To answer a few of these points

- Sansa doesn't accrue power on herself, it goes to the house card. Its an inconvenience to lose her, but not a complete disaster.

- Grey Wind is worth running multiples of so Rain may do its thing anyway. Tbh, if I were running that in this meta, I'd also have Wolfswood, which at minimum provides good threat of activation - its not as if you will often be spending a lot of gold in marshalling on a Threat turn after all.

- As to it coming when it hurts most, this is where the fealty player actually has to start accounting for it. Increasing their curve a bit goes without saying, and the Fealty agenda allows this a bit. Plus, play smart with plots - you know the stats of the pot you are facing and can take advantage. Personally, I can't wait until Forgotten plans gets reprinted (blank opponents plot card in all phases except plot), but for now there are plenty of other decent choices, many of which go in your deck anyway.

- The sacrifice mechanic may prove beneficial to this too. Remember the characters stay in play during marshalling, so you can always do some sacrificing at this point if any effects come that benefit this.

...So...I have been playing Sansa wrong since the Core Set first came out and nobody has ever noticed or called me on it (possibly because it has probably helped them). Thanks!

As for the rest, I don't disagree that there are ways to play around this plot or that Wolves of the North won't give us some good solutions for it. I just think that it is a reasonable statement to say that Stark is going to be hit harder by this than some other Houses. 

And while that's a great point about the sacrifice not being until the Challenges phase begins, presumably your opponent wouldn't give you too many opportunities there. He/She won't play an event knowing you could cancel it, presumably. Stark Jon could ready a character for a defense, I suppose. That's about all I can think of. 

Though I guess now we know the point of Winterfell Heart Tree as the timing was pretty confusing before. Shame Winterfell can't trigger until after this. 

If you favour proofing your decks against Snow rather than running it, what plots do we think might be best to flip if we anticipate an opponent playing it next turn? Calm to reduce military claim, making Marched next turn less devastating? Coppers for the high reserve, thereby minimising the number of characters ending up in the discard pile?

All things being equal and without specific deck synergy in mind...

I would probably say Calm as a defensive measure or Trading With The Pentoshi if you want to be more aggressive and try to drop a couple 4+ costed heavies into play that your opponent wasn't expecting (assuming you have the cards, of course). 

Wildfire Assault could also be interesting if they were playing out mostly big characters in prep for this. That's swinging though--probably better played after you get hit with this (from either side).

Calling the Banners could also be an option for some decks if you are setup to run a lot of smaller characters. Only for a very specific deck-type though. 

If you favour proofing your decks against Snow rather than running it, what plots do we think might be best to flip if we anticipate an opponent playing it next turn? Calm to reduce military claim, making Marched next turn less devastating? Coppers for the high reserve, thereby minimising the number of characters ending up in the discard pile?

I don't like this card at all. I think it's too early for something like this. The card pool is not too wide (and the economy is not there yet) so you can't build higher cost decks to reduce it's impact (unless maybe Lannisters and an Arbor focused Tyrell deck, this last one has consistency and high variance issues). Also search and draw are pretty scarce so you can't give your deck enough consistency without aiming for good set ups (3/4+ cards).

It also punishes mono house decks as the options for high end characters are highly reduced and a lot more risky, as a MIL challange on the First Snow turn will kill one of them probably.

Maybe I will change my mind once I face it or play with it (doesn't have the chapter yet), but my first action to counter this will be to increase the number of ambush, big tempo locations and/or enemy attachtments on my decks so I can set them during a First Snow turn instead of the chuds or big characters that were going to be wiped or killed. Not to mention that Arianne will probably become a 3x from now on in my GJ/Sun deck so I can use her power to bring a chud in for claim soak. 

What I think makes this plot a lot more dangerous is the combination of it with Marched to the Wall. Set ups are going to be in danger no matter what. If you go big, you expose yourself to Marched and if you go small, you get your board wiped by Snow. Not to mention that Snow followed by Marched has the potential to completelly break your chances for the rest of the game.

I hope they print a plot in the future with an effect similar to the Eyrie, so you can at least counter a first turn Marched with it.

Personally I'm inclined to go with Coppers, or Summons if I have nothing viable in hand (I run both).

My current thinking for "Snow-proofing" Martell Crossing... 4+ character package: 1x Syrio, 3x TRV, 2x Arianne, 1x Palace Spearman, 2x Doran, 3x Nymeria, 2x Rattleshirt's Raiders. Aim to set up a 4+ in set-up; consider mulligan if nothing in opening hand; try to play another 4+ turn 1. Early plot sequence: Long Plan into Coppers (anticipating Snow turn 2) to generate card advantage whilst being able to absorb return-to-hand. If sufficient gold is generated via Plan, try to play another 4+ on the Coppers turn. After Snow's effect goes off, defend military hard if at all possible.

Now this does mean the agenda doesn't really get going properly until turn 3, and the nail-biting turn 2 (assuming Snow is flipped) is easier to endure if the Boneway is in play.

In that specific scenario I can see Counting Coppers but outside of getting that extra gold I just don't think I would want to take the tempo hit from Coppers considering I was already getting hit by this.

Depending on deck composition Marching Orders may also work well but that low reserve would worry me. 

And yeah, like VonWibble said, in Stark Sneak Attack could work well. 

I found number of comments that dupes save from this card. Im not convinced.

I think dupes don't save from FSOW as the effect is lasting until each character with printed cost 3 or lower is returned to owners hand. Rules says that “if lasting effect imposes a condition upon a card that would continually drive it from play, any attempt to save a card must also remedy the ongoing condition”. Dupes don’t remedy the condition that each 3 or lower has to be returned.

It's actually just a one time trigger that attempts to send every character with printed cost 3 or lower to your hand (once each). So you can save from it. 

I found number of comments that dupes save from this card. Im not convinced.

I think dupes don't save from FSOW as the effect is lasting until each character with printed cost 3 or lower is returned to owners hand. Rules says that “if lasting effect imposes a condition upon a card that would continually drive it from play, any attempt to save a card must also remedy the ongoing condition”. Dupes don’t remedy the condition that each 3 or lower has to be returned.

"After the challege phase begins" just describes when the forced reaction occurs, not the imposition of a lasting effect on every moment after the challenge phase begins. It's a single trigger.

If it was a longer effect the language would be very different and would actually say it ends at some point.

It's actually just a one time trigger that attempts to send every character with printed cost 3 or lower to your hand (once each). So you can save from it. 

"After the challege phase begins" just describes when the forced reaction occurs, not the imposition of a lasting effect on every moment after the challenge phase begins. It's a single trigger.

 

If it was a longer effect the language would be very different and would actually say it ends at some point.

Makes sense. Thank you!!!

In short: It can't be a lasting effect because it has a "Forced Reaction" trigger. And it can't be a lasting effect because there is no duration specified.

I don't understand why is assumed that a duplicate will save the cards.


Return to hand isn't discard/sacrifice/kill mechanism and the text is quite clear: return each character with a printed cost of 3 or lower
 

The duplicate costs 3 also ...