After playing some more last night, with Joffrey Maester and against Robert Maester, I still think that the easiest tweak in relation to the agenda is the removal of the Chain trait from the Apprentice Collar so that it can't start the game there. However, I'm also coming around on the belief that the +1 STR ability is too much as well.

I think that just banning the Apprentice Collar will do the trick. It's the only sure way to end all this uber maester OP decks.

Maybe this week we see new FAQ, is very necessary.

My guess is the next FAQ update is still two or three weeks off. I just hope that, if they decide to do something, they do it soon, and not shortly before Stahleck.

Ratatoskr said:

+1. I'm finding less and less fun to see Maesters... Maesters Everywhere!! The quicker the new FAQ is elaborated, the quicker one can start to prepare for Stahleck.

tovra.pt said:

Hint: Prepare to play against lots of Martell decks.

I would say such dominance of Maester deck is its weekness. We could be good prepared against such matchup. I play martell and targ both are quite good prepared to deal with false maester. For others you need definitely some more meta but it is manageble. I don"t see at that moment any need for new FAQ. Maybe only slide change to remove chain from Apprentice. But it is not necessary at that time. This deck can be beatable and was beaten several times.

Prepare to play against a six north agenda wilding deck running three apprentice collars and attachment stealing through Mance Rayder + winter + trait manipulation all out of Lannister kneel allied to Martell for Ghaston Grey with Edric Dayne and stop bitching.

Mathias Fricot said:

Mance only works on Locations.

Sigh.

WWDrakey said:

Lol good point, although not the actual point of my post

Mathias Fricot said:

~ Sure, but then, what deck will I be playing? The same?

That is my main problem, choosing a deck. I was thinking starting to train with a simple Maester Martell build - it's strong, reliable and has answers to everything you pointed out (except for the 6 Agendas Wildling deck - if I'm paired vs. one of those, I'll probably loose, specifically if they draw Val initially and make me afraid of winter after). But I won't be able to seriously prepare if I don't know wether or not the Collar will be errata'ed... it affects deck composition from the start and the deck composition dictated by the metagame I will be expecting.

Gimmick has an advantage with no sideboard, but I would be tempted (if I were going to Stahleck) to run some standard classic Stark. Run Fear of Winter as your restricted, hit it turn 1 then blockade turn 2, some Die By the Sword, and a bunch of classic kill mechanisms. You will slow down the maester madness of Joff or TRV or Bobert, and you can eat through their dupes with your events or your cheap deadly characters. Run 3 Deepwood Mercenaries and laugh in their face. Throw in a few of the shadows cards, like the new wolf and arya for soak. Its what I would run.