Forgotten Plans - Unexpected Deck Archetypes

Welcome back to another installment of Forgotten Plans, readers! Today we are going in a bit of a different direction. Instead of focusing on individual cards or themes, we are going to look at specific deck archetypes. I feel with Regionals season fast approaching, I should go into some good deck builds that are a bit out of the norm, but are still quite viable in the environment. I'll go over what the builds are, and some general ideas in this article. Then, in the weeks to come we'll dive into the specifics of the builds. So, let's go ahead and take a look at the first build that I think you should really consider when building that Regionals deck.

1. Wildlings - The Wildlings are some of the most cost effective characters in the game, especially when combined with their respective agendas. This means you are going to have quite a bit of strength for relatively cheap investment, which is good against aggro decks like Stark Siege or Baratheon Rush, but also against some of the control decks like GJ Choke and Martell GG. You're going to be able to match the strength of Stark and Baratheon but with much less gold cost to you, and you'll be able to overwhelm the GJ and Martell players by the sheer number of characters on the table. You also gain access to one of the best location control cards in the game with Climbing Spikes (AKitN), since location control seems to be all the rage going into this Regionals season. I think Wildlings are still the best out of Stark, since they are probably best suited to take advantage of the board dominance with cards like Winter is Coming (Core) and No Quarter (TBC).

2. Stark Shadows - Now, when most people think of Stark, they think The Siege of Winterfell (LoW). That deck is indeed very strong for a number of reasons. However, Stark Shadows has always been a pretty competitive build, and has gotten much much stronger with cards like Meera Reed (TftH) and Guardian Wolf (TIoR). You also have access to Catelyn Stark (AToT) which will come in very handy against those Lannister The Power Behind the Throne (LotR) decks, as well as Sorrowful Man (APS) who will combo quite nicely with the Winter sub-theme. You would do well running either Fear of Winter (BtW) or Venomous Blade (TBoBB) as your restricted card here.

3. Targ Burn (Shadows) - Now I don't think anyone would be surprised by the statement that Targ Burn is good, but I do think people have been overlooking the Shadows cards that support the burn theme. The core of the deck is built around The Dragonpit (TftRK) and various Shadows cards like Dragon Skull (CoS) and King's Landing Assassin (SaS). Targ also got some more support for this theme with Sorrowful Man (APS) and Shadow Seer (FtC). Out of house shadows cards you'll want to look at include Venomous Blade (TBoBB), Meera Reed (TftH), and Southron Mercenaries (TBoBB). If you choose to not use Venomous Blade, then I'd look at using Fury of the Dragon (AE) which hits Lannister and Baratheon, which should be rather popular this season with the Kings of the Lion being released and the recent changes from the FAQ.

So those are the top 3 decks that I think are probably tier 1 or close to tier 1 going into Regionals. What I'm trying to emphasize here is that you shouldn't be distracted by the shiny new stuff we've gotten. I'm sure everyone wants to try out that Baratheon Rush deck now that The Laughing Storm is no longer restricted, but you also need to make sure you have enough time to playtest that deck and learn all of its ins and outs. The Wildlings are just as strong as they were a few years ago, but people seem to have forgotten about them now that we have all these maesters and agendas. The biggest mistake you can make is taking an untested deck to Regionals. Stick with what you know and what has been proven to work, and you'll do well at Regionals. As I said, I'll be going into these decks in detail in a few weeks. Join us next week for the inaugural week here at the Small Council, where we'll be going over some of our favorite builds using Small Council events!