Fire and Blood - With Jank and Combo

So I always play Targaryen (well, almost always, and always when it counts) so of course my adopted house words are Fire and Blood. My beloved local meta, though, due to my playstyle, says that my house words should actually be "With Jank and Combo." This is because I love things like the RIver plots, or trait manipulation, or OOH splashing. So when it came time to get down to brass tacks and build myself a regional deck, I found that a bit hard to do. I had a few goals in mind:

1. Win
2. Use at least one River plot
3. Use Dragons
4. Be Creative

Keeping in mind that my regional was early April, this is before Dragons were cool. It might not be going TOO terribly far to point to the Tulsa regional as the birthing of the dragons on the competitive scene. If you haven't seen them yet, Team Covenant posts videos from our events on YouTube on their channel as well as on their site TeamCovenant.com. You can there see a Dragon TLV mirror match and at least one from the monstrosity that I cooked up for the regionals: Balerion Bounce Maesters. I ended up taking second in a strong field, falling at the last hurdle to a TLV Dragon deck.

I was very pleased with the deck's performance and of course wanted to share it right away, but kept in tucked away since some other sterling players wished to unleash their own fiery fury upon the regional fields this past weekend. Darknoj was able to take home the victory, another played it to a top four, and another had a very solid finish in his own right. I kept it secret, safe, and it has paid off.

So you might be wondering by now, what is Balerion Bounce Maesters? Well, it's a deck that seeks to unleash the most powerful singular card effect in the game: Balerion the Black (RotO). These decks aren't content with playing Big B just once, though. No, we want to play him over and over again, until our opponents simply cannot compete any longer. Of course, Balerion is expensive, so the only realistic way to get him into play is with a Maester character and the Dragon Lore attachment. Once that's achieved, there are a few ways in-house to bring cards out of play so that we can play them again. One old-school and forgotten way is Banner for the Dragon (CtB). Unfortunately, just like Unburnt (QoD), Balerion is No Attachments. Another quickly seen way is Summer Encampment (SA). However, this presents its own problems. With Balerion, you're going for a combo-based deck anyway, and the Encampment just adds another piece that you need to draw, play, and protect. I'd like to keep those to a minimum.

There are, in AGoT, effects that you can deliver on-demand, without drawing into them. We call these Plot Cards. So, when looking for a reliable recycle for Balerion, I had to go to the plot deck. Luckily for me, one of my goals was to use River plots. There are two Rivers that can help bring Balerion out of play, and, due to the copying effect on the Rivers, you can do this multiple times in succession. Those glorious Shagga gems are At the Palace of Sorrows (VM) and Pulled from the Rhoyne (VD). Not only do these plots pull Balerion out of play, they also pull cards out of play from your opponent, meaning that you plug up their draw as they look for answers to your combo! Very nice side effect. I needed a third River, so I went for Crossing the Ruby Ford (RotK) basically for the gold and its ability to copy the other plots should I need that.

So there you have the bare bones of a Balerion deck: Maesters, Dragon Lore, and River plots. Since I'm using Maester characters, I think that the Maester's Path seems to be a decent agenda. Not only will it thin my deck as I look for my pieces, but it will add the extra utility that Dragons typically lack. Black Iron Link and Valyrian Steel Link round out the Intrigue and Draw holes while Copper Link and Bronze Link add extra utility to the themes. In short, it seems like the only choice for a Balerion Bounce deck. You want to be able to win even if your combo doesn't go off and the OP nature of much of the Maester tech makes for a good call.

So I guess you're wanting to see the deck, right? Ok; here it is:
Total Cards (60)

House (1)
House Targaryen (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
The Maester's Path (GotC) x1

Plot (7)
At the Palace of Sorrows (VM) x1
Crossing the Ruby Ford (RotK) x1
Pulled from the Rhoyne (VD) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
At the Gates (GotC) x1
Outwit (TIoR) x1
Men of Duty (AHM) x1

Character (27)
True-Queen's Harbinger (QoD) x2
Archmaester Ebrose (CbtC) x1
Archmaester Marwyn (CD) x1
Daenerys Targaryen (QoD) x3
Balerion the Black (RotO) x3
Drogon (QoD) x2
Rhaegal (QoD) x2
Viserion (QoD) x2
Maester Aemon (Core) x1
Linked Advisor (TIoR) x2
Oldtown Scholar (FtC) x3
Brown Ben Plumm (Core) x1
Young Griff (VD) x1
Viserys Targaryen (Core) x1
Strong Belwas (VD) x2

Location (16)
Flea Bottom (TGM) x1
Great Pyramid of Meereen (AHM) x1
Eastern Fiefdoms (Core) x2
Kingsroad Fiefdom (QoD) x2
Summer Sea (Core) x3
Meereen (QoD) x1
Meereenese Fighting Pit (ARotD) x2
Astapor (QoD) x1
Khal Drogo's Tent (Core) x1
Vhagar (TGF) x1
Street of Sisters (Core) x1

Attachment (9)
Apprentice Collar (GotC) x1
Black Iron Link (MotA) x1
Bronze Link (FtC) x1
Copper Link (GotC) x1
Gold Link (TIoR) x1
Valyrian Steel Link (HtS) x1
Dragon Lore (CbtC) x3

Event (8)
Paper Shield (QoD) x3
Nightmares (LoW) x3
Dance With Dragons (Core) x2

So the core of the deck builds itself; let's talk through a few of my choices in a bit more detail.

CHAINS

I wanted six chains only; that way I could win in two turns if need be. The toughest cut was Steel Link, and I might add that in if I rebuild the deck, but I felt I needed Apprentice to help vs blanking (I did), Valryian Steel to draw, Copper for trait mainpulation (make people Dragons to keep them standing when Balerion enters), Black Iron for the Power Behind the Throne matchup especially (meta call), Bronze for attachment recursion (need a way to play after Valar), and Gold for the Choke matchup. I was fairly pleased with my choices throughout the day.

EVENTS

I wanted to only play 8 events since I'm already running high on tough-to-setup cards. I went with Dance with Dragons (of course, and at 2x since I only own two Cores. A third would be nice but I didn't REALLY need it). Three Nightmares were in there mainly for the Iron Throne (LotR) and Maester Murenmure--Marshalling phase cancels that I couldn't otherwise deal with. They were clutch all day, and removing Stealth might be their best use in this deck, actually. Paper Shields were in there to keep my pieces humming.

CHARACTERS

Everyone here plays a role. Either you are a Maester, Dragon, Standing tech, or good for setup. That's basically it. Strong Belwas is the exception, since his saves are so handy. Let's take a closer look at the maesters:

Archmaester Ebrose: I wanted a hard-to-burn maester, so it was him or the neutral Marwyn. Since i'm running the in-house Marwyn, this choice was easy. If you get Ebrose early, chain him up and use him to help rush.

Linked Advisor: Just a guy. Can be nice to get high STR but is one of the only in-house Targ options. Nice to have the Learned crest for Outwit.

Archmaester Marwyn: see above for the Advisor, except he can be saved with Belwas. Very nice in a pinch.

Oldtown Scholar: great for setup. I liked to not have to use At the Gates, and getting one of these on setup helped ensure that.

Maester Aemon: Used him mainly for the save, of course. With the Copper LInk, he can save more than just himself on a Valar turn.

Let's take a look at the Dragons now:

The main choice here was to Hatchling or not to Hatchling. I chose not to, thinking that the speed of the deck as well as the saves from Belwas would be enough to protect my dragons. I was happy with the choice throughout the day. Running 2x each main dragon was also a tough call, but I couldn't run 3 of each without crimping my setup horribly and running out of room for other characters I needed. With 3x of Danaerys also a must, nine more four cost guys on top of three ten cost guys was just too much. I ended up happy with my character base.

LOCATIONS

Nothing too surprising here, but let me just say that Flea Bottom is great. Not only can the fighting pits stand a dragon you marshal, but usually everyone gets knelt anyway from Baoerion so you might as well make them two chapter.

A big thing was adding two Kingsroad fiefdoms at the last minute on the advice of John Bruno. The extra initiative to ensure going second was key, and they give you an avenue to ambush dragons if need be. Their major use ended u being to knee influence for Dance with Dragons, so they ended up solid. If I tweaked the deck, I might find one more slot for a draw card here.

UPDATES?

Since this deck was made with an older card pool, you might be interested to also look at Darknoj's updated list and tournament report. He adds in new cards like Desperate Measures, but also pulls out hidden gems like Kingsguard Squire for some extra standing. He goes for the duplicate hatchlings and switches the plots up some, but the soul is the same. Here's a iink:

All told, this deck is amazingly fun to play and great in the current meta. If you are sick of long voyage opponents flooding the board, just kneel them all! I love to hear feedback, comments, and questions below, so let me have it! As always, thanks for reading.