Hello everybody. I have been trying to get a few (3) of my friends into the Song of Ice and Fire series for awhile and finally succeeded. So much so, in fact, that at the suggestion from one of them we all are going to give the card game a go. We have decided to buy up the core set and divide it up between ourselves to give it a try before seriously getting into the game (although after reading about it many of them are very excited.) This leads me to a few questions. First, If we were to divide the core set 4 ways, each of us claiming a House deck, would that provide each of us a sufficient basis to build our decks upon or would we each probably have to buy our own core set eventually? Secondly, I am not quite sure which of the core Houses to "claim" as the main two Houses I like from the books are Greyjoy and Martell, which obviously are not in the core, (Targaryen has been "dibbed" but the other two don't care which they get.) Could someone post or link to a description of their individual playstyles? Finally, are there any Houses considered to be much more powerful or weaker than others? I only ask because the group I'm with can get pretty competitive at times, and I don't want to be stuck with an "underpowered" House.

For what it is worth we will mainly be playing Joust with the occasional Melee when we can all get together.

Sorry for the beginner questions, I know very little about the game, or card games in general. I greatly appreciate any help you can give me

It really depends pretty greatly on what your goals are. If you are just going to be playing amongst the four of you, I've heard the 4 decks from the core set are quite balanced against each other. If you intend to play against a wider variety of opponents, such as in a tournament setting, you're definitely going to want at least another core set, likely two more, so you have access to 3x of each of the cards. Another important point is plot selection- if one of you wants to use a plot that is in someone else's deck, obviously you'd need a second set for that.

Well we will be starting out playing just against each other, but there is a fairly large community of the game in our city and we I may want to play in some of the mini-tournaments they hold.

At a minimum I'd recomend 2 core sets. Then consider getting 1 of each deluxe expansion for the 4 houses asap.

This gets you a few neccessary things like 3 of each income based location and also provides a second copy of a lot of one-of events (lethal counter attack comes to mind). You'll also end up with a much nicer range of cards to build with. Only real problem is you only have 2 of each core plot this way but you do get 3 of each of the other plots.

To start, the core is pretty balanced. I sometimes just play core decks because the games get so close. The deluxe expansions are a must once you pick the house you want to focus on. The chapter packs are fun if you want to throw down 15$ or so to add some new stuff to the core. (You need quite a few chapter packs to make a big difference.)

Technically, the core has 4 45 card draft decks. 60 is the tourney minimum, so most people try to build around there.