Beheading Ned - Ned Vs Jaime

Welcome back to Beheading Ned! In something of a Nedly turn, I've been tardy in posting my articles, and I do apologize, but I'm just trying to channel my inner George R.R. Martin and keep you waiting for longer than you should have to. Remember, Beheading Ned is nothing if not about the story that Mr. Martin wrote (and is hopefully continuing to write!) so be forewarned: spoilers ahead!

Two sessions ago, we talked a bit about my take on Nedly deckbuilding and how the constraints that story-based play put on your choices. Then, we built a decklist using some of those constraints and came out with a pretty slick Dragon melee list.

For this installment, I've enlisted the help of the Jedi Master to my Padawan learner, the Knight to my Squire, the national-level player to my local-level pretender: Widowmaker93. I've brought in some help since I wanted to see how my Nedly list compared to a Jaime-type list from a strong player. I've asked Nathan to build a list around Dragons, looking to play it in melee, and then we will compare my Nedly list to his Jaime list, see how different they are, and see if we can't make our Nedly list a bit more efficient using his ideas as inspiration. Here's what he came up with:


Targ Dragon Melee

House Targaryen (Core)

Heir to the Iron Throne (QoD)


Plot (7)
Fury of the Dragon (AE) x1
Loyalty Money Can Buy (QoD) x1
Mad King's Legacy (Core) x1
Retaliation! (ASoSilence) x1
Summoning Season (Core) x1
Forgotten Plans (KotStorm) x1
Winter Festival (WotN) x1

Character (31)

Advisor to the Crown (QoD) x3
Balerion the Black (RotO) x1
Black Hatchling (QoD) x1
Brown Ben Plumm (Core) x1
Daenerys Targaryen (QoD) x3
Drogon (QoD) x2
Green Hatchling (QoD) x1
Herald of the East (SB) x2
Jhogo (OSaS) x1
Khal Drogo (Core) x1
Long Lances (THoBaW) x2
Refugee of the Plains (RoW) x3
Rhaegal (QoD) x3
Strong Belwas (VD) x2
Viserion (QoD) x2
Viserys Targaryen (Core) x1
White Hatchling (QoD) x1
Young Griff (VD) x1

Location (20)
Astapor (QoD) x1
Eastern Fiefdoms (Core) x3
Flaming-Pitch Tower (TWot5K) x1
Great Pyramid of Meereen (AHM) x1
Khal Drogo's Tent (Core) x1
Kingsroad Fiefdom (QoD) x2
Meereen (QoD) x2
Meereenese Fighting Pit (ARotD) x2
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
Street of Steel (Core) x1
Summer Sea (Core) x3
Yunkai (QoD) x2

Event (9)
Ambush from the Plains (QoD) x2
Dance With Dragons (Core) x2
Make an Example (PotS) x3
The Dragon Strikes (GotC) x2

Attachment (0)


Let's look at breaking this down by card type. I'm struck by how similar the core of the character base actually is. There's a few uniques in Nathan's list that aren't in my own, including Young Griff, Khal Drogo, Brown Ben Plumm, Viserys Targaryen, and the Hatchlings from the Queen of Dragons box. We excluded them for thematic reasons, choosing to replace the chud Brown Ben and Viserys with Sellsword Deserters. The deserters give ambush, but generally I'd rather have the uniques.....though this is almost a wash. We don't have Khal Drogo, but we do have Magister Illyrio. Khal is probably better, but again, you work within your constraints. For Young Griff, we have Ser Barristan Selmy, who won't help with the standing, but his renown will speed us up a bit. Also, Young Griff is best with the Advisors to the Crown (letting you pull double duty for influence), but we haven't used them either as Archmaester Marwyn is a more Nedly choice. This is a tough pill to swallow, since the extra influence of the Advisors really comes in handy. We've tried to make up for that with 3x True Queen's Harbinger, who will also aid our setups, but the Advisors would be nice. Just like Ned, though, our hands are often tied due to honor.

You might also notice that Nathan included 2x of some of the dragons rather than our 3x as well as putting in Balerion the Black. He's off limits for us, but I do wonder if Balerion is the best choice anyway due to the high cost. We've left out the shadow hatchlings and dropped in Quartheen Fanatics. I don't see much more than personal choice different between the two. We've also grabbed an extra Herald, but in general the characters "feel" similar. The biggest Nedly choice was leaving out claim-soak Viserys and Khal Drogo. We'll see if Ser Barristan and the Sellsword Deserters can help well enough in those roles.

Next, let's look at the event suite. I'm running 13 events, while the Jaime list is running 9. We both have Ambush from the Plains, Make an Example, and The Dragon Strikes. I've added in True Power and Incinerate while Nathan preferred A Dance with Dragons. I'm hoping the Heralds can fill the role of Dance and utilized True Power and Incinerate for mainly defensive purposes. Again, probably a personal choice since Dance with Dragons is well within the Nedly bounds.

The locations are also similar, if a bit different. Nathan's running a higher number of locations than I am, though again the lists look strikingly close. We've both got Fighting Pits and a slew of resources. I'm running more Kingsroad Fiefdoms (he doesn't need to since he's got the Advisors) and he added in Astapor and Yunkai, as well as a Flaming Pitch Tower. I actually like my events in this role rather than locations on the board as they won't cost resources, though they will hurt my setup a bit. Yunkai's renown will speed things up a bit but Incinerate adds some much-needed character control. Again, this one likely comes down more to personal taste than actual Nedly constraints.

Our plot decks are a bit different. Nathan isn't running a reset at all, while I've got Valar. Again, personal choice. He's included Mad King's Legacy and Winter Festival (which I actually really like in melee) while I've got Counting Favors for draw as well as Mutual Cause for an extra 2 claim plot. Leaving out Mad King's Legacy means I have no attachment control at all, and since it's kindof Nedly anyway I might work that in in place of Mutual Cause. Winter Festival doesn't make any sense in this Nedly scenario, though I did use it to win my table at our regionals last year (any guesses who helped me build that list???)

So there you have it: my Nedly list matches the Jaime list with stunning simliarities. We're giving up two important unique characters and two unique locations that the Jaime list ran, as well as more efficient resourcing in the form of the Advisors. We've replaced that with generic resource locations and a similar non-unique character as well as two events. I'm pretty happy actually with how efficient the Nedly list turned out.

So then, dear readers, let me put you to the question: which list do you prefer? Do you see the Jaime list as more efficient, or is it as I've been implying--more a matter of personal taste? Would you swap some stuff around in either list? I'd love to hear all your thoughts here.

Thanks again for reading this deck-bulding mini-series. I'm also open to thoughts on where you'd like to see Ned go in the future!