First Tilt - Expanding House Martell

First Tilt - Expanding House Martell

Having covered the Kings of the North, the pirates of the Iron Isles, and the Targaryens of the east, we continue with our series of articles exploring how a new player might affordably expand each house into a reasonably competitive deck build with only a few purchases (2X Core Sets and 1X House Expansion + up to 6 chapter packs). Keep in mind that in addition to keeping purchases to a minimum, this series tries to avoid older chapter packs that don’t currently come in the 3x variety, as those are harder to find. However, since it seems FFG is now on its way to having all of the chapter packs reprinted, we will make suggestions at the end of each article for additional cards that one should consider and that may come from older packs or from packs that exceed the series restriction of building with only six CPs.

With that out of the way, let us now venture away from the snow and rain of the north, south along the Kingsroad, past King’s Landing, all the way down to the sunny southernmost reaches of Westeros, to explore House Martell...

House Martell stands alone as the only one of the Seven Kingdoms to have never been conquered by the Targaryens, resisting annexation for many generations until finally joining the Targaryen empire by means of marriage. “Unbowed, unbent, unbroken” is their motto and those who try to do them harm find that the Martells will certainly live up to their motto. The Martells know how to carry a grudge better than any other House, but they are patient in their thirst for revenge, planning out their vengeance meticulously. In the LCG, the traditional Martell card pool flows from this spirit, with Martell often playing a reactionary game of smiting any opponent who dares cause them harm. With cards such as Red Vengeance, Burning on the Sand, and the Sand Snakes, Martell is the perfect house for a player who seeks to ensure that any aggression against them is met with a devastating response.

Key Cards for Martell
â–ª The Red Viper (PotS) - included in practically every Martell deck is the Red Viper, a character who can best be understood as the Boba Fett of A Song of Ice and Fire. A minor character who is not on screen (er...page) for very long, he nonetheless leaves a compelling impression and is a fan favorite despite the brevity of his time on page. Though he costs 5 gold, he is worth every penny. He is immune to events and character abilities, is a tri-con with 3 strength, and shines when you are outnumbered, as he does not kneel to attack if your opponent has more characters than you. Combined with his Renown, this adds up to a fearsome and resilient character who has the potential of turning the tables and racking up a lot of power on him in a single turn. The question is not should you include him, the question is how many copies should you include.
▪ Orphan of the Greenblood (PotS) - so much versatility in one card. Helps you on setup to clear your hand and draw more cards. Helps you satisfy Military claim cheaply. Most importantly, helps you control when and how challenges happen by removing icons from your opponent’s characters.
▪ Darkstar (PotS) - there are many reasons you might actually want to lose challenges when playing Martell. The Vengeful ability is one of them. With Darkstar, you have the ultimate reason to find a way to lose an intrigue challenge. You’ll never be happier to have to discard a card than when that card jumps into the battlefield as a 3 strength character who has Vengeful and Renown.
â–ª House Messenger (PotS) - at 2 cost for a 2 str, 1 icon Ally character, the Messenger initially seems like a bad deal, except that you get to draw two cards and pick one, which is a nice ability to add some draw and help you cycle through the deck to get those nasty Martell events into your hand.
â–ª Arianne Martell (PotS) - when you gain control of the board and unleash your vengeance on your opponent, Arianne is a great choice to lead the way. With Stealth and an ability that raises your claim by 1, she will make your opponent pay for leaving themselves exposed.
â–ª He Calls It Thinking (PotS) - a key part of your ability to control the game, this card will let you cancel events your opponent plays while boosting your characters. Fits in nicely with the Martell theme of becoming stronger through adversity. Goes great with the Red Viper.
▪ Red Vengeance (PotS) - the ultimate Martell card for unleashing vengeance on your opponent. It’s not a great fit for every Martell deck, due to costing 2 influence and being purely defensive, but when you pull it off it can be a game changer. Imagine an opponent attacking you on a 2 claim military challenge, only to find that they have to satisfy the claim and lose two characters. Or an opponent attacking you on a game ending, make-or-break Power challenge, only to hand the game to you...
▪ The Viper's Bannermen (PotS) - while pricey, and restricted, these guys will dominate the field once they come into play due to their high strength and Deadly. They’ll also give you some draw as a reward for paying their high cost. And if your opponent somehow manages to get rid of them? Why, more draw!

Expanding Martell
With these cards from the House Expansion in place, we’ll need a few chapter packs to round out our card pool and build a control based, vengeance bringing machine. And the key to our control deck shall be a far off place known as Ghaston Grey.

Secrets of Oldtown Cycle
1) Forging the Chain
â–ª Ghaston Grey (FtC) - is phenomenal. The amount of character control it gives you is superb, even with the errata. This card is so good that some of our other additions will be solely to make Ghaston Grey even more useful.

A Tale of Champions Cycle
2) On Dangerous Ground
3) The Grand Melee
▪ Myrcella Lannister (ODG) - if Ghaston Grey is your character control engine, Myrcella is the fuel that you’ll use to keep it running. She has the requisite noble symbol, and at two cost will help you bounce a wide range of characters without being too costly to you. If you run this deck in Melee, she’ll provide even more options for you to mess with your opponents through title switching shenanigans.
▪ Doran Martell (TGM) - perhaps a tad overpriced, but it’s hard to pass up a vengeful three strength character that makes your opponent discard cards when you lose a challenge and who also has a noble symbol to trigger Ghaston Grey. Do be careful about using him to trigger Ghaston if you have other choices, since at five cost he’ll be pricey for you to bring back out. Then again, if bouncing a character will cost your opponent more than it costs you or can win you a crucial challenge, then don't hold back!
▪ Flea Bottom (TGM) - a good location, especially to help in bringing out those characters for Ghaston Grey. It’s drawback of bringing characters into play knelt isn’t as big a problem for Martell. If you’re using a character for Ghaston Grey, it doesn’t matter if they’re knelt, and if your character has Vengeful then they might just end up standing that turn anyways.
▪ The Scourge (ODG) - is going to help you maintain control of the game. By either removing icons or making your opponent discard a card, you’ll be able to reduce your opponent's options and shift control of the game in your favor.
â–ª The First Snow of Winter (ODG) - if you get off to a slow start and/or if your opponent floods the board with characters, this plot will help you slow them down.

Brotherhood Without Banners Cycle
4) Illyrio’s Gift
5) Mountains of the Moon
▪ Edric Dayne (IG) - three gold for a two icon, three strength character is not great, but his ability can be quite helpful. He’ll slow down your opponent’s ability to tap into his influence locations, and if he dies you get the chance to knock out an influence providing location. While many decks don’t rely on influence, most builds typically still include a few locations that happen to provide influence. Also, he has the noble symbol for Ghaston and at three cost covers most characters that Myrcella cannot.
▪ Beric Dondarrion (IG) - since you’ll be playing a reactionary game, you might get off to a slow start. If you do, Dondarrion will be invulnerable until you start gaining power. And even if you pull him out later, he’s still a great card with tri-con, 3 strength, and Renown.
â–ª Lost Spearman (MotM) - a useful and cheap character, the Spearman will help lower your cost curve and maintain some military strength.
â–ª Knights of the Hollow Hill (MotM) - a risky agenda that could nonetheless prove very useful in providing you with a base of influence and a boost to initiative. The drawback of losing out on a setup phase is mitigated by the reactionary nature of the deck.

King’s Landing Cycle
6) A Time of Trials
▪ Condemned by the Council (AToT) - the final piece of your control deck, this card will allow you to destroy your opponent’s locations even as you are destroying their hand through intrigue.
â–ª Flea Bottom Scavenger (AToT) - will give you some helpful draw if you pull her early enough, and will help you with intrigue challenges for Condemned later on.

Building and Playing the Deck
With all these cards, we can now put together a solid control deck that excels at character control and that can also deal with troublesome events and locations. Playing Martell, however, is no straightforward task, and this deck, moreso than most, is one that requires you to carefully consider the play area at every moment in order to decide on when and how to respond to your opponent’s actions.

In other words, though the Martells are presented as long-term, strategically minded planners in the books, with this deck you will have to play a largely tactical game with a wide variety of decision points, constantly assessing your strengths and weaknesses in light of your opponent's actions, and engaging in constant evaluation to determine the best ways to implement your control abilities. The Martells are not generally newbie friend, and this is not a deck to hand to a friend just learning the game.

House Martell (Core) x1

Plot (7)
The First Snow of Winter (ODG) x1
Building Season (Core) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
Rule by Decree (Core) x1
Planning Ahead (Core) x1
Uneasy Truce (Core) x1
Rains of Autumn (Core) x1

Character (30)
Orphan of the Greenblood (PotS) x3
Flea Bottom Scavenger (AToT) x3
House Messenger (PotS) x3
Myrcella Lannister (ODG) x3
Ellaria Sand (PotS) x1
Edric Dayne (IG) x2
Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS) x1
Harmen Uller (PotS) x1
Darkstar (PotS) x1
Arianne Martell (PotS) x2
Doran Martell (TGM) x2
The Red Viper (PotS) x1
The Viper's Bannermen (PotS) x3
Lost Spearman (MotM) x3
Areo Hotah (PotS) x1

Location (16)
Summer Sea (PotS) x3
Palace Fountains (PotS) x3
Dornish Fiefdoms (PotS) x3
Flea Bottom (TGM) x1
The Scourge (ODG) x3
Ghaston Grey (FtC) x3

Event (14)
He Calls It Thinking (PotS) x3
Red Vengeance (PotS) x3
Parting Blow (PotS) x3
Condemned by the Council (AToT) x3
Blood for Blood (PotS) x2

Attachment (0)

Nonetheless, there are some basic things you’ll be doing most games with this deck. First and foremost, you should always be aiming to use Ghaston Grey and The Scourge to make life as difficult and as slow as possible for your opponent. If you can use Mrycella to send more expensive characters that your opponent controls back to their hand, then do it, over and over and over as this will hopefully drain their resources faster than it will drain you. You’ll probably get a slow start, so spend your first few turns building your engine up while throwing everything you can at your opponent to slow them down. You have an extraordinary amount of options for controlling the flow of the game and keeping your opponent in check with First Snow of Winter, Rains of Autumn, Rule by Decree, Ghaston Grey, Orphan of the Greenblood, The Scourge, He Calls it Thinking, Parting Blow, Blood for Blood, and, of course, Red Vengeance.

The name of the game is to control, react, and then come out swinging. Carefully consider when you are going to make the change from defense to offense. It could be that you lock up your opponent with Ghaston Grey and The Scourge, or that Red Vengeance changes the board makeup, or perhaps when the Viper’s Bannermen charge into the game. When the time comes, you should hopefully have a couple of renown characters in play so that once you seize control, you can take advantage of it and transform into rush mode and go for the win.

It is possible for you to secure great board position early on, in which case charge ahead as hard as you can, and use all your tricks to maintain the advantage. Knights of the Hollow Hill is a great candidate for an agenda, and while it is not included in this build, do think about throwing that in. While not having a setup phase seems like a risky move, and never adding further income from locations sounds limiting, take a look at the included locations. Very few of them provide gold and those should be removed if you go with this agenda. Moreover, the built-in influence you get from the agenda makes Red Vengeance far more reliable, further mitigating the drawback of a delayed start. Whether you have the agenda or not, after you play Red Vengeance for the first time, think about always leaving 2 influence available from that point on so as to make your opponent cautious and hesitant. If you find yourself short on influence, or missing Ghaston Grey, use Building Season to get the needed location. Keep in mind that some plots can be used to benefit yourself, such as The First of Snow of Winter to bring back a just played House Messenger/Flea Bottom Scavenger for play again on the next turn, or Rule By Decree to get that Darkstar into play.

Other Cards to Consider
â–ª A Game of Cyvasse (ACoS) - with this and Ghaston Grey, you can pretty much control who your opponent has on the board at any given time. If you have it, include it.
â–ª Refugee of the Citadel (RoW) - zero cost for a 2 strength intrigue/power Maester? Yes, please.
â–ª Carrion Bird (ASoS) - these little guys, along with the refugees, will really help out the cost curve of the deck. Cheap, stealthy, always nice to have.

â–ª The Art of Seduction (LotR)
â–ª To the Spears! (PotS)
â–ª Forgotten Plans (KotStorm)
Recent tournament winning Martell Maester builds have relied on Art of Seduction followed by To the Spears. This combo can also work in this deck, particularly if you get a great start or for when you are ready to shift to offense. Forgotten Plans can help you if you happen to pin a detrimental plot effect.