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8 Comments
New to the game -- about a half dozen games under my belt with this on OCTGN, and winning more than I'm losing -- but I'd love some feedback!
I intentionally decided to limit my options a bit by going with a fealty build, and GJ seemed like a good place to start.
And I think the most current version is 2x Sneak, not 2x Wildfire.
I started out using x2 Sneak, but I find the one-attack-only means you have one and only one window to get any Unopposed challenges (needed for your card draw, for your location destruction, for asha's standing, etc.)
Sneak Attack is especially bad with Wendamyr and Alanys. Wend earns his value on power offenses only, but you never want to go a turn without a military attack, especially with x2 claim. Alanys also is dead weight on sneak attack turns with only weak intrigue and not enough to beat a real intrigue deck.
Even worse with Sneak Attack, it can be hard-countered by A Game of Thrones (no challenges allowed for you until you've won an intrigue challenge) which means even with 3-4 strong military characters your sneak attack will often flop completely, or at worst get an opposed intrigue. I still love Sneak when the time is right, but I prefer to hold it until they've already wasted Game of Thrones when I used a different plot that is safer during it like an economy one.
I much prefer x1 Sneak, x2 Marched to the Wall and x1 Wildfire instead, though I'm now running with 12 of either Tyrell / Baratheon / Lannister / Stark / Martell in my GJ decks. Gain so much more than the once in a while fealty 1g, hell, stuff like Tyrion Lannister (2g for each intrigue challenge) supplants my gold needed for Tears of Lys, We Do Not Sow, Put To The Sword, etc. entirely.
Marched is one of your best tower-destroyers. It's quite often I kill 2 or 3 weak characters per turn thanks to 1 claim for military, and +1 or more extra kills via wildfire or via Sneak attack (1 of the 2.) Then +1 kill via throwing axe (if they block) or +1 kill via Put to the Sword (if they don't block or chump block with a weakling) or +1 kill via Tears of Lys. Enemy can have played smart and still be faced with either stripping all their little characters or permanently losing all their dupe protection on their main characters. What will they usually go with? stripping the weenies away.
Next turn comes, he thinks he'll gain 7-12 gold and just replace everything now you're low on events. Marched comes and bye-Tyrion and all 3 lives.
Learning when to clear little dudes so hard that your marched to the wall completely breaks the enemy pre-marshal and he'll just slowly die from that point forward is key for GJ.
1 copy of wildfire is needed to make sure enemy can never have a comfortable buffer of 4+ little dudes to protect the expensive prizes. If the enemy has to keep several cheap chuds in hand instead of on the board, that gives you a chance of killing the 2-3 needed to march away big stuff.
Running a banner deck instead of fealty also gives me three more of those near-free reducer characters (1g and free if you have one to kneel and reduce the cost of the next one.) With 6 of those cheap reducers, it's much easier for me to march my 1g dude away while fealty enemy is forced to march some 3 gold thing away. I do this sometimes to stop my 2x marched to the wall from back-firing on me instead of getting forced to hit myself with one later. While both Sneak and Marched kill 2 enemies instead of 1, Marched lets you take advantage of Asha's standing. When you Little Bird Asha (I see it in your deck) she can do 3 challenges in a single turn if 2 of them were unopposed. That's amazing for both damage to enemy and for proc-ing greyjoy abilities.
You're missing Iron Throne also. 1 copy minimum is a must in greyjoy. 1 free power every turn is amazing for 2 gold in itself, activating damphair every turn makes it even more bonkers. +1 hand size is icing on the cake.
I count 16 copies of Ironborn cards in your fealty deck above since it's all about GJ, so you need the Iron Throne to let Damphair make those ironborn come back from the grave every turn. If it wins a single dominance for damphair it's earned 2g worth already, as you've gained +1 card back and played it on board for free, the equivalent of a 3g+ event easily even before all the power gain)
Easiest is to cut 1 copy of Alanys for a Throne. If she was 2g for a mono-icon she'd be okay, but at 3g with no-ironborn she's very bleh. I counted and you were only using 14 of your 15 neutrals. It should be hard to not use up all 15 neutral cards in any fealty deck.
That's what I thought, too, and I had the Iron Throne in earlier cuts. But I was rarely seeing Damphair hit the table, and never benefiting from his effect -- when I did win Dom, I didn't have dead people.
Maybe I will cut Alanys for another try at the throne. Maybe I'll find something else to cut to go 2x Throne even. Maybe the problem was I just wasn't drawing into it enough.
(And believe it or not, Alanys does help w/my meager intrigue. But maybe I'll drop both copies and go up to 3x of the shipwrights. They've been MVPs vs. King's Road drops.)
Thanks for revisiting!
I think you're on the right path - Greyjoy fealty is a very simple but strong deck.
My version, before I switched to Stark/Greyjoy: http://thronesdb.com/deck/view/1048
Yeah, I noticed your take on it in the greyjoy thread. Were you able to win first player consistently with for your various effects?
Relatively - it helps that many players want to go second so you can get 1st player sometimes even if you lose Initiative.
TBH though I never felt like it was THAT important - Shipwright still shuts down most locations, IFS still adds some strength boost. It's not like many things shut off entirely for Greyjoy going second the way they do for Martell going first.