2 Champs and a Chump- Episode 66

Nice episode as ever. Ah and props to your nearly perfect german from Austria ^^

great show

Great episode, the details of the statistical breakdowns was really interesting (to me, at least!). Thought I'd try to explain the reasoning behind some of the cards in the deck you were questioning. A lot of the time the answer is "you're right" .

Firstly, I'm cross with myself for forgetting the ! in Retaliation! I love the ! and emphasise it whenever possible. Now I've given the wrong impression about us reserved ol' Brits...

Rule By Decree is in there from the previous build, when I had First Snow of Winter. I took out First Snow because too often it was hurting me, but kept RBD in because I still emptied my hand quite quickly, and it's almost always a great plot to follow Fear of Winter with. I probably wouldn't be opposed to taking it out, but it did serve me pretty well at the event itself, most notably in the final.

I could agree with upping Alannys, for sure. When I built the deck I didn't have the pack she was in, and when I got it I added one copy as almost an afterthought. The reason for the 3 Murenmures is that he's a great Maester to get early, and obviously At the Gates often goes better with Wendamyr or Aemon. In the first turn or two Alannys's cancel doesn't work, and because this deck can win very quickly (or lose very quickly), having that cancel early on can be very useful. That said, dropping to 2 wouldn't be the end of the world.

Ebrose, Marwyn AND Conclave were all added the week before, out of a fear of Targ Burn, Venomous Blade and/or First Snow Of Winter all destroying my Maesters. If I'd thought about it further I'd have probably put in another 2 Conclaves, but at the time I didn't really know what I wanted, so split it between the three. I'm definitely okay with dropping Marwyn for a Conclave; Ebrose, on the other hand, proved pretty key. The deck does a pretty good job of stopping opponents from getting the upper hand, but power-rushing with Ebrose was a nice back-up plan, and pretty much won me the semi-final by himself. I wouldn't want more than the one copy for sure, but he definitely earned his spot in the deck.

Vale Refugee was only there to make up numbers and help lower the gold curve, really. I'm fine with dropping him as long as it doesn't mess things up too much (and putting in an extra Wex for him seems pretty reasonable, for sure).

The Euron was, like Alannys, a case of not having the recommended version until a couple of weeks before the tournament. I wouldn't be opposed to dropping him or changing him for another version, although he does work well with Asha, Wex and the in-house weenies as you noted. The original thinking was also down to the Stealth being very handy brute-forcing challenges through for chains, and obviously since I've got a reasonably high number starting on the agenda it can prove vital.

Iron Island Fiefdoms was just there for resources, and specifically in over Aeron's Chambers pretty much solely out of fear of seeing a bunch of choke. That said, I'd be fine with dropping it.

Risen From The Sea, as you guessed, was there for Targ Burn, but I also love the surprise factor of it, both for opponents' Valars and for my own. Dissension wasn't really a meta choice (I had no idea what was going to be at the event), but with Copper Link being one of the first 3 chains I go fetch normally, it's pretty much never a dead card in my hand.

Captain of the Iron Fleet I'd be willing to drop; it's a remnant of the first build where I had KotS Theon in there and the prospect of paying a gold to kneel a location to discard at will was very nice. When Theon got dropped Captain of the Iron Fleet stayed out of a fear of ambush mainly, but yeah, definite candidate to be dropped.

Black Iron Link is too nice to cut for me - it's often the first chain I get off the agenda, 'cause being able to force through an extra challenge on turn one to help get the deck up and running quickly is just too nice. Pale Steel Link was in the deck for the precise reason you mentioned (recurring Milk of the Poppy), but with only 2 Milk of the Poppy cards and very few other cards that synergise with the Pale Steel Link (there's Captain, the Boatswains and that's it) I often found it pretty much a dead card, left sitting until last on the agenda. If I retooled the deck to have more 1-cost cards I'd be willing to reinstate it though, because it's definitely a nice combo.


All in all, thanks very much for looking at the deck, it was pretty cool and surreal to listen to! Will definitely look at improving it based off what you said going forward, although I might try switching to a different deck type for a while, what with Greyjoy/Maester/FoW being such a cliche triumvirate nowadays .