Exploiting Weakness

House Baratheon deck supported by the ironborn raiders of House Greyjoy.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/8/17/exploiting-weakness/

The Plots

For this deck, your objective is to kneel out your opponent’s characters, leaving them helpless against your attacks. Each of the plot cards included in this deck have a distinct purpose for helping you gain control of the game. Naturally, Filthy Accusations contributes most directly to this goal, so two copies of this plot are included. You have a lot of good targets for Summons in your deck including Stannis Baratheon, Robert Baratheon, Asha Greyjoy, Melisandre, and others. Sneak Attack can be a good opening salvo or it can close out the game if you’re just a few power away.

Other plots help you build your board and defend against your opponent’s struggles. Calm Over Westeros helps stall your opponent’s attacks while providing a good amount of gold that can’t be reduced by Naval Superiority (Core Set, 17), which makes this plot a good opener. Finally, A Noble Cause and Calling the Banners offer significant economic boosts to play the numerous high-cost characters included in this deck.

Some plots that are not included should also be mentioned. One notable plot not included is Wildfire Assault (Core Set, 26). Because Robert Baratheon only gains more STR as more knelt characters are in play, you want your opponent to have many characters in play – you just want them all to be knelt. Confiscation (Core Set, 9) was also passed over in favor of the attachment control offered by Maester Cressen.

Herding the Masses

As mentioned above with the plot cards, kneeling out your opponent’s characters is one of the primary goals of this deck. To that end, there’s a host of kneeling abilities here, ranging from Melisandre and R’hllor cards, to Shireen Baratheon, to Robert Baratheon and his intimidate keyword, to the Consolidation of Power event. Of course, maintaining a lock on your opponent’s characters means that you’ll need the rigid control offered by Stannis Baratheon – along with Melisandre, he’s one of your prime targets for the Summons plot.

Stannis Baratheon features a truly powerful ability, but to take full advantage of it, you’ll want it to affect your opponent’s characters much more than your own, which means you’ll need ways to stand characters outside of the standing phase. Fortunately, you have several of these, such as the Fiery Followers, Lightbringer, Ours Is the Fury, and Asha Greyjoy. By using these cards to stand your own characters at the proper time, you can ensure that you have the superior board presence.

Once the majority of your opponent’s board is knelt, you’ll need to capitalize on your enemy’s weakness. That’s where House Greyjoy comes in. Stealth is a very powerful keyword in any situation, and the fewer standing characters your opponent has, the more powerful stealth becomes. Asha Greyjoy is another character worth three copies in this deck – not because she’s a linchpin on her own, but because no other character lets you capitalize on your opponent’s weakness to the same extent, especially when she’s equipped with a Little Bird.

In addition to Asha, you’ll find extra stealth with Theon Greyjoy, Maester Wendamyr, and Ser Davos Seaworth. Each of these characters offers you the chance to slip past your opponent’s few standing defenders and destroy his advantage. Between the Baratheon’s existing power and the Greyjoy’s fearless raids, this deck invites you to force any foe to bow before the Iron Throne.