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Went to a store championship last weekend playing Stark/Fealty. I had took second in one previously with Lannister/Rose, so wanted to try something different. Decent turnout with 18 people, although they did 4 rounds with cut to top 8 which I found somewhat strange, but it ended up benefiting me. Unfortunately, only one of the games seemed all that competitive, even though most took nearly the full time. I'll post a mini-report here, and give some general thoughts on Stark. Round 1 I played against a Greyjoy/Stark deck that was running a strong army theme with a lot of the war plots. Setup on my side was Ayra with a dupe, Sansa, and some reducers. He mustered a couple of guys without military, so I decided to play a bit risky and lead with sneak attack. Sneak, Winter is Coming, Ice, and Grey Wind lead to 5 dead dudes t1 as I emptied his side of the board and he never was able to get back in at all. I should've tried this strategy a couple other times, but I was dead tired and not thinking much so w/e but I actually felt a little bad because it was just a grim start for him. Round 2 I played against Bara/Fealty. We both had a decent setup, but he saw none of Mel, Robert, or Stannis and wasn't able to do much to stop me from slowly killing most of his guys and grinding out the game. It didn't help that Grey Wind and Robb showed up early for me, and his board was mostly 2 power (he actually threw Robert's Warhammer on Moon Boy twice just to keep Grey Wind from munching on him). Round 3 I played against Bara/Rose. I don't recall the setup exactly (neither was all that bad) but by the end of T1 marshaling he had Mel out with a dupe, Knight of Flowers with a dupe, and a couple other support characters. That was enough to keep Robb locked down early (first 3 turns), and I was never able to get my kill engine rolling as his characters were generally better than mine with Robb being knelt so long. Ended up conceding with 5 or so minutes left. Round 4 played Greyjoy/Fealty. He set up Balon, Seastone Chair, and a chump. Followed it up with some other warships. I was able to get Balon put to the sword on T4, but by that point I'd already lost Syrio, Cat, and Sansa. His boats were able to blank enough of my chars power that he was able to pull out a win with unopposed + Great Kraken. I think had I another turn I would've been able to pull it out as I had stabilized pretty well after the Balon nightmare, but I didn't get it. Cut was to top 8 as I mentioned, and I ended up 5th and playing against the Bara/Rose deck I had played in round 3. This was the only game where I actually thought things were in doubt much after T1/2. He didn't get the killer start he had before, and we both ended up going wide with characters (I recall dropping wildfire on T2 to wipe 3 of his smaller guys, only to have them instantly replaced with a couple more). Unfortunately though there was some rules issues that kinda marred the game at the end (he used mare in heat a couple times to send one of my guys out of combat when he had multiple defenders, there was also some forgotten triggers that would've maybe gave him the win had the mare in heat misplays not been brought up) but otherwise a great game, with a lot of back and forth. I did make what I thought was a clever play, eating one of my own chumps with Grey Wind to ready my army and stop one of his attacks (which was unexpected by my opponent). Next round I played against Lannister/Crossing, and pretty much got rolled. I should've opened with Sneak, but didn't want to be risky (and wasn't thinking much at this point) so went with my normal Noble Cause opening. I accidentally dropped it before my opponent had set up and didn't bother switching/bluffing I was playing something else. So I got naval superiority'd, then hit with a tears on my Robb T1. T2 he dropped Gregor, and put Grey Wind to the sword and I just scooped. The naval could've been a valid play independent of him seeing my card, but talking with some folks afterwards he had been doing a ton of scouting everyone's decks. Just left kinda a bad taste in my mouth, especially after he said he usually opened with it, but didn't in the finals apparently. I guess he also hit 2 pentoshi's with it during the tourney so it went well for him. So overall I ended up 3-3 in my games. The big issue I see with Stark is they're lacking finishing power-they're pretty killy, and they have solid defense but it takes awhile for them to put games away unless you're getting Robb out and winning challenges early with Sansa or just steamrolling their characters. That said, they're also very resilient and even in the games I was getting rolled (barring the last one) I was able to still keep power gains from getting too explosive. Blackfish is gonna be a huge upgrade for them-just having someone else with renown will make a lot of difference. Frozen in Ice reprint would also be seriously welcomed. I'd still say Lannister is currently the best faction overall (Cersei, Tyrion, Jaime, Tywin, Gregor are all amazing characters) but Stark is right there and likely will be pushed above them with the deluxe pack.
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Mar 22, 2016 20:58
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Fyi Arya doesn't get a dupe during setup. Sansa similarly doesn't kneel.
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Mar 22, 2016 21:38
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GrandpaPants posted:Fyi Arya doesn't get a dupe during setup. Sansa similarly doesn't kneel. Yeah I know, I dropped one on her from hand (had a 6 card setup).
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Mar 22, 2016 21:55
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alansmithee posted:Yeah I know, I dropped one on her from hand (had a 6 card setup). Ahh, that makes sense. And yeah, after playing Stark some, they really kinda suck at winning. I think Greyjoy does the aggression control a lot better, especially since Balon can single handedly win challenges, and Wildfire, among other things, severely restricts the whole "pack of wolves" thing some of the cards do, often involving the actual direwolves. As good as all the House Tully power rush stuff looks, I kinda hope that's not gonna be their only viable winning strategy.
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Mar 22, 2016 23:17
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Lord of the Rings finally has a good deckbuilder. In honor of it, here is my personal favorite deck put together more or less from memory.
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Mar 23, 2016 01:52
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Wow, that site looks fantastic.
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Mar 23, 2016 02:27
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Rusty Kettle posted:Lord of the Rings finally has a good deckbuilder. In honor of it, here is my personal favorite deck put together more or less from memory. One of my favorite decks I've ever built is very similar to this, but with Theodred (instead of Galadriel) for money-making and Very Good Tale (and with more Ents/fewer other stuff). You just flood the board with giant trees until the quest goes home and cries. Weak in the early game, of course, thanks to Ents being slow; I was leaning on the other players a bit for that. I like your version, though, mostly because of the flavor win of having all of the Three Rings in one deck.
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Mar 23, 2016 02:46
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DontMockMySmock posted:One of my favorite decks I've ever built is very similar to this, but with Theodred (instead of Galadriel) for money-making and Very Good Tale (and with more Ents/fewer other stuff). You just flood the board with giant trees until the quest goes home and cries. Weak in the early game, of course, thanks to Ents being slow; I was leaning on the other players a bit for that. I like your version, though, mostly because of the flavor win of having all of the Three Rings in one deck. Yea. If you are playing the right quest or are lucky, it is excellent solo if you can fight off the encounter deck for a few turns. With others, it becomes worse.
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Mar 23, 2016 03:26
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GrandpaPants posted:Ahh, that makes sense. And yeah, after playing Stark some, they really kinda suck at winning. I think Greyjoy does the aggression control a lot better, especially since Balon can single handedly win challenges, and Wildfire, among other things, severely restricts the whole "pack of wolves" thing some of the cards do, often involving the actual direwolves. As good as all the House Tully power rush stuff looks, I kinda hope that's not gonna be their only viable winning strategy. The thing with Greyjoy is they don't have the kill that Stark does. And I've found them to be a lot less consistent in general-they'll totally blow you off the table sometimes, but others they won't get the locations they need and/or get kinda gold-choked and just flounder around. Like the deck I was running will be significantly better just being able to swap out Ser Rodrick for Blackfish/Eddard. Frozen Solid will also help a ton with the control strategy. Although that said, I could also see a situation where the power rush is just gonna be far stronger in general and forces everything else out. You can keep some of the kill while just blitzing down power gains with all the tully stuff.
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Mar 23, 2016 04:50
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I like the Stark fealty with double Heads on Spikes for power gain.
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Mar 23, 2016 07:29
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So I'm getting into the Lotr LCG and I want to buy some expansions. My plan is to get the 6 Saga expansions and the Mirkwood cycle as it only needs the core set to be playable. After that I would like to buy the other cycles and the deluxe expansions for them in order of publication. Is that a good plan? Are the Sagas beatable with that card pool or should I get some of the adventure packs first?
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Mar 23, 2016 12:25
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Selecta84 posted:So I'm getting into the Lotr LCG and I want to buy some expansions. You should be fine. Each Saga has a decklist that only requires the Saga boxes and a Core set, so you can start with that and work from there. If you find yourself having trouble, you can always buy a few Adventure Packs with cards that help the area you're having trouble in (e.g. if you're having trouble with healing, you can grab The Long Dark for Warden of Healing or The Antlered Crown for Waters of Nimrodel). Have fun!
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Mar 23, 2016 13:39
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Taran_Wanderer posted:You should be fine. Each Saga has a decklist that only requires the Saga boxes and a Core set, so you can start with that and work from there. If you find yourself having trouble, you can always buy a few Adventure Packs with cards that help the area you're having trouble in (e.g. if you're having trouble with healing, you can grab The Long Dark for Warden of Healing or The Antlered Crown for Waters of Nimrodel). Have fun! That's good to hear. Thanks
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Mar 23, 2016 13:44
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Rusty Kettle posted:Lord of the Rings finally has a good deckbuilder. In honor of it, here is my personal favorite deck put together more or less from memory. I like that LOTR finally getting a good deck builder was just the guy who made NRDB/ThronesDB/ConquestDB finally being convinced to make one for LOTR.
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Mar 23, 2016 17:21
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I don't know what to think about Rickon. http://imgur.com/a/d4A0Y
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Mar 24, 2016 17:17
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GrandpaPants posted:I don't know what to think about Rickon. Seems fine for his cost. Doesn't do much, but he's another Stark unique/Lord and another sacrifice to trigger various effects. I can see him as a one-of, depending on how much Shaggydog buffs/is buffed by Rickon. Osha seems like another great card for Banner of the Wolf.
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Mar 24, 2016 18:00
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There are apparently some more Wolves of the North spoilers here: https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/41894/game-thrones-second-edition-lcg-spoilers The Direwolf tutor plot seems pretty eh unless I see more good Direwolf cards. The Long Winter is another 2 claim card, although with a drawback(ish?).
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Mar 25, 2016 00:56
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GrandpaPants posted:There are apparently some more Wolves of the North spoilers here: https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/41894/game-thrones-second-edition-lcg-spoilers I don't know, getting Lady or Nymeria seems okay. Even getting Summer out to bring Bran or someone back would probably be pretty good. Not to mention getting a Direwolf out to make sure you can play Like Warm Rain or The Pack Survives, or even set up shenanigans with the Kennel Master. I completely underestimated how useful the Kennel Master would be. The Long Winter seems pretty good. Probably best early when the drawback is irrelevant, but still playable later on as it has more gold then Winds of Winter. Not very many Summer plots, either, so it will probably hit both players. More Winter plots for Stark shenanigans is also great. Looking at the Spoiler spreadsheet, there's a couple more spoilers I wasn't aware of. Healing Expertise looks pretty good. With this, Maester's Chain from the True Steel pack, and Here to Serve, I really like the Maester sub-theme going on. The unspoiled Tithe event might also be Maester related. Young Spearwife doesn't look so great, though. Might be a bit useful in Martell or something that wants to stay behind and then burst to the win, but being a mono-con is pretty rough. Might be more useful with more Wildling synergy. Maybe having less power is going to be a Wildling thing?
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Mar 25, 2016 14:37
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Unless they stop making Deep Strike cards, the new space marine warlord seems really good? Super solid signature unit too that fucks up all the combat math for really cheap.
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Mar 25, 2016 19:36
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GrandpaPants posted:Unless they stop making Deep Strike cards, the new space marine warlord seems really good? Super solid signature unit too that fucks up all the combat math for really cheap. Another unlimited use ability for Space Marines, and it's not limited by planet. Very nice. Speaking of combat math, anyone got anything to read on it? That's definitely my weakest point in Conquest.
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Mar 25, 2016 20:04
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I don't even play Conquest, but that new two player mat is super cool.
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Mar 25, 2016 20:17
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Its actually kinda bad IMO Very busy and has 7 planet spots, so either the mat is larger than it needs to be or your poo poo is crushed together. But to each their own
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Mar 25, 2016 20:27
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Bottom Liner posted:I don't even play Conquest, but that new two player mat is super cool. I think these were the mats they were using to demo Conquest at Gen Con last year, like those Game of Thrones mats.
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Mar 25, 2016 20:28
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Bottom Liner posted:I don't even play Conquest, but that new two player mat is super cool. MisterShine posted:Its actually kinda bad IMO this was my thought. i'm never gonna have enough space at a game store during an event to lay that out
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Mar 25, 2016 21:29
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I like the expanded size of the mat, actually - I've often thought that Conquest could use some extra space. I'm not incredibly fond of the backgrounds, though - those mats were a little busy as normal mats and I'm not sure that the added play areas really do much to improve things.
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Mar 25, 2016 22:24
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When Conquest first came out I did my own custom 2 player mat. Mostly because I wanted to see how good of quality this local place did(not very, the mat never stopped stinking of rubber) but it was nice to be able to teach the game off a single mat. Spacing was an issue as Conquest requires a bit more space than most games but it worked alright.
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Mar 26, 2016 06:07
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Of course the mat doesn't have Orks on it 
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Mar 26, 2016 06:26
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Because I hate money apparently and LotR, SW and A:NR aren't enough, I decided to pick of AGoT2. Good god, this game is awesome and probably has the best "out of the box" experience I've had with any LCG so far. I just sold off the last of my Warmachine army to get more coresets. Question though: how does Jon Snow work? The wording seems simple, but we coudn't decide what is going on with him. As we understood it, as long as he is standing, he contributes his Str to any conflict you initiate as long as there's another Night's Watch character participating? Is this regardless of challenge type?
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Mar 27, 2016 21:42
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EdsTeioh posted:Because I hate money apparently and LotR, SW and A:NR aren't enough, I decided to pick of AGoT2. Good god, this game is awesome and probably has the best "out of the box" experience I've had with any LCG so far. I just sold off the last of my Warmachine army to get more coresets. Question though: how does Jon Snow work? The wording seems simple, but we coudn't decide what is going on with him. As we understood it, as long as he is standing, he contributes his Str to any conflict you initiate as long as there's another Night's Watch character participating? Is this regardless of challenge type? That's correct. It's why Jon has a higher cost associated with him and why he's absolutely amazing paired with Longclaw.
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Mar 27, 2016 21:58
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The Black Stones posted:That's correct. It's why Jon has a higher cost associated with him and why he's absolutely amazing paired with Longclaw. Oh god, we didn't even see Longclaw. We played 2 games with the Stark/Lannister decks and glanced through the rest. I'm going to try to throw 3 or so decks together tomorrow since our normal d&d game isn't happening then. Any recommendations for 1 core set?
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Mar 27, 2016 22:07
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You literally cannot make a legal deck from one core set. You can make "kingslayer" format decks which is a thing they made up so one core was technically playable, but I think you can only make two at a time.
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Mar 27, 2016 23:16
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Yeah, the recommendation is to buy a second core. It's quite a cheap box and so worth it. AGOT2 clicked with me better than any other card game (I'm just a casual lcg player, I've dabbled in netrunner, conquest, invasion, agot1) and I'm really impressed with the design.
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Mar 27, 2016 23:34
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A second and a third, if you really want to make any good decks. Since almost everything is a 1-of. If you don't care about competitiveness at all then two is fine.
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Mar 28, 2016 01:05
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That LOTR deckbuilder site has me hooked on making theme decks. I beat Journey Down The Anduin yesterday using these two (which are not so good at dealing with treacheries). http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/314/eagles-of-mirkwood-1.0 http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/313/riders-of-mirkwood-1.0 CaptainRightful fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Mar 28, 2016 |
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Mar 28, 2016 16:39
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https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/3/28/called-to-arms/ Summer and Winter agendas. Night's Watch gets an attachment Greyjoy in particular will hate.
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Mar 28, 2016 20:53
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I like the events/attachments/plots that Night's Watch is getting and I like running the deck, but does anyone else think most of the locations and characters in the current and upcoming expansions (at least from what's been spoiled) seem pretty garbage? It's all somewhat higher cost characters that have single icons and usually pretty "meh" abilities to go along with them. Personally I'd like to see a little bit more low/medium cost characters that have some multi icons (low cost characters can have some disadvantage like other low cost house characters can have) it just seems everything they've been releasing has been 3 gold or higher with one icon and for the only house that doesn't have a 0 cost location reducer it seems that decks focusing on Nights Watch as the main house seem pretty lovely. People talk about Stark is the worst house right now, but among my local meta, Nights Watch gets least play (I only play it) and it is pretty hard to win with them. New agendas seem okay, but I can't see myself running them. Maybe in a Stark deck.
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Mar 29, 2016 00:52
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The Black Stones posted:I like the events/attachments/plots that Night's Watch is getting and I like running the deck, but does anyone else think most of the locations and characters in the current and upcoming expansions (at least from what's been spoiled) seem pretty garbage? It's all somewhat higher cost characters that have single icons and usually pretty "meh" abilities to go along with them. I don't know if you mean specifically for Night's Watch or others, but there have been plenty of good characters that have come out. Looking at a list, Will, Arbor Knight, The Hound, Bastard Daughter, Brothel Madame, The Reader, Nymeria Sand, Syrio Forel, Ser Rodrik, Ser Alliser, Moon Boy, Newly Made Lord and Hedge Knight are all at least playable. But if you want characters with multiple icons, I think Night's Watch is probably not the best faction for you. Although goddamn Watcher in the Walls is harsh.
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Mar 29, 2016 02:30
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I doubt they'll print any 2 or less dudes with unconditional multiple icons. With how they've changed costs from 1 to 2 ed, 3 is essentially where 1-2 sat before. High end used to be 5, now it's 7. Night's watch is looking like they'll get some really good tools coming up (love the attachment), but may still be a touch slow and/or overly dependent on The Wall. At least they seem to be making 4 cost locations beyond the threshold where you have to worry about destruction.
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Mar 29, 2016 02:43
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GrandpaPants posted:I don't know if you mean specifically for Night's Watch or others, but there have been plenty of good characters that have come out. Looking at a list, Will, Arbor Knight, The Hound, Bastard Daughter, Brothel Madame, The Reader, Nymeria Sand, Syrio Forel, Ser Rodrik, Ser Alliser, Moon Boy, Newly Made Lord and Hedge Knight are all at least playable. But if you want characters with multiple icons, I think Night's Watch is probably not the best faction for you. Although goddamn Watcher in the Walls is harsh. Specifically Night's Watch. The other houses all have great characters already (and upcoming) and I know from building my Tyrell/Martell Knight deck that other houses get some really good 2 cost characters that have little to no drawbacks. Night's Watch just seems to be lacking anything on some real good low cost stuff, and it's just salt in the wound when they're the only house with no 0 gold house reducing location card. I like my deck, but it's a pain to get stuff out sometimes. All my other decks have much easier time.
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Mar 29, 2016 03:47
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By design the Nights Watch is meant to struggle with economy more than the other houses, hence not having a reducing location. A meagre contribution helps close the gap by also reducing your opponents economy for a turn but it's not nearly as reliable. The NW has consistently been getting bad cards in the chapter packs though which is unfortunate for a house that has been struggling a bit from the start. Once the plot 'the first snow of winter' hits your meta though every character that costs 3 or less is going to become less valuable anyway. e: I think the limited icon spread on NW was intentional as well to make it harder to defend the wall. While it's definitely not the most powerful combination at the moment, I think ffg erred on the side of caution when designing the new house. If it was too easy it would lead to some pretty boring games and static deck building. As it currently stands the Nights Watch definitely needs some new powerful toys to play around with. KongGeorgeVII fucked around with this message at 08:30 on Mar 29, 2016 |
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Mar 29, 2016 08:25
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