I liked the idea of kpmccoy's thread about the presence/absence of myths from the board in local metas. However, my local meta is just starting to pick up, and we all have fairly incomplete card collections and experience refining decks in this game. So no boogeymen have had a chance to manifest themselves so far.

I am curious about what is happening in the local metas though. Whenever there is a somewhat large AGoT tournament, I enjoy looking over the posted standings and reports to see what everyone in the tourney was actually playing. So I thought I'd ask what everyone has been playing.

What deck is currently your favorite to play in the LCG? What are some of its key elements? Does it match up in any kind of interesting ways with decks that others in your meta are playing?

Personally, I'm planning on doing some major tuning of my decks in the near future. So far I mostly have been playing first passes of decks - I built the deck from abstract thinking and have gotten in some games and now need to start iterating the process of changing cards and playing more.

The deck I'll give as an example is a Greyjoy unopposed deck. It's not all that different from the basic list in Kings of the Sea. I tried to make the deck fairly aggressive - I run the Fury plot, Blockade, and then a bunch of 2 claim or extra challenges plots. My characters emphasize the attack with abilities like stealth and deadly. Also, I run a fair amount of saves (including Saltwives) with the hope of being to shake off the military challenges of my opponents since my characters are usually dedicated to the attack. I have found that the deck can get disrupted by utility characters since it's only forms of character control right now are Fishing Net and the military challenge. I'm thinking of adding some more character control (maybe Milk of the Poppy?) and possibly Valar. I hadn't run Valar so far because it seems out of place in the deck, but if I can put in enough cards that reward unopposed challenges it might make the 0 claim manageable.

So what have you been playing?

Valar out of place in a Greyjoy deck with saves? Are you kidding? Valar has always been one of Greyjoy's best weapons.

Well, I'm going to try it out. It's the zero claim in a deck that tends lose if it doesn't win in the first three or four turns that seems out of place.

Actually, GJ makes great use of the 0-claim by still managing to win unopposed challenges the round in which Valar is played. They still accumulate power, even if the opponent isn't losing power, cards or characters.

Yes, yes, I mentioned in my first post that about unopposed mitigating the 0 claim and also that I had many saves in the deck. I will try Valar out (though, as evidenced by my other recent thread, one thing that interests me right now is coming up with strategies that don't need Valar - in part because shuffling around plots between my different decks gets annoying). Any way, I just described my deck for the sake of getting the ball rolling. I was really more interested in hearing about what you guys have been playing with recently .

I've been playing around with Stark lately, since the boards seemed convinced that they are in the hunt with the other 6 houses. I tried Stark/Whitebook-fail. Stark/shadows(but not the agenda)-verdict is still out, but still not looking good. The last deck I had fun playing was my Bara/Summer rush deck, but with the rise of Greyjoy /Winter, it hasn't been near as effective. I haven't tried Martell since POTS hit, so maybe they'll be fun. They seem to have the right blend of control/rush to really fit my wheelhouse.

So what are the main problems with Stark as a house in your meta? I haven't played them much, but if I had to guess based on what I've seen: it seems like they like a really grind it out game - lots of kill effects and military strength, some Renown but not exactly good at grabbing power quickly. However, they are weak on Intrigue and don't have too much draw, so all of their grinding on an opponent's character base doesn't really get them ahead in the game (especially if the opponent gets out one or two Golden Tooth Mines or starts recurring burn effects with Lady Daenerys's Chambers and Street Waif. Is that it or are there other weaknesses?

Not enough draw and they can't come back from restes. That and a lack fo renown for what is essentially an aggressive House.

I bet they're getting a Blackfish back soon and that he will help.

Hey folks,

Longtime lurker, first time poster here (some of you may recognize my handle from Tzumainn's site). Not sure I have a current "favorite" deck, but I have a Stark/Winter, Greyjoy/Winter, and Martell I like to play. The Stark deck is about resource denial and claim, the Greyjoy is fun for the unopposed and location destruction I have in it, and Martell is one of my favorite houses and I just like the revenge theme of when I lose challenges with them. These are LCG decks.

I also like to play all houses in a legacy "free for all" format. In my local meta, all cards are legal and we build decks using whatever cards we happen to have in our collections. I play all houses and pretty much like them all fairly equally. If I absolutely had to choose, I'd say Stark/Martell are my favorites, since those are my favorite two houses from the books (Yes, I'm into the books; in fact, would never have gotten into this awesome card game if not for the superb source material).

Thanks for the question. Good to see more activity on these boards as of late.

ASoIaFfan

Stag Lord said:

Stark is my favorite deck and I rely on "stalwart". All I hear is Stark is the worst house, so it worries me that in next CP we will have Septon Cellador (Any phase: kneel Septon Cellador to shuffle any player's deck).

Stag Lord said:

That would be wonderful, but if this happen, then I guess it will be new card not reprint.

Well, for those that know me, they'll know that Lannister Kneel Control is the firstborn of my heart, but lately, I've been shaking it up and having a blast with trying to tweak a Greyjoy Winter/War Crest Rush deck. It's really interesting to shake things up and break out of my bubble. I can't say I've got it all perfected, but I think doing something so against my usual playstyle is really helping refine my understanding of the game.

Well, for those that know me, they'll know that Lannister Kneel Control is the firstborn of my heart, but lately, I've been shaking it up and having a blast with trying to tweak a Greyjoy Winter/War Crest Rush deck. It's really interesting to shake things up and break out of my bubble. I can't say I've got it all perfected, but I think doing something so against my usual playstyle is really helping refine my understanding of the game.

I think the jewel of my eye currently is either: (a) A baratheon controlled power gain deck, with Black Cells, Margaery Tyrell and Queen of Thorns triggering off the Kingswood Trails. Add in the usual mix of good renown characters, stealth weenies and vigilant and Rob's your Uncle! or (b) A greyjoy shadow deck with city plots and utility milling to trigger Fishmonger's Square, Kraken tattoo and the King's Landing Balon. Oh, and lots of saves of course.

The decks I'm currently toying with is a couple of Shadow builds specifically because of all the people who say Shadows has no downside and implying that simply including certain types of shadows cards mixed with specific supporting cards makes a very strong deck... I'm not seeing it. The balancing that has to happen to keep it fast enough not to get slaughtered, with enough control to slow my opponent down, and essentially forcing my opponent to play into my hands is very interesting from a strategic and tactical angle, but extremely hard to do. The decks are an exercise in mental acuity, which I enjoy... but my current favorite deck is actually a Martell deck I've been toying with which seeks to leverage some of Martell's strange card effects that make a normal decks strengths its weaknesses instead. Definitely more Shagga than Jaime, as if that should surprise anyone. It is in continual development as I haven't been able to really play a lot with it to iron out any wrinkles.

Cool, it's nice to hear about what all people are playing.

To all the people with Greyjoy Winter decks: do you use Winter just for Wintertime Marauders disruption (which is pretty powerful) or is there something more? Does the gold denial of the White Raven help disrupt your opponents or is that just incidental?

WWDrakey, that Baratheon deck sounds pretty nice. So your Shadows cards are Black Cells, Kingswood Trail, and Queen of Thorns or are there more? Do the people you usually play against typically have much Shadows of their own for you to take advantage of?

My curent favorite is my Greyjoy/Winter deck with deck discards. It may not be the best deck, since eliminating someone's draw doesn't win you the game and I have a couple holes, but it sure is fun. Hell I even run the warf rats in it.

After that I like Lanni/Shadows, I like the surprise element of shadows.

Finally I just started messing around with Martell/White Book. Its still under construction, but it;s been fun.

As you can see I'm more Shagga with my play style

My current favorite deck is a Targaryen intrigue heavy deck focusing on the Hills from the King's Landing Cycle. Plots include Building Season and Valar Moghulis. Most fun deck ever.

I have a Martell/Reinforcements deck that I enjoy playing. I know I know "Reinforcements!". Yes reinforcements. The lose and spend 1 gold to play a reinforcement card has good synergy with Martell's overall "Lose to Win" Theme.

I love seeing the expression on my opponent's face when they win a challenge only to see me become more powerful then before they executed the challenge.

sweet.

goshdarnstud said:

Please forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is a "Shagga" play style?

There are three main trypes of players that were identified by the designer years ago -

Ned: Like Eddard they are unwavering in their loyalty, unbendable in their desire to play decks that accurately reflect Martin's scenes, allegiances, and their favorite characters. The fact their win/loss ratio tends to mimic Eddard's is hopefully not lost on anyone. They are the best player type to be because they hold the closest to the source material and that is what makes this game so fun.

Shagga: Big powerful combos, they want the bright and shiny and don't care so much if they lose regularly as long as they get off that killer combo, or some other rather esoteric occurrence that their deck is based around. They tend to build and play decks that when running smoothly just take off or win from no where, but when performing at less than 100% capacity leave a lot to be desired. Shagga are the best player type to be because it isn't about winning or losing it is about having fun.

Jaime: Out for the glory of it all. Ruthless playing whatever cards they need to from whatever house that gives them the biggest advantage. Constantly doing a cost-benefit analysis of the cards to see if there is a way to make their deck more efficient, more dominant. They are the best player type because winning is much more fun than losing.

Thanks, Dormouse. Not only did you answer my question completely, but you added additional information about the other identified "player types". I'd never heard these descriptions before, so much appreciated.

I guess I'd be a cross between Ned and Jaime based on your definitions. I love sticking close to the source material, but I also love making my decks as efficient as possible. Winning is fun for me, but not my driving focus in playing the game.

Cheers to you and honor to your house, good Ser.

ASoIaFfan

dormouse said:

I agree. To be sure, there are several very strong shadows cards, such as shadow Tyrion, Venomous Blades, and Syrio, that at times feel unbalanced. This, however, doesn't mean that the shadows mechanic is unbalanced or that there's no downside. (~If having a few strong cards that promote synergy in a deck makes the mechanic itself unbalanced, then every Lanni deck is inherently unbalanced.) In the end though, shadows-heavy decklists tend to be difficult to build, fine-tune, and play. As someone previously pointed out, this is because the player has to think ahead several rounds, especially when playing with many s1+ gold costs, as those cards can be played only after each marshalling phase, meaning only one s1+ card is played before challenges (at least in most cases).

One example of a drawback is that I found with my Black Friday deck, which ran ~18 shadows cards, that I often had difficulty playing more than 1 character a round that could participate in challenges. Because of the heavy amount of burn in my Targ deck and superior draw mechanic, the deck generally performed well. Still, the early game was very difficult and, even after I had board control, winning was slow, often allowing my opponents to squeak out a few extra power (and in a couple cases putting them close enough to win even though I largely controlled the board).

So to answer the question in the post, I'd say that my current "favorite" deck is a Martell (shadows agenda) build. Like dormouse, I've found that leveraging Martell's 'interesting' effects (especially its events/attachments) gives me more time to set up the shadows mechanics that I rely on for consistent, ongoing control. One lesson I took away from my Targ Black Friday deck is that it may be best to exclude all shadows characters from my shadows deck (or possibly all but 2-3), saving the shadows-slots for locations/attachments instead. This gives me more flexibility in that if I draw two characters, I know that I can marshall them both in preparation for the upcoming challenges phase. This, of course, is a HUGE and noticeable drawback in a shadows deck, as I am forced to give up many worthy shadows-traited characters just to make sure that I can actually play what I draw and have it make an immediate difference.

@schrecklich: As shadow cards I think I currently have: Kingswood Trail (3x), Black Cells (2x), Syrio Forel (2x?), Queen of Thorns (2x?) and also been toying with adding King's Landing for draw. The problem here is similar to the one dormouse and twn2d were talking about, i.e. not having too many shadows to keep the pace of the deck. That's why I only have two characters, one of which is an s0. Haven't so far noted any need for using opponents shadow cards as triggers, although when such options are given I try to maximize the Queen of Thorns power gain by spreading out my own out-of-shadows plays.

The primary idea here is that the Kingswood Trails generate quite a steady stream of cards coming out of shadows, for Black Cells, Queen of Thorns and Margaery Tyrell to trigger off. Syrio also helps in this regard, in addition to providing me with more stealth for making sure I win challenges (in addition to the usual carrion birds, bastards etc.). A good example of the "slowness" of shadow decks can also be seen in this one, as I can only get the proper control cycle running on turn 2 the earliest. Although, the Baratheon epic battle can help, since by then you can have more of the control cycle built up (more chances to bring out cards from shadows, and the draw helps!). I think this deck might classify me as a Shagga also... =)

I have to agree with the balancing game with shadows decks, and thus the strength of the whole mechanic. Too large amounts of shadows cards, especially characters, bogs down the deck too much. So shadows are useful, but must be moderated, and thus the mechanic seems quite well balanced. This was especially true with the idea of GJ shadow milling... the deck just became too slow to really ever get into gear if I started adding more shadow characters.

@twn2d and dormouse: Which Martell effects do you refer to, when talking about "interesting"? I'm guessing Venomous Blade is a must in such decks at least, but what else? ...as a Shagga I couldn't help building a Martell deck (partially) around giving Arianne military icons using surprise events (Rumours of War) and attachments (Rusty Sword), to drive home claim 3 challenges in addition to making them pay the claim for their own military challenges...

schrecklich said:

Really, winter was a little bit of an incidental to me. The Wintertime Maruaders were in for the war crest which helps power Assertion of Might, and with Randyll Tarly and the Power of Arms, gives my overwhelming strength to play Make an Example. With the Marauders and Support of Harlaw in (and needing some draw) it only seemed natural to follow up with white Ravens to turn the Marauders on and power Samwell Tarly. Of course, at that point, the Agenda also become something of a no brainer to help combat the rather light draw capabilities of Greyjoy. So really, it was a gradual "Oh, this makes sense over here" kind of logical progression rather than an obvious thought when I sat down to design the deck.

Now the gold denial is a trickier issue. I'm sure there have been games where the denial did hurt my opponent somewhat, but more often than not, I find it to be really hampering my own play. 1 less gold with some of those lower gold, but two claim plots can really hurt. So lately, I've been trying to find ways to really refine my resource curve.

WWDrakey said:

Well, I guess I can tell you that I love Rumors of War without giving too much away. Not only is it great in more offensive decks (or with cards like Arianne), it usually allows you to win the challenge you need to maintain good board position (+5 STR when Power of Arms is out and a military icon is very nice) if playing control. In both cases, it acts as a deck accelerator by making cheap/small characters very strong for one turn. In fact, I think this card tends to be better in control builds than aggro builds because in aggro it's just usually more of the same, but in control it allows you to "play like an aggro deck" for a challenge or even a phase. (Winning a two-claim military challenge is often the difference between winning and losing the game when playing a control deck.)

Other than Rumors, the usual Martell stuff (Blade, Red Vengeance, etc.) is pretty good at establishing control early on. The key problem is maintaining control after the immediate effect of the event. Striking a balance between fast, free cards (like events) and slower, more expensive cards that have less powerful but repeatable, sustainable effects is the goal.