Dumb Fun Decks: Tears of a Wolf

New series! I'm under the impression that my first article was somewhat enjoyed, so Dumb Fun Decks will now be a bi-weekly series with a new deck every other week until my creativity is extinguished or public outcry forces me to stop! Suckers.

On the off weeks, I'll do a briefer feature here that refers back to the last deck I made, where I'll tweak it into a new variant or feature a reader's variant. This may just be the addition of a few crucial cards and according cuts elsewhere, could be a smarter plot assembly, could be an entirely different agenda that serves the same purpose but better. Just to demonstrate some versatility and get more creative with it.

The Original Deck:
http://www.cardgamed...fun-decks-r1804



One of the things that pained me greatly in the creation of Strapping Swords to Direwolves was the exclusion of the last kill effect I could find, Tear of Lys. It haunted me nightly, my dreams crying out, “The deck's dopey anyway! Why not have that tooooooooo?” So I went back and crammed those suckers right back in, wild instability be damned!

This would take a serious rejiggering of the icons, even with Tears being a ludicrously easy trigger. The bad-stuff-happening mitigation tech might not fit anymore with three more events and new characters. More draw would be helpful to reach more attrition events, I hopefully won't need much in terms of board state if I see enough of those. With these factors in mind I set to edits:

• Osha – The new star of the deck, the only military/intrigue bicon in Stark, can hold Ice and can bluff at whichever trigger you don't want that round. Also unlikely to be milked. 3X, took from Hodor.
• Tears of Lys – Made room with the For the Norths and one Like Warm Rain. I was drawing multiple Warm Rains too often and I don't have the space for the for the for the For the Norths anymore, unfortunately.
• Bran – Doesn't have any icon I want, the deck is even more unstable and all he does is stabilize it a tiny bit at a premium cost. Cut entirely.
• Septa Mordane – Stark's strongest intrigue presence is with the Septa Trifecta, so I put in 3x Septa, another Sansa and upped Arya to 3x (she also becomes as crucial as Osha in this circumstance).
• The Blackfish – Another natural Ice holder, loyal, and with military draw. This shores up the draw loss from removing For the North. With Bran gone, my targets for Summer are fewer, so I upped one copy to The Blackfish.

By building my intrigue presence on the Septa Trifecta and having Arya and Osha be so crucial now, my previous solutions for First Snow don't work anymore. It's time for Forgotten Plans to earn its binder slot! I'll also need to replace Sneak Attack and rejigger the economy and draw and tech. Geez, this deck needs a lot.

• Forgotten Plans – A must with a lower-curve setup, low-curve characters are perfect for your triggers but get First Snowed so easily.
• The Long Winter – So much expensive tech needs money, and this is the most gold on a 2-claim plot! This deck doesn't care about power loss.
• Wardens of the North – Helps push through triggers, which need the help now that the variety is increased. Intrigue characters can hold Ice on this round.

There's a lot of room for decision-making here, it would need a lot more testing to reveal what really works with this build. This is just a first crack at it; may need more claim, may need more economy. Draw's got to come from the characters at this point, I can't fit Close Call anymore. Still sticking with the Building Orders though; that could easily be changed.

The complete decklist:


Has this totally gotten away from me? Am I doing too much with too little loss mitigation? Is Fortified Position even pulling its weight now, and that's the whole point of the deck? Have I added another plot that can be represented as "FP" and that's really annoying to me as a writer? The answer to all of these questions is probably yes, but I said I'd do it and I did it and this should be at least mildly functional.

This deck is even wilder than the last, games will be intensely swingy but should still be splashy and fun. It went 1-1 in two quick games for me, and was certainly a dumb fun time, so I suppose I'll count it a success! I got to use Osha's strike-and-fade; Grey Wind and 2-claim setting up the Marching of a triple-duped Jaime; a nice clean Tears for a board wipe; and getting exterminated by counter-wipe because I have no mitigation tech. In only two games, that's a decent amount of the special tech for this deck coming through.

This turned out less brief than I anticipated, other off-week articles may be shorter. Join me next week for something Tyrell, just in time for it to have not been tested with King Renly in it! Unless I'm lying to you. Or to myself.