All Things Shagga - Tywin Combo

This week’s All Things Shagga turns its eye back to my favorite house- Lannister! What dastardly tricks do the Lions bring to the table? Why all the bling in Westeros, of course! In the novels, a common saying is that “Tywin Lannister shits gold,” which is used to signify the vast wealth of the Lannisters – far beyond that of the other great houses. In the A Game of Thrones LCG, we’ve seen several versions of Tywin Lannister. I’ll leave analysis of their merits up to my colleague in Uniquely Suited, but the particular version of most interest to a Shagga player is the second version to use his ability to reference Tywin’s vast wealth.

The Tywin that we’ll be looking at hails from the Lions of the Rock release, and I can’t imagine that I’m the only player who ripped open the box to flip through all the new cards and immediately zeroed in on this Tywin as the perfect card to build a deck around. I lumped in a bunch of control and gold production and played a handful of games that night. My results, however, were pretty mixed. The games that I won, wound up having nothing to do with Tywin- I just ground out standard Lannister control wins. What's more, I actually never even managed to trigger Tywin’s response. I thought I had the perfect setup to win Dominance with a huge pile of at least 4 gold, and claim 4 power (1 for Dominance and 3 for Tywin’s ability) but I ran into another Lannister deck which consistently counted more gold than I. What type of deck was this, you might ask? It was a Clansman deck utilizing The Inn at the Crossroads.

So, this time around, I’ve absconded with this tech for myself. Twelve cheap clansmen of my own should make it easy to increase my gold production with my own The Inn at the Crossroads (LotR). As well, this version of the deck is still playing a full playset of each of the Lannister gold producing weenies. On top of that, this version is eschewing all cost reduction in favor of continuing the gold production theme with all the Lannister gold producing locations save Kingdom of Shadows since I’ve opted out of any Shadows cards.

With the primary support for Tywin in place, it was time to look at other ways to leverage the increased gold production. In Lannister, the first place we’re likely to look is Daven Lannister (GotC). Many folks have already looked at building decks to power him, and he ties in nicely with the Dominance and gold production themes already established. Even a very minimum investment of power into his Infamy will result in a huge power payoff during Dominance. Since his ability is once per game, it can sometimes be difficult to judge when is the best opportunity to use it, but for examples sake, let’s look at the default turn in which we trigger Tywin’s ability. Since Tywin needs 4 gold, and Daven’s ability uses X gold, we can assume that a prime turn uses the 4 gold we had, thus meaning that Daven had four power on him. If he did, that means we’ll gain 4 power (for Daven’s doubling ability) + 1 for Dominance, +3 for Tywin for a total of 8 power! Very likely enough to seal the deal.
Of course, I also like to slip in an out of house card or two in order to really find some interesting tech, and Melisandre (RotO) from the Defenders cycle has long been a powerhouse for rush decks of all kinds. In this case, she can be used to increase the power that we gain from winning Dominance, as well as surely helping out with her own renown and the ability to gain a little extra power from any undefended intrigue or power challenges that we make.

Ser Amory's Poachers (LotR) tie in directly to the gold production theme as well as playing very nicely with Melisandre by gaining stealth in order to help make those unopposed intrigue and power challenges. They also gain renown, which speeds of the rate of power generation even more. In the realm of stealthy characters, Tribeless Vagabond (OSaS) can gain any icon we need in order to swing for unopposed challenges as well as being a Clansman to generate gold with Inn at the Crossroads.

So, what sort of support are we backing Tywin and company up with this time around? Well, of course, for any Shagga centric deck like this, we’re going to need draw, so the fairly standard Golden Tooth Mines (Core) and Tommen Baratheon (SA) slip right in to give us consistent access to our cards. With Tommen in as a King, Pyromancer's Cache (TWot5K) offers the potential to offer even more substantial draw. As well, Lion Herald (SB) lets us easily search up any of the important characters of the deck save Melisandre.

What of the control angle? This time around, I found myself wanting to look at options a little different from the standard Lannister control that I played before. Having Pyromancer’s Cache in the deck led me to include another King in order to keep up the extra draw on the Caches. With two kings in the deck and Heralds to search them out, I turned back to a card that has seen little play in recent years- Questioned Claim (AE). This event should slow the game down to give us time to assemble the proper pieces of our Dominance power gaining engine. Likewise, The Only Game that Matters (LotR) can stop cold incoming challenges from intrigue light decks. You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf! (Core) sneaks in from Lannister’s usual stable of control effects by virtue of also being able to slip in and generate the last little gasp of power that you might need to win a game by kneeling your own character.

The plot selection for this deck focuses mainly on maintaining our own gameplan rather than attacking the opponent. While I did opt to run Wildfire Assault (Core) as a reset that keeps Tywin, Daven and/or some other couple choice characters in play, the majority of the plots are more constructive. The Power of Blood (Core) keeps Tywin in play versus opposing resets. All the Gold in Casterly Rock (LotR) can give an even bigger income boost for a single turn, and Alliance (PotS) effectively nets you two gold when you need to play Melisandre. Loyalty Money Can Buy (QoD) and Muster the Realm! (QoD) give more options to buy time in the early game so that you can seal the deal with Tywin’s forces.

Here’s the deck:



Tywin Combo

House (1)
House Lannister (Core) x1

Agenda (0)


Plot (7)
All the Gold in Casterly Rock (LotR) x1
Alliance (PotS) x1
Loyalty Money Can Buy (QoD) x1
Muster the Realm! (QoD) x1
The Power of Blood (Core) x2
Wildfire Assault (Core) x1

Character (38)
Daven Lannister (GotC) x2
Joffrey Baratheon (LotR) x1
Melisandre (RotO) x2
Mountain Refugee (RoW) x3
Tywin Lannister (LotR) x3
Painted Dogs (IG) x3
Tribeless Vagabond (OSaS) x3
Tribes of the Vale (LotR) x3
Lannisport Moneylender (LotR) x3
Lannisport Steward (Core) x3
Lion Herald (SB) x2
Ser Amory's Poachers (LotR) x3
Lannisport Councilor (RotO) x3
Lannisport Weaponsmith (Core) x3
Tommen Baratheon (SA) x1

Location (13)
Lannisport Treasury (LotR) x3
Lannisport Brothel (Core) x1
Queen Cersei's Chambers (Core) x1
The Goldroad (Core) x3
The Inn at the Crossroads (LotR) x2
Golden Tooth Mines (Core) x3

Event (9)
You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf! (Core) x3
Questioned Claim (AE) x3
The Only Game that Matters (LotR) x3

Attachment (5)
Pyromancer's Cache (TWot5K) x3
Bodyguard (Core) x2


Some of you loyal readers might have noticed a key thing about the deck- there are currently 65 cards. Because of that, I’d like to try out a new discussion generating feature this week. In the comments, tell me which 5 cards you would cut so that we can keep this deck flowing as smoothly as possible.