Fire and Blood - With Fire and Blood

Please note this was written pre Gen Con and unfortunately I didn't have a chance to post it - Darksbane

From the department of redundancy department, I bring to you another toasty edition of Fire and Blood. I know that I announced last week that we would be taking a look at a specific Dothraki list, and in the course of my research, I found that a fantastic player and CardGameDB denizen was considering running such a deck at GenCon. In the interest of keeping state secrets I've decided to defer that discussion to a later time. Rather, I thought I might take a peek at the consensus T1 archetype that Targaryen has access to right now and look at some different ways to go about building it. So sit back, relax and revel in the heat and fury that is Targaryen Burn decks.

ARCHETYPE ONE: MAESTER BURN

While the "Rusted Maester" deck is very solid, it's more of a general control deck than a burn deck. Maester burn is quite different. This build is going to look to leverage the consistency provided by the Maester's Path agenda to draw into burn effects quickly, not least of which is the Lead Link (CbtC), burn in its very purest form--easy to draw into (it's right there on my agenda!) and repeatable. If you dovetail this with the plethora of standing effects provided within the Targ card pool, you really have a recipe for something pretty stalwart. You can take a page from Rusted Maesters and run Meereenese Fighting Pit (ARotD) in concert with Copper Link to give traits and stand stuff repeatedly--more so with Steel Link. You can also try to slot in a few To Be a Dragons, but with the best Power Struggle (King's Landing Coup) not really working with At the Gates, it gets a bit tricky.

In the good old days, Maester decks could run Long Lances alongside their agenda for extra stand. Since the needed restriction of that half-broken standing card, some of the zip has been taken out of Maester Burn, but I think it still has some advantages over the other burn archetypes:

1. You get a setup! This can't be underestimated as a drawback for the Hollow Hill varieties. Though the post-TLV meta has yet to truly shake out, my sense is that we'll see more fast decks than usual. Getting some sort of board presence at setup should be helpful.

2. Consistency. You get to pre-decide what 6-8 effects you want on your agenda and then draw from a 52 card deck. That's not too shabby. You'll draw what you need, more often than not.

3. Variety. The toolbox capacity of the Maester links helps you in most matchups. Black Iron is great against Lannister, Copper Link helps with target discard if you're so inclined, and so on. Sure, you might have a more diluted burn capacity, but Maesters can make up for that with other tricks.

4. Surprise. Most people aren't expecting TMP burn, so you might get the drop on them with some unexpected play, most likely involving the Pale Steel Link (one of my personal favorites). Compare this GenCon to last--last year everyone was packing Maester hate. This year....everyone's packing Hollow Hill hate. That's certainly a point in the favor of this build.

ARCHETYPE TWO: SUMMER BURN

Just talking about Summer Burn as an archetype is a bit confusing, since you can slot Summer tech into four different agendas fairly easily: no agenda, Kings of Summer, Maester's Path, and Knights of the Hollow Hill. Here, we'll talk more about the No Agenda and Summer agenda builds. The reason to go No Agenda is really only because Kings of Summer is restricted and you'll lose The Hatchlings' Feast (ASitD) as a burn option--and that's the best burn card in the game. Kings of Summer makes up for it with an extra draw from the second turn on (usually) but also carries a drawback against Winter decks. The Summer is Coming podcast just did a breakdown of a great way to build this type of deck out, so go give them a listen (unless you're Will, Daryl, Zeiler, or Greg).

Let's look at some reasons to choose Summer tech.

1. You Get A Setup! Well, unless you're running KoTHH, but this can't be underestimated (see above). Summer also gives you 2x Sam, 3x Carrion Birds, and 1x Gilly to add to your flop--that's not bad!

2. You get Sam and his birds! While i've already gushed about how they help your setup, the extra draw that Sam brings isn't to be underestimated. With him in play, you can drawcap easily every turn. Sure, he's discarded from your Threat from the North, but just be sure not to dupe him and you'll be OK. I know of decks that splash summer mainly for the extra draw from Sam, and it works a treat.

3. You get built in season control! While Winter is usually only a heavy downside if you are running the Kings of Summer agenda, it can still really mess with your curve and some choke decks can be downright nasty. A summer build can help combat that right out of the gate with your Black Ravens and your Carrion Birds. You can also trigger Sam on their ravens to try to draw into the answers you need!

4. FIELD OF FIRE--This is basically the singular best reason to run Summer. It's almost a mini-Hatchling's Feast with a built in kill condition. While Summer also makes your Dragon Knights better, the real reason is to add this burn card to your arsenal. If you've ever doubted this card, just stop it. It's AMAZING. Best summer card in the whole game.

ARCHETYPE THREE--HOLLOW HILL BURN

This is by far the most popular build type right now, giving up a setup in return for resource stability (particularly that influence) and card quality. These builds can pack more events and attachments per slot, since they're not worried about getting stuck with a bad setup. Instead, they are just worried about crushing your soul with repeated influence effects. There's quite a few advantages to this type of build; let's peek at a few.

1. This is a proven tournament archetype. A Hollow Hill deck won Worlds last year, so we know that it works. That particular build was a mix of burn and control, but it says something that this agenda pushed through to the top when a Kings of Summer or Maester burn deck has never won such a big tournament. (Rusted Maesters have won, but not Maester Burn).

2. You can mix more themes than usual--HH is flexible. You can go for a jumper-style burn, with lots of ambush and Magister Illyrio to back it up; you can go for Shadow burn, using your gold for your Shadow cards like King's Landing Assassin and your influence for burn effects like Incinerate; or you can pack a Summer sub theme, like I've outlined above. There are lots of ways to build it due to the resource base that it gives you.

3. It gives you resilience against certain deck types and opposing power plots. Weenie-based burn builds like Summer can be very vulnerable to First Snow of Winter while non-Hollow Hill Shadow cards have a hard time with Choke decks. The extra card quality and resource base ensure that your opponents will have a harder time than usual shutting down your robust, strong card base.

While this has been a very brief look at some burn decks, I think you almost can't go wrong. The Targaryen cardpool is deep and strong, benefitting greatly from the last few cycles of chapter packs (though less so from Song of the Sea). I'm hoping that a stalwart Targaryen player will push through to victory at GenCon this weekend, especially if they unleash a new and creative archetype upon the field.

In a bit of sad news, I am going have to announce my impending retirement from Fire and Blood. LIfe pressures are such that I can't play enough Thrones to get enough good ideas to write good articles--I don't even really have the time for the articles. Therefore this will be my penultimate article. I'll write a GenCon wrap up complete with the Dothraki Aggro look either next week or week after and then fade into the sunset.

That means that we will be looking for another Targaryen to take up the reigns over here. If you're interested in writing on either a one-shot basis or a consistent, bi-weekly basis, then let me or Darksbane know via PM. Thanks so much for reading and good luck at GenCon!