Really…kneel?  Lanni lost one of it's best new tools (Pentoshi), and it is somehow supposed to be awesome.  No.  Lanni Kneel is definitely not going to dominate.

Well, I gotta disagree. Here is why:

Yes, Lanni lost (still a viable restricted card unlike orphan, refugee etc) P.M.

But look at the history of the game:

2010 Lanni kneel runs over pretty much everything in the regional season. At worlds everyone is pretty much running pre errata Wildlings, but Lanni wins. Wildlings are errated…strongly.

2011 Martell Summer and Maesters take over the top spot. Granted Greg's deck was probably the most inspired deck I've seen in years, but per this new FAQ, Martell loses a lot more than Lanni did, in my opinon. Maesters get kicked in the teeth some more and summer is restricted.

2012 Stark Winter and Targ H.H.  Again, Stark gets hit harder (Meera, Winter, Die by the Sword) Targ (L.L. Aegon's Hill, H.F) vs just Pentoshi.

We don't know what this season holds but I promise that Lanni will do well. I can't see how every deck that supplanted it in power that has lost so much keeps up with it. Yes I realize that there are bad matchups and imo Greyjoy and Targ are still good, but history has shown that Lanni kneel is always strong, and even better now.

Honestly, I think this is the best thing that has happened to AGoT in a long time. 

Will it lead to absolute House balance or some such mythical creatures? Who knows. Not sure if those things even exist. But at least we get to make a lot of new discoveries and see the game in a whole new light this Regionals Season. 

There's a lot of things that this will trigger, from attachments suddenly being viable and even extremely useful again, to Power Rush not being completely dead in the water and 1g 1STR weenies suddenly not being complete binder fodder anymore. Interesting times.

Huge applause to Damon & Nate for this. 

I'm sorry, but errating refugees and Kings of Summer/Winter is just stopid.

Just one question. Do the people who made new FAQ play the game? 

I am calling it now: Refugees will be the restricted card in the world championship deck.

Interesting. I actually see refugees as pseudo resources as a 0 cost setup card. They also are very important to theme decks due to their traits.

Raganrok said:

You bought an old cycle before a new cycle?

I think this was a great move by FFG. I have been in favor of a more liberal use of the restricted list for some time. I will not impose a judgment as to how exactly this will affect the meta, but the creative juices that this FAQ encourages is quite beneficial to the game imo. Personally, I did not think that the Orphan needed restriction, and it feels like Martel is really getting hit between the knees more than the other houses, but I (so far) trust the judgment of those responsible for this new FAQ. 

An aside: since I started playing this game, I always thought the refugees were overpowered and needed restriction because they crippled the creativity of 3 card slots in every deck. 

I think martell got hit so hard since its icon removal can real shut down naval decks hard. Without these changes it would be hard to run a competative naval deck i think. Basicly in my mind they did it to open up more desgin space.

darknoj said:

What is a naval deck?

kr4ng said:

A deck that relies on characters with the new naval enhancmenet introduced in this cycle. I think Darknoj has a very good point.

CCG, which house you referring to, and as a martell player i definitely feel like a guy who is dating a girl and she's really upset and keeps saying "if you don't know why i'm upset, i'm not telling you" i have no idea where the banhammer came from or wh,y but i can posit why martell got a neutering based on the cards they restricted- kings of summer, scourge, orphan

Step 1: kings of summer agenda
Step 2: make it Summer
Step 3 out-draw opponents
Step 4: land orphan, scourge and summer market on field at same time
Step 5: abuse summer market, orphan and scourge to nullify opposing characters. Once opponent only has 2 cards in hand game is locked .

now i never saw a deck revolving around this but maybe an international player introduced the deck and ran rampant with it, who knows. but the posiblity is there. that being said  losing the scourge and game of cyvasse kinda sucks especially since i was running the venomous blade as my restricted card >.>
 

CCG, which house you referring to, and as a martell player i definitely feel like a guy who is dating a girl and she's really upset and keeps saying "if you don't know why i'm upset, i'm not telling you" i have no idea where the banhammer came from or wh,y but i can posit why martell got a neutering based on the cards they restricted- kings of summer, scourge, orphan

Step 1: kings of summer agenda
Step 2: make it Summer
Step 3 out-draw opponents
Step 4: land orphan, scourge and summer market on field at same time
Step 5: abuse summer market, orphan and scourge to nullify opposing characters. Once opponent only has 2 cards in hand game is locked .

now i never saw a deck revolving around this but maybe an international player introduced the deck and ran rampant with it, who knows. but the posiblity is there. that being said  losing the scourge and game of cyvasse kinda sucks especially since i was running the venomous blade as my restricted card >.>