With Fire and Blood - Knights of the Hollow Hill

With Fire and Blood: Knights of the Hollow Hill

Last session doulos2k took a look at agendas for Targaryen in general, overviewing some great things to keep in mind when choosing your agenda as a Targaryen player. This week, we're going to focus in on perhaps the most talked about agenda this side of the House of Dreams. You know it; you fear it; you can not defeat it--the Knights of the Hollow Hill.

WHY IS THIS AGENDA SO GOOD?

John Bruno's win at Worlds shows that this is definitively a Tier 1 deck. In particular, this card works well with Targaryen for a couple of reasons:

1. Influence as a true resource. Whereas other houses typically use influence as a cost for effects (like Walk of Shame (ARotD)) Targaryen uses it almost interchangeably with gold due to the proliferation of the Ambush keyword. That takes the agenda from being +2 resources to +4 resources. That mitigates the -5 from the setup penalty after the very first plot phase.

2. They have a use for the initiative. Lots of control decks like to go second, and Burn decks are no different. Seeing what your opponent marshals before you commit cards is always nice, and burning down a challenger on defense means your guys are standing for offense. Conversely, if you want to go first to either be aggressive or decide conflicting passives (such as on a Threat from the North (PotS) turn, you can do that. The +2 initiative helps to give you the option more often than your opponent, and options equal wins more often than not. Initiative boosts also open up Bay of Ice (KotS) as a draw source, and Hollow Hill decks need draw like I need my morning Starbucks.

3. They have the most ways of mitigating slow starts. Knights of the Hollow Hill will by definition be starting from behind, so mitigating that setup disadvantage is mandatory for a win. The common Turn 1 plots that I've seen out of Hollow Hill are The First Snow of Winter (ODG) and Rule by Decree (Core), and Targaryen can run them as well as anyone. With come into play effects on their 2-cost characters such as Dragon Thief and Dragon Knight, First Snow becomes more than a setup gambit for Targ. They can just ambush their guys in while yours are stuck in your hand. And, that same ambush ability enables a T1 Rule by Decree more easily than most. Throw in some Much and More (AHM), and you have at least two plots worth their salt on T1 that help to slow your opponent. Conversely, an opposing Rule by Decree is extremely crippling for a Hollow Hill build, so extra 'any phase' and ambush actions help prevent your own hand being stripped. The erratas to the Laughing Storm hand attack combos have helped this as well.

4. They can include three resets with no problem. Plot one is not the only plot you'll be likely to be behind. You need to play the long game, meaning that a Hollow Hill player hangs in there until the resource advantage and card draw evens out over time and their board control goes unchallenged. Most decks have one reset to help with this, but Hollow Hill will have Valar Morghulis, First Snow, and Threat from the North. If you were feeling really crazy, you could even add Wildfire Assault. Keeping the board clear works to Targaryen's advantage, letting ambush take over.

5. The Narrow Sea cycle boosted their efficiency. Targaryen's usual problem was inefficient cards. Now, with Long Lances and Incinerate, that's no longer an issue. Sure, pound for pound their characters aren't as great as others, but they don't need to be. I'm even reading calls for some Targ restrictions, a sure sign that they've arrived.

6. Draw and card advantage are available to this house. Since Hollow Hill starts with a -3 or -4 card disadvantage after setup, you have to gain that back somehow. Meraxes (TBC),Bay of Ice (KotS) add draw where Targ used to rely only on Summer, and Lady Dany's Chambers, The Golden Company, and Ambush from the Plains add recursion effects. Recursion is arguably better than draw, since you get to choose what you want in many instances and typically good cards end up in your discard since they're the ones you chose to play.

HOW DID JOHN BRUNO LEVERAGE THESE ADVANTAGES?

There have been several podcasts on which John was kind enough to be a guest host, and he even went so far as to post his decklist for perusal. Rather than belabor those points, I'll have the Man Behind the Throne (Darksbane) add a link to the decklist here or so... [Does that make me Littlefinger? - Darksbane]
Targ KotHH - House of Pain - 2012 Joust Worlds 1st Place
When you're done soaking it in I'll comment on how his deck ticks the above boxes, and then talk about how Bruno takes it to the next level.

1. Influence as a true resource. Looking at the deck, 15 out of 27 characters come with the Ambush keyword. That freed up the pilot to use gold on locations and reserve influence for surprise assaults out of his characters, 12 of which feature a come-into-play ability of some kind. This gives ambush the triple duty of resource provision, character provision, and control or card advantage effects. Most houses simply can't match that out of Hollow Hill.

2. They have a use for the initiative. Beyond turn order, Bruno's House of Pain leverages initiative into card draw with Bay of Ice but also opens up Ambush from the Plains (QoD) as a key card. This event lets you pull a character from your discard pile, but only if its cost is less than your initiative. Bruno's deck was able to basically grab whatever character he wanted, whenever he needed it.

3. They have the most ways of mitigating slow starts. The inclusion of these plots is key for Hollow Hill decks, but this one has taken a previously un-thought-of option and turned it into a near staple for netdecks all around the world: Waste Their Time (QoD). This plot doesn't focus so much on the board as on the hand. Reasoning rightly that choosing a key card like a Raven or Viper's Bannermen pre-turn one gives a much-needed counter to certain decktypes, Bruno utilized this card to great effect all day long. Its Power Struggle trait also opened up To Be a Dragon (SB). Marched to the Wall, Rule by Decree, and First Snow all exist as other turn one options for slowing an opponent.

4. They can include three resets with no problem. And look at that, the Worlds deck had three resets. Timing these is critical, depending on reading your opponent and pilot skill, but the overall power they bring to the game is awesome and allows Hollow Hill the time it needs to get rolling.

5. The Narrow Sea cycle boosted their efficiency. There are a staggering number of key cards from the latest packs in these decks. I don't know for sure, but I bet the "DC Winter" deck had less than three cards from the new cycle in the deck. This one, on the other hand, features Long Lances, Company of the Cat, Much and More, Recruitment, Young Griff, Magister Illyrio, Great Pyramid of Meereen, and Incinerate. Suffice it to say, this deck couldn't be built before the Narrow Sea came out. Each one of those (save Young Griff, probably) is very key and cannot be easily replaced by something else. Maybe this is why I'm seeing those calls for restrictions.....

6. Draw and card advantage are available to this house. Here is where John Bruno shows himself to be the top player that he is. He only used two Meraxes and two Bay of Ice, relying instead on recursion. He dusted off Recruitment (VD), which was widely panned upon release. This card let him grab many key characters (Long Lances, anyone?) from the discard pile, allowing options as well as card advantage. Further, he used Street Waif (AToT), which had also been long forgotten.

The real key, however, was in the hand control this deck can assert over the opponent. Once more utilizing the influence from the agenda, he selected Confession (KotS), giving him not only hand knowledge but also control over that hand. Aegon's Hill (TTotH) added to this theme. Usually such locations are too expensive, but not with the boosts from Hollow Hill. This combination of recursion and hand control proved too much for opponents to bear, leading to a much-deserved Joust championship.

WHY DOESN'T HOLLOW HILL WIN ALL THE TIME?

First off, this is a hard agenda to play. You're starting from behind always, and a good opponent can often work that to their advantage. All of the options that the agenda gives also means that you can make a lot of bad choices. A Noble rush deck typically gives fewer options, making the best one easier to see, but also giving you fewer outs and ways around situations. Hollow Hill gives those options, but only top players will make the right choice consistently. John Bruno is such a player, and House Targaryen is proud to have him as a bannerman right now.

I hope that you aren't tired of hearing about this deck. John Bruno took a great archetype (burn) and added ingenious aspects of recursion and hand control. This, more than any other, is the deck that is shaping the meta right now and will still be the one to beat heading into regional season. Can you leverage the advantages of Hollow Hill like John Bruno was able to, or will your piloting skill be crushed under the weight of the options in play? Can you devise a method to put Hollow Hill behind and keep them there, or will your plans fizzle before you can fully lay them?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments below both about the deck in specific and Hollow Hill in general. As always, thanks for reading.