Oh for the love of R'hllor! There's no option to add a poll! I'm a sad panda now. Anyway, this is a discussion thread as well as me just not knowing anything about the ravens cycle except for the whole winter/summer thing and the ravens. I remember something about an icy fisherman and MadK not liking ice fishing, though. Anyway, post your answer AND an explanation please. Posting, tRag r teh beest! doesn't help. I'm assuming its greyjoy and/or martell based on how this cycle was supposed to "heavily feature" them or something.

I think Baratheon got the most love. Shadow Stalker is a great control card in Winter, King Renly is, IMHO, far better than Core set Renly, Arena Knight is an awesome power grab card, and Vigilant Stag is a great event (combo it with Fat Bobby, Core set Selyse, and look out!).

I think the only Stark card from the entire set I use is Bolton Refugee, and each house has their own refugee, so that doesn't really count. Lannister got some gems, and Targ got a few things, but I think its really Baratheon that benefited the most.

martell and GJ were doing okay in the cycle, until Men With no King came out. Now they need to have their expansions to be viable.

Of the Core Set houses i'd say Bara got the most with Stark second. Bara is the most flexible house to deck build for right now. Plus they got some of the strongest charcaters in the set (Renly and the vigiilant knight guy [arena knight?], then summers champ in summer and shadow stalker in winter). Stark got some interesting winter stuff and more impotantly more intrigue icons.

posted same time as jmcarthy. But i think he is overlooking Ranger of winter, Cat of the Canals/master vyman (both answers to lannin kneel), and theon.

See I still play standard, so I don't really see the appeal of King Renly. Heck,in LCG, I still might use core set Renly over anyway. He has built in immunity, he's a tricon, AND he can stand all the time! I mean how often do you have power struggle plots in LCG? once, MAYBE twice, a game? So he's basically the core set renly that loses his standing and immunity(which seems HUGE in LCG), gains renown, and two str? Oh, and he might draw you a card? and he loses an icon? I just don't like him that much. Agenda Renly is a much more interesting card draw renly. Also, if we are talking about standard, Core Set Renly + Ruby of R'hllor = Win!

The Greyjoy Winter mechanic was certainly awesome. In standard, these cards make Stark kill second place. When the Greyjoy expansion set comes out, look out! The Wintertime Marauders (After you win a challenge and it is winter, discard a non-unique card from play) are amazing. And Theon hurts anyone running Bran. I once basically got a four-claim kill effect against a Lannister deck with the above cards (on a 1 claim plot). Fishing Net is nasty, and should definitely be run out of house. Alanys is basically Queen cancel (though you might be able to use her now and again, if you really want to). And the warship that gives renown? Give me some re-standing (or non-kneeling) Greyjoys and we're looking at the return of Greyjoy power rush.

influence isn't as prevelant in the LCG (and if you run vigilant stag its at even more of a priemuim) and with king renly you can turn off tommen wihtout him being turned off himself. King Renly makes Bara faster and cheaper (or less resource reliant) and helps fuel the win by 4 events or win a power challenge effects. Yeah he is not immune, but if king renly and double renown bobby are on the table i'm pretty sure that 99% of the time my oppinet is going to go after Bobby so i don't need the immunity, plus if king renly gets milked i lose a lot less. CS renly is very good, i just find myself using King renly more and with Kings of the Sea i think his draw will be more reliable (in the one deck that i use him to draw i have it timed out that he usually gets me two rounds of draw early in the game).

Gotta go with Lars on this one. In LCG, King Renly has it all over Core Set Renly. Renown actually makes more of an impact in LCG than the standing. It's harder to "duplicate" than the standing and there is not so much directed kill that the immunity is particularly critical.

Lars said:

I was forgetting about Cat of the Canals. She rocks. And your post made me take a second look at Maester Vyman... he's better than I remembered.

~someone got love in the raven cycle?

I must have missed that...

rings said:

Now that you mention it, Robb got some love. Jeyne Westerling finally got her own card... ;-)

I think Lannister (as usual) got the best bang for the buck in teh cycle. The Lion's Mouth-Carrion bird combo is just ridiculous and most of their good tech enables play without an Agenda. Yes - Baratehon got some very solid characters and effects, but their best stuff does require it to be a season. Its always easier to play and be efficient without a condition than it is to play under one.

Yes - if you hit a same season matchup you are golden, and if your opponent doesn't get his birds out when needed you will be fine - but those are both big ifs. I do like Baratheon's tech - don't get me wrong - but on the whole I think Lannister comes out ahead.

Interesting discussion on King Renly. In LCG, he is a hands down winner over Core Set Renly for the reasons Lars and Ktom articulate. In Standard, its close. Hoentsly I really like teh King trait he has - and renown is always key. There are sufficient stands around in that format - especially Marya to get a lot of impact from him, and of course he turns off threat Kings like Robb and Joffrey. I really like him, and use him in both formats.

I hear that Targ is sitting pretty high for LCG, Dragon Lord. Enjoying them any more than Bara?

And touche to all for the renown factor on King Renly. I hadn't realized that Renown in LCG is like Cigarettes in Prison. In standard, I'd still go with Core Set Renly, but LCG is all King Renly. Also, I don't use the Fox's Teeth in standard, it just never seems to make the final cut, but I really like the ability. Is it any more useful in LCG?

Targ has a really nice charcater base in LCG, TIme for Ravens didn't add a whole lot to them. They like summer a little bit and attachment control got a little easier for them, but its not like it was hard before.

Fox's theeth are interesting. That unopposed challenge can be nice, but its hard to win intitative in LCG without dice rolls. I often put a couple in my deck as lanni kneel bait and try not to rely on them too much. I actually like Arena Knight better right now (vigilant always and renown in power challenges), but they both suffer from being non-unigue and are seductive promise concerns (which without cancel is a huge card right now).

Plus the four gold cost is a little bit of an issue for me for both cards - what with Seductive Promise, Valar and the popularity of winter decks.

Strange, I'd go with Core Set Renly over King Renly in LCG in a heartbeat. I'm still a huge fan of the immunity, between that, standing and the tricon factor (along with Lannister being rather prevalent these days) He's much more likely to be a thorn in your opponent's side. Have you guys tried slapping Hunting Spear on him? It's sickening.

~Almost like the old Hand of the King.

oooo! good call will. Hunting Spear FTW! I still think the renown makes King Renly the choice in LCG. If only Born to Be King were around!

Eh, I feel like I can run enough renown on other characters by now. Some more substantial abilities are more important to me when it comes to choosing Renlys (Renlies? Renlii?) right now. Now an event of some kind that invented renown would be good though...

Well there's that Compelled by the Stag or something. It gives renown to your characters with banner attachments. That's kinda good.

Yeah, that's not too bad. The Bara Banner is probably about the best one to actually run.

Kennon said:

Edit, the only one to actually run. ~Although the Stark one DOES give Stalwart...

Haven't played enough to really judge, but the Targ one was almost playable to pick up something like the Dragon Thief, esp. in an environment with Valar.

Maester_LUke said:

Summer Encampment pretty much does that but better now. If the Targ Banner was a decent character on his own like the Greyjoy Bannerman is (3G/4S) then he might be worth it. But definitely doesn't make the cut for me with the really good pool Targaryen has to work with.

OK, I hate to ask this, but could someone please post the info on all the cards not currently up on Tzumainn's? I don't have tons of extra cash, so kinda just want to buy a few chapter packs rather than two or three of all the ones I'm missing.

Staton said:

I think most of them from the last few are up on the site already. Look a couple pages back for the threads. Titles are something like 'Scattered Armies Spoilers' posted by ktom, and something similar for the Refugees of War I believe as well.

Here's the links:

Refugees of War: http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=16&efcid=4&efidt=64483

Scattered Armies: http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=16&efcid=4&efidt=88872