A Viper in Oldtown (Melee)

I would drop the Flea bottom scavenger to 1 copy. If you don't get it in your opening hand, you Summon by the Conclave for it. After turn 1 you should have power on your house so you won't use the other ones.

You'll need to drop all 3 Orphans (since the restricted card you want is definitely The Conclave). Drop Tyco too. If you feel short on renown add longclaw.

For more consistent resources switch to 2 Water Gardens but 3 Palace Fountains. I'd also drop River Row for Street of Steel and Flea Bottom. Even a knelt chump maester reduces the cost of The Conclave. If it's the vengeful Maester of the Sun, even better.

Speaking of vengeful... it's not a Martel Rush without Taste for Blood and the vengeful power-stealing Elaria Sand. Once you take an early lead they have to challenge you to get back in it. Taste for Blood moves you closer to victory even if you lose and Elaria steals any renown they claim.

Finally, I would drop Counting Favors for At The Gates. There is almost no reason to give your opponent 3 cards. If they've got a lot of draw, copy it with Informed Acolyte, if military claim looks like a bigger issue put Aemon into play for the saves. Good luck!

You'll need to drop all 3 Orphans (since the restricted card you want is definitely The Conclave).

This is a melee deck, the Orphan is not restricted in melee.

Imo any Martell melee deck should contain Myrcella Lannister (title swap one). Lose 1 Maester of the Sun for her.

I agree with Celric about Ellaria. Maybe a Taste for Blood too, but definitely Ellaria. I'd drop Jaime for her - you don't have much shadows in the deck so he is effectively a 4 cost guy letting you draw 1 card, not terrible but simply not as good as Ellaria.

Finally, much as I like Nightmares, I feel in melee the fact it only controls 1 card generally means it doesn't do enough. After all, if 1 card is dominating the game, chances are all 3 opponents can do something between them.

I would trade it out for Burning on the Sands or Red Vengeance (depends on taste, iirc neither is restricted in melee?)

Thanks for the advice, everyone!
Conclaving for a Scavenger seems interesting - I've only ever done it for another Conclave to shore up my Rush Turn. Do you think freeing up two cards and Conclaving for the Scavenger is the better move?

I've edited this deck since posting it, but I still run Counting Favors - I usually flop it t1 for three cards if I don't have a Scavenger, or t2 and flip into Spears if I do. I find it often is good, at least t1, for bribing opponents into focusing elsewhere.

I dropped street of steel in favor of River Row because had more uniques than military icons, last time I checked. I think the fountain to water garden split was to get better set ups as well; May I ask just in general why the feeling is Gardens are worse than Fountains?

And I agree of Taste of Blood an Elleria, I jut need to find room. My rush turn could be a real headache for my opponents with TFB out.


Nightmares - I may have cut this since, but it was mostly because my meta-mate was running Balon's Host, which was really ruining my game - and no one else would deal with it, because they know how explosive this deck is.

I think I dropped Jaime in future iterations on the deck, so I guess I need to update this.

Edited 5/15/14 to current deck build.
Looking for ways to edge in:
1x Ellaria Sand
2x Taste of Blood

Thinking of pulling one Sun Maester and two Nightmares to do so.