Forgotten Plans - My Days of Ice and Fire Underrated Cards

Hello readers, and welcome back to Forgotten Plans! I've been absent for a bit due to my computer dying on me, but I should be back to a somewhat regular schedule of every Monday. I know that I still have a few different decks to look at from when I stopped writing, but I wanted to go over some underrated cards from my Days of Ice and Fire deck first. I definitely need to make changes to the deck, but there are some really good cards in that deck that I think people tend to overlook. The deck did manage to make the top 8, so I think I'm doing something right here.

As usual, I was running Baratheon Rush. I decided to stop trying to be clever with the deck, like I was with the Asshai rush decks I had been working with previously. So I decided to go back to a bare bones Noble Summer rush deck. Pretty much just get out core Stannis, core Robert, and kots Renly and just go to town trying to get as much renown as possible. I'm running Power of Blood x 2, Bodyguard, and Loyal Guards, with a splash of duplicates as well. I chose roto Melisandre for the extra power grab potential. I decided to run Summer for the extra draw and to combat GJ Choke as well. I should probably mention that I built this deck last year and didn't bother making any changes to it. So no Val or TLS, and I picked up Fury of the Stag as my restricted card.

Alright, so that's the deck in a nutshell, let's look at the top 5 underrated cards in the deck.

1. Renly Baratheon (KotStorm) - This guy is just crazy awesome. You do give up the Renly Baratheon (TRS) who is super efficient, but the sheer reduction you gain is amazing. He is especially good against GJ Choke since they can cancel your Narrow Sea and Seat of Power. They can't cancel Renly though, and the more characters you play, the better he gets! I also really like how he can only be shut off by Baratheon Kings. Robb Stark and Mance don't shut him down, which is good since I figured I'd be seeing a lot of Stark and potentially a lot of Wildlings. It should also be pointed out that I prefer Core Robert over all the other ones because he is just a house and the No Shadows Robert just isn't as good anymore.

2. The Dragon's Tail (PotS) - I figured I was going to be wishing this was Val all weekend, but I didn't. I actually liked that I could just play it when I got it, I didn't have to lay out Val and then worry about getting TLS or worry about having to discard cards. The extra cards I gave my opponent didn't matter. I think there were only two times where the other guy got to draw both cards. Most of the time they got one card, and a few times didn't draw any. Draw is one of the most important parts of a deck, and at the competitive level everyone has quite a bit. So by constantly going second I was able to let them get their cards and then I would play Dragon's Tail on my Marshalling. So even if they did get cards out of it, there was a good chance they couldn't play them.

3. Fury of the Stag (AE) - This is probably going to be the least underrated, but I still think people don't give this card enough credit. I won a few games by flipping this card turn one. One was against a Targ Knight of the Hallow Hill and the other was against a Martell Maester's deck. The Targ deck just refused to lay any characters out turn 1 except for a few weenies. I got to 9 power turn 1 against him. He tried to get a hold of the game by playing Threat from the North second turn, but I played Song of Summer and had discarded his Hatchling's Feast first turn. So he only ended up getting rid of one two str character. The Martell player tried to rush against me and I ended up stealing his Conclave first turn and stopping him from winning any challenges. Both games were pretty much over after that first turn. I'm not sure if it's better than Val, but I was drawing plenty of cards all day, so might just end up keeping this in over Val.

4. Crown of Azor Ahai (KotStorm) - This card is pretty awesome, even if you aren't running the Summer agenda. Since I was running the Summer agenda though I was able to start a few games drawing 3 cards, rather than having to wait until the second turn. There was a side game I played against a Targ Summer deck where I made it Winter at the end of the Draw phase to shut off some of his effects. I also like that the Crown doesn't give the other person extra gold like the Black Raven does. I hardly ever need the extra gold myself so it was really only benefiting my opponent. Definitely something to look at if you are running Summer.

5. Dissension (QoD) - I know how everyone keeps saying this is an awesome card, but I just haven't seen it played at all. I was the only one running it that I know of at Days. I'm sure someone else was using it, but I didn't play them or they didn't tell me they were. I was able to snipe 2 refugees against a Stark deck and forced him to kill Robb and Eddard. Game was pretty much over after that. I was able to hit a Littlefinger against a Lannister PBtT deck. It let me win both Intrigue challenges that turn. Granted I still lost some refugees to deadly, but I was OK with it. I just love cards that can turn the game for you without you having to do anything. I didn't have to win a challenge, I didn't have to have more or less cards, nothing. I play the card and awesome happens.

Honorable Mention. The Art of Seduction (LotR) - I wasn't actually running this plot, but I felt that I should still mention it. Shives McShivers was running it in his Martell Maester Rush deck and ended up winning the Joust at Days. He played Art of Seduction first turn almost every game. Not only was he pinning his opponents with a less than ideal second turn plot (since you can't trigger any when revealed effects the second turn), but he also made it so they couldn't play Valar Morghulis (Core) until at least turn 3, but he obviously has Outwit, so its more like turn 4. It's such a strong play, and something that no one really saw coming. Well, I mean, I did, but that's because we playtest a lot together. Also, this makes the first turn Fury of the Stag even more awesome! Oh no! I have to get stuck with a plot that screws you over for two turns?! What will I ever do?! He actually didn't play Art against me until turn 4, but the game was pretty much over by then.

Well, there's a look at some of my thought processes when deck building. Feel free to tell me I'm incredibly dumb for not using Val and TLS! I'm not quite sure what next week's article will be about, so tune in for the surprise! Thanks for reading.