Mecurial you totally lost me, but more podcasts about Thrones would be sweet.

I'm not sure though if I like the idea of Targ getting more reliable reusable burn. Her providing a blanket terminal effect is cool though. Leverages your Forever Burnings that much is for sure.

Tricksy plot. I love it. I have no idea yet how I'm going to use it, but I will use it.

Not like Daeny. Her belief in herself and in her plan is strong from the beginning. Viserys, Jorah, even her queensguard all at various points try to control or guide her to do what they want, what they think is in her (and usually their) best interest. She has none of it though. She becomes a queen in truth because of her own plans, her own council. She left the first three because she did not wish to rule them. They went to pot because the people had no idea how to rule themselves without resorting to the same type of system they had chaffed under (look to Iran and Afghanistan for a good example of this). When she realized the same would happen in Meereen (remember she did not receive word of the councils she had established being over thrown, or returning to the ways of the slavers until well after she was gone) she decided to stay and rule. Better their lives, ensure a change in governance, and familiarize herself with what it takes to rule, not just conquer (something Robert never learned). It is actually really obvious that GRRM is setting Daeny up to be the paragon of a noble ruler, she believes in Noblesse Oblige, one of the few with the power and claim to rule who does, but unlike the Ned and Robb, she also knows the ways of the world, that simply being of noble birth does not afford one honor nor a sense of duty. So she mistrusts, seeks council from those who disagree with her, and each other and tries to forge a consensus, but when no consensus can be reached she decrees. It should also be noted these are all things GRRM himself has mentioned in past panels at cons. I'm not just making this stuff up because I like Daeny, she is maybe 5th on my list of favorites (Tyrion, Oberyn, Jon, Doran, Daeny/Jaime).

Jon Snow has done a lot of good, but the vast majority of it was truly accidental or because he surrounded himself with people who believe in him more than he believes in himself and worked towards his success without his knowledge or input (a la Commander of the Night's Watch). Daeny made herself the ruler of the city-state Meereen, it was her strategies and intrigues that led to the defeat of the forces arrayed against her. She has conquered and freed the slaves in four cities. None of the children comes close to that magnitude accept Robb who of course was responsible for his own downfall. Out of the adults arguments can be made for Stannis and Euron when it comes to conquering and ruling for their people. Littlefinger fails because the Eyrie is all he truly controls (as of right now) and it isn't a Kingdom itself. He is now Protector of the Vale, barely, but fully half of the banner lords do not trust him, which means he rules in name only. I do expect that to change extremely quickly (well, in consideration of the time in the books, come on George typey-typey!). He has certainly done nothing "good" for those he rules over excepting where it fits his own nefarious purposes. You are right though, you won't be convincing me, and if the books haven't convinced you nothing I say is going to.

Skowza said: Kennon said: Really, -2 gold rather than the +stealth? I find that agenda far more frustrating. I just find the idea somewhat nonsensical... how can a wildling army have stealth? Its an army, it can't be stealthy!! I suspect that the various SpecOps military units would strongly disagree. Fun fact. I was IM'ing with Damon on FB on Veteran's Day. He was a Force Recon Marine. How cool is that? My eye-sight was too bad fly but my dad was in the Air Force and as a kid I always dreamed I'd be a fighter pilot. Totally off topic, sorry, just saying a large group of armed men can be stealthy.

I like Dirsruptive Decks. While not necessarily a true middle line between Rush and Control, more like a deck that contains some very offensive control elements meant to disrupt the key cards or challenges an opponent needs while putting forward a strong offensive presence through its own character make-up. I Think Dothraki are going to change the way Melee decks are played and possibly built. I also think Clansman decks strength lies in melee... they require you to have fewer cards in hand than an opponent, or knelt characters... two conditions easily faced in melee, and getting benefits from these states is an easy choice. If someone can find the right balance of this and moderate kneel and challenge control I think Lannister may be able to put forward something really interesting.

She isn't my favorite character, far from it, but you are pretty much wrong on every account. I just recently read every one of her chapters, back to back (as I have done for all the main view point characters, hers was just the latest). Martin paints a picture very strongy with his word choices that Daeny knew what she was doing when it came to the dragon eggs and with her subverting the mercenary armies. And yes, a mercenary army with no cause to believe in, and bosses who cannot not fight beside them with the majority hiding behind them in a walled city can be predicted to break and surrender once it becomes clear that there is no victory to be had. You don't need to have studied military history in depth to figure that out. It wasn't her brilliant strategy of flanking an army with it's collective back to the wall and then pushing down the middle that won her that battle, but the sowing strife among the commanders of the Stormcrows, and causing the Second Sons to be unfit for battle that wins the day. That is Sun Tzu styled thinking. Daeny knew Rhaego paid for Drogo's life and she believed the blood magic would work again with Drogo's life for her hatchlings. You can try to spin her accomplishments as complete accidents but the books (never mind Martin's own words at various cons) say otherwise. What does Jon or Littlefinger have to do with this? I mentioned them not at all. Showing someone else's accomplishments does not in any way diminish Daeny's. And as much as I like Jon Snow, a much more favorite character for me than Daeny, he is not the person you should be bringing up if you want to use arguments based on being lucky, accident, or other people responsible for success and station. Look you don't like her, you are far from the only one, but dismissing her very real accomplishments (heh, that phrase is funny) because of that just makes no sense. I think you have let your dislike for her color your memories of her chapters. You don't even have to read her chapters all the way through, just go to Tower of the Hand.

Congrats on your win. Winter has come to China. Sweet. Where you at Korea?

Zsa - be careful about straight comparisons between cards. Venomous Blade and Poisoned Knife while similar do not serve the same purpose in a deck. VB is a kill effect for weenies, but it does not usually help you win challenges unless you are still in the opening gambit. PK forces your opponent to save resources, and in many Martell decks that will be multiple resources for every instance of PK on the board, as well as providing stealth. It isn't that VB isn't strictly better, reliably removing characters, even low STR ones, as a repeatable effect is only trumped by reliably removing high STR ones with a repeatable effect. The two actually work best together. The easy four card synergy that Venomous Blade, Poisoned Knife, Alchemist Shop, and Lost Oasis creates an environment extremely hostile to your opponents characters. I can kill off your non-save claim soak, kneel characters, and force you to constantly hold back 1-3 gold or influence, while bypassing characters during the challenge phase, increasing my STR, and very likely with this mix killing any defender not targeted by the above effects. VB is situationally better than Poisoned Knife, but its effect at 1 gold is undercosted (as many people believe VB to be at s0). I should state that the above cards especially when coupled with common Martell characters like The Red Viper, Darkstar, Arianne Martell, etc. make me a very happy Martell player.

Mathias Fricot said: This is going to paint a standard on my back, so read this entire post before you troll me. Dany is my least favourite character. And this might have some spoilers. Now the reasoning; its not in that she is particularly bad, I just find that the majority of readers inflate her beyond the scope of what she actually does, and somebody needs to keep the impression of her down to earth. At least with my local group of readers/players. She is the stormborn, shes the mother of dragons, she is the leader of the mercenary armies, she leads the unsullied. And thats all fine and great, but as SharpyShuffle said, the Dothraki followed Drogo, not her. The amount of Dothraki actually following her is barely a shadow of what Drogo commanded. Plus, she was sold to Drogo. Its like marrying into money and then taking the credit for earning it. Know what I mean? Yes, she is the mother of Dragons. But should we give her more credit than Mel? Theres Melisandre, who is doing her best to find a royal to kill to hatch some eggs, because she wants Dragons to fight the Others. Eggs that may or may not be within Dragonstone (or something like that, it gets confusing whats speculation and whats fact since its all POV and not thrid person). Yes, Dany hatched Dragons. But Dany did it by accident. Should we give her more credit than the individual who is willingly trying to find a way to do it? I don't know. She does lead the mercenaries, but we can't forget, they are mercenaries - the Brave Companions fall into the same category. When it comes to leading mercenaries in Westeros I see two kinds of people: There is Oberyn Martell, and there is everyone else. He founded a mercenary company. When Robb Stark called his banners they followed him because he was Robb Stark, not because they saw potential plunder (Walder Frey excluded). Should we give her more credit for having followers who follow her for their own benefit that we give the guy who inspired them into following him? Once again, I don't know. I'm not trying to say she is a horrible individual and deserves no credit. I just don't think she is the end all and be all of Targ, and I don't think she is the best of the best. There are lots of characters to Targ that are important, I'd like to see a card for Elia who is Targ/Martell, for example. What about the older Targ characters? Ser Willem Darry, Ser Jon Connington, or even Aerys II? There is a lot more than Dany within the house, thats all I wanted to get across. But hey, thats just my opinion, so don't take it with any weight. Well FFG has been pretty clear about their reluctance to print anything not from the main books. We've gotten a few characters who were not alive during the story, but referred to often or had some sort of central/lingering role in the story (stories) being told. I think it is unreasonable to expect one of the legendary Targaryen's in the box set. As to there being more in the House... well no, that is precisely the point, there is no one left, she is it. The last of the Targaryen's (putting aside all theories about bastards or saved babies). IF we are going directly by the books she is the sole heir to the House and name. Referencing her leading Dothraki, it is true she does have no more than a splinter of Drogo's force, but she does have some, and she is the only non-Dothraki and woman to lead them. That is exceedingly important and feet as far as we know never to have been accomplished before. Regarding the Dragons, that was no accident, she tried putting the Dragons in fire before and it didn't work. She very clearly suspected that the Maegi was right and that only death could pay for life and purposefully tried to hatch them again... and succeeded. Where as Melisandre has a theory (which given Daeny's success is at least partially true) she has been unable to make an attempt. IOW she has done more and faster by instinct and smarts what Melisandre has been unable to do with prophecy and foreknowledge. As to the mercenaries, lets not forget how she turned those mercenaries, with charm, with cunning, and with an uncanny knowledge of subversive tactics... not particularly different from how she became the commander of the Unsullied. Daeny has done more to carve out a kingdom and seek to do what is right for her people than any of the children and a most of the adults in the "present day" of the four books we have. I'm not saying she needs a card that is on par with Robert or The Red Viper, but she deserves a card that is either badass unto itself, or empowers some or all of her forces to a greater degree.

I'm pretty sure Balerion the Black took his slot. We do know we are getting one at some point in this cycle. I want to see something new in each box. I mean Dothraki are cool, and the new theme could use some non-unqiues... but I don't want the whole box to be about Dothraki... cool Targ theme, but to me Targaryen IS Daeny. I just want a really awesome Daeny and some cards that really work with her. Lannister... um, I hate to say it but I almos think in the exact opposite here, I think Clansman cards at least a few could help flush out what is an intriguing idea. Well I guess what I really want is a non-control build for Lannister, I don't care what route they take.

FATMOUSE said: Stag Lord said: What's a podcast? God **** it Chris, lol. Go easy on him... at least everything was spelled correctly.

So I was going to start a thread on what themes/game-mechanics people thought the various houses should have further developed but then I wondered what people would do if they had the opportunity to decide the themes and mechanics of a house if they were Eric Lang. Rather than starting two threads I figured I'd wrap them together. What theme would you like to see more fully explored for the 6 Houses and if you had to reassign or redesign an existing them who would it go to and how would you work it? Stark - I'd have done them as the honorable house, some sort of mechanic where they gained power by fighting fair, putting the realm first. Maybe have them give power to the House card as they entered and/or left play. Baratheon - I would have liked to see their House keyword reversed so they stand when they win as the defender Martell I would have reversed their keyword so they stood when they lost as the attacker. I'd like to see Lannister with a strong Intrigue build. Maybe with some sort of delayed rush component.

I can't see them choosing to do a card game on a television show that was taken off the air and subsequent shows/tv movies did poorly. The fan base is too small and the IP to obscure that is more than a decade old. Now please don't take this the wrong way, I LOVED B5. My favorite show when it was on and I certainly think it has the depth and flavor to keep people interested in a game... the problem is how many people would be attracted to the game based purely on the IP? There will be some people attracted to it purely because it is an FFG game, some purely because it is an LCG, but the IP needs to do most of the heavy lifting, and if they are going to go with something that is not well recognized (anymore) but has a more cult following, it makes more sense for them to use one of their original IPs and not have to pay any licensing fees. It would be cool though.

Warhammer is the easiest to teach, but I think the other two may be a bit more fun depending on what kind of player you and they are. I like all three. CoC is fun in its weirdness, Warhammer in its numerous branching decision tree, and Thrones because of the open ended strategical though it requires.

So who took what here? Fess up who ranked where?

Writ Small would work in any deck from any house. and kneeling out your opponents characters would be able to work as an additional theme... an aggro deck thhat seeks to control the tempo by locking down your biggest characters and shredding everything else. Conceptually. The question is will any Lanni players actually try it, or will the new direction attract some non-lanni players to the house?

Clansmen are intriguing to me. Rather than going by the Lannister stand-byes of control, control, control, it creates an aggro build which encourages you to play fast and loose. Lannis gold certainly allows you to be able to field a fair amount of characters, and not having to rely on control makes draw less important (not unimportant of course). I just have this feeling that a dedicated Clansmen deck will be able to play against Lannisters typecasting and may make some impact at least in the casual arena if not in the tourney scene.

SharpyShuffle said: You mayaswell say that every draw card except GTM is bad because GTM is better. Actually that is precisely how most cards seem to be evaluated, especially by some of our strongest players. I think that is precisely the wrong way to evaluate a card. The question to ask is what other card in this House has a similar effect and how does this compare in efficiency to that/those card/s? Does this card combo off anything better than the others? Does this create increased depth in the mechanic, a useful secondary method of achieving its goal, or useless redundancy? In this case Stark had how many LCG cards which could steal characters? 0? It looks to be getting an entire theme of stealing characters or methods of trading up. You add to this the cards like Seductive Promise and potentially the MWnK/Reins and you have a deck that is a complete surprise when your opponent reveals the Stark House card. Also one which is incredibly hard to fight against if it is well designed and the Bolton theme continues to progress because you are not able to ever depend on your best characters remaining your best characters. I'd like to say something about the Sandsnakes but until something is actually released that gives us an idea of what they are all about as a group, and cards that synergize with them it is pretty impossible.

As to how the Chapter packs (the "boosters" for this game) are organized, they are all fixed. Buying anyone titled pack will give you precisely the same cards as every other player. The older packs have 20 new cards, 10 x1 and 10 x3 for a total of 40 cards. The newest cycle and all cycles from here on out is 20 new cards all x3. Since you can, without some alteration to the rules, only have anyone card in your deck x3 this gives you a full play set of each card.

Now are those actually holes in the game that need to be filled or are those things that would make you as a fan happy and have no real impact on the playability of the game in and of itself... just trying to see where you are coming from with these.

I've seen various threads over the months I've been here saying we need more location destruction, or more swarm control, or more unique characters. What do you think the game needs more of?

Regarding Valar over Wildfire, this is, I believe, a mistake. You want both in your deck. Hit him with Valar to slow him down early, probably turn three, while you are getting your better kneel cards in play and when he starts to get away from you again hit him with Wildfire. Your kneel should be able to keep those three characters knelt down (or at least some portion of them). You want his hand empty of cards before you play a reset, or as close as you can get. Don't worry about your characters dying, they aren't important. Just like in the books the Lannisters care only about one thing, the game of thrones. Your characters are going to die, just accept it and use them for that round or two they are in play to rob your opponent of cards. These will often be unopposed challenges which is how you will get your power. The advice already given has been great regarding deck building, the next part to handle as you rightly guessed, is tactics and strategy. No matter what hints and suggestions you get here, only playing will get you to the point when you should do a thing and when you should not.

Well I don't know about anyone else, but I did send this conversation on to one of the developers. The response... "Hm. Well if I can find the time I'll see what I can do." There are what two developers for this game? Three for the LCG line covering four games? Maybe they'll get an intern on it. Personally I'd rather get a new set or a card of the week every week, but I don't really qualify as a "casual gamer" as is indicated by my very presence here (let alone knowing how to get a hold of a developer). Regarding the blind purchase model though... I always took that differently, that I never had to guess whether or not any given card in the released set would be in my box. I was getting everything with that one purchase. It simply never occurred to me that they meant that I would know each individual card prior to the set being purchased.