A Limited Response is a type of Response that is limited to only once per round, in other words, a player can only trigger one Limited Response TOTAL in a particular round. The most recent CP "Raven's Song" provided the LCG Environment with 4 more Limited Responses bringing the total to 16 cards. The 16 cards can be divided up into distinct sub groups which will help see if any Deck Construction conflicts must be addressed. In my opinion the sub groups are:

• Group 1: Events (responding to revealing Traited Plots)
• Group 2: One time uses
• Group 3: Multiple uses

Group #1: Traited Plot Events

Here we have two groups, the Clash of Arms "X for your King" events:

• Lie for your King!
• Starve for your King!
• Kill for your King!

and the newly released "Kneel all Icons" events:

• Fights No Sword Can WIn
• Raven's Message
• At the Point of a Blade

These all require a Traited Plot, specifically a Millitary Battle, Power Struggle, or Intrigue Gambit Plot card to be revealed. Currently in the LCG Environment we only have one of each of these Plots so unless you have plot manipulation in your deck you could only use one of these events in the first seven rounds of the game. This leads me to think that playing more than one of these is a waste unless you put in the considerable amount of effort to cycle through your plots faster. Another problem is that you may not have the event in your hand when you want to play the Traited Plot making you either have to wait to play the plot at a more inopportune time or you now have a useless event in your deck until round eight. All that being said, plot manipulation can be something your deck is built around and if that is the case there are probably situations where you could include more than one of the events from this group. Of course this would all change if more Traited Plots are made available.

Group #2: One Time Use

The already mentioned Traited Plot events not withstanding, the second group could be described as one time uses. These are Limited Responses that are either events or require the discarding of the card from play. They include:

• Grand Maester Pycelle - Lannister (RS)
• Edric Storm - Baratheon (CS)
• War Scorpion - Martell (BoRF)
• Die for your King! - Neutral Event (AE)
• Icy Catapult - Stark (W5K)

Since these only happen once and do not rely on a particular plot I could see as many as 3 of any of these in a deck with very minimal drawbacks.

Group #3: Multiple Uses

• Castellan of the Rock - Lannister (BoRF)
• Martial Law - Baratheon (BoRF)
• First Mate - Greyjoy (SB)
• Longship "Foamdrinker" - Greyjoy (W5K)
• Flaming-Pitch Tower - Targaryen (W5K)

These remaining five are all able to be used once a round as long as you can keep them in play and meet the conditions. They are all quite powerful abilities that are worthy of building around as one of the focuses of a deck. The immediate thing that jumps out is Greyjoy having two and the obvious problem of only being able to use one per round. Would a GJ player include both in a deck? It's hard for me to say. I guess the benefit would be having a choice of what you needed at the time. The real question with this group and especially if you build around one of the Locations is whether a player would also include any card from groups 1 or 2.

My questions are:

How has the pool of Limited Response cards affected your deck building if any?

What are the tough decisions that you have had to make or would have to make?

Egg said:

1. Limited Responses haven't had much effect on deck-building yet. As you note, there are really only 10 of them and other than the 2 Greyjoy ones (and that's a whole other topic), they aren't synergistic enough to really be parallel foci in the same deck. They aren't numerous enough yet to (and there isn't enough draw) for them to really conflict much during play in the LCG format.

2. In theory, you might have to make decisions like not using the Castellan to kneel something so that you could recycle your plots with Pycelle. Or in Bara, you might find yourself wondering whether 2 free power (Martial Law) or an extra power challenge (Edric) is the better way to go. But in practice, it's rarely much of a decision. Pycelle doesn't seem to see much play because of the 3-for-2 stats (there are better 3-cost and 2-STR characters), so that choice rarely comes up. And Martial Law is ALWAYS a better choice than Edric (essentially the same power gain for much less effort), unless you have a lot of Vigilant power icons with Renown. And that's what it comes down to most of the time; if you DO happen to have built multiple Limited Responses into the same deck (which isn't a given by any means), there is almost always a clear choice between them in any given situation. So the decisions are rarely "tough."

I just don't think there are enough Limited Responses (or perhaps traited plots) in the LCG to make them much of a deckbuilding - or even in-play - factor yet.

Yeah I've never been in a situation where I've pulled a card from a deck because I had too many limited responses. I run both Starve for your King! and Flaming-Pitch tower in a Targ True Queen deck but they rarely collide.