King In The North

King in the North
By SirDuck(Derek Shoemaker)

Winter is coming, and as it approaches I have decided to try my hand at representing House Stark to many players new and old alike. Many of you know me as a diehard Stark loyalist, and that is very true, I have never played a non stark deck in a tournament setting. I have played competitively with:

• Stark(Siege of Winterfell), top 4 in 2 major tournaments(DC regional season warmup and NYC Regional)
• Stark/Maesters(Black Friday)
• Stark(with a House Arryn theme in the CCG, finished 4th in my first ever tournament)
• Stark/Knights of the realm(won DC regional going 8-0 on the day.)

Reading the books I always loved Eddard, Robb and of course the wolves, so it was only natural that I strike into the game with the house that I pulled for so much. Over the course of the next few months I hope to explain exactly what makes Stark field solid decks, how to build a solid deck out of the house, and how to deal with the top tier 1 decks that you see in the top 8 of many tournaments.

What themes does stark support? Stark brings many different things to the table, they have their Direwolves, House Tully, inside of House Tully there are enough knights to make that an interesting sub theme, and the Starks are used to the cold so winter is never a bad choice. The iconic theme for Stark has always been the military challenge. Back when the game first came out as a CCG there were only 3 houses released at first, Stark represented the Military challenge, Lannister the Intrigue challenge and Baratheon the Power challenge. Much has changed since the first box, but House Stark still does take advantage of winning military challenges.

What does Stark do best? Stark kills characters at an alarming rate with events like No Quarter (TBC), and Die by the Sword (LoW) to go along with 2 claim plots. There are other ways that stark can kill characters as well, Robb Stark (Core), Grey Wind (LoW), Arya Stark (tHoBaW), Guilty! (Core), and Poisoned Coin (THoBaW) but none of these are quite a useful as the first 2. Robb is 4 cost for 2 strength making him an easy target of Venomous Blade (TBoBB) or Flame-Kissed (Core), he does not have the renown of the newer version and lacks the ability to increase strength. Grey Wind is an attachment, easily dealt with by Tin Link (CbtC), and limited to 1 strength characters unless attached to Robb, still there are many times I'd love to be able to kill 1 strength characters (Orphan of the Greenblood (PotS), Val (RotO) in a non wildling deck, Ghost of High Heart (WLL),Samwell Tarly (TRS).) I have not had the chance to try out Arya in depth, but I will say she can be fun with Widow's Watch (GotC) and Galbart Glover (CbtC). Poisoned coin seems amazing in a Maester deck combined with pale steel link and bronze link, otherwise it is not so much direct kill as indirect kill.

What hurts Stark the most? In the early days the intrigue challenge was always the ***** in Stark's glorious armor, and to some extent still is. There have been some solid Stark cards that do help against the intrigue challenge, Catelyn Stark(Catelyn Stark (LoW), Catelyn Stark (Core), Catelyn Stark (AToT)), Sansa Stark (TftRK), Meera Reed (TftH), Damon Dance-For-Me (VD), Greatjon Umber (WLL), Maester Luwin (FtC) and even the Bolton Refugee (RoW) do all provide solid intrigue defense and in most cases offense as well. Still Stark will never stack up to Lannister in intrigue, nor Martell but cards like Knight of Harrenhal (TBC) to help protect the key cards in hand. The main thing that hurts stark these days is challenge control, if they are unable to win their military challenges for any reason that means the other player has plenty of time to build up their board advantage. Plots like Shadows and Spiders (LotR), Lineage and Legacy (KotStorm) and Muster the Realm! (QoD) all see play in competitive decks, and can destroy a Stark if they are not taking them into consideration when building the deck. The best counter to most plots is Forgotten Plans (KotStorm), which is simply an amazing card out of Stark. It deals with almost every plot that hurts Stark, with the glaring exception of Valar Morghulis (Core). Martell's icon remove with cards such as the Orphan of the Greenblood (PotS) and The Scourge (ODG), and return to hand cards such as Ghaston Grey (FtC) and A Game of Cyvasse (ACoS) also are a thorn in the side of any Stark player trying to win challenges. Lannister kneel effects such as Castellan of the Rock (BoRF) and Enemy Informer (Core) also can kneel the characters we need to push through challenges. All of these things must be taken into account when building a deck and in future articles I will explain how Stark can deal with these issues.

How does Stark achieve card advantage? One of the most important things that I look at when building a deck out of any house, is how do I achieve card advantage. The most obvious way is through card draw and in that regard Stark does lack slightly. Guard at Riverrun (LoW), Knights of the Realm (KotStorm), The Blackfish (LoW) and Samwell Tarly (TRS) are the obvious choices for actual draw out of a stark deck. None of these 4 fit into every single stark deck, but I often include 1 copy of Samwell in my deck, even if the only ravens I have are 3x Carrion Bird (ASoS). Luckily Stark does have some solid search effects, Maester Luwin (FtC), Harrenhal (ODG), Widow's Watch (GotC), and To Be a Wolf (SB) are all quite amazing. Luwin and Harrenhal are useable out of almost every deck, and To be a Wolf is solid out of a deck that can afford to lead off with a Military battle plot a majority of the time. Widows watch is expensive, but in the right deck gives a 'double' card advantage, getting a card out of the deck, and putting a save(dupe) onto the table. In a direwolf deck Winterfell kennels and wolf dreams also can search for key cards and thin the deck down at the same time. With all this search it is important to remember that Riders of the Red Fork (FtC) can be found with ANY of these cards.

What to look for in the next article? Next time I will start to look at the Agendas that see play in competitive Stark builds, giving a general overview of each one. I will also address any questions that may arise from this article. Going forward I plan to go in depth for each agenda, providing a deck list that either I or one of my friends has build and explaining our choices. I feel as though the best way to learn the house is to understand the cards, what they can do and what limitations they might have!