??? Greyjoy

By King of the Saltwives, in 4. AGoT Deck Construction

So in the midst of the whole Thrones revival here in KY I've run into a bit of a pickle, and thought I'd ask you guys here for some ideas. Everyone else in the meta has a house that was in the core set (those that played martell had played Lanni before they switched so they just went back to Lanni) except for me, the lone Greyjoy player. We are all eager to play more often, which is why I'm finding it hard to bide my time until July. I've gone over the list of solutions in my head. I have no patience, so cross that off the list. I don't want to use standard cards because everyone else in the meta in using LCG only, and because I am missing assorted ITE and 5KE cards that would aid in the building of a deck of certain themes. I don't want to use the Treaty With The Isles, so thats out as well. So, I'm left with the option of being creative with the Chapter Packs and the Core, to build myself a GJ deck, but I find i keep hitting a wall when i try to deckbuild. I really like the idea of a winter themed deck. Another problem I have is that I don't have many of the cards memorized yet, as Im getting acclimated to everything LCG.I guess what Im really asking for is to bounce some ideas around. In the end, worst case scenario, I'll throw something together and just go with it until Kings of the Sea. Thanks in advance.

Biggest problem, of course, is resources. Not having an in-House fiefdom or 0-cost gold location starts to get really bad.

That said, I have actually had some real success with Greyjoy in the LCG with neutrals and a mix of Crossroads and some other 0-cost gold location that I have to pay 2 for. The best was a Winter deck that had a lot of fun with Wintertime Marauders (3-cost, 3-STR Ironborn with Mil/Pow and a Response that discards any non-unique card after you win a challenge with it). You can get some good location control in there with Horn of Winter and Fleeing to the Wall if you want, too.

Now, one word of caution I will throw out here is that this (surprisingly good) Greyjoy Winter deck was pre-Scattered Armies, Reinforcement events and Men With No King. Men With No King is a Limited Response that says after a Reinforcement event is played, pay 2 gold to take control of a card that does not have its controller's House affiliation. Could be a real problem for a Greyjoy deck that runs a lot of neutrals and OOH gold locations. Of course, Wintertime Marauders totally takes them out - but that could be a "who gets their thing going first" situation. Of course, GJ also has about the only viable cancel in the LCG, but you get the point, right?

Still, take a look at WIntertime Marauders, consider the risks of running that many neutrals - especially income - in a meta that has MWnK available, and go for it. GJ is actually a pretty good LCG House and is going to be insane come July.

I really appreciate the response ktom. I think i might as well try it, given that the meta is still building up its lcg cardpool and by the time people around here start running MWnK regularly, I should have many more cards to work with. I'll let you know in the next couple of days how it goes. Although my main play test buddy Guardian, just built a Bara Summer deck so it would be a real battle of the seasons, but we do have a stark we built for one of the new guys so thatll do. Thanks again my man.

Hint on the "Battle of Seasons" thing: go second. The person who Marshals last in a Summer-vs-Winter game has the most control over the season.

ktom is right. Both with the Winter build and going second in a Seasons war.

My Winter build uses Wintertime Mauraders, Intimidate, Winter Armada, Fishing Net, Ice Fisherman, Support of the Kingdom and Horn of Winter. As great as these are, I think the card that powers this deck the most is the three Heralds which let me bring out a maurader with a much greater frequency than I would otherwise be able to manage. These six cards in concert with the White Raven pretty much means my opponent is usually far more gold starved than I am and hard pressed to stop my challenges.

Grab a nice set of Intrigue icons to match and you can start peeling away cards in your opponents hand as well as discarding them from play and killing them... which is why I tend to target my opponents draw and gold with the Mauraders and anything with an intriuge icon. My intimidate is usually enough to push through any military or power challenges.

We'll both be in a much better place when we have in house gold and reducers and I yearn to put the Kraken Tattoo on some new Greyjoy uniques.

As to the seasons bit, your opponent go first makes it Summer, you get the gold, make it Winter on your turn, and now your opponent has to deal with being out the gld for making it Summer last turn, plus the Winter Penalty this turn.

Thank you for the little tibit as far as battling the seasons guys, and dormouse, your input is greatly appreciated as well. I'm definately gonna take all of your suggestions into consideration as I set off into deckbuilding land. So its decided. Winter here i come.

beware of The Raven's Song. it turns seasons off for a turn. I use it in my non seasons (or non seasons reliant) decks to stall seasons for a turn.

Sounds like all three of us are eagerly awaiting July! Greyjoy was my first House when I started the game back in the Sea of Storms days. (Totally agree about Kraken Tattoo, BTW. If for no other reason than that Saltwife, with some in-House influence, will rock out loud. With so little attachment control in LCG, I'm loving it!)

I haven't played too much with Thuggish Tactics yet, but it seems like a piece to Intimidate that has been missing. A way to get Intimidate onto a character after defenders have been committed! Combine it with Winter Armada and things could get really interesting.

Think they'll reprint Hooked Trident in the Kings of the Sea Expansion? (I debated using a ~ there....)

Honestly I don't mind it not being Winter with this deck, it is only a single turn... it is it being Summer that bugs me.

I can't imagine them reprinting Hooked Trident. ~I don't think Nate likes Greyjoy enough to give them something that badass.

Lol yeah greyjoy has been my one and only house since i started, lol. It wouldnt feel right any other way.

And it would be amazing if they reprinted hooked trident. I think we should start a petition. lol. We'd be the only three to sign. maybe Ironborn.

See if they will let you run the greyjoy equivilents of the core set resources.

If you wanted to add to the card pool some other suggestions:

1. Proxy the Balon they revealed.

2. 5KE Asha, Risen from the Sea, and High Tide. (I think High Tide would help out everyone).

3. Use the shadows agenda to use out of house shadow cards to boost your card pool.

Just some suggestions... I think the resources and some more uniques are what's hampering them.

Lol you must have read my mind celt...i asked the guys if i could proxy the equivalents and there was no issues. I hadnt even thought of running the shadow agenda...now theres a thought. lol. I really want to do something weird I think. Thats always my problem.

Other than Samwell, what to you use for card advantage in this deck? Or is the targetting card removal the balancing factor for the lack of Card Draw? Maybe Tommen out of House? I don't know.