One of the hardest things to do in this world.
When you wait you get into all sorts of emotions/feelings/state of mind:
1. anxiety
2. fear
3. wonder
4. impatience
5. worry
6. unease
7. hope
Soon. Someday soon we shall get those chapter packs. And with the new cards hopefully some new life into the local AGOT community.
Waiting kills the energy and the eagerness. And with the same cards to build with for almost the past 8 plus months, energy and eagerness gets killed some more, at least for myself.
I get bored easily. And not having new cards feeds into that. I have always liked CCGs because when the random bug bites me I can just go to a store, purchase a pack and be surprised. Chapter packs have already removed that part of surprise/wonder for AGOT.
In theory the game should be more stable with this move. It should help make the game cheaper. At least I'll be getting new cards.
Until they arrive I wait with bated breath. And hope that a game I truly enjoy playing is not going the way of the Starks. And that Winter for AGOT is not coming.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
The Very Real Dangers Of Card Sorting
Well, here goes my first post. Wish me luck! I've been wanting to post something since I learned how to access the site (around Tuesday; goooo, Rich) but I had a recent experience that REALLY made me want to try my hand at an article.
Last week we managed a few casual games, nothing more. The combination of a WoW tournament and a massive Bleach event (or some combination like that) put us well into the wee hours of the morning. A couple of those involved using Matt's Baratheon deck, which is becoming one of my favorite decks these days. Gil tweaked the deck for us a few weeks back, and I've gradually been making a few additional changes that he suggested and that Matt likes. Switching in King Bobby for Claim-Raise Bobby from Winter Ed., stuff like that. The deck runs on renown, and so I've done what I considered a pretty careful search of all the renown characters and renown-granting attachments and power-rush type cards that I have access to. The old favorites I Am King Here are of course a three-of auto-include.
But last week a card was brought to my attention that I'd overlooked. I'd love to post a picture here, but hey, I have no idea how.
(If any of the computer-folk wanna help me out on that, it'd be appreciated! But, moving on). The card was Joffrey Baratheon from ITE, the dual-House Baratheon/Lannister version of the much despised, premiere front-runner for the Most Likely To Be Assassinated By Soon-To-Be Family Members fellow that we all hate so much.
Well, this version of Joff costs 2 Gold, has 2 Strength, the Power icon only, the Lord trait, a Noble Crest, and the game text: "Response: after a Small Council event is played, kneel 3 influence or kneel a (Noble Crest) character to choose and discard from play a character with 1 or more power on it." In addition to this, he also has renown, which of course is what caught my eye. I thought I'd pretty much gone over all the renown Baratheon characters, but here was one I'd missed! 2 Gold isn't too much, so I figured I'd toss Jofffrey into the deck.
I was far too tired when I got home around three that morning, so I went to bed with plans to pull the card out of my collection and slip it into a sleeve the next day.
SO: the next day I pulled open my current Lannister deck and went looking for ITE Joffrey. Only thing is, it wasn't there. I was a little dismayed, but not overly so: I also have one other Lannister deck (just one; they're not Stark, for God's sake, for which I have easily four working decks at any given time) so I figured I had at some point or other moved the card there. I could even, very clearly, remember the day I moved ITE Joff out: it was when 5KE came out, and I was putting together a new Lannister deck and trying out the new reducers that work doubly well if you control a King or Queen. Since Lannister has access to a decent King amd an excellent Queen, I figured it was worth it to sub out Renown Joffrey for King Joffrey. The memory was clear in my mind, so I figured I'd go to the other Lanni deckbox and be done with it.
Well, it wasn't there either. It wasn't in my current Lanni deck, nor in my older (but still Standard-legal) Lanni deck. It wasn't in my Lannister card stacks, or in my Classic Lannister cards. (When we rotated out Valyrian Edition, I bit the bullet and went through all my decks, and indeed cards, and separated the Classic cards from the Standard ones, thus bidding a soft farewell to the Valyrian cards that had served me so very very well. Farewell, Blackfish! Goodbye, Edmure's Host! Adieu, Tullys in general! Hoster, you came out one rotation too late to be any damn good at all.)
(Note that I had no fond farewells for my rotating Lannister cards. S***w them, I say. I never cared if the scum lived or died. Hey, I PLAY them, I don't LIKE them.)
But, I was bound and determined to put this renown-puppy in Matt's deck, and I KNEW I had one. How did I know? Because, again, I had the clear memory, this time from when ITE came out, of seeing Joffrey Baratheon's game text and You Killed The Wrong Dwarf together and thinking, what an awesome combo! It's like they were made for each other! I'm going to build that deck! (My deckbuilding skills rarely see beyond the Painfully Obvious.) It turned out the deck didn't exactly fly, and even though I dutifully threw in every Small Council event I could find (Hidden Chambers! Make Way For The Queen! Hand Of The King, for God's sake!) I eventually had to let it go. But, the point is, I KNEW I had one of these ITE Joffreys. Somewhere.
Long story short, I tore my collection apart. I searched trade binders, storage binders, deck boxes, card storage boxes, booster packs, everything. EVERYTHIIIING!!!! My room looked like a rain of flat cardboard had fallen on it. I went through Targaryen decks, Classic Greyjoy cards, Martell, Stark decks (ALL my Stark decks--- Seven help us), my two boxes of ITE, the loose packs that I had bought over the years, everything. I had become obsessed. As happens --- as so often , OFTEN happens with me --- when I get a card stuck in my head, man, I just can't let it go. It will bug me until I track it down. And the worst thing is, in the process of searching, I'll uncover all sorts of OTHER cards that then catch my eye and become part of the mega-search. Stuff that either I never really tried out, or has recently developed a new interest because other cards or developments in the game have given them a possible life.
And so it goes. Once the process begins, it has to play out. If I know I HAVE that card, i'll hunt it to ground no matter what. At the end of the messy, degrading ("Why haven't you bathed today?"), upsetting ("Get out of my room, Rich! You don't HAVE any cards in here!"), and unexpectedly revealing ("Wow. I used to play Heresy?") undertaking, I have a stack of cards that I decided were worth a second look, a room that was unlivable... more than usual, and.... one. ONE copy of ITE Joffrey Baratheon. I found it in a booster pack that had been in the box that I got when I redeemed my Gold Dragon certificates.
That in itself was a mystery. I know I had built a deck around that card, so I definitely had taken it out of the pack it came in. Had I returned it to a different pack for some reason? Had I had two, and kept the spare in the ITE box in case I ever needed a second? Had I traded away the first? Did I still have it hidden away somewhere with a pile of crap cards that had somehow gotten misplaced?
These, I cannot answer. Exhausted and mystified, willing to accept a technical victory but still perplexed and somehow feeling that I had missed something, somewhere, I dragged myself over to Matt's Pokemon deck tin that carried his Bara deck. It was still open. Optimistically, I had been in mid shuffle when I began my mad quest. I shook a new sleeve out of the pack, and placed the latest addition to the renown rush in among its new kinfolk.
Bilbo Baggins in the Lord Of The Rings said, it's a dangerous business, going out of your front door. You never know where the road will take you. I have realized that even if you stay within your own home, your searches can take you to places unknowable. As I finally droppped off to sleep, the ghosts of cards still marching behind my eyes, I was borne down below by one final haunting thought.....
("...all that effort for freaking Joffrey Baratheon?...)
Last week we managed a few casual games, nothing more. The combination of a WoW tournament and a massive Bleach event (or some combination like that) put us well into the wee hours of the morning. A couple of those involved using Matt's Baratheon deck, which is becoming one of my favorite decks these days. Gil tweaked the deck for us a few weeks back, and I've gradually been making a few additional changes that he suggested and that Matt likes. Switching in King Bobby for Claim-Raise Bobby from Winter Ed., stuff like that. The deck runs on renown, and so I've done what I considered a pretty careful search of all the renown characters and renown-granting attachments and power-rush type cards that I have access to. The old favorites I Am King Here are of course a three-of auto-include.
But last week a card was brought to my attention that I'd overlooked. I'd love to post a picture here, but hey, I have no idea how.
(If any of the computer-folk wanna help me out on that, it'd be appreciated! But, moving on). The card was Joffrey Baratheon from ITE, the dual-House Baratheon/Lannister version of the much despised, premiere front-runner for the Most Likely To Be Assassinated By Soon-To-Be Family Members fellow that we all hate so much.Well, this version of Joff costs 2 Gold, has 2 Strength, the Power icon only, the Lord trait, a Noble Crest, and the game text: "Response: after a Small Council event is played, kneel 3 influence or kneel a (Noble Crest) character to choose and discard from play a character with 1 or more power on it." In addition to this, he also has renown, which of course is what caught my eye. I thought I'd pretty much gone over all the renown Baratheon characters, but here was one I'd missed! 2 Gold isn't too much, so I figured I'd toss Jofffrey into the deck.
I was far too tired when I got home around three that morning, so I went to bed with plans to pull the card out of my collection and slip it into a sleeve the next day.
SO: the next day I pulled open my current Lannister deck and went looking for ITE Joffrey. Only thing is, it wasn't there. I was a little dismayed, but not overly so: I also have one other Lannister deck (just one; they're not Stark, for God's sake, for which I have easily four working decks at any given time) so I figured I had at some point or other moved the card there. I could even, very clearly, remember the day I moved ITE Joff out: it was when 5KE came out, and I was putting together a new Lannister deck and trying out the new reducers that work doubly well if you control a King or Queen. Since Lannister has access to a decent King amd an excellent Queen, I figured it was worth it to sub out Renown Joffrey for King Joffrey. The memory was clear in my mind, so I figured I'd go to the other Lanni deckbox and be done with it.
Well, it wasn't there either. It wasn't in my current Lanni deck, nor in my older (but still Standard-legal) Lanni deck. It wasn't in my Lannister card stacks, or in my Classic Lannister cards. (When we rotated out Valyrian Edition, I bit the bullet and went through all my decks, and indeed cards, and separated the Classic cards from the Standard ones, thus bidding a soft farewell to the Valyrian cards that had served me so very very well. Farewell, Blackfish! Goodbye, Edmure's Host! Adieu, Tullys in general! Hoster, you came out one rotation too late to be any damn good at all.)
(Note that I had no fond farewells for my rotating Lannister cards. S***w them, I say. I never cared if the scum lived or died. Hey, I PLAY them, I don't LIKE them.)
But, I was bound and determined to put this renown-puppy in Matt's deck, and I KNEW I had one. How did I know? Because, again, I had the clear memory, this time from when ITE came out, of seeing Joffrey Baratheon's game text and You Killed The Wrong Dwarf together and thinking, what an awesome combo! It's like they were made for each other! I'm going to build that deck! (My deckbuilding skills rarely see beyond the Painfully Obvious.) It turned out the deck didn't exactly fly, and even though I dutifully threw in every Small Council event I could find (Hidden Chambers! Make Way For The Queen! Hand Of The King, for God's sake!) I eventually had to let it go. But, the point is, I KNEW I had one of these ITE Joffreys. Somewhere.
Long story short, I tore my collection apart. I searched trade binders, storage binders, deck boxes, card storage boxes, booster packs, everything. EVERYTHIIIING!!!! My room looked like a rain of flat cardboard had fallen on it. I went through Targaryen decks, Classic Greyjoy cards, Martell, Stark decks (ALL my Stark decks--- Seven help us), my two boxes of ITE, the loose packs that I had bought over the years, everything. I had become obsessed. As happens --- as so often , OFTEN happens with me --- when I get a card stuck in my head, man, I just can't let it go. It will bug me until I track it down. And the worst thing is, in the process of searching, I'll uncover all sorts of OTHER cards that then catch my eye and become part of the mega-search. Stuff that either I never really tried out, or has recently developed a new interest because other cards or developments in the game have given them a possible life.
And so it goes. Once the process begins, it has to play out. If I know I HAVE that card, i'll hunt it to ground no matter what. At the end of the messy, degrading ("Why haven't you bathed today?"), upsetting ("Get out of my room, Rich! You don't HAVE any cards in here!"), and unexpectedly revealing ("Wow. I used to play Heresy?") undertaking, I have a stack of cards that I decided were worth a second look, a room that was unlivable... more than usual, and.... one. ONE copy of ITE Joffrey Baratheon. I found it in a booster pack that had been in the box that I got when I redeemed my Gold Dragon certificates.
That in itself was a mystery. I know I had built a deck around that card, so I definitely had taken it out of the pack it came in. Had I returned it to a different pack for some reason? Had I had two, and kept the spare in the ITE box in case I ever needed a second? Had I traded away the first? Did I still have it hidden away somewhere with a pile of crap cards that had somehow gotten misplaced?
These, I cannot answer. Exhausted and mystified, willing to accept a technical victory but still perplexed and somehow feeling that I had missed something, somewhere, I dragged myself over to Matt's Pokemon deck tin that carried his Bara deck. It was still open. Optimistically, I had been in mid shuffle when I began my mad quest. I shook a new sleeve out of the pack, and placed the latest addition to the renown rush in among its new kinfolk.
Bilbo Baggins in the Lord Of The Rings said, it's a dangerous business, going out of your front door. You never know where the road will take you. I have realized that even if you stay within your own home, your searches can take you to places unknowable. As I finally droppped off to sleep, the ghosts of cards still marching behind my eyes, I was borne down below by one final haunting thought.....
("...all that effort for freaking Joffrey Baratheon?...)
there yah go rich! gratz on the first post. I added the joff pic as requested -- head editor ron
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Quick takes
The agot chapter packs orders are in the US already. A couple more weeks and we will be swimming in new cards.
Hopefully some newbies decide to join.
-o0o-
I actually didn't have time to come up with my promised Targ deck so I just gave my semi-new Martell deck more burn.
I kinda enjoy playing that particular deck. It has no draw engine to speak off but I like the tricks it has. I also like the fact that I can pretty much do a board wipe with "Kings and Queens" + "Injurious Poison"
And as the guys pointed out it still feels like semi-Greyjoy.
-o0o-
No tourney. We were only four. And due to scheduling conflicts (late Bleach start) we settled for just a couple of practice games.
It was fun and it gave me a chance to stretch out my long unused AGOT muscles.
Martell again is quite fun when you have the tricks in hand.
-o0o-
Till next time.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Ready Set Go!
First off...
Thank you for the lay-out! I assume it was Ser Gil who muddled around with it. Thank you for the nice graphic of the AGOT women. hehehe
Second...
I have decided that if I have time it will be a Targ deck that I'll be making.
Throwing caution to the wind...preparing for the direst of consequences...
Prepare your swords and get ready to do battle!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
A Rush
A power rush deck.
Yes, that was Matt's deck that I used the last time I played AGoT. It was a Baratheon power-rush which didn't apologize for it's speed and cheesiness. It had the staple Bara cards like the Queen of Thorns, renown uniques, huge armies and Winter Mel, the gem of the deck.
If I remember correctly, it was the first time I've ever handled a Bara deck ever since starting AGoT back in the Ice&Fire days. It's the only House I've never even considered trying because of it's mindless strength: grab power aggressively and quickly. It just didn't appeal to me. I've tried all the other houses before. I even dabbled in Greyjoy for a short time, but no House turned me off like Baratheon. After using Matt's deck, however, it changed my opinion. Favoring the control heavy Houses like Targ Burn and Martell Lock for so long, Baratheon Rush was a welcome change of pace. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean I'll play the House from now on, but I may play it more often just to keep things interesting. I certainly need the rush from time to time.
Now if only Targ became decent again...
Yes, that was Matt's deck that I used the last time I played AGoT. It was a Baratheon power-rush which didn't apologize for it's speed and cheesiness. It had the staple Bara cards like the Queen of Thorns, renown uniques, huge armies and Winter Mel, the gem of the deck.
If I remember correctly, it was the first time I've ever handled a Bara deck ever since starting AGoT back in the Ice&Fire days. It's the only House I've never even considered trying because of it's mindless strength: grab power aggressively and quickly. It just didn't appeal to me. I've tried all the other houses before. I even dabbled in Greyjoy for a short time, but no House turned me off like Baratheon. After using Matt's deck, however, it changed my opinion. Favoring the control heavy Houses like Targ Burn and Martell Lock for so long, Baratheon Rush was a welcome change of pace. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean I'll play the House from now on, but I may play it more often just to keep things interesting. I certainly need the rush from time to time.
Now if only Targ became decent again...
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