All Things Shagga - Martell-Lannister Recursion

Hi all! It’s so good to see all the old faces and hopefully some new one here in the first post-GenCon All Things Shagga. Sorry for missing last week, but it turned out that I needed a little time recover after the con. I’m sure those of you that attended know what I mean.

The good news, however, is that GenCon did give me an idea for a deck for the column. Ok, so the Con as a whole didn’t actually speak to me- that would be creepy. No, this actually popped up in conversation with a fellow Thrones player. It’s been a little bit and there has been some drinking, carousing, and sleep since then, so my memory is a little fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure it was Mike. Just don’t ask me which one. But, hey, I digress in my attempts to be mildly amusing. Instead, let’s move on to the deck!

The spark of inspiration struck and ignited a plan to utilize some under used cards with potentially very high power levels. The key card in this instance is Open Market (ASoS), which for a slight card disadvantage gives you a potentially very large increase in card quality. Another card that I’ve been looking at for some time, but hadn’t tapped the full potential of is Crawn Son of Calor (LotR). Interestingly, Open Market requires two cards to be discarded in order to return one, which leaves you down a card. If at least one of those cards is a Clansmen card, then during the Marshalling phase, you can bring it into play with Crawn, and remove the card disadvantage element of Open Market’s phenomenal ability.

So, in order to really explore this, we’re going to need a solid supporting cast for the deck. The first decision is choosing the house and agenda for the deck. Considering the level of Clansmen characters needed, it seems that we’re not going to want to pay a gold penalty for them. With the incredibly high power level of Martell cards in general and events in particular (probably the best option to return with Open Market) we’re not going to want to pay a penalty there, either. In fact, considering the powerful “House Martell Only” events and The Darkstar, it’s almost certainly best to use Martell for the house with the Alliance agenda letting us pick up the slack on the needed Lannister characters.

Of course, with Crawn being so important to making up our card disadvantage, we’ll need to run three copies of him, but what other Lannisters should back him up? Painted Dogs (IG) is always a solid choice as a cheap character that has a surprisingly useful ability to alter the challenge phase. The Burned Men (MotM) and Shagga Son of Dolf (DB) both give some solid options to bring Deadly to the challenge phase, and The Burned Men give us the potential at some impressive claim raising capabilities if we let the card disadvantage of Open Market drop our hand size below that of the opponent. Along with the Clansmen, Lannister actually features another character that is amazing for this type of deck- Greedy Councilor (ASitD). She’s arguably even better for the deck as you don’t even need Crawn in play, just pay 2 gold to put her right into play and thanks to her ability being Any Phase, you can potentially put her in on the same turn or phase that you use Open Market, meaning less time for your opponent to disrupt your way to return her to play.

The other big decision for the deck has to do with what which events would be the most annoying for your opponent to face over and again. When I think Martell, the most annoying event that I can think of is probably Burning on the Sand (RotO). Sadly, due to reasons that you’ll see in a moment, you won’t find it here as I opted to use the Restricted slot on a different card. A close second behind Burning, however, is Red Vengeance (PotS), which worries players all over when they see two influence under the control of a Martell player. Another event that nearly anyone in our meta can attest to as being incredibly annoying and powerful is Confession (KotS), and the thought of recycling it to constantly strip the most important card from your opponent’s hand makes me cackle in evil Shagga glee. With those two events, we’ve already made a decent influence commitment, and we’re already looking at manipulating the discard pile, so The Prince's Plans (TIoR) looks like a natural fit. The real kicker card, however, is Westeros Bleeds (Core). It slots right in with the influence, provides solid control, terrifies your opponent when you return it to hand, and The Prince’s Plans can be used to help you easily recover from the loss of your characters to the discard pile.

A trio of other Martell cards help round out the interactions with our events. Orphan of the Greenblood (PotS) brings solid control to the game to help us set up our engine pieces as well as being returned by either of our Martell recursion cards. The Red Viper (PotS) safely lives through our Westeros Bleeds and is just an always solid card. But the real kicker is my choice of restricted card, The Viper's Bannermen (PotS), which helps refill our hand and nets us even more cards when we use Westeros Bleeds to mop up the field. In fact, thanks to its ability to draw on the way in and the way out of play, it’s actually quite feasible to repeatedly return it with Open Market and potentially be up on cards in the end.

A few other cards of note round out the deck by hooking in to at least one of our themes. Since Open Market needs it to be Summer to activate, Samwell Tarly (TRS) and Carrion Bird (ASoS) are included to provide some draw along with our Black Raven (ASoS). This should help dig to the important pieces and keep our hand full once the engine is running. Hidden Vale Pass (MotM) gives another option to utilize our Clansmen (particularly those with Deadly) to alter challenges, as well as using Crawn to return them to play. Doubting Septa gives some early claim soak and draw, while providing an alternate way to play Confession in order to save our influence for some of the larger events. Marched to the Wall (LoW) gives more character control that we’re more able to recover from than the opponent, and it also doubles as a way to remove our own The Viper’s Bannermen from play so that we can “draw,” while putting the opponent down on characters.

All in all, I think it’s a pretty sweet deck with a ton of ways to weave together the various themes in new and synergistic ways. Unfortunately, I’ve once again had some difficulty in paring the deck down quite enough. Currently, we’re setting at 64 cards. What would you pull to get this down to 60?


Martell-Lannister Recursion


Total Cards (64)

House (1)
House Martell (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
Alliance (QoD) x1

Plot (7)
A Time for Ravens (ACoS) x1
At the Gates (GotC) x1
City of Soldiers (TBoBB) x1
A City Besieged (CD) x1
Loyalty Money Can Buy (QoD) x1
Retaliation! (ASoSilence) x1
Marched to the Wall (LoW) x1

Character (34)
Carrion Bird (ASoS) x3
Crawn Son of Calor (LotR) x3
Darkstar (PotS) x3
Greedy Councilor (ASitD) x3
Orphan of the Greenblood (PotS) x3
Painted Dogs (IG) x3
Shagga Son of Dolf (DB) x1
The Burned Men (MotM) x3
Doubting Septa (LotR) x3
Advisor to the Crown (QoD) x2
Maester Kedry (FtC) x1
The Red Viper (PotS) x1
Samwell Tarly (TRS) x2
The Viper's Bannermen (PotS) x3

Location (16)
Hidden Vale Pass (MotM) x2
Open Market (ASoS) x3
Summer Sea (Core) x3
Lord Doran's Chambers (PotS) x1
Queen Cersei's Chambers (Core) x1
The Red Keep (TftRK) x1
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
Street of Steel (Core) x1
Water Garden (PotS) x3

Attachment (3)
Black Raven (ASoS) x3

Event (11)
Westeros Bleeds (Core) x2
Confession (KotS) x3
The Prince's Plans (TIoR) x3
Red Vengeance (PotS) x3