Stark Maesters (theory)

I like the concept of this deck. I have been looking at it myself for some time. ( I wanted to get in on the Maester love too).

Im gonna build this up sometime this week and give it some testing.

Im loving the synergy Lonely Hills has with this deck....

I'm afraid you might be missing out on some really good 1 cost Stark attachments, Frozen Solid (LoW) and Dubious Loyalties (IG), though I'll admit dubious loyalties is kind of questionable with Roose Bolton (though you are only running him as a 1 of. . .)

Also, I'm afraid the setups are going to be bad for this deck. You don't have refugees or hungry mob, and you've got 4 attachments without setup (not including the chains of course) and 10 events.

And as to the 10 events, I mean I love maesters as well, I'm just not sure how well these events will work out. Kneeling a character to do a challenge that you've already done seems risky to me (especially with only 3 characters that don't kneel, though I suppose the we light the way will help with that, but really, you're having to kneel a character to play that as well.)

One other thing to consider, abandoned fort. With Old Nan and a maester handing out the bolton trait, abandoned fort could be worth its weight in gold.

All valid points Shadowcat. I'll likely be bringing this deck out Thursday to give it a whirl. And Abandoned Fort will definately have to find a place in the deck now. I hadn't even noticed that card before. Excellent idea!

I'll likely have a chance to put this together on Wednesday and see how some of my test draws go, but I think even without the refugees and mob my gold cost on things should lead to at least fair to decent setups.

Might take out the We Light the Way for 2 Abandoned Forts.

I did want to add frozen solid at first, but with the Tin link I didn't think it was necessary. And Dubious Loyalties would be pretty awesome, especially considering I could put it into play during a challenge, but I just lack the space for it and really wanted to use Icy Catapult to keep MIL challenges away and to use the new Coin attachment.

Might go ahead and get rid of Bran for either an extra Old Nan or another Oldtown scholar to help ensure I have a maester on setup and a cheap one easy to kneel for the events.

@Skelton - the idea was to get more challenges into a phase before the Outwit turn and when I stumbled across Lonely Hills it seemed made for this idea. Hopefully it works out like I want it to often enough.

I didn't know of Icy Catapult until now... Imagine that on the new Arya.... I won't be there Thursday, so sadly I won't get to see this awesome deck of fantastic-ness.

Icy catapult is amazingly fun to use. It makes for great negotiations in a melee.

I don't know if Lonely Hills is worth it. It has quite a few requirements in order to be able to do anything; you have to have one of five specific events in hand, you have to have at least 2 maesters on the board, after you're done kneeling a maester for the event the chars you have left over have to be able to actually win 2 challenges in a row, etc. Especially if you are relying on We Light The Way to get multiple challenges through, it seems quite impractical. The combo now depends on having 3 cards (the location and at least 2 events) in hand at once and requires you to kneel 2 characters and still be able to win 2 challenges afterwards. For a 2 gold location I just don't think that's worth it. As someone else mentioned I think Abandoned Fort would be much better, or you could just cut the slots entirely given that you're above 60 cards (but personally I would take out some of the events first).

I would also consider Copper Link and Dissension with all the potential for trait manipulation. Old Nan is great but the fact is that a card like Abandoned Fort will be dead weight without her in play and you're only running 1x of her. Tossing a copper link on your agenda would give you more reliable trait manipulation and there is plenty of potential ways to abuse it here.

I don't see where Bran fits in given that you have no direwolves. Making Bran himself a direwolf doesn't work since he can't kneel to stand himself--in order to stand he has to be already kneeling, which means he can't kneel again to activate his effect.

As for other cards to cut, I would look at the blackfish for sure. He has a negative gold-to-str ratio and his only ability of note requires you to win a mil challenge, a challenge type which the deck seems to be weakest in and wanting to avoid given the other options you have for removing their characters and the fact that not even half your own chars have a mil icon. I would much rather see some refugees over a 4 cost like him.

A last comment is that you might want to think about ways to keep your chain-loaded maester on the board. Currently you have 1 Aemon and 1 dupe of Luwin as your only ways to save one of your maesters from being killed; of those only Aemon is repeatable and he is vulnerable to First Snow. I would think about using some more dupes of your unique maesters if nothing else; there are of course other options if you want more insurance, the most obvious being Nymeria. You are well-protected against Valar, but there are a lot of other removal effects out there and losing a guy with 3-4 chains on him can be game deciding.

Overall I like the concepts in the deck a lot though. Lots of potential shenanigans here.

Hmmm....Icy Catapult and the new Arya.

@tibs - the way Bran works is you have to kneel a direwolf to stand him. If you give him the direwolf trait, you can kneel himself for the cost of the effect, and since he is now kneeling, you can stand him again. Do this 3 times to unlock all 3 of the buffs he offers. Though you are right that he doesn't fit very well. I've already switched him for another copy of Old Nan.

That is good advice on the dupes of Maesters. The problem I see is having a hard time decided who the chains go on. If I put them on Luwin I can't kneel him to draw cards (using Valyrian) if I use him in a challenge to trigger his event search ability. I can't put it on Aemon who needs to kneel to save himself, and Vyman has to kneel for his cancel effect also. These aren't nearly as good of an option as Maester of the Sun (ASoS) who has Vengeful allowing for multiple usage. They have spoiled me.

Your likely right on Blackfish, though I really just wanted some renown and MIL str. I did put this deck together last night and I hadn't exactly realized just how light I was in MIL icons until then. Definately something to think about.
Maester of War (TWot5K) has also spoiled me.

The Copper Link should have actually been in the list all along. It works great for all kinds of things from using the Abandoned Fort, Bran, making the Conclave cheaper or allowing me to kneel other non-maesters to pay for the events.

I'm still sticking with the Lonely Hills as I just want to see how often it works. It is conditional, but with 2 plots where I don't kneel to defend could be pretty good way of increasing my claim on INT challenges. Also, I have already taken We Light the Way out though I really do like the idea of the card you are correct that it gets hard to pay for all the "kneel Maester" effects.

Thanks everyone for the input. I'll let you know how it goes after Thursdays game night.

I look forward to seeing you Thursday. Perhaps I'll even have a new deck to try out.

Now I really wish I could be there Thursday.

@Sloth: after the deck modifications saturday (to my deck that is) I ran through a few games yesterday, the first game was hilariously awesome and I had my draw engine going, I got 2 or 3 cards every turn in that game. It's like playing AGOT on easy mode with card draw. Anyway, the second game i did not get my card draw (or draw any of my guys...) and it was awful (it didn't help that both feigned retreats were discarded in back to back random discards). Anyway, it is improved, but still terrible. And I still like it anyway.

That's awesome. Did you manage to do the trick-Arya draw? Might have to find room for a summon season plot to make sure you can dig up at least one of your main guys. Or find place for those terrible Heralds maybe?

As for my deck, I'm still undecided about the wildling bards. I'm going to see how they play out but I may just switch them out for Former Champs to have some heavy MIL str to start with.

Might also add the steel link to grant the MIL icon. too many choices.

I did get arya going. I had sansa and a court advisor turn 1 for 2 cards. then had eddard and arya (AND tommen!) turn 2 on. With norvos and narrow seas so I didn't need to use my feigned retreat influence for the card draw. it was fantastic while working.

I know this is dragging this up from the depths, but as it is a legal Stark Maester deck, I was curious if there was more testing for the deck?

I am working on my own deck, and don't feel guilty getting advice from how others have done theres

When it worked, it did well. But most times it got crushed. It was fun to play but I scrapped it in search of a more competative build.

A lot of time RBD was a wasted plot because I didn't have enough ways to make sure it went off first turn.

I actually ended up adding the Alliance plot and Maester of War in, which did give the deck a better fighting chance, but it couldn't spit good characters out like my Martell Maesters deck, so if I didn't draw into the MoW I didn't survive long against anything with MIL strength.