250 replies to this topic

[jstrong77]

Jumping in and finally giving space to a thread celebrating the Lannisters!

 

Why play Lannister?

 

1. Lannister gives you access to great economy.  Gold shouldn't be an issue for you, so you can play plots for effects, not economy.

2. Lannister gives you access to solid draw. When you get your board established, Lanniport, Casterly Rock, and Pycelle and get you cards in a hurry.

3. Lannister gives you access to a toolbox.  While currently weak in military, Lannister decks possess many tools that allow you to adjust as needed given your opponent.

4. Lannister gives you access to some of the most potent cancel/control cards.  Between Treachery, The Things I Do For Love, and Hand's Judgement, you have a lot of ways to disrupt your opponent's game plan.

5. Lannister gives you access to the best 7-coster in the game!  (There, I said it)

 

While Lannister No Agenda seems to be a popular deck out of the core box, I've used the following control build to good effect.  It's less reliant on Tyrion than N/A decks, and opens up several pathways to victory, even if a key character gets plucked by Heads on Spike or blanked by Milk of the Poppy.  This build has even given me moderate success against Bara and Targ, by FAR the toughest match-ups faced by the Lions of Casterly Rock!

 

Total Cards: (62)

 

Faction: 

 Lannister

 

 

Agenda: (1)

1x Fealty (Core Set)

 

Plot: (7)

1x A Game of Thrones (Core Set)

1x A Noble Cause (Core Set)

1x Calm Over Westeros (Core Set)

1x Confiscation (Core Set)

2x Filthy Accusations (Core Set)

1x Wildfire Assault (Core Set)

 

Character: (33)

3x Burned Men (Core Set)

3x Cersei Lannister (Core Set)

3x Gold Cloaks (Core Set)

3x Grand Maester Pycelle (Core Set)

3x Lannisport Merchant (Core Set)

2x Lannisport Moneylender (Core Set)

2x Littlefinger (Core Set)

3x Ser Jaime Lannister (Core Set)

3x The Queen’s Assassin (Core Set)

2x The Tickler (Core Set)

3x Tyrion Lannister (Core Set)

3x Tywin Lannister (Core Set)

 

Attachment: (7)

3x Milk of the Poppy (Core Set)

2x Seal of the Hand (Core Set)

2x Widow’s Wail (Core Set)

 

Event: (9)

3x The Hand’s Judgment (Core Set)

3x The Things I Do For Love (Core Set)

3x Treachery (Core Set)

 

Location: (13)

2x Casterly Rock (Core Set)

3x Lannisport (Core Set)

2x The Kingsroad (Core Set)

3x The Roseroad (Core Set)

3x Western Fiefdom (Core Set)

 

 

Strategy: You need to slow the game down and work hard to keep your opponent from drawing cards.  Given your economy you should be able to keep up with them re: characters on the board, but if you can establish even moderate draw while denying theirs, their hand will quickly get choked and then you can wildfire for a reset and close things out from there.

 

Filthy Accusations is a must-have x2.  It's a godsend in games vs. renown decks and also serves to buy you time while you fish for the cards you need to establish control of the board.

[szczudel]

You have written a nice trigger to start a discussion about Lannisters so why dou you spoil it with your deck. You want either discussion about faction or discussion about your deck.

 

What really wonders me is why the only faction who has resources to stand against any loss is getting Treachery (Attachment, location, character ability cancel)? They have ambush (pump - Widow's Wail),  are basicaly imune to Tears of Lys and obviously will have more gold than any other faction - why on earth they can protect themselves so good?

 

Why are they able to protect against Varys? They benefit from playing Varys themselves the most but why are they the only faction who can cancel it?

[Barnie25]

I was meaning to start a topic but haven't gotten around to it.

Lannister is an interesting faction, more so than others they are a bit schizo. When playing NA or Fealty games are really easy when you draw all your power characters but their support cast seems to be a bit lacking without banner support. They lack good two gold drops due to really flesh out a force, have no four gold drop that van hold its own outside of Cersei. And even Joffrey is quite vanilla without his sword.

This is combatted by running triple Varys, three copies of every major character and hope to strip both their hand and board in order for your to come out on top. Against Stark kill this strategy is usually to slow.

But when you add a Banner the possibilities are endless.

With Bara you can build a control shell that focusses on board control and dominance actions such as the Painted Table.

With Tyrell you can build a rush list with four renown characters backed up by strong support. This list has trouble with multiple kneel effects.

With Martell you can make an interesting mix of aggro and control Areo Hotah seemed to be meant to be used in conjunction with Tyrion, Sunspear and Gold Cloaks combo nicely surprising your opponent with a double claim military challenge or with Burned Men for that matter. Jaime and Dawn make a killer combination that can easily bully challenges by himself.

[Barnie25]

It is too bad people are not interacting in this thread? Are people not playing Lannister as their main faction?

I had thought. Lannister has arguably one of the best ways to consistently draw cards and has quite good loyal cards. However due to economy reasons you normally only have 9 neutral slots over after filling the econ slots. What if I were to play 3 Moneylenders instead of 3 Kings Road? This would let you play Something like Varys and Iron Throne, two cards that synergies quite nice with the main strategy.

[ooo]

I think it's more that there's not lots to say about Lannister.  The deck is pretty obvious.

[Barnie25]

I think it's more that there's not lots to say about Lannister.  The deck is pretty obvious.

I think the deck is a lot less obvious as you pointed out. I don't really get you. Sometimes you react in a very well formulated, thought through manner and other times like this you give empty statements like these.

There are a lot of different builds viable, with having access to banner, Fealty or NA.

[ooo]

Bannered, yeah that's fair.  Although I think Lannister is strong enough that you'd rarely banner in for them, as for Baratheon and Greyjoy they can stand alone pretty well.

I was talking Fealty, though, where really your only proper decision is to Varys or not. 

 

 

This is the version I'm playing: http://thronesdb.com/deck/view/1942

[szczudel]

When my opponent takes Martel or NW, I had enough of Tyrells i play Lannister. They are most solid faction in CS i think. Not most powerfull but solid. From what we have seen from first Cycle previews they will by INT sadists. 

 

I will start takim them seriously when Bronn appears and they will have some nasty events not those add/remove character from board. I miss their son-of-a-bitchability events. Those we have now are just too nice.

[ojimijam]

The things we do for love is an amazing card, and is really going to ruin someones day at some point, mid challenge removal is just great fun. I think Lanni are a couple of non-unique mil icons away from a really solid aggro list. Maybe banner GJ and aim to to just smash heads in multiple challenges. Definitely something im going to try.

[ooo]

The things we do for love is an amazing card, and is really going to ruin someones day at some point, mid challenge removal is just great fun. I think Lanni are a couple of non-unique mil icons away from a really solid aggro list. Maybe banner GJ and aim to to just smash heads in multiple challenges. Definitely something im going to try.

Yeah I think this is right.  Right now they seem too dependent on Tyrion gold to flash in Burned Men and Goldcloaks to fight on Military, but give them a couple more (maybe Hound & Mountain rather than non-uniques) and they'd be there.  I think Varys can fill a lot of the Military void, though.

 

What counts against them most is the relative weakness of Intrigue in 2.0 right now.

[szczudel]

The things we do for love is an amazing card, and is really going to ruin someones day at some point, mid challenge removal is just great fun. I think Lanni are a couple of non-unique mil icons away from a really solid aggro list. Maybe banner GJ and aim to to just smash heads in multiple challenges. Definitely something im going to try.

Most amazing is possibility to cancel those 6 spent gold coins with free Hand's Judgement

 

It is nice and exactly-right-amount of nastiness, but I want more events like this before I will play them more than for fun.

[ooo]

Most amazing is possibility to cancel those 6 spent gold coins with free Hand's Judgement

 

It is nice and exactly-right-amount of nastiness, but I want more events like this before I will play them more than for fun.

 

Treachery is solid, usually worth at least one card and frequently two.  Sometimes it blows the opponent's entire plan out of the water when a trigger they had assumed would happen is cancelled.  It's tricksy not powerful, but it's VERY tricksy.

Widow's Wail is sort of a pseudo Event as well.

[szczudel]

I was not writing about Treachery   (which BTW is awesome card that only disadvantage is it was given to Lannisters).

[ooo]

I was not writing about Treachery   (which BTW is awesome card that only disadvantage is it was given to Lannisters).

I know.  You were writing about how The Things I Do For Love is the only good Lannister event.

[agktmte]

Personally, many decks in the core set only environment are "obvious" in that there aren't that many cards to consider when you have faction and agenda determined. However, what is entirely not obvious is the plot deck selection and I see a lot of people overlooking that in these threads. For example, saying Lannister Banner of the Rose is enough for 80% of the players to build the deck with 80% similarity (no evidence to support these numbers), but the plot decks will/can have some major differences and can really separate a good list from a bad list.

 

So, in that vein, what plots are best for Lannister and does it depend on the agenda choice? A Game of Thrones is an obviously good plot since they have a good intrigue presence. Also, I think Fortified Position is overlooked. Yes, it can hinder some of your own characters, but it will do just as much against your opponent (possibly more if they are playing Bara or GJ) and you then get to ambush in Gold Cloaks for only 2 gold and keep them. And oddly, because of Tyrion's ability, Supporting the Faith is not a terrible plot in Lannister (though it may not be a good choice anyway, depends on how many events you see in your meta).

 

Any other plots that stand out in Lannister or really help them press their strengths? (or bolster any weaknesses?) What are the go-to plots for you when building a Lannister deck? Any plots that are better or worse based on the agenda choice?

[agktmte]

Bannered, yeah that's fair.  Although I think Lannister is strong enough that you'd rarely banner in for them, as for Baratheon and Greyjoy they can stand alone pretty well.

I was talking Fealty, though, where really your only proper decision is to Varys or not. 

 

 

This is the version I'm playing: http://thronesdb.com/deck/view/1942

 

Wait... you can link unpublished thronesdb lists?

[ooo]

Wait... you can link unpublished thronesdb lists?

Log in and go to Edit Account, there's a box to tick for 'Share decks' that lets people view your WIP decks if you send them the link.

It's an important feature that I think not everyone knows about, so they wind up publishing every little change or version just to show people.

[jstrong77]

I love playing Lannister. It's definitely not the most powerful house by a longshots but it kind of feels like a swiss army knife of a house right now. If draw is going you can compete with any house.

I don't like running Varys. I don't like how he clogs up my setups.

Right now I play a no agenda deck that focuses on "Put to the..." events. It's pretty solid.

Whether a Fealty or No Agenda build, I'm running 12 income cards (plus one Littlefinger). Leveraging $ is a key benefit to playing Lannister and the limited keyword hadn't been much of a problem so far.

[ooo]

I think it's right up there, we've not played the matchup a ton but we found it one of the most successful houses vs Baratheon.  Or Varys was successful vs Baratheon, at least.

[scantrell24]

Anybody have a good Lanni NA list? I like mine on paper, but Lanni's chuds -- Moneylender (limited) and Assassin (come into play ability) -- are rubbish on setup, which makes setup too high variance for my taste.