Beheading Ned - King of the North!

"There sits the only king I mean to bend my knee to: the King in the North!"
- Greatjon Umber, Game of thrones

Warning! If you are only following the story through the TV series and haven't read through the third book, do not read this article unless you have already seen last weeks episode.

Welcome back to Beheading Ned, this week we are continuing our series on decks focused on the War of the Five Kings. This time we are looking at the King of the North.

King Robb Stark, Lord of Winterfell and King of the North, went to war against King Joffrey for the Iron throne after he imprisoned Eddard Stark. He is famous for winning all of his battles, however, he lost support of many of his men, lost Winterfell, and was betrayed by the Boltons and Freys that ends in his surprise death that changed the course of the Starks ever since. However, we can not ever forget his impact in the story. He devastated much of the strength of the Lannisters and still has kept them in chaos trying to recover the damage that he did. Also, he is a big factor of why so many people favor the Starks as their favorite house. Robb was a king many of us wanted to support he had a just cause for war, wasn't power hungry wanting to rule the whole kingdom, and although very stupid he did things he felt was right with heart/passion. You felt bad for him when Theon betrayed him, you feel for him with the pressure of being king that was sorta forced on to him, and this last weeks episode probably made people cry (or cuss - Darksbane ).

Now onto the deck based around King Robb.

King Robb
now there is actually three versions of Robb Stark, however, one is not a King so we are not going to examine that version.

Option one,Robb Stark (KotS) now I originally was going to build a deck around this version. It is a easy deck to make, really use The Siege of Winterfell (LoW) as your agenda and use abilities to stand and re-trigger Robb's ability to flood the board with strong armies. But, that has been done before and wasn't exciting at all to make so I went with a different approach with option two.

Robb Stark (LoW) has great ability when it is winter and even more importantly gave me the idea of making a deck which is much more unique. Now, this deck isn't going to be as Nedly as my Renly deck sadly but this deck is going to be centered around a great deal of board control through killing everyone and with nice combos with his little puppy, Grey Wind (LoW).


The Deck

Deck Built with CardGameDB.com GoT Deckbuilder


House (1)
House Stark (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
Knights of the Hollow Hill (MotM) x1

Plot (7)
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
Threat from the North (PotS) x1
The Winds of Winter (TWoW) x1
Negotiations at the Great Sept (TPoL) x1
A Time for Ravens (ACoS) x1
Marched to the Wall (LoW) x1
Wildfire Assault (Core) x1

Character (25)
Robb Stark (LoW) x3
Jeyne Westerling (ASoS) x1
Arya Stark (CoS) x1
The Blackfish (LoW) x1
Bran Stark (VD) x1
Roose Bolton (DB) x1
Ser Edmure Tully (LoW) x1
Wyman Manderly (RotK) x1
Direwolf Pup (Core) x2
Carrion Bird (ASoS) x2
Guard at Riverrun (LoW) x2
Maester of Last Hearth (HtS) x1
Meera Reed (TftH) x2
Northern Cavalry Flank (SA) x2
Ser Kyle Condon (APS) x1
Syrio Forel (TftRK) x1
Summer Sea Corsair (RotK) x2

Location (12)
Flea Bottom (TGM) x1
Narrow Sea (Core) x3
Street of Silk (LotR) x1
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
Street of Steel (Core) x1
Northern Fiefdoms (Core) x3
Storm Dancer (AToT) x1
Harrenhal (ODG) x1

Event (11)
Desperate Measures (TCC) x3
Dissension (QoD) x2
Feigned Retreat (ASitD) x2
Judged by the Father (TCC) x2
Wolf Dreams (LoW) x1
Execution (THoBaW) x1

Attachment (12)
Grey Wind (LoW) x2
Nymeria (Core) x1
Shaggydog (LoW) x2
Frozen Solid (LoW) x3
The Long Winter (ACoS) x2
White Raven (TWoW) x2


Theory

Now in case you couldn't figure out the deck I'll give you my thought process. Sadly right off the bat you can see it lost some of its nedlyness when we went with the Knights of the Hollow Hill (MotM) agenda. However, after I was done making main part of the deck I realized there were way too many attachments to ever have a good setup anyways. The deck uses winter to boost Robb's ability and also makes it easier to pull off many of the kill effects in the deck. The Long Winter (ACoS) is a great effect and being able to use Threat from the North (PotS) and The Winds of Winter (TWoW) to lower all your opponents characters strength makes it easier to trigger Grey Wind's ability.

Grey Wind (LoW) and Shaggydog (LoW) together make a good combo but when you add in additional burn effects you can start to hit many powerful characters. Coupled with all the other direct kill you can start eliminating everyone and have more kill effects then the biggest burn decks Targ can make. Now there are other strategies that can go with this as well to add in more effects, like use more War crest characters to use Die by the Sword (LoW) or you can argue that No Quarter (TBC) is better restricted card than Meera Reed (TftH), however, I wouldn't agree with that. Also, I wanted to add more Poisoned Coin (THoBaW), its great at getting rid of characters like The Red Viper (PotS) with his immunities. If using the direwolf kill effects not many things are immune to attachments, come to think of it I can't think of anything that is.

P.S. on a side note using KOTHH is nice because we get to use Feigned Retreat (ASitD) an amazing card, and also adds in the influence to use new cards like Desperate Measures (TCC) and Judged by the Father (TCC) which are both great and needed to give the deck some draw.

Final Thoughts
This deck may not be the best deck Stark can make, however, it is very rewarding just killing everyone (ask any Targ player). If anyone has tried a similar deck, or if after looking at this deck can analyze it, I would love to hear your thoughts on improvements. Making Stark decks have always seemed difficult for me, but this deck is fun to play and intrigues me so I want to make it even better. It is an odd deck, using different direct kill effects, using KOTHH, and a small shadow theme for extra draw with Summer Sea Corsair (RotK) and Storm Dancer (AToT). Hope you enjoy this semi Nedly deck, based around the Nedly theme of King Robb Stark and his wolf killing everything.

Next time we will be looking at the King of the Iron Islands, and no not the cool King, the one that actually was one of the Kings during the War of the Five kings, Balon.