Me and my friends have recently begun playing the LCG, and we started off with the Core Set.

I decided to buy the PotS expansion, since I liked the Martells in the books, and I liked the way some of their cards worked (making the most of losing challenges). My other friend got the Stark pack, and destroyed me pretty handidily most games while running a Tully-themed deck.

So I decided to see if a Dayne deck would work to fight back. I took some old Magic cards, and a sharpie, and slapped together a deck to see if it works before I go ahead and buy everything I need to make a good deck. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked for me at all. I've been consistentey beaten, even though I have had the advantage at some points during the game. I think I won one game out of twenty.

Here's what I came up with so far (it's at 67 cards, which is probably be too much, but I'm not sure what to take out/replace):

Plots:

Desolate Passage

Tourney for the Hand

Wildfire Assault

Valar Morghulis

Building Season

Fury of the Sun

A Time for Ravens

Characters (33):

House Dayne Reserves x 2

Lord Edric's Knight x 3

House Dayne Knight x 3

House Dayne Squire x 3

Starfall Bannerman x 3

Starfall Healer x 3

Starfall Advisor x 3

Knights of the Sun x 3

Maester of Lemonwood x 3

The Red Viper x 1

Areo Hotah x 1

Ser Arthur Dayne x 1

Darkstar x 1

Edric Dayne x 1

The Bastard of Godsgrace x 1

Black Raven x 1

Locations (18):

Palace Fountains x 3

Water Gardens x 3

Southron Warship x 3

Dornish Fiefdoms x 3

Summer Sea x 3

Lord Doran's Chambers x 1

Dorne x 1

Starfall x 1

Events (12):

He Calls It Thinking x 3

Condemned By the Council x 3

The Viper's Rage x 3

Red Vengeance x 3

Accesories (4):

Dawn x 1

Taste for Blood x 3

As I was writing this I've come to think that losing challenged may not be the best "theme" for a House Dayne deck, and maybe I should re-do some of the events. Rumours of War might be a good addition.

Dayne theme probably will be much stronger till the end of the Brotherhood expansion (so maybe try more ordinary Martell deck for now).

You lose with Stark, because you fight them honorably and they are good at it

1 plot, 1 raven and only 3 cards that have something to do with Summer? No, no.

You noticed Knight synergy, but where is Arys Oakheart? Consider these cards: Orphan of the Greenblood (staple), Refugee of the Citadel (a must), Arianne Martell (hurts), Ellaria Sand (did you say Tully?), A Game of Cyvasse (nasty), Rumors of War (as you said), Lost Oasis (opponent cries). Consider Red Viper x 3 and protect nobles with plot The Power of Blood x 2. Plot The Breaking of Oaths works very good and not only with Stark.

The Viper's Bannermen instead House Dayne Reserves if you play with Stark often.

Martell deck without Venomous Blade? You are true gentleman.

Building Season - Never help your opponent unless this location/character is absolutly necessary for your strategy.

House Dayne Squire x 3 - No.

Starfall x 1 - if it's your main location why only x1? 3 or 0.

General tips:

The most difficult part is plot deck. Proper effects, gold and initiative decide about winning. Also your skill to choose who goes first. Generally you should go second.

Attack the hand of Stark player.

Don't forget that your characters will die often (that's normal situation), so keeping tokens on everyone is impossible. Your strategy must be less fragile and less costly.

You are playing only ~25 cards during 1 game. Even if you put some card x3 you may never see it.

Include some draw into deck (Dornish Paramour, House Messenger, House Dayne Skirmisher)

Don't wait with deck changes after 20 games. If you feel that it's your deck (not luck) then 4, 5 games is enough. This way, more fun from game, less frustration. Believe me, soon you'll discover that Stark has no chance against you.

Rogue30 has much good advice. I will add that I also don't think House Dayne is ready for prime time yet as a main subtheme for Martell. I'm waiting for some more cards from the BwB CP cycle to see if I can get that deck going. For the time being, just doing the conventional Martell stuff.

I consider Red Viper to be the cornerstone of a good Martell deck. Try to get him in play and keep him there if you can.

Game of Cyvasse is a very useful weapon, and especially against most Stark decks. I love it, and it can be a game changer.

Lost Oasis is money. Remember that whoever you choose to stealth as the target of its effect will be knelt. You can eliminate annoying or problematic characters with this location.

Venomous Blades are very effective "weenie" control. I'd put them in and take out Dawn and Ser Arthur.

Underhanded Assassins are another character you should consider if you have not already. They can get past even Stark's formidable military might with ease.

I'd get rid of Black Raven and Time for Ravens unless you were really focused on making your deck a summer deck. I'd put in To the Spears as a plot in place of A Time for Ravens.

You have a lot of limited locations. I'd probably try to trim that down because that will hurt your setups. Maybe replace the Palace Fountains with the Streets.

I don't build any joust deck without the Refugees. Definitely agree with Rogue30 about adding the Refugees. Ditto with Arianne (she's just brutal at times) and Ellaria (very useful, especially against decks with a lot of renown, such as Stark has). I'd send those House Dayne Squires packing until they've learned how to be true knights and take in those Refugees.

Also agree that plot selection and knowing when to play what is critical to consistent success. I would say at least half the game is decided by plot selection and synergy with the rest of the deck. I don't like the search plots for joust because as Rogue30 said, they help your opponent too. I don't like to play cards that help my opponent as well unless whatever I'm searching for is absolutely crucial to my deck's success, but since I don't build "hero" decks anyway, this is never the case with my decks. I like to be flexible and able to respond to changing game conditions. GoT is a very dynamic game, so try to be dynamic in your approach to the game as well.

Fleeing to the Wall is a good plot for location control. Maybe take out Desolate Passage or Tourney for the Hand for it.

Draw is very needed. I like the House Messengers for this. Others like the Dornish Paramour (I don't, because you have to lose her to get the draw. Same goes for the House Dayne Skirmisher. Some like Flea Bottom Scavenger as well for draw, but I've tried using her and I don't like her in practice. I do however like the event Parting Blow. Have a look at that and see what you think. Characters will leave play often, so won't be hard to play, and it will let you kneel an opponent's character (for some added control) and also to draw a card.

Hope this advice helps. Good luck and let us know how things go.

I agree that the Dayne theme doesn't have enough support yet to compete against Tully. If you want some more non-Dayne Martel ideas, check out the 2nd place Spanish Nationals deck

My main goal for this deck was to play Knights of the Sun while it's summer and spend unused gold to make them grow. If I drop the summer theme, I might as well go ahead and remove most of the House Dayne characters (Starfall Advisor, Bannerman, Healer).

So with your advice I'm gonna go ahead and try to make this a more Martell deck, rather than just House Dayne.

For Arianne Martell, should I include a few Rusted Swords, so she can participate in all challenges? That with "To The Spears" could work really well.

The best thing about Rusted Sword is you sort of 'Ambush' it. by paying for it in influence, any phase.
So making a surprise claim 2/3 military challenge will worry a lot of players.

I ran a Martell deck a while back that was based on her, having 3 claim 2 plots and basically making a Martell version of a Stark deck. Worked quite well, I may have to bring that back...

VVS said:

Yes, exactly. Arianne with a rusy old sword can be a wicked surprise for your opponent, especially with To the Spears active.

Another idea I just had is putting The Prince That Was Promised into my plot deck.

With that, Rusted Sword, and Taste for Blood and maybe some other attachments (if necessary), Arianne could have 2 turns of attacking without kneeling, in all three challenges.

Well, we played one game today after completely re-designing the deck. And it wasn't even close. Since turn one I had full control of the game. Didn't get a chance to try out multiple games, but things are looking good.

I managed to get Maester of War + 3 Refugees of the Citadel out by turn 1. And then The Viper's Bannerman on Turn 2. After that things went very well.

VVS said:

Good to hear! Well done.

I play a Martell deck that is conceptually similar to yours. Mine has been fine tuned over countless sessions and more or less stomples our meta at the moment. While I don't have the deck list with me, being at work, I can give you a broad example of what works and doesn't work for me.

The heart and soul of my deck are my event cards. I have 15 of them, five sets of three. I focus heavily on the "revenge" theme, so its pretty much the Vipers Rage, Red Vengeance, He Calls it Thinking, Someone Always Tells and the new one that I can't remember what its callsed, but it straight up cancels a challenge.

For locations, I try to keep it short and simple. I have a couple copies of Starfall, the Southern Ships or whatever they're called, Dorne and some gold/influence locations. I have about 10 of them.

Three Taste for Bloods.

Characters. This is important. Until recently I didn't follow the Starfall theme, but switched more or less to it however, I did not go balls deep, only making about half to 3/5ths of my characters Dayne.

I have the Influence Paramours cause I love them. Super great for powering my events. Red Viper, Ellaria, Areo Hotah, Arys Oakheart. I also have the generic Martell Maester, and while it is not a summer deck, I figured two cost for two str, two icons and Vengeful was more than good enough for the cost.

for Starfall, I have Darkstar, the Healer, the one cost Knights, the guy who cancels effects on Dayne characters, the ones who give Dayne +1 str and maybe one other weenie.

The moral of the story is not to get caught up in the Dayne subfaction. I also tried the pure Dayne deck, and here is what I found. While I could win challenges, and my guys could get huuuuge from piling gold on them, it didn't necessarily help me win the game. The reality is that there is very little difference between a character who is strength 5 and a guy who is strength 30.

If your opponent can't win the challenge, it doesn't matter if you attacked with some generic str 6 army or some huge Dayne dude with 20 gold on him.

Secondarily, those Dayne guys don't have useful game advancing abilities like Renown and what-have-you, so all you end up with is a beefy, but generic dudeguy.

Thats why I decided to go with the support element of House Dayne to keep my guys up and about. The Dayne guys support themselves while the bigger hits run around rampant trying to win the game.

My big secret is to try and make myself such an unappealing target, no one attacks me, and when you finally do, you get punished. In joust, I'd recommend trying to go second, so you can maul your opponent after they challenge you. Nothing like taking all their icons, or making them pay the claim for military challenges.

I run all house dayne characters except one. Areo Hotah. What I do is run a lot of locations that take away the icons and event cards that do the same. It works pretty well. Very annoying if your friends deck is house stark and he cannot attack you ( I guess annoying for any deck). Especially if he has the old Rob card where if he is in a military challenge he automatically wins that challenge.