250 replies to this topic

[chem2702]

Yeah, I suppose it is a credit to the game. I also find Martell almost impossible to win with, yet I have had a lot of very tough games against Martell. So who knows.

[jstrong77]

Since I started playing on OCTGN, I've likely won about 90% of my games against Greyjoy Fealty or Greyjoy banner something.

 

And I've been running Lannister Fealty.  It's more of a control build than NA, but it's extremely effective.  The jumping chuds and Gold Cloaks are absolutely money vs. Greyjoy!

 

So interesting to hear people's different experiences.

[PatrickHaynes]

It seems like a lot of people are saying that Lannister NA/Fealty is the best Lannister deck out there. Is that still true? Are any of the banners proving to be more effective/less effective than people originally thought?

[chem2702]

I regularly entertain the idea of bannering, but I always feel like I'm taking too much out of my deck to compensate. For example, bannering with Bara is feasible, but if I don't see Melisandre, then I feel it has pretty much been a waste. Also the gold curve usually increases when bannering, as you will usually have 1-2 extra characters that cost 4+ gold and reducers are less reliable.

 

I also play Lanni NA rather than Fealty because I play so many neutrals. I currently have 27 neutrals in my deck. If I was to cut down to 15, it would completely change my strategy since I play so many targeted kills (PttS x3, Tears x3) and I run Varys (Varys x3, Bodyguard x2). I'm not necessarily saying Lanni Fealty is bad, but it's a different strategy as you would be forced to use more in-house cards such as Treachery and The Things I Do For Love.

 

I dare say that once the card pool expands and Lanni gets more in-house options, I may try Fealty again.

 

Note: I just realised your question was more about Banner vs No Banner and I turned it into more of a Fealty vs NA thing. Oh well

[PatrickHaynes]

That answered my question perfectly, thanks   . That is my general feeling about bannering as well, especially out of the powerful houses like Lannister, Bara, and Greyjoy. 

[fozzyfosbourne]

Also the gold curve usually increases when bannering, as you will usually have 1-2 extra characters that cost 4+ gold and reducers are less reliable.

The one thing I feel like I really miss is a stealth mil icon. That plus filthy accusations often gives you an out to play a PttS at a critical time. They are really good in this Wildfire heavy meta. I haven't played hunting accident in a while but I'd be tempted to cram in some more stealth, but I don't really want to give up too much ambush either.

[chem2702]

I've just started looking at how I'll accommodate some of the spoiled cards in my Lanni NA deck. These are my thoughts at the moment:

 

+1 Warden of the West - This will likely be an auto-include in every Lanni deck for a long time. Maybe until it is rotated out. Even without the ability, it is a 5-gold plot without a negative trait (currently). Since this really works well with Cersei and Casterly Rock, I may have to try to bring 2 copies of each back into my deck (I'm currently not running either).

 

+1 First Snow of Winter - This will work great in my deck because the deck revolves around Tywin, Jaime and Tyrion and then ambushing other guys in for surprise challenges and claim soak. It'll also be great for Lanni because there is every chance your opponent will have an empty or near empty hand, so you may get to effectively discard a character or two from play.

 

+2 Brothel Madame - I'm not entirely sure how this character will go, but I think I'll run it for a while to see how it pans out. It has great potential to shut down military challenges or take the last gold the opponent would maybe like to keep for Dracarys etc. My concern with this character is that it has poor stats and Lanni already has a ton of intrigue icons, so to bring this card in would mean that I would likely lose 1 or 2 military and/or power icons. We'll see.

 

Also, since I'll probably continue with not using Fealty or a Banner agenda, I'll probably give Lord of the Crossing a go for a while. I think it could work really well actually. The -1 per character for the first challenge shouldn't hurt much if you plan your challenges carefully, but the +2 and extra power on the third challenge could be huge over the course of a game.

 

I don't currently see myself running any of the other neutral cards in this particular deck.

 

Does anyone have any other ideas for inclusions from spoiled chapter packs?

[jstrong77]

I *think* brothel Madame will be good. She really makes pulling off PttS tough. Your opponent has to hold back 3 gold in that case.

It feels like Lannister may evolve into a house that wants to keep the board state small and focused on big characters that can ambush in others for challenges.

2x wildfire
1x first snow
1x jousting contest (for Things I Do...)
Etc.

[agktmte]

The one thing I feel like I really miss is a stealth mil icon. That plus filthy accusations often gives you an out to play a PttS at a critical time. They are really good in this Wildfire heavy meta. I haven't played hunting accident in a while but I'd be tempted to cram in some more stealth, but I don't really want to give up too much ambush either.

 

In order to address this specifically, what options are there for getting a stealth military icon?

 

Banner of the Wolf - Provides Arya, which you probably use x3, but what other 9 cards improve or are at least comparable to the Lannister cards/neutral cards you switch? Maybe Tumblestone Knight instead of Burned Men, unless you are really wanting the Ambush tricks, but you could still have Gold Cloaks for that anyway. I suppose you can always throw in the reducer characters, they lower the curve, but don't improve the deck in any way. I don't think there are any events worth using since Winter is Coming is loyal. Maybe Bran?

 

Banner of the Kraken - Asha, Theon, Wendamyr and find room for Syrio's training, which has a great home on Tyrion and Wendamyr for getting military stealth. This will probably increase your gold curve because you won't be cutting Tyrion for Asha. You could try this by cutting Tywin for Asha and Theon for Gold Cloaks/Cersei, Wendamyr should be easy to slot in. You can also get the Iron Fleet Scouts to lower the curve even more. This could probably work, but it does become a pretty different deck, there isn't a whole lot of general utility cards that you want to splash from Greyjoy, so it would be primarily for these characters which might cause problems. Although the Shipwright for location kneeling is pretty great. This would be a lot better than Stark though.

 

Banner of the Sun - Edric with Syrio's Training is another way to get a military stealth, also the attachment has a nice home on Tyrion as well. But what else can Martell give you? Sunspear, Confinement, and potentially Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken if you want to play high initiative and make sure you go second most of the time. You could also splash Arianne which can help get around kneel to an extent. This might be the best option since you don't need to drastically change the identity of the deck and this might actually be an overall improvement, but I think the end result is that this just shuffles around the strengths and weaknesses, so it would be more of a meta-dependent choice.

 

Edit: And of course, just add a Syrio's Training or two to put on Tyrion.

[fozzyfosbourne]

Don't forget that Ser Davos and Ghost are more stealth military icon dudes. But yeah, I think you illustrate the point I'm wrestling with, if you could just slot in 4 cost mil stealth guy from any of these factions, that would be super, but it's fitting in the other 9 cards that's hard since Lannister high cost characters are primo and they have a decent enough set of chuds. If ambushing in against Bara wasn't a thing, it would be a lot easier to 1 for 1 swap in chuds from a banner to make it work though.

 

Edit: The other thing is these guys get blown the heck up by Dracarys. Maybe Ser Davos is the guy

[Zeetro]

Here is my latest deck build. It is based on getting high economy. Unoriginal I suppose.

I might drop one Calling the Banners for Game of Thrones or Calm Over Westeros (anyone think one of those two is better?).

Paying debts

House Lannister / Fealty

Packs: Core Set (3)

Plots
1x A Noble Cause (Core Set)
2x Calling the Banners (Core Set)
1x Heads on Spikes (Core Set)
1x Marched to the Wall (Core Set)
1x Taxation (Core Set)
1x Wildfire Assault (Core Set)

Characters
2x Littlefinger (Core Set)
2x Varys (Core Set)
3x Cersei Lannister (Core Set)
2x Grand Maester Pycelle (Core Set)
2x Joffrey Baratheon (Core Set)
3x Ser Jaime Lannister (Core Set)
2x The Tickler (Core Set)
3x Tyrion Lannister (Core Set)
3x Tywin Lannister (Core Set)
3x Burned Men (Core Set)
3x Gold Cloaks (Core Set)
3x Lannisport Moneylender (Core Set)
3x Lannisport Merchant (Core Set)
2x The Queen's Assassin (Core Set)

Locations
3x The Kingsroad (Core Set)
3x The Roseroad (Core Set)
2x Casterly Rock (Core Set)
3x Lannisport (Core Set)
3x Western Fiefdom (Core Set)

Attachments
2x Milk of the Poppy (Core Set)
2x Widow's Wail (Core Set)

Events
3x Tears of Lys (Core Set)
3x Treachery (Core Set)

[chem2702]

Don't forget that Ser Davos and Ghost are more stealth military icon dudes. But yeah, I think you illustrate the point I'm wrestling with, if you could just slot in 4 cost mil stealth guy from any of these factions, that would be super, but it's fitting in the other 9 cards that's hard since Lannister high cost characters are primo and they have a decent enough set of chuds. If ambushing in against Bara wasn't a thing, it would be a lot easier to 1 for 1 swap in chuds from a banner to make it work though.

 

Edit: The other thing is these guys get blown the heck up by Dracarys. Maybe Ser Davos is the guy

 

Ambushing in general is awesome, but especially against Bara AND Greyjoy.

[Alexfrog]

Anyway, this is my experience and others may have different ones. Heck, I still find it extremely hard to win a game as Greyjoy, and yet most people are saying they one of the top 2 factions.

Winning as Greyjoy is about drawing Balon and Euron I htink.

I would definitely put Targ above them in order of best facitons (and of course Bara), so at best they are third I think. 

[chem2702]

Winning as Greyjoy is about drawing Balon and Euron I htink.

I would definitely put Targ above them in order of best facitons (and of course Bara), so at best they are third I think. 

 

Yeah I currently rank them as fourth (i.e. Bara > Targ > Lanni > Greyjoy).

[Zeetro]

Yeah I currently rank them as fourth (i.e. Bara > Targ > Lanni > Greyjoy).

I think Greyjoy are better than Targ. Targ right now depend too much on Danny and her dragons. Greyjoy while being strong when Balon hits the table, they don't depend on him.

[chem2702]

Yeah, Targ Fealty can be a little inconsistent, but Targ Lanni usually alleviates that a little.

[Zeetro]

Here is my latest deck build. It is based on getting high economy. Unoriginal I suppose.

I might drop one Calling the Banners for Game of Thrones or Calm Over Westeros (anyone think one of those two is better?).

Any tips on this one?
Is the cost curve well (I come from a MTG background so a mana curve doesn't exactly translate)?

I imagine many (if not most) Lanny Fealty decks look like that one.

[chem2702]

Any tips on this one?
Is the cost curve well (I come from a MTG background so a mana curve doesn't exactly translate)?

I imagine many (if not most) Lanny Fealty decks look like that one.

 

I think you've actually overdone the economy a little. I'd consider swapping a couple of the plots for utility plots. I think Game of Thrones is a must and then either Counting Coppers or Summons.

[Zeetro]

I think you've actually overdone the economy a little. I'd consider swapping a couple of the plots for utility plots. I think Game of Thrones is a must and then either Counting Coppers or Summons.

Isn't going heavier on economy playing to their strength / theme though? For Ambush, heavy characters, and powering up Tywin?

[chem2702]

Isn't going heavier on economy playing to their strength / theme though? For Ambush, heavy characters, and powering up Tywin?

 

Yes, it certainly is. I'm just saying you might not need as much as you have. I currently run only two Fiefdoms and two Moneylenders and lower gold plots and I still normally have a huge amount of gold. Maybe just play a few games and see how it goes. If you end up in a few games where you're just sitting on heaps of gold and it's not doing much for you, maybe just look to make a couple of changes. For example, you will likely get into situations where you win a military challenge with Tywin by a huge amount because you have 7 gold in your stockpile and wish you had Put to the Sword in your hand so that you could kill a Mel or Dany or some other significant character that has an intrigue icon and is thus immune to Tears of Lys.