Well House Stark, say goodbye to that nice little deck you had...

Well House Stark, say goodbye to that nice little deck you had...

This is sadly kind of true. Which is a little sad since they are just starting to become more competitive after starting out probably the least effective of the Houses. 

Deluxe will help of course but ouch. As a player that wants to play Stark for thematic reasons I wish this game was a little less thematic with the Starks always dying. 

Ah well, at least now there is more incentive to play Wolves of the North Arya when we get her...

@JonofPDX - I think Stark has been incredibly viable since the core.  They just look boring compared to other houses.

Stark can also make this a 2 claim plot, so if they go first they can leverage this plot better than most factions.  This card makes MIL claim matter.

We should see an increase in playing Heads on Spikes as a follow-up plot to this, right?

Don't count on it, unless killing a weenie is that important to the one who plays Heads post-First Snow.

Don't count on it, unless killing a weenie is that important to the one who plays Heads post-First Snow.

Oh, I don't know. If you look at the primary benefit as claiming 2 power, instead of putting a weenie in the dead pile, I can see people working the combo.

Oh, I don't know. If you look at the primary benefit as claiming 2 power, instead of putting a weenie in the dead pile, I can see people working the combo.

Can duped characters be saved from jumping back to hand by discarding the dupe?

Can duped characters be saved from jumping back to hand by discarding the dupe?

Correct. This is always the case unless the Card states " Cannot be Saved" (like Ghaston Grey)

nice with Olenna's Informant, or any other card which costs three or less and has a "when enters play" effect.

Not really looking forward to this plot with my Stark deck, but every deck now has to be prepared for it. Hopefully Stark will get something from the deluxe edition to deal with Winter plots.

Not really looking forward to this plot with my Stark deck, but every deck now has to be prepared for it. Hopefully Stark will get something from the deluxe edition to deal with Winter plots.

At least they're getting Winterfell to deal with Blood of the Dragon.  First Snow terrifies me!  After Wolves I might have to run a deck with Ned-2, The Blackfish, Cat-2 and Robb as the focus.  Running my own First Snow with Ambushed Direwolves (Wolfswood) to trigger the sacrifice stand and power gain from Robb and Cat.  Aim to win by turn 3!

How can you be prepared except buying an extra dose of lube? It's a serious question, I mean, how can I prepare a Stark fealthy against this plot?

Prepare to recover from it? Not prepare to mitigate it, maybe?

The only way to do that, though, is to fight the 1.0 impulse to get as many low-cost characters out at once as you can.

How can you be prepared except buying an extra dose of lube? It's a serious question, I mean, how can I prepare a Stark fealthy against this plot?

Honestly, I think the best "defense" Stark Fealty has for this is to just accept that you're going to be hit (possibly twice, as you may want to play it yourself if you're already counting on it) and adjust your deck accordingly. 

That probably means playing (and duping) your bigger characters whenever possible and leveraging your smaller ones early for Stark sacrifice effects so you get good use out of them before they get pushed back to hand. 

Honestly, I think the best "defense" Stark Fealty has for this is to just accept that you're going to be hit (possibly twice, as you may want to play it yourself if you're already counting on it) and adjust your deck accordingly. 

 

That probably means playing (and duping) your bigger characters whenever possible and leveraging your smaller ones early for Stark sacrifice effects so you get good use out of them before they get pushed back to hand. 

I think my problem with this plot is that the devs designed Stark in 2.0 as a faction that is the best when the Stark characters help each other, through sacrifice/killed mechanics or dire wolves using Kennel Master for challenge manipulation. Now First Snow comes along and it will pretty much ruin what makes Stark deck works. Hopefully it won't be the case, but I think Stark is a faction that may be the most vulnerable against it. 

How can you be prepared except buying an extra dose of lube? It's a serious question, I mean, how can I prepare a Stark fealthy against this plot?

I don't understand why everybody assumes Stark in particular will have a problem with this plot. Eddard, Robb, Catelyn, Greywind aswell as Littlefinger and Syrio are not affected. Arya can save herself. One dupe on a main character and you lose no-one to their military claim. You get an extra use out of Summer. And Stark has Winter is Coming, which hits really hard in a First Snow turn, when all the remaining characters are expensive mains. If you anticipate this, reveal Sneak attack and wipe their remaining board. Let's wait and see how it all turns out in reality.

^ +1 Aegon

I don't understand why everybody assumes Stark in particular will have a problem with this plot. Eddard, Robb, Catelyn, Greywind aswell as Littlefinger and Syrio are not affected. Arya can save herself. One dupe on a main character and you lose no-one to their military claim. You get an extra use out of Summer. And Stark has Winter is Coming, which hits really hard in a First Snow turn, when all the remaining characters are expensive mains. If you anticipate this, reveal Sneak attack and wipe their remaining board. Let's wait and see how it all turns out in reality.

Sansa becomes significantly less good due to her drawback. Shuts off Bran for a turn, so now events become an issue - so unless you have Cat and they don't have a way to get rid of her, Tears becomes a serious threat. Bounces Kennel Master and any wolves you have, so now combat is easier for the opponent. You can save Arya, but she becomes significantly less useful without the dupe (to the point that I'm guessing some people will choose to bounce her). And Stark probably has the least ways to avoid that, outside of having a better board then the opponent. And then why would anyone play it?

Having said that, of course, everyone is going to have the same issues to some degree. A lot of decks will get blown up if they walk blindly into it. But most factions also have ways to take advantage of it, or play around it.

I don't understand why everybody assumes Stark in particular will have a problem with this plot. Eddard, Robb, Catelyn, Greywind aswell as Littlefinger and Syrio are not affected. Arya can save herself. One dupe on a main character and you lose no-one to their military claim. You get an extra use out of Summer. And Stark has Winter is Coming, which hits really hard in a First Snow turn, when all the remaining characters are expensive mains. If you anticipate this, reveal Sneak attack and wipe their remaining board. Let's wait and see how it all turns out in reality.

So, by no means would I say that Stark is the only House that will suffer from this plot being released into the wild--I'm not even sure that Stark has the worst of it. But Stark (especially Stark Fealty) does have a few issues when it see's this Plot on the flop. 

First of all, Stark has a slower economy than a lot of Houses which means they'll have a harder time than most recovering from wipe effects like this (and skipping a round of return off your Winterfell Stewards doesn't help). 

Plus, this effect is hitting a lot of Stark's go-to plays. Running Direwolves for fun and profit with Kennel Master and the new Wardens of the North Plot? No, you aren't. Sitting on Bran to guard against a crafty Tears or Confinement? Again, no, you aren't (and since they went back into your hand, you can't even grab back one of these characters with Summer). Keeping a Like Warm Rain in hand as insurance? Hope you have Grey Wind on the board 'cause Summer and the Pups are back in your hand. Building up Power on Sansa? Nope--gone.

And lets not forget that this wipes 2 of Stark's 3 native Intrigue icons. 

And sure, Stark has some very decent 4+ costed characters that can shrug off this plot. But like we said, they're slower at getting them out and once they're on the board, they become very susceptible to Tears, Milk and icon-manipulation. 

And lets be honest--this is going to come when your opponent deems it will hurt you most so you won't be seeing it when you are in a good position to counter it. You'll be seeing it when you have Eddard, Robb and a bunch of weenies and they have a Tears in hand. 

Wolves of the North might help some of this, of course. We'll be getting some more great 4+ characters and I assume we'll see at least some economy acceleration as it's a real weak point for Stark right now (though currently it's offset by comparatively competitive lower-cost characters). And we may see some Winter Plot trait-synergy for Stark. But we're also seeing even more focus on the Stark-sacrifice mechanic--a mechanic that becomes a lot less useful when you have a board of expensive, powerful characters you don't want to sacrifice and only so much gold/reserve to get your sacrificable characters back into play. 

Like I said, I don't think that Stark/Fealty will be crippled or become unplayable because of this plot. But I think it does play directly to their weaknesses and against their strengths. 

Shuts off Bran for a turn, so now events become an issue - so unless you have Cat and they don't have a way to get rid of her, Tears becomes a serious threat.

 
Keeping a Like Warm Rain in hand as insurance? Hope you have Grey Wind on the board 'cause Summer and the Pups are back in your hand. Building up Power on Sansa? Nope--gone.
 
And lets not forget that this wipes 2 of Stark's 3 native Intrigue icons. 
 
And lets be honest--this is going to come when your opponent deems it will hurt you most so you won't be seeing it when you are in a good position to counter it. You'll be seeing it when you have Eddard, Robb and a bunch of weenies and they have a Tears in hand. 
 
[size=3][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Wolves of the North might help some of this, of course. We'll be getting some more great 4+ characters and I assume we'll see at least some economy acceleration as it's a real weak point for Stark right now (though currently it's offset by comparatively competitive lower-cost characters). And we may see some Winter Plot trait-synergy for Stark. But we're also seeing even more focus on the Stark-sacrifice mechanic--a mechanic that becomes a lot less useful when you have a board of expensive, powerful characters you don't want to sacrifice and only so much gold/reserve to get your sacrificable characters back into play.