Rise of the Kraken - Wildjoys

While JCWamma is raiding and pillaging his way in the Bay of Seals we have gotten a raven from the Land Beyond the Wall. It seems Mance Rayder is offering to ally his forces for our raiding purposes. Unfortunately, our Warships are on their way to meet the Redwyne fleet so we will be unable to get their armies on board, but we should still take their most capable individuals to join our forces.




The main themes for this week’s Rise of the Kraken deck are:

• Stealth
• Efficiency
• High aggro

Our deck is based on one of The North agendas: The Free Folk (BtW).

Unlike most The North decks we are only using one agenda, so no The Last Giants (TWH) or Blood of the First Men (RotO) this time. This choice was made to make sure the deck doesn’t become too slow in the current Control and KotHH filled environment. What Free Folk offers us, is an easy way to gain unopposed challenges through stealth and trigger some nice effects along the way. Last Giants might be a good choice, but usually stealth is enough for you to win the challenges you want to win, and Blood of the First Men doesn’t offer us much since we are using a very light gold curve already. The biggest downside from running only one North agenda is that we now cannot justify running The Wildling Horde (TWH), but we will manage without it.

The deck is running 38 characters to make sure you will always have board presence. Of these 38 characters we have 23 characters with stealth, one with deadly and a little Wex Pyke (KotS) that is already hard to block. For characters we are mostly using low cost ones, with the one exception being Hammerhorn Raiders (THtW). Since we have a way to force our way past opponents defences we need to have a way to gain advantage from this. Thats where all the high claim plots come in. It should be said that we will want to always go first if we can decide the first player, since that way we can keep on punching the opponent with our claim 2 fists and what little they have left after several turns of this beating will rarely be enough to make an impact on our board position when it is their turn to attack.

Pillaging through the Meta

Wildjoys is the oldest deck which I still have built. I first started playing this deck when Free Folk agenda was printed, and ever since then the deck has seen tweaks depending both on new cards and the state the Meta was in.

Currently the Meta is mostly about locations and dealing with them. This means that Control decks with a big amount of powerful locations are on the rise, as well as decks which are countering this behaviour, such as KotHH armed with Favorable Ground (QoD). When you are going to play aggro in a meta like this you need to be able to do two things:

• Destroy the control player’s hand
• Disrupt their location base.

For the hand we have Alannys Greyjoy (RoW) and a good spread of intrigue icons combined with plenty of 2 claim plots.

Location hate gets more interesting with this deck. It needs to be able to both fight against the control decks, which are spewing locations out, as well as more location light KotHH decks. This means that we will need to be able to hit Limited locations, so that both of these deck types are hurt. To achieve this, we have several dedicated tools in place for just this purpose.

• Dry Season (CbtC) - To make the likes of Pentoshi Manor (AHM) completely useless for a turn, and also for blanking resources, especially painful for influence heavy decks.
• Attack from the Sea (PotS) - Works much like Dry Season, suddenly all of those pesky kneel-based location effects and influence - gone! The choking effect however is smaller and unfortunately it only has claim of 1.
• Breaking and Entering (LotR) - Your opponent cannot save his locations in his hand when this plot is out. It also has wonderful side effect, since when your opponent is forced to play locations/attachments it leads to there being less characters played on the board... which makes it easier to dominate the board presence.
• Climbing Spikes (AKitN) - Can blank any location, a even Limited-one (as long as the location can take attachments) and it comes with some possible protection.
• Support of the Kingdom (Core) - Another card which can hit your opponents Limited location base and one of the only ways to get rid of an opposing The Red Keep (TftRK) for good.
• River Blockade (RoR) - A nice tool to make your Baratheon friends furious.
• Iron Islands Brigand (TCC) - Choke and stops Rhaenys Hill shenanigans.

You might notice something odd with this location control list… Where is Newly Made Lord (TftH)?
Unfortunately for this deck they are just too expensive and they don’t add in a board presence we want. They will also be not much of use against the location light decks since they are unable to hit Limited locations. Everything Newly Made Lord can do in this deck, the Climbing Spikes just do better.

It should not be forgotten that one part in our raid to go against the Meta here is the fact that we are not relying on our own locations. They are helpful and nice for setup, but the deck can do well even without their support.

As we can see big part of the deck is dedicated to play against control decks, but what to do when you go up against an aggro or rush deck?

We out aggro them.

During the reign of terror of The Long Voyage (TPoL) one way to beat them was to completely out-aggro them. Wildlings at the time were not used much, but they were well capable to do this feat. Since the character base is filled with cheap quality characters there rarely will be a situation when you are being overwhelmed by other aggro decks. Few decks which can do this are Targaryen Dothraki builds and some Stark ones like Siege. Wildfire Assault is here just for these match-ups. It is highly likely that you have better quality characters on board after the Assault so it gives you a good chance to start to bully your way back to game. These decks also have worse characters to strike at you for intrigue, so there is the rare possibility that you are actually keeping cards in hand for later use.

Rush should hold no problem as Baratheon is still quite dependant on their Seat of Power (WotN) so focus on hitting it. A first turn Dry Season here can decide the game to your favor.

The deck can handle most aggro and rush builds well, which is reflected with all the choices done to help against control. Control games will still be harder to win, but should by no means be impossible or hugely in the favor of your opponent.

Beyond the Wall

Wildjoys is using a couple of cards that are not too often used in your normal Greyjoy or Wildling builds, so knowing their purposes is always good.

For some added intrigue stealth support we are using The Mad Huntsman (ASoSilence). He is great for just the stats he provides while also being a blessing of the drowned god if you manage to play him the first turn. Not often seen outside of Brotherhood decks, but the stealthy Mil, Int works.

As mentioned earlier in the article there is also one copy of the old Alannys Greyjoy. This is quite a perfect little control character and especially nasty in setup. The random discard can at times mean a certain doom for your opponent if you manage to pull the key card. You should be able to keep the board light on characters so the kneel option will rarely tempt the opponent.

Greyjoys own events are something which are usually used for saves or cancels. Here we have dedicated our event slots to not protect our board, but to hit our opponent harder. Since we are running so much stealth and a good set of 2-claimers Assault of the Kraken (KotS) becomes a natural fit that will either devastate your opponents board or his hand completely.

Turning the Tide

While I have been taking a certain Meta greatly in mind with this deck, your own Meta might be a lot different from what I am facing currently. There are several different changes that can be made to make the deck better in a less location-focused meta that is more character driven.

Firstly, change Support of the Kingdom to Seductive Promise (Core). Instead of location hate you will create a bigger impact on your opponents board. Forcing the challenge to be 4 STR is easy and very painful when you clean the opposing board with Military after the character steal.

Add one more Alannys Greyjoy, add two King Balon's Host (TWot5K), remove one Longship Iron Victory, remove two Hammerhorn Raiders. What is better than most of your characters having stealth? Your opponent not having any stealth! King Balon’s Host was an old part of this deck in more character heavy Metas, which gave more dominant board position easily. You however will need to add one more Alannys so that you have enough Kings and Queens to reduce the cost.

Other cards which can work well in this deck:

• Drinking the Sea (TBoBB) - Rarely played, but goes well against übercharacters and other annoying guys who usually have duplicates on them.
• Mercenaries from Pyke (TWH) - Even more cheap stealth to beef up the board.
• The Reader (TGF) - Added draw can be nice with that intrigue icon, but sadly alone he is not so good in challenges as our other characters.
• Seasick (KotS) - If you can often get rid of most of your opponents influence, then why not?
• Narrow Escape (KotStorm) - While Fear of Winter is an excellent plot here it can be too risky in some cases. Narrow Escape is good restricted card of choice to better combat against heavy reset decks. Though you have to adjust your playstyle to protect your hand more as well if you choose to go with this.

Whatever the changes made to fit for you remember that the heart of the deck is in heavy aggro so most of your cards should serve the purpose of oppressing your opponent while you overwhelm your way to victory.

The Deck

House (1)
House Greyjoy (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
The Free Folk (BtW) x1

Plot (8)
Dry Season (CbtC) x1
Fear of Winter (BtW) x1
Breaking and Entering (LotR) x1
Rise of the Kraken (KotS) x1
Twist of Fate (APS) x1
Betrayal at the Wall (THTW) x1
Wildfire Assault (Core) x1
Attack from the Sea (PotS) x1

Character (38)
Ygritte (THtW) x1
Maester Wendamyr (KotS) x1
Wex Pyke (KotS) x1
Carrion Bird (ASoS) x3
Orell the Eagle (ASitD) x2
Stowaway (KotS) x2
Alannys Greyjoy (RoW) x1
Varamyr Sixskins (AKitN) x1
Dagmer Cleftjaw (KotS) x1
The Mad Huntsman (ASoSilence) x1
Gilly (RoW) x1
Iron Fleet Captain (CD) x2
Distinguished Boatswain (TftRK) x3
Iron Islands Brigand (TCC) x2
Mance Rayder (RotO) x3
Baelor Blacktyde (TIoR) x1
Skinchanger (WotN) x3
Qarl the Maid (AJE) x1
Craster (WotN) x2
Asha Greyjoy (KotS) x1
Hammerhorn Raiders (THtW) x2
Free Man (TftH) x3

Location (14)
The Iron Mines (KotS) x3
Sunset Sea (Core) x2
Gatehouse (KotS) x3
The Land Beyond the Wall (EB) x1
Street of Steel (LoW) x1
River Blockade (RoR) x1
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
Longship Iron Victory (KotS) x2

Event (5)
Assault of the Kraken (KotS) x3
Support of the Kingdom (Core) x2

Attachment (3)
Climbing Spikes (AKitN) x3