There Are No Decks Like Me - Brett Zeiler's Moonboy Classic 1st Place Deck

A Study in Card Efficiency:
Brett Zeiler’s Moonboy Classic Championship Deck

Brett Zeiler won last weekend in the Moonboy Classic tournament with a Stark Knights of the Realm deck. Card draw was the backbone of this monstrosity combined with aggressive cheap cards. This deck didn’t knock you out in one punch, it tore chunks out of opponents every turn with claim two plots backed by Bear Island.

A common thread amongst championship decks is the idea of card economy. Every card in your deck needs to be doing something; even if it’s providing a trait or crest. If that hunk of cardboard is only providing a crest it had better be cheap. A quick way to measure character efficiency is to create a bell/gold curve.

Gold Curve
I take every character and divide them into how much they cost to play situated from zero to x, left to right. A slot is left at every gold value. A shadow card's value is the s cost plus two. For example: Meera’s value in the gold curve is three. 1s + 2 = 3. The resulting lay out should resemble an inverse bell shape. Using ballpark numbers a typical deck runs two cost 0 characters, six cost 1, eight cost 2, 12 cost 3, and four cost 4+ for a grand total of 32 characters.

Looking at Brett’s build it contains 36 characters:

• Three cost 0
• Four cost 1
• 12 cost 2
• Ten cost 3
• Six cost 4

These numbers pull the average of the gold curve closer to zero rather then four which is the top of his curve. Which means his characters for the most part are cheap. (Bonus points to anyone who noticed I’m a card short; jump Catelyn isn’t a card you will play on setup unless you are absolutely forced to, ergo she is valued as an event.) Cheap characters mean better setups. Better setups mean drawing more cards to refill your hand which equals more options.

More options doesn’t automatically relate to winning the game if the cards you’re drawing into don’t do anything. For an example: drawing three out of four cards for a combo means you have three dead cards in your hand if that’s all they do. In this decks case, the redraw is reloading your mitt with cheap characters for the most part.

The lower cost of characters means less card slots dedicated to gold/reducer resources. Point in fact; nine slots out of sixty are filled in the deck. Resource locations are a boon and bane. Getting them early powers your deck, getting them late is choking your draw. Events work the opposite way. Early events tend to slow down your board development. The deck make up is 36 dudes, ten events, and 14 locations.

The MIP Test
I like to check icons to make sure a deck is well balanced or at least find out what its shortcomings. I take the characters and divide them into seven piles, these form a straight line left to right:

• Military Icon
• Military and Intrigue Icon
• Intrigue Icon
• Intrigue and Power Icon
• Power Icon

I then place characters that have Military and Power Icons above the Intrigue pile and finally tri-cons top the formation. Then I count the icons.

Here’s what Brett’s deck contains:

• 32 Military Icons
• 12 Intrigue Icons
• 29 Power Icons

I’m very nervous about the intrigue count. Some of this is mitigated by Knight of Harrenhal and jumper Catelyn. Part of Stark’s strength right now is the number of quality intrigue icons to destroy an opponents hand after killing many dudes. When considering killing off his own characters, characters with intrigue icons sudden become more important to keep track of. 12 characters is a third of his character base so it’s not like he’ll never draw them, he just needs to be aware of them.




Notice in the picture there are three gaps in the lower card line? There are no single icon characters. Brett has ignored them and so should you unless you have a good reason. It stands to reason that a character with two icons is twice as useful during the game then a character with one. A tri-con is the holy grail but those are far and few in between.

Character Control
The deck oozes with targeted character removal. Or does it? When you take this deck apart there are only eight cards in the deck that do the job; x2 Die by the Sword, x3 No Quarter, and x3 Bear Island. Bear Island is repeatable and by running three of them you should draw one fairly early. Think of Bear Island as upping the claim during military challenges every turn, seems good. The events almost seem like icing on the cake. Go with the idea of playing them early and often.If eight cards seems light look at the next deck you put together and count cards that actually remove folks from the board. Repeatable effects are more valuable then one time uses. I will often opt for a repeatable effect at a higher cost then a one shot effect.

You win and lose games largely based on your plots. Brett sacrificed initiative for five claim two plots. Combined with his 32 military icons he should be wiping three characters off the board every turn with Bear Island. Looking at this strictly from an attrition stand point he is winning.

Location Control
This deck is relying heavily on Meera and The Price of War to carry the day here. Price is incredibly efficient discarding two non-limited structures. Making sure to power this sexy beast are ten war crests. This would be too low in my opinion except for the inclusion of triple Blackfish and single Jory. Jory can dupe himself up all day long to stay on the field. Meera is just a beating; repeatable blanking. Don’t forget you can flip her during marshalling to blank out income providing locations if you are going first.

Attachment Control
None. That’s right, none. He’s figuring his character control will handle anything put on characters. A well timed Frozen Solid or Burned and Pillaged seems like it could cripple this deck. Remember that his curve is soooo low that it can generate enough resources to play two characters a turn.

Card Draw
Here’s where this deck build really shines. He has dedicated no less then 23 cards towards it starting with Knights of the Realm agenda. To make thingz tick we’re going to need knights. The thinking here is twofold; either many tiny guys that you can puke out or a couple studly warriors that are hard to kill.

Brett covers his bases by running triplicate Blackfish and then 15 other chuds. On the surface two cost for two strength and two icons is very unsexy. By taking a closer look we have some war crests, intrigue denial, and card draw. Every card, no matter how bland looking, is contributing to the whole. Eighteen knights accounts for over half of his character count. Combined with the targeted removal he should keep opponent knights in the dead pile.



Blackfish does double duty being a knight and drawing cards by winning military challenges. Note: he doesn’t have to be participating. Ser Kyle Condon is also a double dipping rock star. Maester Luwin does a great job of scooping up events during the challenge phase. Harrenhal would be worth it if you only grabbed the top card of your deck. Getting to search the top three opens more options.

Excluding the agenda, Brett has dedicated ten cards towards card draw. Ten cards. For a bonus he runs possibly the most efficient plot ever made in the form of At the Gates. The only master to grab is Luwin but think about this. Would you play a six gold plot that guaranteed for you to play a character?

There Are No Men Like Him
The crowning achievement in my mind is his choice of restricted card. Narrow Escape requires your opponent to ditch their hand if they want their Valar to clear the board. Knight of Harrenhal keeps this gem hidden until the right moment. If they chuck their hand the game is pretty much over.

The sheer amount of card draw in this deck means you can replenish your hand faster then your opponent. That means putting more cards in play to win the game. The claim two plots will take chunks out of your opponent’s character and power base while they are stuck on zero claim.

Unfortunately, like Pablo, not everyone is going to like every deck. What do you think?

Brett's Moonboy 1st Place

House (1)
House Stark (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
Knights of the Realm (KotStorm) x1


Plot (7)
Retaliation! (ASoSilence) x1
Respect of the Old Gods (LoW) x1
Search and Detain (HtS) x1
City of Soldiers (TBoBB) x1
At the Gates (GotC) x1
The Power of Arms (Core) x1
Regroup (KotStorm) x1


Character (36)
Bolton Refugee (RoW) x3
Knight of the Red Fork (LoW) x3
Hodor (Core) x1
Ser Jorah Mormont (PotS) x1
Knight of Harrenhal (TBC) x3
Ser Kyle Condon (APS) x3
Knight of the Tumblestone (Core) x3
Sansa Stark (TftRK) x1
Osha (AKitN) x1
Jory Cassel (CtB) x1
Maester Luwin (FtC) x2
Meera Reed (TftH) x3
Brienne of Tarth (PotS) x1
Catelyn Stark (LoW) x1
Arya Stark (CoS) x1
Ser Edmure Tully (LoW) x1
Ser Rodrik Cassel (Core) x1
Northern Cavalry Flank (SA) x2
Robb Stark (LoW) x1
The Blackfish (LoW) x3

Location (14)
Great Keep (Core) x3
Narrow Sea (Core) x3
Lord Eddard's Chambers (Core) x1
Kingdom of Shadows (KotS) x2
Harrenhal (ODG) x2
Bear Island (AE) x3

Event (10)
No Quarter (TBC) x3
Narrow Escape (KotStorm) x3
Die by the Sword (LoW) x2
The Price of War (KotS) x2

Attachment (0)