The Grand Melee - Playing Control in Melee Part 5: The Shadows are Dark and Full of Flames

Hello readers! Welcome back to the Grand Melee! Last time out, I mentioned how we could use kneel to control a Melee game to our advantage. Today, I will focus on another Joust staple control method, but from the Melee point of view: Burn.

In Melee, this strategy suffers from the same problems as in Joust. It is resource intensive and costs many cards. While the resources problems are somewhat mitigated by the Melee Titles, providing you with easy influence (most of the time you will want this), gold or draw. The card costs explode in Melee though, because you have multiple opponents. While in Joust you can afford to use two cards (or more) to deal with one character, this puts you at a serious card disadvantage in Melee. However Burn also has advantages in Melee. It usually can target anybody at the table, not just the loser of a challenge for instance. It affects Strength, which is important for certain power grab events. Finally, it's very difficult to save from it. If you can use those strengths via table talk and negotiation, Burn can be a force to be reckoned with.

But first, let's look at how we can mitigate the problems plaguing Burn. The resource shortage is somewhat easier to solve in Melee thanks to the Titles, but is solved in a very similar way than in Joust, with careful optimization and balance of influence and gold. For inspiration, you can look at the many Targaryen decks posted on this site. The second problem is a bit more tricky to address. What we need are burn cards that target multiple characters. Unfortunately, there are very few of them. Cards like The Hatchlings' Feast (ASitD) for example come to mind. But these cards still require another cards to initiate the terminal effect that will get rid of the enemy characters. Furthermore, they are not always reusable. This means we cannot build our strategy only around these cards. What about re-usable cards then? Dealing with one character per turn is another form of card-efficiency. Cards like Flaming-Pitch Tower (TWot5K) are good for this. However, they tend to have a condition attached to them. Another way of achieving card-efficiency is through self-replacing cards like Harried by Dragons (VM). While it is less efficient than Flame-Kissed (Core), it can thin your deck and get you another burn card at the same time.

All these cards can help mitigate the card disadvantage you will suffer by playing burn, but none of them is optimal. Even my personal favorite, The Dragonpit (TftRK), that provides a board wide constant effect has problems (namely it doesn't kill and requires you to play shadows). For these reasons, if you want to play burn in Melee I think it should be more of a support mechanic as you will struggle to wipe the board constantly. Enough Burn to kill a key character, get an unopposed bonus or as a downright threat will give you a good advantage in Melee. Also, because you will be playing Targaryen, a House that is not renowned for its fast power grabbing abilities, you will need to leave some space for a mechanic that gives you power tokens. Enter the one card that does both: Thundering Calvary (QoD). With this card, we can create a table-wide reset and get ourselves some power at the same time.

Bearing all of this in mind, and all my previous comments on playing control in Melee, this is what I suggest as the basis of a Control-oriented Burn deck in Melee:

- The Dragonpit. At least two copies.

- Shadow cards. These can survive other resets and can also provide control, like Ser Barristan Selmy (CoS).

- Thundering Calvary (QoD). With the Dragonpit, these can be brutal. They also give you renown.

- Free Cities Mercenaries (TBoBB). Their ability always goes off in Melee. Plus they have renown and are shadow cards.

- Threat from the North (PotS). With the Dragonpit and the Cavalry this gets rid of everything with Strength 3 or less. Brutal.

- Some burn cards of your choosing. I'd say around 10.

- A few jumpers, like Khal Drogo (Core) or Horseback Archers (QoD) that can enter play once the Cavalry has cleaned up.

The rest is up to you. You might want to include cards like Westeros Bleeds (Core) as a backup plan and to make better use of your influence. Maybe you want to use ambush from the plains to put the Cavalry into play? There a lots of possibilities here but I will leave those to you.

See you next time!