Beheading Ned – I Don’t Fight in Tournaments

Beheading Ned – I Don’t Fight in Tournaments

“I don't fight in tournaments because when I fight a man for real, I don't want him to know what I can do.”– Lord Eddard Stark

Welcome back to Beheading Ned, a column about A Game of Thrones: The Card Game emphasizing the game’s thematic side. For newer readers and players less acquainted with this column or CardgameDB’s Small Council Initiative, this column will be spending less time and energy dedicated to interesting card interactions, dubbed the ‘Shagga’ side of the game, or what is the most efficient way to win, the ‘Jaime’ side of the game. For more on these main player archetypes you can take a look at my first article found here, and take a look at the columns All Things Shagga (found here) or The Things I Do For Win (found here), put together by Kennon and clu respectively. As you may have noticed I was absent for the last installment, but I come back to you now at the turn of a the tide… for Regional season is upon us!

With this week’s theme dedicated to the upcoming Regional events throughout North America and across the world, Beheading Ned was looking rather barren – lets face it, when push comes to shove the vast majority of players at a regional want to do their best, a consequence of which is often a complete disregard for the story that brought us into the game (either the books or the TV show). There is nothing wrong with that, in fact I welcome the challenge, because I’m here to say you shouldn’t write the nedly player off just yet. Today I am going to look into a few nedly builds to inspire the casual player who wants to have a good time at their closest Regional event and maybe surprise some of the people there with just how successful they can be.

Now, I preface this with a warning: when the lore-heavy deck faces up against a fine tuned competitive build, things are looking pretty grim. But there is a lot more to the game than your stack of sixty cards, especially in melee. I have lost games against decks that I consider terrible because I was unaccustomed to playing against them – I didn’t know what to do or how to react. In one particular case it was a deck I never, ever, expected anyone in his or her right mind to play that build in a tournament (it really was bad) and so my tournament deck couldn’t deal with it. Surprise, surpise. If I met them a second time, I might wipe the floor with them. There is something to be said for what I call “Going Rogue,” another term I hope to introduce into the Thrones vernacular (since “Pizza” was such a hit the last time).

Going Rogue: Trying something others have not seen before or are not willing to try. This can be at the level of an entire deck, or just your approach to an established build. At the most basic level you are going outside the expected metagame. The result is that your opponents are less likely to have playtested against it, less likely to be able to predict what is coming next, and less likely to properly determine what threats are utmost priority, giving you an upper hand.

An example: You’re running classic Brotherhood and sitting with one power on your house, swinging on a claim 2 power challenge with Chud #34. Normally your opponent isn’t worried about defending; The The Mad Huntsman (ASoSilence) is down, Beric Dondarrion (IG) is vulnerable, things are great for them. But when you have The White Book (TftRK) in the mix, their risk/reward calculations might be skewed because it changes how they perceive blocking – it takes power off your house and turns those Brotherhood characters “on.”

Using a deck that your opponent won’t expect is the easiest way to break the mold, and I don’t think too many players expect to be matched up against Raiders, so to speak.

Melee

House Targaryen – Dragons

Dragons, that’s right, Dragons. We saw a boom in Targ dragon decks after the release of Queen of Dragons, as it contained most direct trait support. The Dragon-oriented Targaryen decks are based on using a few powerful unique Dragons (Balerion the Black (RotO), Drogon (QoD), Viserion (QoD), Rhaegal (QoD)), with trait oriented support (Qartheen Fanatic (Core), Dragon Bite (AE), Dragon Lore (CbtC), Dragon Fear (QoD), Dragon Support (TftH)). Daenerys Targaryen (QoD) makes them not kneel to attack while Qarth (QoD), Yunkai (QoD), Astapor (QoD), and Meereen (QoD) do a number on your opponent. The problem most competitive players see? Having a few characters, however strong, is a liability against a dedicated kneel deck, and with Search and Detain (HtS) more and more a staple, the Dragons (with dupes) are more susceptible than ever in (depending on the meta) what can be control oriented game while "rush" starts leaning closer to huge setups with swarms of characters pushing through vital early challenges. Together, this makes the slower albeit more powerful dragons a risk in joust.

With the heavy representation of Greyjoy Choke that we have been seeing, and their success, you are going to have a really hard time dropping those 4 cost characters (with the exception of a Maester oriented burn/control build using Dragon Lore (CbtC)). Even if you do manage play them in another game, if you're playing in the United States you are probably going to get hit by A Game of Cyvasse (ACoS), or that new Rhoynish stallion, and you just cannot afford that kind of economic disparity. One zero cost refugee will kneel out your 4 cost dragon with a Castellan. Lots of vulnerability… but is it?

Melee is an altogether different animal, something I have said many times over, but here in particular we should take notice: People are less inclined to play control in melee because they need to control three other players. You will not be seeing very many players using Greyjoy Choke or Lannister Hyperkneel. What you need to worry about is Search and Detain, a plot that you can almost count on being in all plot decks. That is the real threat to Dragons in melee – you lose the power and the duplicates on your heavy hitter. So what do you do? The best advice I have is to win initiative and choose a different first player – running high initiative plots like Take Them by Surprise (LoW), War of Attrition (MotA), Retaliation! (ASoSilence), Fury of the Dragon (AE), with Kingsroad Fiefdom (QoD) or Bay of Ice.

House Martell – Sand Snakes

Martell Sand Snakes is the glass cannon of Thrones right now – if it goes off, you're probably winning the game. The downside, it is extremely fragile and extremely vulnerable to early intrigue challenges and cancel. For those readers unacquainted with our vengeance seeking daughters the deck uses the Knights of the Hollow Hill (MotM) agenda as a source of influence for No Use For Grief (DB), letting The Red Viper (APS) die to search out and put into play all the Sand Snakes, which become not-kneeling-to-attack tricons with renown, stealth, and deadly thanks to A Nest of Vipers (TftH).

With all the dupes they are resilient against Valar Morghulis (Core) if it does take you two turns to reach 15, so unless someone is using well-timed targeted kill and enough cancel to deal with your saves, you're rolling right into victory city. The first time I read about this build I was impressed and astounded. It all happens on one turn – it is a 0 to 15 or nothing gamble, and is about as Rogue as anything I had seen before. This build has the advantage of Greyjoy’s traditional sudden mass power gains (Balon Greyjoy (KotS), Rise of the Kraken (KotS), Assault of the Kraken (KotS)) that made them so deadly a few years ago, but there is no real slow buildup or stage setting. You have it or you don’t, and when you have it things happen.

Joust

House Lannister – Small Council and Shadows

One of my pet builds was the Lannister Shadows/Small Council event Recycle that we saw last theme week. For those readers who are unfamiliar, you can take a look at the events subject to recycle in Staton’s Forgotten Plans article here, and a combo-centric build by Kennon here that uses this engine. My original build (one of the two I was juggling between for last year’s regional) is a slightly different animal. I won’t be using it at the one regional I attend this year, so I am happy to share with you the nuts and bolts of it. I was using a pretty standard Lannister shadows build (The Black Cells (TftRK), Kingswood Trail (CoS), Alchemist's Guild Hall (TBoBB), etc.) with You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf! (Core), Questioned Claim (AE), Condemned by the Council (AToT) as recyclable events with Small Council Chamber (SaS). I was also running a thin contingency of epic battles (Battle of the Bay (TBoBB), The Battle of the Blackwater (EB), War of Five Kings (RoW)) in the hopes to drop the turn 1 Rule by Decree (Core) and trade one card for three.

This deck, to me, is nedly to the core. You're using the Lannister’s extra income to control things like The Black Cells and Kingswood Trail – the City of Shadows (CoS) agenda making it cost an extra gold. Cersei’s insanity/ambition to control the Small Council through whatever means necessary ties into the Chambers (the real hallmark location in this deck) and the whole recycling engine. You could round this out with some weenies (House Payne Enforcer (MotA), because there is nothing like a well timed assassination to root out any potential disloyal followers, and Brothel Guard (LotR), you need to make your money somehow) and you have a deck that not only captures the story but is really really fun to play.

House Baratheon – The Law

This is probably my favourite nedly candidate for the upcoming Regional season. In the next installment of Beheading Ned I will elaborate on my feelings about the Asshai trait, so stay tuned, but it is more than enough to say hand control is fitting for those magic wilding witches. I suspect you are going to see a lot of cheese out of Baratheon (re: Val (RotO) + The Laughing Storm (GotC)) because it provides immediate card advantage (in contrast to something like Golden Tooth Mines (Core)) and can be supported with specific plots (Threat from the East (QoD)) for early game card advantage. I want to break away from that.

Stannis Baratheon (KotStorm) gives you a fundamental change on how the game operates – people are drawing less. All of a suddenLongship Iron Victory (KotS), Valyrian Steel Link (HtS), they are all looking a lot worse, plus inside Baratheon there are a lot of ways to keep Stannis alive (Loyal Guard (WotN)
comes to mind immediately). Outside of TLS and Val, Baratheon as a House is pretty grim in terms of repeatable draw. This fits right in - bring everyone down to their level or poor draw capabilities.

One thing Stannis is a fan of is the law, and Seal of the Crown (APS) fits in spectacularly in a deck designed to limit the cards being played. All of a sudden you are in a game where card advantage through draw – that important pillar of most successful decks – is rendered moot. You combine this with Confession (KotS), Altar of Fire (RoR), and a bunch of Asshai/Shadows control; you have yourself a very interesting (and thematic) deck – one people are not really expecting. Ser Preston Greenfield (KotStorm), Threat from the East, Rule by Decree, Zealot of the Light (BtW), they can all help limit what your opponent is doing by giving them as few options as possible to work with. Baratheon still has a collection of viable forms of card advantage – Fiery Kiss (ODG), To Be a Stag (SB), their “non-draw draw” effects – that give you ways to get more cardboard in your mitt than your opponent.

There is a nedly deck here, built around Stannis and the Lord of Light, and I am really hoping someone can find it. Me, well, I would sleeve up The Laughing Storm anyway – lets give ourselves a fighting chance.


Mathias has been playing A Game of Thrones: The Card Game for a little over a year and a half. As the stereotypical casual player he leans towards Stark more often than any other house. Much more familiar with the casual side of the game, he hopes to bring a lot to the table with Beheading Ned, a column centered on capturing the flavor of the novels.