Fire and Blood - BURNINATING the FAQ pt2

Welcome back, once again, to a blistering edition of Fire and Blood. This week, I'm going to attempt to continue the fine article OKTarg wrote last time with a look at the post-FAQ metagame. Last time, OKTarg covered Baratheon, Lannister, and Stark leaving me with the easy ones (not really) Martell and Greyjoy. ;-)

As we all know, FAQ 4.0 did a pretty big shake up on the metagame. I've already seen a resurgence of rush in my local scene and a few more interesting builds being attempted. With Black Sails and the recently released The Long Voyage, we're probably going to see even more experimentation. It's a good time to get into the game and start playing around with stuff. By Regionals end, we'll probably start seeing the meta settle on a few specific archetypes as we do every Regional season, but my hope is the archetypes are greater in number than they have been.

In our beloved House of Flame, I've seen some interesting builds come out and have tried a few myself. I've been trying Dragons in Joust once again post-FAQ and I've had better success than I had in the past. Nerfing the control-heavy meta provides an environment where a cost-heavy Rush-style deck has a far better chance than before. I've also started messing with the Black Sails deck focusing on War Crest synergies, but I think we still need a couple more Naval dudes to push it into viability (though I must say that Balerion alone takes it up a notch or two).

But, I digress, what about these last two pesky Houses? The interesting thing is one House got hit incredibly hard while another was virtually untouched. Let's look at these shall we:

HOUSE MARTELL

Of the Houses affected by the FAQ, none were hit harder than Martell in my opinion. Some have said that Stark took as much of a beating, but I don't think so. I don't think Stark's central themes were hit nearly as hard as Martell's central theme of challenge control. Martell players are all having to regroup and rethink what decks are best. And yet, here I am, a non-Martell player, about to attempt to give us Targ players some strategies for how to deal with what I believe will be the archetypes we'll most likely see.

Quentyn Character Agenda

I think this is a deck that's going to see a pretty big uptick as it's the deck that was likely least affected by the FAQ changes because it focused on getting Unique characters into play, killing Quentyn Martell (VD) and making them all vengeful to fuel a spectacular draw engine. With Taste for Blood and the standard win-by-losing effects that run throughout this House, I expect to see a lot of more of this. Two Taste for Blood attachments with vengeful can ruin your day. Also, these decks tend to run resource heavy to pay for all of those uniques... so resets aren't a silver bullet.

Attachment Control - get rid of Taste for Blood (PotS) the moment you see it. It will shock you how quickly Martell can rack up power when those are in play. Remember, the character it's attached to doesn't even have to participate in the challenge.
Discard effects - you need to try to discard Quentyn from play without him dying. If you can keep him from being a charagenda, you will go a long way toward slowing the deck down. So, don't get greedy on the military challenges. The Hatchlings' Feast (ASitD) with Threat from the North (PotS) works well here, or you can use a Burn effect to get him to 1 STR and get Thundering Calvary (QoD) into play to discard him. The key is to remove him without killing him.
Forgotten Plans - Quentyn decks tend to run To the Spears! (PotS) because once they have all that unique bad-assery in play, they will steamroll you on offense and lose challenges on purpose on defense. Timing that can be hard, but the more you play against an experienced Martell player, the more easily you'll be able to sense when this is coming.
Reset - if Quentyn is already an agenda, resetting their board when there's a good number of uniques out can give you the time you need to regain control of the game (plus you get to nuke a couple of those Taste for Blood characters, which is never a bad thing).

Let's not forget Renown here. With Taste for Blood and a few Renown characters, Martell can run away with the game if you're not paying attention.

Knights of the Hollow Hill

Yes, this is still a thing in Martell. In fact, I expect to see more of it. If Martell isn't rushing, they're using Influence to give you the beat down or punishing you for attempting to give them the beat down (usually both). In the Hollow Hill v Hollow Hill matchup, the thing to worry about is handsize. Their recursion is so strong, so if they can get the engine running you're in trouble. If you're running Maesters, you need to worry about Cyvasse and bouncing your chained up guys. Words Are Like Arrows (WLL) is something I would worry about as well post FAQ. Ascertaining their restricted card is a challenge, but if you can put them on something, you'll know how to better negotiate the challenge phase.

Also, we're seeing more Hyper Viper stuff....Flame Kissed + TFTN or burn everyone else and then March to the Wall. Valar works a treat too, if they have no dupes on him.

Martell Brotherhood

We're already seeing more of this deck type than we used to. With the nerfing of character control, in general, Beric Dondarrion (IG) has decided to come out and play. This is one of the places you should expect to see him. (You'll also see him in Baratheon Asshai - which I think could be more effective.) With Beric and the Mad Huntsman, you have a beastly combination of Renown, immunity, and non-kneeling effects. Once again, you'll see Taste for Blood. I've seen a few people attempt to bring Devious Intentions OOH to make Beric or The Mad Huntsman (ASoSilence) that much more beastly, but that is a hit or miss scenario.

Attachment Control - yes, you need to be able to eliminate those attachments... especially Flaming Sword. You should be running Burn with a lot of attachment removal (3X Dragon Thief (AE) with 3X Meereenese Brothel (BtW) are cheap and easy includes in a Burn deck). If you're running Aggro, then Jorah's Cohorts is a decent, though expensive, addition.
Blanking Effects - really, the only way to get rid of Beric is to blank him, then Burn him to the ground. This usually means Nightmares (LoW), but I know that can be hard to fit in. With the number of non-kneeling effects we're seeing and the increase in general save effects, you need to think hard about Nightmares. You can also run Fortified Position (LoW), but you really need to see how that affects your characters as it will blank any character as they come into play.

HOUSE GREYJOY

The House of the Pirate left FAQ 4.0 virtually unscathed. While Maester's, in general, took a hit, and everyone lost Refugees - Greyjoy did not get a single other card added to the Restricted List. When you look at the current cycle and the amount of love Greyjoy is getting, it could look to be the year of the Kraken. How do we prevent this?

One of the interesting things about this cycle is Greyjoy support is all over the map. There is some mill support, some unopposed support, and some aggro support. None of it is a stand alone to completely take a deck type and cause it to be unstoppable, however. Naval Enhancements create some claim raising shenanigans with Victarion and I expect to see him an auto-include of at least 1X in almost every Greyjoy deck. Thankfully, he's fairly easy to burn down.

The other important thing to realize with Greyjoy is that reset plots will quite often be useless due to the number of saves Greyjoy can usually field. Between Maester Wendamyr, Moqorro, Iron Mines and Iron Cliffs - you're mostly hurting yourself with a reset. That said, if your board is already light, it's never bad to consume their saves during the plot phase.

Greyjoy Choke

I do expect to see a resurgence of Choke now that Burned and Pillaged (FtC) works against Knights of the Hollow Hill decks. What's difficult to read is trying to determine which agenda they'll run. With Kings of Winter now restricted, it's a little bit limiting to choose that as it means you have to forego Fear of Winter (a Choke staple). Expect to see Choke run with no agenda or House of Dreams (ARotD) with Longship Iron Victory (KotS) or Longship Black Wind (CbtC).

The biggest problem you'll encounter with Choke (besides not being able to use gold) is Support of the Kingdom (Core). Most choke decks run that event and they'll use it to steal your best influence locations. Any Greyjoy worth their salt knows what to do when they see a Targ House card... destroy Influence as quickly as possible.

Burn - burn it all down. Focus your efforts on Ice Fisherman and The Sparr (APS) to provide a little relief from the choke hold
Attachment Control - yes - a repeating theme... Burned and Pillaged should never last long if you're running a solid bevy of attachment hate. And, if you aren't, rethink that because the restriction of Tin Link is going to have an affect on the meta overall. Expect to see a rise in attachment use.
Season Control - don't let them keep it winter. Waste Their Time (QoD) is a great opening plot against most Choke decks because with KotHH you will win initiative (usually) and can let them trigger their Time For Ravens and have them put it back into their deck. Other than that, you need Carrion Birds or Trait manipulation to get that Raven off their House card. Without Winter, you will nerf Ice Fisherman (TWoW) and Wintertime Marauders (ACoS). It might even be worth a Black Raven or two.... I said might. Now, if you make it Summer, Field of Fire (QoD) becomes very worthy of consideration.

Greyjoy Black Sails

Black Sails (RotK) is the new hotness. I would expect to see a good bit of this. It will primarily be another form of Greyjoy Aggro abusing the claim raising shenanigans of Victarion Greyjoy (RotK), Naval Superiority (TGF), and Victarions's Scheme. With some solid War Crest support in Victarion and Fleet from Pyke (RotK), cards like Assertion of Might (KotS) will likely see some more play to add a slight acceleration to what is normally a slower deck type.

Deck size optimization is still in the experimental phase. I've seen decks as large as 100 cards and some as small as 70 cards. For Targ, this should be a fairly easy deck type to deal with from the Burn angle.

Focused Burn - take out Victarion or Andrik the moment either hits the field, and then focus on every Naval Enhancement character (except the Fleet - use stealth shenanigans to eliminate the fleet). The less often they can trigger their agenda, the more useless you make their Hold.
Forgotten Plans - as a rule, I tend to only run offensive plots or plots that give me a very specific benefit (like At the Gates) without giving it to my opponent as well. But, if you're unable to Burn down their Naval Enhancements - expect to see Naval Superiority. A well-timed Forgotten Plans will eliminate the claim-raising shenanigans this plot can bring to bear. If they use Victarion with this plot revealed, you could be facing a four-claim challenge. (Again - eliminate Victarion - he will not be the lynch pin of a well-crafted Black Sails deck, but he can still ruin your day)

GENERAL THOUGHTS

RISING CARDS:
Nightmares (LoW). This is strong vs Brotherhood decks and great for spot control, such as the Lannister Iron Throne on a key Long Lances trigger.
Paper Shield (QoD): Canceling their cancels can be game-changing. Very tough to squeeze these guys in, but take a peek. Fingerdance is so strong, but if you can zap it and let your Feast go through, that's game changing.

FALLING CARDS:
Daario Naharis (WLL): He is dead in your hand sometimes, great at others. Since the Knight houses have gotten some new draw options in the form of Long Voyage, I'd say he's less reliable than Ser Jorah right now.

Fleet from Volantis (RotK): I thought this was amazing when it was printed, but it turned out to not work as well as I thought. The Merc trait makes it vulnerable as well.....

The main thing is to get out there, test, test, test, and put your own spin on your decks. Don't fall into old patterns; try to break the mold and push the meta forward in ways favorable to House Targaryen! Next installment, I'll go over my regional deck and talk about why I made the choices that I did, so look forward to that one!

In less positive news, Doulos2k is retiring from regular Fire and Blood contribution to focus on First Tilt. That is very sad, as Doulos and I are good friends, but it means an opportunity for an aspiring Hatchling to try their hand at some Fire and Blood here in the near future. If interested, contact me or Darksbane by PM. Until next time, burn everything!