My friend plays Baratheon and Lannister decks, and I run Stark and Martell decks. I'm at a bit of a loss (literally), because I just can't come anywhere close to stopping him. His decks just move so incredibly fast, by the challenges phase of the first turn, his Baratheon deck usually has about 4 characters of 3+ strength, half with vigilant, and a good array of attachments and lands, and from that moment on, I'm strictly on defense, as I just can't keep up with that. His Lannister deck might even be faster on the rush, though the other is the stronger deck.

Can anyone give some suggestions as to deal with this? Our games have become so one-sided lately, that it's not really fun anymore.

Well I would say that if you are running Stark that you might be able to lay out high str characters. Then when you think you have three pretty big characters, play Wildfire Assault. Its what we refer to as a reset. It resets the number of characters on the board. Another reset that is used alot is Valar Morghulis. You can make sure to keep back characters, and then when you play valar he will lose quite a few characters and then you can lay out all of your characters to hopefully have the board advantage. If you are planning on using resets though it works best if you are winning intrigues against his deck alot.

Thanks, Staton.

Wildfire is a good idea. I hesitate with Valar Morghlulis, because it seems like after the reset, you're at a disadvantage with a bit of a wasted turn (2,0,0). It's saved me quite a few times (I use it in my Martell deck), but I never feel all that great about it. I suppose it's not meant to be all that ideal, though.

I thought perhaps I could outpower him, but he's seriously throwing like 13 strength at me on the first challenge (The Art of Diplomacy is brutal), and with vigilant, if I don't win the first challenge, I'm definitely going to lose the next two. It's crazy how quickly this deck comes together. This is probably my main problem.

Also, let's say I do manage to stop his challenges, I usually have to kneel my whole board to do it. Is that an okay thing to do against a rush deck? Force the initial stalemate to bide my time? Should that be my goal? I've always found with my Stark deck that if I don't gain early momentum, I get overtaken later.

Oh, and is there a way to subscribe to threads? I'd love to get an email notification when someone responds.

With Martell you have some choices. Vengeful characters will deny unnopossed challenges, and they let you attack safely after your opponnent has attacked. Ellarya does a very good job at this, getting the renowns won by the opponnent. If he is swarming you with a lot of characters, the red vyper gives you a very solid option, add a taste for blood, and you probably will win faster.

If you face problems with attachments, and vigilant, you can try some game of cyvasse, or "someona always tells" (I'm not sure about the name, it returns every standing character to hand), your fury has a similar effect. There's also Valar Dohaeris, it discards them instead of returning them to his hand.

On the tactical aproach to the game, you are right, you have to focus on stopping him from winning challenges, even if you kneel every character. If your opponnent makes such a fast deployment, the odds are he will draw few cards a turn, and if you can win intrigue challenges, his momentum will eventually decrease, he will run out of power of blood, assuming he uses them, and you can reset and abuse your cards on hand advantage, assuming you have it.

Counter Attack and Red Vengeance are your friends if your opponent is playing rush decks. Either of those can potentially stall out a rush by removing necessary characters from his side of the board.