I would have posted these in the “deck construction” forum, but I saw that a few people asked about deckbuilds and thought they might serve as a good way to prompt some discussion about the current (real or perceived) strengths and weaknesses of the houses. Feel free to add to this list or comment on it.

As a tangential note, I thought I would mention that I am increasingly excited about the prospects for competitive LCG play. Though there have been few regional tournaments and other historically large annual events have had low turnouts, as Ktom mentioned in another thread, these seem to be products of (a) attrition of veteran players that have left over the past year and (b) low enthusiasm for the relatively small LCG card pool. Yet it seems to me that there are a lot of new players coming to the game that will likely be interested in competitive play but don’t know where to look; the LCG card pool is also filling out nicely. Rather than viewing the regional season as a barometer for interest in AGOT competitive play, I am optimistic that GenCon will act as a springboard for competitive play in upcoming months. The Greyjoy, and possibly Martell, expansion should also generate more interest and pull back a few veteran players.

Joust deck ideas: (Feel free to add your own!)

Martell Summer Build [agro deck with strong elements of control]
This is a fun deck to play—the most fun of any LCG decks I’ve built. When I’m not gold deprived, it can wreck my opponent. The cards devoted to control in this deck are few, but recursion makes them potent and the various combos have great synergy.

Notes

• Support of the Kingdom for extra gold/location control
• Many non-uniques, Retreat and Regroup, Open Market for combo recursion (or else deter the opponent from winning challenges)…discard non-uniques, which Martell has a lot of, to get back Game of Cyvass or War Scorpion, events, etc.
• Bringers of Law and Dornish Chariot (pretty strong against stark or Lanni tricks, and attachments help against Bear Island)

Comments

• This deck comes out fast but is vulnerable to Blockade and other gold-inhibiting cards because of the lack of in-house gold. I suspect this will change if FFG releases a Martell expansion.
• Martell has many strong, low-cost, non-unique characters that perform well early game and fuel the mechanics of the deck, but the house has few powerful characters for late game. A few strong unique characters over the next few chapter packs (Red Viper, Arianne, etc.) would probably fill in this hole.

Targ “Changing Seasons” deck [combo control through attachment-based character removal]
Basic idea is to control and change the seasons every marshalling to kill several characters per turn with Demon’s Dance. Most people will read this and, disregarding the combo as overly card intensive, dismiss this deckbuild. Nevertheless, I’ve had success against what I think are competitive LCG decks--in most games I get the combo going on turn 1-2. Unfortunately, the lack of in-house gold makes the deck slow a bit once it jumps out of the gates (counter-intuitive, I know, but playing 3-4 attachments a turn is costly), and it has some serious weaknesses against Baratheon.

Notes

• 1x each black and white ravens, 3x Demon’s Dance, 3x Red Warlock, 1x Flame-Kissed, and Dany’s Chambers for lots of attachment-based (non-saveable) character removal
• Xaro’s Home and Samwell for amazing card draw (2 cards with Sam every time I change the season)
• Win with lots of low-cost, expendable characters—basically flooding the board after killing opponent’s characters

Comments

• Baratheon wrecks this deck on turn 1 because of the Bara Fury plot (it’s hard to recover from losing cards like Viserys or Khal Drogo) and proceeds to win on power challenges, given the relative lack of low-cost Targ characters that have power icons.
• I admittedly haven't played this much against Stark, but I imagine with the many armies that Stark has, "No Attachments" could become an issue. I'm not sure if Den of Wolves is an efficient solution (that removes "no attachment" immunity, right?), or if at this point it's just one more nail in the coffin and reason why the deck won't move past casual play.
• This deck runs every 1-cost Targ character in LCG and almost every 2-cost Targ character, and many of these are mediocre cards that would not normally see play. A few new low-cost Targ characters would go a long way towards making this deck more competitive, especially if they were strong on their own—for example, hatchlings (which could also power Dragon Attack) or an attachment cost-reducer. More in-house gold would be good too (NOT cost-reducers, unless they could be used to reduce the costs of neutral attachments).

Staple Lannister [agro with elements of control]
This is the deck that everyone has seen. Nevertheless, it’s a strong build, assuming you can hold back Stark. I think it’s strengthened with winter and a little bit of location discard, but that means no running the Carrion Bird-trait manipulation combo to discard characters with renown. I personally find this deck bland to play with and against, but I admit it’s pretty strong.

Notes (for new players or those wondering what’s in this)

• 32-34 characters, including 6 that kneel the opponent’s characters when they enter play for selective control of problematic characters
• Lots of draw, including Golden Tooth Mines and events that draw when you win a challenge (I think these six draw sources are enough, but if you’re worried you can play some of the characters that draw when you win)
• Lots of gold, including 7 characters (counting Tywin)

Comments

• The idea is to flood the board with characters every turn, force the opponent’s resets early, and attack the opponent’s hand. Unless you’re playing against Lanni, you’ll easily draw more than your opponent and likely have a lot more gold. Each character isn’t extremely effective, but that doesn’t matter because your characters will outnumber the opponent’s and you can kneel anything that’s a real problem. If you want to add a few attachments to beef up characters and provide some protection against Bear Island, Lanni has some good options as well.

Twn2dn said:

Do you find you have enough in house charcaters? (believe it or not i'm not asking becuase of MWnK) When i was running a martell deck i never felt like it had enough in house charcaters (i.e. characters that fit the themes) i had one or two that worked well together but mostly disjointed stuff after that. Also, i found a lack fo power icons to be a big big problem.

Twn2dn said:

I had a lanni deck like this that i was trying to cultativate for Melee (which makes the set-up easier) i foudn that after i killed or knelt the worrisome charcater each turn i couldn't really do anything to win the game. With 3x lion's gate and 3x summer tax it was more of a delay the game deck then anything else. How have you handled this issue, does targ's in house renown (all what, 2 of it?) help?

Twn2dn said:

again i don't see the ability to close out a game, and is probably Lanni's biggest weakness right now in my mind. I find that lanni takes forever and if it misses a kneel at the right time or if the opponent can hang with it in charcater base (and not rely on resets) it runs into problems. Whats its average plot win by? do you have a mechinic for clsoing out the game? Also, how badly does fleeing hurt this deck?

I'll add bara and i'll do my 3 non-MWnK decks

Bara "Winter"

This started off because i wanted to use The Wall, non kneeling and their renown....drool. then Stalker shadow was added. I've since trimed the deck and focused more on a solid bara build with winter only when i draw into a war horn or Shadow Stalker. I have to be careful when i do have shadow stalker out or else he might get seductive promised away (4 gold for a character w/out an POW icon in winter can be very expensive). I add/remove the agenda depending on my mood. this is becoming a melee deck more and more every day though...

Bara "Summer"

Works much better with the Agenda, but i'm a little fearful of a winter deck (one card a turn hurts...). Gobs of renown and mel. Little bit of vigiliant in case of lanni. Solid, can be unreliable with a slow flop or two resets against.

Bara "Vigiliant"

My favorite build outside of MWnK (i.e. the one i run the most or would run w/ an errata to MWnK), has the staying power and speed i like in my decks. Vigiliant bannermen help aginst Bear island, icy ctapault, Flame kissed, and castellan of the rock. i toyed w/ vigilant stag, but without a 2 influence provider they never really got going. Comppelled by the stag is great in this deck as i can control intrigue and power challenges and have another way to stand my vigiliant guys.