King In The North - Agendas

In my first article I missed the opportunity to talk about the unique keyword for House Stark, Stalwart. I guess the Jamie in me prevented me from remembering the keyword itself. This keyword, not unlike infamy, is bad by itself, but on the right card can be simply amazing. The part that leaves a sour taste in my mouth is the fact that if you put vengeful, ambush, vigilant or intimidate on a card it automatically becomes a better card. Infamy and Stalwart must be built around, for example can you imagine a Lucas Blackwood (GotC) or No Quarter (TBC) with stalwart?

This week we will talk briefly about the many agendas that support House Stark and what makes each one of them playable. Choosing an agenda is often the first part of building a deck and an extremely important one. When partnering with the North, there are a variety of playable, and powerful agendas to choose from.

Siege of Winterfell (SoW): The first choice when talking about Stark agendas has to be The Siege of Winterfell (LoW). Each round, this agenda allows you to trade 3 “potential” power (uo intrigue, uo power, dominance) for 2 “guaranteed” power (winning a military challenge.) Using Siege of Winterfell, I have placed second and third at large tournaments in both DC and NY. The best part of SoW is that you aren’t locked into a one build type like you are with the other House specific agendas . House Stark’s depth of military based characters provides several different deckbuilding options. A friend of mine created a Direwolf deck that uses Epic Battles, Storm of Swords (LoW), After the Mummer's Ford (KotS), and Lucas Blackwood (GotC) in order to generate several extra military challenges each round. At 2 power per challenge, the game can be over rather quickly. The most efficient characters to us in a SoW deck are Northern Cavalry Flank (SA),King Robb's Host (TWot5K) and Rickard Karstark (WLL) (because they do not kneel to attack in military challenges), and Syrio Forel (TftRK). If you are able to play multiple Epic Battles, Syrio can be an All-Star. He is able to come out of shadows at the beginning of each one, provided you got him back into shadows by winning a military challenge with him in the phase prior. I personally do not like this deck in the current environment, because it is too easily controlled. Lannister can kneel you, Martell has many different ways strip the icons of your key characters (not to mention return them to hand!), a The Wildling Horde (TWH), which is deadly and cannot be stealthed past can ruin your ability to actually win military challenges altogether, and as I proved in my most recent tournament, even another Stark deck with a timely Forgotten Plans (KotStorm) against Fear of Winter (BtW) can ruin your day.

My personal Siege of Winterfell deck focuses on first turn Fear of Winter, followed by either a Rule by Decree (Core), or another 2 claim plot if they are unable to drop characters. In that deck I run a host of strong intrigue characters (Meera Reed (TftH), Damon Dance-For-Me (VD), Catelyn Stark (LoW), Roose Bolton (DB)), not only to be able to protect my hand, but also to hammer the opponent with 2 claim intrigue challenges. Unfortunately it does have some major weaknesses. The deck has very little 'comeback potential'. By this I mean that it either wins or loses most games by the end of the first turn. In a subsequent article I will go over the specifics of the Siege deck that I have had the most success with, but this is just a basic analysis of potential agendas.

Pros:

• Stark has strong military challenge presence, allowing them to win a military challenge almost every round for the 2 extra power.
• Uses several 2 claim plots, allowing board control.
• Can be used as either a power grab or a challenge control, or the ability to field more military strength.

Cons:

• Very limited access to card draw
• Fails against decks with challenge control, or the ability to field more military strength.
• Games decided early, limited ability to come from behind.

Knights of the Realm (KotR): The second Agenda I have significant experience with is Knights of the Realm (KotStorm). KoTR allows you to draw one additional card during the draw phase, provided you have fielded more characters with the knight trait than your opponent (the draw back being that if you field less knights, you draw one less card). Even though House Stark did not have many knights in the book, KotR still feels like a good fit for them. Greatjon Umber (WLL), Roose Bolton (DB) and Ser Edmure Tully (LoW) are all capable of triggering both Die by the Sword and No Quarter in the same challenge, giving you a potential 4 character swing. Maester Luwin (FtC), the agenda itself,Harrenhal (ODG) and Samwell Tarly (TRS) provide the much needed card advantage. I won the 2012 DC Regional with a version of this agenda and have done well in the recent OCTGN tournament with an updated version as well (made the finals but the match has yet to be played at the time of this writing).

Pros:

• Access to solid card draw
• Solid chance for come from behind wins because of the extra draw.
• Matches up well against most non Baratheon decks (because the other houses have limited knights that they run regularly)

Cons:

• Terrible matchup against Baratheon (whether the opponent is running KotR as well or not).
• Mirror Matches are very tough (Stark v Stark or KotR v KotR)
• Have to run sub optimal characters such as Ser Edmure Tully (LoW), Hedge Knight (KotStorm), Knight of the Red Fork (LoW) in order to guarantee you field more knights than your opponent.

Kings of Winter (KoW): One of the most popular agendas for Stark, especially after it won Gencon 2012, has to be Kings of Winter (TWoW). KoW forces your opponent to randomly discard a card from hand after the draw phase, on the condition that his hand is at least equal size or larger than yours (only if it is winter). This is a very strong advantage to have for a house weak in intrigue challenges. You are no longer forced to win an intrigue challenge each round to keep card advantage, as you will get that benefit for free by virtue of Stark’s poor in house draw options. Suddenly a weakness becomes a strength. Stark has a few very good characters that become amazing in winter. Meera Reed (TftH) is one of the 2 best characters in the entire LCG cardpool. Robb Stark (LoW) has an already great ability that gets even better in winter. Ranger of Winter (TWoW) is another decent option, but being a 3 cost “ally” makes him unplayable in most decks for me. Stark KoW focuses on controlling the board with well costed and reliable stark characters, using the agenda to keep card advantage and hoping to draw Samwell Tarly (TRS) early for card draw.

Pros:

• Meera Reed becomes simply amazing in winter.
• Winter decks match up extremely well against summer decks, as well as anything with a poor gold curve.
• Low gold curve, able to play everything you draw

Cons:

• Poor card draw, Samwell is the only solid option
• Meera is a necessity and if she is not drawn, or is killed early, the deck is much worse.
• Forced to play Time for Raven's plot, less optimal than other plots

The Maester’s Path (TMP): The Maester's Path (GotC) is likely the most debated agenda in the history of the LCG……at least until recently *cough*House of Dreams (ARotD)*cough*. Any house can run it with some success. I have a Stark/Maester deck that is basically a burn deck. It uses Lead Link (CbtC), Shaggydog (LoW),The Last River (TftH), and Threat from the North (PotS) to lower character strength, and Grey Wind (LoW) to kill them. The deck plays well in theory, but takes too long to win. The links provide amazing card draw with Valyrian Steel Link (HtS), as well as card advantage by having those cards easily accessible on your house instead of in your deck. When I played this deck the agenda was not restricted so I was able to run Fury of the Wolf (AE) as well and use To Be a Wolf (SB) to stand my maesters andtrigger their links a second time in a subsequent phase.

Pros:

• Links are amazing, take away and addicons, discard attachments, add strength, , stand a location (Harrenhal (ODG),Frozen Outpost (LoW)), their abilities are all very useful in a Stark deck
• Best card advantage for a Stark deck
• Amazing come from behind potential.

Cons:

• Inability to use another restricted card with maesters agenda. Fury of the Wolf (AE), Fear of Winter (BtW), and Narrow Escape (KotStorm) are all excellent cards for Stark.
• Forced to use less than optimal characters since Stark does not have great Maesters (Maester Luwin (FtC) is awesome, Maester Vyman (TWoW) is situational , and Maester of Last Hearth (HtS) is not great)
• Starts out extremely slow, but can regain control late game.

There are other agendas that get an honorable mention when I think about Stark. The wildling agendas(Blood of the First Men (RotO), The Free Folk (BtW), The Last Giants (TWH)) are solid, extra war crest characters combine well with Die by the Sword (LoW) and Frozen Outpost (LoW). Wildling Bard (CD) works extremely well with the Northern Cavalry Flank (SA) as well. In melee, I have been known to run Kings of Summer (ASoS) simply for the card advantage because there is little winter in melee games, but in joust the advantage for Stark would never outweigh the chance of running into Winter decks. Treaty with the Isles (CoS) has given me some interesting ideas for a choke deck. The Sparr (APS), Burned and Pillaged (FtC), River Blockade (RoR),Ice Fisherman (TWoW) and Newly Made Lord (TftH) are all available to be played out of House Stark, add in Meera Reed (TftH) and Arya Stark (CoS) and it can get pretty ugly for an opponent fast.

Next week we will talk in depth about Siege of Winterfell. I will share a deck list that I have placed in the top 4 with, though it has evolved with the release of newer chapter packs. Siege is the agenda that defines the house, building to the strongest points, but it does have a huge drawback. I will also address any comments or questions that my come about. I enjoy and understand Stark very well, so please feel free to ask anything that you may want to know. In the comments let us know what agenda do you all prefer and what agenda do you fear the most out of stark? Good luck to anyone representing the North at worlds, here is hoping that there will be a .... KING IN THE NORTH!!