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1
Calling the Banners: Season 1, Article 1.
Aug 24 2015 12:00 AM |
MightyToenail
in Articles
game of thrones baratheon card pool strategy decks
Welcome to the first ever installment of Calling the Banners, a series of articles that delves into the world of A Game of Thrones The Card Game. These articles will appear approximately every week here on Cardgamedb, and will look at the game’s strategy, news, some spoilers, and decks. So today’s article will look at what is likely the worst house of all, House Baratheon. So recently, I took the Exploiting Weakness deck that was posted on FFG to OCTGN, which uses Baratheon with a Greyjoy banner and it tries to take advantage of the kneeling effects of Baratheon by using some good old Greyjoy stealth. Now, I was really pumped to do this because I had only won once with Bob and his friends, and I was beginning to get frustrated.
So I log on to OCTGN and set up a game with someone playing a Targaryen deck, and by the end of turn 2, I only had Robert left, for all of my other characters had been killed by dragons. My opponent had 9 power, while I had only two on Bob. Then he pulled out Marched to the Wall, and suddenly I had nothing and then conceded. And while I am new to Agot for the second edition, I highly doubt that that was my fault. And the worst part? I kept kneeling Khal Drogo and Dany, and it did absolutely nothing. The kneeling effects of Baratheon didn’t help at all. Remember, this deck was made by the folks at FFG, so it should’ve been decent. And it brought up a question, did we only get 7 factions in the game, or is there still hope in the stag?
Now, as far as the cards go, they are quite good. Mel has potential, Stan can completely destroy an opponent's strategy, so long as you have good defense against military. And the two of them together can allow the R'hllor kneeling to have a longer lasting effect. And then Bob is obviously the best 7-coster, and his intimidate can kneel further amounts of characters. Then some other star cards like Seaworth and Lightbringer can round out what should be a stellar deck, especially with some stealth from Greyjoy or some standing effects from across the board. And then the events that they have are difficult to play against, especially Consolidation of Power. So what is happening?
At the moment, the pieces of the Baratheon puzzle or broken apart, without enough support to hold them together. With enough R'hllor cards to trigger Melisandre, and Stannis to make it last longer, as well as Bob to claim extra power, it could work. But we don’t have enough R'hllor cards to make Mel reasonable, and we don’t have enough card draw to pull off getting all three cards, especially when we need the money to purchase all three of them as well as a few cheap cards to shield. At this point, it won’t work. The Red Keep is then the obvious choice, since it helps with the card draw situation, but it is severely overcosted and quite frankly, difficult to use, because power challenges are just an afterthought for the current Baratheon builds, since none of their characters help with power challenges. Another problem is that most Baratheon decks are built around either kneeling or power. Trying to combine the two is difficult without Bob in play, and relying on just one card is risky and will send you home early.
So what this article has established is that Baratheon has all the potential to be a powerhouse, but not enough support, especially for R’hllor and Melisandre, as well as Stannis. They have the seeds of several good decks, but with the current card pool, they sadly miss the mark. However, by the end of the Westeros Cycle, they might be a possible contender.
21 Comments
First of all, thanks for contributing! I added some spacing for the article, but I'd recommend including a few links to card images/OCTGN board states or something else to add some distinctive visual elements.
I'm glad to have the perspective of a player new to the game! It's worth noting that my experiences don't line up with yours at all, though - Baratheon is an extremely potent faction, and one of the 3 best. They have the most reliable control elements for "big" characters, around which the meta-game currently revolves, as well as great attachment control to protect said key characters from Milk. They can easily be bannered, and their draw location is simply stellar - I wouldn't call it overpriced by ANY stretch of the imagination (or power an afterthought for Bara!)
A fallacy, I'm afraid
.
Targaryen is one of the more difficult factions to play against - you need to beware of their burn tricks, play around them at all times, and (as you saw), avoid getting caught with only one character remaining! The game typically revolves around denying them the 'snowball' they need (especially since they're quite short of draw).
Aye, it's good to have a new player's perspective. However, like Istaril I have to disagree. I've been playing a Baratheon banner of the Sun deck and it feels very effective to me. The extra control from Martell (Confinement, Cornish Paramour, Unbowed Unbent Unbroken, Caleotte) helps a lot, but the Baratheon core control module (R'hllor set, Consolidation, Shireen) and the Keep have done serious work for me as well.
There are definitely some problems with the FFG deck. It's too focussed on the big expensive characters for my liking, and I have no idea why it takes Ours is the Fury over the third Seen in Flames. The plot deck should be more control-oriented as well. 2x Accusations is the right call I think, but omitting Game of Thrones when you have so much on-demand control for Int characters is bizarre. I also like Building Orders over Summons in Baratheon, as the Keep is more important for them than any 1 character.
Just something I'd like to toss out there that might help put things in a bit more perspective. Most people you are going to find playing on OCTGN are skilled players. More so than casual players in your friends group that you might convince to try a game with you (which are what the FFG decks are usually designed for, and as a result are more flashy than competitive. They showcase a greater number of bigger cool cards than a 'competitive' deck might run so you get to see them in play) or might find interested in a pickup game at your local store. Grabbing a FFG deck and logging into OCTGN is an inherently risky proposition. At the very least, I'd try playing a number of matches with a deck and giving it a bit of tuning before you come to any conclusions.
Thanks for the tips. I always find that new players have trouble starting, and so I am trying to provide some points that new players would understand.
None of my friends actually play the game other than one.
This article also wasn't meant to look as much at Stag Banner decks. The picture was just because of the name.
Bara is definitely in the Big 3, so talk to your opponents after the game (or on here) about what you can do to up your Stag game. My advice is to run 3 of every R'hllor card.
I find myself too often in a situation where my other R'hllor cards come into my hand before Melisandre.
Just in general, Melisandre's ability is weak adn hard to trigger, unless Stannis is in play. Also, as far as LCGs go, I am not new. I wreck at Lotr, and have a mean 40k Aun'Shi deck. I also play netrunner, though I am fairly new to that.
Are you playing it correctly? Stannis doesn't make her ability easier to trigger, just better value. Also keep in mind that her ability triggers when you first play her because of how timing works.
whoops. That was a typo on my part. Wait, Mel triggers herself?
If you want to, a full quarter of your deck can trigger Melisandre. That is not what I would consider hard to trigger. A board of Melisandre, Stannis, and Robert out, if unchecked, makes up the strongest board in game. The Red Keep is the best draw location in game, hands down. Great Kraken is better because of the power it generates, but no other card draws like the Red Keep does. Baratheon has seen in flames and consolidation of power, both very strong events, with or without Stannis and Melisandre. Baratheon also has solid weenies. While they don't have the utility of Targ or the power grab capabilities of Greyjoy, Baratheon sits solidly at the 3rd strongest house. Saying it's the weakest house when NW and Martell barely see play is kind of insulting.
Greyjoy and Targ are definitely the best, but what about Lannister and Tyrell? Both have strong capabilities and can survive without 5,6, and 7 cost characters. (Okay, maybe they need Tyrion) And an unchecked Stark deck can wreck. My "new player Stark deck" beat an "experienced Baratheon" and "experienced Lannister" several times on OCTGN, where "experienced players" play.
Both Lannister and Tyrell are heavily dependent on tears of lys plays. Tyrell cannot win challenges without either the Knight of Flowers or Randyll on the board. QoT doesn't even need to be run. Both houses suffer greatly against Melisandre, as they have no good way to remove her and only a few big strong characters. A Baratheon focusing on defense, getting out bodyguards and little birds against a potential tears threat, and opposing challenges enough so that a player cannot trigger Put to the sword (Not hard against houses that have no stealth), will eventually reach a board state where the other player cannot compete. Stark actually has a very hard time securing military challenge wins. Baratheon has much more cost effective military characters, and unless the stark banners into greyjoy or plays out Arya, Bara's military Icons are much more powerful, and you can kneel important characters with Melisandre. Against a Lanni deck, who suffers from a dearth of strong military characters, Starks naturally have an advantage that they can press, by pushing 2-3 claim challenges every turn. A stark deck right now revolves solely around powerful turn 1-2 plays and hoping you can keep the board down. Baratheon can make powerful plays but doesn't need to in order to win the game.
And answering the above question, yes Melisandre triggers herself. Reactions occur after the card is played, and since Melisandre is a Rh'llor card she qualifies for her own ability.
Lannister is the best house out of 3 cores. They just can do everything, and have the gold to back it up. Then targ, then the rest except martel.
Lannister on its own is by far not the best house. It has one of the weaker draw engines, poor icon spread, and a lack of in house attachment control mandating confiscation be run. Tywin and Tyrion help the gold argument, but Tyrion is non-loyal (and thus can be used out of other factions) and characters like Paxter provide nearly the same benefit as Tywin. Against houses that aren't as vulnerable to tears of lys, lannister suffers quite a bit in both the power and military division. Emptying the hand doesn't matter if you never win control of the board. Lannister is however by far the best supporting house, as it's variety of non-loyal cards like widow's wail, tyrion and jaime can really pull weight in a lot of different houses.
Greyjoy is definitely the best. While the Euron pillage strategy is a little underdevoloped, stealth/Balon is awesome for big power grabs.
Its a testament to the strength of design in this game that there's disagreement over best house. Let's not forget as well, of course, that the game's design means a lot of cards have relevance even in a non-dominant faction (people just love Bannering into Tyrells, it seems) and as a Living Card Game, the terrain of the meta can shift rapidly with just one or two cards.
I'm a big fan of Greyjoy with Lannister support myself, though I'm not confident in stating that its the best deck out there!