Beheading Ned – Vying for the Seastone Chair

“You are not in Winterfell now, and I am not Robb the Boy, that you should speak to me so. I am the Greyjoy, Lord Reaper of Pyke, King of Salt and Rock, Son of the Sea Wind, and no man gives me a crown. I pay the iron price. I will take my crown, as Urron Redhand did five thousand years ago.”
-Balon Greyjoy, King of the Iron Islands

Beheading Ned – Vying for the Seastone Chair
By Mathias Fricot

Welcome to Beheading Ned, a column about A Game of Thrones: The Card Game (‘Thrones’) play that emphasizes the thematic side of the game. Of the three main player psychographics, I focus on a player's appeal to the side of the game that reflects the world created by G. R. R. Martin (re: the ‘Nedly’ aspect of the game). This column will be spending less energy dedicated to interesting card interactions, dubbed the ‘Shagga’ side of the game (and elaborated on in the All Things Shagga) or what is the most efficient way to win, what most players call being a ‘Jaime’. For more detail on these main player archtypes you can take a look at my first article, found [here].

After my first article on House Tully I was asked by a friend of mine to build a deck around one of the most interesting Greyjoy storylines in the series, which takes place during A Feast for Crows: the Kingsmoot. My initial thought was that the Civil War variant (found [here]) already did a really good job of capturing that part of the novels – in a lot of ways it was a civil war. Individuals were garnering support from the factions within the Iron Isles to capture the Seastone Chair and lead the Ironborn. From what I understand most gaming groups don’t play the Civil War variant regularly. That left me to wonder: what about the rest of Thrones? How can I capture what was going on after Balon’s death in the card game, but where? This prompted me to do a little research.

[THIS SECTION CONTAINS SPOILERS]

At the Kingsmoot there really only were a few strong contenders (namely Victarion Greyjoy (KotS), Asha Greyjoy (WLL), and Euron Crow's Eye (TGM)). It was never a direct struggle, thus a melee game could bear a lot of similarities to what went on amongst the few power players trying to attract loyal followers. Decision made; it’s a melee deck. The problem I was initially having when thinking about how to make a Kingsmoot deck was the cards available in House Greyjoy. For starters, I knew I wanted to feature little to no neutral cards, since they wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the Kingsmoot unless they were slaves. In House Greyjoy there are a lot of powerful and interesting unique characters, but a few of those represented in the card game were working against each other (Victarion, Euron, Asha, Gylbert Farwynd (GotC)), were not present (Theon Greyjoy (KotS)), or were… non-participants (Balon Greyjoy (KotS)). So what to do?

This is where my friends opinion differed from mine own: you could have a really good deck with all the people at the Kingsmoot, but that raised a pretty big problem thematically. Having them in the same deck would be counterintuitive, and decidedly un-nedly, since they were not working together to accumulate power or reach a common goal. They were working against each other! Greyjoy already has a lack of quality non-unique character diversity, and really one of the worst character bases in the game. So if your building a deck to support one individual at the Kingsmoot, your probably not going to be able to hold your own in a competitive game. Without Euron or Balon or Victarion or Asha or Aeron all in the same deck its not really up to par with the other houses. So it’s a tough nut to crack. Naturally, this inspired me to give it my best shot.

I decided I would have to take a stand behind one champion for this ceremony. Once I decided this, I had to look at who was there as potential candidates: Dunstan Drumm and Erik Anvilbreaker are not (presently) in the living card game. This left me with Gylbert Farwynd, Victarion, Euron, and Asha. So who to pick? Euron has a few incarnations that would let me make an interesting milling raider style deck or a deck based around using stealthy unopposed challenges. Victarion is the Captain of the Iron Fleet (TGM), so a war-crest based aggressive deck would fit him nicely. But neither of these things really fit into what went on at the Kingsmoot. They were choosing a leader. Certainly military prowess would be important, but less so than the military clashes going on during the War of Five Kings – the longship captains knew this, and they were looking for more.

The champion I decided on was Asha Greyjoy, captain of the Longship Black Wind (CbtC) and daughter of Balon Greyjoy. In fact, she was groomed to be his successor from a young age. Now, this deck is obviously hamstrung from the start since I won’t be including cards like Longship Iron Victory (KotS), Euron, Dagmer Cleftjaw (KotS), and the like (as explained above). They were not supporting Asha. Even without these cards there is a lot of theme here that we can tap into to make a really fun deck that might actually just work. As I said before, this deck is going to be designed for melee. This also lets a player fill in the deck holes (like draw, influence, or income) by using the available multiplayer titles. The easiest place to start was by looking at our champion and asking who supported her?

“I prefer my history dead. Dead history is writ in ink, the living sort in blood.” – Lord Rodrik ‘The Reader’ Harlaw

The first thing that comes to mind is House Harlaw, one of the most powerful houses from the Iron Islands and a supporter of Asha’s claim to the throne. They rule over the island of Harlaw out of the Ten Towers (AE), a massive castle that’s described as a bunch of other ones smashed together. All the other houses of the island owe them their fealty, so we could expect they would be behind our champion as well. Thus, Support of Harlaw (KotS) – one of my favorite attachments – finds a perfect home in this deck. Asha’s mother, Queen Alannys Greyjoy (ODG) was a Harlaw, married to Balon Greyjoy and the sister to the House’s ruling lord, Rodrik. I took a little liberty and included her in this list because even though she was not explicitly there, I expect she would have supported her daughter. Rodrik Harlaw, sometimes called ‘the Reader,’ is a great character that we have not seen in the living card game, but we do have some of his other relatives. Most notably, we have his designated heir.

“The Knight took Grimstone by himself. He planted his standard beneath the castle and defied the Grimms to face him. One did, and then another, and another. He slew them all. well, near enough, two yielded. When the seventh man went down, Lord Grimm’s septon decided the gods had spoken and surrendered the castle.” – Hotho Harlaw, of Ser Harras Harlaw, ‘The Knight’

The Knight (TftH) is a great card, a good addition to this deck from a thematic and technical side. Most importantly, he is a boss. It also gives me an excuse to throw in Nightfall (TftH), the Valyrian Steel sword wielded by Harras. This is another card I find particularly nedly – we never get the names of those seven men so it is fitting that the victims of the attachment are non-uniques. Harras also happens to be one of the few knights of the Iron Islands. But hey, who needs knights when every captain is a lord on his own deck?

Other named characters, like Baelor Blacktyde (TIoR), lended their support to Asha. Unfortunately we don’t have cards for Qarl the Maid or Tris, so that’s where we start to lose some of the wind from our sails if you'll pardon my sea faring speak. This hardly makes an entire deck, so I started looking in another direction: the Kingsmoot (KotS) itself. We know that the ceremony attracted captains from all corners of the iron isles, gathered by (in this deck) Herald of the Sea (SB). It took place on Nagga's Hill (ODG), which is great because we have a card for that and it’s a powerful one. The ultimate prize is Driftwood Crown (MotM), another great card as it can even out the icon spread. Using it to give Asha a power icon could let you go on a few successive challenges against the same opponent. With the crowds of the ceremony almost breaking into a riot, it is safe to say Asha would have had a Ten Towers Honor Guard (KotS) protecting her from any physical harm through the evening. I like to think there were a few Kingsmoot Hopeful (FtC) yelling Asha’s name when she dumped her gifts across the floor.

But how did Asha attract these followers? By seizing every opportunity to prove she was just as capable as the men she surrounded herself with, something I think is embodied in the card Assault of the Kraken (KotS). She presents herself as the heir of Balon because some might recognize The Power of Blood (Core). Some followers would have been vain, and required promises of something in return... such as Lordship. This is good place for us to use Newly Made Lord (TftH). I don’t really like location removal in casual games, but a small amount of it can be justified here due to the almost complete lack of card advantage. You might not be drawing lots of cards, but cards that do two things at once can make up for it. Remember, theses are the ironborn we are talking about. A hard people, most of whom wouldn’t succumb to such allures. Asha would need to take a different approach, showing her strength of character by using Thuggish Tactics (ACoS) to intimidate others into supporting her. At the end of all things, she was trying to rally Support of the Kingdom (Core), her Kingdom. Borrowing someone’s income producing location also reminds me of one of the best Asha chapters in the books. It was when “Asha Greyjoy was seated in Galbart Glover’s longhall drinking Galbart Glover’s wine.” I like to think in Asha might have also taken a page out of the Cersei playbook when rallying her support and maybe went as far as using some Seductive Promise (Core)s.

[NOW YOU ARE SPOILER SAFE]

Altogether, we get a nice list that can showcase Asha Greyjoy and her followers.

House:
House Greyjoy (Core)
Agenda: None

Plot Deck
The Power of Blood (Core) x2
Rise of the Kraken (KotS) x1
Desolate Passage (TRS) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
Take Them By Surprise (LoW) x1
Retaliation! (ASoSilence) x1

Characters (33)
2x The Knight (TftH)
3x Asha Greyjoy (WLL)
1x Alannys Greyjoy (ODG)
1x Baelor Blacktyde (TIoR)
1x First Mate (SB)
3x Bloodthirsty Crew (OSaS)
2x Newly Made Lord (TftH)
1x Maester Wendamyr (KotS)
1x Maester Murenmure (CbtC)
2x Herald of the Sea (SB)
2x Ancient Mariner (SaS)
3x Iron Fleet Raiders (MotA)
3x Kingsmoot Hopeful (FtC)
2x Distinguished Boatswain (TftRK)
3x Island Refugee (ROW)
3x Ten Towers Honor Guard (KotS)

Locations (13)
3x Iron Island Fiefdoms (KotS)
3x Gatehouse (KotS)
1x Ten Towers (AE)
1x Nagga's Hill (ODG)
1x The Seastone Chair (BtW)
1x Longship Black Wind (CbtC)
2x Scouting Vessel (KotS)
1x The Iron Cliffs (HtS)

Attachments (4)
1x Driftwood Crown (MotM)
2x Support of Harlaw (KotS)
1x Nightfall (TftH)

Events (13)
3x Support of the Kingdom (Core)
1x Thuggish Tactics (ACoS)
3x Kingsmoot (KotS)
3x Seductive Promise (Core)
3x Assault of the Kraken (KotS)

So enjoy playing this deck as you determine the fate of Asha and the Seastone Chair. Remember, if you have any ideas for decks to build or cards you want me to take a look at just leave a comment below. Don’t forget to rate the deck out of five severed heads of Ned!