Much and More - Greyjoy Brotherhood

Today we're going to look at what I think has the potential to be a very solid and very unexpected Brotherhood deck. It is Greyjoy Brotherhood. I'll admit, when I first started working on Brotherhood decks, the House of the Kraken is the house I wrote off as not worth messing with, after all they didn't have anything that combo'd with Brotherhood characters, no infamy, no draw 3 cards if you don't have power on your house, none of that. However, as I was trying to think of cards that help protect Beric (and a lot of what Brotherhood comes down to is protecting power on Beric and winning the game with The Mad Huntsman) I was thinking about 2 important things, cancels for events and location hate and it turns out that those two things are two of Greyjoy's greatest strengths. Even attachment hate, less important than the previous 2 but still powerful, can be found in House Greyjoy.

So let's take a minute and talk about some of the cards, or rather types of cards in the deck. We'll start with cancels, for cancels we have Alannys Greyjoy (ODG), Tom Sevenstrings (RoR), 3 copies of Finger Dance (WLL), and 2 copies of Seasick (KotS). That's 7 cancels in total. That should be more than enough to deal with A Game of Cyvasse or A House Divided. (Also note that dupes can save a character from being bounced so it almost works up to 9 cancels in that regard.)

Location hate is a bit tighter, we've got 3 copies of Newly Made Lord (TftH)(you all know how good he is, I shouldn't have to say anything there) and 2 copies of Condemned by the Council (AToT) (which is a bit loose in this deck as it doesn't have a whole ton of intrigue characters, but I think it is important to have location hate available ASAP in the event of Ghaston Grey so it squeaks its way in to two copies) so that's 5 location hate cards. Of course Wintertime Marauders (ACoS) can double as location hate, though they themselves can't hit Ghaston Grey so that's a bit of a wash. Still, Ghaston Grey, by itself, does nothing, and I think most Martell decks (mine certainly) are only running 2, so I think running five location hate cards and just kind of "saving" one to play in the event of a Ghaston Grey will be plenty. Again, remember that dupes can save a character from being bounced (and seasick can cancel the Ghaston Grey's activation) but still requires that the cost be paid.

As to attachment hate, the third weakness of the Brotherhood, we've included 3 copies of Wintertime Marauders which are going to be able to hit any attachment you actually care about, and 2 copies of Ill Tidings (IG). Yes, I actually said it. Ill Tidings isn't horrible, if you happen to draw the white raven (which sadly is only a singleton in this deck) then you can save A Time for Ravens to tutor this up if you should happen to need emergency attachment hate. Also, this helps to fuel the draw engine as it cantrips by itself and it fuels Sam. Finally, remember this is a raven event so it can discard a pesky black raven (or even the white raven if your opponent is getting more out of it being winter than you are) and carrion birds can shuffle it back into your deck if need be. Still, I'm not sure that 2 copies of the event are strictly necessary and one could easily be switched out, perhaps for another copy of Asha Greyjoy.

One of the weaknesses of the House of the Kraken is that they traditionally have very poor draw. In fact some Greyjoy decks have even given up their most powerful (in my opinion) card, Wintertime Marauders, in favor of a summer build, just to help power out some draw. I wanted the marauders to help destroy attachments and to help fuel location hate, so I instead took the draw in this deck in a different direction, I included the alliance plot and Tommen and pyromancer's cache. All together, with Samwell, our longship, and with Ill Tidings, we have 9 cards that fuel draw. Pretty dog gone good for Greyjoy.

So what is the Brotherhood bringing to the House of the Kraken to make this better than just a no agenda Greyjoy deck? Well, first off it is bringing two exceptionally powerful characters, The Mad Huntsman and Beric, and sure, a lot of work is having to go in to protect Beric, but that same work is also helping to protect your other characters. Also, Tom Sevenstrings, while maybe not as powerful (and certainly not as flashy) as the other two is significantly powerful and, when activated, is one of the best cancels in the game, second only to Alanys Greyjoy (who the deck is also running).

View the complete deck list: Much and More - Greyjoy Brotherhood

So as we wrap up our look at the House of the Kraken and the Brotherhood, we're left with an extremely controlling, permission style deck that grinds battles out with super powerful characters and lots of protection for those characters. Please, let me know what you think in the comments section, and if you decide to build and run the deck please, let me know how it performs for you and what you think of it.