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1
Forgotten Plans - The Knights of Dorne
Jun 11 2012 05:40 AM |
Rave
in Game of Thrones
Small Council Forgotten Plans Rave
Welcome back to Forgotten Plans! Staton is playing in the Iowa regional and doesn't have time to write, so I'm going to take over for this week.Today, lets talk about weenie decks. With The First Snow of Winter, Valar, and Threat from the North everywhere, it's difficult to make a viable weenie deck in this environment. If set-up correctly however, you can still make a pretty decent deck with this theme.
My choice for today is House Martell with the Knights Agenda. So often today, we see Martell tied to control that we don't get to explore their other themes. The canned themes for House Dayne and their Knights feel somewhat lacking, but Martell has some tricks that lend themselves well to this theme that I will touch on today.
Here's the list:
Total Cards (60)
House (1)
House Martell (Core) x1
Agenda (1)
Knights of the Realm (KotStorm) x1
Plot (7)
Fleeing to the Wall (Core) x1
An Empty Throne (KotS) x1
After the Mummer's Ford (KotS) x1
Storm of Swords (LoW) x1
The Breaking of Oaths (KotS) x1
Take Them by Surprise (LoW) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
Character (30)
Orphan of the Greenblood (PotS) x3
Refugee of the Citadel (RoW) x3
Lost Spearman (MotM) x3
House Dayne Knight (PotS) x3
Lord Edric's Knight (PotS) x3
House Messenger (PotS) x3
Dornish Paramour (TTotH) x3
Maester of Lemonwood (BtW) x2
Ellaria Sand (PotS) x1
Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS) x1
Darkstar (PotS) x1
The Red Viper (APS) x1
Hedge Knight (KotStorm) x3
Location (15)
Summer Sea (Core) x3
Bay of Ice (KotS) x3
Palace Fountains (PotS) x3
Shadowblack Lane (Core) x1
River Row (QoD) x1
Alchemist's Shop (OSaS) x3
Dorne (PotS) x1
Attachment (9)
Venomous Blade (TBoBB) x3
Tourney Lance (TftH) x3
Thirst-for-Vengeance (VM) x3
Event (6)
Parting Blow (PotS) x3
He Calls It Thinking (PotS) x3
Thoughts:
-While Targ and the anti-weenie character plots exist in the environment, and are a drag... any deck that isn't prepared for your character base is going to get almost no effect out of their character control and military claim.
-The gold curve in the deck is pretty low. Even though there is only 1 plot over 3 gold, you should be able to get out your characters most of the time.
-Lyanna Stark is not what you want to see. As well as Dragonpit. They both aren't super common, but be aware that they exist. If you see these cards often in your meta, you may want to add some extra control. Milk of the Poppy and Condemned by the Council are easy options, and I would probably take out Thirst for Vengeance first, for either of these.
-Parting Blow is a good followup to First Snow, Orphans, and Dornish Paramours.
-He Calls it Thinking can cancel saves and dupes, which is nice with the large amounts of deadly you will be throwing out.
-Dorne can play 6 of your 11 knights for free on one turn, as well as reduce costs for any card.
-All of the 2 challenge plots are useful, because you will usually be ahead on characters and probably have some deadly to throw around.
-5 of the 7 plots are 5+ initiative, so you will be going first against most plot decks that don't plan around high initiative as well
-The Breaking of Oaths is a good opener against KOHH, it will force their First Snow early, and if they don't play it, that's still nice.
-Don't forget that Maester of Lemonwood can discard Decrees.
-Alchemist Shop + Tourney Lance is nice on any character, a 3 strength joust is always dangerous. Venomous Blade + Alchemist's Shop is also nice.
-Venomous Blade is a good tool to off your opponent's knights. Stark for example, has a good amount of playable 2 str knights.
-Venomous Blade, Red Viper, and Ellaria all trigger off of challenges lost as the attacker, adding some bite to your weenies attacking, especially if they are deadly to begin with.
-You should be able to get more knights out than your opponent's most of the time, especially early. That said, you want to play just as many knights as it takes for you to keep the advantage.
-Location Control is light, but Fleeing to the Wall does a pretty good job of breaking down decks that rely on locations for their character control, or decks that run Bay of Ice themselves in triplicate.
-If you have the initiative advantage with Bay of Ice, Take them by Surprise isn't a bad opener, since it will guarantee you one card, and probably 2 if you are ahead on knights.
Hope you liked the deck! Anyone else have experience with these type of decks in the current environment? What worked for you? What would you change?
- Reager likes this
13 Comments
Maybe add in a couple Former Champions? They are Knights, have renown and they get deadly after the first challenge they win. To me, they fit the deck.
I'd skipped over the bannerman initially, but after thinking about it, this guy does do a a great job at protecting some of the knights for only 2 gold, and he has no bad traits. Worth considering, but I wonder what i would swap it for.
I hadn't had a chance to play this deck against Baratheon or a Knights Agenda. I agree though, I can see Baratheon being a problem, especially because their Knights do a good job of sitting at the 3 STR and above range. Former Champion is a good fit to the Knight problem, synergy-wise.
Also, as boring as Knights of the Sun is, it is a House Dayne card, which is nice if the bannermen go in, and probably a dead card less often than the Former Champion because of the in-house reducers.
War of Attrition sounds killer. Pretty much a guaranteed card off Bay of Ice, and a useful effect, at this point I wonder what I would swap it with. Probably Storm of Swords or Mummer's Ford. Also, I got to thinking, and Tourney for the Hand is another good plot for this deck, especially if it can be played in such a way to counter your opponent's Threat from the North.
I like the idea of adding more loss effects, epecially with the multiple challenge plots. With the attachment/location slots as tight as they are, I'd prefer some effects in the character or location base.
-3 Dornish Paramour
+3 Starfall Bannerman
+3 Knights of the Sun
-3 Parting Blow
+3 Condemned by the Council
-1 Storm of Swords
+1 War of Attrition
alternatively..
-3 Orphan
-3 Dornish Paramour
+3 Starfall Merchant
+3 Knights of the Sun
-3 Parting Blow
+3 The Prince's Plans
-1 Dorne
-1 River Row
-1 Shadowblack Lane
+3 Dornish Fiefdoms
-1 Storm of Swords
+1 War of Attrition
Would you agree with either of these tweaks?
The loss of Dornish Paramours and Parting Blow hurt our draw, but it isn't the most reliable draw to begin with.
I think with enough Knights, riding on the Agenda and Bay of Ice isn't the worst idea, and given how popular First Snow is, we'll probably get some re-use out of the House Messengers. And there's Tourney Lance as well, which is somewhat useful. With this build though, since the draw is reduced, getting knight locked is going to pretty much mean game over..
3x Prince's Plans, 3x Starfall Merchant, 3x Dornish Fiefdom's, 3x Summer Sea as a subtheme...
Could be fun to use this for draw, but I'm curious how often Prince's Plans would end up a dead card. I did a few test draws and it doesn't seem to affect the setups much.. Prince's Plans could be great after a First Snow -> Rule by Decree or Threat from the North turn.
I went with Knights of the Sun over Former Champion because it gives Summer Sea a few more targets, and more of the House Dayne trait. I also like the idea of a train of knights with Dorne, Summer Sea, and any of the 1 costers.
I should probably take out The Red Viper and Ellaria, but my latent Shagga wont let me do it
Also, in other news... WWDrakey told me that dcdennis made top 8 recently with a House Dayne deck. Here's his list if you want to check it out.
http://www.agotcards.org/deck/v/11272
And man, that Rusted Sword trick is wicked, good find Ryan. I'd say it's an excellent addition, but at 6 weapons already, dependent on 3 cards. I'll probably stick with what I've got.
If I was running a different restricted, Rusted Sword would probably make the cut.
Also, did you consider running Narrow Escape or Val as your restricted card? I haven't played it in forever, but someone was mentioning the use of Field Spikes (AE) as an, admittedly poor, substitute for the Blade.
I really like The Guard as well, but you'd end up paying 4 for it instead of 3, right? I don't think it would be worth it at 4, but at 3 it brings a lot to the table.
Venomous Blade is mainly in there to off any knights you can, and for synergy off of the Alchemist's Shop. I played quite a few games with this deck yesterday, and draw was usually not too bad. I would run Val or Narrow Escape (probably narrow escape) if VB didn't add the synergy it did though.
And random note... as much as I wanted to try, Thirst for Vengeance just wasn't cutting it. It should really be subbed out for something else, probably another weapon.