This week we're back with a couple listener requests- a BERLITHA on Tin Link and a new Rubies in the Ford. Also, we discuss what looks like is coming to Organized Play with the new league kits.

So I have a question: what decks would you, guys, consider to be Tier 1 while requiring attachments that you called "positive" in the podcast? (Assuming that Tin Link gets errated/banned) As I understand, "positve" attachments don't include burn and such. And how did this answer change with appearance of more direct/burn kill events [incinerate, No Quarter, etc.]?

Well, you could probably call about half of the chains positive attachments, but since they're all immune to the Tin Link by virtue of being chains and get to be searched for at the start of the game, Maester decks are probably not a consideration in the types of decks that we're looking for.

Is there something that I have in mind that would become immediately Tier 1, if only the Tin Link wasn't holding it back? No, not at the moment. I don't always think that there has to be something waiting in the wings that we're specifically looking to upgrade by means of errata/restriction/banning. Some level of change, I think, is likely to relaese some of the anti-attachment pressure on deckbuilders and allow them to experiment more easily, looking for possibilities of these Tier 1 builds. A few starting places that I have in mind though:

When I won our 2011 Regional, I was usng a Martell Brotherhood deck that made pretty heacy use of attachments like Taste for Blood and Flaming Sword. Now Brotherhood has developed a bunch of other issues in the ensuing year and a half, but I'd sure try out some of that tech again.

Zeiler likes to try out a King Viserys deck off and on. While the Tin Link isn't the biggest threat to it (that's probabably opposing Kings, lol) taking some of that pressure off might help.

Fox took a Baratheon rush build to the top 4 at GenCon a few years back (2008 I think?) that put Banner for the Storm and Hunting Spear to good use. Sure, it's a pretty dated build at this point, but it might be worth looking at again.

Greg's made the cut at one event or another (I forget which now) with a Lannister Beric deck that used the infamy attachments to keep power off of his house, rather than using the agenda.

In the most recent ATS I wrote over at CGDB, there's been some discussion of Dragon Egg decks. There are several other issues involved in making that kind of deck viable, but the fragility of attachments certainly factors into it.

Does anyone else have some ideas of stuff that they would experiment with a bit more if attachments were somewhat less fragile?

Whoops, got into that and forgot to address the kill stuff. That one's a bit trickier because I feel that some things like Incinerate look like they were probably influenced by the extreme prevelance of Maesters when they designed. I can see some balance in some kill effects that don't care about attachemnts. I'm uncertain right now, whether the supply that we have at the moment might still prove too much to allow non-chain attachments to be very populous. On the flip side, some of the very common effects currently like Bear Island, Castallen of the Rock, Flame Kissed, Search and Detain and more won't touch characters that do have attachments, so I'm interested in trying out an environment for awhile that was more amenable to playing positive attachments on your own things in order to offset some of these common control effects.

I don't see the podcast on iTunes - is it just me?

By the way, as I understand, two of your podcast members play/read about MtG and I'd be interested to hear your opinion on which mechanics from Magic would look nice in AGoT environment.=)