Hi,

I've just bought the CS and am playing about with it, learning the rules and mechanics, having not played a C/LCG since Decipher Star Wars or ME:TW.

My question is this: is it possible to create a playable 60 card (ie legal) deck for play using only one of the CS houses + the neutral cards in the Core Set + sharing some plots about? Looking on cardgamedb.com it seems there would be about 90 to choose from adding say the neutrals to House Stark.

I don't plan to get hold of another CS just yet though I know this will be standard advice, am hoping one of my friends will buy one and we can do some swapping of the set house decks and then I can decide on paths for expansion, but till then I wondered if it is possible to come up with something playable (Octgn or otherwise) using the cards I currently have?

Thanks

R

Nice to see another former Decipher Star Wars player around! (Shameless plug, some of us still play! Check out starwarsccg.org if you're interested)

As to your question, it is definitely possible to build a LEGAL deck out of the core set- I believe each deck has 55 cards initially, so you'd only need 5 neutrals to fill it out. A good one is Milk of the Poppy (it's in the Bara deck, I believe), so find that one and add it to whichever other house you want to play. The only down side is that decks with 1x core set cards won't be as consistent, since everything will be highlander. They can still have entertaining games against one another though. Hope that helps!

It took me a while to work out "highlander" but I guess there can be only one! As a scotsman I should have spotted that sooner...

imrahil327 said:

It's 45, actually.

It's certainly possible to build a legal - and playable - 60 card deck for one house out of the Core Set, but you won't have many options. The deck will pretty much build itself. There's 20 Stark characters in the CS, for example, and ten Neutrals. Given that the standard recommendation for number of characters in a 60 card deck is "around 30", you'll have to include pretty much all of them.

If you already know which house you want to focus on to begin with, I'd get the respective Deluxe expansion for that house. Even with just one Core Set, that would instantly give you serious deckbuilding options and a lot of shiny new cards to play with.

But yeah, it's possible to build a legal deck out of one CS.

Having played a melee game by myself to learn the rules (Stark won) am keen to play some joust now against someone who doesn't know what is coming next (I was playing all 4 hands). Really enjoyed the way the game works, and quite enjoyed playing Stark so I decided to build a 60 card deck based on Ratatoskr's suggestions and notes on Deck construction found around the forums. Don't hold out much hope that it would stand up to a deck constructed with more of a thematic focus but have tried to pick plots that would at least help the types of character on display.

Anyway here it is if anyone is interested (comments and suggestions welcome):

House Card
House Stark x1 (all cards are CS!)

Plots (7)
Rains of Autumn x1
The Power of Blood x1
Building Season x1
Snowed Under x1
The Power of Arms x1
Valar Morghulis x1
Summoning Season x1

Characters (29)
Winterfell Reserves x1
Catelyn Stark x1
Benjen Stark x1
Lady x1
War Host of the North x1
Ser Barristan Selmy x1
Arya Stark x1
Jon Snow x1
Ghost x1
Winterfell Honor Guard x1
Knight of Flowers x1
Robb Stark x1
Sansa Stark x1
Knight of the Tumblestone x1
Greatjon Umber x1
Direwolf Pup x1
Shaggydog x1
Littlefinger x1
Kennel Master x1
Maester Aemon x1
House Tully Recruiter x1
Magister Illyrio x1
Ser Rodrik Cassel x1
Hodor x1
Varys x1
Trident Reinforcements x1
Eddard Stark x1
Shae x1
Bran Stark x1

Events (8)
Winter is Coming x1
Kings in the North x1
Lethal Counterattack x1
Guilty! x1
Retreat x1
Support of the Kingdom x1
Distinct Mastery x1
Distraction x1

Locations (17)
Winterfell Kennels x1
Winterfell Castle x1
Crossroads x3
Street of Sisters x1
Northern Fiefdoms x2
Lord Eddard's Chambers x1
Street of Steel x1
Great Keep x3
Godswood x1
Narrow Sea x2
Shadowblack Lane x1

Attachments (5)
Milk of the Poppy x1
Ice x1
Bodyguard x1
Nymeria x1
Summer x1

baldy51 said:

Any particular reason why you don't have Grey Wind in there?

Also, you have quite many gold/cost reduce locations. The standard recommendation is "around ten". I'd get rid of Shadowblack Lane and the three Crossroads and include the following cards:

1x Grey Wind

1x Seductive Promise (fits *really* well)

a second copy of Distinct Mastery

1x Muster (not that great with only 4 Knights in the deck, but we're running out of options, and it *is* a way to get a card in your hand, which is important in a deck that has as little draw as this one).

Or if you want to get cute, you can add Bran the Builders Legacy and either Lannisport Brothel or Golden Tooth Mines out of house. You can use the event to bypass the gold penalty on the OOH location. Saves you only one gold in the end, but is a nice combo that comes somewhat out of left field.

As for plots, it is a matter of style if you want to play the Season plots in joust. I avoid it, unless I have a deck that really relies on one particular character or location. I'd take them out and add in Mutual Cause. True, its effect is disabled in Joust, but it has good stats, and with your military Might you want as many Claim 2 plots as possible. The other plot could either be Mutual Blackmail (see above), Rule By Decree (great if the other guy outdraws you, but has to be timed right or it'll hurt you), Fleeing to the Wall, Tourney for the Hand or Power and Wealth. With the amount of Knights/attachments you have, the last two don't seem to be ideal, but they can't hurt you, might benefit you and have good INI, thus allowing you to go first.

Thanks - the only reason Grey Wind wasn't in there was my stupidity, missed him out when I was creating the list...!

All sounds like good advice, I will take a closer look at the ones you suggested, I guess the best way to find out is to play test it a bit (and get creamed!).

Thanks for your help - everyone is very helpful!