All Things Shagga - Pyre for Lannisters

This week, All Things Shagga takes a turn back the house that started it all, the one that I first picked up a decade ago- House Lannister! Our triumphant return to the glorious golden lions is due to a nugget of inspiration from our very own Jedi Lanni, (sometimes known as Joe). We were playing some Thrones this weekend, and I saw him doing one of my very favorite things- splashing a cool out of house card into Lannister. In this case, he was using Pyre of the False Gods with Val as his Restricted card. Now, his event suite consisted of things like A House Divided and Insidious Ways which are great events, but a bolt of lightning struck, and I think we can do it just a smidge better.

The Cards:

Pyre of the False Gods- This is part one of our engine, and it’s a solid one. Though it will run us four gold, and probably most of a turn, it also means that our deck will never go dry. As we play events, they’ll just keep heading back to the bottom of the deck. If by some fluke an event does wind up in the discard pile, we can pay two gold to get it back at our earliest convenience.

Val- Our Restricted card of choice is part two of our engine. With an abundance of quality Any Phase or Marshalling events in the deck, Val can be used almost with impunity during the Marshalling Phase. Sure, hitting with her might flip a character that you can’t afford this turn, but the speed at which you can dig through the deck is impressive.

Confession, Much and More, You Killed the Wrong Dwarf, Distraction- These are the events that should give you some power. Confession is an extremely strong card to both exploit knowledge of the opponent’s hand and remove whichever card would be most problematic. Much and More is a great card to dig into choice options. YKtWD and Distraction are both time tested control events that keep your opponent’s scariest characters tied up. But what ties them all together? The ability to be played instantly if you happen to flip them by using Val in the Marshalling phase!

A Time for Ravens, At the Gates, City of Secrets, Carrion Bird, Lion Herald, Septon Cellador- How do you put all of the above together to really take advantage of them? By shuffling your deck frequently so those sweet events don’t get stuck on the bottom where you can’t access them! Thankfully, several of these cards also have some other incidental effects that might turn out to be pretty useful for you.

Thoughts on Play:
You’ll probably want to start off with At the Gates to get Aemon for some claim soak to give you time to set up because this can take a little while to set up. Building Season might be a different option to get the Pyre more quickly, but I’m always loathe to give my opponent anything like that. Still, with one City plot down, you can start to give yourself some breathing room with the control of the other City plots, eventually copying whichever control effect will be most useful for you with City of Spiders, though don’t forget that it can be used to copy City of Secrets for another shuffle effect in a pinch.

In the early game you’ll be using fairly typical kneel effects to slow the tempo of the game to your pace much like regular kneel decks. Unlike typical kneel decks, however, you may not always want to just toss a Doubting Septa under the bus when it comes time to fulfill military claim. Keep in mind both that you may have already maxed out on draw via Val and that you’ll likely want to keep at least 1 holy character on the board to kneel in case you flip Confession with Val. Should the Septas or the High Septon die and end up on the bottom of your deck, don’t forget that shuffling not only ups your odds of getting those sweet control events each time you run through, but it will also keep bringing those handy claim soak characters back around if need be.

A couple other neat tricks are worth remembering. If you have a Lion Herald in your hand, wait to trigger Val until after playing it. You can set up whatever character you might want to be on the top of the deck and then immediately grab them with Val. Likewise Much and More can be used to cherry pick whatever character you searched for with the Herald. Conveniently, Much and More will also shuffle your deck, but be aware that at the end of that shuffle, you’ll place that particular much and more on the bottom of the deck due to the Pyre rather than shuffling it back into the deck. Also, you may sometimes hit on some cards that you can’t play at the time, but being able to pay 2 to bring back an lost Confession or to put a Greedy Councilor into play should help offset this.

The Deck:

Deck Built with CardGameDB.com GoT Deckbuilder

Lannister- Pyre


House (1)
House Lannister (Core) x1

Agenda (0)

Plot (7)
A Time for Ravens (ACoS) x1
At the Gates (GotC) x1
City of Secrets (TTotH) x1
City of Sin (AToT) x1
City of Soldiers (TBoBB) x1
City of Spiders (TftRK) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1

Character (31)
Carrion Bird (ASoS) x3
Lion Herald (SB) x3
Septon Cellador (WotN) x1
Doubting Septa (LotR) x3
Ser Lancel Lannister (TPoL) x1
Practical Believer (CtB) x2
High Septon (LotR) x1
Cersei Lannister (LotR) x1
Greedy Councilor (ASitD) x3
Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS) x1
Val (RotO) x3
Lannisport Weaponsmith (Core) x2
Brothel Guard (LotR) x2
Enemy Informer (Core) x3
Maester Aemon (Core) x2

Location (14)
Sunset Sea (Core) x3
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
Street of Steel (Core) x1
Shadowblack Lane (Core) x1
River Row (QoD) x1
The Goldroad (Core) x3
Queen Cersei's Chambers (Core) x1
Pyre of the False Gods (KotStorm) x3

Event (12)
Confession (KotS) x3
Much and More (AHM) x3
You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf! (Core) x3
Distraction (Core) x3

Attachment (3)
Increased Levy (LotR) x3