Viewing the latest cards designed by winners of tournaments I can only think that these cards break the game.

The neutral cards curious, useful and powerful in some decks. But in-house cards are powerful, unbalanced and auto-included in every deck. Any deck with The Blackfish, The Laughing Storm or Meera Reed is better. I see no reason to continue with a dynamic that is bad for the game and call back the old system: Champions can only design neutral cards.

I think the only provision that needs to be made is that the designers make sure they consider house balance when champions design cards for that house. That is something that I'm confident they do already. As long as house balance is taken into account when champion cards are designed, I see no problem with champions designing house-specific cards.

This game has powerful cards - champion-designed cards are far from the only ones. Have a look at the restricted and banned lists... or search through your decks for your key/winning cards. Having someone design a champion card for a house that isn't yours doesn't "cost" you a card - as houses get roughly equivalent numbers of cards in each CP, it just means that you got one that wasn't designed by a champion. It might be or have been just as powerful.

Why take away the flavour of this prize? If you're a Stark player, you could certainly wish to see your mark made on Stark decks specifically!

I'm not sure if Meera will be an auto-include (although it's a real possibility) - but she also can be used in any city of shadows deck, and I certainly don't think Blackfish is an auto-include. The Laughing Storm *might* have been, but on the restricted list it's certainly no longer.

I intend to make Aery's the Mad King

I would actually go one step further and say please only in-house cards for champions. I'd rather not see a utility card made by a champion appear in every single deck because it can, and then have to be put on the restricted list.

Viewing the latest cards designed by designers I can only think that these cards break the game.

The non-Martell cards curious, useful and powerful in some decks. But Martell cards are powerful, unbalanced and auto-included in every deck. Any deck with The Red Viper, Venomous Blade or Ghaston Grey is better. I see no reason to continue with a dynamic that is bad for the game and call back the old system: designers can only design non-Martell cards.

Completely disagree, and I'm really glad that the really powerful champions cards are all in-House (Blackfish, LS) or are relatively balanced (KotHH). Some of the less popular champions cards (Den of the Wolf, Qhorin) are neutral cards, but forcing champions to make only neutral cards means we'll quickly get more champion cards that hit the restricted list before they are even released. Otherwise it would mean every deck would be running the same grab-bag of neutrals (Val, KL Varys, hmm this sounds familiar...) simply because a player not running these cards would be putting him/herself at a disadvantage before the game even starts. Stark Siege running LS would be bad. Bara Knights running BF would be bad. Keep the in-House cards comin, champs!

I'm fine with in-house champion cards, though I'd like to see more houses get some love. Stark probably doesn't need another champion card for a while. Taking into consideration what houses need seems important; I wouldn't want to see Martell champ cards, unless they were adding to the lesser-used sub-themes like Dayne or Sand Snakes. Lanni may not need any help once LotR comes out, but I also wouldn't be surprised if one or two champion cards were lurking in that box. Greyjoy's got one now with Newly Made Lord, so I guess Targ is due for some champ lovin'.

Do champions get free reign on which house they choose for card?

Was there any champion Targaryen ,Martel or Lannister card made ?

alpha5099 said:

alpha5099 said:

Agreed, and as soon as I win a tourney and get to design a card I'll make the most radically OP auto-include Targ card you can imagine.

Rogue30 said:

QFT!

Skowza said:

I agree 100% What's the fun of making your own card if it can't be awesome? Curious but thought-provoking champion cards just sit in my binder all day anyway.

Blackfish is a great example. He's a little bit over the power level by himself, but he's only going to be near OP in a Tully deck. I think the world champ deserves the right to give a huge boost to their favored subtheme or concept.

When Bandit Lord initially came out, the game was saturated with location hate anyway. But in this environment, everyone would run him, in every deck. FFG just making him house Greyjoy fixed that auto-include problem.

Rogue30 said:

I see what you did there.

michaelius said:

There's never been any restriction as far as I know, including when I made my card. I think Tzu-Mainn and I were the last ones to intentionally go neutral (Jonathan wanted NW... and the Halfhand never had a obvious house aflliation like Benjen or Janos). And I specifically chose attachment since one hadn't been made... I'm not sure if that's why he went with an event.

I don't particularly see a need for this type of restriction... and I can definitely agree with the reasoning that they should be in house, if not necessarily "House X only." It'd be great if there was an encouragement to spread them around a little more, but we'll have to wait and see what's coming next. I'll echo the comment that it's lame to see all of these as neutral bomb cards that go in every deck, and in response to the original poster, there's certainly nothing stopping one house from being best able to take advantage of a neutral card/most easily circumvent it's drawback.

I keep lobbying both designers and champions to create a Greyjoy card that gives them card advantage. I have also lobbied in the past for a Targ card that returned the OOH mechanics they had. (My favorite deck to play is still the 5KE True Queen Agenda deck).

And now I lobby for Targ to get (Yollo I think was his name, and his female companion) since they were awesome.

bloodycelt said:

Sounds like you need to make it to GenCon next year, Jason.

Maester_LUke said:

I'm not saying I'm opposed to giving GJ more saves, but I don't know that I would give them tons more draw. Maybe an effect that interacted with the discard pile would be nice though (especially the opponent's discard pile).

Twn2dn said:

What?! You don't find Ten Towers playable and cost-effective? Blasphemy!!!

Blackwater Raiders?

I'm pretty sure that the meta is finally ready for them to make their inevitable tournament-busting debut.

I'm also gonna disagree with the OP. I think in house Champion cards provide some nice flavor and uniqueness as opposed to being often neutral all house auto-includes. Sure, the Laughing Storm was a mistake from a balance and combo perspective and probably too strong for cost/no-drawback so he deserves to be restricted but I don't find anything wrong with Meera or the Blackfish. Anyone that thinks the current Blackfish is too strong should go look at the original. I don't play enough Stark for a good sampling but in general I find he rarely ever can collect the 3 power to give his Tullys a boost. Most of the time he either gets knelt/Black Cell-ed/killed before he can win his 3 challenges. Of course I haven't had a chance to play with Meera yet but she's a 2 str character with an effective 3 cost that has a nice enough ability, but that ability is already available on other cards, both event and characters. It's repeatable, but only after a Stark character dies to send her back into shadows at which point you have to pay her remaining shadow cost to return again. And finally, she is a 2 str character. She is going to die. Burn, Venomous Blade, claim fodder to keep something better around, Wildfire, Valar. She is just not going to last long enough to make a huge difference on the board. She's good. She's thematic. But she is in no way game breaking, and at 3 cost for only 2 str I bet many people won't even play her.

Completely disagree with teh original post. Teh Hosues are what give the game its flavor. Champions hould eb under no restrictions whatsoever - let design balance thier inital concept. You wi the whole thing - you are under NO obligation to anyone else. you are the champion and you can put forth wahtever tickles your fancy. R&D is responsible for testing adn intergating it.

And yeah: since we are on the subject. Take The Laughing Storm off the Rsetricted list please.

OCCUPY THE RESTRICTED LIST. TLS WANTS TO BE PART OF THE 99% AGAIN.

Twn2dn said:

Something like this?

Fieras said:

+1.57

Egads! I drift out of paying attention to the boards for a week and I come back to find myself (mostly) agreeing with Stags! This is disturbing!

But really, if you're the Champ, you shouldn't be under any restrictions beyond balance and whether or not Martin will approve it- ie, a 10 foot tall, demon slaying Jaime might not fly.

~Doesn't mean I'm not gonna try for it when I win though.