Metaphysics - The FAQs of Life

I’m going to take a little break from my standard format and to talk a little bit (and hopefully get a little conversation going) about a few game-related items, specifically the current FAQ/ Restricted List.

The FAQs of Life

First, a quick word from our sponsors about errata:

Did you know that there are 59 cards that have received errata as of the latest Game of Thrones FAQ? Recent studies show that errata accounts for 79% of all Game of Thrones LCG-related depression, arguments, table-flipping, and new player confusion. And while Griff probably should have been printed with “House Targaryen Only,” it might just be a good idea to see what happens instead of giving him errata before he could even be played.

Errata: it hurts us all.

Except Free Man - he's really happy to be a Wildling again.

Back to the topic at hand: The Banned/ Restricted List. It really feels like it needs a little overhaul of some kind. Whether it’s adding a bunch of stuff or just augmenting the existing cards I really don’t know, but for the sake of discussion, let’s have at it.

Two cards are currently banned. Jaqen H’ghar is pretty much a train wreck, and while flavorful to the setting, should probably remain stranded on Banned Island. No arguments there. Compelled by the Rock, on the other hand, seems like a card that deserves a rescue. With so many cards in the card pool now, is this really going to make a huge difference in decks? For that matter, would it even see play as things are now? Off the top of my head, I can think of about a dozen cards that are far more concerning to the metagame than this one.

As far as a Restricted List goes, everyone certainly has a different opinion on specific cards that they want to see taken off or put on. In general, I believe strongly in keeping the list as small as it can be, and the reason for that is simple: the cards in the game should be used to swing metagames and create diversity, not the Restricted List. If Maesters are too good, there needs to be a way to combat those strategies without destroying them, and the fact that a new set of cards is released every month should be able to stabilize issues without having to make things more complicated. I’m not talking about a character named “Mongo the Maester Killer” who kills all Maesters when he enters play, I just mean a few subtle ways to deal with the utility advantages that Maester decks have without sacrificing consistency in deckbuilding.

The Fury plots are a good example of something that could be open for debate. The Stark and Greyjoy Furys are obviously strong, and if they were taken off the list, I feel like they would be an auto-include in the majority of those decks. The same argument could be made for Fury of the Stag, I suppose. But I really wonder what would happen if Fury of the Sun/ Lion/ and Dragon got taken off. With the existing options for Plot Decks growing all the time, would these be considered auto-includes? I certainly don’t think Fury of the Lion/ Sun would really be too much of an issue. As it is, they both are 100% unplayable.

More often, I believe it’s the Neutral cards that tend to cause the most fuss. A card like Narrow Escape is very much at home on the Restricted list – it’s a very powerful card that can be run in triplicate and is not house specific. I feel the same about Val, especially with The Laughing Storm being free from restriction. Even though I don’t think it really solves the issues with the card, The Maester’s Path probably belongs there too. If nothing else, a band-aid on a bullet wound is better than nothing, although not getting shot in the first place is usually preferable.

It’s really the House-specific cards that become the gray area.

Let’s use Martell as an example. They are designed, game-wise, to have lots of the most defensive abilities and control effects in the game. Not surprisingly, these effects tend to be the least fun and frustrating abilities in the game. Where do you draw the line? It creates a sort of Trickle-down Restriction Economics scenario, where the next best card in line is sent to the chopping block. Burning on the Sand is a fine card, but should it be Restricted? An argument could be made (easily) that Red Vengeance is stronger overall. Should that be Restricted too? Venomous Blade is a card that is either too good or not nearly good enough depending on the scenario and can oftentimes be relegated to only killing a Refugee. Hatchling’s Feast/ Threat from the East is a combo that routinely discards three characters from play. Restriction worthy?

Take a plot like Search and Detain. Will anyone seriously consider using this as their one Restricted card now? For the most part, it has essentially been Banned. Is it really necessary to keep Castellan of the Rock Restricted, given the state of the game now and its increased power levels since it was put on the list? These are great topics for discussion, and I can truly see both sides of a lot of arguments.

The Glass Ceiling

All this talk about the Restricted List leads into a bonus conversation generator: Should there be some sort of format rotation involved in AGoT? For those of you unfamiliar with what I mean, other card games, mostly following Magic, have different formats for tournament play. In AGoT, this would mean having one format where all of the cards can be used and another where only the last X blocks of packs are legal.

The main problem is what I’ll call The Glass Ceiling Effect. In other words, with the pool of cards being so great, by definition most of the cards will be unplayable compared to the “best” cards for certain deck slots. This, coupled with a format’s potential to feel stale, is one possible argument for another format to exist. Whenever a new card is released, it is inherently compared to all the other cards it could replace, thus creating many unfortunate situations where cards will just never good, and while there will always be “good cards” and “bad cards,” perhaps that ceiling doesn’t have to be so high. Here is a quick example of what I mean:

Let’s take a look at Distinguished Boatswain, a House Greyjoy character. At best (about 80-90% of the time), he is a 1 cost, two icon 4 STRENGTH character for 1 GOLD. From now until the end of time, this guy will take up three card slots in any Greyjoy deck I make. His downside is so minimal compared to his obviously inflated stats that he creates an auto-comparison with any future one drop, and most of the time he will win that fight. Anything else ends up kind of like Pepsi Blue – it just wasn’t good enough. Lost Spearmen is another character that fits into exactly this category. Obviously, it depends on the strategy of a particular deck and the number of one drops you are playing, but the Boatswain is going to make every other one drop feel worse about his life.

What would deckbuilding be like without Refugees? What would Targaryen play if it couldn’t use Hatchling’s Feast? How would Greyjoy operate without Winter or The Maester's Path? What would decks look like in a format that used the following: Core Set, Deluxe Expansion Packs, only Chapter Packs from the A Tale of Champions cycle forward? Just some food for thought.

So, how about it? How is that Restricted List looking these days? Should there ever be another format for diversity reasons? Does anyone actually think Pepsi Blue was a good idea?

Discuss.