Lars said:

Didn't the minimum word count filter thing try and stop you from just posting a smiley? How funny. :-)

Hey, I am far from the expert on Standard right now. And agenda card advantage has always been good (some guy brought the Knight of the Realm agenda to Worlds one year, and i think some other guy brought Defenders another? ). But the card slot(s) and to a much lesser extent the use of the agenda and cost and risk of either Winter or Birds just don't do it for me. Standard is just so quick these days - if you really wanted card draw Lanni or Martell is your house...

I am so far from Standard these days. Half my meta came in with the switch to LCG and is just so much easier to deal with when teaching and convincing them to buy cards...

Ignoring all the cards that were intended to interact with the CCG, I ratehr liked it. We saw some good development of themse, a new and unique mechanic which is strong enough that you have to take it into account, but not overpowered to the point where you are forced to use it yourself. The main ways of interferring with it are good useful cards in their own right.

It was thematic in the way I hoped the Chapter Packs would be, pack creating a story which the cards represent, but not one which the players are forced to follow.

It gives me a great hope for the LCG format, has me jonsing to get my hands on King's Landing (more plots! more unique characters!), and has me very interested in what form the Greyjoy and Martell decks will be like. We know there will be a special alternate rules that can be used with GJ which I guess replaces the idea of a story, no word yet about Martell.

Men Without Hats is an interesting card... definitely one of the strongest cards in the format... but the amount of gold to use him regularly makes him fragile against a Winter Deck, and with no built in protection against kill or discard, Shadow Stalker and Winter Marauders both will make him their mare.

You know.....

I am really starting to find the Summer agenda to be a risky play. Its harder to keep it summer than i thought it would be - even for Targ, and the --1 card drawback is just crippling. The winter agenda affects your opponent, not you, and it is easier to work around the drawback for the off season. i am becoming convinced it is better to laod up with draw effects and to eschew the Kings of summer.