Ours is the Fury - The Nobility

Ours is the Fury - The Nobility

I think by now it is fairly obvious that my favorite Baratheon deck is a Noble Rush Deck. The whole strategy is pretty much in the title, you draw awesome Baratheon Noble-crested characters, you play those characters, and then you win. This is not a simplified version of the strategy, it is the whole thing in all its glory! Seriously, the number one issue that people seem to have with this deck is they try and get tricksy. There's no need! You draw guys, play guys, and then you win challenges with them until you have 15 power, that is it. I am getting a bit ahead of myself though, so let's take a look at the decklist itself. Rather than taking up a bunch of real estate here, I'm just going to link to the deck here: Ours is the Fury - Nobel Rush Deck.

The first thing you'll notice is that I'm not using Val (RotO) and The Laughing Storm (GotC). I'm actually using Kings of Summer (ASoS) and Samwell Tarly (TRS) for my draw engine. I really really dislike relying on Val for my draw engine since she can be shut down fairly easily. I know a lot of people might disagree with that, but that's why I went with Summer and Sam. I also have given myself card advantage by making the deck pretty redundant in the fact that I am running so many duplicates. Technically it increases the chance that I might have a dead card in hand, but between two turns of The Power of Blood (Core) I should be able to draw some combination of dupes, Loyal Guard (WotN), and Bodyguard (Core). Also, I am running Narrow Escape (KotStorm) as my restricted card, so even if I draw absolutely zero ways to save from a reset, I should at least have drawn a Narrow Escape. Sure they can discard their hand to cancel it, but then we are on a pretty even footing at that point, and I'm banking on my stronger character base at that point. Another key card in this deck is Eddard Stark (TTotH). The fact that he can cancel one card per phase is extremely good! That Orphan of the Greenblood (PotS)? Yeah, better make sure you have two of them now if you want to take anyone's icons! Plus, you can always use Selyse Baratheon (Core) in a pinch to target Eddard and then cancel it and draw a card!

So let's take a look at the various choices I made on unique characters. I chose Renly Baratheon (KotStorm) for my one true King! Now it should be pointed out that I am still a staunch Stannis man, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices, and there isn't really a good king Stannis. No, not even that one! This Renly is pretty much the best resource card in my deck, and significantly lowers the gold curve of the deck. Part of the strategy of this deck is to lay out as many characters with renown as possible so you can maximize the power gain from each challenge, and Renly really empowers that strategy. If you can get him out on turn 1, he will most likely pay for himself by turn 2, and anything after that is just profit! So since I went with King Renly, I had to go with Robert Baratheon (Core) who is still a house! No surprises on Stannis Baratheon (Core) or Melisandre (RotO). I chose
Margaery Tyrell (ASitD) because she is great at handling those nasty passive plots like Threat from the North (PotS), Fear of Winter (BtW), etc. The other Margaery is good too, but not really worthwhile in this deck. Since it is a Summer deck, you might want to use Selyse Baratheon (ASoS) over Selyse Baratheon (Core), but I like being able to give extra icons over potential recursion since you are trying to maximize power gain rather than card advantage. This decklist actually needs some Stormlands Fiefdoms (Core) to be honest, but couldn't find a spot for them. Bonus points if you can find a way of getting them in there!

So I want to go back and take a look at exactly how you want to play this deck. I had said earlier that you draw dudes, play dudes, and win challenges with said dudes, and I meant it. There aren't any tricks or gimmicks here, which is why I think it is so successful in tournament play. There just isn't much of anything for control decks to disrupt. You HAVE to attack the character base if you want to disrupt it, but there are just too many targets for control to be effective in the early game. If its the first turn you probably want to have out at least one weenie for claim soak, but after that just play any dude with renown you have in hand. Don't be afraid to defend challenges either if you can win. That guy is attack in a military with 7 STR? Defend with 9 and claim 4 power for renown! Claim is almost meaningless for your deck, the real claim is renown and unopposed power. So winning on defense isn't really that bad because you are still getting your renown. You probably want to lead with Retaliation into a Power of Blood. Now here's where it gets tricky, because if you are confident, you can get away with playing something like Rule by Decree on turn 3 instead of another Power of Blood. The trick I have found to work is to figure out if you are going to play Power of Blood number 2 say by the Dominance phase and if you aren't pick your plot ahead of time. You want to quickly look at your plot deck, pick your plot and throw it down like it took no thought at all. Your opponent will more than likely just assume it was your second Power of Blood and not play Valar (unless he has read this article, so make sure your opponent can't read and/or doesn't know what the internet is. Your best bet is probably Stag Lord.) which will give you an extra turn to try and get to 15 power.

Well that is the deck in a nutshell, and I'm sure I left out some crucial piece of information, so feel free to ask any and all questions in the comments!