My Targ decklist is up on Tzumainn's site here http://tzumainn.com/agot/decks/deck.php?current_deck_id=17066, and I've also posted it below. A more detailed explanation of why I chose these cards and how the deck plays (including a brief write up of my semifinal and final rounds) is on the way in a longer report that the NYC guys are coordinating. (If anything is left out in that report, I'll post follow-up explanations here.)

Thanks again NYC guys!

Targaryen (No Agenda)

Plots (7) avg income: 2.4
City of Soldiers x1 The Battle of Blackwater Bay F120
City of Spiders x1 Tales from the Red Keep F80
City of Sin x1 A Time of Trials F40
City of Lies x1 City of Secrets F19
Blockade x1 Core Set L193
Valar Morghulis x1 Core Set S201
Fury of the Dragon x1 Ancient Enemies F29

Characters (28) avg cost: 1 (excluding costs to put cards in shadows)
Shadowcat x3 Kings of the Sea F43
King's Landing Assassin x3 Secrets and Spies F90
Shadow Prophet x2 Secrets and Spies F91
Varys x1 Secrets and Spies F97
Syrio Forel x2 Tales from the Red Keep F77
Street Waif x3 A Time of Trials F32
Refugee of the Plains x3 Refugees of War F90
Vale Refugee x2 Refugees of War F97
Carrion Bird x3 The Winds of Winter F35
Khal Drogo x1 Core Set T107
Viserys Targaryen x1 Core Set T108
Brown Ben Plumm x1 Core Set T118
The Titan's Bastard x1 Core Set T120
Dragon Thief x2 Ancient Enemies F37

Locations (21) avg cost: 1 (excluding cost to put cards in shadows)
Kingdom of Shadows x3 Kings of the Sea F32
Shivering Sea x2 Kings of the Sea F42
King's Landing x3 Secrets and Spies F99
The Dragonpit x3 Tales from the Red Keep F74
Twilight Market x2 A Time of Trials F39
Eastern Fiefdoms x2 Core Set T127
Khal Drogo's Tent x1 Core Set T130
Temple of the Graces x2 Core Set T131
Summer Sea x3 Core Set T134

Attachments (6) avg cost: 1.5 (excluding cost to put cards in shadows)
Dragon Skull x3 City of Secrets F13
Flame-Kissed x3 Core Set T103

Events (5)
Aegon's Legacy x2 Secrets and Spies F93
Forever Burning x3 Core Set T174

Glad to see a Targ deck going through the finals...

Congrats man...And nice build, really. I'd never thought a targ-shadow build could work that way...It seems fine tuned and well balanced...I'll give it a try, if you don't care...It'd help.

Is there anything you'd pull out? Or maybe some "i wish I had it" cards?

That's a nice build, thank you for posting it. I'm happy to see a Targ deck doing so well, because I think Targ has everything to win, but it requires really fine deckbuilding and playing skills to do it.

I've tried a Targ Shadow before, but I found it a little too expensive, especially when facing a Winter deck.

I'm surprised to see that you're playing neither To Be a Dragon nor The Red Keep.

I understand for To Be a Dragon because you have only 12 Targ characters that could be returned from dead pile.

However, I don't understand well why you are not running The Red Keep.
- you may need the 3 influences for Flamme-kissed or Dragon Thief
- it is a Shadow card that would feet nicely in your Shadow theme
- it is a King's Landing location, which would help you draw with King's Landing

By the way, this is another astonishment: you have only 6 King's Landing locations, and 2 of them are duplicates of King's Landing. When facing Barator Lanni, have you consistently be able to use King's Landing draw?

You are also not running many attachment control (only 2 Dragon Thieves), but most of your burn effects will be useless on characters with attachment. In fact, only Dragon Skull would work for them. Hasn't that be an issue? Especially facing things like Alannys Greyjoy or Wintertime Marauders with Support of Harlaw?
And about Marauders, you're only counting on your 3 Carrion Birds to deal with Winter. Is this really enough?

I'm eager to read your report and explanations, this would certainly answer some of my questions.

My choice for the French nationals was completely different, and our respective results at a major event (I finished 7th out of 29) seem to tell that your choice was better. But maybe it is more related to the meta (or to our respective skills ) .
Anyway, I'll try to post my deck on these boards and on Tzumainn's during the week.

I was surprised about the Red Keep as well. When twn2dn and i were discussing the Kl draw engine, i couldn't beleive he was running only 3 KL lcations, and that the draw was working relaibly. I scrapped Kl back in October when I was constantly seeing more KL locations than I was running - and for four gold - it wasn't worth it.

I'm rethinking this approach now based on Black Friday, specifci to House and deck build. He was hitting the cap just about every turn.

As I said elsewhere - every innovative, orgiginal and powerful deck concept, twn2dn.

Great questions Comm. To avoid cannibalizing the tourney report that is en route, I'll keep my responses brief and hit on only a couple of your points. (I'll follow up more in depth with whatever doesn't make the report's final cut.)

I playtested the cards you mentioned before finalizing this decklist, and though in theory the suggestions you make should work out well, in practice those cards didn't actually add much/help the deck win more often. Also, Targ's burn does not need to kill every character to be effective...it only needs to kill enough so that high-claim plots have a much stronger, longer-lasting effect than they normally would. After all, if you can't burn characters and win military challenges, then the only difference between your deck and one that wins military challenges is that you get to pick which character dies. (Though this is a nice benefit, it isn't worth the card-intensive investment.)

With regard to Winter, DC-meta playtesting showed that if GJ wants to get out Winter, it gets Winter out; then, if the only way to win is to "get rid of winter," you've already lost. Though it isn't ideal, my personal experiences suggested that it's better just to play around winter by drawing a ton of cards and removing key components of the GJ deck, such as Maester Wendamyr.

In the end, you'll probably get the clearest idea of how this deck feels by building and playing with it a bit. I realize it isn't the most impressive looking decklist...there really aren't any great characters like Robert or Wintertime Marauders that make you feel like you're owning the opponent. Still, I think there's great synergy among the cards...much more so than most decks that rely on a few "champion" characters to win.

Twn2dn said:

this here is the reason i couldn't come to terms with playing that targ deck myself at black friday; i just need powerful dudes, they make me feel more comfortable. the deck also seemed too location heavy, haha. there was a point earlier that week, though -- maybe sunday or monday -- at which point dan, corey, and i each were convinced we were playing that targ... then i played against steve, our DC meta n00b in training, and he trounced the deck with a greyjoy/winter that wasn't even packing marauders (!), thus causing me to lose all confidence in its consistency. at the same time, i came to my senses and realized if i cared about greyjoy that much, i could just add some summer ravens and the raven plot to my plot deck -- and then proceeded to play against winter/greyjoy/marauders not once during BF.

and to quote rings, you're just not playing A Game of thrones without the unique characters

finitesquarewell said:

Well, the version that Steve "trounced" was a little different, as I made several changes (8 or so cards) the night before the tournament I'm not saying this deck couldn't be trounced, but I think the changes may have helped a lot with consistency.

Twn2dn said:

to that i will agree, the third king's landing in particular, probably

@Erick - You not playing GJ/Winter is pretty predictable after making those changes. Stuff like that happens to me all the time after I tweak decks.

Dan, I love your list. But that's a good point about Targ's lack of power characters. I feel like sometimes I win with Targ with some of the cheapest, least impressive characters ever assembled. It's kind of where they are right now as a house. If the deck is working properly, you don't need any power characters.

I still like Drogon, though. He's saved my bacon quite often.

Congrats on a great deck and an excellent day of playing it.

longclaw said:

Thanks! Yeah, the lack of major threats like Tyrion is somewhat disappointing as a Targ player. (Actually, in the first version of this deck, I considered playing Shadow Tyrion, but that version proved to be too expensive.) Drogon is definitely good too. Unfortunately, he's pretty gold intensive so he doesn't tend to make a lot of my decks...these DC meta players like to blockade first turn if they have have a reason to.

An explanation of my decklist is up on the FFG news site (linked as a PDF at the end).

In addition to what's covered there, I thought I would add the following that didn't make the cut (for reasons of length, I think):

"With the introduction of shadows, Targ burn received a two-fold boost: New shadows-based burn made it easier to kill opponent's characters, and a neutral source of drawKing's Landingprovided a means to keep up with house Lannister, which has for the most part dominated the competitive scene. As others who have experimented with heavy shadows builds know, however, shadows cards (especially burn) can be very strong in the late game but tend to be very gold intensive and slow early on. So the main challenge became How do I make a Targ burn deck that is fast enough to compete in the early game?

"The first iteration of my Targ deck incorporated the strengths of shadows without addressing its weaknesses (the gold curve). It ran the agenda, and for added draw I ran King's Landing and Gold Cloaks, which worked well with Targ's many mercenary characters. For extra character removal, I also ran two copies of Venomous Blade, which will be an amazingly efficient form of removal once the Martell expansion hits store shelves. In long games, this deck performed well in friendly games with local Washington, DC, players; in shorter games, I often felt helpless."

Targ is good again. Yay! Targ burn is good again, even better!

I shall wait to get flogged.

Nah, I'm glad to see good Targ burn back. Doesn't seem like the same game when Houses aren't good at what they do best.