Ours is the Fury - Oath of Fealty

Ours is the Fury - Oath of Fealty

Welcome to the third article in Fury of the Stag. Last time Staton talked about one of the most evergreen and iconic Baratheon builds, Nobles. This week I'm going to be talking about on of the other big ones, Baratheon Knights.

In a way Baratheon Knights is a bit of a fuzzy subject, since it encompasses a large variety of decks, all run under the Knights of the Realm Agenda. The subsequent builds range from some kind of Noble/Knight hybrids, through high-speed Knight Rush decks and over to really aggressive Tempo builds. What I'm going to be concentrating on today is constructing the last one on that list, let's dub it European-style Aggro/Tempo Knights.

The Concept:

Speed, high claim, board advantage, big swing effects and powerful characters. Those are really what Aggro Knights are made of. Instead of relying on single powerful centerpieces, you're spewing out a seemingly never-ending flow of threats for your opponent to handle, while pressing them wherever they are weakest. The deck is less about doing one single thing (controlling your opponents hand, clearing their board, grabbing power), but rather doing all three with high claim every turn.

The Agenda and Weenies:

In the current meta, decks with agendas have an edge over decks without them. Further, the most powerful agendas tend to be those that provide you with card or resource advantage of some kind (The Maester's Path (GotC), Kings of Summer (ASoS), Kings of Winter (TWoW) and Knights of the Hollow Hill (MotM)). For Baratheon, while you can run both seasons and Maesters pretty easily, the one that most naturally seems to fit the House cardpool is Knights of the Realm (KotStorm).

Now, Knights of the Realm provides Baratheon with that one thing it needs most, cards (duh, it's a card game after all!). However to run a deck with it, you will need a minimum of approximately 18 Knight characters in your deck, plus you will need a large percentage of those to be 1-3 cost Knights, so that you can solidly setup at least 1-2 every game. There are a few reasons for the requirement of cheap Knights, and while having your draw engine start efficiently is important, mirror matches are even more crucial. Games against Knight-heavy decks, be they actual Knights of the Realm decks or other decks with a load of Knights will often be won, but especially lost, in setup. Sadly, even when properly prepared for them, Jousts between two Knight decks tend to be pretty short affairs, with The Stranger as their arbiter.

With Baratheon, this means that you better get used to putting in three copies of Hedge Knight (KotStorm) and Vanguard Lancer (KotStorm) when you start constructing a Knights deck. If you end up wanting to do some War-crest stuff, then you can probably switch the Lancers for Veteran Knight (KotStorm)s, but that's about it. So, face it, you're pretty much stuck with those guys. After adding a selection of the usual Baratheon auto-includes, your weenies are pretty much set, and will rarely vary between different Knight builds. It's also good to remember, that with The First Snow of Winter (ODG) in the environment, the value of 3g Knights will be amplified further, so be sure to have enough of them.

The Heavy Hitters:

To fill out the rest of your Knights, you will most probably be running at least one copy of the following characters, and several copies of the ones that suit your deck the most:

• Knight of Flowers (SaS) (one of the best Aggro cards in the game)
• Ser Eldon Estermont (MotM) (crucial for pushing through challenges against more meaty decks like Stark or Wildlings)
• Davos Seaworth (any version is good really, personally I'd go with Ser Davos Seaworth (WLL) to keep a Knight on the table after a Valar)
• Ser Cortnay Penrose (KotStorm) (Another brilliant Aggro tool for pushing through 2 challenges in one turn)
• The Bastard of Nightsong (VM) (a unique Knight with intrigue and power gain, what's not to love?)
• The Laughing Storm (GotC) (Ha. Haha. etc.)

These, together with your choice of other non-Knightpower-characters, will be the threats that you will be spewing out, one after the other to push through challenges, grab power and apply pressure on your opponent.

Other Knights that you will often have running around to fill up ranks in your deck:

• Ser Parmen Crane (KotStorm) (especially if you're running Influence)
• Ser Guyard Morrigen (KotStorm) and Ser Emmon Cuy (KotStorm) (some of your heavy hitters are Lords also)
• Watcher of the Nightfire (AHM) (intrigue icon, renown and some added draw, not a good meta choice if you're expecting a lot of Burn or Venomous Blade (TBoBB)
• Summer's Champion (if you want some big intrigue-muscle to combat Game of Cyvasse, but not a good choice if you're expecting Winter)

Important non-Knight characters:

• Melisandre (RotO) (more speed, it's customary to run her 2x)
• Robert (1x of either Robert Baratheon (TTotH) or Robert Baratheon (Core) brings some added push)
• Brienne of Tarth (PotS) (one or two, is the only real question)
• Selyse Baratheon (Core) (helps fill out that intrigue-hole a bit more, especially if you're running extra influence)
• Marya Seaworth (KotStorm)
• Royal Entourage (TTotH) (If you're running enough Lords and Ladies, these bring easy muscle, and there's no fear of them being lost in intrigue challenges, since they can trigger out of your discard pile as well)

The Choices:

Influence – Either you run influence costing effects (mainly See who is Stronger (KotStorm), maybe Ser Parmen Crane (KotStorm)) or you don't. Vanguard Lancer (KotStorm) gives you a solid base to start with, but whether you want to really use it, or just have that bit handy for Seasick (KotS) and Selyse Baratheon (Core) is up to you. If you end up running influence, location steal cards like Direct Assault (KotStorm) or Support of the Kingdom (Core) will both slow your opponent down, and also help you add stability to your secondary resource curve. Then again, this will allow you to run more copies of your important powerhouses, without having to fear dead draw late game as much.

Initiative – Vanguard Lancer (KotStorm) also opens up a decent base for running Bay of Ice (KotS) and high initiative plots for added draw, and many European-style classic Knights-builds have used this to their advantage for a while. However, remember that going this route will tie your hands quite a bit with regards to plot choices, and you will especially be missing out on high power plots like Men of Pride (THoBaW) that would fit your decks style perfectly.

War-tech – Do you want to run Die by the Sword (LoW) and The Price of War (KotS) for more targeted removal? Probably not one of the best choices available, now that Little and Less (ARotD) is out, but it's still a decent option for Knights.

Restricted – Search and Detain (HtS), Narrow Escape (KotStorm) or Threat from the East (QoD). If you went with Bay of Ice (KotS), you'd probably want Search and Detain. With influence-heavy builds you'll probably want to run three copies of The Laughing Storm (since you can rely on him more via See who is Stronger (KotStorm)), and thus get more bang out of him via the draw on Threat from the East or Val (RotO). Otherwise, Narrow Escape is pretty much your default choice. Taking a page from the Stark-Aggro book by using Fear of Winter (BtW) might also be an interesting surprise-choice.

Little and Less – Two or three copies? Honestly, so many of Baratheon's powerful effects are NOT responses, and this card has a severe impact on some of the worst matchups for this deck (Mainly Martell due to Red Vengeance (PotS) allowing them to avoid your pressure too easily), so it's probably a good idea to run this, even with the new info that it only stops Response: effects played from your hand. If you're planning on running some challenge-phase responses, 2x is probably right. If you're trying to avoid them all together, then run 3x.

Side note: The old Quill & Tankard article on Little and Less has been slightly updated to take this into account.

The Support:

To increase the pressure and round out our deck, we will need a few more things as support:

Resources – We need to get a good setup, so if you're not running influence, it's probably best to stick with only Seat of Power (WotN) for Limited cards, and have the rest of your resources in non-Limiteds. With Choke still running around in tourneys, and Ghaston Grey still glimpsed once in a while, it's best to go a bit safe on resources, so something like 11-12 resource providers.

Push – Cards that help you get those high claim challenges through. Smuggler's Cove (KotStorm) is your go-to card here usually, with Ser Cortnay Penrose (KotStorm) and Knight of Flowers (SaS) this can be ridiculous, as it lasts all phase. Ser Eldon Estermont (MotM) by himself is the definition of Push really.

Stand – Nothing helps bring pressure like a well timed stand. Marya Seaworth (KotStorm) and Obey the King (KotStorm) are good cards for this in Knight decks, and in a pinch Obey the King can also help thwart challenges against you, in order to keep your board position. If you're running 3x of Smuggler's Cove, one Massey's Hook (ASoSilence) is never amiss. If you're running influence, and not expecting too many mirror matches, Northern Encampment (THoBaW) is another choice that should also help with optimizing your setups.

Kick – For a good Aggro-build hitting your opponent with 2-claim challenges (of all types) round after round is sometimes not enough, so you will need some added kick to tenderize your opponent. For Baratheon Knights this usually comes from events. To add more pressure on characters you can run Seductive Promise (Core) or Dissension (QoD). Another option is to hit their locations/resources, for which you can use Direct Assault (KotStorm) (which nicely is not a Response:) or Support of the Kingdom (Core) (which is especially good for stripping away influence from Targ or Martell).

No Attachments - It's easiest to just cut attachments completely. That way you've got a better chance at drawing more characters to play, and are less vulnerable to directe removal or bounce.



The Plots:

What's important? 2-claim - at minimum three of them. Usually the best are ones that help you push through challenges or have good stats - Retaliation! (ASoSilence), Men of Pride (THoBaW) and Herding the Masses (Core) or Breaking and Entering (LotR).

You'll want one reset in your deck, but Valar Morghulis (Core) is not always a good choice for Knights (you don't want the drop in speed, unless you're running influence and See Who Is Stronger/duplicates), so Wildfire Assault (Core) is a decent alternative. If you find yourself being cheap for your cost curve, The Pale Mare (THoBaW) could work... although the 0 gold is painful.

Many of your restricted choices are plots also. If you went with Bay of Ice, look to have all of your plots be at least 3-4 iniative and remember to include Retaliation!.

The Deck:

So, by walking through this path, what kind of a deck do I come up with in a Post-Roll of the Dice meta? Wanting to go with the new and the shiny, I'll opt for 3x of Little and Less (ARotD) and try to avoid having any Responses of my own, which is not really that hard for Baratheon, especially with Narrow Escape (KotStorm) to keep the pressure cooking (works well with not having to fear cancel due to Little and Less).

The end result? See the deck Ours is the Fury - Aggro Knights