All Things Shagga - Robert Heir Melee Deck Clinic

For those of you that listen to 2 Champs and a Chump, you may be familiar with what All Things Shagga will be attempting this week. For those of you not familiar, I'll explain. Either way, you should both be in for a treat. This week, I'm taking a look at a user submitted deck. JallekTully was kind enough to submit a deck for me to take a look at, critique, deconstruct, and then rebuild better, faster, and stronger. The melee deck that Jallek submitted for me this week, is an interesting Shagga take that focuses on some sweet out of house synergy, so it's right up my alley. Let's take a look.

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Robert Heir Melee - Submission

Total Cards (64)

House (1)
House Targaryen (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
Heir to the Iron Throne (QoD) x1

Plot (7)
Across the Summer Sea (APS) x1
Fury of the Dragon (AE) x1
Alliance (PotS) x1
Feast or Famine (KotStorm) x1
Retaliation! (ASoSilence) x1
Summoning Season (Core) x1
Focused Offense (QoD) x1

Character (32)
Banner for the Storm (CtB) x3
Bitter Crone (IG) x2
Blood-Crazed Screamer (MotM) x2
Bloodrider (MotA) x3
Bringers of Law (AE) x2
Daenerys Targaryen (GotC) x2
Daemon Blackfyre (TftRK) x1
Dothraki Handmaiden (DB) x2
Drogo's Horde (IG) x2
Horseback Archers (QoD) x2
Horseback Hunters (ASoSilence) x3
Jhogo (OSaS) x1
Khal Drogo (WotN) x2
Rakharo (IG) x1
Randyl Tarly (KotS) x1
Robert Baratheon (TGM) x2
Aggo (RoR) x1

Location (17)
Eastern Fiefdoms (Core) x3
Great Pyramid (Core) x3
Khal Drogo's Tent (Core) x1
Lady Daenerys's Chambers (Core) x1
Meraxes (TBC) x1
Summer Sea (PotS) x3
Temple of the Graces (Core) x3
The Womb of the World (ASoSilence) x1
Vaes Dothrak (IG) x1

Attachment (8)
Aggo's Bow (RoR) x1
Blood of the Dragon (Core) x2
Hunting Spear (BoRF) x3
Jhogo's Whip (OSaS) x1
Rakharo's Arakh (IG) x1

Event (7)
Deadly Khalasar (IG) x3
Dragon Support (TftH) x3
Ride Them Down (ODG) x1


The Good:

This deck is played out of house Targeryen for at least one major thing, the Heir to the Iron Throne agenda. The gist of the deck is to get Robert Baratheon in play (preferably with a way to make multiple challenges) so that you can really abuse that extra power challenge. In order to do this, the deck gives up the intrigue challenge, which is ok. By and large, Targaryen offers quite a few solid military and power bicon characters to pick from. So, aside from this, what are some of the individual cards that the deck does right?

Across The Summer Sea & Alliance - Both great plots to give you the gold and the chance to set this deck up.

Banner for the Storm - Probably the easiest way to give Robert Vigilant so he can take advantage of both Power challenges.

Jhogo & Meraxes - Targaryen may not have a lot of draw options, but these are pretty solid. They'll help you dig for the necessary pieces.

Dragon Support - Now this is a Targaryen card that really makes the possibilities for this deck churn in my head. The strength swing afforded by this card in top of Robert's own melee all but ensures that you'll be winning the challenge during which you play this.

Deadly Khalassar - Since it can be triggered any time an opponent's character is killed for military claim, there are actually some really neat melee possibilities here.

Now, this isn't to say that the rest of the cards in the deck are all bad. There's always going to be a need to pick a direction for the solid cards to help round out a deck, and overall, the Dothraki theme does have some things to offer.

The Bad:

There are, however, a few things about the deck that I think are either actively fighting against the overall theme of the deck or just aren't efficient enough to help us out when we really need it in a game.

Bitter Crone - She keeps any character from being saved during a military challenge, not just our opponents'. This means that there's a very real chance that one of the other players can ensure that Robert dies when we needed him to stick around.

Horseback Hunters and Horseback Archers - Neither one is bad, but running so many of each is probably overkill for this deck.

Bringers of Law - They're actually pretty solid for a different type of deck entirely. For this deck, though, they don't help our particular setup or combo at all.

Eastern Fiefdoms, Great Pyramid, and Temple of the Graces - Basic resources can be invaluable, but running 3 copies each of 3 different limited locations is going to cause us some very real problems on Setup and early turns when we need those resources but can't play more than one.

Weapon Attachments - Ok, these aren't strictly bad, but they aren't terribly efficient either. Even the Hunting Spear, which can be phenomenal on Robert, is going to be awfully expensive. I think there's a good chance that there will be more efficient cards to take the place of at least some of these.

Blood of the Dragon - The potential payoff is nice, but with Tin Link and the like floating around, I'm pretty wary of 3 gold attachments.

Focused Offense - Sure, I can see the potential for one super huge, awesome, swing for the win turn that claims a bajillion power, but 4 initiative isn't enough to guarantee you go first, and too many things can go wrong to throw off your turn. Even a lowly Orphan of the Greenblood can potentially make this an entirely wasted turn.

Feast or Famine - Board state and circumstances can change too rapidly during a melee game, and Feast or Famine locks you in to one path or the other too early in the turn, with few options if you need to change course based on what some of your opponents do.

The Ugly:

Ok, I have to admit that there isn't really much to write here, I just had to complete the naming trifecta that I started. I will say, though, that I'm not terribly thrilled at a the number of 1 and 2 ofs in the deck, nor the overall total of 64 cards. With this being essentially a combo deck, we need to maximize all of our chances possible to get the pieces we need.

Possibilities:

Here are some of the other cards that I feel are really looking for a possible home for the deck.

Incinerate - If we keep the Dothraki theme, we'll certainly have some characters with matching traits to increase its kill range and the ability to cut right through opposing characters that do have attachments and the ability to be played at any time means that we can almost certainly use it to help win challenges with Robert.

Meereen Tourney Grounds - Cheap and repeatable strength reduction still plays into our ability to win challenges with Robert.

Refugee of the Plains - Dothraki with the icons that we need, while greatly increasing our capabilities during Setup, which means that we're going to increase the odds of drawing into what we need.

Royal Favor - It's not a guaranteed win, but it's worth considering as a backup plan to slam home a couple non-kneeling power challenges with one of the Targaryen characters with Renown.

Secret Alliance - I know I've panned these events in the past, but if you've got a big enough payoff coming (say a two claim power challenge using Robert) it might very well be worth spending one power to kick a defender out of the challenge.

Ser Barristan Selmy - He is expensive, but as one of the few Targaryen characters with Renown, he might be worth considering.

The Battle of Astapor - Ok, this almost certainly won't make the cut, but if you've given Vigilance to Robert, can you imagine making the third power challenge with him?

True Power - One of the real reasons to try this out of Targaryen instead of the simpler Baratheon builds. It doesn't matter what your opponents put in front of Robert, you just straight up win it. This is going in for sure.

True Queen's Harbinger & the Street locations - I'm lumping these together as possibilities for reworking the resource base. They're all 0 cost and non-limited, so we can continue to up our Setup Presence, and the Harbinger fits right into the Dothraki support theme.

Distinct Mastery - This is a solid way to stand Robert or a variety of our other characters with crests in order to use them for another challenge.


The Deck:

So, with all of these things and general deckbuilding rules in mind, here are the changes that I would suggest.

-Feast or Famine
-Focused Offense
-Bitter Crone x2
-Bringers of Law x2
-Dothraki Handmaiden x2
-Horseback Hunters x3
-Randyll Tarly
-Great Pyramid x3
-Lady Daenerys’ Chambers
-The Womb of the World
-Aggo’s Bow
-Blood of the Dragon x2
-Hunting Spear x3
-Jhogo’s Whip
-Rakharo’s Arakh
- Deadly Khalasar
-Ride Them Down

+Siege of Riverrun
+Mutual Blackmail
+True Power x3
+Robert Baratheon
+Meereen Tourney Grounds
+Refugee of the Plains x3
+True Queen’s Harbinger x3
+Incinerate x3
+Drogo’s Horde
+Meraxes
+Kingsroad Fiefdom x2
+Horseback Archers
+Street of Sisters
+Street of Steel


Robert Heir Melee - Reconstructed


Total Cards (60)

House (1)
House Targaryen (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
Heir to the Iron Throne (QoD) x1

Plot (7)
Across the Summer Sea (APS) x1
Fury of the Dragon (AE) x1
Alliance (PotS) x1
Retaliation! (ASoSilence) x1
Summoning Season (Core) x1
Siege of Riverrun (KotS) x1
Mutual Blackmail (Core) x1

Character (31)
Banner for the Storm (CtB) x3
Blood-Crazed Screamer (MotM) x2
Bloodrider (MotA) x3
Daenerys Targaryen (GotC) x2
Daemon Blackfyre (TftRK) x1
Drogo's Horde (IG) x3
Horseback Archers (QoD) x3
Jhogo (OSaS) x1
Khal Drogo (WotN) x2
Rakharo (IG) x1
Robert Baratheon (TGM) x3
Aggo (RoR) x1
Refugee of the Plains (RoW) x3
True-Queen's Harbinger (QoD) x3

Location (18)
Eastern Fiefdoms (Core) x3
Khal Drogo's Tent (Core) x1
Meraxes (TBC) x2
Summer Sea (PotS) x3
Temple of the Graces (Core) x3
Vaes Dothrak (IG) x1
Meereen Tourney Grounds (ODG) x1
Kingsroad Fiefdom (QoD) x2
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
Street of Steel (Core) x1

Attachment (0)

Event (11)
Deadly Khalasar (IG) x2
Dragon Support (TftH) x3
True Power (AKitN) x3
Incinerate (VM) x3


So there you have it folks! Here’s my first attempt at this type of column. There’s a few different ways this deck could have gone (Dragons as well, perhaps) so let me know what you think. What would you have done to get this game breaking Robert online as quick as possible? As well, what do you think about the format of this particular entry in the column? I’m writing for you folks, so let me know if this was a good format to discuss a deck.