Card Game DB
Sign In
Create Account
Welcome to Card Game DB
Register now to gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to create topics, post replies to existing threads, give reputation to your fellow members, get your own private messenger, post status updates, manage your profile and so much more. If you already have an account, login here - otherwise create an account for free today!
Register now to gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to create topics, post replies to existing threads, give reputation to your fellow members, get your own private messenger, post status updates, manage your profile and so much more. If you already have an account, login here - otherwise create an account for free today!
Martell Summer Control
Submitted
Xabal
, Oct 10 2012 04:45 PM | Last updated Oct 10 2012 06:31 PM
| Submitted by: | Xabal |
| Submitted: | Oct 10 2012 04:45 PM |
| Views: | 3559 |
| Last updated: | Oct 10 2012 06:31 PM |
| Category: | Martell |
| Deck Name: | Martell Summer Control |
| Deck Contents: | Total Cards (60) House (1) House Martell (Core) x1 Agenda (1) Kings of Summer (ASoS) x1 Plot (7) Forgotten Plans (KotStorm) x1 A Song of Summer (ASoS) x1 Manning the City Walls (CD) x1 Retaliation! (ASoSilence) x1 A Time for Ravens (ACoS) x1 Valar Morghulis (Core) x1 To the Spears! (PotS) x1 Character (31) Edric Dayne (IG) x1 Gilly (RoW) x1 Ellaria Sand (PotS) x1 Maester of the Sun (ASoS) x2 Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS) x1 Varys (SaS) x1 Dagos Manwoody (TBC) x1 Lost Spearman (MotM) x3 House Messenger (PotS) x3 Carrion Bird (ASoS) x3 Southron Mercenaries (TBoBB) x3 Orphan of the Greenblood (PotS) x3 The Red Viper (PotS) x2 Samwell Tarly (TRS) x1 Arianne Martell (PotS) x1 Refugee of the Citadel (RoW) x3 Darkstar (PotS) x1 Location (13) The Scourge (ODG) x1 Ghaston Grey (FtC) x2 Water Garden (PotS) x3 Palace Fountains (PotS) x2 Summer Sea (Core) x2 Shadowblack Lane (Core) x1 Street of Steel (Core) x1 Flea Bottom (TGM) x1 Attachment (5) Black Raven (ASoS) x2 Venomous Blade (TBoBB) x3 Event (11) Condemned by the Council (AToT) x3 He Calls It Thinking (PotS) x3 A Game of Cyvasse (ACoS) x3 Parting Blow (PotS) x2 Classic Martell Summer Control, with a personal twist focusing on challenge denial, and trying to adapt to the current meta with the new cards available for every house. I have always been playing with Martell Summer, although I haven't updated the deck in a while. Considering the new cards for every faction, the current meta around and the successive restrictions/erratas that affect Martell, I am trying to design a classic Martell KoS deck focusing on board and challenges control. Stuff like Blades, Arys and Varys for char removal, Orphans and Scourge for icons, Parting Blows for kneel, GG and Cyvasse to bounce - all to take away as many options as possible from the opponent having chars to attack/defend any challenges. Renown chars, and southron mercs to grab power for the win. Plots (7) - Valar - reset - Forgotten Plans - mainly to control First Snow (very problematic against this deck, lots of weenies) and avoid the Rule By decree after, but also useful against TftN, Lannister Intrigue plots, FoW, etc. The main problem I have here is the need to control the timings, and sometimes this resulting in a non useful plot. - A song of Summer - awesome stats, and +1str is always good (especially against Threat from the North and to boost some Cyvasse usage. - Retaliation - stats and claim 2 (I really like claim 2 on the deck, to push some heavy intrigue, and to gain some board advantage after the control stabilizes the table) - A time for Ravens - necessary - Manning the City walls - No need to play on turn 1, so I can wait to draw a Southron Mercs and use it with 7-2-2 stats. Although the main reason is because I want another claim 2 plot. - To the spears - power grabbing/winning plot. Combos very nicely with Arianne, Southron Mercs, renown uniques, etc. Also good strategy against opponent playing S&D or Retaliation. Events: 2 x Parting Blow - Wonderful synergies with this deck all around, complements challenge control and also has additional draw. 3 x Condemned by the council - locations can really be a problem, and this helps controlling it. 3 copies as current meta is locations heavy and since it is the only protection in the deck. 3 x A Game of Cyvasse - Fantastic event. 3 x He calls it Thinking - Another fantastic event, can be used in so many situations, that I think the 3 copies nail it. Also +2str works great for cyvasses/burn protection. Attachments: 2 x Black Raven 3 x Venomous blade - one of the main engines to combine with bounces, icon removals, kneels etc, resulting in the opponent having almost no characters (or none at all) to make challenges. Characters: 1 x Gilly - good stats+draw 1 x Ellaria Sand - good unique and versatile against renowns, rushs, etc. 2 x Maester of the Sun - do not have the third card, however even if I did, I think 2 copies works well for me. 1 x Arys Oakheart - Good stats, renown, and ally/Merc removal (fits in the deck theme) 1 x Varys - considered removing it due to the passive (sometimes cannot take it out of shadows since opponent has no ally), but since I could not find spot for dissension, kept on copy to help ally kill/removal. 3 x House messenger - selective draw that does not count for cap  1 x Edric Dayne - GG + his abilities (they work better than it may seem), wonderful character really. 3 x Carrion Bird - Season control, Mil Stealth, usable if Time for Ravens needs to be repeated and also draws with Sam. 3 x Southron Mercenaries - Main heavy hitter, this is a solid power grabber, and insanely good in To the Spears! turn. Also works well for harder Cyvasses if necessary. Main problem is being a mercenary and therefore a vulnerable high-cost char, but since TVB is restricted, nothing to do here. 3 x Orphan - Challenge control, 0 cost, great overall. 1 x Dagos - was using Myrcella for the low cost GG slot, but giving a try to Dagos instead. More vulnerable to Burn, but more versatile overall I think (tricon, vengeful, melee). 3 x Lost spearmen - tried to remove or reduce the number, but its so good for setup, great low-cost support for cyvasses etc. that found the 3 copies were necessary. 2 x The Red Viper (POTS) - also a heavy hitter, and 2 copies because I really dig it. Sometimes exchange his second copy with one for Arianne instead. 1 x Samwell Tarly - Although it is a wonderful draw engine, cannot force myself to include more copies, since it is easy to kill and not good enough to risk for dead cards. It is a draw mechanism support, but not the main engine, so I believe 1 copy works good. 1 x Arianne Martell - The stealth+claim raising for intrigue is incredible, and GG usage also. 3 x Refugee of the Citadel - nothing to add 1 x Darkstar - Vengeful, renown, combo with Master of the Sun. Locations: 2 x Summer Sea - To speed things up, and discard is good to avoid to many locations and being Fled to the Wall xD 1 x Street of Steel 1 x Flea Bottom - works great in this deck, but I believe one copy is enough. 2 x Palace Fountains - only 2, because did not want to have more than 5 limited cards. 1 x Shadowblack Lane 3 x Water Garden - I prefer reducers too, but the version of the deck has some serious shadow usage, so it is the only good solution to have a solid gold economy. 1 x The Scourge - icon removal or card discard? Hell yeah 2 x Ghaston Grey - No third copy, because deck isn't GG centric. It uses it as a support mechanism for bounce when I can put it on the table along with the Nobles, but if I do not draw it early it is not drastic, and the noble chars included are useful by themselves. Other options Plots: Overall I think the deck could have less offensive/constructive plots and a bit more of defensive ones, but could not find what to change or which slots would be good replacings: - Loyalty money can buy - always used and liked this plot, and is a good defensive plot at 4 gold. I have been interchanging it with FP, and I get best results, although in an all-around tournament deck, I believe FP is more versatile/necessary. - At the gates - Was using it with Maester of the Sun, which is always great to bring to the table. Replaced with MtcW. - Fleeing to the Wall - I think it is a very good plot in the current meta, and could combo nicely with the Condemned by the Council events I play. Although I found myself several times pushing this plot to last because it always hurt myself a little bit. - Shadows and Spiders - would really like this plot, I think it would fit great in the challenge control theme, in this deck if focusing on single challenge type it is easy to deny it to the opponent, resulting in no challenges at all. Don't know what to replace with, and also the 3 gold is a bit low (deck needs some solid gold due to heavy shadows usage) Events: - 2 x Paper shield - in a tournament/all-around deck, I think 2 Paper Shields are very important. Although I have 3xHciT, PS can always prevent from an unexpected/unknown event that sometimes can disrupt all your game. - 2 x Dissension - if 2x slots could be found for the paper shields, would also like to also try this instead. While the paper shields could give additional protection, I believe these could fit in the theme, by complementing opponents chars removal from blades, parting blows, GG, orphans, etc. - 1 x Parting blow - would really like to add third copy, I think it works really well in this deck Characters: The main difficulties I am having is to whether play with VB (which I think goes well with GG, Orphans, Parting Blows to clear maximum number of chars) and use southron mercs as the heavy hitter, or use TVB instead and use the VB slot to pump a bit more in control events and replace gold providing locations with reducers. - 1 x Myrcella - for additional GG control/usage (although a bit useless for other purposes) - 1 x Maester of Lemonwood - Good protection for main locations and chars becoming neutered, but after including it in the deck, only used it once or twice, so removed it. - 1 x Syrio - Maybe it could fit nicely in the deck, never used this char, what do you think? - 3 x The Viper's Bannermen - Use this instead of Shouthron Mercs, gaining some draw and freeing the slots of the blades for some more events, although afraid that the drop of the blades will turn the deck strategy less consistent. Locations: - Open Market - tried it for a bit, but found that it slowed the deck - Lost oasis - never tried it, everyone says it is wonderful, but where to put one or two copies of it? Besides, would my type of deck really benefit from it? - Noyne - Didn't get the CP, but once I have it, really interested in trying one copy of this and see how it goes. Original effect, and very good to provide some more control support. - Other incoming options, River Row, Chambers, Street of Sisters - I prefer reducers both because they hit the table and get immediate usage, and are not limited, but the necessary gold for shadows is hard to overcome. Still trying to find the perfect/sweet spot of this deck's gold curve. |
| Graphs: | |
Sample Hand  |
|
| Other Information | Income on Plot Cards: 3, 5, 1, 4, 4, 2, 3 Average Plot Income: 3.143 Number of deck cards providing income: 3 Average deck cards income: 1.000 Number of cards providing influence: 2 |
15 Comments
While i understand your thinking on Manning the city wall, you have a decent ammount of shadow cards in the deck. I'd almost consider swapping out Manning the City walls for City of Lies. You still get a 7 gold turn effectively, but you actually have a base 3 gold to work with rather then just 1 base gold. If you were to do this, you could go a little more heavy into the shadows build. I love playing around with Maiden of Poison as well. If you can somehow fit in 2 or 3 Maiden of Poison, it would bring you up to 8 to 9 shadows cards. You could then also add in City of Spiders so that you can get two turns of dropping two cards into shadows for free. Believe me, Vinimous blade for free in the shadows is just a fun little mechanic to abuse.
I would personally drop the Palace Fountains for a River Row and a Street of Sisters. It helps with the setup on not having multiple limited cards that you can't play in one turn.
Something else to consider is The Brimstone. It turns your scourage into a i kneel this card and you don't get our icons back at all. Kneel to take away icons, then your opponent discards a card to get back their military icon, then Brimstone takes a icon away because your opponent discarded a card. Such a fun little combo. It also works well with the 5 drop Doran that discards a card from your opponents hand if you don't win a challenge.
I don't know if this is just a personal taste thing, but i just can't play a Martell deck without Red Vengence. It is such a good card. There is so few cards in the game that can actually stop it that i just can't bring myself to not play it. I also feel the same way about The Viper's Rage but i find that it tends to be more of a mind game with the opponent then anything else.
If your thinking about playing the Bannermen over the blades, my build of a icon control Martell is just a couple of posts below yours. See if it might help you.
Addressing the various points you mentioned:
From the math point of view, I can see that the difference is not that much. It's more of a personal habit/mindset that always "forces" me to use 60. Maybe I'll try the deck with something like 63, and if i notice the difference I'll work on going down to 60 from that point
Regarding plots/shadows - I have considered that option, on maybe including a couple maiden of poisons and one Syrio and include City of Lies. Then as you suggest, I could keep a second claim 2 plot (i really want to have two claim 2 plots) by using city of spiders - but what plot to remove besides Manning?
Regarding the streets - I have played with that build, and what I found was that I would often find myself with various reducers that I couldn't use (they have very specific requirements), while the palace fountains allow me tu also use it for GG/Scourge and all the Martell chars. Maybe if I replaced the plots for the cities/shadows combos, I could remove a couple water gardens for these reducers you suggested.
Nice thinking on the Brimstone, never really looked carefully to it. I tend to runaway from locations that cost more than one unless they really are awesome. Brimstone seems like it can really pay for the cost with its effect - I'll definetely try one copy.
Finally, on the Red Vengeance - absolutely agree with you, it is also hard for me to left this event aside...however, I did not include it so that another complicated factor could be left aside - influence curve.
I believe it is a bit risky running 2 or 3 red vengeances with only 3 Summer Seas and one Chambers as influence providers - it seems to me that I'll end up many times with this awesome event that I cant use (also since the seas must be discarded to use its reducer).
I also tried including a copy of maester Kedry, but I could only rely on this if I also had At the Gates to search for me and be able to solidly use RV.
Main difficulty is - how to have a reliable source of influence to have the 2inf often available for RV, without using KOTHH and having to change a lot of stuff in a deck like this?
You have only one copy of the: Varys, Darkstar, Arienne, Elaria, Arys, Dagos and they will be gone for sure when Valar would show up and You might need the power on those characters (Arys, Darkstar, Elaria...).
Maybe change the deck to assure some of them will survive (with Cyvasse You can do some trick but still...).
I have tried the deck without valar, and found myself in several situations where it could save me - sometimes the control just isn't enough when opponent drops a lot of chars.
To overcome the problems with Valar, i usually try to play it early to clear opponent board (focusing on intrigue to also limit his hand), and keep a few weenies and the best uniques in my hand. The deck idea is to establish control in first 2/3 turns, through kill/bounce/discard, forcing some intrigue, and when this is obtained, then I drop the main renown chars to grab the power for the win.
When I have to use valar and have some of my good chars that you mentioned on the table, I use some GG/cyvasse if necessary to return them back to hand, but as a general approach this isnt necessary:
- First turns drop weenies and one or two uniques to gain some intrigue/mil challenges. Put some cards in shadows for later usage.
- Challenge control to force oponent to overcommit on marshalling more chars - remove as many oponent's cards in hand through intrigue.
- Valar
- Start bringing out of shadows stuff, marshall a couple weenies for support/claimsoak, marshall renown chars and start power grabbing.
Of course this does not always goes as planned xD Therefore the need for some solid control to maintain this strategy along the game and its possible twists.
I took more of a defensive control route with my plots though. Here is a look at them if you want a idea.
A Time of Ravens
Loyalty Money Can By
Breaking And Entering
Retaliation
Take Them By Surprise
Game of Thrones
Valar
If i remember correctly, the gold curve on this is about 3.57.
As for the whole Red Vengence influence problem.....I play 3 Dornish Fiefdoms, 3 Summer Seas, 2 Kingsroad Fiefdom, and a lord Doran's Chambers along with 2 Palace Spies to go search for them. I tend to hit my influence curve fairly easily with that setup. Also, the Dornish Fiefdoms reduce your location costs as well. Though, with you running the blades as your restricted card, it will probably be kind of hard to retune the deck so that you can use all of those locations. If i remember right, i think i'm running 19 locations just so that i can fit all of the reducers/gold providing/control locations into the deck. I'm also only running 1 attachment in the Black Raven.
As for Valar, you could try wildfire assualt. I've tried it but i tend to like valar more. Though, Wildfire is still a really good bored clear. I'm not sure that you will need it though, with GG and Syvase, your already bouncing a lot of stuff to your opponents hand, you may not get a chance to use Wildfire.
"I know forgotten plans is more or less for anti valar turns, but i think if you can get control of the game quick enough, your opponent valaring wont do much to you." - I actually use FP to avoid TFSOW (and eventually rule by decree combo), because this plot can really hurt a martell deck that has so many weenies, and since so many decks are running it nowadays (at least all KOTHH decks do).
Also FP is useful against TftN, FoW, GoT, stuff like that, even though I would consider drop it because one has to predict and also get lucky to trigger it on an adequate turn, otherwise is a plot thats doing nothing. However, FP does not protect me against Valar :|
My main objective is to give some extra protection or board impact, and options are 2 events cards. I'm split between:
- Dissension - Always useful and complements deck theme;
- Paper shield - For some extra protection against unexpected events;
- Rumours of War - Was looking at this card yesterday and even besides the potential lucky Arianne combo (if it happens), it looks like a very versatile card for some challenge boost, surprise the opponent, boost some weenies for cyvasse, etc. Lots of potential uses it seems.
What do you suggest?
New FAQ's seperate Melee restricted list means you can now have TVB and VB in a melee deck AND Burning on the Sand too. Sounds good to me.
Yeah Totalgit, Melee new list seems like a blast now. Im still thinking a pure control deck can hassle the table, but still needs to focus on chars,renown,et. to have some chances to win. But Martell realy got a boost in melee deckbuilding =D
I still have to buy some mising cards/CPs i dont have,but i am currently trying to design a deck based on uniques almost exclusively,with a focus on noble chars.
For agenda my choice is none/Quentyn,although the focus of the deck wont be on him purely, as i also intend to fit control elements like heavy GG, and of course VB ans BoTS. Also,TVB will work great for draw support and will be able tu use fury of the sun for the first time ever.
faq3.4 is awesome (although I was hoping for BoTS unrestriction for joust too,I think after all these time and meta changes it would be ok,dont think of it as a meta defining card really)
Heya Daff! Glad you liked it, im also learning a lot of new deck ideas, ive been trying to fine tune the deck and have been curently running a slightly modified version (which is running 63 cards which i intend to reduce if able). Until now the results have been very good, the deck has been rocking the tables. If I decide to keep the changes I will update the decklist xxD