Updates Updates Updates

It's been a while since anyone posted here. To keep things alive despite the lack of activity in our small community, I've decided to update this blog and post an article or two. Well, let's get it on then...

Finally Tzumainn updated his website! He's posted the complete list of cards for all the chapter packs under the A Time of Ravens chapter. He's also posted updates on the recent chapters of King's Landing and Kings of the Sea. You can check them out at http://www.tzumainn.com/agot/cards/. I must say that the new cards are quite intruiging to say the least. Each house gets something good though I have to say that Stark got most of it. They got another slew of cheap but fairly large characters. Anyways, I'll go into some of the cards that piqued my attention shortly.

A new mechanic was introduced by FFG called Shadow. For anyone who's played Magic: The Gathering, this mechanic has some similarities to the Morph keyword where you pay a default 3 generic mana cost to put a 2/2 creature into play "morphed" (face down). And in order to "morph" the creature at any time as a fast effect to what it really is, you need to pay the morph cost and flip the creature over.

Basically, the Shadow mechanic is similar in that you pay 2 gold to put a card with the Shadow icon face down on your playing field. You can do this as part of the 5-gold setup flop or during the Marshalling phase ignoring the card's out-of-house gold penalty if any; do note that these cards can't be flopped and/or marshalled face up in that they have to be "in Shadow" when they played. Furthermore, these cards when initially played are considered neither "in play" nor "in hand" and are considered to be "in Shadows" instead.

Then it gets fairly tricky after given that this is a mechanic that needs a little practice and getting used to. In order flip the card up and have the card considered to be "in play", you can pay the gold cost indicated. From my understanding, you can only bring only one card from the shadows at the beginning of each phase and this is counted as a player action. If you need to find out more about this mechanic, they have a specific document all to it at http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/agotlcg/support/Shadows.pdf.

One of the upsides playing the shadow cards is that it can't be discarded/killed by normal effects and claim effects. Also, I think that FFG did this to further utilize the treasury/gold tokens mechanic of the game.

Now on to some the cards that caught my eye...

From the Shattered Armies chapter pack:
=============================
Card: Tommen Baratheon (L)
Cost: 1
STR: 1
Icons: P

Traits: Lord. King.

If there is another King character in play, Tommen Baratheon cannot attack, defend, or trigger his character ability. Marshalling: Kneel Tommen Baratheon to draw a card.
*Tommen!!!

=============================
Card: Northern Cavalry Flank (S)
Cost: 4
STR: 5
Icons: M,P

Traits: Army.

No attachments except Siege. Deadly.If an opponent is running an agenda, Northern Cavalry Flank does not kneel to attack.
(War)
*Geez. They really can't get enough of the deadly, don't-kneel-to-attack, friggin' huge armies for Stark. Sigh.


From the City of Secrets chapter pack:
=============================
Card: Tyrion Lannister (L)
Cost: s2
STR: 3
Icons: M,I,P

Traits: Lord.

House Lannister only. Stealth.Response: After a card comes out of Shadows, Tyrion Lannister gets +2 STR and gains your choice of Deadly, Renown, No Attachments, or Immune to Events until the end of the phase.
(Shadow)

=============================
Card: Shadow Politics
Cost: s0
Type: Event

Traits: Small Council.

Response: After Shadow Politics comes out of Shadows, choose a player. That player may initiate an additional I challenge against an opponent of his or her choice as a standard player action this phase.(Shadow)


From the A Time of Trials chapter pack:
=============================
Card: Condemned by the Council
Type: Event

Traits: Small Council.

Response: After you win an I challenge, choose a location controlled by the losing opponent. If that location has the Shadow crest, return it to Shadows. Otherwise, discard it.
*Finally, some location removal for I-heavy decks. A very good thing.


From the Kings of the Sea chapter pack:
=============================
Card: The Price of War
Type: Event

Response: After you win a M challenge in which you control at least 1 attacking War character, choose and discard from play up to 2 non-limited locations controlled by the losing opponent. (Limit 1 per round.)


Well, that's all I have for now. There are a lot of new cards out there and combos waiting to be used and abused. Sadly, access to the cards isn't what it was before. However, I am still hopeful that we could revive this game somewhat...

And Oddly, News...

I know that many of us have let the game slide, and that's not something any one of us can battle singlehandedly. (Ooo. Jaime joke.) But the funny thing is that, even as we see AGOT receding in the rearview mirror, some most unexpected news seems to be coming out of FFG. Nothing earthsdhaking. It's just that there are new Chapter Packs coming out, and they seem finally to be hitting their stride. Not that I don't still miss the old stuff, and certainly the switch to chapter packs, for us over here on the far side of the Poison Water, really hit our ability to acquire the game easily.


But the new packs have me more than ever wanting to put in an order. I don't have the time right now (or the computer know-how) to post the card images, but I'm not even done abosrbing the latest releases (including a fantastic new version of Arya Stark in Cat O' The Canals) and they're starting to talk about the King's Landing cycle with, I swear, hottest Cersei ever.




I'll do it when I can, though , promise. The game has slipped off our radar, but I'm still looking to the skies.



By the way, I'm typing this in between practice DOTA sessions. =)

A question...

We've gotten the new chapter packs.

And yet it is only Richard, so far as I can recall, that has successfully integrated the new cards into his decks.

I personally thought that with the new cards I would find the excitement and drive to build new decks for our beloved game. But alas that was not the case.

With the official demise of UDE's VS system and the lamentations it got from its fan base I couldn't help but wonder at the state of AGOT right now. Especially here in our own little nook.

By last count the only active AGOT players were yours truely, Gil, Richard and Mikko.
Aaron has not really played that much even after getting some cards from the chapter packs. It has been a long time since Icy has played a game and has shifted full time to Bleach.

I myself am guilty of not finding time for AGOT. Like I said in a long gone article AGOT is like a girlfriend with the same enormous demands on a player's time. You cannot casually pick up cards and build decks around it. You cannot expect to win without spending a lot of time testing and tweaking your decks. And with everything going on in my life right now AGOT took the extreme backseat.

I have made my peace with VS. And right now I get the feeling that I should also make my peace with AGOT. What do you guys think?

Away from the game

Fate has conspired to take away what meager time I had remaining for AGOT.

Since getting the chapter packs I have made a total of zero (0) decks from the new cards.

Saturdays is the only time I can really dedicate to gaming for AGOT. And that hasn't panned out to well lately. The drive to make a new deck gets kiboshed by the fact that I might not probably be able to play it.

As I've said sometime ago in another AGOT forum. AGOT can be a most demanding mistress. It is not for the faint hearted nor for the fool who is half committed.

Building decks and being competitive in AGOT demands an inordinate amount of your time and focus. Its not like most card games where you can throw in cards together and say you've built a deck.

To my cohorts in AGOT my apologies. This is not a goodbye to the game but just a vague expression of my current attitude towards the game.

See you next tourney (whenever that is)

A Gathering Storm

Greetings, sers...

Before anything else, I would like to congratulate Peter for doing well in the tournament last weekend. Thanks to Rich for attempting to post a recount of what happened. Also, kudos to all who joined in our first ever tournament (with a new influx of new cards!) after such a long time. It's been a while and it was good to card-flop in AGOT once again.

Now to get to the meat of the matter. There are a couple of things that I want to bring up. But by the looks of things, this will be a fairly long post/email depending on where you read it. The AGOT is blog is at http://agotph.blogspot.com/ if you didn't know.

The first topic I wanted to bring up is the Booster Draft Format Tournament that I proposed running last week. We can look at doing one either this weekend or the next depending on everyone's availability. As much as possible we should a minimum of 6 players that could join. Now what would a Booster Draft Tournament entail?

1) You need to have the Draft Pack and the Draft Pack Supplement. What's in it? Here's the list:

Draft Pack Card List (11)
6x House Cards, of course
1x DR7 Alliance (Plot)
1x DR8 Counting Coppers (Plot)
1x DR9 Filthy Accusations (Plot)
1x DR10 Taxation Plot (Plot)
1x DR11 Wildfire Assault (Plot)

Draft Supplement Card List (28)
1x C13 House Umber Recruiter
1x C168 Fallow Fields
1x C34 Dissident Crier
1x U170 The God’s Eye
1x C60 Stormlands Peasant
3x U142 Narrow Sea
1x C75 Godly Fisherman
3x U143 Summer Sea
1x C100 Illyrio’s Man
3x U144 Sunset Sea
1x C113 Desert Scavenger
3x C169 Kingsroad Fiefdom
1x U227 On Ravens Wings (Plot)
3x C171 The Roseroad
1x F247 Fortified Position (Plot)
3x C172 The Searoad

2) These are boosters that we will be using for the Booster Draft Tournament.
2x ITE
1x AHOT
1x AHOTa
1x 5KE

3) The overall cost would be PHP800.00. This would just cover the cost of the boosters. The tournament fee (aka administrative fee) is waived.

4) I'm sure the lot of you are familiar with the Booster Draft Tournament mechanics one way or another. If not, please check the link: http://www.agameofthrones.com/PDF/Rules.pdf

5) We will follow the usual process of drafting the rares and uncommons for the winners.

Note: I guess that if folks are a little tight for a Draft Tournament, we can always opt for the regular Constructed Format tournament.


Two is that I wanted to bring up the dreaded issue of legality of cards. I know, I know. Re-engineering existing decks would be a challenge if we are to remove the Winter Block cards. Kudos though to Rich for doing that already with his numerous Stark decks.

As such, we are still allowing the Winter Block at this point. However, I think it would safe to "rotate" the Winter Block out once we have the complete set of Chapter Packs from the Clash of Arms block. We're still missing The Battle of Ruby Ford and Calling the Banners Chapter Packs. Unless there are violent reactions, we can make this the official rule for our local community.


Three would be ordering the remaining Chapter Packs as well as the Core Set. I know that some of us are still reeling with what we spent to get the Chapter Packs and the boxes of 5KE and AHOTa. So we don't have to discuss this in major detail at this point since we are all basking in the new cards that we have and attempting to either integrate with our existing decks or to create new decks. I just wanted to leave in the air for everyone to think about.


Well, this is a long post/email. So I guess I'll cut it short for now. Feel free to respond to this with your thoughts, reactions and ideas.


Signing off...

Now It Comes To War!

On April 23rd the AGOT community celebrated the influx of new cards by holding their first official tournament in months. This is one person's view of that event. Names have been changed to protect the Greyjoys.


To be honest, me? I'm still exhausted. I'm not as young as I used to be, and last night we played til past four am. It was worth it, though: our first tournament, literally, in months. Everyone was excited, and everybody's schedules came together so we had a six-player tournament. It was our first time to play officially in forever, and our first chance to incorporate the new cards from the Chapter Packs. (I know, I had said I was going to write about the chapter packs after my last post on the Core Set. Forgive me.) So we expected a series of matches with both the delight of greeting an old friend, and the anticipation of seeing new tricks and strategies played out.

There were six of us: Gil, Mikko, Aaron, Ron, Peter, and myself. Peter was a surprise addition to the ranks: no-one had anticipated his interest in AGOT to resurface so strongly. And Aaron passed on his Bleach interests in order to join us, so it would be a memorable night, in so many ways.


First off, let me say, that I can only give a limited perspective of the event: I was so caught up in my own games and the new cards that I never even got to look over at the other matches going on. So on to what little I know.



Mikko brought his newly-developed Targaryen Ambush deck, which I had playtested against 2 weeks previously and found very strong. Indeed, it inspired me to rebuild my own Targ deck, no small feat considering. But it's true: Targ got a lot of great cards in the first four chapter packs. Their splendid Ambush characters have a lot to offer. I had also been inspired by Gil's use of certain new Lannister cards, which is one of the joys of playing with people who favor other Houses than your own: both Mikko and Gil had long since identified the standout cards of their Houses and integrated them well. The Targ jumpers, Lannister's Toll Gate, the excellent Pyromancer's Cache, all great new components.



For this tournament, though, Gil brought out his Baratheon deck, the one called The Tank. Iam not sure exactly what all is in it, but knowing Gil I know two things that you can rely on:

1. It's fast.

2. It wins.

However, these beliefs were to be shaken during this tournament, to the surprise of all.


Aaron played Martell, and I know nothing of his deck except that he was looking for Wildlings beforehand. (sorry, man. I looked, but did not find. I have them somewhere, but I didn't bring my Wildling to the night's games.) Peter was running, apparently, a Lannister War-Crest deck, but as these two guyhs were the ones I din't play against, I have little to report on their deck construction, except that at one point I looked over and Aaron had revealed The First Snow Of Winter, and I remember thinking, huh: an XP first? Amazingly for a card that has virtually defined the US environment, First Snow is almost never played over here. Guess we love our weenies.


Ron, in another surprise twist, brought his Martell deck to the tournament. Ron is a devoted squid, of course, and he says he likes to play all his decks like they were Greyjoy decks. Having played against his deck in the past two weeks, I can agree.




Me? Naturally, it was Stark. And I had made some changes to my usual deck. (As you know, I have at least five Stark decks.) I hadn't incorporated that many new cards, but I had a lot of differences. One of the fun parts of getting new cards is finding new combos with old cards, and in this case, I went the extreme route of not only De-Winterizing my deck (in preparation for the eventual Winter rotation, I pulled out all Winter Block cards) but I also tried some 5KE combos that I's always wanted to see in action. Not great stuff, mind you, but hey, it was a new day, why not experiment?



Of course, the most significant loss to my deck was Massing, but there was a lot that left along with it. A lot of my big characters, went too, and it was a wrench to lose them. But it did free up some critical deck space. I was able to go into the tourney carrying a deck that was only about, oh, ten cards overweight. Included among these:


Three Winterfell tutors. I had long felt that these cards, apart from carrying the rare-for-Stark intrigue icon, also synergized well with Stalwart. I also thought they could do well with the new Wolf Heralds, especially in conjunction with Gates Of Winterfell. To further speed through this process, I added:

Three Winterfell Hot Springs. Basically card filters, I thought these locatons would help the Tutors put more cards in my hand. As it turns out, they didn't do so well: Even when I was filtering my deck, it didn't help much. Lesson learned: Draw is better than Filter. Fortunately to make up for the missing Massings I had put in:


Three Watching The Heavens. More resource-intensive than Massing, these cards are still a great bargain. What more need be said?


Bear Island. Just one, it's unique. And it actually never came out in any of these games. Bt I like it, and I don't doubt it'll be a standard, despite its somewhat restrictive absolutely-no-neutrals requirement.


Jaqen H'ghar. Another card that will make the cut, although he isn't as massively game-breaking as the US boards said he once was. His strength doesn't rise above three now because you don't dare put power on him. Still, he's a keeper.


Gates Of Winterfell. I think this card has potential but like the Springs and Heralds, it needs combos to maximize it, and that means more Drae is needed. Wait and see if it ends up staying.



Icy Catapult. By far my favorite addition (I put in three Karhold Master-At-Arms to maximize them) the Catapults were the first cards I picked out of the Chapter Packs. In an environment without Arya's Revenge, you gotta have something, right?



To be fair, the new additions didn't fly as well as I'd hoped, but I'm very glad I tried them. The Winterfell Tutors are solid characters even without using their ability. The Hot Springs, I dunno. Probably they should go. The Heralds can stay, although I feel they aren't AS strong as I once thought. Still, they're good, and the Tutor means that Stark can use them better than most. Jaen stays. Bear Island stays, although it may need help.



It's late now, so I'll leave the rest for another night.

In with the old, in with the new!

Well, we have our first round of chapter packs! And we've been buzzing away happily at them, which is the main reason for this new post...


I want to tourney this Saturday! I want a full-blown tournament! Who can make it? What time can you be there?


I myself will be coming from rehearsals nearby, so I can either come early or catch a movie while I wait. You guys in?


In the meantime, though, I've been going over (and over and over) the new cards we have, and the new cards that we can expect in the Core Set. The Core Set makes its debut this week in the States at a Con, I believe, and so soon we will know what we have coming our way. But they've also already released spoilers, and some of them are quite a surprise. Get ready to dig deep into your old binders, because some classic cards are coming back.




The Streets, as I mentioned already, are making a return, although in a new form that only allows one per deck. No big deal, though, we'll just dig out the old ones and if we find more than one in a player's deck, we burn him alive! Or something less destructive.




WES Eddard is back in a significantly altered form. Adds a Noble crest, Deadly and Stalwart to an already esising Renown and a truly mockable ability. The good news: no one will feel bad about scribbling the new abilities on the face of the old cards, 'cause that was one weak Eddard. We'll see how the new guy plays out though.





Promo Shae is back, unchanged. If you had the old one, you can use her again with no changes, although, really, is she worth it? The best thing about the card was just that it was Shae.





Ice. Westeros Ice, not cheap and not game-breaking, but still, it's back. And, hey, it's nice to at least HAVE an Ice in Standard. I find this card to be too expensive for what it does (no strength boost! Bad, bad ancestral weapon!) but it seems to be continuing the themes of House Stark: Murder, and Really Unimpressive Reprints. (Note: now you can fetch Ice using the reprinted Winterfell Armory. Oh, undiluted joy.)





Speaking of game-breaking, which Ice is NOT, here's one that may be: Lannisport Brothel is back. The NON-UNIQUE Lannisport Brothel. Every turn, kneel a character. Run three, and hey, you've never seen so many guys unhappy about a brothel before!





Blood Of the Dragon. Ummm, yes, it's back. I can't say that I much care, but it is back. With the title Blood Of The Dragon, and a pictue of a Dothraki. Sigh.




Did I mention the Streets were back? I did? Okay.



How about Daario Noharis? And WES Littlefinger? Both in modified forms, but they are even stronger, in my opinion. Although Daario comes up with the better bargain. With Littlefinger, even if he does make 2 Gold a turn, 5 Gold is a lot for a traitor turncloak bastard. Although he does have a Learned Crest. Which makes him a well-educated traitor turncloak bastard.
Daario will see play in every Targ deck, by comparison. Tricon deadly? Dude.




WES Bran Stark. Plot: Kneel to reveal a plot card. Differs from the 5KE Bran primarily in that people can actually understand the card.



Drogon. I&F Drogon with a twist, but he's definitely affordable at 4 Gold. Plus, he can take attachments. So you can put Blood Of The Dragon on him, give him the Dragon trait during challenges, and laugh and laugh. Because, hey, double Dragon.



Westeros Bleeds. Love it or hate it, you'd beter plan for it. Location hate takes a major hit with Winter rotation, and even as it is nobody can effectively police influence locations very much. The only good news for me from this reprint? All that trading I did two years ago isn't entirely down the drain.



And the cherries on the sundae...


Blockade. That's it. Just Blockade. You know it.



Aaand....


Valar Morghulis. All Men Must Die. 2/0/0. One per plot deck. My most recent run-in with this card was playing casual games with Jacob a few months back. His Greyjoy Classic, my Stark Standard. I thought I was doing okay until he flipped a plot and reminded me of the Original Great Unprepared Kill. The original reset. Proof that while The Mother loves you and The Warrior protects you, it's The Stranger who will have you in the end.







More on my views of the Chapter Packs later, I'm too tired to type; and besides, now I wanna deckbuild!

the Arrival

Finally they are here...the chapter packs have arrived!

We have new cards to play with!

Too bad we couldn't play with the un-errata'd Jaqn Haqar.

Ah well.

And some of the cards got left behind. One more week for the rest but we have them and that's all we need.


:)

Chapter Packs

Tomorrow

By the grace of all that's holy.

Hopefully they will arrive

Update on Chapter Packs

Greetings and salutations, sers...

I know that we are all anticipating the arrival of the Chapter Packs as well as additional booster packs for A House of Talons and Five Kings Edition. Based on my last conversation with Edge, the shipment was delayed. As such, we are looking at the cards arriving at the end of the month. I know, I know...We've waited for so long. And two weeks just seems all the longer. But it is arriving. So waiting a little longer is all that we can do.

On another note, the card list (and descriptions) for the new Chapter Pack called The Battle of the Ruby Ford has been posted over at Tzumainn's. You can visit it at the link below:

http://tzumainn.com/agot/cards/set.php?set=BRF


Suffice to say, I am a bit disappointed with this chapter. The cards are a little less than desireable other than Rhaegar Targaryen and, gasp, War Scorpion, an attachment for House Martell. And it's funny that they threw in some trait manipulation for Stark via Old Nan. Unfortunately, majority of the effects that can take advantage of such have already rotated out and the few remaining will be rotating out.

Be that as it may, we can then look forward to what FFG will do with their apparent new base set that should hopefully set things right...

Well, it is late so I will look at posting once more soon...

Sighing out...

Waiting...

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.

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.

A round of applause

Finally light at the end of the tunnel or in this case possibly new cards in the next few weeks.


Thanks Ser Gil for facilitating the chapter packs procurement.

Chapter Packs!

Yes! Finally the long awaited text message has arrived!

Ser Gil has placed the order out for our chapter packs!

Finally in a few weeks we will have new cards to play with and a new environment too!

So what's life like after your TCg becomes "not a TCG" anymore?

We don't know yet but in a few short weeks we will find out. Along with the answer to the question "With everyone having the same cards which decks get built?

I can't wait!

In the beginning...

There was an AGOT forum somewhere...but then it crashed.

We moved to skillze and that crashed too.

So to provide a voice for the small AGOT community in our country I have set up this team blog.

As they say...build it and they will come.

Welcome all and enjoy our own little niche that is the AGOT card game.