I just started playing the game about a month ago. I bought a few Core sets, all the expansions, and now I'm looking into buying sets of chapter packs. I've been looking at cards and decks online in an attempt to figure out which packs are more important and which I should obtain first. I decided to go in order of release and have bought the A Clash of Arms cycle so far. Now I'm looking at the A Time For Ravens cycle and it seems like most competitive decks run Carrion Birds x3 and some run White/Black Raven x2-3 even if they aren't running a season agenda. The season agendas themselves seem to be the backbone of a lot of really good decks also.

I haven't been able to find A Song of Summer or The Winds of Winter chapter packs anywhere. I was following two Ebay auctions this week that both ended on Friday at over $100 each including shipping. I also noticed that reprints were just posted in the News section for chapter packs that have already been reprinted once before. I can still find these packs online or in stores at regular prices so why are they getting reprinted? I assumed reprints were done when chapter packs go out of stock but maybe I'm wrong. Were these reprints done for a different reason like fixing erratas or something?

Are these season packs ever going to be reprinted? Is it possible to be truly competitive without Carrion Birds and to a lesser extent Ravens and Agendas in tournament play? Should I buy these packs next time I see them on Ebay no matter what the price?

I've purchased expensive cards for other non-living card games in the past so I'm not against this option, I'm just wondering if this is what new players should expect when getting into this game. My play group consists of four players and we have been using the same supply of cards to build decks from up until this point. Should I buy 4 of these chapter packs so that we have enough Carrion Birds to make our decks balanced against each other if one player is playing seasons? $400+ sounds like it might be to much of an investment for just a few cards. What do you guys think? I'm loving the game so far and would really like to start playing a card game competitively again, but the availability of these packs worries me a little.

Regarding the possible availability of the first two cycles of the Chapter Pack (which includes the A Song of Summer and Winds of Winter) in the future, see here under reply #9 .
The Spaniard (cP) is Christian Peterson, who is the founder and CEO of FFG.

My advice is to wait a little bit. Hopefully we'll hear something from FFG regarding their reprint status soon.

This is so sad. Why are there dead sets in a living card game?

I've had to tell newer players to wait on picking up the game because they won't have access to several key cards. Especially one friend of mine who is a huge Greyjoy fan and wanted to play Greyjoy choke.

I hope these get reprinted soon. They are losing a lot of potential customers because several key cards are made unavailable.

Seems kind of counterintuitive for an LCG.

The worst part is the new announcement that they will be reprinting basically every set except the one that is most sorely needed.

In the meantime, if you dont mind buying the old 40x card packs eaglecards.com still have some of the older CPs

That said, as of checking right now there are 4 CPs left in the FFG store, one from A Time of Ravens and three from A Clash of Arms so chances are the reprints Are coming in the next few months. It all depends on how patient/dedicated to the game you are.

However, its interesting that you consider yourself non competative without that cycle. Dont get me wrong, carrion birds, seasons and certain other cards (like Refugees) in that cycle are Awesome but I believe the game as a whole has gotten to the stage where the cardpool is big enough for you to be able to build a competative deck from one or two cycles alone. Infact you might find that trying to build a tournament worthy deck with restrictions on what is and isnt readily available opens up some pretty interesting, and potentially game winning, combinations that you wouldn't have thought of anyway. I say don't give up on being competative without some of those cards, its still Very possible to be a powerhouse player without even owning the first two cycles!

eagecards.com is a Christian greeting card store? wtf?

@KhalBrogo: You're looking for eaglecard.org.

@DerBarchen: (Sorry if I seem a bit on the offensive here, not meant to be personal in any way). I feel that the argument that you can do well without the first two CP cycles is pretty much bogus. Sadly, less is not more. It's mostly just less.

To be more specific: All cards are not created equal in AGOT. Just look at Meera and Dreadfort Outrider, and explain to me how these two cards are completely balanced in power level? Hence working from a larger cardpool will allow you to raise the overall powerlevel of your deck. When comparing two players of equal skill level, the size of the cardpool they have available will average out to having at least some effect. Of course there are ways of working around this (such as running Maesters, since most of the important cards are within the Oldtown Cycle and relatively few cards from the first two cycles - except of course Martell Maesters, since Martell Refugees and Maester of War are in those two first cycles). However, the existence of some 'workarounds' to the issue aren't really the same as it being solved. If your toolbox is missing a saw, you can probably cut that plank with a knife, but the end result won't be as clean nor as straight. Will probably more resemble a stake, to be fair.

Further, to address the Season Agendas in particular: There's a very limited number of cards for affecting Seasons within the environment. Disregarding the fact that you're missing out on some strong deck archetypes to choose from, most decks (there are some exceptions here of course) will need some kind of toolbox for combatting Season decks. Now, the directly Season affecting effects that you have available without the Seasons cycle are: Ill Tidings, Copper Link + Tin Link, Copper Link + any other attachment discard. And that's about it. So, if you wanna run any anti-Season tech, you're stuck with the guys in chains. Now, there's of course other ways of trying to mitigate the EFFECTS of the Agendas, instead of trying to affect the Season… Seal of the Crown will change their Summer draw to Summer filtering, Stannis will stop Summer draw and TLS will stop the Winter discard from happening. Lanni/Martell can probably get away with running so much other card advantage, that they can just outdraw the other deck so bad, that the Season won't be an issue. However, this all leads back to the original problem. Less is less. Carrion Birds are easy to slot into a deck, and they at least give you 'some' chance to combat seasons, without really dictating your deck theme. If you're running with a smaller cardpool, the viable deck construction options you have are sorely limited. And it can also be quite daunting (especially for a new player!) to have to work from a disadvantage to start with, simply because they do not have access to some key cards.

KhalBrogo said:

it should be www.eaglecard.org - no chance to get any Winds of Winter/Song of Summer packs though. and some from the first 2 cycles are not available at the moment, but will be back on stock soon.