Scheming on the Sands - Bloodthirsty

Hi everyone, my name is Lorenzo, alias Loras, a very fond Martell player from the Italian meta. My friend PulseGlazer asked me to help him break down all the aspects of the brand new Bloodthirst agenda, so let’s get down to business. It is my first time writing an article here on cardgameDB; hope you will enjoy.

This new card has initially been overlooked, but now it is at the center of a very intriguing discussion, due to its constant source of card draw that is starting to remind us of TLV. The deck is still unexplored territory; for this reason I will proceed by illustrating the process of deckbuilding with Bloodthirst and briefly describing my take. In the next episode I will go deeper into the discussion on how the deck plays, key cards and weaknesses.

To approach the building process one thing needs to be kept in mind: control decks out of Martell are all about outdrawing your opponent and using nasty stuff to slow them down, while you slowly build your hand in order to strike back mid to late game. Bloodthirst perfectly achieves this and there are several ways one can do that.
At the moment I have identified a few possible ways to approach the building process, mixing the following variables: number of characters, use of influence, summer flavor, Ghaston Grey and sources of location control.

Number of Characters:

• “Character light”: this is the way I chose to go. It relies on a set of 18 to 25 characters and is slightly more aggressive than the “very character light” version. In fact, knowing that you have a few more characters in your deck, you won't mind playing a few, in order to start pushing through some intrigue and military challenges. Southron Heiress is the best example: very cheap, stealth and deadly, with the right set of icons. This version of the deck usually packs fewer resets and more soft control events. My take, for example, has an icon removal flavor with Prince’s Wrath.
• “Very character light”: I define this with “less than 13-10 characters”, usually 3x Red Viper, 2x Arianne (KG), Ser Arthur Dayne. Some others might be Ellaria Sand (FaI), Preston, High Septon, Syrio Forel. It relies more heavily on resets and challenge denial and it is very similar to the most recent Martell Kothh builds: keep resetting the board until you outdraw your opponent, settle with your influence/gold resources and strike back with To The Spears and a non-kneeling Red Viper.

Use of Influence:

• Influence heavy: this option is necessary with the very character light version, due to the possibility to trigger Westeros Bleeds, Prince’s Plan, Red Vengeance and, if you chose to go that way, Favorable Ground. This strategy can still work well with a few more characters, but, for example, you usually wouldn't run Westeros Bleeds in 3x because there might be times you won't need it and would find it as a dead card in your hand.
• Influence-Light: you might not want to dedicate too much room in your deck to influence, but still want to use some powerful effects, such as Prince’s Wrath, as a mean of soft control. Red vengeance is welcome too - provided you have 2 influence: but, between Summer Seas, Dornish Fiefdoms and Doran’s Chambers it is quite easy to find the right balance between income and influence curve. And don’t forget the new Southron Stronghold.
• No Influence: in this case Burning on The Sands is 99.9% of the times you restricted card and you would probably rely on further challenge denial in the form of The Only Game That Matters and Questioned Claim, in combination with some other forms of control: plots and locations, such as Shadow and Spiders and Ghaston Grey work greatly in this sense. Furthermore, in this version there is more room for other useful tools such as Nightmares (combed with Questioned Claim to remove the King or Queen trait), cancels (paper Shields and (Hand’s Judgement).

Summer Flavor:

• The last cycle gave us some interesting summer tools for Martell that synergize well with Bloodthirst. Ellaria Sand is on top of this list, but also Oberyn's Shield Bearer (FaI) fits the context, being a powerful cancel and discarding himself, lowering your board presence thus increasing your chances to trigger the agenda. Personally I don’t like the summer option, because 1) it requires a dedicated plot, while all plots are a fundamental control tool for this deck; 2) against Targ Burn, probably the deck’s worst matchup, Ellaria is going to die in the very moment she hits the board. On the other hand, the Shield bearer can help her stay alive, cancelling burn events: all in all, weight pros and cons and make your choice.

Ghaston Grey:

• Ghaston Grey (FtC) adds a number of very interesting options to the deck. The most important are 1) bouncing your key characters to avoid resets - either coming from your side or the opponent’s (Valar, Westeros Bleeds, Marched To The Wall…) - and of course 2) controlling the opponent’s characters. However, there are a few drawbacks: the first one is the fact that you have to include specific characters you wouldn't probably run in a character light deck - I’m talking to you Edric Dayne and Dagos Manwoody ­-; secondly you would probably go for the awesome Arianne Martell (PotS), but the other Arianne seems made exactly for this deck, allowing you to quickly skim through your best plots as a control tool; finally, location hate is everywhere these days, which means that overcommitting your deck to Ghaston Grey won't always be profitable. For all these reasons, some people are running Ghaston Grey more often in combination with The Red Viper only, as a way to keep him safe not only from resets, but also from kneeling effects such as City of Sin.

Sources of Location Control:

• This deck suffers a lot from The Iron Throne (LotR): almost anything you want to do out of Martell is made through characters abilities (and events). Martell players need to get rid of it as soon as possible; furthermore, many Lannister decks are running it in 3x these days. On a second note, ruining Kothh decks’ resources is another major concern, since these decks are another of Bloodthirst’s worst enemies. For all these reasons, including some form of location control in your Bloodthirst deck is highly recommended: a part from Condemned by the Council and A City Besieged, if you go influence heavy you also have the Favorable Ground option. In this case, you would have to build your deck accordingly, meaning you can’t rely too much on control given by your key locations, such as Ghaston Grey or Lost Oasis.

For my Bloodthirst deck, I have chosen the following mix:

• Character Light
• Influence heavy
• No summer
• No Ghaston Grey
• No Favorable Grounds

And here goes the list:

House:
House Martell

Agenda: (1)
1x Bloodthirst (AHA)

Plot: (7)
1x Shadows and Spiders (LotR)
1x City of Lies (CoS)
1x Valar Morghulis (Core)
1x Desolate Passage (TRS)
1x City of Sin (AToT)
1x To the Spears! (PotS)
1x A City Besieged (CD)

Character: (24)
3x The Red Viper (PotS)
2x Ser Jaime Lannister (TK)
1x Ser Preston Greenfield (TK)
2x Arianne Martell (TK)
2x Southron Mercenaries (TBoBB)
2x Southron Heiress (AHA)
3x Dayne Spearman (THtW)
1x Lady Nym's Guard (RotK)
2x Ser Arthur Dayne (TWoW)
1x Obara Sand (FF)
1x Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS)
2x Lost Spearman (MotM)
1x Ellaria Sand (FaI)
1x Coldhands (THtW)

Attachment: (0)


Event: (19)
3x Burning on the Sand (RotO)
3x Red Vengeance (PotS)
3x The Prince's Wrath (PotS)
2x Parting Blow (PotS)
2x Westeros Bleeds (Core)
2x The Prince's Plans (TIoR)
3x He Calls It Thinking (PotS)
1x Condemned by the Council (AToT)

Location: (19)
3x Water Garden (PotS)
3x Dornish Fiefdoms (PotS)
2x Summer Sea (Core)
2x Kingdom of Shadows (KotS)
2x Lost Oasis (AToT)
2x The Red Keep (TftRK)
1x Lord Doran's Chambers (PotS)
2x Kingsroad Fiefdom (QoD)
1x Greenblood Vessel (AToTT)
1x Cape Wrath (AJE)


In case you want to try it, always make sure you always have fewer characters: the draw potential the agenda has is simply absurd, especially if you never leave the benefit to your opponent. Slow down your opponent while you set your board with your renown shadows: Jaime and Southron Mercenaries with kingdom of Shadows can quickly make your power gain explode. The decent amount of stealth is also helpful. And of course The Red Viper.