I’m pretty sure I’ll play something other than this at the NYC regionals in a few weeks, so I thought I’d go ahead and write out the deck list I used for the DC-meta regionals. I liked this deck, but I'm more of a control player and get tired of aggro decks easily.

DECK
Targ—Free Folk (wildling stealth) AND Last Giants (wildling +1 STR)

Characters (35)
3xDragon Thief
3xRefugee of the Plains
2xSer Jorah Mormont
3xCarrion Bird
1xViserys Targaryen
1xKhal Drogo (Core)
1xSyrio Forel
3xMaegi Crone
1xVarys
1xCraster
2xMance Rayder
1xOrell the Eagle
1xBrown Ben Plumm
1xWhite Hatchling
1xGreen Hatchling
1xThe Titan's Bastard
1xVarmyr Sixskins
3xCrow Killers
2xGilly
3xVale Refugee

Locations (16)
3xSummer Sea
2xKhal Drogo's Tent
2xFlaming-Pitch Tower
2xTemple of the Graces
1xStreet of Steel
2xThe Red Keep
3xShivering Sea
1xEastern Fiefdoms

Events (6)
3xForever Burning
3xThe Hatchling's Feast

Attachments (4)
3xFlame-Kissed
1xAegon's Blade

Plots
Fear of Winter (Always the first-round plot)
Blockade (Usually the second-round plot)
The Winds of Winter (Usually the third-round plot)
Threat from the North
Rule by Decree
Fury of the Dragon
Valar Morghulis

DECK CONCEPT

This deck is designed to beat Lanni without sacrificing too much in other match ups. Unlike most of my other Targ and Martell deck lists, it is not a control deck; it is heavy aggro and built for speed. I found in playtesting that I typically beat Lanni (especially Lanni shadows) with heavy aggro when I put enough pressure on them in the first 3-4 rounds so that their city plots and extra draw was too slow to translate into board dominance. This typically meant a round-1 Fear of Winter, followed by a round-2 Blockade or claim-2 plot, depending on how much gold they already had in play and if I thought they would play City of Lies.

The deck concept was inspired by a certain Greyjoy deck that I think is particularly effective. That deck maximized the number of low-cost characters to take advantage of GJ pumps (LIV) and Scouting Vessel. Since Targ doesn’t have LIV or Scouting Vessels, I turned to low-cost characters that would nevertheless win challenges. The solution was cheap, large, stealthy wildlings. And to ensure that I could maintain board control, I threw in some added burn (Flaming-Pitch Tower).

I think wildlings are a natural fit in Targ. Targ has some of the best toolbox characters but lacks major threats. Given this shortcoming, Targ arguably benefits the most from the inclusion of wildlings. In addition, Targ’s burn is most effective if one can reliably win military challenges (preferably with 2-claim plots), and wildlings tend to be strong in the military icon to help with that.

The stealth agenda is a no-brainer. The +1 STR agenda is a harder choice. I ultimately chose to include the second agenda because 4 STR seems to be the threshold for a beefy character, whereas 3 STR is pretty average. During games, this means that I can attack with one character and be pretty sure that my opponent has to block with two characters to win on defense. It also means that I can easily defend against opponent’s challenges and win, and 4 STR allows me to trigger Flaming-Pitch Tower after attacking with only one character (a VERY nice benefit). There are a few other considerations, such as Gilly sticking around when Threat from the North is in play, but most of these are pretty situational (though still factors in my final cost-benefit analysis).

LAST-MINUTE CHANGES & FINDINGS

The Crow Killers were a last-minute addition, and they were spectacular. Once Flaming-Pitch tower hits, nobody wants to lose an unopposed challenge against Crow Killers just to ensure that I have to discard them. Until then, I can choose to attack when I know my opponent will block (for example, I have a 2-claim plot out) or use them as blockers or to win dominance.

I also swapped out Street Waifs at the last minute for vale refugees, which were great setup cards and nice claim fodder. Street Waifs were just too slow in the final version of this deck. Considering the amount of aggro/removal I had, a 1-STR icon actually turned out to be quite threatening on its own too.

Location discard is noticeably absent from this deck list. I really should have squeezed in at least 2x climbing spikes, but I just couldn’t get them into the last version. The deck is already 61 cards…something I didn’t realize until I was counting out the cards before the tournament. If I were to take this to NYC, I would try to fit in 2x climbing spikes, and possibly 1x Meerenese Brothel, which is a great attachment-control card.

Great write-up, Twn2dn. I especially liked how you went into detail about what factors went into your decision-making about what cards to include or leave out. I think taking out "Street Waif" at the last minute and adding in the "Vale Refugees" was a good last-minute change for this deck.

I agree with your idea to add some location control into the deck, especially with the Wildling agendas. Those spikes would be good.

Plot selection (and order that you typically used them) appear to be especially brutal at denying your opponent any chance to mount any major board position in the early game. Well done.

Good luck in the NYC Regionals, and look forward to your report after that event as well!

I love this deck. I was just trying to put together something like this, but ended up reading this while my deck was only half out of the conceptual stage. I think this achieves what I wanted better than my first attempt would have. I think I'll try my version and see how it plays but of the two... I suspect yours is the superior version.

I like your deck build quite a bit, very nice. I liked the crow killers and was wondering how good they were, I think you answered that question for me. I like control also, but i'll play an aggro deck from time to time. Congrats on second place.

I like your deck build quite a bit, very nice. I liked the crow killers and was wondering how good they were, I think you answered that question for me. I like control also, but i'll play an aggro deck from time to time. Congrats on second place.

Thanks for the decklist. I agree it's alwats nice to see the process behind the final deck list. Congratulations again on your strong finish.

Thanks for the comments guys. By the way, I want to somehow post this decklist on the AGOT wiki page (preferably in the DC regionals results page here http://agotwiki.com/index.php?title=DC_Regional_2010 ), but I'm pretty dumb when it comes to this sort of thing. How do I create a new section and/or cut and paste the decklist in a way that is easy to read? (When I click on the "edit" link, the formatting alone looks pretty confusing. Can I just paste my decklist at the end of that page? And should I put a link somewhere to this or "tournament decklists" in general?)

This does seem like quite a nasty deck, and definitely something that I do not want to play against! I think that more posting of decklists like this, and the added discussion about the reasoning behind your card selection, and just how you played the deck, is the best way to get people thinking about new deck ideas and really promotes discussion on the boards. So kudos to you! Also, congrats on the second place! I did have one question though, were you using the old mance or the new mance to blank your own agenda for the win?

Staton said:

New Mance is from Return of the Others which is not available. So he was likely using the old Mance.

oh ok. Well that makes sense then. Thanks!

Nice write up Dan. I was curious about this deck after I hard the reports from the NY guys who made the DC regional - and i really like the build.

Its refreshing to see you actually palying unique characters in a deck - unlike your Black Friday build.

i'll handle putting decklists up on the wiki until i put up a short tutorial on how to do it there it'll require uploading a PDF copy to Scribd or Google Docs and including an external link in the "house" field of the swiss/participant data. best not to just throw decks onto new wiki pages, the naming issues could get ugly

decklist is now linked in the swiss/participants table: http://agotwiki.com/index.php?title=DC_Regional_2010#Results

Maybe I'm slow... but isn't aggro meant to be fast... couldn't one find a way to keep this speed up without using the agendas?

The agendas were used because it added to the overall effectiveness of his characters. Since lanni usually leaves you with very few characters to challenge with the stronger they are the better.

Hmm, maybe "tempo" or "board control" would be a better term for it? It's not really rush but all of its "control" comes from winning challenges which is not what I usually think of as control. Nice deck, by the way : )

Staton said:

Totally agree! Give us more! You know who you are.

Madduxx said:

i'll post some decklists after NYC, give me a few weeks before i spoil the goods

bloodycelt said:

fast at gaining board control through military and kill, but not necessarily at winning the game. we've tried and pondered just about every legit version of targ, and the conclusion to this was, essentially, no: you can't build a fast, effective targ aggro without using wildlings + the stealth agenda due to targ's lack of a portfolio of characters with sufficient fighting capabilities. i don't think dan had a problem closing out games in which he had gained solid board position due to the +4 power requirement.

finitesquarewell said:

Yeah - I wouldn't want to know what secret tech you are running in your Lannister Shadows deck. The mystery is just SO engrossing.

well, in all fairness Finite doesn't really run a lanni shadows deck, never did either. I believe he coined it hyperkneel.

While most of the cards are not a surprise he plays it better then I could.

finitesquarewell said:

So you mean a Targ "murder" deck. I remember back in Std those decks petered out around turn 5. A Martel or Lannister deck just had to outdraw you and slowly take the win away. Its interesting if this kind of deck is actually sustainable in this environment.

bloodycelt said:

more or less what i did to dan in two games, yeah ;-)

finitesquarewell said:

Sounds great. But the intent was trying to get others to share too...

Madduxx said:

i sent an email out to most the participants asking them to hand me decklists -- we'll see if that happens