It's almost Regionals, so time for a last-minute FAQ update!

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The main talking points:

Standing (No-Shadows) Robert

Restricted to 3 times per phase

Ghaston Grey

Can only bounce opponents’ characters of equal or lower printed cost in relation to the character you returned.

The Laughing Storm

Off the restricted list.

I love the change to Ghaston Grey. I think Satin should have been changed to printed Night's Watch. I didn't think Shadows Bob needed a limit. Just put a card in shadows! Laughing Storm is going to give Baratheon a huge boost though I think. Great FAQ though!

Wow. Interesting errata on Ghaston Grey. That's kind of cool that it gives the 4s and 5s with renown some more survivability.

Hooray for Bara too! Glad the Robert nonsense is gone, and Laughing Storm + Val is a really big boost to their draw.

Interesting. I wonder why it doesn't show up on the main FFG page?

That said, I really, really like the articles that go along with the FAQ updates lately to explain some of the reasoning behind the changes.

Bob is just a bomb waiting to happen. You could fix Satin but then someone else will figure out a new way to break him again.

Holy mother of god! Baratheon is number 3 house right now. Maybe even number 2. Easily.

Bob limited to 3 times is bad, with 5 times per fase he attack and stop once every challenge and is good, but 3 times is vey bad, core Bob is better now.

... and 3x Val and 3x TLS go back into my bara rush deck... I guess it wasn't official before, so now I can officially piss off the people in my meta

This is great news. Ghaston Grey brought down to an acceptable level and a fix to Bob to stop the Satin mill. Good to see TLS come off the list, should make a big difference to Baratheon.

I love this FAQ. The Ghaston Grey errata looks like it's going to help a lot. I didn't entirely want to see Shadows Bob nerfed, but I'm glad they made it per phase. I know when we were discussing it a few weeks ago, some people wanted him limited to Three Times Per Round, which would have overdone it. This breaks some of his more abusive potentials while still keeping him useful for the important things.

I also really love the additions to the FAQ at the end. Clarifying how supporting works for defending player effects, finally codifying how Hidden Chambers is supposed to work, and reversing the ruling on Bolton Refugees, The Dreadfort, and Winterfell Castle. Awesome stuff!

Kaworu said:

I fail to see this logic. Standing Bob can still participate in 4 challenges each turn, which means he can grab 4 possible power (as well as add 3 strength to 4 different challenges). Core Bob can only participate in 1 challenge each turn, which means he can only grab 2 possible power (and only add 3 strength to 1 challenge). The only way that Core Bob would be better is if you had 2 to 3 cards to stand him with.

Sounds like fantastic changes all around, in my view. Finally I can play Beric again! Yippee! Time to get crackin', hint hint.

I think the changes are interesting. I am curious to see if people can make Baratheon powerful with TLS off of the restricted list, as well as Martell having a much tougher time bouncing their bigger renown characters. Though there are still several ways for Martell to control them, this is a huge step in the right direction!

Does this mean dupes can save from pulled under now? Could they before?

Laughing Storm Val bla bla bla bla bla bla

Wait, they reenabled Val/Laughing combo?

Heh, this makes me happy and sad. Although I do need to convert my night's watch deck to Bara now...Dolorous Ed anyone?

I have already played against 2 decks with the newly legal val tls combo and i dont mind it at all. i just hit someone with a 4th round RBD after a 3rd round First Snow and he had 21 cards in his hand

dh098017 said:

Did he still have the laughing storm out? Cuz then it wouldn't work.

nope, killed previous round when he was lone wolf standing thanks to first snow.

dh098017 said:

whew!

/fistbump

Infernarl said:

Infernarl said:

No and no. I think the only 'change' was that a dupe can now save a card being returned to shadows. You can never save from pulled under due to the 'end of phase' timing- there's no response window there. Same reason Meera can't go back to shadows when Catelyn goes back to hand.

imrahil327 said:

Like imrahil said, Pulled Under still CBS b/c of the timing.

Overall I'm really happy with the changes; the power of GG was reduced but not restricted or made totally useless, TLS off the restricted list at last (!), Bob limited to prevent abusive combos that exist now or that may arise in the future, a little bit of dupe clarification, and Myrcella's shenanigans cleared up a bit.

This cycle had pushed Bara to the bottom, prior to this they were the weakest House imho, but TLS coming off the restricted list gives them a huge boost... guess we'll get to see how powerful TLS + TftE + Val really is.

Skowza said:

Stark kill, bounce and few other archetypes can make short work of that. All I am saying is fear of winter, rule by decree. Keep some cancels in your hand and those cards aren't ever coming back

This FAQ is a FANTASTIC win for the META all around. Great job FFG. Now to go modify my Bara Rush/Martel Decks.

Looks good.

Ghaston Grey is still an awesome card. It's just that now you'll have to pack more copies of Arianne, Doran, and the Viper if you want to hit the big targets, and the resource base to replay them. Even Edric and Myrcella can still hit a lot of cards and stop some challenges.

I hardly ever saw either TLS or Val being used as a deck's restricted card so it'll be good them getting played. Even Bara Knights decks seemed to prefer Narrow Escape.

The Robert change makes my Power Behind the Throne deck weep. I was giving him an intrigue icon and attacking 5 or 6 times with Myrcella and that extra int challenge event.