~The let Josh win...AND Bara...tsk-tsk. j/k - congrats! Now that Bara is the house to beat, we can stop all the Lanni errata

Bear Island got stronger to be sure (more Starks, easier to build), but...then it got weaker at almost the same time (Frozen Solid). It is really hard to say w/o looking at the cards that are going to be printed. Unless they can get a little more targeted control, or recurring control...I am not sure. Kneeling still hurts them...saving does... I don't see a lot of defences for the main abilities of Stark. And there is so much stealth and deadly that some of these cards (i.e. new Cat and new Eddard) are not groundbreaking. The Eddard that protects Nobles vs. kneeling and the such just seems better. I agree that mid-game power might be their best bet. They have pretty good defence vs. Valar, and some decent targeted control. However...seems like Bara has the same things, but faster (losing some control). IMHO of course.

Congrats again Chaos/Dan! Glad you guys got a drunk draft off...1st one I have missed That game vs. the Martell deck sounded epic.

Dobbler said: Hmm, it is interesting that he can take attachments. Balancing him nicely. I think he is a strong, playable, balanced card at this time - and nuetral which a few houses need some more Valar protection than Bodyguard and dupes.

Sounds awesome! I was depressed all weekend on not making it (well, not the time out on the lake w/ beers...but the rest of the time for sure!). Congrats to Chaos - I knew you could win one (~when I am not there)!!! Sounds well planned, played, and attended. I love it. Kubla is my favorite Con, and I will be back! KUBLA!

Wrecking Ball said: Ok, but I guess thats where i'm getting confused. Maybe there are enough cards out there at the moment, but then why can't there be more viable subthemes? Is it because the cards you would stick into those subthemes aren't very good or is it that there just aren't enough cards to spread around for those certain subthemes, it has to be one or the other. I think they are heading the right direction, but it is a hard balance...you make a subtheme with too many good cards and it is the main theme Wildlings IMHO look to be a good theme that let's you spash stealth, location control, and some other tricks. I would like to see something similar w/ Brotherhood (returning from the dead? Anti-control?), Clansmen (burning burning burning!), Kingsguard (getting more of them out really scales their power plus King/Queen protection), and Lords/Ladies/Nobles in general.

Wrecking Ball said: i'm for a more evolving diverse environment of cards, making stuff house only completely slows that down. The only problem w/ this logic is that making it avaialble for all houses actually lessens the diversity of decks. Remember when all houses played Frozen...or Seal of the Lion...? I am also not buying the limited card pool anymore. There are a lot of choices to be made - obviously like at any time in this game (or any game's) history there are staples, but there are a ton of cards out there now. I agree I wish there was more viable sub-themes, but hopefully Wildlings, NW (not looking good), and Brotherhood can start this back up.

BTW Bear Island is still the best targeted removal in the game IMHO. Good info y'all! Making me rethink taking Seductive out of my decks (even though it always is useful).

Unluckily, I am now confirmed as a 'no'. First time I have missed Kubla in...over 10 years (I played L5R there before aGoT even started). I tried to tell my wife that my relationship w/ Kubla was longer than my relationship with her...but that didn't fly Just too much going on w/ the move to NE, and the move of the family, and the taking over the reins at the bank. Next year, I promise! Everyone have a great time!!! Can't wait to hear how it goes.

Sad...just left town! I will keep an eye out if I am back though!

Good post Twn2dn. I agree, we should be able to design in-house draw that works. Most houses have access to something pretty good and useful - LIV, the Targ recurrion chick, etc. Some of it is more situational, but that doesn't mean there isn't access to it. Bara is really the only house where it is very hard to fit in draw-type effects IMHO (well, Stark too - Blacky doesn't really help THAT much).

we should have said the cube draft! That got a ton more people last year than the Joust

Stag Lord said: Yawn. Forgot to post that yesterday. I miss RoK Stannis. Now THAT was a damned fine piece of cardboard. Nice quote BTW...old-timers all know where that comes from! I know he is more for fan-decks...but you could at least then make him interesting if not good. Yes, we can have tri-con strength-y NW...whoo-hoo!

Two most liberal cities in the country would have worked better... Although then Eugene Oregon would have been up in arms! Sounds like fun. I am still 50/50 on Kubla...hopefully my attendence won't swing this

Eh...strength gain again...bleh... Very few cards have made strength gain playable w/o a second effect.

I have a large row box for my collection, and a smaller one-row box for 'playable cards'. Very few times do cards move from one to another

Not sure when FFG is going to realize that strenght boosts are not all that great All NW get deadly...now that would be something. ~Or cannot be discarded...

ktom said: Lars said: Martell is interesting too, lots of cancel, good character mix, their attachments are no longer overly vunerable. I'm thinking Vengeful could have some interesting possibilities as anti-Lanni control. I agree w/ this - I LOVED the 4-cost tri-con Viper w/ Deadly, Vengful and the jump in ability (plus he was a Noble). I beat Tzumainn's Lanni kneeling back then using him mainly...but Martell needs some better cards w/ this ability IMHO. Lanni just does a lot of things well. My 3rd place deck last year wasn't even a kneeling deck (nor was it meta'd vs. mirror, like the 2nd place deck was). Like people said, it isn't unbeatable, and really I don't think anyone is saying that (Dobbs won last year w/o a deck remotely meta'd vs. Lanni). It is just easily the most consistent, and the erratta's don't really change the fact that they probably have the best overall strengths in the current environment (draw, income, kneeling, intrigue which is harder to go to a 'neutral' source for).

BTW I think that old 1-cost location that allowed a draw if you had the highest iniative was decently priced...although at that time there was much more consistent location control. Which reminds me: 3. If everyone has more draw, shoudln't everyone have access to good location and character control? Then attachment control? Then counters to those (i.e. Narrow Escape)? Where is the line drawn? Personally, I liked the game better w/ PTTS and PTTT legal (w/ Paper Shield as the counter) but that is just me.

I think card draw is pretty well costed right now. The issue w/ universal card draw, depending on how it is implemented, is it creates other imbalances by 'fixing' an imbalance. If everyone had good draw (i.e. Massing), would: 1. The house w/ the most income win too much? (Lanni again!) 2. The house w/ the best weenies win too much? Do we need better weenie control then? Those type of questions would then have to be posed IMHO.

Kennon said: Hmm... at printed cost 5 I would certainly question an Ally (unless it's Littlefinger, who consistently costs approximately 2). But 3 three point mark is the sweet spot for me, and it's difficult to find a more efficient character than the Castellan, Ally or not. Of course, his efficiency was just bumped down in any deck that is also planning on using Guild Hall, but at the moment, I still think it's worth it. ~Of course, I don't have a past World Championship to back up my opinion. Depends on the deck I guess. I love cost efficient cards and very balanced decks that don't rely on any one theme, but many usually (why I am so excited about all the good NW, Wildling, Clansman, Brotherhood sub-themes that seem to be starting). I also usually don't play a ton of gold and/or locations in that I have seen too many games where someone draws 3 straight locations at a crucial time and loses. I agree that Castellan is very efficient, but in choosing between the two, I probably would use the location. Tempo is a big deal in aGoT (a little less important w/ Valar legal again), and having a 1/2 turn Castellan discarded can really change things.

Kennon said: Strange, why are you so certain that the Guild House is entirely unplayable now? Or at least, as long as the Castellan is around. While it might be slightly more difficult to consistently trigger the Guild House as opposed to the Castellan, it gives you greater flexibility in targeting locations if need be and does not have the "no attachments" restriction that the Castellan does which allows me to likely target beefy characters that players around here have been learning to protect with attachments. Obviously, I have not had the chance to play this out and see what effect it really has on my deck yet. Likely I think it will force me into some more difficult choices between the two during gameplay, but I still intend to test for the next few weeks with both still in my deck. At most, I think that I might down to two copies of each in the deck. Less chance of doubling up on Limited Responses, while still giving me ample opportunity to draw one or the other. Might just be able to use those two extra deck slots for something interesting. Remember, Castellan is an ally as well, and there is a bit more ally hate than in the past (Varys, Oakheart obviously). I don't mind cost 1 allies, and I will put cost 2 in if they are really strong/efficient, but for the most part I won't put in cost 3-5 ones. That is a big swing. I think the errata rewards more varied, consistant decks - which is what I love to see. I agree it should have been unique from the start (BTW, it even has a helpful trait!)...but then again everyone knows my favoritism for uniques (guess who will be playing Halfhand in every deck...?). Remember, I play Lanni as well, and like Kennon I don't mind the 'neutering' that has been going on for most of the erratas...that is the price to pay for being the best house

Let me second the fact that Plots are probably my favorite part about aGoT (and I have played A LOT of card games). Okay, maybe the source material...but after that the plots

#1 - stop on the playtester hate. If you have never been a playtester, you have no idea what goes on in playtesting, how much time is given, if the testers are even listened to, if new sets are being considered, or many other details. I am a former playtester myself, who saw CBK put in a major set AFTER playtesting was over. This isn't MTG, there isn't unlimited time and resources being put into organized play for such a small game (how many people played at Worlds last year...? Even a Regional...?). MTG even has bannings/errata, and they throw TONS of $$ and time at their playtesters. #2 - I laugh at Fleeing the Wall. It is not an answer in the least...oh, I ONLY get to keep two kneeling locations and a location that draws me 1-2 cards per turn? In the house w/ the most ways to create $$? #3 - the main problem is that Shadows is just very strong, and Lanni got the most things that work well w/ Shadows. Shadows decks give gold (a first turn 7/6/1 plot basically - that fuels stronger plots later on), protection vs. Valar/Wildfire (most of my wins are not via kneeling, it is via Valar, then flopping 2-3 cards out of shadows), and just strong cost-effective cards to begin with. #4 - What is with the across the ocean stuff? I don't think I have seen us bashing the Euro's much...? I know it is hard to feel like FFG isn't listening - we can relate, trust me FFG has to use what they can see, and they see Lanni dominance right now. Personally I think after errata and after the Stark box comes out there will be a much leveler playing field (IMHO it is already as level as it has been in awhile), which is a good thing - right? Are people really saying this errata is going to nerf Lanni? #5 - why again can't the tourneyment scene be regulated by errata where needed? I never got this logic. Every game does it, and I like that better than thinking a 'silver bullet' card is a better solution (they are rarely played, and games turn into more of a rock/paper/scissors thing). Every errata is always met w/ outrage, and then usually 2 months later everyone is pretty happy with it. I know I wouldn't want to return to cards as printed...

From a fun only standpoint, they are fairly balanced - all six factions are pretty good and they give you a couple of ways to win. Getting 3X isn't that important, although a few of the power rares are 1X (luckily, one of them is reprinted in the Elves expansion you talked about). That being said, you will actually go through some of the commons and actually want more (i.e. Warpstone Evac) and if you happen to want to play, say, two destruction decks you might want more (Orc runs some Chaos cards, etc.). If you ever decide to get even slightly competative, you really need the chapter packs, as Skaven are winning everything right now. Unlike aGoT the factions really are not as balanced right now - maybe since it is a new game (aGoT wasn't that balanced early either!). Destruction is WAY better than Order. All in all, a pretty fun game. To be honest I liked the old Warhammer Warcry CCG better, especially for the 'feel' of the universe. But the mechanics of this game are strong to be sure (as almost any Eric Lang game is).