Crimson and Gold - Enemies of the Crown Pt 4

Welcome back to Crimson and Gold. This week we actually aren't traveling at all.

Tonight, we war against our own blood. The dishonored and incestuous bastards of House Lannister itself!

Often, the Lannister mirror match can be a little bit boring, as is typically the case with any control oriented house. This week, we're going to mix it up a little, and see what we can get out of the more aggressive aspects of the house, and when I say more aggressive, of course I'm talking about Clansman. Tonight, the goats shall feast!


Here's what we're running today:

Total Cards (60)

House (1)
House Lannister (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
Kings of Winter (TWoW) x1

Plot (7)
Storm of Swords (LoW) x1
After the Mummer's Ford (KotS) x1
Fear of Winter (BtW) x1
Rule by Decree (Core) x1
Fleeing to the Wall (Core) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
A Time for Ravens (ACoS) x1

Character (32)
Mountain Refugee (RoW) x3
Samwell Tarly (TRS) x1
Carrion Bird (ASoS) x3
Doubting Septa (LotR) x3
Tommen Baratheon (SA) x1
Lannisport Moneylender (LotR) x3
Feuding Clanswoman (LotR) x3
Tyrion's Enforcers (MotM) x3
Chella, Daughter of Cheyk (Core) x1
Crawn Son of Calor (LotR) x1
Shagga Son of Dolf (DB) x1
Black Ears (FtC) x3
Tyrion Lannister (LotR) x2
The Burned Men (MotM) x3
Qhorin Halfhand (LoW) x1

Location (16)
Bay of Ice (KotS) x3
Sunset Sea (Core) x3
Mountain Camp (DB) x3
Hidden Vale Pass (MotM) x3
The Iron Throne (LotR) x1
Queen Cersei's Chambers (Core) x1
Street of Steel (Core) x1
The Inn at the Crossroads (LotR) x1

Attachment (3)
White Raven (TWoW) x1
War Horn (TWoW) x2

Event (9)
Insidious Ways (Core) x3
Rise of the Mountain Clans (MotM) x2
Nightmares (LoW) x2
Battle of the Bay (TBoBB) x2


Clansman have a lot of raw power, but they are difficult to play in the long run because they are a Military based theme, and don't have easy answers to 2 critical basic situations: targeted kill, and location control.


Though incomplete, with some oddly random cards and and maybe a little jank, they can still be threatening, and have some very unique and underrated strengths.

Overrunning Challenges
If a Clansman deck wants to get a challenge through, it will. Short of strong anti-challenge cards like Burning on the Sands, and Red Vengance, Clansman are pretty difficult to contain.

Insidious Ways (Core):
This card is a welcome addition to aggressive Lannister decks and fits right in to the Clansman theme. For Clansman, Insidious Ways draws cards, boosts strength, and also drops the card count by 1 temporarily, which can be handy for the Burned Men. Insidious Ways as a first action against Targ can help ward off defensive burn (at least until the challenge resolves).

Tyrion's Enforcers (MotM) and Rise of the Mountain Clans (MotM):
These cards circumvent Martell icon control and Lannister kneel for the Military Challenge, which is a great asset for your first turn Fear of Winter.

Hidden Vale Pass (MotM):
This card is pretty awesome. Hidden Vale Pass turns every clansman in your hand into a strength boost of sorts, with added bonuses.

Firstly, Hidden Vale Pass can trigger off of any challenge you initiate, regardless of type, and even if your initiating character has already been removed from the challenge in some way.

When used in the attacker timing window of challenges, you can make use of the Stealth keyword on any Clansman you bring in to get around defenders, or to make prime targets for your deadly.

When used in the defenders timing window, jumping a Deadly clansman into play off an intrigue or power challenge will give you a nice targeted removal trick, much in the vein of 'I'm you Writ Small'.

Hidden Vale Pass also drops your card count when going for the Burned Men's boost.

Tyrion Lannister (LotR):
Not a lot to say here, but Tyrion is just a little bit ridiculous. Given you aren't just coming off a reset, there's a good chance Tyrion will be winning any challenge he participates in on attack or defense, since he has Stealth himself, and can rely on the other Clansman for Deadly.

Multiple Military Challenges
Here is where Tyrion's Enforcers and Rise of the Mountain Clans really shine. With these two cards, much like Northern Cavalry Flank, you can mow down the opponent's line with the military challenge as many times as you can muster.

Fear of Winter (BtW):
In my opinion, this is a must have for your restricted slot because you have to make your opponent care about the Military challenge. (We are going to steal a trick from Stark and try and get a pre-plot Epic Battle into play before we flip this.) Doing this benefits Clansman greatly and here's why.

Raw military without some kind of lock on the board or their cards in hand is not very useful. We can't make the board explode with military responses like Stark, so we have to make them covet their characters by wiping the board early. Best case scenario, we flip the Rule by Decree afterwards and force them to play catch up all game.

Battle of the Bay (TBoBB):
This is our go-to Epic Battle, and flipping it as a pre-plot for Fear of Winter not only gives us a chance to clear the board, but locks in the Clansman abilities. Tyrion's Enforcers here, will beat any kneel or icon removal trick Lannister or Martell can throw at you. If you get lucky on the flop with a Sunset Sea or two, (or are willing to sacrifice one to Hidden Vale Pass), Burned Men will give us 5 claim worth of murder for the challenge phase. Not many character based decks can brush off 5 claim on the first turn.

The secondary effect of Battle of the Bay isn't super useful in this deck, but can net you a few reducers and The Iron Throne if they've been discarded.

Clansman also set-up really well, which is a great advantage for First Turn Fear of Winter. Feuding Clanswomen on setup is nice to help lock in your initiative.

War Horn (TWoW):
This is a cool way to add bite to our mid-game. This is one expensive and situational attachment, but it lets us fill a hole in the deck in a very clansman way. Because the effect is passive, no location in the current environment is immune to this card. This is a real threat to control, especially because in our deck, the effect can go off multiple times per round.

The offset here, is that War Horn will hit your own locations if your opponent has none, of course if your opponent has no locations, you're probably doing a pretty good job anyway.

Qhorin Halfhand (LoW):
Hey! Targeted Removal! Qhorin can kill non-uniques without needing to participate. If you have multiple challenges, you can kill multiple characters.

And well... that's kind of what you do... Best case scenario, we lock their character base through the military challenge, and win through unopposed power and power claim.



Now lets take a look at some of Lannister's weaknesses and how they apply to the matchup.

Lannister has weak attachment removal:
Lannister attachment control is horribly laughable. The only at least semi-feasible options they have (Tin Link, Ill-Tidings) require splashing in subthemes or characters that may be less than ideal, and are useless against decks that don't run attachments. Both options also clog up their event/attachment slot. Many Lannister decks don't run attachment control at all.

Against Lannister, you can be pretty sure your War Horn isn't going anywhere. Decks that run Cache will be hit the hardest by this, but Lannister in general gets a lot of their game out of their location base. Ticking off one location a turn is going to cause a real problem for them.

Lannister relies on kneel for much of their control:
One of Lannister's main strengths is going second and responding to threats with kneel. Even though Lannister is starting to get a more varied set of control with cards like Pentoshi Manor and Enslaved, their most reliable control mechanic is still kneel. Tyrion's Enforcers and Rise of the Mountain Clans both get around kneel for the military challenge. Tyrion can also use all knelt Clansman during the challenge he participates in. On a turn with multiple military challenges, this can be pretty ugly for the Lannister player.

Outside of Clansman, Lannister does not really have a strong military base:
Lannister military is not very cost efficient, which means you will rarely get beat on military. (Your opponent could potentially run Clansman as a subtheme, but Clansman are kind of awkward when thrown in a traditional Lannister deck because of the Cards in Hand mechanic) Lannister also has a lot of nice squishies in the 3-4 cost slot, and don't tend to dupe as much as Stark or Baratheon.

Overall, your Fear of Winter turn is going to be difficult for Lannister to deal with, unless they don't set up anything in the character base at all. Fear of Winter will also block City of Lies, which is a common opener for Lannister City of Shadows.

Fleeing to the Wall can be a huge blow to Lannister:
As said before, Lannister puts a lot of their game into their location base. Often, your opponent will have to decide between card draw and control when you flip this.

Lannister has difficulty keeping their card count below you:
Because of the strength of their draw engine, and the reactive nature of the house. Lannister will often have card advantage on you.

While this is never a good thing in general, this does activate some of the Clansman we have in our deck.

Lannister will usually have a hard time blocking the Burned Men if they can't kneel it, and 2+ on the field can create quite a swing in power for you. Other than kneel, Yezzan's Grotesquerie does a good job at warding off the Burned Men's power challenges, but because of Deadly, they wont be able to do it for long.

Best case scenario you can power with The Burned Men, and trigger Rise of the Mountain Clans to get Military out of them as well.


Lannister can't really deal with Tyrion's Enforcers when activated, because kneel can't keep them from participating in military challenges, and they will be able to block your own.



Notes:

Why Winter?:
Winter does a few things for the Clansmen. Few of the available agendas seem to play to Clansman strengths, and Winter gives an annoying bonus with a drawback that can actually benefit us during summer. Winter also gives Clansmen Samwell for draw, Horn of Winter for Location control, and makes it a little more difficult for your opponent to play characters to the field when it is up.

A Time for Ravens:
Unlike most Season decks, you probably don't want to bring this out first thing. It's not necessarily the focus of the deck. Try to explode out of the gate with some multiple military challenges first.

Also, if you already have White Raven in play, there's no shame grabbing a Carrion Bird with this just so you can draw off of Samwell Tarly.

No Die by the Sword/Price of War?:
In my opinion, there aren't enough useful Lannister/Neutral War Crest characters to swing this yet. It ends up a dead card more than it should unless I add some subpar 4 cost War Crest characters.

(If Clansman got a cheap deadly/war character, I would be in love, because it would enable these events, be setup friendly, and trigger off Hidden Vale Pass at the same time.)

Going First:
Protect your initiative. Bay of Ice, your multiple military plots, Hidden Vale Pass, and Insidious Ways all benefit greatly from going first.

Chella:
Don't forget that she works off of any Clansman winning a challenge, and not just herself. Bonus points if your opponent runs Street of Silk!

Parting Blow:
I ended up cutting it, but one of my favorite combos in the game at the current point in time is Hidden Vale Pass + Deadly Clansman + Parting Blow. With these cards together, you can kill one character, kneel another, and draw a card in the same challenge. This is a pretty strong swing in power if you are going first.

Inn of Volantis:
Jimm gave me the heads up on this one. "You could use it with Timmett to protect yourself before Valar, or with Tyrion's Enforcers." It also seems like an easy way to get around The Black Cells if it pops up and your character can participate kneeling.

Other Clansman cards:
Clansman cards are pretty varied in usefulness. I hate to say it, but I probably wouldn't run 50% of the subtheme in a deck I wanted to have a shot. Here's some other stuff that I kind of liked, but ultimately didn't make it into the deck.

-Higher Ground + Vale Scavenger + Clansman Army
A re-usable draw engine in the challenge phase. Too many moving parts I guess, but still kind of cool.

-Hidden Vale Pass + Narrow Escape
You only want to do this if you are boosting STR and your opponent is not losing a character. This is an easy way to bring out Black Ears or Burned Men.

-Tribes of the Vale
Good all around card. It's nice for Hidden Vale Pass, defense, and dominance. It's also the only cards-in-hand Clansman ability that triggers when both players have no cards in hand.

-Mountain Tactics
Seems better with the new kingdom locations in the environment, but still didn't make the cut.

-The Neck
Seems like it could be good with the Epic Battle, but didn't quite make it in.



Cards to watch out for:

Valar:
This is pretty much AGOT 101, but since it's pretty easy to overextend with Clansmen, keep the fact that this plot is in almost every deck in mind. An early Tyrion can help soften the blow of this plot a bit. If you have trouble with Valar, you can sub Fear of Winter as your restricted for Narrow Escape. It has some interesting synergy with Hidden Vale Pass, and is definitely useful for an aggressive deck, but you are trading it for what is probably the most powerful card in your deck.

(Any game changing single character):
This deck does not have solid targeted removal, so powerhouse characters like Northern Cavalry Flank, Shadows Robert, and Arianne Martell can cause you grief. If it gets to be too much of an issue, maybe subbing in Terminal Schemes will benefit your deck. High STR intrigue isn't too hard to pull off through Insidious Ways or Hidden Vale Pass. That said, it's not the most efficient option. (One or two WAR crest Clansman later, this will be a different story.)

Red Vengeance:
With the potential for high claim, this is the card to watch out for.

Martell KOHH will be a difficult battle for you with this and the threat of Favorable Ground. Just pay attention to your opponent's influence and be careful.



Anyway, Hope you enjoyed the deck! Thanks for reading.