250 replies to this topic

[sparrowhawk]

I tooled around with a Lanni "Good Stuff" Crossing deck last night using the strong events. I agree that it seems strong--especially against a Wall deck that was giving my Martell Crossing fits.

The most significant changes were that I went with Casterly Rock for the extra intrigue challenges. Was able to push a military challenge after the one-two punch of Cersei + Brothel Madame on intrigue. The extra strength on big bodies like Tywin, Hound, and Jaime in a mil challenge can be devastating. Although running Casterly Rock opens up a Newly-Made Lord target, Casterly Rock also allows you to leverage more ways to generate power in a single turn via unopposed and the agenda.

My concern, like yours, is the fairly horrible set-ups. For that reason, I went with more set-up favorable characters like Queen's Assassin and reduced the count on Gregor. I'm not sure on Gregor yet. I've thought about replacing with Rattleshirt Raiders and then dropping Confiscation for a more impactful plot--maybe Marched to the Wall, Filthy Accusations, Clash of Kings, or Tourney for the Hand to help close out games.

This is a really good idea and I wish I had thought of it - of course Lanni can have 2 intrigue attacks! Doh

I am planning to rebuild. Thanks for the post. It makes imminent sense!

[CptPugwash]

Personally i think i'd always stick a storm of swords in a Lanni crossing deck.

 

It's an excellent follow up to Varys if you have Jamie about, and if you happen to face a deck where plan A isn't working it's not a bad plan B, combining it with Assassins, TTIDFL, put to the sword. .  

[Lockewood]

The version I'm testing doesn't run Varys--although I'm now also considering running him in the Gregor slot and rebuilding as more an old school Lanni NA style hand destruction deck.  Here is the current version now:

 

 

Lanni Frey Crossing

 

House Lannister / The Lord of the Crossing

 

Packs: From Core Set (3) to The King's Peace

 

Plots

1x A Clash of Kings (Core Set)

1x A Noble Cause (Core Set)

2x Calling the Banners (Core Set)

1x Calm Over Westeros (Core Set)

1x Counting Coppers (Core Set)

1x Summons (Core Set)

 

Characters

2x Littlefinger (Core Set)

2x Rattleshirt's Raiders (Core Set)

2x Cersei Lannister (Core Set)

2x Grand Maester Pycelle (Core Set)

3x Ser Jaime Lannister (Core Set)

1x The Tickler (Core Set)

3x Tyrion Lannister (Core Set)

3x Tywin Lannister (Core Set)

3x Burned Men (Core Set)

3x Lannisport Merchant (Core Set)

2x The Queen's Assassin (Core Set)

2x The Hound (Taking the Black)

2x Brothel Madame (The Road to Winterfell)

1x Syrio Forel (The Road to Winterfell)

1x Ser Gregor Clegane (The King's Peace)

2x Hedge Knight (The King's Peace)

 

Locations

3x The Kingsroad (Core Set)

3x The Roseroad (Core Set)

2x Casterly Rock (Core Set)

2x Western Fiefdom (Core Set)

 

Attachments

2x Bodyguard (Core Set)

2x Widow's Wail (Core Set)

 

Events

3x Put to the Sword (Core Set)

3x Tears of Lys (Core Set)

3x The Hand's Judgment (Core Set)

2x The Things I Do For Love (Core Set)

2x Treachery (Core Set)

 

 

I stripped out the Seals of the Hand because I prefer running attachment-lite.  If someone wants to blow a confiscation on a 1 cost attachment, more power to them.  I switched to Bodyguard to help offset Raiding Long Ships and Seastone Chair in Greyjoy.  If not for those cards, I'd drop attachments completely and up the Character count by 3 and 1 more event.  

 

Although I love Treachery, I tend to find them less effective so far.  Its really there to cancel an opposing Varys.  I'm thinking of flipping a Tears to TTIDFL.  Just not sure yet.  Since I'm only running 4 in-faction events, I'm not running Shadowblack Lane.  If I go up to 5 or 6-infaction, then Shadowblack Lane becomes a serious contender.  Then I can switch Clash of Kings for Rebuilding and reuse those, which could be effective even though TTIDFL and Shadowblack Lane don't play nicely together.

 

The Storm of Swords idea is interesting.  The one thing about extra challenges is that Lord of the Crossing only gives the 3rd challenge extra strength.  So a fourth (or a fifth challenge with Casterly Rock + Storm of Swords) would be regular strength again and you do not trigger the power gain. In practice, that didn't matter since the point was to tax my opponent's board with challenges.  But, it may if you are forced to go first.  

 

And once the next pack comes out, I'm definitely swapping Clash of Kings for First Snow.  Plenty of Ambush to get cards back into play plus the character cost curve will likely favor that meta.

[VonWibble]

I think the extra challenge cards (Storm of Swords, Casterley Rock) are more of use to just grant flexibility in which 3 challenges you make, as your icon spread can often restrict you otherwise. I may well go for some of the Rock, but Storm of Swords isn't appealing to me.

[Slippy]

Top 4'd with Lannister Wolf twice in a row in the last two tournaments I participated in. 
Just wanted to say that the deck is still running strong and in my opinion, still on the of the strongest choices. I only see it becoming even better with First Snow (and our weapons in Burned Men and Arya) and new Eddard. 
I can't count the number of games I won off of the back of Varys, Arya's Stealth on Power and Tywin's Gold. 

Where would you guys rank Lannister Crossing when comparing to Rose, Wolf and Sun?

[GrahamM]

Seconding the strength of Lanni-Wolf, which I'm still undefeated with in my local meta. Now that it's actually possible for Martell or Greyjoy to kill Tywin, I think the defensive ability of Wolf makes it the most appealing banner for Lanni, since a Lannister big board basically wins by default, especially with Eddard, and the deck has tons of room for strong defensive with Bran, treachery, Milk, HJ, and Rattleshirt's Raiders.

 

The exception to Lanni big board=win is probably LotC, especially out of Tyrell, but Lanni-Wolf also has access to plenty of kill, TTIDFL, and Varys, which can shut that down pretty well.

[Alexfrog]

Lanni Crossing took both 1st and 2nd at Store Champs at Dice Age in Vancouver WA this weekend:

http://thronesdb.com/deck/view/62694

 

Kyle beat me in the mirror, we were both undefeated going into the final.

 

I think its very strong. 

 

 

The Mountain is awesome, needs to be 3 of imo. 

You need a lot of characters, because crossing.  No room for locations as a result. Lannisport/Casterly Rock not worth it imo.

 

 

The Storm of Swords idea is interesting.  Since the deck is so good at military, there are definitely times where getting to make two military challenges would be very helpful at getting you to 3 challenges for Crossing.  Especially with Syrio and Jaime in the deck.

[Alexfrog]

Seconding the strength of Lanni-Wolf, which I'm still undefeated with in my local meta. Now that it's actually possible for Martell or Greyjoy to kill Tywin, I think the defensive ability of Wolf makes it the most appealing banner for Lanni, since a Lannister big board basically wins by default, especially with Eddard, and the deck has tons of room for strong defensive with Bran, treachery, Milk, HJ, and Rattleshirt's Raiders.

 

The exception to Lanni big board=win is probably LotC, especially out of Tyrell, but Lanni-Wolf also has access to plenty of kill, TTIDFL, and Varys, which can shut that down pretty well.

Lanni Wolf seems good too, Bran is strong. 

 

But with Tywin and Gregor, its hard to fit in Eddard. before Gregor, the fact that you get Eddard was really nice, but now it seems like not a big deal.

 

 

The Lanni/stark big board is indeed big, but Lanni Crossing and Targ/Lanni seem about as big.

[sparrowhawk]

So at today's tiny SC (3 rounds, no cut), I played Lannister Crossing. I came 2nd, quickly winning 2 games in 4 plots and a timed loss by 1 power difference against a Night's Watch player who got a lead then stalled the game like a pro (10 minutes called before plot 5 choices, he flipped Fortified Position to negate 3 renown characters, time was called during dominance). However, I learnt valuable insights that I thought I would share.

THE DECK

Firstly, this was the deck and I will explain some of my choices.

House Lannister
The Lord of the Crossing

Packs: From Core Set (3) to The King's Peace

Plots
1x A Clash of Kings
2x Calling the Banners
1x Calm Over Westeros
1x Confiscation
1x Counting Coppers
1x Wardens of the West (The Road to Winterfell)

Characters (34)
3x Lannisport Merchant
3x Burned Men
3x The Queen's Assassin
3x Hedge Knight (The King's Peace)
1x The Tickler
3x Brothel Madame (The Road to Winterfell)
2x The Hound (Taking the Black)
1x Grand Maester Pycelle
1x Cersei Lannister
1x Syrio Forel (The Road to Winterfell)
1x Littlefinger
3x Tyrion Lannister
3x Ser Jaime Lannister
3x Ser Gregor Clegane (The King's Peace)
3x Tywin Lannister

Locations (9)
3x The Kingsroad
3x The Roseroad
3x Western Fiefdom

Attachments (8)
1x Seal of the Hand
3x Bodyguard
3x Milk of the Poppy
1x Widow's Wail

Events (9)
3x Put to the Sword
3x Tears of Lys
3x The Hand's Judgment

DECK BUILD DECISIONS

The theme was simple: be a Swiss army knife deck. Lord of the Crossing is ideal for such a versatile concept as it empowers you to focus on different challenges to suit your match-up, game state and card draw.

Note it's a gentler curve than some Lannister Crossing lists with 3 Assassins, disliking dupes for side uniques (Pycelle dies to Plaza, Cersei is Dracarys bait) with 3 each of the renown trio, 3 Tyrions and 2 Hounds. This was to play around Wildfire, already the bane of Crossing, as Hound runs from a predictable Wildfire and if you have all 4 top Lannisters in play, you're winning and the dwarf is toast to save your renown. Assassins give more reliable set-ups (also synergy with 2 of the plots). The build very much follows my early principles of 3-4 tentpoles of triplicates with bodyguards and the rest are expendable.

Bodyguards are there not only to make sure your key characters stick (you often don't have the manpower to defend and launch 3 challenges) but for the GJ match-up. Obviously either Jaime or Gregor is needed to turn on Hedge Knights (they also use each other so 1 Hedge Knight is looking to pair with any of 8 cards) and I prefer Bodyguards to Knighted with its added resilience to Varys (just beware Treachery). At worst, Bodyguards are 1 cost claim soaks with no board presence, needed with the deck's curve.

I value initiative (not necessarily going second: if you have Jaime, Gregor and Sword in hand is very different to if you have Tyrion and Tears in hand). Hence I have 2 Callings despite the Aggro credentials because of its initiative. It also helps as a catch-up plot. It is only worse than Noble Cause (assuming you open Calm Military to expand your set up for your agenda) when facing less than 4 characters - when you are usually winning. And actual gold is far more valuable for your ambush and threatening Treachery of Kingsroads.

The lack of Treachery was due to its usual card disadvantage (like Things I Do For Love, Hear Me Roar, Gold Cloaks, Never Bet etc.) but also because the deck is resilient to Varys, its best use. I recall Aioria, after he won with Lannister Fealty, saying he didn't play Treachery which was often "anecdotal", preferring more impactful events, and his words influenced me. As a big fan of redundancy, I personally prefer the 9 targeted cards I have to situational denial (Judgement is a meta-call to cancel their cancel of your removal and for the Targ match-ups).

At its heart, the deck is Aggro-Control (like most Targ). Its Control elements are 9 targeted cards (3 Tears, 3 Swords, 3 Poppy) and 6 denials of targeting (3 Judgements, 3 Bodyguards). Aggro is from a military bias, led by Jaime, Gregor and ambushed Burned Men on a +2 STR third challenge.

However if the cards come out right, the deck can Rush (Crossing helps, as does the 9 initiative closer Clash), the only Crossing house with 3 renown characters. I discovered today knowing what role to play is key to piloting it optimally (if I had practiced the match-up, I would've known it can out-race turn 1 Pentoshi => Wall with 6 opposing characters covering all icons twice instead of trying to breach The Wall - which I never did).

In many ways, this is similar to the seminal ancient article that the hugely knowledgeable BWM team discussed in their last episode - Mike Flores' "Who's the Beatdown?"

http://www.starcityg...e_Beatdown.html
(You need to know basic Magic to understand this but it applies to Thrones.)

However, whilst Flores' article seems to treat decks in 2 flavours, Aggro and Control, Thrones has a Rush archetype as well and you need to expand the article from a spectrum of 2 polarities to a triangle of 3. This is what I learnt today with my failure to play correctly against a strong 5 card set up Night's Watch opening (as I also failed to draw any Limited card to his 1 per turn land drops). Let me explain further...

GAME STRATEGY: WHO'S THE RUSH? WHO'S THE AGGRO? WHO'S THE CONTROL?

Facing Night's Watch Fealty, I kept a dodgy opening hand of Tyrion, Burned Men and Widow's Wail (which I placed on Burned Men, anticipating collecting it when it dies, another mistake as it never died). My rationale was that Tyrion will be golden against Night's Watch (I also had a second Burned Men in hand as well as a Put to the Sword) which is true, except he was Milked turn 1. My other reason is despite a gentler curve than some Lanni Crossing lists, the build can have unforgiving mulligans and I was scared that I may end up with a single Tywin mulligan. But this was a mistaken fear as Night's Watch Fealty would not play Marched - the learning is to mentally list the 7 plots I expect in a match-up right at the start (perhaps during a shuffling stall).

In turn 1, with Pentoshi bonus, I had a choice of Gregor plus a standing reducer or more characters and I intuitively chose more characters as Crossing needs breadth, not depth. In retrospect, I think this was the wrong choice. I should have realised this match-up is a race and Gregor will help me win a race (we never saw Aemon). As I kept drawing my renown characters (Tywin, then Jaime), Gregor ended up last of my top characters on the board - whilst I had too many inconsequential minor characters on the board due to that turn 1 mistake.

Rush is the same as Red Deck Wins in Magic. It doesn't care about the untenable board position at game end as long as it gets past the line first (or it's ahead when time is called in a far too slow game that helped the turn 1 Wall vs. the growing renown). Again another classic Mike Flores article comes to mind, The Philosophy of Fire, where he tries to perfect the ultimate Rush win.

So faced with Rush, a vomit of weenies via Pentoshi after a 5 card set-up and no Wildfire (which I don't regret, it has no place in a Crossing deck), the normal option of Aggro (because Aggro > Rush > Control > Aggro) was not open to me. My mistake was to not realise this versatile build had to play Rush in this situation.

"Beatdown" is associated with Aggro - but Aggro is actually board control. Like "Sligh" decks in Magic that would remove blockers so that its glass cannon creatures can damage the opponent. This is different to the Red Deck Wins philosophy that almost always aims all its burn "at the head" (opponent), a race to deal 20 damage (or gain 15 power here) with a hopeless board position when you squeak the win.

Now in my other 2 rounds, I responded correctly (Control vs. turn 1 Drogo, Arakh + Jaime, Aggro vs. opponent's poor 3 character set-up in a mirror match I won most unsatisfyingly due to better set-up). But here, my best option was to just Rush and race The Wall, forget about board control or card advantage, just play Renown dudes each turn and win my third Crossing challenge each turn. It flies in the face of my card advantage instincts but if you play a versatile deck, you need to also be a versatile player (which sadly I'm not). I didn't even play Clash after we were told we had 10mins left (I expected to have 1 more plot) as a 2 power swing would have got me the timed win. Even that last plot, I should have just resigned myself to never breaching the Wall and passed to get another turn of renown instead of trying to breach it. Sometimes brutal direct simplicity beats all the planning, cunning and finesse in the world.

SUMMARY

So my epiphanies today were:

1. Play a deck that suits your style (a versatile deck needs a versatile player - so not me yet).

2. Devise the optimal game plan based on match-up and game state but be ready to switch as game state changes.

3. Understand who will win faster (or be ahead when time is called as every deck has its own win trajectory, a Varys deck wants longer games), who needs to be aggressive (pressing for board control, options depletion and/or proximity to victory) and who needs to stall the game and play defensive.

As a control player, I'm naturally defensive, I like to take a longer safer route. But it's a handicap in timed tournament rounds. It's an artificial timed game, it's not the same as practice games that go on for some time and are great fun. Add professional stall plays and you need to be able to jettison your principles and play brutal power grab when you realise the game will never end in time.

So more learnings about the game for me to absorb before a big prestige SC then Regionals. This game is deceptively deep - despite its casino aspects (I feel so dirty using Gregor or Tickler successfully).

[jstrong77]

How much draw are people packing into Lannisters decks these days? Seems like Lannisport has fallen out of favor, and pycelle is a 1x in most decks. Is one copy of Counting Coppers sufficient for draw needs?

[sparrowhawk]

How much draw are people packing into Lannisters decks these days? Seems like Lannisport has fallen out of favor, and pycelle is a 1x in most decks. Is one copy of Counting Coppers sufficient for draw needs?

Nobody better qualified has answered this so I will give it a go.

I think it depends on the build. From my very limited experience, Lannister Crossing wins fast. It needs economy plots to burst out of the blocks and simply leverages its better quality high end. In the odd game that does reset or where you are confident of no Wildfire and vomited your hand, the single Counting Coppers is a good refresh. But because Crossing promotes a faster game (lots of unopposed on both sides), it's really just an insurance plot for when you draw lots of weenies and no impact characters.

In my Lannister Sun (which hasn't changed since my tournament report), as long game control, it packs 2x Counting Coppers. But more economy for a better board is the priority with Crossing - after all, each military or intrigue challenge won or denied is 1 card advantage. That's how Aggro works when Control goes down the non-challenge based effects route.

As for Lannister locations, I think they do have a place - but in the right build that focuses on pure control via intrigue empty your hand then reset. It's dated now (because it's a Road to Winterfell meta build) but here is an old build that leverages all the blatant intrigue synergies that shouted at us during Lannister previews.

LANNI FEALTY PACK 2 META - REJECTED CONCEPT
Total Cards: (60)
Faction: Lannister

Agenda: (1)
1x Fealty (Core Set)

Plot: (7)
1x A Game of Thrones (Core Set)
2x Calling the Banners (Core Set)
1x Calm Over Westeros (Core Set)
1x Confiscation (Core Set)
1x Marched to the Wall (Core Set)
1x Wardens of the West (The Road to Winterfell)

Character: (34)
3x Brothel Madame (The Road to Winterfell)
3x Burned Men (Core Set)
2x Cersei Lannister (Core Set)
2x Grand Maester Pycelle (Core Set)
3x Lannisport Merchant (Core Set)
3x Lannisport Moneylender (Core Set)
3x Ser Jaime Lannister (Core Set)
2x The Hound (Taking the Black)
3x The Queen’s Assassin (Core Set)
1x The Tickler (Core Set)
3x Tyrion Lannister (Core Set)
3x Tywin Lannister (Core Set)
3x Varys (Core Set)

Attachment: (4)
3x Bodyguard (Core Set)
1x Widow’s Wail (Core Set)

Event: (9)
3x Tears of Lys (Core Set)
3x The Hand’s Judgment (Core Set)
3x Treachery (Core Set)

Location: (13)
3x Casterly Rock (Core Set)
1x Cersei’s Wheelhouse (Taking the Black)
3x Lannisport (Core Set)
3x The Roseroad (Core Set)
3x Western Fiefdom (Core Set)

You can see it's an old build as it uses CGDB Deckbuilder! Now I have never played it in anger but I was just exploring how Aioria had won with Lanni Fealty (I decided in the end it was just player skill as the build was suboptimal to the Lanni Sun I did take to the tournament). But the fact that all Lanni locations are loyal meant that they gave best value in Fealty. The Core 2 pieces are also combo, you need to draw both of them ideally hence triplicates (and Tyrion who then buffs Tywin and double Wardens, or Cersei wrecks havoc with Pycelle for relative card advantage). Jaime's military is purely to tie up defence (you need Calling to give you gold), that is until the reset when a non-kneeler going first is invaluable. Bodyguards synergise with Varys but more a metacall against the new GJ cards at the time, the claim soak useful too. The main attraction of Fealty was Tywin for 6 - though there are 17 loyal cards. Despite this, Fealty still felt "not there yet" (Red Cloaks may be the answer) and Tears without Sun is too match-up dependent.

So I do feel there is a future for the Core Set combo locations when Fealty becomes competitive outside of the hands of an ex-World Champ. They are good value at costs 0 to 2. But not with the current pool sadly.

[jstrong77]

Do we know the approximate deck list of Aiora's Fealty build?

[Alexfrog]

Imo:   (For Lanni Crossing specifically)

 

0 Lannisport is correct, 0 Casterly Rock is correct, 0 Cersei's Wheelhouse is correct, and you should play 2-3 Pycell and a Counting Coppers.  The draw locations take too long to pay themself off, and Casterly Rock allows you to make more challenges but you need enough characters to do them, so a 2 cost character would be better.

 

You have a desperate need for a high character count, Crossing wants a bunch of guys on the board.

[Barnie25]

Aioria doesn't run Treachery and I wouldn't either. He runs the Lannister locations. His Fealty build focuses on emptying your hand and killing your board. I don't think he plays HJ.

 

In Crossing I would cut all the jumping stuff and try to play a well rounded game. The Lannister locations, mainly Lannisport and Casterly Rock help trigger your agenda where you want it, the ability to do more challenges is always strong in a crossing deck and it helps you put more pressure on his hand. At the moment Crossing decks are over performing compared to their ability to set up, their curve is still a thing of horrors. The Red Cloaks will help shore this up.

[jstrong77]

How in the world could you beat a Targ deck using a Lannister Fealty deck with no Hands Judgement!?!

[sparrowhawk]

So related to the above, here is an experimental build that I will be testing on Thursday (yes, testing - Brighton may be a tiny meta of 3 players but we have all won SCs now so are becoming serious with deck testing).

Why on earth did Lanni Rose lose popularity? Nymeria appeared then Crossing and, much like Bara Fealty, it seemed to suddenly fall out of fashion - card gamers are such fickle neophiles.

Well, here is a build that BREAKS ALL THE RULES: 1x Tyrion, 1x Margaery - this build is rubbish! But when your focus is protecting 5 Lords with Renown from Wildfire and removal, other characters are just bit players in this guileless strategy, especially as they are STR 4 or less. The rest of the build focuses on either expendable chuds, improving set-ups, 1x utility characters anticipating Wildfire and power challenge, Lannister's weak icon (also most important).

AN EXPERIMENTAL AGGRO-RUSH BUILD
House Lannister
Banner of the Rose

Packs: From Core Set (3) to The King's Peace

Plots
1x Trading with the Pentoshi (The Road to Winterfell)
2x Calling the Banners
1x A Clash of Kings
1x Calm Over Westeros
1x Confiscation
1x Counting Coppers

Characters (39)
3x Lannisport Merchant
3x Garden Caretaker
3x Courtesan of the Rose
3x Hedge Knight (The King's Peace)
1x Left
1x Right
1x The Tickler
1x Brothel Madam (The Road to Winterfell)
1x Grand Maester Pycelle
1x The Hound (Taking the Black)
1x Joffrey Baratheon
1x Margaery Tyrell
1x Cersei Lannister
1x Tyrion Lannister
1x Littlefinger
1x Syrio Forel (The Road to Winterfell)
3x The Knight of Flowers
3x Randyll Tarly
3x Ser Jaime Lannister
3x Ser Gregor Clegane (The King's Peace)
3x Tywin Lannister

Locations (10)
1x The Iron Throne
3x The Kingsroad
3x Western Fiefdom
3x Rose Garden

Attachments (11)
3x Seal of the Hand
3x Bodyguard
3x Milk of the Poppy
1x Widow's Wail
1x Heartsbane

The default plotline is Pentoshi => Calling x2 => Clash for the win. The other 3 plots are contingency, Calm for a dodgy set-up or a hyper-aggro match-up, Confiscation for on-call removal, a tempo play, and Coppers to refresh hand if the game goes long (dupes and bodyguards help against Varys).

Now of course the opponent does not know you are running no events (shame about his Judgements - the tenuous link to the previous post). Tyrion gold only buffs Tywin, play Hound and dom hence x1 (he is Dracarys bait like Cersei). Not having a tempo hit of telegraphed saving for a challenge that may be foiled means you focus solely on winning challenges in attack and in defence (this is a go second deck except when closing). With no incentive to win attack to trigger events, Renown defence is a fine strategy in the right circumstances.

Note that even the location base is assuming the shorter game - reducers instead of Roseroads with their delayed payback and an equal faction split to use both reducers. It's about exploding with greater board presence and inevitability.

Seal of the Hand is of course the cheapest way to get another Renown character and along with Bodyguards and the 2 house weapons, protect against Greyjoy. It helps that the power focus, STR 5+ and Seals help against a resurgence of Bara Fealty in a Crossing meta (be one step ahead).

Anyway, I did say it was an experimental build I will be testing soon. Feedback always welcome, even if it is snorts of derision. Surely someone else has tried this utterly uncomplicated route 1 approach already?

[jstrong77]

I tried something similar last month but didn't think of zero events! So crazy it might work! I prioritized Renown characters winning and that was all. I found it very fun and fairly fast.

I played with two Rattleshirts Raiders and that was a wisr choice in the current meta.

I also played one little birds.

[jstrong77]

Sparrowhawk, i think a deck in this vein will be very strong after First Snow of Winter hits.

[jstrong77]

Sparrowhawk, here my (new) version. I'm not sure I'm brave enough to play without cancels!
Deck Created with CardGameDB.com A Game of Thrones 2nd Edition Deckbuilder


Total Cards: (60)

Faction:
Lannister


Agenda: (1)
1x Banner of the Rose (Core Set)

Plot: (7)
1x A Noble Cause (Core Set)
1x Trading with the Pentoshi (The Road to Winterfell)
1x Calling the Banners (Core Set)
1x Calm Over Westeros (Core Set)
1x Confiscation (Core Set)
1x Counting Coppers (Core Set)
1x The First Snow of Winter (No Middle Ground)

Character: (38)
3x Red Cloaks (No Middle Ground)
3x Ser Gregor Clegane (The King's Peace)
1x Syrio Forel (The Road to Winterfell)
1x The Hound (Taking the Black)
1x Cersei Lannister (Core Set)
3x Garden Caretaker (Core Set)
2x Grand Maester Pycelle (Core Set)
3x Lannisport Merchant (Core Set)
1x Littlefinger (Core Set)
1x Margaery Tyrell (Core Set)
3x Randyll Tarly (Core Set)
2x Rattleshirt’s Raiders (Core Set)
3x Ser Jaime Lannister (Core Set)
3x The Knight of Flowers (Core Set)
1x The Tickler (Core Set)
1x Tyrion Lannister (Core Set)
3x Tywin Lannister (Core Set)
3x Courtesan of the Rose (Core Set)

Attachment: (7)
1x Heartsbane (Core Set)
1x Little Bird (Core Set)
2x Milk of the Poppy (Core Set)
2x Seal of the Hand (Core Set)
1x Widow’s Wail (Core Set)

Event: (6)
3x The Hand’s Judgment (Core Set)
3x Treachery (Core Set)

Location: (9)
3x The Kingsroad (Core Set)
3x The Roseroad (Core Set)
3x Western Fiefdom (Core Set)

[Alexfrog]

So related to the above, here is an experimental build that I will be testing on Thursday (yes, testing - Brighton may be a tiny meta of 3 players but we have all won SCs now so are becoming serious with deck testing).

Why on earth did Lanni Rose lose popularity? Nymeria appeared then Crossing and, much like Bara Fealty, it seemed to suddenly fall out of fashion - card gamers are such fickle neophiles.

Well, here is a build that BREAKS ALL THE RULES: 1x Tyrion, 1x Margaery - this build is rubbish! But when your focus is protecting 5 Lords with Renown from Wildfire and removal, other characters are just bit players in this guileless strategy, especially as they are STR 4 or less. The rest of the build focuses on either expendable chuds, improving set-ups, 1x utility characters anticipating Wildfire and power challenge, Lannister's weak icon (also most important).

AN EXPERIMENTAL AGGRO-RUSH BUILD
House Lannister
Banner of the Rose

Packs: From Core Set (3) to The King's Peace

Plots
1x Trading with the Pentoshi (The Road to Winterfell)
2x Calling the Banners
1x A Clash of Kings
1x Calm Over Westeros
1x Confiscation
1x Counting Coppers

Characters (39)
3x Lannisport Merchant
3x Garden Caretaker
3x Courtesan of the Rose
3x Hedge Knight (The King's Peace)
1x Left
1x Right
1x The Tickler
1x Brothel Madam (The Road to Winterfell)
1x Grand Maester Pycelle
1x The Hound (Taking the Black)
1x Joffrey Baratheon
1x Margaery Tyrell
1x Cersei Lannister
1x Tyrion Lannister
1x Littlefinger
1x Syrio Forel (The Road to Winterfell)
3x The Knight of Flowers
3x Randyll Tarly
3x Ser Jaime Lannister
3x Ser Gregor Clegane (The King's Peace)
3x Tywin Lannister

Locations (10)
1x The Iron Throne
3x The Kingsroad
3x Western Fiefdom
3x Rose Garden

Attachments (11)
3x Seal of the Hand
3x Bodyguard
3x Milk of the Poppy
1x Widow's Wail
1x Heartsbane

The default plotline is Pentoshi => Calling x2 => Clash for the win. The other 3 plots are contingency, Calm for a dodgy set-up or a hyper-aggro match-up, Confiscation for on-call removal, a tempo play, and Coppers to refresh hand if the game goes long (dupes and bodyguards help against Varys).

Now of course the opponent does not know you are running no events (shame about his Judgements - the tenuous link to the previous post). Tyrion gold only buffs Tywin, play Hound and dom hence x1 (he is Dracarys bait like Cersei). Not having a tempo hit of telegraphed saving for a challenge that may be foiled means you focus solely on winning challenges in attack and in defence (this is a go second deck except when closing). With no incentive to win attack to trigger events, Renown defence is a fine strategy in the right circumstances.

Note that even the location base is assuming the shorter game - reducers instead of Roseroads with their delayed payback and an equal faction split to use both reducers. It's about exploding with greater board presence and inevitability.

Seal of the Hand is of course the cheapest way to get another Renown character and along with Bodyguards and the 2 house weapons, protect against Greyjoy. It helps that the power focus, STR 5+ and Seals help against a resurgence of Bara Fealty in a Crossing meta (be one step ahead).

Anyway, I did say it was an experimental build I will be testing soon. Feedback always welcome, even if it is snorts of derision. Surely someone else has tried this utterly uncomplicated route 1 approach already?

 

 

I like it, but I would want to add teh Warhorse, given the knight theme.

 

You have no events at all so under those circumstances Tyrion isnt critical, though I think you could fit in more if you want by cutting cards like Joffrey or Iron Throne.  (Tyrion can sometimes help win Dominance like an Iron Throne).