Crimson and Gold - Enemies of the Crown Pt 3

Welcome back to Crimson and Gold. This week, we turn towards King's Landing and the Stormlands to pick apart the match up between the Lions and the fancy powdered and pampered knights of House Baratheon and their Red Witch.

Baratheon seems to be jumping all over the place nowadays. Their overall standing seem to have gone from mediocre, to amazing, to somewhere in the middle all in a matter of 8 months. That said, no matter how Baratheon's overall strength is, you gotta respect the rush. If your deck can't deal with it, you'll be running around Gencon looking for tissues after your loss when everyone else is 5 or 10 minutes into their rounds.

Thankfully, containing Rush is something Lannister does well. What better to deal with Rush than classic Control? Today we're going to build a Lannister deck out of the Knights of the Hollow Hill agenda.

Lannister doesn't get as much out of the agenda as Targaryen or Martell, because of their lack of good in-house influence effects, but there are a few things that shine for Lannister more so than other houses while running this agenda:

Draw:
This is obvious, but the Cache is pretty much the best control-based draw one could hope for. Since KOHH is sitting dead in the water when it has no options, the easy consistent draw offered by Lannister helps keep KOHH in the game even when the options start to run dry.

Income:
Lannister has several ways to cheat the gold bonus drawback of KOHH, coupled with the guaranteed gold from the agenda, Lannister can dig themselves out of the initial hole much faster than the other houses.

Re-usable control:
Lannister has a lot of locations that have re-usable control effects that don't rely on card combinations. (ie. Lannisport Brothel, Toll Gate, Pentoshi Manor) Even though they don't have a lot of great cards in the way of permanent removal, being able to basically swallow the opponent's character base when left untouched makes their late-game very strong.

We will be using the agenda's influence for Westeros Bleeds, Den of the Wolf, Joffrey Baratheon, and Confession. The initiative bonus will also help us lock opponent's Bay of Ice, and hopefully go second at will when we draw into Enemy Informer.

Here is the build we'll be running:


House(1)
House Lannister (Core) x1

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

Plot (7)
Rule by Decree (Core) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
Retaliation! (ASoSilence) x1
Loyalty Money Can Buy (QoD) x1
All the Gold in Casterly Rock (LotR) x1
The First Snow of Winter (ODG) x1
Marched to the Wall (LoW) x1

Character (25)
Carrion Bird (ASoS) x3
Doubting Septa (LotR) x3
Penny (VD) x1
Tommen Baratheon (SA) x1
Joffrey Baratheon (PotS) x1
Brothel Guard (LotR) x3
Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS) x1
Pyromancer's Apprentice (TBoBB) x2
Enemy Informer (Core) x3
Yezzan's Grotesquerie (CD) x2
Hugor Hill (VM) x1
Cersei Lannister (LotR) x1
Daven Lannister (GotC) x1
Tywin Lannister (LotR) x1
King Joffrey's Guard (TWot5K) x1

Location (20)
Golden Tooth Mines (Core) x3
Sunset Sea (Core) x3
Volantis Inn (AHM) x1
Pentoshi Manor (AHM) x3
Western Fiefdoms (Core) x3
Coin Mint (LotR) x2
Den of the Wolf (ACoS) x1
Lannisport Brothel (Core) x1
Toll Gate (AE) x2
Highgarden (TftH) x1

Event (12)
Much and More (AHM) x3
Westeros Bleeds (Core) x2
Condemned by the Council (AToT) x2
You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf! (Core) x2
Confession (KotS) x3

Attachment (3)
Pyromancer's Cache (TWot5K) x3


You have 2 cut and dry ways to win with this deck:

Survive to late game and lock their field with character control:
We don't have a lot of permanent removal, but we can make it hard to do anything with the tools we have available to us.

Toll Gate x2: Ward off attacking or defending non-uniques, or combo with your own brothel guard to try and kneel anyone.
Pentoshi Manor x3: Lock low STR characters, stack them to lock high STR characters. Punish them for taking power with resets, Highgarden, and Joffrey if you draw into them.
Lannisport Brothel x1: Lock “that guy”. Characters like the Red Viper, Beric Dondarrion, or Knight of Flowers, that you never want to do anything.
Inn of Volantis x1: Similar application to the Brothel.

We also have Enemy Informer x3, Brothel Guard x3, You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf x2, and Penny x1 in our character base to help keep their characters down.

Tywin/Daven cash explosion: These guys are a bit tricky, but pretty amazing cards when the opportunity presents itself.

Best case scenario, off of a 2 claim plot, by himself Daven can net you 6 power for free, if this happens to be your All the Gold in Casterly Rock turn, this is pretty easy.

Tywin can net you 6 by himself, and that's if you draw into Den of the Wolf. Otherwise Den of the Wolf is nice to make your opponents vulnerable to your kneel effects and Westeros Bleeds. Tywin on an All the Gold in Casterly Rock turn with a Den of the Wolf is extremely dangerous if you just sit on your gold.

This also means that off an All the Gold in Casterly Rock turn where you can pretty much guarantee dominance, Daven with 0 power at the start, Den of the Wolf, and Tywin, can get you up to 18 power in one turn if you trigger Daven on the second dominance phase. That's 3 for unopposed, 1 for power claim, 2 for dominance, 6 from Daven, and 6 from Tywin. This also doesn't include a You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf on Daven if you have one, or Renown Tywin can claim that turn.

Openers:

Loyalty Money can Buy: This is a good starter if they've already overextended characters, or you have the cards for Westeros Bleeds. A dominance phase Westeros Bleeds, or a next turn Valar can set them back enough for you to catch up. Since we have Westeros Bleeds, we don't need to worry as much about an early Valar as most decks. The early Valar is especially useful against Baratheon and Greyjoy, if you can hit them before their saves come out. The Valar might not be effective at all, later.

For this setup, you just want to play out some locations. A Coin Mint will speed things along if you drew into one. This way, when you reset the board, the board position will probably be in your favor.

Rule by Decree: If you have copies of Much and More in your initial hand, this can be a good option. Pre-plot as many copies as you can, giving your opponent cards they cannot play to the field. You could also give them a random high cost character you know they don't have a dupe of (or a means to save) This way when they flush their hand, either you don't give them a choice of characters to pick, and they flush the cards you gave them, or they overspend resources on the big character and you set them up for a reset. This can be pretty devastating if you also get a chance to hit them with Confession before their turn starts.

Regarding Confession, it goes without saying that outside of location hate, it's probably best to confess a character at this point, if they have a sole high cost character, that is a good choice to confess, because you can potentially lock them with First Snow of Winter the following turn.

This trick is not always the best option though. Against decks that are slower and draw a ton of cards, you may want to save your RBD for a later turn. Also, if they get clever and RBD you back, because of your lack of setup, you're going to be the one that is hurting. It may be a decent idea to pre-plot your cards anyway and try to goad them into this, but make sure you give them something less than stellar, or use You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf as your pre-plot instead.

Notes:

Hugor Hill: This deck doesn't run a ton of characters, so let Hugor Hill get some characters for you. Pay special attention to characters with power icons, come into play effects like Jorah, or a King/Queen like Renly or Alannys if you've got a Cache and aren't drawing to cap. If you're playing another Lannister player, you may get the opportunity to snag a Castellan

Castellan VS Pyromancer's Cache: I chose to take the draw instead of what is arguably Lannister's best control card. I feel that while running this agenda, there is too much potential to get draw screwed without the security blanket Pyromancer's Cache gives you. Pyromancer's Cache is also nice for your Loyalty Money Can Buy turn, and is a great choice for Much and More. If you can make it work though, more power to you. Adding Castellan to the mix would make Lannister control pretty painful to slog through with the recent control locations it has been given.

All the Gold in Casterly Rock?: If you're scratching your head about this, this works because the “adding to income” that All the Gold in Casterly Rock provides is technically not a gold bonus, which is why Feast or Famine works as well.

Much and More: Yeah... In our ratings review I was way wrong about Much and More . I still have some reservations about it, but in practice, it's much better than I thought. The main drawbacks I see are the clogging of your setup hand, and giving your opponent card advantage, and one or both of those drawbacks can be ignored with KOHH and RBD. Much and More in general is a nice way to draw into your draw effects. Lannister draw is really good, but since it's re-usable, I don't like to run a ton of it. This is a nice way to grab a cache, coin mint, or something from the deck and get your board position going.

So, let's take a look at a few elements of House Baratheon that we can take advantage of.

Baratheon has fragile draw

Outside of what is offered by Agendas, Baratheon will usually draw with at least Val (RotO) and Bay of Ice (KotS). Decks that run Bay of Ice like to stack them, and usually do not run Fleeing to the Wall, which is good for you.

Bay of Ice has the potential to backfire. In our deck, with KOHH, we only have 2 plot phases with an initiative of less than 5, which will probably let us draw off their Bay of Ice at least a few times that game.

Val is oh so squishy. First Snow (if necessary) and Valar. This is how we deal with Val. Also, if you decide to swap in The Iron Throne, you can eat through her dupes quickly.

There is more draw out there of course, but besides the occasional card from King Renly, most of these options are also based around vulnerable characters and/or dependent on a situation to trigger.

Baratheon Knights can pop up, but we have a few knights of our own, and can punish the Baratheon player for running the agenda post reset. Or maybe with an early Marched to the Wall.

Baratheon Summer sacrifices a little early game speed for more reliability down the line. This is probably the harder agenda to lock down for us, but the slower start cuts away from our drawback, and we do have Carrion Birds on hand if the opportunity presents itself.

If the Baratheon player flops Val or The Laughing Storm by themselves on the first turn, Marched to the Wall is a good first turn choice, and other than that, we have some other resets and removal that can hit their draw early. Val is also a good target for First Snow of Winter, and then Rule by Decree if it's an option.

Baratheon is also a good choice for Much and More -> RBD -> Confession. It can backfire if they draw into dupes of Val and The Laughing Storm, but if this is not in the cards, it is a pretty huge setback for them.

Baratheon has no easy options for mass discard outside of dupes

Nobody will argue that Baratheon has some good ways around Valar and military claim. Power of Blood, Bodyguard, and Retreat are all good ways to deal with characters hitting the dead pile. Against Westeros Bleeds, Baratheon solely has dupes and loyal guard. Narrow Escape (KotStorm) as a restricted choice, is an option, and can be annoying. Thankfully, a Baratheon deck that runs Narrow Escape isn't running Val, and is relying heavily on the strength of their initial setup. This makes discarding your hand a much easier option to swallow.

Westeros Bleeds is such a good option against Baratheon, or really, any Rush in general. They don't have event immune characters worth keeping, and a 1st or 2nd turn Westeros Bleeds is not that difficult to draw into, since we've slot Much and More. We can also Valar second turn without much of a drawback because of the threat of Westeros Bleeds.

Baratheon rush does not run much (if any) control itself

Against pure rush, you can pretty much count on your control locations and draw not going anywhere.
Do your best to survive the initial rush, and then the rest of the match will be pretty uphill for the Baratheon player. The same goes for characters.

Joffrey can be fun against these guys. You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf one guy, and discard another with power already on it. Pentoshi Manor will take their Renown and Stealth unless they remove the character.

Without stealth, the Grotesquerie can neutralize their power challenge pretty easy, because almost all of Baratheon's heavy hitters have a military icon. In this situation, let them use their Smuggler's Cove first, since you will win unless they use it.

Baratheon has a lot of fun 3 cost characters for Hugor Hill to take too: Renly, Knight of Flowers, Laughing Storm, and Bastard of Nightsong are few.

Some fun, alternate cards for you to add:


Melisandre (RoR): Maybe more fun than useful, but you can 1 shot any character that takes a power from Pentoshi Manor with her. With your gold, it wont be too difficult to play her, but she will still slow your deck down, regardless.

The Iron Throne (LotR): This will eat dupes. Westeros Bleeds or Valar with this will cause some problems for your opponent.

Jhalabar Xho (TWot5K): This is a fun one to pull on rush. Otherwise, he's a bit narrow in his use and vulnerable.

Alchemist Guildhall + Small Shadows subtheme: If you get a good ratio of shadow crests going, this could be useful. If Castellan isn't the best control card for Lannister, Alchemist Guildhall probably is. Syrio is a good way to get a challenge in without losing character advantage, and King's Landing could possibly give you a boost in draw if you needed one. We already have a couple Pyromancer's Apprentice, and Varys never hurts. The only thing, is you cannot run Kingdom of Shadows to it's full effect because of the gold bonus penalty.

I would've really liked to add King's Landing as a way to offset the Cache, and use Castellan as my restricted instead, but Castellan and Alchemist Guildhall both being Limited Responses can clash, and I didn't think it would be worth it in the end.


A few cards to watch out for:

Fleeing to the Wall (Core): This is the card that will ruin your day. Learn to spot decks that tend to run it. You wont see it as much in heavy control, but in decks that use their location base solely for resources, you will tend to see this card more often.

Favorable Ground (QoD): I fell victim to this one recently and had to ninja edit it in here... Wow. Expect it in influence heavy decks, like any sort of Martell or KOHH. I get the feeling many decks wont run a playset of this, so Confession will be a good ally against it.

Aegon's Hill (TTotH): Not the card you want to see in a deck that runs a less than average amount of characters. If you're playing Targ, it may be worth it to keep a Pyromancer's Apprentice in the Shadows for this.

City Plots: City Plots are really good now. Pay attention to where you put your Cache if you see one of these pop up. It might be safer to put it on something like Coin Mint that is unattractive to explode and has a higher cost. City plots can also kneel and kill most of your characters. Yuck.
The good part is that a deck that runs city plots will rarely beat you in initiative, giving you good opportunities to set the challenge phase in your favor.

Eddard Stark (TTotH): If you see this guy in Noble Rush, he will make your life miserable. It may be worth it to Valar as soon as you can if you catch him without a dupe.

The Price of War (KotS)/Newly Made Lord (TftH): If you come up against Stark Siege or Greyjoy, try to put your Cache's on your Western Fiefdoms, this will hopefully protect them from these two cards.

Heavy Taxes (APS): You will probably never see this card... but sweet Jesus... If you see it during your Confession effect, this is the one to pull.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the deck!
I'm happy with Lannister's new control options, so this was a fun one to build. I feel like the last pack or two has opened some more doors for Lannister in terms of deckbuilding, I wonder if anyone agrees with me.