FIRE AND BLOOD: KNOW YOUR CUTS OF MEAT

Welcome back to a brand spankin' new edition of Fire and Blood, your (apparently) yearly article taking you deep into the House of the True Queen, rambling all the while. Long time readers will know that my ideas are about 80% good; Thrones Whippersnappers will have never read a Fire and Blood--and for that, we salute you!

Worlds approaches, quickly, and we need to scheme how to put our house at the top. Targaryen falls into an interesting place in the current meta, in my opinion. I think Targaryen is one of the most feared houses, but they are currently VERY mediocre in terms of results. Simply put, the bark is worse than the bite. What we need to do is to figure out just why this is and see if we can't put together an archetype to assault this, head on! To begin, let's look at a few reasons why Targaryen is down, and then let's turn to a few reasons why we CAN be on the way up.

WHY TARGARYEN IS FALLING

1. Harrenhal. Man, this card rules. You might think that I would complain about Harrenhal, but I actually like what it's done to the meta, by and large. The problem for most Tier 1 Targaryen builds is that they rely heavily on sweeping, expensive effects. You simply WILL play against a Harrenhal in any tournament, and having your Hatchling's Feast canceled by a chud is a great way to have your strengths as a house neutralized. That means the "stall, reset, reset, reset, win" Targaryen Hollow Hill decks aren't really viable anymore. We've had to look elsewhere.

2. Fast Decks. As Conquest rises, houses that like to play a longer game have been pinched a little bit. Aside from being another nail in the Hollow Hill coffin, this extra speed from opponents has hurt Maester builds, who now find it tougher to chain up, and River decks meant that Targaryen had no hope in a long-game attrition war. While Crossing the Mummer's Ford and Martatheon decks have since come back down to earth, Targ players by and large haven't compensated to try to push back against that and reshape the meta in their slow, deliberate image.

3. Location Control. Good old Old Way decks and everybody running Harrenhal has once again put a focus on location control. With a fragile cost curve at the best of times. Targaryen decks have been collateral damage to this teching against other things. Throw in the resurgence of Winter and you really have something pretty nasty to deal with. Since a traditional Targaryen build wants to protect the hand at all costs, things like that Winter Kingsroad and Kings of Winter agendas really hurt hard.

WHY TARG RULES

Well, that was depressing. Let's look at a few factors that seem to be overlooked in this battle of global metagames as we work to push Targ back up over the top where it belongs!

1. Burn Matters. In the good old days, we used to play burn to be sure to toast your important character whenever we needed to. You know, stacking up Burn on your Stannis and fun stuff like that. However, the current meta is VERY aggro-heavy and not defined by Uber Characters. This gives the upper hand to houses that can control the flow of characters to the board. The most obvious way to do this is to control the MIL challenge, and therefore it is no surprise that Stark has seen an uptick. But there are some very important cards that make chudkilling a very appealing prospect right now

A. Harrenhal. Yeah, our bane is number one. How can this be? Well, it's simple really. Harrenhal carries a very real cost, both in terms of tempo to actually playing the card as well as in killing a character. If you can burn down their tiny characters, they will need to actually choose somebody significant for a cancel. Further, a board with no chuds is a board with no claim soak. That makes the MIL challenge matter even more.

B. The Aftermath. This card rules. It keeps boards down to size, and, if you can do that, you can win. Targ specialties seem to play right into this card's hands--you can burn down one of their three characters, resulting in an immediate advantage. Or, you can use some of our many shadow effects to get the upper hand in challenges. Or, you can use Ambush to add more cards in during Challenges--bonus points if that is the Long Lances. And don't overlook the fact that Ambush from the Plains LOVES that 7 initiative.

In other words, you don't have to use Burn to control key characters. If you can remove the insignificant ones, the natural attrition in the game is going to hurt their superstars all by itself. Do they have a Red Viper immune to events? Well, burn their claimsoak and win a MIL challenge. Harrenhal got you down? Well, remove their guys and make them kill a Melisandre to cancel your Long Lances response. It's a bit of a different mindset, but I think one that can be fully exploited right now. Remember, ambush cannot be canceled, and neither can attachments. Does that remind you of anything???

2. Dany Matters. I think it goes without saying that the new Daenerys Targaryen is one of the best cards in the game right now. You force opponents to respond as soon as she hits the board. What is often overlooked about her, IMO, is the fact that she can cause opponents to overcompensate for her presence. I've seen people do things like use 2 Harrenhal triggers to stop Dany's kill response, and then Valar the next turn. Can anyone see the problem there....if you were going to Valar, why waste your Harrenhal tokens? Dany just does that to opponents--they go crazy wasting resources trying to remove her, giving you the upper hand in the attrition game almost by definition. She's great--so use her to gain that upper hand both mentally and actually. Add to that the Mad King and we have some VERY good characters to add to the stable.

3. LANNISTER!!!!!!! Lanni seems to be hot right now. But you know what house just eats Lions for breakfast? That's right....it's Targ. If you're looking for the counter to Lannister No Agenda, look no further. While Fear of Winter-based Power Behind the Throne decks can be tricky, Targ has the tools to succeed in such matchups.

Targ also has some good answers to other top houses' key cards--Flame Kissed is the Bane of Meera Reed and Burn is really annoying to Greyjoy saves. We also have some of the only consistent answers to Melisandre's Favor in Viserys and the Dragon Knight. All of these things indicate, to me, that Targaryen is a great choice for you heading into Worlds. Yeah, I may be biased, but I still think Targaryen is poised for a comeback.

But what say you? What makes Targ a top house or a house with roadblocks in its way? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

EDIT: While this article was being penned, the comeback has begun with a Greek National Championship! Brace yourselves: Restrictions Are Coming!