Rise of the Kraken - Unopposed

Howdy everybody, and welcome back to Rise of the Kraken. Today, Gangle will be rambling through a family of deck that hinges on unopposed challenges.

Just to throw this out right from the get-go, this is not considered a Tier 1 tournament joust deck. If you are purely a cold hearted Jaime, I will refer you to JCWamma's articles, as Greyjoy Maesters are are extremely well represented in tournaments, which can probably be solely attributed to people soaking in Wamma's sage advice. The unopposed deck is still competitive in joust, and the melee section will be much less depressing than in my previous article.

Deck Philosophy
The Greyjoys are at their finest when striking targets that don't strike back. Not to give away too much in the way of spoilers, but this is epitomized by a quick score card for our beloved Theon:

Theon 2-0 10 year old kids

Theon 0-Lots Everything Else*

*include a horse, a sadistic pervert, and severe daddy issues

Unfortunately, after realizing you are playing an unopposed deck, you opponent will in all likelihood require some encouragement to let your challenges go through unopposed. This incentive comes in the form of The Iron Fleet and characters with keywords that will be discussed later.

This deck is designed for a fair degree of speed, and you should be aiming to pull out the win somewhere around the fourth plot. This will almost always be by setting up an enormous power grab on the turn you use Rise of the Kraken (KotS). This deck will test the limits of your opponents location control. Your goal in the first several plots is to develop a substantial location advantage and to keep their character numbers in check.

Forcing an Unopposed Challenge
There are three reasons an opponent who knows your deck hinges on unopposed challenges would not defend:

• It wouldn't matter - If you can drop their strength to 0, it counts as unopposed anyways. The big players here are Intimidate and Scouting Vessel (KotS)
• They can't - Stealth is prioritized to try to line up an ideal matchup and get around problem characters.
• Something horrible will happen the poor defender - Deadly and other kill effects such as Longship "Foamdrinker" (TWot5K) are a wonderful deterrent.

Intimidate synergizes wonderfully with strength buffs, and the challenge math can end up getting delightfully convoluted. You opponent frequently faces the decision to either let your challenge go unopposed or causes them to greatly over-defend. If the only way to ensure stopping your vicious attacking Island Refugee (RoW) is to defend with 4 powerful characters, things are going well.

The Cards for an Unopposed Deck
This family of deck is based on pushing through challenges unopposed, and the primary way I'll be talking about doing this is using warships and raiders. I'll give brief mention to a couple alternatives for diluting this.

The Iron Fleet
This deck depends on warships for challenge manipulation (and other things). This works best when you have lots of warships... The critical ones here are:

• Scouting Vessel (KotS) - Almost nullifying a character is extremely valuable.
• Longship Grief (CD) - An extra challenge with many of your best characters is incredible.
• Longship Silence (ASoSilence) - A combat trick and fairly reliable card draw.

I frequently flood the deck with warships, and will include many of the low cost ones that do not kneel (Captured Cog (AHM), River Blockade (RoR)), which can fuel Ambitious Oarsman (RoR) or Naval Escort (ASitD) in addition to having their own powerful effects at a great value.

Raiders, Pillagers, Etc.

The character focus of the deck will be Raiders and characters with the important keywords you're looking for. Some of the people I routinely find myself hoping for include:

• Iron Fleet Captain (CD) - This guy has good traits, a good keyword, and almost-renown. A great fit for an unopposed deck.
• Ambitious Oarsman (RoR) - Cheap raider cost reducer that will turn all your boats into emergency cost reducers. This can help you rapidly recover from a reset or flood the board. I find this guy tremendously undervalued.
• Euron's Enforcers (DB) - This guy gets enormous in a hurry, and will almost always yield a free unopposed challenge (2 if you have Longship Grief (CD) out). Intimidate and a power icon are hard to find together.
• Wex Pyke (KotS) - Most of the characters that have icons are valuable, and this frequently lets you avoid the dreaded chump block. Also a small boy playing marbles has a military icon, and a Kingsmoot Hopeful (FtC) in full armor with a sword does not. Discuss.

Agenda, Restricted Card Etc.
For this deck the restricted card I've found most useful is Fear of Winter (BtW), as it's pretty important that the board not get flooded, and everyone loves 2 claim. Also KotHH decks seem to be gaining favor, and it helps markedly for keeping up pressure.

Most of the time I've run this deck without an agenda, but as with 99% of formerly agendaless decks, it makes more sense to run House of Dreams (ARotD). I've had success with hunting up Longship Grief (CD), as this lets most of your characters have a non-kneeling challenge. Digging up Longship Iron Victory (KotS) is also a very viable option for any agendaless Greyjoy deck...

Other Amusing Sub-themes
I have had the most fun/success with going over the top on the Raider+Boat=Profit philosophy, but if you decide that's not for you, I would recommend replacing some of the cards that rely on swarms of boats/raiders to be effective (like the oarsmen, enforcers, escorts etc.).
One good option is going heavy on saves so that you can valar offensively and keep your board relatively intact. Smash through your unopposed challenges while they are still recovering from your reset.
Another more ridiculous/fun option is to splice heavily into wildlings. Running the wildling agendas will give you a huge number of strong characters that all have stealth, and allows you to sneak around pretty much all defenders, though the extra power requirement is a pain.


Playing the Unopposed Deck
It is not uncommon for me to run 3 non-setup cards in the whole deck (Assault of the Kraken (KotS)), so even with HoD you should still get a good number of cards out given the number of low cost cards in the deck. Getting some form of cost reducer and/or card draw is extremely important.

Most of your boats and keywords only work on offense, so your ability to defend challenges will be subpar terrible. 2 claim plots are heavily prioritized so that even if all challenges succeed for both players, you should come out ahead. Winning initiative is very important to this deck so that you can hit first each round. Your card draw is primarily from the unique warships and Bay of Ice (KotS) if you've got good initiative.

The power grab from Rise of the Kraken (KotS) is straight forward (
Euron's Enforcers (DB) + Assault of the Kraken (KotS) = 8 power), but the setup rounds are somewhat less obvious. It is important that the board not be overly congested, and against slower decks your 2 claim military challenges can frequently do a reasonable job of this, but against many decks this will involve a valar. Even if you do not have a ton of saves, valar does not kill boats, and thus you should have the advantage post-reset anyways.

One of the good thing about playing a deck that's supposed to win after only a few rounds is that you can have more situational plots. I wouldn't suggest you have The King's Law (KotStorm) only to get rid of Meera Reed (TftH), but I wouldn't judge you too harshly either.

Greenlanders of Note
Stark Murder - Unfortunately, your two claim military can't stand up to their two claim military with 42 targeted kills on the back end of it. If you're going to win this game, 90% of the time it will be after the reset. Their location control will likely be in the form of Frozen Solid (LoW), which is just something you have to live with, but your boats will survive valar better than their characters. As always, if you get a chance to whack Meera Reed (TftH) with a valar, it's probably the right time to valar.

Baratheon Nobles - This is one of those games that frequently comes down to initiative somewhere near turn three (and you should have the advantage). Slowing down their acceleration is always important, and their location control is frequently very poor. If you can get a couple warships and Naval Escort (ASitD), you can frequently deny them the challenges they need for renown and vigilant, and then you're pretty much set.

Martel - Ug. Remember how cool those two claim challenges are? Ya... Martel controls all work wonders against you, (your intrigue is bad, so you lose at checkers) and worst of all, their location control is horrendous. If you're wondering why terrible location control sucks for you, it's because Martel players will frequently be forced into the nuclear option. Getting hit with Fleeing to the Wall (Core) or Favorable Ground (QoD) will just put you out of your misery.

Targ Burn - These are some of the most fun games you can play with this deck, as both of you will rely on small character bases with tons of amusing support. Your location control should be better, and your characters are mostly pretty good with the cost/strength. As a fun note, most burn effects that are hard removal are combos (unless Threat from the North (PotS) is out...), and bumping up the strength of a character mid-combo can be very helpful.

Lannister PbtT - This ends up not being too bad for you. You should be able to get through a military and power challenge easily every turn. You should be able to keep board control even if you have to valar away all their little chump characters. They will probably be relying on Condemned by the Council (AToT) for location control, which can only snipe one of your boats. Much of their card draw comes from locations, which you should be able to pick off.

A Happy Note About Melee
While unopposed decks are not tier 1 in joust, they are very powerful in melee, and capable of winning in a tournament setting. While a choke deck will make you three enemies in a great hurry, you can use your boats to make friends/ensure carnage. Most boats are only restricted to an attacking character, so making sure an opponent gets a challenge through makes you a friend and kills an enemy.

I find it especially useful in melee to maintain initiative control, as this gives you a choice over the titles and the all important ability to go first on the round you're swinging for big power. To make absolutely certian of this, Ahead of the Tide (WotN) has even snuck into my deck a few times.

For your restricted card (and cards in general), it is always important in melee to not make everyone hate you until they cannot stop you, and thus Fear of Winter (BtW) is not usually a good idea. Make an Example (PotS) can be combined with Assertion of Might (KotS) can get you gobs of power all at once, and in melee the fast decisive power grab is the way to go.

On the turn you make your crazed power grab, try to take the crown so you can freely strike at whoever you so choose. In melee games, there will almost always be 1 player who is extremely far behind. This is either because they jumped out to a lead and all three players turned on them, or because the table is full of selfish jerks who are all looking to pick on the weakest link with minimum threat to themselves. When it comes to exploiting the weak, the Greyjoys are at their finest. Hit hard, hit fast, giggle like a school girl. Also don't hit Martel... something will always go very wrong when you hit Martel...

Final Deep Thoughts
Thanks for reading, and please feel to send friendly comments or questions to Gangle and hostile ones elsewhere. Next go around Wamma will be back with more maester goodness for all of you who like winning tournaments and the such, so stay tuned!