Greyjoy Raider Discard

Raider is a tough one to pull off, but generally speaking there's a few things you can do:

First off, Longship Maiden's Bane as your restricted choice is excellent and very strong.

Second, to go with that, The Old Way as your agenda.

The bits that support the above include a bunch of warships to power up Maiden's Bane, and especially Naval Escort, which can help push your strength into double figures on demand. This makes it tough for your opponent to oppose you (because of The Old Way) and it means that when you fire off We Take Westeros you can do so for double figures worth of cards.

Your character selection is not bad: Theon Greyjoy (wll) is superb and hard to counter milling.

I'd personally drop the Bloody Keep for sure, consider dropping the Fiefdoms. 2-3 x Gatehouse is fine, and the Seas are always good but otherwise no locations that aren't warships. Drop the economy aspect, and instead try and go for a lower gold curve and bigger set up so you can dig deep for key cards faster. Greyjoy doesn't draw well, so you can't try to build a 9 gold economy. Instead you want to be playing ships and characters cheaply, and leveraging high strength out of them, then using Old Way to make your wins. Any economy card you draw is a card that isn't a character or warship.

Dropping the gold curve on characters saves room on economy. Damphair's Drowned is easy to activate and a 1-cost, Distinguished Boatswain is too good not to use even if not a raider, likewise 1 Fishwhiskers and Greydon Goodbrother. Iron Islands Brigand is a strong contender for cheap raider, even if only a monocon.

Once you've got the low gold curve stuff, you need the higher cost cards that make Greyjoy stronger, faster or more controlling. As you've noted, canceller alannys is a good pick, iron fleet raiders synergises well with the deck. The euron's stuff looks good but is expensive and outside of the curve most of the time. One Euron Crows Eye is fine I think, but no morem but its the ASOS one you want.  Euron's Enforcer is a trap, leave it. Euron's Mongrel is very situational but could work as a 1-2x.

Bloodthirsty crew is a decent addition to the mill theme, Iron Fleet Captain is critical to giving the deck some pace, Motley Crewman can work but make sure you read up the cardgamedb article on how his interactions work, Newly Made Lord  is a must have as his ability is just so incredibly useful, Qarl the Maid should be there as he's efficient, likewise The Sparr.

Because winning by raiding essentially involves emptying your opponent's deck then winning by attrition, you also want defensive measures to stall the game: River Blockade, Shield Islands Dromon help slow opposing development.

I'm also a fan of Iron Lore to get your LMB back or counter location hate, but that depends on your meta.

Once you've got a contingent of cheap characters, tonnes of warships, and LMB you need to think about draw. A low gold curve that gives a 5-6 card setup average will give a good start, and LIV (1) is a good choice, though I'd say go three of these and drop LIV (2).

I'd up Fishmonger's Square to 2 in a dedicated raid deck, as while its conditional you have a good chance of making it work. Others might disagree though.

Going on from there, two options to draw:

1) 1 x Tycho Nestoris, 3 x Bay of Ice and a plot deck of high initiative cards along with Captured Cogs.

OR

2) 1 x Tycho Nestoris, River plots, and forget about initiative, leaving room for more functional warship cards

I prefer the first approach, but there's a lot to be said for Rivers when playing greyjoy mill, as you're playing the long game anyway. I'd even be tempted to 1 x Flood Waters, though better players than me disdain this.

Finally, add the cards that you have to include. 1 x Harrenhal for sure, and consider 1 x Ygritte and 1 x Coldhands if you can find the room.

So basically, use The Old Way and LMB. Use Greyjoy's best efficient cards because they're their best efficient cards. Run the setup analyser and get your average drop to at least 5 cards. Ensure you have draw. Mill for 20 cards at a time. Then, basically, still lose the tourney because the best Raider deck is low Tier 1 compared to some of the decks out there, but have a hell of a good time getting there!

Sir, due to your seemingly encyclopaedic knowledge of how to make a better GJ mill deck, you're on my shitlist.

Ok, put me money where my mouth is:

Raiders Old Way, v 1

Deck Created with CardGameDB.com Game of Thrones Deckbuilder


Total Cards: (60)

House:
House Greyjoy


Agenda: (1)
1x The Old Way (Forgotten Fellowship)

Plot: (7)
1x Crossing the Mummer's Ford (Spoils of War)
1x Under the Bridge of Dream (Valar Dohaeris)
1x Crossing the Ruby Ford (Reach of the Kraken)
1x Before the Black Walls (Valar Dohaeris)
1x At the Palace of Sorrows (Valar Morghulis)
1x Above the Sorrows (Valar Morghulis)
1x Valar Morghulis (Core Set)

Character: (32)
2x Iron Fleet Captain (Chasing Dragons)
3x Iron Fleet Raiders (Mask of the Archmaester)
2x Ironborn Marauder (The Great Fleet)
3x Newly Made Lord (Tourney for the Hand)
1x Qarl the Maid (A Journey's End)
1x The Sparr (A Poisoned Spear)
3x Damphair's Drowned (Fire and Ice)
3x Distinguished Boatswain (Tales from the Red Keep)
1x Fishwhiskers (Calling the Banners)
1x Greydon Goodbrother (The Kingsguard)
3x Island Refugee (Refugees of War)
2x Euron's Mongrel (A Song of Silence)
1x Tycho Nestoris (Spoils of War)
1x Alannys Greyjoy (On Dangerous Grounds)
2x Ambitious Oarsman (Rituals of R'hllor)
3x Hammerhorn Raiders (The Horn That Wakes)

Attachment: (0)


Event: (4)
3x We Take Westeros! (Dreadfort Betrayal)
1x Flood Waters (A Roll of the Dice)

Location: (24)
3x Longship Maiden's Bane (A Hidden Agenda)
2x Naval Escort (A Sword in the Darkness)
1x Longship Great Kraken (Fire and Ice)
3x Longship Iron Victory (Kings of the Sea)
3x Refurbished Hulk (Of Snakes and Sand)
1x Great Wyk (Ancestral Home)
3x Sunset Sea (Core Set)
3x Gatehouse (Kings of the Sea)
2x Fishmonger's Square (Tales from the Red Keep)
1x Harrenhal (Ancestral Home)
1x Street of Sisters (Core Set)
1x Street of Steel (Core Set)

I think Intrigue presence may need some bolstering, so may reexamine that. Milling is a side effect here just intended to make the endgame easier. The main gist here is tempo play, with LMB based aggro to keep the game slow and Rivers to draw. The win should theoretically happen when the opponent is run out of cards and has no other options.

T2 for sure, as I don't think Raiders are ready for T1 play at present, though upcoming expansions may help.

Heads on Pikes looks very strong especially for aggro/mill. Silent Crewman helps fill out Intrigue deficiencies and can mill while standing.

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EDIT: As of FAQ 5.2 this deck is no longer legal. Along with LMB, Naval Escort and Mummer's Ford been added to the restricted list.

This changes things somewhat.

Will come up with a new iteration soon...

Deck Created with CardGameDB.com Game of Thrones Deckbuilder


Total Cards: (60)

House:
House Greyjoy


Agenda: (0)


Plot: (7)
1x A Time for Ravens (A Change of Seasons)
1x Winter Festival (Wolves of the North)
1x Summoned by the Conclave (A Hidden Agenda)
1x Valar Morghulis (Core Set)
1x Manning the City Walls (Chasing Dragons)
2x The Power of Arms (Core Set)

Character: (34)
3x Samwell Tarly (The Raven's Song)
3x Carrion Bird (The Winds of Winter)
1x Tycho Nestoris (Spoils of War)
3x Wintertime Marauders (A Change of Seasons)
3x Raiders of Orkmont (A Turn of the Tide)
1x Alleras (A Hidden Agenda)
1x Alannys Greyjoy (On Dangerous Grounds)
1x Andrik the Unsmiling (The Pirates of Lys)
1x Gran Goodbrother (A Hidden Agenda)
1x Theon Greyjoy (Where Loyalty Lies)
3x Desperate Looters (Scattered Armies)
3x Island Refugee (Refugees of War)
3x Raiding Fleet (A King in the North)
1x Asha Greyjoy (Kings of the Sea)
1x Nute the Barber (Beyond the Wall)
1x Randyl Tarly (Kings of the Sea)
1x Vargo Hoat (The Champion's Purse)

3 x SILENT CREWMEN

Attachment: (2)
2x White Raven (The Winds of Winter)

Event: (5)
1x The Shadow of the Isles (The Tower of the Hand)
1x Distinct Mastery (Core Set)

3 x HEADS ON PIKES

Location: (19)
1x Harrenhal (Ancestral Home)
3x The Kingsroad 23 (Fire and Ice)
3x Frostfang Peaks (The Wildling Horde)
1x Corpse Lake (Trial by Combat)
3x Sunset Sea (Core Set)
2x Fishmonger's Square (Tales from the Red Keep)
2x Longship Iron Victory (Kings of the Sea)
3x Gatehouse (Kings of the Sea)
1x The Searoad (Kings of the Storm)

Ok here's another take on it:

The goal here is abuse of Heads on Pikes.

Manning the City Walls is for playing Raiding Fleet. You can Summoned by the Conclave it if needs be.

Heads on Pikes is played when it'll do at least 10 cards damage.

The rest of the deck is dribs and drabs more of mill, and effects that benefit from Mill. Generally though, we're looking at an aggro pictire: mil and power at expense of intrigue, enough claim and strength to make it work, and enough location hate to not need Newly Made Lord.

The major mill can actually wait till turn 2-3+, the opening is Time for Ravens to get a winter raven, or if white raven in hand, summoned by the conclave to fetch Samwell.

Draw is a little diffuse but is there: Samwell, LIV and Fishmongers. All in all though, we're playing a tempo game rather than pure control or aggro. Stop them from winning, then run them out of cards, then finish them off. A slow slow squeeze to demolish...

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Further thoughts:

Probably got 1 Samwell too many here, and should probably include 1 Street in place for economy, especially as we're looking at winter. Also, would love to include Winter Armada, but not sure how can find room at present.

Will try it as it stands first though and see what happens.

I don't think Raiding Fleet works if you drop it in using Manning the City Walls

Damn you're right!

Newbie mistake, huh?

...

Alright, lets drop the 3 fleets, drop Manning the City Walls and add...

Hmmm, back to the drawing board.

Definitely thinking killing stuff plus Heads on Pikes is the way to go though...