Forgotten Plans - Dothraki

Welcome back to Forgotten Plans, readers! I know I had a list of archetypes that I was going to go over before my hiatus, but I feel like the community has shifted enough for me to address different decks. So today we are going to take a look at a Dothraki Aggro deck, a deck that I feel (even after Jesse took 2nd place at Days of Ice and Fire with a Dothraki deck) is still vastly under appreciated. I think this has to do with house flavors really. When people think of Targ they think of Burn (ie Flame-Kissed (Core)) not Military Aggro. You generally will look at Stark if you want to run your opponent into the ground with Military, but Targ can do it just as well, if not better. So let's take a look at what you'll want to get for a Dothraki deck.

Well, a good place to start would probably be Dothraki, right? So you have your main players with Aggo (RoR), Jhogo (OSaS), and Rakharo (IG). We'll get to Drogo in a bit. So these three guys give you some great utility by offering you intrigue and power claim from winning a Military, and also some great card draw. I love the fact that it isn't claim replacement like Dothraki Stallion (APS), it's in addition to the military claim as well. So awesome all around, but you can't have any non-Dothraki in the challenge, unlike Jhogo. Jhogo is pretty great draw for a house that historically hasn't had the greatest draw. I think you are probably still going to want to supplement the draw with other stuff like Bay of Ice (KotS) (although you generally are going to be running low initiative plots), The Dragon's Tail (PotS) (which I went over in last week's Forgotten Plans), or even Kings of Summer (ASoS) (which will come in handy against GJ Choke as well.) You are just going to want to get extra cards before the Challenges phase. Now, Khal Drogo. You have 3 different versions, but I think the one I like the most is Khal Drogo (QoD) since he helps you get around that pesky lack of draw. Khal Drogo (Core) is also good, but he's one of those "Win More" cards. He doesn't help you win if you are down, but if you are already winning, he helps you "Win More." I'm not a very big fan of those cards.

There are also quite a few non unique Dothraki you can use as well, like Refugee of the Plains (RoW). He's going to help you get that early board advantage by being free to play and helping to reduce Drogo's Horde (IG). Horseback Archers (QoD) is a great card to get that extra bit of STR, and Bloodrider (MotA) gives you a bit of extra utility with character ability cancel. I go back and forth on Dothraki Handmaiden (DB). I mean she's only 1 cost, but essentially counts as +2 during any challenge in which you're attacking. While awesome, I'm just not sure if she's worth the slot. In the end I think she is, but gives you something to play around with I suppose. A must, in my opinion, is Bitter Crone (IG) since she makes things like The Iron Mines (KotS), Loyal Guard (WotN), and Bodyguard (Core) dead cards.

Now, just what we have so far is pretty good, but not really competitive. Not until you start putting in things like Daemon Blackfyre (TftRK) and Pike Phalanx (QoD). Couple those cards with some 2 claim plots (say The Power of Arms (Core)) and you are swinging for a minimum of 3 characters per turn. You add in Blood-Crazed Screamer (MotM), Die by the Sword (LoW), and The Price of War (KotS) and suddenly you are not just killing a few characters, but you are wiping their board. I don't care how awesome your deck is, you aren't going to be able to stand up to that for more than a single turn, if even then. This deck did have a bit of problems handling decks like Stark Siege that just put out huge armies and could actually stand toe to toe with it in Military challenges. That is until Incinerate (VM) became legal for Regionals. Most people looked at that card and talked about it being great for a Targ Burn deck, but I disagree. This isn't meant for a Burn deck because it's not really repeatable and you don't really have a lot of common traits in a Burn deck. This was tailor made to clear the way for a Dothraki Aggro deck, in my opinion. You can't get past that Stark wall of Armies? You can now! Let them defend with everything and for the lowly price of one influence you take out an army and put them on the losing side of a 3 claim Military. They aren't coming back from that very easily.

Now one thing that I struggle with is what to use for my restricted card. I originally thought of Val, but her unreliable draw means that I'm either ditching characters in the challenges phase while digging for an event or I ditch events in the marshalling phase while digging for characters. Either way, it just wasn't very effective. I thought about the Fury plot, but just wasn't that great since I don't have Burn in there really and I don't have the STR really to reliably win Power challenges. Narrow Escape I think can actually work, especially if you don't get your draw going like you want and don't have any characters in hand after a Valar Morghulis (Core). Fear of Winter (BtW) seems to be the best bet though. You will want to play it on the turn after you gain the board position to keep that position. Although, unless you have some saves out, you want to avoid playing it on the turn they play a reset since they won't be playing much that turn anyway. They just won't have the gold for it. I think you'll probably want to run Wildfire Assault (Core) over Valar Morghulis (Core) since you shouldn't ever be in a position where you are that far behind, but you'll want to keep the board manageable which is where Wildfire comes in at.

Well those are my thoughts on the Dothraki. There's a few ways to go with the build, but I'll let you guys figure that out. Just make sure to have plenty of resources in the deck as the gold curve is pretty steep for an Aggro deck. Thanks for reading and I hope to see some of you this weekend at the Iowa Regional, and the rest I'll see next Monday!