All Things Shagga - Balon's Shadow

Hello and welcome back to another exciting installment of All Things Shagga. This week, we continue our triumphant return to deckbuilding with an interesting combination out of a house that I don’t work with very often for this column- Greyjoy! I’ve noticed that the majority of my decks here seem to be Targaryen or Baratheon, so I started actively brainstorming how to break that up a bit. As I flipped back through cards, I came a across a nugget of something that I once heard Greg (Dobbler) talk about some years ago. Thankfully, the current cardpool gives the deck even more options. Let’s take a look.

Key Cards:
Balon Greyjoy - The oft forgotten King’s Landing cycle Balon Greyjoy is the keystone of this deck. At the time, it looked like he was pushing Greyjoy’s mill theme in a bit of an odd way by rewarding you for milling the opponent while also punishing your opponent for delving too hard into the Shadows theme for their deck. There is, however, an interesting quirk with his wording- he can respond to Shadows cards being discarded from any deck! So, the genesis of the deck becomes abusing Balon by loading up your Shadows area by discarding your own deck.

Wharf Rats - This was the other key card in the deck years ago thanks to a quirk of its wording. Giving the Wharf Rats to your opponent is actually a response ability, which means that you can always choose not to trigger the response. Most of the time, this would be silly, but for a deck that wants a consistent way to discard their own cards, it’s hard to beat one that can’t be killed. And even better, it’s a shadows card itself, so additional copies can be dumped into shadows by Balon.

Satin - This is a card that I don’t believe was available to us previously. Now, however, he provides a great draw engine for us with some great flexibility. Since you get to look at the card each turn before you do anything with it, you can always choose to draw non-Shadows cards that you might want and discard Shadows cards that you can put into play. If for some reason you can or want to do neither, you can always put it back on top of your deck for next turn.

Kingsmoot Hopeful, Theon Greyjoy, Asha Greyjoy, etc - Ok, I’m lumping several cards together here because they’re all notable in the deck because of one particular trait- the noble crest. We have several more Greyjoy nobles available to us now that we can kneel to trigger Balon’s response. These are shoe ins. Though, knowing how gold hungry Shadows decks can tend to be, I’ve stayed away from some of the more expensive or less efficient options.

The Seastone Chair - With the extra focus on Noble characters that we have this time around, it seems like The Seastone chair could do some work getting us more of whatever we need.

Cersei Lannister and Tunnels of the Red Keep - I’m lumping these two together for a couple of reasons. They’re both out of house (and Lannister at that) but don’t have the Shadows crest, so we’ll be stuck paying the full 2 gold penalty for them, but they each provide pretty significant benefits for having multiple cards in Shadows. With the rate that we’re likely to be digging through the deck thanks to Val and the Wharf Rats, there’s a good chance that we could wind up with more cards in Shadows than it’s practical to bring out. That’s when these will shine.

Thoughts on Play:
Shadows decks generally take a little setup to get going, and this one is no exception to that rule. While we might get set up a little faster thanks to things like Val, I’ve opted not to include search for Balon so it may be a couple turns until you turn him up. In the mean time though, most of these plots should help you to hold off your opponent’s raging hordes. Taking the queue from Bruno’s World Championship deck and my own personal preference, we’re looking at a multitude of reset style plots to trip up your opponent. With a large chunk of your own cards being able to hang out in the Shadows area, you should be able to dodge the negative effects of your own Valar and Wildfire. Sadly, Balon is still vulnerable, but a healthy touch of Greyjoy saves should help you keep him on the board. Also, most of your characters should dodge the return to hand aspect of First Snow of Winter, and with the vast majority of them being unique, it should be easy to punish your opponent far more than yourself with Relentless Persecution.

The draw deck itself is likely to be a slower, controlling build as well, as Shadows tend to be. On top of the plot control effects, you’ve got Alchemist’s Guildhall and the Black Cells to do some work as repeatable control locations. Venomous Blade is also great repeatable control that can do a lot of work in the current environment. Varys and Meera do some work as well. Once you get her online though, Cersei Lannister is probably most likely to lock down opponents, so some of your saves will almost certainly have to be directed toward keeping her around.

In the mid to late game, don’t overlook the ability of the Seastone Chair to generate additional gold for you to bring cards out of Shadows in later phases, should it be needed. In the end, look for Tyrion Lannister with Kingdom of Shadows to grab power quickly. As well, the Queen of Thorns can be a steady and reliable source of the last few power that you need to seal the deal on a game.

Here you go, guys!

Balon Shadows


House (1)
House Greyjoy (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
City of Shadows (CoS) x1

Character (28)
Syrio Forel (TftRK) x1
The Queen of Thorns (TftRK) x1
Tyrion Lannister (CoS) x1
Varys (SaS) x1
Young Griff (VD) x1
Balon Greyjoy (AToT) x3
Cersei Lannister (AToT) x1
Meera Reed (TftH) x1
Qyburn (SaS) x1
Wharf Rats (CoS) x3
Asha Greyjoy (WLL) x1
Baelor Blacktyde (TIoR) x1
Kingsmoot Hopeful (FtC) x3
Theon Greyjoy (WLL) x1
Island Refugee (RoW) x3
Maester Wendamyr (KotS) x1
Guardian Wolf (TIoR) x2
Satin (WLL) x2

Location (29)
The Black Cells (TftRK) x3
Alchemist's Guild Hall (TBoBB) x2
King's Landing (SaS) x2
Kingdom of Shadows (KotS) x3
Tunnels of the Red Keep (CoS) x2
River Row (QoD) x1
Street of Steel (Core) x1
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
Shadowblack Lane (Core) x1
Aeron's Chambers (KotS) x1
Gatehouse (KotS) x3
Longship Iron Victory (KotS) x1
Sunset Sea (Core) x3
The Iron Mines (KotS) x3
The Seastone Chair (BtW) x2

Event (0)

Attachment (3)
Venomous Blade (TBoBB) x3

Plot (7)
City of Lies (CoS) x1
Loyalty Money Can Buy (QoD) x1
Relentless Persecution (DB) x1
Retaliation! (ASoSilence) x1
The First Snow of Winter (ODG) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
Wildfire Assault (Core) x1