The Sansa Award

What started as Tag's side gag is now an official HOBO tourney tradition: The Sansa award. As is befitting to AGoT's biggest loser and the award's namesake, the Sansa is given to the player with the lowest win/loss ratio at a HOBO tourney. Last Saturday, that happened to be me and my 0 for 4 Targ Treaty with the North winter burn deck.

I will treasure my framed piece until next time (probably our regional match?) where a new Sansa will be crowned.

(photo of Tag presenting the award)

Off the beaten path: hand of the king

For this week's break from competitive play, let's take a look at the Hand of the King alternate rules.

In many ways Hand of the King is the complete opposite to the Civil War rules we talked about last week. Hand of the King adds very little time to setup but complicates play. (both through the rules that dictate when and how a Hand enters and leaves play AND because the Hand is immune to non-hand rules gold moving card effects)

Due to it's potentially complex interactions, deep strategic options, and on-the fly customization (you could start with a different unique character from your deck in every game) Hand of the King is definitely a competitive build. However, it could be argued that HotK is best suited for an unusual and rarely talked about scene: the comfy couch meta. That is to say, a small group of players with moderately strong understanding of AGoT's core rules and enjoy slightly competitive play, but don't construct custom decks and/or have a small card pool to draw from.

The argument to support this is simple: in a true competitive meta, HotK presents hyper OP/broken play opportunities, which dramatically disadvantage new and less experienced players even more than the base game does already. (eg Reek can infinitely steal an opponent's characters, since he only loses a gold instead changing control) Furthermore, since it is not an tournament legal play style, it may be difficult to entice a competitive group to invest in it.

Regardless, for those small groups of players who enjoy the game at home, a single core set box can provide many interesting options. (eg Stark's lack of intrigue icons getting you down? Choose Catelyn and by round 3 you will always have at least 1 intrigue icon in play, and a useful character ability to boot. Or heck, just choose Bran and churn through your plot deck as rapidly as you want)

As stated earlier, HotK is not great for new players. However, given
experienced players, it can combine with Civil War rules for added flavor and stability. (eg since Civil War decks can have draw issues, starting with a character with on-card draw like Tommen is a huge thing) While it's probably too clunky for brick and mortar retail, it's not impossible and the added 'newness' to each Civil War + HotK game may excite experienced players to participate with new players. (especially if you draft your hand)

As a closing thought, imagine Hand of the King's rules repurposed as an agenda. Would it suffer the fate of House of Dreams and feel like it had miles of potential but only a few really bonkers good starting choices, or would the natural delay of more expensive characters balance it out? Love to hear your comments below.

Prizes away!

Here are my three final drafts for this weekend's "Burning Hearts" tourney. All three will be available on single sided card stock, while 1 will get mounted to an old CCG era card (so it will match normal AGoT cards)

and here are the three cards we gave away at the previous tourney

HOBO Feb Tourney Prize Preview

As with previous Hobo tourneys, this Saturday's prize pool will include a custom house card. As you can see above, the Asshai get some attention. A Bara version is obvious, since that house is home to the majority of Asshai trait cards in the LCG. However, I'm considering making either a Greyjoy or Targ version as well, even if the Asshai available to those houses are... lack luster?

So, Targ or GJ? Toss your votes in the comments area below!

Off the beaten path: Alt game types

Every now and again, I need a break from competitive play. Fortunately, AGoT provides 3 alternate rule sets, with each set providing some interchangeability. If you are familiar with AGoT in general, you can play any of them and, perhaps most importantly, they require little or no additional investment to get into. This week, I'm going to highlight the Civil War variant.

Civil War rules, which were introduced in the Martell deluxe set, are both the most time consuming to set up and the easiest to play. Since a single player provides all 100-180 cards all players draw from the communal draw deck, that player needs to set aside some prep time. The deck can't contain duplicates of unique cards and, if you want a coherent experience, you'll need to crunch some numbers (or practice a lot of trial and error) to get its gold curve right.

Civil War's biggest advantage is that it takes away a big advantage veteran players have over new and beginning players: deck construction. The deck-providing player can even provide each player's plots, either pre-built sets for each player or for each player to draft.

Civil War's second, and perhaps most overlooked advantage is that it support's 2-6 players. Why? Who knows? Regardless, seating 2 additional players (especially new players who don't have prebuilt decks) can be very useful.

Combined, these two advantages make Civil War ideal for brick-and-mortar retail. Specifically, this format allows a retailer to keep a 'store deck' on hand that can teach more players the game with fewer staff. Moreover, while 180 can contain a lot of card text and game mechanics, being limited to one house (plus neutrals) cuts down on a bit of the learning curve.

Now, if only FFG sold some sort of product that contained random assortments of agendas and plots for players to draft using this method, AGoT would have a great in-store product...

A Game of What Ifs? House Umber Unique Characters

This week's what if fan cards feature the unique characters of House Umber. The Greatjon's Uncles and their Father are pretty self explanatory. Lady Umber, while not specifically noted in the book is presumed to exist... unless the Umbers reproduce via spores. I modeled her card text on the notes that Umber Ladies of the past have been carried off in Wildling raids, which has in turn put the Umbers in a killy mood.

Next week: Locations and Plots!

A Game of What Ifs? House Umber fan cards

In the pre-LCG days, the House Umber trait was a common in Stark. While the Greatjon is really the only significant member of the house in the books, I've always had a warm place in my heart for these klingon'y barbarians from the upper north. 

So, In the spirit of filling time while FFG readies the next cycle, I present to you 6 non-unique "What If?" characters from the house. Each is my own take on possible expansions to the Umber themes already in the game (Melee format, creature support, multiple challenge participation), expanding underutilized mechanics (Bannermen/banner traits), or just what I think is Umber'ly thematic.

Thoughts and outrage are welcome in the comments. I'll post unique characters next week.

(EDIT: I designed the modified card art, the illustrations are modified but shamelessly pilfered from existing cards or around the internet)