Come listen as we revisit Ban, Errata, *Restrict*, or leave it the hell alone as well as Dobbler's Dating Disasters in print form!

Listen here .

Dobbler said:

Cool, can't wait to get home!

Alyssa Bereznak is a fugly, bad writer who obviously has made poor life choices.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/iOC7B.jpg

Of course Jon Finkel also made very poor life choices as well. He plays Magic after all instead of the Only Game That Matters.

Prince's Plans is effectively the best draw card in the game. You can play all your insane events and time it so that it's draw that is also in effect tutoring because you're setting it up to make sure you get the 4 cards you want. 4 influence is very restrictive in terms of the decks you can run it out of, but Martell can get away with running KotHH when no other house really can (imo).

Regroup + Prince's Plans = /facepalm

I don't understand why Martell keeps getting such huge bombs (Ghaston Grey, Prince's Plans) when they have been at the forefront for a long time. When Lannister was in the same position they stopped printing cards that helped Lannister's best deck type. We haven't seen any top tier Lannister control cards in a long time, other than maybe Slander and Lies (which is a great card unless your opponent has Tin Link). I'm sure the Lannister box will change that, as Cersei and the agenda are definitely good, but Lannister isn't as dominant now as they used to be.

One thing to consider about taking the chain trait off of Apprentice Collar: Yes, it will make you have to draw it, but if you're running 10 chains and your deck is effectively 50 cards...

You draw 7 for setup, the average deck is going to get 3-5 cards in setup. Then you draw back up to 7. You're starting the game having seen/placed anywhere from 10 to 12 cards, then you draw 2 more at the beginning of the first turn. You've now seen 12-14 cards out of a deck of 50. That leaves 38-40 cards left to go through. Martell and Lannister are going to be packing some nice draw to get through that as well.

Not trying to refute anything by mentioning this, just want to bring it up.

I have a Magic: The Gathering background and one of the reasons why I like this game is because it doesn't have combo. I agree with your point that this game has far too much search for the designers to allow combo decks. What is my biggest issue with combo? A combo deck going off is essentially playing solitaire. Why does your opponent need to even be there? Once your combo goes off you are going to win.

People can argue that combo decks aren't all about "I win" conditions but I disagree. I consider card synergy to be much different than "combo decks". All the combo decks in Magic were solitaire decks that went off and won with no interaction.

If I ran into Jon Finkel in the sweet 16 of any card game, I would sweep.

I think part of the reason why Martell is still getting these "bombs" was because all these cards were designed around 6 months ago, during the Brotherhood cycle. Martell actually got very little out of the Brotherhood cycle (Sand Snakes are not particularly playable as top tier cards), and because of this, they were given a little extra "oomph" during the Maester cycle. Of course, this little extra "oomph" turned out to be shockingly good. Ghatson Grey creates a resource gap - though you have to have another card to complete the combo, you can return a 4 cost or a 5 cost (say, a Viper or a blackfish), discarding all their attachments and power etc. to your opponent's hand for a 3 cost (Edric) turn after turn after turn, is amazing. Only Targ has a real answer (Burnign Edric), because Edric/Arianne will bounce back to hand well before any othe house's directed kill (e.g. Stark's or Lannister's) has a chance to remove Edric.

Prince's Plans is 4 influence for 4 cards from the discard pile - Martel can produce a lot of influence (and greg's agenda really helps this card out) - but allowing Martell to recur their Red Vengeances and burning on the sands means they'd be able to cancel challengers turn after turn after turn - no other house has a way of completely cancelling or even redirecting the effects of a challenge towards their opponent.

Martell already has an incredible character base - Arianne, the Viper, the Viper's bannermen, Darkstar, the Orphans ,Arys Oakheart, Lost Spearmen, Ellaria etc.- and given that Martell was a top house even before the Maester cycle, I'd bet that even if Prince's Plans, Ghatson Grey and Burning were banned, Martell woujld stil be a top tier house, if not at the top.

I know this feedback is late, but I just got a chance to listen. I am in agreement on the Ban, Errata, Restrict, LTHA, thoughts.

And look at that, my first mention, albeit just as "someone," in the podcast! Thanks again for the advice on running your deck.

Oooohh.... my apologies, Shenanigans. It's tough for me to keep boardnames and real names straight with people. Maybe we should start a registry or chart somewhere that breaks all those down for me so I have something to refer to? I'm sure it would be useful to other absent minded people too, right?

No worries Will, because it was Greg who mentioned me as someone.

Bwahahaha. Even better. Hmmm... ok, well I know there was an episode somewhat recently where I did that sort of thing. I should really double check who said what before going and commenting on stuff.

I still think a big chart like that would be really handy though.

I concur as to the list/chart idea. Other than you AGOT celebrity types and the folks I play with regularly, it can be tough to keep boardnames/names straight.

And just to clarify, I am in no way offended that I wasn't mentioned by name.

I'll admit, though, that GDstud has been pretty annoyingly excited that Greg referred to him as a "tough match" in his GenCon TR.

Shenanigans said:

Shenany,

What were we talking about on the podcast when I referred to you as someone?

Dobbler said:

I was the one who netdecked your GenCon deck for local use and thought adding the Prince's Plans would be a no-brainer until you pointed out the resource-based concerns of doing so. Like many, I was awash in the ridiculous card-advantage potential.

Shenanigans said:

Ok, so for future reference, would you prefer I use the board name (Shenany's), or your real name (Michael)?

Dobbler said:

Well first let me do something notable enough to mention.

Honestly, though, either is fine. I'd probably say Mike/Michael, but most people outside the Midwest probably know me better as Shenanigans.