Rise of the Kraken - Setting Sail

Last time JCWamma covered the black sails agenda and we'll be doing so again here, but this time the decktype will be vastly different. While JC's article focused on using black sails to enhance Greyjoy's mill theme, this time we're going to be looking at a much more traditional approach: Aggro. Greyjoy has always had a bit of this flavor to it with its unopposed challenge mechanics but there has never been an agenda that rewards you for winning a challenge as much as black sails does, and Greyjoy seems to be getting the most love from FFG in supporting this mechanic. Plus a naval agenda called Black Sails is absurdly thematic for us Greyjoys. With Kings of Winter hitting the restricted list and maesters getting nerfed (again) the house of the kraken finds itself in a bit of an identity crisis, and black sails may end up being the answer.

Black sails is quite the complex agenda, featuring potentially enormous benefits but also some drawbacks that may not be readily apparent. First and foremost the agenda writes a fair portion of your deck in stone--you're going to be running a lot of naval characters, no questions asked. While some of these cards are amazing, others are rather bland if not outright bad, and would probably not be making the cut without that all-important enhancement. The agenda also poses some problems during gameplay itself. In order to gain its benefit you must win a challenge, with a naval character (declared through the mechanic, not simply any participating character with an enhancement on it), as the attacker. Given that right now all of the naval characters only have enhancements on one icon, and this is Greyjoy, you can add "military challenge" to the list of conditions. This makes effects that can kneel, kill, or otherwise nullify our naval characters quite problematic. While a TLV player still gains the benefit of their agenda regardless of what happens on the field, we're basically running no agenda if we can't push that naval challenge through every turn.

However, if you can push that naval challenge, what you get is incredible. The ability to search your deck for basically anything you want and get it next turn, protected from intrigue claim and outside the draw cap, is pretty much the best card advantage imaginable. Note that you don't even have to show your opponent what you got--the word "reveal" isn't anywhere on the agenda. Additionally you get to run what is undoubtedly one of the best plots in the game, and I'm actually not talking about naval superiority. Naval reinforcements is a one-sided summoning season with better stats than the original from the core set. That speaks for itself.

As JC explained in his article, the ability to search and take what you need makes combos much more reliable. It is with this in mind that we begin the construction of our black sails aggro deck. The agenda and in particular naval reinforcements has great synergy with winter; combined with a time for ravens, samwell tarly becomes a much more reliable draw engine. It's also worth noting that the superstar of Greyjoy winter, the marauders, and two of Greyjoy's naval characters have war crests. Since the deck needs to win military challenges to trigger the agenda anyways, the associated war crest events are also worthy of inclusion. Let's get started:

The Deck

Key cards:

Anything with a naval enhancement--For obvious reasons, but especially Fleet from Pyke (RotK). As a card that usually enters play as a 4-for-7 it's already very efficient, but the addition of the deadly keyword, a war crest, and an ability which lets you pull off a naval challenge while only kneeling one character in the end pushes it over the top. If you don't have a naval enhancement on setup and need to search for one, this is probably the one you'll grab.

Samwell Tarly (TRS)--There's a pretty good chance that you'll be able to nab either him or a raven card on your setup. Even if you don't, you have search plots for both of them, and once you have both pieces in hand you're looking at paying 1 gold to draw a minimum of 2 cards, possibly much more if Sam can stay in play long enough for you to dig more ravens out of your hold. 3 copies of each card is necessary to minimize the odds of something getting stuck in a place it can't be searched from with a plot (the hold for ravens, the deck for sam).

Card removal (Wintertime Marauders (ACoS), Die by the Sword (LoW), The Price of War (KotS))--This is the heart of any aggro deck and the cards which will probably decide the game (i.e. the game being decided by whether or not you get to successfully trigger these effects). Winning a challenge with the marauders and then knocking 2 chars out with military claim, something else with the ability, and something else again with a war event should be your ultimate goal with the deck. You'll probably use your first turn or two to set up winter and play a search plot or two--try to grab these cards with your agenda triggers on those first couple of turns if you don't already have them.

House (1)
House Greyjoy (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
Black Sails (RotK) x1

Plot (7)
Manning the City Walls (CD) x1
Naval Reinforcements (RotK) x1
Naval Superiority (TGF) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
A Time for Ravens (ACoS) x1
The Winds of Winter (TWoW) x1
The Power of Arms (Core) x1

Character (45)
Summer Sea Corsair (RotK) x2
Ironborn Marauder (TGF) x3
Andrik the Unsmiling (TPoL) x3
Fleet from Pyke (RotK) x3
The Reader (TGF) x3
Victarion Greyjoy (RotK) x3
Distinguished Boatswain (TftRK) x3
Maester Wendamyr (KotS) x2
Samwell Tarly (TRS) x3
Carrion Bird (ASoS) x3
Wintertime Marauders (ACoS) x3
Island Refugee (RoW) x3
Randyl Tarly (KotS) x2
Alannys Greyjoy (ODG) x1
Asha Greyjoy (WLL) x1
Maester Kerwin (VM) x1
Maester Murenmure (CbtC) x1
Kingsmoot Hopeful (FtC) x3
Victarion's Reavers (CD) x2

Location (18)
The Iron Mines (KotS) x3
Sunset Sea (Core) x3
Street of Steel (Core) x1
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
Flea Bottom (TGM) x1
River Row (QoD) x1
Longship Iron Victory (KotS) x2
Gatehouse (KotS) x3
Bloody Keep (KotS) x3

Event (10)
Die by the Sword (LoW) x3
The Price of War (KotS) x2
Seasick (KotS) x3
Finger Dance (WLL) x2

Attachment (7)
Bastard (LotR) x2
White Raven (TWoW) x3
Fishing Net (ASoS) x2

The plots are fairly straightforward; some kind of city plot is pretty much an auto-include these days with how darn many of them there are, and manning the city walls is selected to account for no-agenda/charagenda decks which would otherwise make it quite difficult to play your fleets. Even against agenda-running decks, the plot remains a great combo with Victarion's Reavers and still plays as a 5-2-2 with the fleet.

Much of the deck's character base is written in stone with the themes that we've already gone over. Well over half of the characters consist of winter/naval mechanics and the Greyjoy standbys. Island Refugee is selected as a restricted card due to the necessity of bodies with military icons to trigger the agenda--since you have to declare a naval attacker, you're going to have to kneel a minimum of 2 characters for your military challenge if you want to search, even if you could win the challenge with just one. Cheap bodies like the refugees are essential for doing this. They also help to offset the cost of the naval characters somewhat, as they're quite expensive with two 4 costers, a 3 cost that can't be reduced by anything, and only one 2 cost. The remainder of the slots are spent filling an otherwise gaping hole in intrigue.

The rest of the deck's cards are meant to provide a toolbox to reduce the opponent's options further and ensure that you can get your key naval challenge through. Cancel and Greyjoy are old friends, of course, and the attachments are chosen to try and nullify the enemy's key card, which in many decks will be a single character vulnerable to fishing net (The Red Viper, Cersei, Beric, etc) or something with attachments stacked (Beric, Maesters, Taste for Blood, etc).

Despite all the deck's different themes and interactions, the fact is that there's still a lot more to try with this agenda that isn't explored here. There are plenty of cards I want to use in this kind of deck that I'm not including here because there simply isn't space, even with the expanded deck size typical of black sails (yes, battle of the shield islands, I'm looking at you). Additionally, the seasonal Theon could easily slot in somewhere, and 3 copies of the new blazewater bay should certainly be added to the deck to help mitigate its cost curve. Seized looks quite promising as well. These cards are really just the tip of the iceberg. I have no doubt that this deck could be streamlined but the options available are simply too many to cover in just one article--feedback and comments are quite welcome.

Expect more black sails in the coming weeks and a more detailed breakdown of the deck's various options for card removal, cancel/prevention, and character/resource base.