There Are No Decks Like Me: Iowa Regional Champions Part I

It’s rare to see a deck simple in form, function, and win with an experienced pilot. Tim Lyons made it to the top eight with two losses under his belt. However, once you make it over the cut it’s a whole new card game. I have felt for quite some time this is the best deck in the environment right now.

Breakdown
The Maester’s Path has been the winningest agenda in thrones this and last season. It reduces deck size and provides in the least card draw and attachment removal. Four maesters feels skimpy but, he only runs four chains. The city plots have been a gold standard for control decks. The advent of At the Gates begins the game with a six gold plot followed by claim twos or kneel, depending if you need to play offensive or defensively. The biggest draw back to running cities is being stuck with three gold or lower. Lannister mitigates this with several efficient walking gold producers.

House Lannister by themselves offer up efficient gold, card draw, and control. Castellan of the Rock may be the best repeatable control card in the game. Kneeling an opponent’s character every turn reduces options. Eleven slots are dedicated to kneel counting the plot. There are 16 other cards being used for character control, meaning 27 cards are whittling down opposing characters before you get to the two claimers.

Shadows bring some of the biggest guns to the board in every house except Greyjoy. Tyrion Lannister is amazing. Worse case scenario he hits the table for one turn of five strength/keyphrase of your choice for one challenge phase and THEN he becomes a tricon stealther. You can use him twice if you have kingdom of shadows. Alchemist Guildhall is still a rock star in my book even after the limited response errata and Qyburn yoinks a dude from the dead pile and forces through power or intrigue challenges with deadly. From the neutral side Syrio, Varys, and King’s Landing bring repeatable shadows triggers, ally removal, and card draw.

Card Draw
Lannister has always excelled in this arena and Tim packs in Golden Tooth Mines, Tommen, and takes advantage of Lanni’s locations with King’s Landing. Four gold may sound expensive but you should fist up two cards on the first turn it is revealed. Valyrian Steel Link rounds out this stable of card getters in possibly the number one spot considering how few draw backs it touts.

Location and Attachment Control
This has never been a strong spot for Lanni. Nightmares does an admirable job here staving off key locations during turning points. Otherwise, this deck is hosed against location heavy decks. The argument begins and ends with Tin Link for attachment control.

Character Control
Kneel early, kneel often should be Lannister’s words. We’ve already addressed locking down those beefy characters but not the trait manipulation. Trait manip was great a year ago with ravens and is now great with Dissension. Giving someone the refugee trait with Lion’s Gate or the Copper Link while another refugee is in play creates a great two for one play. You’ve Killed the Wrong Dwarf can set this play up a turn earlier by kneeling your intended target. Ser Arys Oakheart discards other characters as well.

Wildfire Assault Effect
The mark of a great deck is creating multiple threats on the board your opponent has to answer. Most control decks keep you locked down and accumulate power through unopposed challenges. The same is true here with a couple wrinkles. Cersei, Creylon, Ser Oakheart, Tyrion, and You’ve Killed the Wrong Dwarf bring added pressure. Myrcella doubles up on Cersei’s attacks and the possibility of claiming more power. Fewer options are available when you have fewer turns to work with.

Marwyn is an under used character. His response to copy the most powerful cards in the game can not be overlooked. We’ve already established the power of city plots but his effect becomes more prominent because you can copy your opponent’s abilities as well. It’s the Jaime player in me, but playing Valar multiple times gives me chills.

Lyons’ Lions
House Lannister (Core)
The Maester's Path (GotC)

Plots
City of Lies (CoS)
City of Sin (AToT)
City of Soldiers (TBoBB)
City of Spiders (TftRK)
At the Gates (GotC)
Retaliation! (ASoSilence)
Valar Morghulis (Core)

Characters
Mountain Refugee (RoW) x3
Tommen Baratheon (SA) x1
Carrion Bird (ASoS) x3
Lannisport Weaponsmith (Core) x2
Syrio Forel (TftRK) x1
Myrcella Lannister (LotR) x1
Lannisport Steward (Core) x3
Joffrey Baratheon (KotS) x1
Maester Creylen (FtC) x1
Grand Maester Pycelle (Core) x1
Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS) x1
Varys (SaS) x1
Enemy Informer (Core) x3
Castellan of the Rock (BoRF) x3
Shagga Son of Dolf (DB) x1
Qyburn (SaS) x1
Archmaester Marwyn (MotA) x1
Tyrion Lannister (CoS) x2
Cersei Lannister (LotR) x1

Locations
Shadowblack Lane (Core) x1
River Row (QoD) x1
The Goldroad (Core) x3
Kingdom of Shadows (KotS) x3
Lion's Gate (ASoS) x2
Golden Tooth Mines (Core) x3
Alchemist's Guild Hall (TBoBB) x1
King's Landing (SaS) x2

Attachments (on agenda)
Copper Link (GotC) x1
Tin Link (CbtC) x1
Valyrian Steel Link (HtS) x1
Apprentice Collar (GotC) x1

Events
Dissension (QoD) x3
Nightmares (LoW) x3
You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf! (Core) x3

Jerod Leupold started playing AGOT during the release of Flight of Dragons and declared his allegiance to Greyjoy at an early age. He cut his teeth playing in the MN, MO, and WI regionals trying to build dominant characterless or recursion decks. He has placed first in one lowly attended regional, second in four others, and top eighted in two out the four GenCons he has attended. For one year he was the number one ranked limited player. He currently resides in Iowa City and is proud to be a part of the Knights of the Corn meta.

During the years of 2005-2011 he was the owner and tournament organizer for Critical Hit Games that ran magic events on a weekly basis including being asked to host the state of Iowa championships twice. He has been a tournament player for several ccgs including 7^th Sea, L5R, Spoils, and is the current King of the Hill champion of the 2011 GenCon Invasion tournament.