Beheading Ned - Nedly Dragons

Since we've already seen that Neds want to win as much as the next guy but aren't willing to compromise their principles to get there, let's try to lend them (us?) a helping hand and see what type of tech we can piece together that gives us a fighting chance in the arena. We'll look at the deck through a melee lens since I find that format to not only "feel" more like the struggle for power in Westeros but also to have a lot more freedom in deckbuilding due to the variety of diplomatic counters available. (That's a fancy way of saying that this deck will actually stand a chance in a competitive melee environment).

Our next step will be to consider a theme or time period or set of characters to build the deck around. For me, that's easy. I'm a Daenerys Targaryen man, through and through. She's the True Queen and that's that. When you build around a key character, you have to identify which one of their iterations suits your build the best. For this deck, we can choose between Core set Dany, +1 Dany, and Dragon Dany. The Core set card is just not that good to build around (although underrated as a 3 cost renown drop) and +1 Dany gives us lots of options. However, Queen of Dragons Dany is very interesting. While the dragons don't participate in battle so far in the books, they are growing more and more powerful. When Dany re-takes her throne, you can be sure that the dragons will be a part of it. So let's build this deck around Dany and her Dragons re-taking Westeros, which means we will have to put the time setting sometime in the near future, probably during the time period that will be covered in Martin's (allegedly?) forthcoming Winds of Winter.

Since we're not leaving aside the fact that we want to win, we need to look at an agenda. There are several choices, but the ones that are good with dragons are Kings of Summer, Knights of the Hollow Hill, and Heir to the Iron Throne. Summer is probably out since in the time of our story Winter is actually creeping in--black ravens won't make sense. You could make a case for Hollow Hill's knights as fitting, but not quite so easily as the Heir to the Iron Throne agenda. That's who Dany is and that's what we'll be trying to be. So pencil Heir in there.

Thus far we have Daenerys Targaryen and the agenda all set. Dany's pretty key, so let's go for 3 copies of her. We're also looking to center our tale on the Dragons, so we should probably trip up on each of those: 3x Drogon, 3x Viserion, 3x Rhaegal. Many dragon decks these days include Balerion the Black, and for good reason--he's awesome and hard to counter (curse you, Iron Throne (LotR)!) Unfortunately for Neds, he's been dead for over 200 years and therefore can't go in our deck. Even so, that's probably OK since we now have 12 unique characters of cost 4. Even Neds need to keep an eye on their cost curve!

Scanning around the allies in Essos, who do we see? You can't overlook Targaryen auto-includes Ser Jorah Mormont and Daario Naharis (WLL). Unfortunately for us Neds, both of those guys are no longer in Dany's court for one reason or another, and that means we, like she, will have to go on without them. Similarly, we can't include a version of Khal Drogo like most Targ decks will since he has been hunting in the night lands for awhile.

We do find some friends in her Queensguard. Strong Belwas (VD) is faithful to be right by her side even after the assassination attempt, and Ser Barristan Selmy (TftH) also belongs. Belwas will help keep our uniques alive and Selmy will speed us up with his Renown and his burn ability will threaten a bit. We might go for Epic Selmy once we get our event suite filled out, but this one will do for now. Jhogo, Aggo, and Rakharo also fit thematically, but are their abilities good enough to come alongside? It's certainly not out of bounds to include a bit more Dothraki given that they have been some of Dany's best and staunchest followers since the beginning. But, going for a strong Dothraki theme will dilute the flavor of the dragon assault that we are going for....so let's leave them on the shelf for now.

Our curve is still stunningly high, but Damon and friends have given us some tools to combat that: True Queen's Harbinger is great for reduction, setup, and claim soak so we probably need three of those. Let's grab some Refugees as well....they will surely be alongside even if we overlooked the Bloodriders for now. Let's pause a moment and see where we are at in terms of the total deckbuild:

3x Daenerys Targaryen (QoD)
3x Drogon (QoD)
3x Rhaegal (QoD)
3x Viserion (QoD)
1x Strong Belwas (VD)
1x Ser Barristan Selmy (TftH)
3x True Queen's Harbinger (QoD)
3x Refugee of the Plains (RoW)

That's 20 characters, 13 cost 4, 1 cost 2, and six cost 0. I like to keep decks at 30 characters or above, so filling in the last ten with two cost characters would be best.

Griff and Young Griff are possibilities, but at this point it's not certain they'll end up on Dany's side. Another possibility is Jon Snow (Core), since many theorize about him being Azor Ahai reborn or even becoming King himself one day. Alas, at a 3 drop and also possibly being dead mean he probably has to stay in the deckbox.

As we scan the extant character base, I'm noticing that we have very few Intrigue icons. While icon balance is a little less of a thing in melee, you still need to be solid across all three challenges so that you're not the one picked on constantly on defense where people are looking to push through unopposed challenges all the time. Giving up the offensive Intrigue challenge means that our icons will be even tougher to balance, so perhaps we should keep an eye on our low-cost characters' icon spread.

Looking for some lower cost characters, we find the Qartheen Fanatic in the Core Set. Three of those will do nicely as they'll have that much-needed Intrigue icon. Let's go for two Sellsword Deserters also to keep the cost low, ambush high, and a surprise intrigue icon when we need it. That's actually about it for Intrigue stuff at the low end of the Targ range, so let's glance upward to the 3-cost slot and see who we can plug in.

There we find Magister Illyrio, the architect behind this whole endeavor. We'll bring him along, as with Archmaester Marwyn. He is alleged to have come East seeking Dany and her dragons, believing the tales of their rebirth where other Maesters scoffed. Other great cards like Pyat Pree we will have to leave at home due to not quite fitting our theme. I'd also like to go for three Herald of the East. They have an Intrigue icon and will let us find the key character we need when we need it.

Rounding out the base, I think we can squeeze in a Jhogo (OSaS) and two Long Lances (tHoBaW). Dany will for sure have a Bloodrider as well as some Merc companies. The Long Lances suit as well as any and their standing effect is SOOOOOO strong. That puts us to 32 characters total.

RESOURCES

We'll need some resources, since dragons don't hatch themselves. If you remember the Nedly principles, I'm not going to worry too much about the titling of these locations; it's what Targ has and that's that. In a Dragon deck, I find that the high character curve requires an extra-low location curve in order to have any sort of decent setup. I would go for three Summer Seas, a Street of Sisters, a Street of Steel, a Street of Silk, a Khal Drogo's Tent, two Kingsroad Fiefdoms, two Eastern Fiefdoms and one Great Pyramid of Meereen. Pretty standard stuff, really. You'll note that there are no Free Cities in there as the trait synergy hasn't been tuned for them, nor do they really support Dany's quest. Call them a Jaime cut along with a Nedly one. 12 resources is maybe a bit more than ABSOLUTELY necessary, but this is an expensive deck. That's 44 cards total when you add in the characters.

EVENTS AND ATTACHMENTS

Let's also turn to our event/attachment suite. For Dragons, I'm looking for something to either increase our ambush/cost curve playability, work on power grab, keep our dragons standing, or provide some sort of negotiation in melee. I'd also like to keep our events down to 12 to work with both setup and the location base I'd like to have.

For power grab and standing dragons, nothing beats True Power, I think this event is criminally underrated, especially in melee. I'm grabbing three. Since Dany is the True Queen it makes sense that she should have the ability to win a Power challenge at will. This will help especially on defense to let us keep our dragons standing for offense. The Dragon Strikes is also a great event, of which we will need two. The influence cost is something to keep an eye on, but the surprise Deadly and Renown is awesome with non-kneeling dragons. For Power grab, Make an Example can't be beat and will take our Restricted slot. Three Incinerate! will also help with spot removal and negotiation at the point of the sword. Let's go for two Ambush from the Plains as well, letting us drop in characters unexpectedly. This will lower our cost curve as well as provide for some fun interaction with Illyrio and the Long Lances. I guess we creeped up to 13 events, but hey whatever. John Bruno proved you don't have to be a cynical 60 card-ite. Good thing, too, since we are at 57 cards before any locations with effects. A tough cut is A Dance with Dragons. I like this event to search for my dragons, but I think the Heralds fit the spot and we are tight on space. I'm also a fan of At Night They Howl, but that seems a bit wolfy for this build.


LOCATIONS

And, that brings us to locations. I think of Nedly locations in two ways--first, they are locations that support your cause and from which you draw political capital and manpower. Second, they are the locations that you are going to for conquering. What that means for our deck is that we will have some of Dany's Essos locations in here, but some lands around King's Landing aren't off limits since that's where the battle will be held. We have no draw to speak of, and we'll need it. Two Meraxes and two Meereen will have to work. Two Meereenese Fighting PIts also will be awesome in the deck (much better than Astapor). Six locations is probably as many as we can squeeze in. If you want, you can find room for Yunkai, but to me Qarth isn't Nedly enough to warrant inclusion. Dany left that city without really making her mark like she did elsewhere. Aegon's Hill and Rhaenys' Hill are solid options, but both are too costly and I don't think of this deck as Dany having taken King's Landing yet, so they'll stay on the side for now. Those six locations bring our deck up to 63 cards of Nedly awesomeness.

PLOT DECK

Our plot deck should be fairly standard melee stuff. I used to think you could include a 'corner case' plot or two in your melee deck since the game wouldn't go seven plots. With the uptick in control, I'm not quite brassy enough to include Focused Offense or something crazy like that.

I will include Fury of the Dragon, which is Nedly and awesome. Our reset should be Valar Morghulis, since we'll have more dupes and saves than the average bear. Retaliation! is solid, as always, and Summoning Season is a must for search and negotiation. Counting Favors will help boost our early game hand if we choose it and is another great negotiation tool. Mutual Cause is a solid 2-claim plot with a good effect in melee, so it can go in too. I'd like one more 5-gold plot, but I'd also like to squeeze in one of First Snow of WInter, Loyalty Money can Buy, or I Fight to Win to help mitigate our possible slow starts. Muster the Realm! is a decent choice, but I would go with Loyalty Money can Buy. It's so solid. Across the Summer Sea warrants a mention, but Dany's not staying over there anymore, now is she? I guess you could see her as starting there on plot one and then pushing on to victory in plots two and beyond. There is some flex here, but I'm suggesting the following as the plot deck:


Total Cards (65)

House (1)
House Targaryen (Core) x1

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

Plot (7)
Fury of the Dragon (AE) x1
Summoning Season (Core) x1
Counting Favors (Core) x1
Mutual Cause (Core) x1
Retaliation! (ASoSilence) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
Loyalty Money Can Buy (QoD) x1

Character (33)
Daenerys Targaryen (QoD) x3
Drogon (QoD) x3
Rhaegal (QoD) x3
Viserion (QoD) x3
Strong Belwas (VD) x1
Ser Barristan Selmy (TftH) x1
True-Queen's Harbinger (QoD) x3
Refugee of the Plains (RoW) x3
Qartheen Fanatic (Core) x3
Sellsword Deserter (CD) x2
Herald of the East (SB) x3
Jhogo (OSaS) x1
Archmaester Marwyn (CD) x1
Long Lances (THoBaW) x2
Magister Illyrio (VM) x1

Location (19)
Meereenese Fighting Pit (ARotD) x2
Meraxes (TBC) x2
Meereen (QoD) x2
Great Pyramid of Meereen (AHM) x2
Khal Drogo's Tent (Core) x1
Eastern Fiefdoms (Core) x2
Kingsroad Fiefdom (QoD) x2
Street of Steel (LoW) x1
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
Street of Silk (LotR) x1
Summer Sea (Core) x3

Attachment (0)

Event (13)
True Power (AKitN) x3
Make an Example (PotS) x3
Incinerate (VM) x3
The Dragon Strikes (GotC) x2
Ambush from the Plains (QoD) x2


As you can see, this isn't a netdeck of the Worlds melee list or a copy of the one that made Gen-Cons final table. What it is is a focus on unique characters, a point in time in the story, and a deck with some solid power grab that can pull out a win for the True Queen on your next game night. Next time, I'm going to look at a T1 dragon list and see how much difference there is between this Nedly offering and that Jaime list and see if we can't close the gap a bit for poor old Ned without compromising our principles too much. Maybe we'll have to evaluate the curve, the plots, or something else, but that should be a fun exercise.

Thanks for hanging in there through this lengthy slog; I'd love to hear comments and feedback below!