Targ Maesters Revisited – 1st Place Black Friday Deck

My reason for running Targ maesters over other Targ builds remain unchanged from GenCon (see this post http://bit.ly/tn1W6E). With the post-GenCon errata to the Maester’s Path (so that you can attach chains to printed maesters only), there are a few adaptations. In addition, the last two chapter packs of the maesters cycle + the first chapter pack of the champions cycle offers some flexibility in how the deck is created. Most notably, the Valyrian Steel Link was added (for obvious reasons), along with Shadow Parasites (for speed) and Barristan Selmy (for late-game closing potential). Building Season was added to help take better advantage of the usefulness of Rhaenys’s Hill, which frequently wins games.

The character list is optimized to maintain card advantage—half of my characters have intrigue icons, three more draw cards, and 2 save from being killed (two-thirds of my characters protect my hand in one way or another). Targaryen’s control mechanic (“burn”) is very card-intensive, and it typically cannot work without a large hand-size. It’s also easier to control the field if the opponent’s hand size is low.

I still feel the event-lite version of this deck, which plays more attachments (including Pyromancer’s Cache as the restricted card) and no Forever Burnings, is very competitive. Given the addition of Valyrian Steel Link (“draw chain”), however, Pyromancer’s Cache is no longer a necessity, and is sometimes a liability with so many maester builds (Tin Links) in the environment. In testing, I found that better card advantage could be achieved with Narrow Escape, especially in an environment where Greyjoy is particularly strong. In an event-lite version, I would not play the Shadow Parasites…without both Forever Burning and Hatchling Feast, the character becomes much less reliable. But in this build, with 5x burn events + 4x burn attachments, the parasite averaged about 2-3 STR each round, and frequently reached 6-8 STR.

One note about the chains I chose: Tin Link and Copper Link were included primarily as metagame tech against Greyjoy winter. I did not end up playing against winter at the tourney, but I played against two Stark decks, both of which ran winter, and quickly discarded their ravens by using the Copper Link to make the Tin Link a “raven.” I avoided running Carrion birds because they were 1-cost neutral characters (bad with Lady Dany’s Chambers) that were also discarded to Threat from the North. Carrion Birds aren’t terrible, but since it was more efficient to use the Tin Link, I was able to run parasites which also frequently helped me when intrigue challenges throughout the day. Though I did not run the Lead Link in this version, that was mostly out of fear of running more than 5 chains, but admit that it would have helped me significantly in at least two of the games I played (would have won me the prelim game I lost against Bara).

Finally, on the lack of location hate, Targ really lacks efficient solutions for this. Although Condemned by the Council is an option, it's hard for me to pull cards that would give me card advantage (burn/saves/characters) for cards that trade 1-for-1 with the opponent, work only against non-shadows, and only after I win a challenge. Also, the chances of me drawing a single piece of location hate is low. Although Favorable Ground seemed like a good solution conceptually (and I ran 1 in the GenCon version of this deck), it played out less effectively. I decided just to scrap location hate and focus on hand control (winning intrigue). Had I faced an opponent with location-heavy control, I would burn any characters, flood the board with my own characters, and slowly win challenges.

Targaryen – The Maester’s Path
Apprentice Collar
Tin Link
Bronze Link
Copper Link
Valyrian Steel Link

Plots
At the Gates
Retaliation
Building Season
Regroup
Loyalty Money Can Buy
Threat from the North
Valar Morghulis

Characters (29)
2x Ser Jorah
1x Viserys (Core Set)
2x Jhogo (draw version)
3x Shadow Seer
1x Black Hatchling (non-shadows version)
1x Ser Barristan Selmy
3x Refugee of the Plains
1x Pyat Pree
3x Dragon Thief
2x Advisor to the Crown
1x Horseback Archers
1x Brown Ben Plumm
1x Khal Drogo (search/draw version)
1x Craster
3x Shadow Parasite
1x Green Hatchling (non-shadows version)
1x Maester Aemon (Core Set)
1x Varys (shadows version)

Locations (14)
2x The Red Keep
3x Eastern Fiefdoms
2x Khal Drogo’s Tent
3x Summer Sea
1x Lady Daenerys’s Chambers
1x Street of Steel
1x Rhaenys’s Hill
1x Meereenese Brothel

Events (8)
3x The Hatchling’s Feast
2x Forever Burning
3x Narrow Escape [restricted card]

Attachments (non-chain) (4)
3x Flame-Kissed
1x Dragon Skull