Martell Control 4.0

Love the mines here, but ultimately ditched them and alliance for To the Spears. Need Art of Seduction somehow too. Thoughts.

well this is my favorite deck type, however mine is a lot different id look at some different events martell has some very poweful ones that feel using favorable grounds and much and more in particular (although much and more is good just martell has better options) and think need to put in at least one scourge and maybe other control locations, u can drop few characters for them. Also if want art of seduction i would get rid of muster the relm you are only running 5 armys from what i can see so often could hurt you, and u dont need the high gold with your agenda also often probably will want them to do a mil challenge to hit them with a red vengeance just my quick thoughts

The other control deck I run has Ghaston and Scourge and Oasis. This one is meant to win through different means. No locations, enough ttricks, and a mini AoS to TtS rush. Can it do that and can it do that better?

IMO: You're too low on reducers. You're running 7. That's why you're having a problem with choke. I also dislike mixing flea bottom scavengers (which give the deck a sit back and wait theme) with dornish paramours (who want to be attacking immediately).

I agree with MNBroncos that our control locations are really good and should probably be included.

I think I'll throw in 2x Scourge. Here's why they were missing and what my logic is:

My logic is that a lot of decks, notably Greyjoy (all the Warships and saves) and Lannister (Pentoshi, Mines, Iron Throne, etc) are built almost entirely around locations. Even Targ (both Hills, standing effects, burn effects), and Stark (most of their draw and stupid killing stuff) rely on locations. Martell? If not Ghaston based, locations are nice added control, but we're realllllly event based. If anything, I'd add more location control as this can even work as a mini-choke. Without the Ghaston bounce character control, Icon and Location control go way up in value. The idea, though, is to not burn my own locations down to nil in the process, which means more limited than I'd usually run (awesomely, less an issue with no set up). So I guess I need more Icon Removal and a bit more location control. My Kingdom for some permanent draw for Martell. Ugh.

Ditching Scavengers for another Messenger and some Paramours works for me. I need a third Favorable Ground. Any location advice? I'll update this in a few with what I'm adding and subtracting.

Okay:

+1 To the Spears
+1 Art of Seduction
+1 Paramour
+2 Scourge
+2 Greenblood Merchant
+1 Sea
+1 Fountains
+1 Viper's Rage
+2 Prince's Wrath
+1 Wars are Won with Quills
+1 The Only Game that Matters
+1 Condemned by the Council



-1 Alliance
-2 Golden Tooth Mines
-1 Muster the Realms
-1 Desert Exiles
-2 Much and More
-2 Parting Blow
-1 Prince's Plans
-2 Scavengers
-2 Much and More
-1 The Red Viper

So, 3.0 is much more conventional, and probably objectively better, but in a meta that adores locations, this one might be more effective.

Finally, as a meta choice, I'm strongly considering bringing back the Mines and Alliance, ditching the armies all together, and adding the Venemous Blade. Several Stark players use the charagenda to grab Bannermen, and the Blade also kills TotRK builds, which have been running rampant.

I know that was a ton. Any ideas or thoughts?

You can try to be as different as you want but at the end of the day, Martell just has some of the best control based locations in the game. I've gotten to the point that i'm really considering running 2 Ghastons, 2 Lost Oasis, and 1 Scourage in just about any Martell deck that i play. Its just so good. Especially when you can give a paramour stealth kneel and kneel a military based character while drawing two cards.