Fast forward a couple of months: I bought the integral and am now very much enjoying the A Game of Thrones 2nd edition LCG by Fantasy Flight Games with my friends...I'm even going to tournaments!
Honest opinion: if you don't like/care about the AGOT universe and don't like/care about multiplayer, then, definitely Netrunner is the better 1v1 card game. If, like me, you love a good multiplayer with its politics from time to time and are enjoying the universe of AGOT then... what are you waiting for?! Buy your three Core Set already!!
Sad truth: if you want to enjoy the game whatsoever I recommend at least 2 Core Set, making this game closer to 100$CAN. If you want to play competitively it'll be 3 Core Set for 150$CAN. I think the heavy entry cost will deter a lot of people from this great game.
When you pay the price you do get a lot for you money = you can build up to 8 decks for you and your friends to play with! (Admittedly some will be more competitive than others depending on how you do it.)
NOTE: this is still less than a booster box of Magic: The Gathering and with playset for all the cards in the Core Set you'll have A LOT more replayability.
Here are my 8 decks:
A Game of Eight
Lannister/Fealty: Rains of Castamere
Tyrell/Wolf: Ladies' Knight
Baratheon/Kraken: Stannis' Fleet
Stark/Fealty
Night's Watch/Fealty
Martell/No Agenda: Doran's Youth
Targaryen/No Agenda
Greyjoy/No Agenda: Iron Price
I Plan on giving demos/play with these eight decks and while some are blatantly better/worse than others (although it can be fixed with unused cards) I tried to make them as good/cool as I could. The only one I'd try to stay away from is the Greyjoy one. (The Baratheon/Kraken being much better with roughly the same core concept of Greyjoy)
Now to save time, here's a super-quick little guide on how to play AGOT 2nd edition:
Super-Quick Little Guide on How to Play (super simplified too!)
Goal: to have 15 power (mill can be a victory condition but forget about it for now) First player to 15 power at any time wins.
How do you make power? When you are unopposed to a challenge, when you win dominance and with some keyword/abilities on your cards/characters.
Set up: draw 7 cards (1 mulligan), chose up to 8 total gold's worth of cards (locations, characters and attachments) and play them at the same time as your opponent: its your set up.
You can now begin playing.
1st Round (and every other round until 15 power):
Plot phase: chose one of your 7 Plot from your Plot Deck and reveal it at the same time as your opponent. A Plot 1st number indicates how much gold you'll have to use for this turn (warning: gold vanishes at the end of turn), your initiative and your claim.
The player with the highest initiative decides who plays first this round and in which order the Plot's effects are resolved if there 's any.
Marshalling phase: starting with the 1st player (and until he is completely done), players use their gold to play cards from their hands (especially characters, attachments and locations) until they don't want to.
Challenge phase: starting with the 1st player (and until he is completely done), player can declare characters to take part in one out of three challenges: Military (Red Sword Icon), Intrigue (Green Eye Icon) and Power (Blue Crown Icon). Unless specified any amount of characters can take part in a challenge but in order to do so they need to 'kneel' (the equivalent of tapping in Magic) and have the appropriate icon. Kneeled characters usually can't attack or defend in a challenge. When the attacker has declared all participating characters, the other player can declare defenders (by kneeling them). You can declare all three challenges and resolve them in any order.
Compare the total STR on each side to determine winner. A Tie always favors the attacker.
If the Attacker wins, apply challenge's effects equal to his Plot's claim: for example an attacker winning a military challenge with a plot claim value of 1 will force his opponent to chose and kill one of his characters, or discard one card at random in the case of an Intrigue challenge or Transfer one Power from his house card to the attacker's. Hence why Plot with Claim value of 2 can be so feared.
If the opponent doesn't kneel any defenders (or if their STR is equal to 0) you are considered 'unopposed' and not only do you apply your claim value and challenge effects but you also score 1 power.
Now as you can guess, one of the keys to winning is to push as many unopposed challenges as you can to score power.
When 1st player is done with his challenges, its the 2nd's turn to declare some, now if he defended he'll have a lot less options to attack with but maybe his opponent exposed himself...
Dominance phase: The player with the highest total STR on standing (not kneeled) characters + his remaining unused Gold wins the dominance and scores one power. check for effects.
Taxation phase: Your unspent gold goes away, you discard cards from your hand down to your Plot's reserve value (small red number in the bottom corner of your Plot).
You are ready to play a new round!
Sounds easy? It is! The beauty of it comes in the choices you have to make to get to that crucial 15 power...deckbuilding is super fun too as you have many aspects to consider (ie: Which 7 Plots will this deck use???).
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