Beyond the Wall, Season 1 Episode 29

Melee (GJ BS)

Plots (8)

Lannister PBTT

Plots (8)

I think darknoj should just be known as The King Beyond the Wall

I think darknoj should just be known as The King Beyond the Wall

Damn, that's good. Why can't I ever think of these?

the problem is that unique characters can't have the author face (unique character in the phot, not the card itself)

if he likes bara, i wouldn't mind a good efect that you have to kill in challenge phase as a cost, to make full use of the take control theme

He should just make a Melee title that makes every other title oppose him, because that'll probably start happening now!

Errata: It's been pointed out to me that in the last draft release at Worlds, they announced the cards wouldn't be legal for OP until the associated CP was released. I forgot about this because this happened with only unreleased cards that would be released in the Dec/Jan lull between OP seasons, so it wasn't very relevant.

I have to 100% disagree with the Harrenhal argument. The card soft bans restricted events and what you are seeing in recent tourneys are people have stopped playing restricted events. So now Harrenhal is less vital to play (the meta call many people made at Gen Con). As with most things it becomes a meta call.. BUT one card should not have the kind of impact that Harrenhal has had. Restricted events should not become unplayable due to one card that is so easy to play.

I'm not comfortable with the assumption that Harrenhal is single-handedly responsible for a soft-banning of restricted events (Top 16 had a THF, and I count 13 event restricteds in the Annals so far). Sure, I think it's revalued aggro and characters a fair bit, both of which I think are good for the game, but I also think the sweeping changes to board wipes/hard control did more to challenge the event heavy decks of 4.2.

If we look at the events in more detail

-Cyvasse: Saw 1 total appearance in 5.0-5.01, it's rock bottom to begin with

-Desperate Measures/Blessed by the Maiden: Both are here to break up a combo, unlikely to see much play period

-Westeros Bleeds: Saw 7 appearances in 1291 restricted cards in 5.0-5.01, pretty close to unplayed that whole season.

-Narrow Escape: 53/1291, currently at 5/181. Seems to have dropped off some!

-Burning on the Sands: Hard to tell whether Harrenhal, the errata to Prince's plans, or the restriction to Bloodthirst is what reduced this prevalence.

-Prince's Plans: Hard to tell whether Harrenhall, the errata, or the restriction to Bloodthirst is what really did this in.

-THF: 31/1291 (5.0-5.01), 3/181 (5.2): Hard to tell if this really is a drop-off.

The way I see it, that plays in more with the argument that we can potentially unrestrict some of these events - especially now that the meta has Royal Decree as a potential answer to THF/WB should they start to become too prevalent.

I would be interested in seeing if decks (Excluding kotHH from the equation, because its prevalence has dropped independently) on average are running fewer events. My suspicion is that it may have dropped by one or two, on average - but again, I'm not convinced that's a bad thing.

I have done some stats on the limited data I have; so far from Gencon (13/16 reporting), the average cut deck was running 1.23 Harrenhals. That's a little high for my tastes, so I can see the ubiquity argument - but I'm also fairly convinced that number is going to drop as the season progresses. 

I don't see why one card cannot have the impact Harrenhal has had. Isn't the point of new cards to impact the meta? If new cards aren't meant to make any difference to the way the game is played, why are FFG still even releasing packs?

That said, I really don't want to open that can of worms here. Congratulations to Jon on an amazing Gencon performance, and also to Corey for winning joust!

There had to be one of the following; Kidd S., Kyle V., Wilson K., or Brian A. (one of the semi tables). Let's check with Jon on that one!

Edit: Double checked with Kidd, it was Wilson K. who made the final table, beating him in the semis.

But i have been known to get confused....

Checked with Mr. Low... It was Wilson (as I thought).

Well then i am sorry Wilson for thinking you where kid. I blame beer and rye...yes rye is to blame. That guy always makes me drunk.

FYI FFG has already said in Netrunner that unreleased cards that show up in the draft pool are NOT legal until their respective Data Pack is released.

Yeah, we caught this (with some help in the skype group), and added an erratum to the cast's article (above) and a comment accordingly. We'll also clarify that at the start of next week's cast, to avoid leading listeners astray!

The Satin/Renly/Prepare for War/Scheming on the Sand combo is absolutely brilliant. What card do you use to auto-ensure you can make Renly a Night's Watch character turn one? Seems like if you mulligan into a bad hand and don't draw just right your strategy could crumble if your opponent catches on before you can implement everything. Not to mention that you likely would need Harrenhal out as well by T1 to ensure no Nightmares/Harrenhal shenanigans stop you.

And his card should be Mance's Raiders, an army, with Jon as Mance and the rest of us Canadians as the raiders. If my face could be featured prominently in the army, I would take that instead of the beer Jon promised me