What exactly is in the reprinted War Of The Five Kings pack? I looked at a database and it lists 3 of some cards, but only 1 of others. It does not add up to 60 cards. It seems like a good pack to get for those 8 STR hosts.
How does Icy Catapult work? It kills 1 character, but you are losing your character too. Even if the character goes into your hand, you still lose the Icy Catapult. How is it worth its cost and place in a deck?
If you're referring to the counts listed on Cardgamedb.com, I don't think Darksbane has updated those counts after the packs were reprinted. In the reprinted pack, all cards are 3x.
With regards to the catapult, it can be used as an odd form of protection. It's not a great card, but it's still targeted kill. Put it on a chump, they fulfill claim, you choose to kill their best character (without attachments).
Is this a good expansion pack to get?
If you're playing Lannister, you get Pyromancer's Cache (such good draw it's restricted). If you like big armies, you get one for each house. If you play Targaryen, you get Queen's Knight, who jumps into and out of play. I'd say it's a pretty good chapter.
How is it helpful for the Queen's Knight to leave play? Do I have to make him leave play, or is it my option?
It's a passive, so no, it isn't an option. The moment a non-Knight character enters play, Queen's Knight must be returned to its owner's hand.
The advantage is the fact that it can be Ambushed into play for 3 Influence (powering anything else that triggers when a character comes into play... like Magister Illyrio) and he's a 3 STR Tricon.
He's expensive, but if you're building an Ambush deck... he can be incredibly effective.
Would War of the 5 Kings or the new Fire and Ice pack be better to get? I want to get 1 or the other. I'm a new player and want to build 1 deck for each of the 6 houses.
Building 1 deck for each house at the same time might still be difficult as you will only have a limited number of the neutral locations like street of sisters, steel etc and also events such as nightmare, paper shield etc..
Dont be afraid to proxy some cards if you want to try them out, just use a Crossroads or other equally crap card and place your handwritten or printed image on top of it in a sleeve and viola you have acard to play/test with. If your building multiple decks for a group then this is probably best as it'll let multiple decks have access to cards you might only have 1-2 copies off (coreset cards for example)
Its hard to say what chapter pack is best without knowing what sort of decks/house etc you prefer to play. If your serious about thrones then you'll probably end up buying them all eventually so get whichever one you think has cards you want now.
How is it helpful for the Queen's Knight to leave play? Do I have to make him leave play, or is it my option?
You'd have to see a deck built to make it work to see the benefits of its ability. It's not like the card sees much play at all. I don't even know that a tournament winning deck has actually played it.
Bruno's House of Pain played Queen's Knight X2. That deck won World's last year... just sayin.
If you're referring to the counts listed on Cardgamedb.com, I don't think Darksbane has updated those counts after the packs were reprinted. In the reprinted pack, all cards are 3x.
With regards to the catapult, it can be used as an odd form of protection. It's not a great card, but it's still targeted kill. Put it on a chump, they fulfill claim, you choose to kill their best character (without attachments).
Ice catapult not a great card???, you dont know my maester catapult deck, my friends don´t like very much XD
I didn't say it wasn't useful... didn't even mean to imply it couldn't be good in some situations. But, I stand by it not being great.
IC found its way into one of my decks recently, really only as a placeholder until I picked a better card... not sure I want to take it out now after multiple games in which it proved quite useful.
Icy catapult on Meera ftw!