The Things I Do For Win - Overextending

Winning AGOT is walking a fine line between having just enough strength to push through relevant challenges without exhausting your hand. Spending less resources than your opponent to take fifteen is everything. Knowing when to throw the kitchen sink at the right time equals championships.

Make your opponent uncomfortable. Imposing large amounts of threats on the board makes opponents react with their big guns; Valar Morghulis (Core), Wildfire Assault (Core), and Threat from the North (PotS). Plots are the biggest game changers in the match and must be used judicially. Forcing early resets puts players on the defense. You are now operating with all guns ablaze without fear of seeing your characters whisked away to the dead pile.

Theory
Most games come down to when the afore mentioned plots are played. The sooner you can get your opponent to play their best killer the better position you are in…provided you have ammunition to back up the initial barrage. Most tournament decks pack Valar and you need to be aware when it could be dropped. The sooner you take away the silver bullet from their arsenal means the sooner you build your empire of sick cards.

On the flipside, there is nothing worse than no cards in hand and no icons with legs offering pressure during the challenge phase. Games are lost and won during Valar turns. If this scenario keeps happening to you, then you are not understanding the idea of overextending/underextending at the right time.

True Story
By far the best example deck I have seen that utilized this theory was the Greyjoy Clown Boat from the 2010 Missouri Regionals. The core mechanic revolved around Val (RotO), Wildling agendas, and Dolorous Edd (TWH). The rest of the deck was pure efficiency. It put an incredible amount of characters on the battlefield and dared you to Valar. After the aforementioned plot hit, more characters spewed forth creating a relentless assault of claim two without reprecussion.

Making It Work For You
Overextending is a naughty word in our meta. We openly mock people for saying the phrase “puking my hand out” followed by wretching sounds. Normally when you are in that position you are playing everything you can to stop the opponent from winning that turn.

However, if you can apply dominance with characters and have a mitt full of cheap dudes to follow up the next turn you control the game. Card advantage becomes the ultimate goal. On average three to five characters are on board during the beginning of the challenge phase. Since there are only three challenges it makes sense. You want to win all three claim effects and have enough to soak military challenges. If you can settle up with more than five dudes, folks get jittery. The idea of facing down an army of icons makes opponents prone to triggering their bomb plot.


Aggro Loves Overextending
The best aggro decks only play one new dude a turn, taking a page from Magic: The Gathering, constant pressure without losing card advantage. If you can face down more than three characters repeatedly on the flop, then your opponent has to deal with a tiny assaulting army. You’ve already refilled your hand to seven and look to keep adding to the tidal wave. Stop playing characters from your hand. There is no reason to having more than five characters on board after seeing only three from across the table. Playing one or two characters a turn while destroying locations is a steady vise until they can’t handle the added threats.

The Overextending Package
To get behind the idea of recklessly putting characters in harms way you can start with Narrow Escape (KotStorm). It’s a chronic overextender’s dream. Not only do you not get punished for expending all of your resources you get rewarded when someone tries to destroy them. Worse case scenario is during a Valar turn is both players rely on the two card draw to play threats.

If you are leaning heavily on this device play several low gold curve cost or shadow characters to get back in the game and paper shield. There is nothing worse than having Bran seeing your backside without protection or Jaime to take care of business.

True Story
The key to Martel Maesters power rush winning so much is the silly amount of dudes hitting the playing surface. The Art of Seduction (LotR) delays Valar being played and can cancel it with Outwit (TIoR). The worse the deck can do is whiff on turn three with Outwit and continue to build renown power. This is overextending at it’s best in the current environment.

Overextending Outside of Aggro
Dictating the flow of a game appears in many guises. Aggro decks strike quickly to reduce options. Controls deck try to survive initial jousts while grinding away cards until a game ending position is found. That position is established with a multi-character wipe. Several small threats are launched onto the field until they add up to a big threat. Control decks use Orphan of the Greenblood (PotS) and The Black Cells (TftRK) to nullify characters without killing them. To defeat the defense more characters have to be played by the opponent, that’s when the trap is set to destroy them with a single Westeros Bleeds (Core) or Threat From the North.