All Things Shagga - Black Sails

Welcome back, Darryl, to another installment of All Things Shagga.

Ok, I’m actually glad to have the rest of you back this week as well, but I just couldn’t resist taking the dig at my co-host from 2 Champs and a Chump and his irrational hatred of that phrase.

So this week we’re taking the opportunity to explore one of the brand new cards from the current cycle. So far, I’ve been enjoying the entire cycle, but one card in particular spoke to my Shagga sensibilities. In the first pack, the new agenda, The Black Sails, joined the fray and it immediately tripped the Shagga-radar. Now, it doesn’t exactly set up or otherwise power a combo by itself (and I’d be wary of relying on it for that due to the random nature of the Hold) but it surely does encourage one of my other favorite things- splashing! Let’s take a look.

Key Cards:
Victarion Greyjoy (RotK), The Reader (TGF), Ironborn Marauder (TGF), etc- I’m lumping them all in here because running triplicates of all the available Greyjoy and neutral characters with naval crests at the moment. It’s not exactly exciting, but it’s necessary in order to keep activating the agenda round after round so that we can search out the other key cards as necessary. Additionally though, The Reader and Summer Sea Corsair bring some draw to a deck that that is otherwise a bit short on card draw aside from the agenda ability. Victarion also provides some agro aspects to put the pressure on your opponent when the time is right.

Battle for the Shield Islands (TGF) - Nicely, the ability of The Black Sails will work in Epic Phases, so Battle for the Shield Islands should let us search for an additional card out of the Hold, while also letting our knelt naval characters participate in the challenge as necessary.

Baelor Blacktyde (TIoR) - Baelor is a great search option against event heavy control decks in order to stall them out. Martell in particular really hates to see him on the table.

Balon Greyjoy (KotS) - Balon gives us an out against opposing Kings that may cause a problem, while also providing a nice agro character when necessary.

Island Smuggler (MotM) - Surprisingly useful against recursion decks. He might not last long against Targaryen if they have Flame Kissed handy, but otherwise, he can really put a crimp on recursion happy Targaryen, Martell and Baratheon decks.

King Balon's Host (TWot5K)- Is an opponent’s character with Keywords giving you a problem? Eliminate that issue with KBH.

Maester Murenmure (CbtC) - If your opponent has any triggered effects that might be an issue in Marshalling, solve that problem with Murenmure. Castellan no more!

Newly Made Lord (TftH) - The gold standard in location removal, NML will almost always be useful. Also, he works nicely to put key location in the discard pile for Andrik to steal.

Bandit of Summer (RoW), Bandit of Winter (RoW), River Bandit (RoW) - The Bandit trio serves nearly the same purpose as NML depending on what’s going on with the Seasons.

Daario Naharis (WLL), Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS), Ser Jorah Mormont (WLL) - The trait discarding trio sees play out of house in a ton of my decks already, so it’s hard to argue against playing them in a deck that can usually go search out exactly whichever one will be most useful at any given moment.

Maester Cressen (Core) - If your opponent plays a troublesome control attachment on one of your cards, it’s almost certainly a Condition, which means Cressen will make short work of it.

Fishing Net (ASoS) - This is a great all purpose answer to a variety of problem characters. Nicely, it’s also a weapon, so it can be used to stop a few more characters than your average attachment.

Horn of Dragons (ASoSilence)- It’s a nice boost against burn, and it’s certain to stop the stray dragon deck in its tracks.

Pulled Under (TWH) - Sometimes you run into a character problem that you just can’t solve any other way (*cough* Beric *cough*) and Pulled Under is happy to do your dirty work for you.

Scurvy (TftRK) - Does your opponent have some annoying saves in play? Is Maester Aemon making your military challenges fruitless? Kiss that problem goodbye.

Bastard (LotR)- A great answer against Hyper Viper, Uber Beric, and a solid option against anyone who puts a pile of chains on the same Maester.

Black Raven/White Raven- With these, you should be able to disrupt any seasonal plans that your opponent might have.

Dissension (QoD) - Ok, so maybe the trait discarding cards should have been a quartet, but it was nicer to work my way down the line by card type.

Thoughts on Play:
This deck is all about having just the right means to ruin the opponent’s day, no matter what they throw at you. Thanks to the Hold mechanic of the Black Sails agenda, you should know quickly which cards are going to be available to you as search options. Make sure you pay attention to which ones are available at any given time. There’s a bit of redundancy in certain types of effect, so hopefully, even if you can’t get the most effective option against a given strategy or problem card of the opponent’s, you should be able to get something that does offer so frustration to them. Do be judicious with your use of the OOH options, however, as the deck only has the one Alliance plot available and in deck resources can be somewhat more finicky in a larger deck that’s split in two like this.

First turn plot choice should almost certainly be Fury of the Kraken in order to fuel your copies of To Be a Kraken, which give you both the chance cancel something an ruin the opponent’s day, as well as stand a character back up that you might want to throw in as a naval character in order to activate the agenda or one of the other Naval related effects. If, however, you do not have a naval character in your hand after drawing back up from setup, you’ll want to lead with Naval Reinforcements in order to get one ASAP, since this is just a really large conglomerate of cool effects and OOH cards which won’t be able to keep focus very well without the search to back it up. By utilizing the search, though, we should be able to thwart the opponent at just the right time and then beat them down with naval related claim boosting.

The Deck:
Deck Built with CardGameDB.com GoT Deckbuilder

Greyjoy Black Sails

House (1)
House Greyjoy (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
Black Sails (RotK) x1

Plot (7)
Naval Reinforcements (RotK) x1
Naval Superiority (TGF) x1
Fleeing to the Wall (Core) x1
Fury of the Kraken (AE) x1
Alliance (PotS) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
Men of Pride (THoBaW) x1

Character (48)
Andrik the Unsmiling (TPoL) x3
Apostle of The Drowned God (RotK) x3
Fleet from Pyke (RotK) x3
Ironborn Marauder (TGF) x3
Summer Sea Corsair (RotK) x3
The Reader (TGF) x3
Victarion Greyjoy (RotK) x3
Alannys Greyjoy (ODG) x1
Asha Greyjoy (WLL) x1
Baelor Blacktyde (TIoR) x1
Balon Greyjoy (KotS) x1
Bandit of Winter (RoW) x1
Distinguished Boatswain (TftRK) x3
Island Smuggler (MotM) x1
King Balon's Host (TWot5K) x1
Maester Murenmure (CbtC) x1
Maester Wendamyr (KotS) x1
Moqorro (VD) x1
Newly Made Lord (TftH) x3
Wex Pyke (KotS) x1
Bandit of Summer (RoW) x1
Carrion Bird (ASoS) x3
Daario Naharis (WLL) x1
Maester Cressen (Core) x1
River Bandit (RoW) x1
Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS) x1
Ser Jorah Mormont (WLL) x1
Theon Greyjoy (KotS) x1

Location (25)
Longship Iron Victory (KotS) x2
Aeron's Chambers (KotS) x1
Bloody Keep (KotS) x3
Gatehouse (KotS) x3
Sunset Sea (Core) x3
The Iron Cliffs (HtS) x3
The Iron Mines (KotS) x3
Street of Silk (LotR) x1
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
Street of Steel (Core) x1
Shadowblack Lane (Core) x1
Kingdom of Shadows (KotS) x3

Event (10)
Battle for the Shield Islands (TGF) x3
Dissension (QoD) x1
Finger Dance (WLL) x3
To Be a Kraken (SB) x3

Attachment (7)
Fishing Net (ASoS) x1
Horn of Dragons (ASoSilence) x1
Pulled Under (TWH) x1
Scurvy (TftRK) x1
Bastard (LotR) x1
Black Raven (ASoS) x1
White Raven (TWoW) x1