Dumb Fun Decks: Big Bama Mammajamma

You know what card is dumb and fun? Bitterbridge Encampment, duh. This week I craft a deck that lives for only one thing: Bitterbridge, Bitterbridge, Bitterbridge. How fast can you get it out? How can you last through your opponent's onslaught? Find out here.

A Song of Ice and Fire is a very serious series. The Game of Thrones LCG is a very serious game. I am not a serious person. This pains me sometimes. But sometimes the developers give me Bitterbridge Encampment.



In second edition, big characters win you games. Your opponent's big characters lose you games. BOTH IT IS.

I don't think there's much debate that Bitterbridge is one of the most dumb, fun cards released yet. It may have a future in Tyrell Crossing once their character base is there, but for now it's just taking a tempo hit to gift your opponent their best characters for free, and they're probably better than yours. But what if they weren't? At least, not every round?

I had a clear vision from the start of this deck, so I built it in a very different way. I'd focus on getting Bitterbridge at all costs and gradually overwhelming my opponent with power characters. I'd laugh at the very concept of a curve and have very few cheap characters, if any. I would use assorted search tech, aided by Tyrell's natural affinity for draw and search, to ferret out Bitterbridge and/or any other crucial loyal locations.



The first step in building a deck that exploits Bitterbridge is to make sure I get some sweet characters from it. Tyrell's character base isn't that strong, so I have to banner (no Kings of Summer for me). Looking through the options, I considered Stag and Dragon. They both had a 7-coster with impressive stat/abilities, an efficiency 5-coster, a techy 6-coster, a fat-stats non-unique and a solid utility mid-coster. I stacked them up:

• Mirri vs. Barristan – A wash for me, one defends, the other pressures. This won't be a knights deck, so traits are a wash. No points.
• Aggo vs. Mel – If I'm not gonna run cheap characters, Mel's not gonna get repeatable triggers. Aggo synergizes with the summer plots I have to run to activate Bitterbridge. Point Dragon.
• Rakharo vs. Renly – Rakharo gets long-game grindy power and maybe intimidate, Renly's good for this deck but will clash with King Renly when he hits and doesn't contribute to power gain. Point Dragon.
• Outriders vs. City Watch – Similar statlines, City Watch is cheaper but Outriders have pillage. Outriders also have the satisfaction of airdropping an 8-cost character, but are unsetupable. No points.
• Illyrio vs. Davos – Davos is unkillable, but Wardable and not an awesome efficiency in this deck. Illyrio is an unexceptional body, but gives a use for gold if draw fails and crushes Bara Kneel. Point Dragon.

Conclusion: banner Dragon will be better for the style I'm doing. Tyrell and neutrals are up next, after that I'll need to get my tech together, I wonder how much room I'll have left after cramming in all these heavy hitters?

• King Renly – This should publish after he's out, he is not in my testing though. He's strong and supports draw and if he dies, whatever, you're vomiting characters anyway.
• Queen of Thorns – Most controllable character in the game, but may as well toss some in there.
• Randyll Tarly, Knight of Flowers, Syrio Forel – Classic heavy hitters. Load 'em up.
• Mance Rayder – Not a Lord? Not in-faction? Not a problem when you're free.
• Knights of Summer – Running summer plots, setup friendly, maybe renown? Excellent.
• Margaery Tyrell – The only cheap character I want to include, she's going to take a lot of flak from Payne and Ward but she's too helpful not to include.

Now that I have 30-plus characters of cost 4 or more, how am I going to make absolutely certain I get Bitterbridge up in a timely manner? My board state will go nowhere fast if I'm not vomiting bodies all over the place. Three copies of both Bitterbridge and Support of the People sound good to me, I'll throw in some Pleasure Barges and Arbor Reds too (draw is power when you're just looking for the strongest body possible, too). The use of Support is really why I don't like the Arbor in this deck. I know that theory-craft-wise, having three of each of Arbor and Bitterbridge makes the chances of having one on setup pretty good, but I've never built it out in a way that satisfies me, and not having three Arbors frees up space (not to mention, three gold is peanuts to the curve of this deck).



Economy-wise I'll just go neutral limiteds because reducers would be very hit-or-miss, the goal will be to use summer plots' natural good gold and whatever I have around to get out one character or a fistful of tech every round, in addition to Bitterbridge. The last thing to do before laying out plots is to fill in the tech. These need to be focused on slowing the game down, impairing your opponent's power characters, and getting “big board” effects.

• Milk of the Poppy – Best way to slow down that Tywin they just got for free. 3x.
• Heartsbane – Multi-renown is great on Randyll, still dirt-cheap STR elsewhere. A cheeky include.
• Hand's Judgement – Your opponent will have spare money for all those fancy events they get to run that you don't have room for, especially the first two rounds. Loss mitigation here, particularly Tears on your renown, 2x.
• The Mander – Just want to point this one out because it's more crucial than Highgarden at 1x. Not a good card in traditional decks, here it can trigger while it's grabbed with Support, and it's huge draw when STR is in the dozens.
• Street of Sisters – Feel free to swap this one out, it's a late-game power accelerator. Probably the most dubious card in the deck, could easily be something else searchable by Support or just something else.

The most attentive among you may now be casually glancing over, giving a sly nudge, and screaming “WHERE'S THE ATTACHMENT CONTROL?!?!?!?” at the top of your lungs. I have only one reply for you very balanced, entirely hinged readers: there is none. None whatsoever. Let them wrestle with trying to put Rattleshirts through a 28-STR military challenge. In the meantime, I'll play my deck like Rodrigo Duterte governs: drugs = murder. If someone's irritatingly milked and it's getting in the way of your gameplan, let 'em die!



Needing summer plots, giving my opponents the keys to their events, and dropping all attachment control means that Close Call will certainly be the pair in my plot deck. Providing extra draw with at least a partial solution to each of the presented problems, these will be the rock of my plot deck. Perfectly complements Renly's debuff, too. The rest:

• Summer Harvest, Song of Summer, Calm Over Westeros – All the other non-knights summer plots. Duh.
• Wildfire Assault – Blech. Have to do it. Lannister decks can be draw-light and may overextend. Just bomb it down and start again second or third round if it's looking too ugly.
• Pulling the Strings –Your opponent may run out of power cards reaaaaal quick, will probably drop their Coppers or Summons earlier than usual. Just copy it later. If you think it's too unreliable, just throw in one of those other two till more Summer plots come out.

With that, the deck is done. Here's the complete list:

(Rights represent Renly if I don't get a chance to edit post-CP; I'll be out of town)

There are... Let me count... 15 characters at cost 6 or higher, and exactly 4 at 3 or lower. No desperate First Snow avoiding tech for me this week! The play for this deck seems to be to sell out for Bitterbridge and then turtle up for the first two rounds. Weather the storm of all your opponent's tech and renown until they run out of firepower and you're still going strong, then just brawl your way to the win. Unless they setup “efficiently,” and only get one baller character in their redraw!

Setup should aggressively mulligan for Bitterbridge, a 1-2 card setup is to be expected. Ideal setup for this deck is 3-cost location, 4-5 cost character, 0-1 cost limited and good-looking characters in hand. Common setup is one 7-cost or a pair of 4-cost characters, this is to be expected. Be ready for a looooot of this looking up at ya; it's no big deal for this deck (throw in a Riddle if it hurts your cost-efficient soul too hard (the threat of this also helps these days (one more parentheses for funsies (just kidding two)))):



Who else forgot what that sentence was about by the end of those asides? Anyways, after some play, I will say this deck has a (relative) advantage against all mono-house decks just because they have fewer distinct warm bodies. Lanni-Dragon is this deck's bane, as it runs almost as many ridonk characters. The games were also a bit more intense than I was expecting, because (obviously I see now) you're flooding the board with decision points. I recommend going in lightheartedly; this is probably the most atypical game experience you'll have in thrones, enjoy the variety! Bara Dom and NW “Initiate no challenges” have nothing on this unusual play experience.

This deck went 1-2 in playtesting (pre-Renly), one of the losses was extremely narrow (Greyjoy crossing just barely got there after a majestic curve, I had just stabilized). A very stable deck compared to my last one, but probably slightly more non-competitive overall and even more unnervingly weird. If you casually want to do some dumb math, have some dumb fun, and enjoy having a DUMB 50-gold board I highly recommend giving it a sample. I don't know of a way to do Bitterbridge any harder myself.