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The Things I Do For Win - Inquisitor: Enforcing the Lion’s Will
Mar 30 2012 05:00 AM |
clu
in Game of Thrones
Small Council clu The Things I Do For Win
Inquisitor - Enforcing the Lion’s WillHouse Lannister has been the staple of control decks since the inception of the game. Their in-house mechanic of kneeling your opponent’s character lets you run roughshod over folks who have been forced to take the knee. With the advent of the agenda
The Power Behind the Throne (LotR) players now have the option of exploiting their primary icon: intrigue.
To maximize the effectiveness you need to hit them hard every turn. Ideally you tear their hand apart on turn one while cleaning up stragglers on the board. It means dropping lots of cardboard during setup; cheap characters and locations to take advantage of two intrigue challenges. It means direct character control; nullifying threats on a one-to-one basis. It means ignoring marginally useful cards for the sake of card slot efficiency. It means two claim or higher plots.
An aggressive start to a game can end the game. We are going to build an aggro deck. When we refer to aggro there is usually a high importance on the military icon and killing the field off before they can initiate challenges. There are enough non-military effects in Lannister that we can recreate the same atmosphere utilizing the intrigue icon.
Since A Game of Thrones is unique with the three challenge mechanic I propose we call aggro decks that rely on the intrigue icons Inquisitors and decks that concentrate on power icons Power Rush. They are all forms of aggro (the term is taken from Magic: the Gathering), but aggro alone doesn’t address the varied nuances of our beloved game of choice.
What, Me Worry?
Before we tout Power Behind the Throne as the greatest agenda ever we must take into account the draw back and it is considerable. If you lose an intrigue challenge then your joust mate chooses to either draw a card (completely negating the idea of reducing their hand options) or claim a power (woe be the unprepared player versus power rush). The drawback to the agenda can lose you games. Period.
Lannister has a couple silver crossbow bolts up their sleeve:
- Kneel Effects - ignore the other challenges until you lock down their green icons
- Surprise Strength Pump - snatch victory from the jaws of defeat
- Misinformation (TWH) - negate an intrigue challenge
Aggro and What It Means to Jaime
Aggro is one part character efficiency and one part character control.
Aggro decks are front heavy. Meaning most of the deck’s power is in the first couple of turns. You need to win the game by removing as many cards in hand and characters in play on turn one so they can not recover. The greatest turn one play is Fear of Winter (BtW). You put them on the ropes if you can take four cards from their hand and kill two characters. If you can’t punch your way through right away, then keep steadily attacking while hoarding removal cards to play all on the same turn for another onslaught.
Aggro is the sweet science of A Game of Thrones. The idea is simple; smash your opponent before they smash you. However, to maximize your challenges you have to do them in the right order, don’t waste cards, and identify the biggest threat. And for the Seven’s sake don’t waste Terminal Schemes (LotR) on someone who is going to die to Valar Morghulis (Core) the next turn. The decision points are no less intense than control decks. In fact, control can hide mistakes with board sweeping changes. You cannot hide behind Westeros Bleeds (Core) if you get behind with aggro.
Please see Crafting the Theory next week for further information about aggro decks.
Filling the Ranks
Lannister has an abundance of cheap warriors to enlist: Mountain Refugee (RoW), Bronn's Hireling (LotR), Doubting Septa (LotR), The Regent’s Spy (LotR), Painted Dogs (IG), House Payne Enforcer (MotA), and Arrogant Contender (LotR). Contender is three cost for four or more strength depending on the opposition. I’m going to drop Bronn’s Hirelings because I’m worried about his ally trait. Carrion Birds are an auto include in aggro decks across the board. For one gold you garner stealth and a possible disruption of seasons. Craster makes the cut with his huge strength and low cost.
Locations become an easy fit with the streets (Street of Steel (Core), Shadowblack Lane (Core), and Street of Sisters (Core)), River Row (QoD), and the Sunset Sea (Core). Cheaper equals better to take advantage of the setup phase. I can’t make a Lannister deck without Lannisport Treasury (LotR). It may not fit the deck exactly besides its incredibly efficient gold to cost ratio.
The Killing Fields
The best gifts you can give yourself are high claim plots and kill effects. Four two claim should be enough with Retaliation! (ASoSilence), Breaking and Entering (LotR), Schemes of the Scholar (HtS), and Fear of Winter (BtW). Frey Hospitality (LotR) combines kill with what Lannister does best. Valar Morghulis (Core); don’t leave home without it.
Lannister mitigates characters with filthy amounts of mummer’s tricks. The wheelhouse is full of great effects starting Enemy Informer (Core). While not a control deck, this dusting of kneel should be able to lock down problem children until a more permanent solution presents itself.
I'm You Writ Small (Core) provides deadly and boosts strength by two. With one card you can kill a character and win the challenge. Terminal Schemes (LotR) picks off problem characters that you can’t get to with claim alone. Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS) is a must Lanni or Martell. To further reduce your adversaries challenge choices Wars Are Won with Quills (PotS) frees up the military challenge against hulking armies that aren’t knelt yet. Lady Genna (CbtC) helps push through challenges when you wouldn’t otherwise be able to.
Lannister was given a gift from the seven in the form of Misinformation (TWH). This event pushes through two claim challenges and can stop opponents from taking advantage of the agenda. Also combos well with Frey Hospitality (LotR). Remember, you are the aggressor, not the reactor. More characters in play or cards in hand mean more options. The goal is to reduce your opponent’s options to zero every turn.
Location Control
We are utilizing an alpha strike on turn one to end any chance of reprisal. Our games shouldn’t last longer than four turns. Nightmares (LoW)is a cardboard rock star blanking out those early Ghaston Grey (FtC) and Frozen Moat (BtW). Chella, Daughter of Cheyk (Core) is added to clean up during military so we can strip the location during intrigue. If the game runs late we have to add Fleeing to the Wall (Core). I’d rather have more dedicated location control but we’re emphasizing reducing the opponents chance to set up a heavy location presence.
Attachment Control
We are going to have to rely on kneeling to handle attachments on characters and our locations don’t mind if they get blanked. This is a dangerous proposition; seasons and other house attachments will go largely unmolested.
Card Draw
We want immediate gratification when it comes to card draw so we can power out our weenie army. Lannister rises to the occasion with Tommen Baratheon (SA), Doubting Septa (LotR), and Insidious Ways (Core). I rarely run Insidious Ways because playing one card to draw two isn’t cost effective. It would be better to already have the card you’re searching for already in hand. However, since we are leaning on small dudes to carry the day a surprise pump to push through a claim two is acceptable. To keep our gold cost down I like Bay of Ice. You have to take into consideration your plot initiative as well.
Avoiding the Wolf Woods
There are going to be bad match ups for every deck. It is up to you play into your strengths. The advantage of aggro is you are forcing your opponent to react to you offensively.
Targaryan Burn
This is bad. Like, let’s get married in a scorned lord’s castle bad. Play only as many characters as you need to win intrigue challenges. Come out swinging after they play Threat from the East. Counter with Fleeing to the Wall and you should get the momentum back into your direction. I inserted several pumps into this deck aware that repeatable burn is bad.
Other Aggro Decks
Aggro decks are banking on knocking you out in one punch with a massively high claim challenge. The crouching lion, hidden strength boosts should stop them as well as the versatile Wars Are Won With Quills; take away their best challenge and shove it down their throat for claim two. Misinformation should help mirror matches. If all else fails Valar and hope you have superior draw power.
Putting It All Together
I want to note that this isn’t the only way to build a Power Behind the Throne aggro deck. A more powerful version uses maesters, chains, and ravens. It added attachment control, card draw, and The Conclave. While I was looking at the cards however, I saw that you could get stuck with dead cards in your hand because I was hoping other combo cards would show up. While I think the maester build is stronger it doesn’t epitomize aggro as well as this one.
Lanni PBtT Aggro
Total Cards (60)
House (1)
House Lannister (Core) x1
Agenda (1)
The Power Behind the Throne (LotR) x1
Plot (7)
Breaking and Entering (LotR) x1
Retaliation! (ASoSilence) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
Schemes of the Scholar (HtS) x1
Frey Hospitality (LotR) x1
Fear of Winter (BtW) x1
Fleeing to the Wall (Core) x1
Character (33)
Cersei Lannister (LotR) x3
Carrion Bird (ASoS) x3
Tommen Baratheon (SA) x1
Lady Genna (CbtC) x1
Chella, Daughter of Cheyk (Core) x1
Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS) x1
House Payne Enforcer (MotA) x3
Enemy Informer (Core) x3
Arrogant Contender (LotR) x3
The Regent's Spy (TIoR) x3
Craster (WotN) x1
Ser Balon Swann (TWH) x1
Painted Dogs (IG) x3
Mountain Refugee (RoW) x3
Doubting Septa (LotR) x3
Location (12)
Lannisport Treasury (LotR) x3
Shadowblack Lane (Core) x1
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
Street of Steel (Core) x1
Sunset Sea (Core) x3
Bay of Ice (KotS) x2
River Row (QoD) x1
Attachment (0)
Event (15)
Misinformation (TWH) x3
Insidious Ways (Core) x3
Nightmares (LoW) x3
Wars Are Won with Quills (PotS) x2
I'm You Writ Small (Core) x3
Terminal Schemes (LotR) x1
Clear their hand, clear their characters.
- Jaqen likes this
18 Comments
I really really enjoyed this article. I gotta give credit to clu in that it has made me do something I rarely if ever do, actually want to play Lannister
I will freely admit my experience is far more limited than either of you, but I find that the first turn makes or breaks an aggro deck. How many turns do foresee a successful game with this deck lasting and is it long enough to justify weakening it during it most essential moment? When playing an aggro deck how often are you willing to sacrifice gold in the current turn for a card that won't see a payoff until 2 turns later?
The Regent's were were a weird pick for me but I wanted a two strength character to pump with the plus two for Terminal Schemes and Wars Are Won With Quills. If you look at the deck holistically there aren't many heavies to force through challenges besides Cersei, Littlefinger is great add if you think you can swing the cost. Arrogant Contender is a fatty that folks don't see coming. Card efficiency means paying less for higher strength. Contender wins challenges against strength four all day long.
Engaging, insightful and the content is right on the mark.
I like the splitting of different aggro-types into different terms. However, I think a small disclaimer could be included that also Hybrid (concentrating on two challenge types with high claim) decks form a decent portion of Aggro builds. Knight-based Aggro decks would be a classic example, with Stark and Bara knights focusing on power and military simultaneously, while Lanni Knights usually focus heavily on both military and intrigue.
A few notes on the deck:
- Painted dogs are brilliant in these kind of decks, good choice!
- Still looks to be a tad bit event-heavy? I would think that shaving off 2-3 more events (one Nightmares and one Insidious Ways) and replacing them with the left out Bronn's Hirelings would help optimize the setups a bit more?
- Spot location control is definately an issue here, and as such I can see the justification for the 3x Nightmares as well...
- Why only 1x Terminal Schemes? Afraid of not getting the threshold 4 strength?
- Why Lady Genna? (a bit counter-intuitive for the decks main focus) Instead of, say, Kevan Lanister?
- Seasons will probably be an issue yeah, but I think they're almost always an issue nowadays. 3x Carrion Birds are rarely enough to keep the season at bay for long, sadly. I have to say that I think the immunity on the ravens makes them a bit TOO untouchable, and twists the meta towards more Maester-heavy builds. Just don't like how they can't be affected by 'regular' cards.
Really, aggro decks are hoping to keep adding pressure every turn. The first turn is where you can get the most bang for your buck. Littlefinger at cost five doesn't make the cut however, if you add shadows like x3 Tyrion, x1 Alchemist Guild, x1 Qyburn, x1 Syrio, and x1 Varys the deck feels the same if not incredibly more brutal during Fear of Winter.
I wanted to present a solely over the top aggro. The generic term aggro applies pretty well to all three icons. It's usually the secondary challenge that puts the decks over the top. For instance, Stark should never run Siege of Riverrun because it's the claim two intrigues that lock up the game. Killing many dudes is great, a Valar evens the playing field. Killing many dudes AND lowering the number of cards in their hand? Game ender.
Could you explain your rationale as to why you avoid Bronn's Hireling because he's an Ally, but play the Arrogant Contender? That argument seems to advocate only running Allies at low cost slots, to minimize the loss. Agreed that Zeiler is good beef, but it would seem that he's just as vulnerable to Varys, Arys, Jorah & Dissension, but costs you two more gold in your acceleration? You're currently running 10 with Craster, and he's the only Cost-3 example you're running. For curiosity's sake I just did a search for 3-cost, 3+ STR, intrigue icons that were Lannister or Neutral and the only non-Allies you weren't running were Maester Creylen, Mance, the Mad Huntsman, and the Vendor of Venoms.
And since I mention the Huntsman came up, as general rule, how do you value stealth vs. STR? i.e.is a 3 STR character w/ stealth worth a 5 STRer that lacks it, when it comes to making the 4-STR threshold? He admittedly he lacks the ability to claim power, but on a first turn he's awesome, and even later on he's not inefficient (and not an Ally).
Also, in regards to the shadows build, what would consider dropping for the 7 cards you mention above (and presumably at least one Kingdom of Shadows).
I generally favor stealth over strength.
The shadows build drops Regents, Contenders, and Genna. Balon Swann is cool but can be dropped as well. I like this build a LOT but it didn't showcase the power of aggro based on turn one. It's an article for the future however, Lanni Power Behind the Throne will see considerable play this tournament season. If folks don't take into account it's draw backs it is going to lose them games.