First Tilt - Deck Archetypes: Greyjoy

Welcome back to First Tilt, a column dedicated to helping new players learn the strategies that will help them win the Game of Thrones. If this is your first time reading this column, we recommend you start with the New Player’s FAQ which addresses many common questions and provides link to a wide variety of great articles and resources.

In this penultimate chapter of our series covering the various deck builds that are commonly found in AGoT, we head to the choppy waters of the Iron Isles to see what archetypes the Greyjoys employ in their bid to secure the Iron Throne. As mentioned in earlier installments: because the possibilities are so vast with an LCG that has as large a card pool as AGoT does, this series does not aim to be exhaustive and cover every single deck build and archetype. Rather, the aim is to provide an overview of some of the more common or notable archetypes for each house, so that newer players can understand what certain archetypes look like and how they work in practice.

When it comes to House Greyjoy, you’ll find that their common archetypes evoke thematic elements reminscent of pirates and viking raiders. The Greyjoys will swing from their ships onto your lands, catching you unawares and going unopposed; they will burn and pillage your lands to choke off your resources; and they will steal your treasures and drain your resources, cutting off your future support. In other words, when a Greyjoy player beats you, he will beat you with style.

KEY CARDS
What’s interesting about the Greyjoy House expansion is that despite being a necessary expansion to play the House, it is more akin to the four “core House” expansions than to the Martell expansion; when you buy the Martell House expansion, you receive a ton of characters who are fairly crucial to pretty much every Martell deck you will build. Whereas with the Greyjoys, you receive a toolbox with many potentially useful cards but very few “must have” cards. Still, it’s a necessary purchase to get started playing Greyjoy. Here are some cards you’ll find in most Greyjoy decks:

Characters
â–ª Asha Greyjoy (WLL)- A supremely useful card, once you get her special ability to trigger she becomes a non-kneeling renown powerhouse.
â–ª Alannys Greyjoy (ODG) - Another character that gets boosted once the discard pile is big enough, and what a boost it is--repeatable event cancelling!
â–ª Island Refugee (RoW) - Free and two strength, there is no reason to avoid throwing them in!
▪ Distinguished Boatswain (TftRK) - A great card in most situations, but you’re going to regret including this guy when you come across an opponent who runs a shadow heavy deck. So take a careful look at your meta and determine if he is an auto-include or a waste of deck space. If the Boatswain frightens you, or if your meta is shadows heavy, you can find other nice cheap characters in Sea Raiders (KotS) and Kingsmoot Hopeful (FtC). But keep in mind they are Limited, so keep track of how many other Limited cards are in your deck before you go throwing in too many of these.
â–ª Baelor Blacktyde (TIoR) - There might be games where the main ability you get use out of is his stealth. But his ability to nullify events will also prove useful from time to time, and there are games when it will be really really useful. (Narrow Escape anyone?)
â–ª Newly Made Lord (TftH) - Destroying locations is such an awesome ability that this card should be in practically every Greyjoy deck. Heck, it should even be in many non-Greyjoy decks.

Saves
â–ª Maester Wendamyr (KotS) - Repeatable save for two gold is a great bargain.
▪ The Iron Mines (KotS) - Though largely supplanted by some of the more repeatable save options in the Greyjoy arsenal, this card is still a good choice when you’re a few cards short of 60 and need a good all around card to throw in. Or you can go with...
▪ The Iron Cliffs (HtS) - One more gold for one more save sounds like a good deal, doesn’t it?
▪ Risen from the Sea (KotS) - If you don’t want to forecast your “save character” abilities, you can use this card to surprise your opponent with the save, and add a small strength boost while you’re at it.

Other
â–ª Finger Dance (WLL) - Event cancel is always nice. Add in a discard effect to boost cards like Asha and Alannys, and you have the makings of a key card.
â–ª To Be a Kraken (SB) - If event cancelling seems to narrow for you, how about cancelling any triggered effect and standing a character? Just be sure you have a military plot or two in your deck so that you can meet the pre-requisites.
â–ª Longship Iron Victory (KotS) - Card draw is always welcome, and this is a pretty reliable source that can fit in well into just about any Greyjoy deck.
â–ª River Blockade (RoR) - An effective way to reduce your opponent's resources. At zero cost it's almost always going to be a better deal for you than for your opponent, and as a ship it can trigger off other ship effects.

With these cards in mind, let's now take a look at some of the most common Greyjoy archetypes:

CHOKE
“We do not sow” is the House Greyjoy motto, and with their Choke deck archetype, their opponents won’t be doing much sowing either. Or rather, they might be sowing but all they’ll be reaping will be tears and suffering. The basic approach to a Choke strategy is to cut off your opponent’s resources every way possible: start by making it winter, which is an easy way to reduce income and possibly cards, and build from there with other cards that destroy or reduce resources. You'll likely face some consequences from Winter as well, so try to avoid gold producing locations and instead play as many cost reducers as possible, so that you can fully benefit from the low-gold environment you'll be creating. Indeed, many decks nowadays go without gold-producing locations, so cards that can destroy/remove such locations are also key to making a choke deck work. Newly Made Lord goes great in many decks, but he goes particularly great in a Choke deck for this very reason.

If you draw the right cards and play them right, you can have your opponent locked up pretty early on. Start off on turn one with the White Raven, and follow up as quickly as possible with Ice Fisherman and Burned and Pillaged to crush their income. If they manage to pull out useful lands, bring out the Newly Made Lord to take those lands out of play, and send your Wintertime Marauders on raids to destroy pricey cards they can’t afford to lose (or replace). Manage your resources carefully so that you can be ready when the inevitable Valar comes your way. Once you have the choke in place, you can afford to hold some stuff back, and you'll be far better at revocering from a Valar if your opponent is not generating income.

Use your plots to accelerate your lock, for example with The First Snow of Winter you can send characters back to their hand and make them spend their now limited resources paying twice for the same cards. Blockade is another plot that can make them feel the pain of your wintry chokehold. When all those low cost characters come back to their hand and they have no income to bring them back in the following turn, that should be the point where you have probably won the game. Besides generating income advantage you want to also generate card advantage, so that you have more on the table and more in hand that you can play.

â–ª White Raven (TWoW) - One of the linchpins to your deck. Makes it winter and reduces income for everyone by 1.
â–ª A Time for Ravens (ACoS) - Ensures you get that White Raven out pronto.
▪ Kings of Winter (TWoW) - If you are able to choke your opponent of their resources, it is likely that their cards in hand will pile up. The Kings of Winter will take care of that card “advantage” soon enough.
â–ª Ice Fisherman (TWoW) - Another key component to the choke deck. This is brutal, as it not only takes crucial resources from your opponent, but gives resources to you.
â–ª Burned and Pillaged (FtC) - One of the key staples to a choke deck. Destroy whatever you can, and use this card to poison the rest.
â–ª The First Snow of Winter (ODG) - Once your opponent manages to use his meager resources to pull out a couple of characters, play this plot to make him weep.
â–ª The Sparr (APS) - A bit pricey, but reduces gold and initiative so goes well with the theme.
▪ Wintertime Marauders (ACoS) - Gives you the excellent ability to destroy your opponent’s cards. Could even have been included in the Key Cards section earlier, but not every Greyjoy deck is a Winter deck. Still, if you are a Greyjoy player going with a Winter theme, then even if you have no inclination towards a choke strategy, these guys should absolutely be in your deck.
▪ Cragorn (ASoSilence) - A bit situational, but sometimes taking that one gold can really mess up your opponent’s plans.
â–ª Support of the Kingdom (Core) - Since you are trying to cut off all sources of income, this card goes nicely with the theme. It also targets influence locations, which can be effective against Targaryen and Martell.
â–ª Blockade (Core) - Just when they think it can't get any worse, you send in your ships to blockade the meager income they still have coming in.
â–ª Fear of Winter (BtW) - You can use this pre-Valar to accelerate the choking, or use it post-Valar to really keep them locked down.

RAIDING AKA MILLING
A good pirate raid entails sending your pirates out into the field (or to another boat) to loot and pillage whatever they can find. With a mill strategy, you won’t be receiving much direct benefit (at least, in terms of additional resources) from the raiding, but you will be whittling away your opponent’s deck and laying the ground work for some very nice triggers in some of your cards. The aforementioned Asha and Alannys are key cards to this deck, since with your milling you’ll likely get them to trigger quite quickly. Do everything you can to get them and Euron out as quickly as possible (and dupe them, because they really are key) then follow up with Corpse Lake to start amassing power.

Corpse Lake is almost as crucial as Euron for this deck. Sure, you can hope to mill them to death, but it’s actually going to be a rare game that you win purely by making them run out of cards. With the Lake, you can pursue your mill strategy but win with good old fashioned power. Think of milling as an alternate win condition and Corpse Lake/Power as your primary win condition. You are milling to power up your cards and get your location effects, but your main goal should still be to win by power.

A mill deck can seem boring at first (much more fun to kill characters than to discard cards from the draw deck, isn't it) but you have some neat tricks you can pull off with your locations. Corpse Lake grants you power, but you also have Nagga’s Hill, a card that can really mess with your opponents. Fishmonger's Square is another card that you might find useful, though it could prove worthless against some builds. Keep in mind that milling is not regarded as a Tier 1 deck in Joust, but it can be fun to play casually and can be quite powerful in Melee.

Also, If you're a Shagga type player, consider We Take Westeros! (DB) and Naval Escort (ASitD) for a potentially massive discard effect.

▪ Euron Crow's Eye (TGM) - The key card to this deck, he’s quite powerful in Joust, but in Melee he becomes a beast and also serves to deter attacks against you.
â–ª Theon Greyjoy (WLL) - If he dies, he starts making your opponent discard cards. If your opponent discards a character, he comes back. If he dies again, he starts making your opponent discard cards...
â–ª Desperate Looters (SA) - The Looters will swoop in and cause a discard, then stay in play and offer character support and military claim bait, and then if they get taken out they cause another discard on their way out. In other words, perfect for a mill deck, and the low price is perfect for this resource intensive build.
â–ª Motley Crewman (IG) - If mill is your approach, then the Crewman will help accelerate that.
â–ª Drowned Disciple (KotS)- a character who discards three cards when he dies. Not crucial, but fits well with the theme. Also goes well with Aeron Damphair (KotS). (These cards are more important in a Holy deck build, which we don't go into here.)
â–ª Raiding the Reach (TGM) - Will help speed up the discard process.
▪ Corpse Lake (TBC) - A key card for a mill strategy. Sure, you can hope you mill them to death, but it’s going to be a rare game that you win purely by making them run out of cards. With the Lake, you can pursue your mill strategy but win with good old fashioned power.
▪ Nagga's Hill (ODG) - Hey, you’re already making them discard, why not benefit a little yourself from the process?
â–ª Fishmonger's Square (TftRK) - Give yourself a little reward every now and then for making your opponent discard cards.
â–ª Visenya's Hill (SaS) - An out of house card, but it can really put the hurt on your opponent. With this and Baelor Blacktyde, you can effectively nullify the most important aspects of your opponent's decks just through milling.
â–ª Frostfang Peaks (TWH) - Seems like a mild effect, but every bit helps and in melee its effect is amplified.

UNOPPOSED
The thing about pirate raids is that they sometimes come out of nowhere, catching their victims unaware, looting and pillaging before the local guard can be roused into action, and then leaving before the local defense force arrives. Or perhaps the pirates stick to the high seas, carefully avoiding those heavily armed military vessels, and pouncing on the lonely merchant ship without an escort.

For the Greyjoy player, the vast amount of Stealth, and the somewhat more limited amount of Intimidate, will assist in replicating the pirate strategy of getting in and getting out without encountering much resistance. And because the Greyjoys are pirate raiders, they know how to make the most of these unopposed raids, with plenty of cards to boost the spoils they claim. Foremost among these is Rise of the Kraken, a plot that encapsulates the unopposed theme perfectly and that can serve as a game closer when played at the right time.

With the amount of stealth and other tricks at your disposal, you should be able to win plenty of challenges of your choosing. They might not all be unopposed, but still, if you really want to win a specific challenge, you should be able to do it with the cards a deck of this type will have.

▪ Euron Crow's Eye (ASoSilence) - Renown is nice. Making your Raider characters gain stealth can be a big boost towards going unopposed. And the “no events” clause should prevent unwelcome surprises. Or you could go with....
▪ Euron Crow's Eye (KotS) - No renown, but broader immunity for himself and broader stealth granting--so long as he’s standing.
▪ Wex Pyke (KotS) - You’d be surprised how often this simple little guy can help you win challenges.
▪ Bloodthirsty Crew (OSaS)- Intimidate and Deadly and a bonus for going unopposed, yeah, you can definitely say they’re a good fit for an unopposed them.
▪ Drumbeater (KotS) - Even with all your tricks to try and get past your opponent, you’ll find that many times they’ll still be able to put up a blocker or two. With the Drumbeater urging your troops on, those chump blockers won’t make a difference and you’ll still get the “unopposed” victory.
â–ª The Knight (TftH) - His Joust ability is not going to secure you unopposed challenges, but notice that his response triggers off any unopposed win. So he's a perfect fit, since he will stand and cause discards everytime you win an unopposed challenge.
â–ª Iron Fleet Captain (CD) - Stealth? Check. Strong? Check. Quasi-renown for unopposed? Check.
â–ª Scouting Vessel (KotS) - In true pirate fashion, use your ships to circumvent the strength of their characters.
â–ª Longship Black Wind (CbtC) - You know what scares people into not blocking? Deadly. Use this card to add deadly, and if your opponent dares to block, get a card draw for your troubles.
â–ª Support of Harlaw (KotS) - Pop this on one of your strongest characters to create a stealthy powerhouse that can stand much like The Knight (TftH).
â–ª Rise of the Kraken (KotS) - Your whole deck revolves around winning unopposed challenges, so go all in with this plot.
â–ª Assault of the Kraken (KotS) - A great card for this deck. Now imagine pairing it with Rise of the Kraken and think of all the claim and power you can secure in one round...

This is not an exhaustive list by any means. Which cards would you add to the lists above? Which other archetypes do you find Greyjoy fielding in your meta?