Since the Greyjoy expansion is supposed to come with cards that "fill-in" the holes of the LCG environment, folk might think that Paper Shield would be a good candidate.

But... do we need a card that would essentially be put in most tourney decks by default? Let me put a counter argument.

I've been playing magic lately (due to my friends moving to that game). And one thing that has been clear even now... while each color has a bit of control, blue still is the only color with counter spells. And many tounrey decks don't even use blue.

Looking at that, lets look at each House's method of control.

Stark has the best character control. They win by continually forcing you to rebuild, and that hurts more when a high claim intrigue challenge robs you of your cards and they also just wiped your board. And thier card advantage is gained through search effects. I think that already given this... they really don't need paper shield. I think a little more event immunity and some search would make up for it.

Lannister has good card advantage (draw, intrigue challenges), they have kneel effects that can slow the game down to give them time to use thier card advantage against you. They could use a cancel event. Or more appropriately they could use expendable ally.

Baratheon has been gaining some good control effects, martial law and Melisandre for example, while it's difficult and I don't recall if some of the cards are still in the LCG format. Bara has decent recursion effects and tempo control. That's right, they can control the speed of the game by renown denial, stealing power, stealing characters. Bara's form of control has to be controlling in a sense when the game is won. And I think rather than event cancel, more cards towards that end would make sense. (Maybe a card that denies unopposed power for a challenge or turn?)

Targaryen, this one is a little easier. Targ like Stark is more about board control, and they sacrifice efficency for recursion. They can more easily repeat the effect. They lack in some ways card advantage (recursion for attachments is about it...). But ambush makes up for that, denying the opponent clear knowledge of the real board position is very powerful. I also think they don't need Paper Shield.

Greyjoy, they already have To Be a Kraken, and they are a house that should have cancel effects, along with income control, milling, and the ability to exploit weakness (unopposed). This is what I hope they bring, because Greyjoy should be the disruption house.

Martel, as for martel, they do have a theme of event manipulation. And while I can't imagine the cards that could do this, but I think a nedly Martel would have cards that exploit an enemy's strengths, or forces them to resort to thier weaknesses. The opponent should think they are winning, and then have the rug pulled from under them.

I just think that instead of a be all kitchen sink control card, they should simply expand the houses own theme of control.

Well, I would say that we don't want to see a reprint of Paper Shield because the whole "pay gold" mechanic changed the environment for event cancel.

There is some sense, though, to redesigning a card like Paper Shield to be not quite as easy or universal as it was. Take a look at the new search plots from the Core Set. I don't think it is just the Melee focus that led to the decision to move away from "one-sided" general search.

Hmm interesting question. I´d say this game always had neutral draw, cancel, location and character hate varying in amount and efficency. I guess there was always some, with some maybe better In-house versions, and it was fine by us.

So maybe it is part of the game that the basic mechanics should be available for all houses? What do you think?

Though as Ktom said paper shield wouldn´t be that great in the current environment.

I'd so we don;t need it if pays his debts, seductive promise, and the reins events weren't around.

All of those are pretty strong for their cost (or lack of cost in some ways) and are events that you should be worried about them being canceled. Now when you plan out your turn its like okay all i have to do is win a power chaqllenge by four, or i'm going to lose challenge x right now becuase i KNOW that my event will work. I don;t think ti should be that guaranteed and you should have to think more tactically. like is it worth the risk this round to go all out for power whe nmy seductive promise could be canceled.

The one thing I really hate about the current environment is that I really have no worries when I play an event card. There is nothing that is going to cancel it (outside the one Greyjoy event from Sacred Bonds, To Be A Kraken). I feel the game misses something without the threat of a cancel, of any sort. It makes decision making that much harder. Or at least, makes us have to take something else into account.

Sure, we have many more events that have a gold cost, but is that a strong enough reason to not bring back paper shield. Suddenly, while the card has its uses, it is not as universal as it once was. But with such events as Distraction, Retreat and the To Be A... cycle, knowing that I can play any of these events without any sort of fear makes them almost more auto includes than Paper Shield ever was.

Yes, I want to see Paper Shield reprinted. And Put to the Question. And Trickery. I want there to be a threat to whatever action I or my opponent are going to take. This game needs that.

Yes.

Without question: it should be reprinted. There are enough chapter pack events I want to stop that ti would almost immediately get three slots back in my competitive decks.

And we need more cancel than that - for the Pay Gold effects and Bleeds.

Although there are good arguments on both sides, I feel that Paper Shield does not need to be reprinted. I realize that the lack of canceling ability is a concern, though I am confident that FFG will address this in the future. For me, reprints are nice to have but they dull the game and almost create a sort of 'stuck in a rut' feeling. I am a fan of the newly added cards and the shock and awe inspiring effects they bring with them. I can't wait to see what NEW cards FFG decides to add in the future as opposed to just reprinting stuff.

I would prefer to see each house get their own cancel effect, some much better than others, depending on the house, rather than just one Paper Shield anyone can use. Events like Paper Shield make the game feel more bland when every house runs the same stupid event.

Price of Failure perhaps?

Kennon said:

Haha no, that was awful! Did anyone actually play it?

Treachery, though not neutral, was one of my favorite cards of old times, and so **** nedly with that picture!

I kinda miss Alleys and Whispers - I never agreed with the rationale behind that ban, but I am not in a hurry to see Lannister get even more tech than they already have. But if Greyjoy got a repeatable cancel like that - i would be pretty happy with it.

Moneylender said:

Ummmh, yes. I would love to see a reprint of price of failure. Kneeling two charachters is worth the price of canceling an important event in my ratio.

Treachery would be a bad reprint in my book, that´s not because i didn´t like treachery, but it´s one more tool for Lannister.

just to merge this topic with one of my own Drums that i think needs to beat loudly right now. Paper shield would help minimize the situation i describe here with MwnK.

Lars said:

And how, exactly, does Paper Shield minimize MwnK? It can't cancel MwnK itself since it can only cancel events. It can't cancel a Reinforcement event because of the gold cost. So where does Paper Shield get anywhere near your "drum"?

i forgot (always do, since i missed the majority of the old pay gold) that PS also misses gold cost as well as influence cost (the part that i'm used to looking for) so i thought it would stop the rein from coming in.

Lars said:

Well, even if it did stop the Reinforcement from coming in, the event was still initiated, so the trigger for MwnK would still be there. I suppose a 2-character swing is better than a 3-character swing, but you still end up with the insult, even if you cancel the injury.

true, thats why i said minimize, the rein character w/ stealth and renown is just sick. If you pay 3 gold to steal a carrion bird, it doesn't sting as much without the 3 str stealth icon guy (the crux of the conversation in the thread i linked to) and would make running neutral toolbox weenies be an acceptable risk (which i currently don't think it is).

Paper Shield was one of the most playable, yet balanced, cards ever printed. It had to be in your mind at all times, which is great for a very basic card like it is. There are VERY few cards I think should always be legal...but PS is one of them (and Wildfire, and a few others). It added a layer of complexity to cards like Locked where you could choose the "cost" as well.

I still play Price of Failure in my Classic Highlander deck. It was a really good card - but, that was in the day when events were a little more powerful. Not sure if I would play it now...