Scheming on the Sands - The Red Viper

Scheming on the Sands – “The Red Viper”

Prince Oberyn was unimpressed. “I have killed large men before. The trick is to get them off their feet. Once they go down, they're dead.” The Dornishman sounded so blithely confident that Tyrion felt almost reassured, until he turned and said “Daemon, my spear!” Ser Daemon tossed it to him, and the Red Viper snatched it from the air.
- A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

In this edition of Scheming on the Sands we’ll take a close look at Prince Oberyn Martell, The Red Viper. He’s called the Red Viper due to an incident from his youth where he dueled with Lord Ormond Yronwood after taking one of his paramours to bed. The duel was only to first blood, but it’s suspected that Oberyn used poison on his blades as Lord Ormond died from the wounds not long after.

A worldly individual he trained for a while at the Citadel, traveled to the Free Cities in the East, rode with the Second Sons, and even formed his own mercenary company. Oberyn has never married but nonetheless has fathered many bastard daughters known as the Sand Snakes.

Oberyn Martell is the younger brother to Prince Doran Martell and the deceased Elia Martell; a point that should not be lightly taken as her and her children’s deaths during Robert’s Rebellion frames all the actions the Martells have taken sense. This obsession comes to a head during several chapters of A Storm of Swords, but that’s discussion for another place and time.

The Red Viper in the LCG

There are three versions of the Red Viper in the Game of Thrones LCG. We’ll save my favorite version for last and start with the least used variant.

The Red Viper (TftRK)
This is perhaps the least used version of the Red Viper and I only say that because I've never seen this card in person. Clearly the benefit here is to have an alternative for a Valar Morghulis (Core) like effect. Beyond his response he’s a relatively well balanced character with a good trait, noble crest, all three icons, and above average strength. The lack of a keyword is disappointing, but that’s clearly not the point of this guy.

This is the point: No Use For Grief (DB). If you are going to do a Sand Snakes deck and attempt a No Use for Grief combo this would be the Red Viper I would use (if I had a copy). The benefit is twofold. Initiate a board wipe and then immediately bring out a horde of characters with all their synergies instantly enabled.

Beyond comboing his death for a Sand Snake deck I see little use for him given the number of cancels available these days that can target his response.

The Red Viper (APS)
This version of the Red Viper I’ve seen used on a few occasions with varying degrees of success. Again, he’s well balanced given the cost versus strength, icons, two keywords, and a crest.

In my opinion this is the most “Shagga” of the three versions of the Red Viper. His response follows the typical Martell angle of “getting something for losing”. What’s important to note is that you don’t have to lose on the defense to get the response. Not successfully pushing an attack will allow you to trigger the response as well. This is really key as it prevents having you taking it in the face in order to get his mechanic to work.

His Challenges triggered effect is perhaps the most intriguing though. I’m a big fan of claim manipulation and this version of the Red Viper has lots of potential to do interesting things. Here’s a short list off the top of my head.

• Run him with Arianne Martell (PotS) to increase your claim by +2.
• In a Melee do a surprise claim value increase on a military challenge between two of your opponents.
• You have a 3 claim Focused Offense military challenge coming your way. Make it a 4 and Red Vengeance (PotS) that.
• Use Copper Link (GotC) to give him the House Dayne trait for more madness.

There’s more potential than I’m able to describe since I’m not a terribly strong Shagga player. On a The Power of Arms (Core) turn he has the opportunity to push three 3 claim challenges through almost on his own; assuming you have enough gold stacked on him.

Greyscale
There’s been a lot of talk about this new attachment and how it introduces some interesting possibilities. Attached to this version of the Red Viper you effectively have an engine that reliably puts gold on him so you can frequently activate his Challenges phase ability.

However, there are two large problems with this combo. First is that Greyscale is not an in house Martell attachment. So you have to contend with the out of house gold penalty. Secondly you are intentionally burning him for every gold token placed on him. Unlike his Princes of the Sun doppelganger who is immune to events and character abilities this version is not, so by lowering the threshold for killing/discarding the burning makes him particularly vulnerable.

Unless he is provided some degree of immunity or other protection it is probably too dangerous to try and combo this version of the Red Viper with Greyscale. It’s safer and more easily executed (in terms of out of house costs) to build a House Dayne deck and manipulate his trait to stack additional gold on the Red Viper more quickly.

For those of you who are particularly adventurous to try out something crazy, find a way to shoehorn this combo into a deck:

The Red Viper (APS) + Rhaegar's Harp (BoRF) + Greyscale (tHoBaW) + Starfall (ASitD)

The Harp makes the Red Viper a House Dayne character and Starfall offsets the penalty imposed by Greyscale. If executed reliably it can be absolutely devastating since Starfall can boost the gold generation on the Red Viper, but it should go without saying that there are lots of gaps where this combo can be easily broken.

A somewhat safer combo that provides some protection is:

The Red Viper (APS) + Greyscale (tHoBaW) + Flaming Sword (DB)

The Red Viper (PoS)
If you are new to the game and hear people complaining about the Red Viper this is the guy they are talking about. He’s my favorite version of the Red Viper and it’s not hard to see why.

Like the other two versions he costs 5, has all the icons, Renown, the Lord trait, and a noble crest. It’s his passive text that really makes him a force to be reckoned with.

First, his dual immunities provide a huge umbrella of protection. Direct kill events and burn events don’t work against him. The downside is that he’s also immune to your own events, though there aren't many events that Martell can/would run that aren't opponent control or cancels. The all important He Calls It Thinking (PotS) still works since it becomes an attachment once the cancel has processed.

Second, he does not kneel to attack an opponent who controls more characters than you. This is a fantastically easy threshold to meet. If you have a couple Orphan of the Greenblood (PotS) discard them to remove icons and send in the Viper. Not only do you keep the character balance needed to have the Viper keep standing you also drastically lower the difficulty to win on the offense and maybe even managed all unopposed challenges. Not counting claim, he alone can pull in a massive 6 power for you.

If the APS version of the Red Viper is a Shagga card then this one is most certainly a Jaime card. This version of the Red Viper is powerful on his own right and can easily close games for you.

His biggest weakness is attachments. There’s not much you'll be able to do against Targaryen burn by attachment (Flaming Sword (DB) can offer some protection against burn but is subject to attachment hate). He isn't immune to locations either, but that’s not quite as troublesome as attachment burn or Milk of the Poppy (Core). Poisoned Coin (THoBaW) is a potential threat if you aren't careful; but if you can keep him from kneeling you'll be alright. Your best bet would be a return to hand effect to shake of the attachments given that Martell is very weak in attachment control, but that is at the expense of whatever power you may have collected on him.

When to use The Red Viper?
Almost all Martell decks will want at least one copy of the PoS version of the Red Viper; unless the deck is being built around one of the other two versions. The quantity of copies will be determined on how critical he is to your deck’s success.

The APS version needs to have a strong deck concept built around him. On his own his abilities, while interesting, can only situationally affect the game dynamics. Ideally you want to develop some engine that more rapidly gets gold on him and maximize the opportunities to manipulate claim. It’s important to note that his Challenges trigger requires him to stand in order to raise claim so that needs to be taken into account as well depending on whatever engine maybe developed.

The TftRK version, in my view, is only useful in a Sand Snakes deck. He’s too expensive to use just for the response. Depending on the game it may be a good deterrent, but it only takes one cancel in someone’s hand for it to be undone.

The Road Tour
Norvos (VD) out in the wild now the possibility has opened up to see the Red Viper in other decks without the significant out of house cost. I haven't seen him appear OOH yet using Norvos but I could definitely see the PoS version show up in a Baratheon noble rush deck. The APS version could be a nasty addition with Pike Phalanx (QoD) in a Targaryen deck. Maybe he'll hang out up North with the Starks. Who knows!?

Next Time

On the next edition of Scheming on the Sands we'll look at one of Martell’s principle strengths: icon removal. How it’s used, what you can do with it and why it’s so great!