Rise of the Kraken - House of Dreams

One of the most important cards to affect our game in recent times is the latest agenda, House of Dreams (ARotD). It's flexible, can be played out of any house, and every house has many options to choose from when it comes to playing with it. In this edition of Rise of the Kraken, we'll be looking at how the Greyjoys can use this agenda to their advantage.

When the agenda first came out, many said it was overpowered. You get a guaranteed card on set-up, it's immune to ALL non-plot card effects, and if it costs 3 or more gold you get to spend more than 5 gold on set-up?? Of course, in practice this isn't such the incredible advantage it first looks to be; having only three gold to spend on cards on set-up is a much bigger deal than it seems. Obviously it is compensated by you beginning with your location in play, but 2-cost cards suddenly become a lot worse, 4-cost (and 5-cost) characters can no longer be played on set-up, and even 3-cost cards begin to look a lot worse. What's more, because you're committing what is effectively 2 of your normal set-up gold to a location rather than a character, you're depriving yourself of 2 gold's worth of strength for challenges. Obviously some locations do have an effect on challenges (and in my opinion the best choices are generally the locations that do, but that's an argument for another time), but it's not in the same direct way as a character.

On top of that, because you're running House of Dreams, you can't run a different agenda. This so-called "opportunity cost" can be overstated, but one of the advantages of agendas is they give you persistent effects you cannot get without running the agenda - I've spoken in the past about the unique brilliance of The Maester's Path (GotC); The Power Behind the Throne (LotR) changes the rules to allow you an extra challenge each turn; Knights of the Realm (KotStorm) and Kings of Summer (ASoS) allow you extra card draw for decks that need it, and so on. The only persistent effect House of Dreams allows you is that immunity to a location you could have played anyway, and even that isn't watertight due to the Plot effects. So all in all, this agenda is a lot more balanced than it first appears.

Now, I'm not meaning to suggest you shouldn't use this agenda; far from it, some of the most popular and powerful decks of the past couple of months have been a result of experimentation with it. Just that any patron of the house should be discerning. Don't only choose your location wisely, build your deck around the location you choose and make sure this cannot backfire on you. That's what this article is about.

Greyjoy is the house that, in terms of simple numbers, is the least-equipped to use House of Dreams well. Not including the Kingdom locations eligible for use from any house, these are the eligible locations count for each house:

Baratheon - 16
Greyjoy - 12
Lannister - 15
Martell - 14
Stark - 16
Targaryen - 19

As we can see, Greyjoy has the least choice with Targaryen having the most. This isn't taking into account the quality of the choices however - I doubt someone using House of Dreams and Targaryen would be quick to choose Visenya's Hill (SaS) or Xaro's Home (Core), for instance. Meanwhile, Greyjoy has a surprisingly large number of fine choices. As a result, what this perceived lack of choice means in practice is that my job's a lot easier, because I'm analysing which options are best.

Below is a ranking of every single Greyjoy location eligible for use with House of Dreams, from worst to be best because we all want dramatic tension (although by all means if you don't want to read why an obviously poor choice is obviously poor, feel free to skip down to the last couple of tiers).

"THEON'S POPULARITY WITH THE STARKS" TIER
Aeron's Chambers (KotS) - Haha, very funny.

Longship Red Jester (AHM) - Making the set-ups worse than not running the agenda in order to grant immunity to a card that you intend to discard from play. The equivalent of fighting a boxing match with one hand tied behind your back. I will say though that, in (and against, obviously) the right deck, this card is a viable cheap option for ruining the opponent's House of Dreams plans, as if their HoD location has a triggered effect this can cancel it. So if you're in a meta heavy with Aegon's Hill, Bear Island or whatever other popular triggered-effect location you care to mention in it, it might be worth including these, especially if you're looking for Warship synergy.

Volantis (VM) - Why would you choose this out of Greyjoy?? If you're running all Mercenaries, run it out of a different house! Worst Kingdom card, Greyjoy only have 4 mercenaries right now and half of those come out of the shadows anyway.


"CHANCES OF ANYONE OTHER THAN ASHA, EURON OR VICTARION WINNING THE KINGSMOOT" TIER (aka Kingdom Locations That Aren't Volantis Tier)
Generally, Greyjoy isn't the house to play these cards out of, for a couple of reasons. Essentially it boils down to the fact that because playing one of these cards with House of Dreams is crippling your set-ups just in order to get a resource location, you need to make use of all 3 resources - the influence, the out-of-house cost reduction, and the trait reduction. The out-of-house reduction is obviously up to how you build your deck, but the others Greyjoy struggles for. Unlike some of the other houses that have specialties in general traits like "Ally", "Knight", "Lord" or whatever else, Greyjoy specialises in Raider and Ironborn characters primarily. These decks can be built, but it's tricky, as a count of the various in-house traits will demonstrate:

Ally - 15*
Army - 10**
Knight - 1
Lady - 2***
Lord - 9***
*Not including Jaqen H'ghar, banned fellow that he is.
**Not including Armies that can come out of the Shadows.
***Only counting one copy of each unique card - it doesn't matter how many different versions of Theon Greyjoy are Lords, 'cause you're only getting a cost reduction for one.


And that says nothing of the quality of those cards, because I'm including cream of the crop like Ten Towers Honor Guard (KotS) in there. Knight and Lady are obviously not bringing anything of worth to the table; Army is bringing quantity, but the theme of those armies is incredibly unfocused - are you milling with Raiding Fleet (AKitN)? Making it winter and using the Wintertime Marauders (ACoS)? Running a Raider deck with Euron's Enforcers (DB)? Lord has a healthy amount of good characters, but, article-spoilers, unless you're splashing a LOT of Martell there's a much better House of Dreams location if you're focusing on the Lords. On the face of it that looks like a good number of Allies, but most of those Allies work off another theme, namely milling, and if you're running a mill deck through House of Dreams then again there's a much better choice (or two).

On top of this, the influence is most likely not going to be a large part of any Greyjoy deck. That's a third of your HoD card most-likely being wasted.

So in short, the Kingdom Locations aren't worth it for House of Dreams, at least not out of Greyjoy. Feel free to try to prove me wrong though!


"GREENLANDERS" TIER
Ten Towers (AE) - Even with it costing 5 gold, this still isn't that good. One of the key problems with House of Dreams decks is that your set-ups suck compared to normal decks, so you need a lot of 0 and 1 cost cards to compensate. One of the easiest ways to do this is to throw in the reducer Streets; another is to throw in Carrion Bird (TWoW). These opportunities are cut off thanks to Ten Towers. So you're messing up your set-up, cutting off the easy ways to resolve that (as well as common resource cards to pay for your stuff), and your reward? You'll occasionally be able to use Sunset Sea (Core) or (in an extremely lucky scenario) Kingdom locations, and then a few events here and there. Most stuff on top of your opponent's discard pile you won't be able to play, because doing so will de-activate your Ten Towers! Against a Greyjoy player it's slightly different, but to be fair your opponent will probably beat you anyway because you're wearing the albatross of Ten Towers and they're not. In a mill deck you have slightly more chance of getting something good on top of your opponent's discard pile since you have control over it, so I guess there's that... except that, again, if you're building a mill deck with House of Dreams there are better options. The one positive this card has is that it will almost certainly not get discarded by A City Besieged (CD).

Longship Silence (ASoSilence) - This card has two main issues, both revolving around the fact that it only works for "Raiders" and that therefore building a deck with this card necessitates including Raider cards. Firstly, there is a better Longship for Raiders, as we'll see later on. Secondly, the boon this card grants is Stealth, and if you're building a Raider deck it is highly likely that you will want to employ the services of our lovable friend Euron Crow's Eye (ASoSilence). He manages to render his own Longship completely unnecessary. In the event you don't draw Euron or he gets killed/discarded, the more heavy hitting Raiders already have either Stealth or Intimidate anyway. Silence also lets you draw a card for winning a challenge, but we already have another far less prohibitive Longship that can do that for us also.

Longship Black Wind (CbtC) - This card is better than the above two cards, but not good enough to go up a tier because it's once again redundant. It offers two things - granting a character Deadly, and card draw. If you just want the card draw, ...well the conditional nature of it means you aren't getting it anyway, but even if you were you should go to a certain better option. If you have images of Deadly ruining people's day, well, occasionally it will do that. Most of the time though, it will just mean your opponent won't throw a random character in to defend your challenge so you'll get slightly more power through unopposed. If that's all you're after, well, once again there's a better option available.

Nagga's Hill (ODG) - This card is very good against certain decks. Grabbing something like an Orphan of the Greenblood (PotS) can be very nice. However, there's a few problems. Firstly, it's conditional - you need to win the challenge, and the opponent needs to have a non-unique non-event card in their discard pile; secondly, even then the odds of them having something worth grabbing are minimal; thirdly, you need to win an unopposed challenge in order to trigger the effect, and if you can get something worthwhile the opponent will do their best to stop you; fourthly, because the card you get is discarded at the end of the phase you can't use it to get resources; fifthly, not all decks you face actually put much in their discard pile so unless you're doing it for them you can't even guarantee the location you are crippling your set-up for is going to be justified; and sixthly, if you DO control what's going in your opponent's discard pile through mill effects, there are (say it with me now) better options available. Hopefully I won't have to say that again now we're moving into a better tier.


"DEGREE TO WHICH BALON IS A POOR FATHER" TIER
Corpse Lake (TBC) / Fishmonger's Square (TftRK) - I'm perhaps cheating by grouping these two together. Both of them are key cards for a mill deck - as has been pointed out in the past, there's no point in discarding cards from a deck unless you benefit from those discards, and these two cards are the easiest way of doing so. Corpse Lake essentially makes milling a win condition; Fishmonger's Square makes it a lot easier for that win condition to be met by most likely providing you two cards a turn. Which one you would want to make your HoD location depends a great deal on whether your deck requires more draw or more power rush, and depending on how you go about building your deck there are advantages and disadvantages to both. The reason neither of these locations make it higher up than this is twofold: firstly, at only one gold each they are easily disposed of through A City Besieged, meaning you need to run duplicate copies in your deck (and that starts to defeat the purpose of using the agenda); secondly, and more importantly, they still don't make mill decks particularly good, sadly. You're still running plenty of sub-optimal characters and locations that don't actually stop your opponent winning, and it still probably won't work. Sorry.

Longship "Foamdrinker" (TWot5K) - If you're running a particularly aggressive Greyjoy deck, this a nice card. It's great for preventing chump-blocking and for discouraging your opponent to attack with non-kneelers without giving it a second thought. I personally have a few issues with the card, however. Firstly, the majority of the time it just means your attacks will go through unopposed, and while that's nice is it really worth giving up your agenda and crippling your set-up? Secondly, outside of a couple of Warships (that are obviously visible to your opponent), Greyjoy doesn't have much in the way of challenge-maths-manipulation cards, and our "you win this thing instead of losing it" card isn't a challenge type, it's initiative, so no surprise win there either. As a result you're not really gaining that much from it, because your opponent isn't going to put their prized card in a challenge where they could die. So in summary, this location can be great, but it puts too much in the hands of your opponent. It's not a bad choice, however - and with enough Warships and a Naval Escort (ASitD), your opponent might be scared to make a challenge.


"LEVEL OF EURON'S BADASSERY" TIER
Longship Iron Victory (KotS) - Simple but effective. By far the least-conditional draw out of all the "extra draw" locations, and extra strength in the challenge to boot. Unlike Longship Silence, LIV isn't picky about who it gives its boost to; unlike Longship Black Wind, the boost will consistently be more than just a deterrent. Basically, all the reasons why this card is normally great, with the extra boost that it's immune to non-plot card effects and you set it up 100% of the time, which in many ways is the point of the agenda.

The Seastone Chair (BtW) - This card came out at a time when Greyjoy lacked enough noble-crest characters to make use of it. Since then there's been some terrific arrivals like Asha Greyjoy (WLL), Baelor Blacktyde (TIoR), Gylbert Farwynd (GotC), and so on. Then the problem became that it was quite expensive, especially given that other than Theon all nobles would cost you 3 or more gold to play themselves, and it was too vulnerable to the likes of Newly Made Lord (TftH). Now the expense and vulnerability has gone. That leaves the expensive character base, and combined with the crippled set-up this is an issue. However, if you can build your deck around this fact, this deck can be very rewarding to play - offering power grab, draw and what in most cases will effectively be an extra 2 strength for dominance, and often all three a turn if you can get enough nobles into challenges. Hopefully this article will be able to look at a deck like this in the near future.

Longship Grief (CD) - This is a deceptively fantastic card - when the card was reviewed on this site it only scored 17/35. What is great about it though is that, as I've said time and again, one of the disadvantages of the House of Dreams agenda is that it cripples your set-up; with this card in play however, every Raider or Captain character you get out means twice as much, so your poor set-up isn't hurt so much. Beyond that, all your great characters get two attacks rather than one. That means two attacks with Euron where the opponent can't play events; two attacks with powerful beat-sticks like Fishwhiskers (CtB) (who is a very safe bet when you have Grief out from the start!) and Iron Fleet Captain (CD); two opportunities to use Victarion's Reavers (CD)' claim replacement effect to nuke your opponent's locations. In the early game you can dominate, and in the late game you get dual-use out of your best characters. Because Longship Grief's effect is passive, it also can't be cancelled unlike everything from the Greenlanders Tier upwards bar Ten Towers. Also because it's a Warship and doesn't kneel it synergises with Naval Escort and Ambitious Oarsman (RoR) to boot. Best of all, this location is already a great choice; and the next cycle? Naval themed. Look for more Captains appearing over the brink of the horizon - we already have a new captain Victarion Greyjoy (RotK) (Chintarion to his friends) as well as some more out of house captains spoiled for the future. This card is only going to get better. It is worth mentioning one big downside though - this effect only works for the first challenge, not the first challenge you initiate, so if you want to be able to use it to its full effectiveness you need to make sure you're winning initiative each turn.


AND FINALLY... WHAT IF MY OPPONENT IS RUNNING HOUSE OF DREAMS?
As I said at the top of the article, the choice of House of Dreams is a difficult one. You have to give up the opportunity to run another agenda, and you have to cripple your set-up, and basically restructure your entire gold curve around one card. What makes this sacrifice tolerable is that your one card is secure, and it's fine to build your gameplan around it. I mean, sure the opponent could be running A City Besieged, but in that case they've had to tailor their plot deck very specifically to suit that card, and short of plot-cycling they won't be able to touch me for a couple of turns at least. It's fine to feel secure in my choice, right?

Well, not if you're playing against Greyjoy, no.

I've mentioned this before, but one of the great things about Victarion's Reavers is that it's a claim replacement effect. When the card first came out people made the mistake of thinking this was a bad thing, because it meant you couldn't use it by itself for power or military challenges. Let's look at the flip-side of this: because it's a claim replacement effect, it's the claim that discards the location, not the card effect. This means that, in the same way that Pyat Pree (QoD) can target The Red Viper (PotS), Victarion's Reavers can target your opponent's House of Dreams location.

Allow me to paint a picture. After your set-up and you draw back up, you find a copy of Victarion's Reavers in your hand. You play Manning the City Walls as your first turn plot. You now have 2 claim, the opponent is unlikely (not impossible, but unlikely, especially given their set-up was crippled by their agenda) to be able to muster 8+ strength in both military and power challenges so the odds are you can force one challenge or the other through, and you get to discard 2 locations. That means that unless they got two non-HoD locations out, you just messed up their gameplan on turn one. This is particularly fun with Bear Island decks, since they haven't been allowed to use their effect once. Obviously I'm assuming things here, such as the opponent not being able to kneel out your Reavers or otherwise keep them out of the challenge, and all it takes is a couple of resource locations for them to keep their HoD location safe - although in that case you've made them play out resource locations they presumably wanted to use just to protect their HoD location, messing up their delicate gold curve. For the absolute best-case scenario, imagine you're playing with Longship Grief and you got to be the first player. That's 4 locations the opponent has to get out turn one, or you've ruined their gameplan from the get-go.

On that blissful note, it's time to end. If you have any comments, questions, thoughts, experience with different House of Dreams decks or whatever else, feel free to let me know below. Gangle will be back next time with a look at Holy Decks, so I'll see you in four weeks - until then, keep dreaming!