With Fire and Blood - Following the Path

Welcome back to Fire and Blood, CardGameDB’s article featuring discussion about House Targaryen and all that it entails. Thanks for indulging doulos2k and I in our off week around the holidays. I hope that all of your stockings were stuffed full of Dragon Eggs and that you enjoyed your toast of Shade of the Evening to celebrate the new year. I’m not really up to date on my Chinese New Year, but for us Targaryens, every year is the year of the Dragon.

In this week’s installment, we will talk about the best of cards, and the worst of cards. In my opinion, it’s actually the same card—The Maester’s Path. So much virtual ink has been spilled regarding this card that I hardly need to get into the debate regarding it being good or bad for the game, but suffice to say that my feelings on it are mixed. But, being powerful, a Targaryen would be foolhardy to overlook how it can help our favorite house surge to the top of the standings and stay there. A few weeks back, we looked at the Knights of the Hollow Hill agenda and this article will do much the same as that one—rather than looking at a specific decklist, we will talk about some key Targ cards or house strengths that meld with this agenda. For those of you wanting a decklist, I refer you to the very good Forgotten Plans article featuring Rhaegar’s Harp and to Twn2dn’s list from the Black Friday event, both of which heavily influenced my look at the Maester’s Path in the current meta.

IN HOUSE STANDING EFFECTS

One of the things that helps Maesters be Maesters is of course the Chain attachments. Since kneeling is often a cost or at least a trigger for these myriad effects, many Maester players should be looking to trigger their chains multiple times in a round by re-standing the players that they control. While Baratheon is also renowned for their stand effects, I think Targaryen’s might be even better these days.

First and foremost, you have the Long Lances (tHoBaW). Everyone knows how powerful these guys can be, and if you still doubt, try triggering your Maesters for gold and cards in marshalling and then restanding them for challenges. You’ll wonder why you ever should play anything else. Since their ability is once per phase, you can kneel for a chain effect, marshal a card, stand your Maester, and proceed to challenges. Then, kneel for a challenge or chain effect, ambush in a card, and stand your Maester again. In a pinch, ambush something in for Dominance for even more ridiculousness.

Young Griff (VD) also merits mention. Since he stands any number of characters when coming out of shadows, he is almost an auto-include in a Maester deck. Gold link and Valyrian Steel link are best used in Marshalling, as is the Copper link (which we’ll discuss more below). Young Griff lets you get that use and then restand for challenges or more effects in later phases. Besides that, being a 3 cost 3 STR tricon with stealth isn’t too bad either.

There are other effects, such as the soon-to-be-reprinted To Be a Dragon, but the third main cog in the Targ Maester builds is usually the Hrakkar Pelt. Best used on Archmaester Marwyn, the Pelt lets you stand up for another trigger in Dominance or even just to win the phase outright. It even cantrips when you play it and works with Pale Steel Link to drop it right into play. Slots are always at a premium in thinned-out Maester decks, but try a Pelt or two. I think you won’t be unhappy with how it performs.

IN-HOUSE ATTACHMENT MANIPULATION

The Tin Link nearly broke the game, or at least the Internet. Giving attachment control to all houses certainly has caused a stir. However, the Tin Link won’t help you in the mirror match since it is limited to non-chain attachments, but this is where Targaryen shines naturally. Whether it be a Dragon Thief or a Meereeneese Brothel, Targaryen can use the attachment discard mechanism to their advantage in the mirror match. (Being able to burn out Maesters with targeted removal also helps in the mirror)

More important than removal is likely the recursion help that Targaryen gives. Lady Daenerys’s Chambers is a strong card that helps you recycle your chains continually back to hand. Working in tandem with Bronze Link, the Chambers guarantees that whatever chain effect you need, you can find either on your agenda or in your discard pile. Street Waif and Archmaester Marwyn also help grabbing stuff that you’ve already used.

PROTECTING YOUR MAESTERS

One of the key factors to consider in a Maester build is having a Maester on the board at all times to ensure that you can get your chains off your agenda and press on towards your win condition. Targaryen does that better than most houses. Every house has At the Gates, but what does Targ offer to tempt you into choosing our house card?

While nobody will ever confuse Targaryen with Greyjoy for saves, they’re in the hunt for second best among the houses here. Strong Belwas provides saves for your uniques, helping you keep Maester Aemon (CoS) or Archmaester Marwyn in play (though Aemon isn’t a good choice since he’s Boon attachments only!). Other cards like Unburnt also can be helpful.

More helpful than the saves, though, is the strength of Targaryen recursion effects. If your Maesters end up in the discard pile, Street Waif or Ambush from the Plains will pull them back out. If they go to the dead pile, To Be a Dragon will grab them and stand a character to boot. Having a great non-unique three-cost Maester in Linked Advisor and a solid unique choice in Archmaester Marwyn boosts To Be a Dragon up the power charts recently. Maegi’s Promise can also help in a pinch, though I think it’s probably too inefficient for most builds.

EFFICIENT USES FOR LINKS

If you’re choosing Maesters, it’s likely for the chains. You should be looking for chains that both fill gaps in your house weaknesses as well as chains that accentuate your house strengths that you can abuse. For example, a Martell Maester control player may look at Black Iron Link to help with Game of Cyvasse and Steel Link to repeat the Scourge.

Targaryen doesn’t lack for great link choices as well. The dirty little secret that we Targaryen’s don’t want you to know is that most of our builds are card-intensive. Burn, for example, rarely trades cards one for one and relies on superior recursion or draw to help us get enough burn to hurt your characters. That’s where the Valryian Steel and Bronze Links come in—they help Targ get those needed cards to keep on burning. Further, the Lead Link is just another straight-up Burn card. It is so nasty on a Threat from the North turn. Add in Incinerate to the mix, and you really have something strong. Incinerate is great in Maesters since you naturally have a trait synergy among your Maesters as well as the Copper Link to boost your trait count in a pinch. Between the deck-thinning, card advantage, and burn boosts, Targ Maesters is an excellent choice.

The next link that Targ really hits hardest is the Copper Link. You can use Copper Links in fun decks like Dragons or Dothraki to get your trait count up, but the best use in my opinion is for trait hate decks. Here, Targaryen does the best among the houses. While all houses get Dissension and Varys (SaS), Targaryen gets two passive, non-cancelable discard effects with Ser Jorah Mormont (WLL) and Daario Naharis (WLL). After giving someone a trait of your choice with Copper Link, Jorah and Daario will work to get them in the discard pile. The same tricks detailed above, be it Unburnt, To be a Dragon, or Ambush from the Plains will all help make that negative trait hurt. Further, the Dragon attachments are really strong here, like Dragon Bite. Killing someone involved in a challenge with a Dragon may seem easy to get around, but what if you yourself are a dragon?

Consider the following play: your opponent uses The Red Viper to stealth your chained-up Maester with Lost Oasis’ ability. This kneels him. You, then, get to trigger your links. First, you use the Copper link to make the Viper a Dragon. Then, use the Pale Steel to drop in Dragon Bite (AE) on him. Now he’s in a challenge with a Dragon….himself! He’ll be killed and your opponent will be cursing The Maester’s Path anew. So while every house has the Copper link, Targaryen has the tools to really make it hurt. Other trait mechanisms like Rhaegar’s Harp push this build up the ranks even stronger in my eyes.

In sum, if you’re looking for a house to build Maesters out of, I recommend the House of the True Queen. Between link synergy, card advantage, and re-use of the Maesters in play, Targ offers some advantages that those other pretender houses don’t. In the comments below, I’d love to hear your thoughts regarding the relative merits of Targaryen Maesters and some tips that I may have overlooked in getting the most out of your builds. As always, thanks for reading.