site has a lot of articles for newer players that you'll find useful. It also has a card search feature that allows you to search for cards by their type/cost so that you can see what types of cards each house has.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate that.

I second the notion to sticky the post so it becomes more accessible to newbies. Or maybe just a thread on "New Players looking for advice." Thanks to the HBO series, I foresee an influx of new players to the game.