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First Tilt - Deck Archetypes: Targaryen
Aug 14 2012 05:05 AM |
doulos2k
in Game of Thrones
Small Council First Tilt doulos2k
This week, we start a new series where we'll be breaking down the basic deck archetypes for each house. I know that when I first started out, I had no idea what all these words meant: Burn, Rush, Aggro, Raider/Mill, Choke, etc. So, we thought it might be helpful if we covered the basics of these archetypes and a few cards that typify how they work. Keep in mind that this is just designed as a basic primer to educate new players on the basics of these themes and not meant to be in any way comprehensive.
Each week, Paladin and I will focus on a particular house and talk about three basic themes found in that house. We'll then break down each of those themes (in basic form) and talk about the strategy of that theme and some key cards. This series won't be featuring any decklists, but we will try to link to any good deck lists that we know of that illustrate the theme we're discussing.
So, without any further ado, I'm starting the series off with the house of the true Heir to the Iron Throne: Targaryen! The three basic deck themes in the game are Rush, Control, and Aggro. Targaryen can field a decent deck in all three themes, so I'm going to focus this article on one deck type for each theme.
Before I do that, let's talk about core cards in general. What cards tend to find their way into almost every Targ deck? Which cards fit the largest variety of decks such that if you're playing the House of Fire and Blood you should ensure you put on your purchase list?
- Jhogo (OSaS) - conditional card draw, but nevertheless, it's card draw. Most Targ decks run this guy to shore up their draw - plus he gets Stealth if he attacks alone
- Meraxes (TBC) - repeatable card draw plus a +4 STR for dominance - almost an auto-include in any Targ deck
- Ser Jorah Mormont (WLL) - uncancelable discard of an Ally or Mercenary... hard to justify leaving this guy out of your deck. Plus, he's a tricon with Joust.
- Daario Naharis (WLL) - uncancelable discard of a Knight or Traitor... really hard to justify leaving this guy at home. Knights? Wow. Plus, he's a tricon with Melee.
- Incinerate (VM) - some people see this as primarily a Burn card, but it works so well in so many Targ decks, that it's worthy of mention as just a staple card. It is particularly brutal in a themed deck where you have a lot of matching traits and at a single influence cost, it's a great card to include
Control: Targ Summer Shadows Burn
This is the deck type that Targaryen is most famous for. It's hated by many due to the frustrating ease with which Targaryen can kill your characters... over and over again. Essentially, the theme of a burn deck is to use card effects to reduce an opponent's characters to zero strength as quickly as possible and introduce something called a "terminal effect" where the character dies or is discarded and cannot be saved.
The problem with attempting to discuss this theme is the versatility of it. A Targaryen Burn deck can be built using any one of three agendas: Knights of the Hollow Hill, Kings of Summer, or The Maester's Path (and, now we need to throw in Griff - but time will tell if he's competitive or not in Burn). Even with the recent restriction of TMP, it should have little effect on a Burn deck based on TMP because the only in-house card that is on the Restricted list is Fury of the Dragon, and while a great card for its stats, won't break a deck if it isn't included. Depending on the agenda, Targ Burn plays a little differently and has variance on which cards to include based upon the deck's strategy.
For this article, I'm going to focus on Summer Shadows Burn as an archetype as I think it's the easiest to play and has the most effective results (due to the extra draw, the extra gold, and Dragonpit). Targ, as a house, tends to suffer from unreliable draw support. Meraxes was a huge boon as its rarely cancelled and gives you one card every turn. The other draw mechanics in Targ tend to be conditional and, therefore, unreliable.
The base cards of any Summer Burn deck will be included in some shape or fashion:
- Kings of Summer (ASoS) agenda - only bad matchup is Winter, so you'll want to support the Summer draw mechanic with other draw-based cards, just in case
- Black Raven (ASoS) - the most important card for Summer. You will typically see at least two of these in any Targ Summer deck
- Carrion Bird (ASoS) - to help combat Winter and get your Black Raven back into your deck
- Samwell Tarly (TRS) - shores up the draw a good bit with 2 cards every time a Raven is played anywhere on the field (including your opponent's Ravens if they have any)
- Dragon Knight (TBC) - already a good character, in Summer, he's a great character by performing a -2 STR hit on any character.
- Field of Fire (QoD) - when it's Summer, this is Targ's closest equivalent to Lethal Counterattack (Core). Once your opponent declares attackers, you play this bad boy during the player action window before stealth and with the aid of Dragon Knight or other burn events, you can clear their field. The beauty is that this costs Influence, so Paper Shield has no effect.
- Flame-Kissed (Core) - arguably THE staple card of every burn deck. It's ambush capability for surprise burn puts this at the top of almost every Targ Burn player's list of must-use cards. There are few (if any) burn decks that don't use this attachment.
- The Dragonpit (TftRK) - this is a lynch pin card. If you're running Shadows, this card is a must due to the constant effect. It can end up useless against other Shadows-oriented decks, but the upside of this card is pure burn. With this card in play (and active) your opponent now has many powerful characters within reach of a single burn card.
- Dragon Skull (CoS) - running Shadows makes this card a no-brainer include. It costs 1 more than Flame-Kissed, but it doesn't suffer from the attachment limitation (bringing even more cards into reach as burn targets)
- King's Landing Assassin (SaS) - both a Shadows card and a surprise kill.
- The Hatchlings' Feast (ASitD) - some would say this is too expensive to be a staple, but overall, the effect is too impressive to ignore. Once again, this can be used to deliver the death blow to characters or to simply nullify an entire phase of challenges (guaranteeing you the win as an attacker).
- Threat from the North (PotS) - a plot staple for Burn in general (as I've said in a past column, if you win initiative, you should seriously consider making yourself first player so you can choose what will happen when a character's strength reaches zero due to a burn effect)
- Lady Daenerys's Chambers (Core) - this provides a solid way for you to recurse attachments from the discard pile. In Summer, this can be a boon to ensure you keep your Black Raven in hand if you're facing off against Winter.
- Forever Burning (Core) - if you're already playing Hatchlings' Feast and Field of Fire, Black Raven, and Flame-Kissed, you might be hard-pressed to find a slot for this as more non-setup cards could potentially choke your setup hand, but it's a core burn card that always comes back during dominance (as long as you remember to do that, of course). One thing many have done is replaced Hatchlings' Feast with Forever Burning if you're running a solid number of single influence sources because, during a Threat from the North turn in the Dominance phase, you can just keep pulling Forever Burning out and using it over and over and over again until you run out of influence (which will all stand in the next phase) to clear your opponent's board.
Rush: Dragon Melee Rush
While Targ Burn is the most common competitive Targ deck seen in the Joust format, Dragon-based Rush is quite popular in the Melee format. This deck type keys off of dumping as many dragons as you can into play as quickly as you can with Daenerys Targaryn in play to keep them standing when on the attack. There are a few types of Dragon decks, but most of them share the same subset of cards. The notable exceptions tend to include Balerion the Black (RotO) and the mechanics placed in the deck to make it possible to bring him into play - whether that be Varamyr Sixskins (AKitN) with Bloodrider (MotA) or running Maester's with Dragon Lore (CbtC). The bottom-line is that Balerion just doesn't show up in every deck because he can be difficult to get into play and he does tend to choke your deck a bit if you haven't planned for him accordingly. For this article, I'll be focused on the key cards for a deck running Heir to the Iron Throne (QoD) as the agenda to allow you to perform TWO power challenges per round (but you would have chosen to perform no Intrigue challenges during the game).
The key card in a Dragon deck, believe it or not, is not Daenerys Targaryen (QoD) (though she is vital). The key card is Rhaegal (QoD) and getting his response to trigger. Using him plus trait manipulation to give multiple characters the Dragon trait can close a game quickly in Melee. Turn 1 or Turn 2 wins, though rare, have been known to happen with a Dragon deck. The reason this is even possible is the full-size dragons have the Ambush keyword allowing you to use Influence to bring them into play... it takes a goodly amount of Influence, but Targ can bring influence to bear in spades, so this is not as far fetched as you'd think and with the Melee titles, you can add 2 influence to your slate pretty easily. So, what are the key cards in a Dragon Rush deck:
- Daenerys Targaryen (QoD) - obviously, she needs to be in play and most Dragon Rush decks will put here in 3X just to be sure she's in play and duped because she is an immediate target for your opponents who know her power (and rightly fear her). It can be difficult to keep her in play, so it is sometimes prudent to keep her in hand until you need her.
- Rhaegal (QoD) - as mentioned, this card is a the focal point of the Rush strategy. With Rhaegal in play, every Dragon can claim power when you win a challenge with Dragons participating.
- Viserion (QoD) - another very important dragon as his response allows you to discard a location from play of cost less than the number of participating Dragon characters (and the beauty in Melee is it doesn't have to be the person who lost the challenge)
- Drogon (QoD) - he's important as well because his response lets you kill a character of strength equal to or less than the number of participating Dragon characters (also doesn't have to be the opponent who lost the challenge)
- Meereen (QoD) - while the immunity is certainly nice (always choose Rhaegal), this is your draw engine (supplementing Targ's dearth of draw options) as you can draw a card for every Dragon character participating in the challenge in which you've triggered Meereen's response - it can draw cap you immediately when all three dragons are out - great card
- Yunkai (QoD) - this allows you to give Renown to a Dragon and you'd be surprised how important that one extra power per challenge can be (especially when they don't kneel to attack)
- Dance With Dragons (Core) - this event is critical because it lets you grab a dupe if you need one, or it can be used to grab that third Dragon you need to close out the game that turn.
- Copper Link (GotC) - this will require a Maester, but if you were to include a couple of these and a couple of Advisor to the Crown (QoD), you've got additional influence and a trait engine.
- Rhaegar's Harp (BoRF) - this one will give any character every trait, so that would include Dragon. But, be careful, that also includes Ally, Traitor, Refugee, Mercenary, etc. Every trait means every trait.
- Old Nan (BoRF) - this card is a difficult include because she's out of house, but if you want to add Braavos (VD) to your deck, she's a 3-cost trait manipulator. You normally wouldn't include this card unless you were also going to be doing some other Stark shenanigans with Arya Stark (Core) to steal renown (if you're running heavy influence) or Brienne of Tarth (PotS) to nuke triggered effects during a challenge
Aggro: Dothraki War
This is a lesser utilized theme competitively, but that doesn't mean it can't be strong. In fact, a Dothraki-themed deck took second at Days of Ice and Fire this year. The interesting thing about a Dothraki theme is there are so many ways to build it. This section is likely to have the largest number of detractors who would disagree with me regarding the cards that are central to the theme, but looking around at various Dothraki builds (and the one that came in 2nd at Days), I think the list below sums up the most common cards to build the core of the deck. First, the Dothraki portion of the deck:
- Aggo (RoR), Jhogo (OSaS), and Rakharo (IG) - these are the three central Dothraki for this deck. Between them, during a military challenge (if you win), you get to draw cards, mill the opponents hand, and steal power from their house... not bad for a single challenge.
- Drogo's Horde (IG) - a key element because as the deck is Dothraki-themed anyway, these guys are going to come in cheaply on most turns, maybe even free if you get some Refugees out there. Speaking of which...
- Refugee of the Plains (RoW) - this is a no-brainer include with the Dothraki trait and it's free!
- Blood-Crazed Screamer (MotM) - the ability to pull off a second military challenge can clear your opponent's board
- Khal Drogo (QoD) - there are a few varieties of him, but for a Dothraki deck, the Queen of Dragons version is simply the best include so that you can get more Dothraki in hand.
- Vaes Dothrak (IG) - adds to the theme of Dothraki taking more than they should normally be able to
- Deadly Khalasar (IG) - can ensure a challenge win in most matchups
- Daemon Blackfyre (TftRK) - he's expensive, but he gives every single Targaryen character the War crest
- Pike Phalanx (QoD) - raising claim for the entire phase... this is crazy good
- Die by the Sword (LoW) and The Price of War (KotS) - both default cards in an War crest Aggro deck to give you targeted kill and location control
- Aggo's Bow (RoR) - can be jumped in as a surprise kill when you're on the attack. They kneel defenders and one of them happens to be a money character, you jump this in and select that character to die. If you can get this on Aggo during that challenge, they can't even save the character. Can be pretty devastating.
- Jhogo's Whip (OSaS) - jump this in to remove a character from the challenge by standing it. If it's attached to Jhogo, you can pull two. Don't underestimate the power of pulling two of your own characters out of a challenge if you see the defender under commit.
- Rakharo's Arakh (IG) - this attachment is particularly devastating in Melee where you have multiple dead piles to count, but it can also be a great card to have post-Valar.
Conclusions
House Targaryen is a very versatile house and each of these three deck archetypes also have a good bit of versatility within them. What I hope you come away with is a starting place to build your own decks based on these themes. Whether it's Burn, Dragons, or Dothraki - you should be able to build a pretty fun deck with any of these cards.
Disagree with my core list for these themes? Something I forgot? Chime in and let me know!
- zordren, Shenanigans, bigfomlof and 4 others like this
19 Comments
I must point out that Viserion does not discard locations with cost equal to the number of participating Dragons (and don't forget that for either him or Drogon, the location or character can be controlled by any player, not just the player you won the challenge against).
I like the focus on Targ Aggro, as I think it's underplayed and underused competitively. I disagree with you slightly about the importance of the attachments, preferring more events in my own decks (like Overwhelming Support and Incinerate!) but all in all, I enjoyed it.
I do wonder if Dany is the most feared card at the melee table? Poor girl is always a target when I bring her out.....
Yeah, I didn't focus much on events for aggro because in my conversations that seems to be the place where people disagree the most (as far as which events are absolutely critical). But I should have mentioned a few of the more key events that trigger off the Dothraki traits.
I think Dany is often the most feared card at the Melee table... at least in our games. She's a huge target. But my Dragon decks almost always include Strong Belwas (VD) and Maegi's Promise (QoD). That said, my meta is getting more educated that Dany isn't the real threat. Rhaegal is... he's the one I'm starting to have to work harder to protect. You can kill or blank Dany, but it doesn't keep me from raking in a bunch of power unless you can do something about Rhaegal.
My most feared card? Meera Reed (TftH) in winter. Dany and Rhaegal get blanked every time. I hate that card (well, unless I'm playing it that is).
Either attachment can be attached regardless of whether an attachment exists on the character, but, of the two, Dragon Skull's effect is not negated by the existence of another attachment, while Flame-Kissed would be.
My current Targ deck runs the Ambush Dragons and the new Illyrio to create a nice aggro-control effect. Works well so far.
Another option is to use Knights of the Hollow Hill (MotM). A sample deck built by Nathan Bradley is listed over at TCOL called 50,000 Dothraki Screamers that I've seen him play to great effect.
Griff could be an interesting choice as well... I'd be curious to see what you come up with there.
One suggestion I would add would be that outside of a Dragon build, the Gates of the Citadel Dany should be an almost auto-include in a Targ deck. Nice to have a Queen to potentially shut-off some other Queen abilities, and for 4 cost it is nice to have a 4 Str, renown, crested character who gives all your other Targs +1 str.
Great article - thanks for writing it up!
Let's hope Targ Knights gets worth mentioning at some point in the future for the burn archetype!