I'm workin' on a Bara deck with the "Brothers at war" agend.

Could you give me some suggestions (rule of thumbs) to build up correctly the two decks? How do they usually are built?

Char, location distribution...cost distribution...and everything that could help.

Thanks in advance.

DB_Cooper said:

Which Sets of Cards are allowed? Are you playing Legacy Highlander or the unoffical Standard ? Joust or Melee?

http://tzumainn.com/agot/decks/house.php?house=Baratheon

Here you find some Decks. I would build 1. Deck with Locations and Cheap Characters. And the 2. Deck with good Events and good Characters.

The way my BaW decks are builtis with one deck full of resource cards, cheap buff cards (Tarth, Hallowed Ground, Smugglers Cove) and cheap characters with everything in it costing 2 or less. Most of the time I can get a 5 card setup with an occassional 7 card flop. The other deck is full of Bara power cards. Claim jump Davos Seaworth, vigilant Brienne, Roberts Honor Guard, things of that nature.

When drawing back to 7 during setup, I usually take from the resource deck (unless I had a particularly fruitful setup), and after turn 1 I have more than enough gold and reducers to run my deck for the rest of the game. By then I'll have half of my resource deck on the table, allowing me to draw from the power deck from there on out. Because of this large amount of turn 1 income, I'll usually open my plots with Blockade, which tends to set my opponents back a turn. I focus on card draw with Counting Favors and Kings of Mountain and Vale, keeping Outfox at the ready if I expect Valar. The rest of the plots are Valar, the Good God's Own Kiss (to rebound from Valar) and Outfox.

It does have a few weaknesses. Westeros Bleeds is one, if I over extend myself in the begining. Fleeing to the Wall (and any other location control) is the other, nuking my critical locations. Amongst my group, the deck has around an 80% or so win rate in joust, and a 50% in melee. Wins generally come on turn 3 for joust, 4 or 5 for melee.

Manteaus gave you the recipe for the most common (and powerful albeit predictable ) builds. I've had some success with two other builds, one which I called Sickle and Hammer, basically a rush deck and an control deck. The Sickle/Rush was your typical get some easy renown and power grabbing/generating cards on the table and in my hand and try and rush my way to victory by turn two. If I get stalled out I start drawing from the Hammer/Control deck big army or challenge controll cards that can block or push through any challenge I need. I also have a deck that is Asshai and Tyrell, essentially a deck focused on Intrigue and Power, and the second one concentrating on Military and Power. This gives me two small very focused decks that let me play whatever I think will let me exploit my opponents lack of icons the most. I nearly always open with the Tyrell deck to get military icons on the table to protect my character base if I have no idea what they are playing and then go on from there.

Now I had an idea before rotation of a Brothers at War deck that was divided into Summer and Winter, allowing me to take advantage of whatever season is most advantageous to me. I may still build this if we have a tourney that dips back into classic/vintage. Unfortunately only one Carrion Bird would make this a difficult deck to run under the Legacy rules.

dormouse said:

Actually, you wouldn't get any copies of Carrion Bird in this build. Brothers is "no neutral characters or locations," remember? Might be kind of tough against someone who is running them. Interesting idea, though.

At first, thanks for your helps.

I've built something like a deck :-)

It's Standard legal.

After some tuning, i've tested it.

Tests were with:

- Greyjoy (Kings of Salt and rock deck): fast, lots or military and unopposed challenges. Very focused. (my own built)

- Martell heavy control. (my own built)

- Stark (other one built)

I've never lost.

It's a very fast deck and possibily the most consistant deck in the format.

Some Tyrell subtheme for intrigue and weird interactions.

First deck is a setup deck. I do set up with this deck and draw back the cards from the same deck.

After that, if I started with some gold producing locations, I start drawing from the other, coming back to the first one if I need some speed.

Here's the list

----- Plots (7) avg income: 3.5 -----
Fury of the Stag x1 Ancient Enemies F27
Conventions of War x1 Five Kings Edition U222
Rule by Decree x1 Five Kings Edition F242
Winter Storm x1 A House of Thorns U137
On Raven's Wings x1 Iron Throne Edition U227
Outfox x1 Iron Throne Edition R228
The Good God's Own Kiss x1 Iron Throne Edition U232

FIRST DECK

----- Characters 1 (16) avg cost: 1.8 -----
* Edric Storm x1 Core Set B79
Old Red Priest x1 Core Set B84
Renly's Courtier x1 Core Set B86
Bastard of Robert x1 Core Set B87
Zealous Collector x1 Calling the Banners F115
Herald of the Stag x1 Sacred Bonds F54
Red Oracle x1 Five Kings Edition C67
Shadow Child x1 A House of Talons C64
* Selyse Baratheon x1 A House of Thorns U13
Ser Axell's Man x1 A House of Thorns C14
* Butterbumps x1 A House of Thorns U60
* Willas Tyrell x1 A House of Thorns U70
House Tyrell Envoy x1 A House of Thorns C76
Knight of the Reach x1 A House of Thorns C77
Knight of the Rainwood x1 Iron Throne Edition U54
Stormlands Peasant x1 Iron Throne Edition C60

----- Locations 1 (13) avg cost: 0.9 -----
* King Robert's Chambers x1 Core Set B94
Narrow Sea x1 Core Set B99
Rainwood Keep x1 Five Kings Edition U73
* Dragonstone x1 Five Kings Edition U154
The Stormlands x1 Five Kings Edition C155
The Westerlands x1 Five Kings Edition C156
The North x1 Five Kings Edition C157
* The Iron Islands x1 Five Kings Edition U158
* Dorne x1 Five Kings Edition U160
* The Pleasure Barges x1 A House of Thorns U85
Rose Garden x1 A House of Thorns C89
Secluded Coast x1 A House of Thorns C90
* The Shield Islands x1 A House of Thorns R91

----- Events 1 (1) -----
Watching the Heavens x1 Iron Throne Edition C216

SECOND DECK

----- Characters 2 (13) avg cost: 3.4 -----
* Renly Baratheon x1 Core Set B73
* Melisandre x1 Core Set B74
Banner for the Storm x1 Calling the Banners F114
Fiery Followers x1 Sacred Bonds F53
King's Champion x1 Ancient Enemies F34
* Knight of Flowers x1 A House of Thorns U61
* Mace Tyrell x1 A House of Thorns U62
* The Queen of Thorns x1 A House of Thorns R64
* Ser Garlan Tyrell x1 A House of Thorns U67
Seeress of Shadows x1 A House of Thorns U73
* Robert Baratheon x1 Iron Throne Edition U50
* Stannis Baratheon x1 Iron Throne Edition U51
* Brienne of Tarth x1 Iron Throne Edition R130

----- Locations 2 (3) avg cost: 2.3 -----
* Claw Isle x1 Epic Battles F73
* Tarth x1 Five Kings Edition U70
* Olenna's Study x1 A House of Thorns U88

----- Attachments 2 (7) avg cost: 1 -----
Shadow's Blessing x1 Core Set B66
* Lightbringer x1 Core Set B68
Martial Law x1 The Battle of Ruby Ford F97
Stinking Drunk x1 Five Kings Edition C52
High Tide x1 Five Kings Edition C76
Protection of Highgarden x1 A House of Thorns U56
In the Name of the King x1 Iron Throne Edition C46

----- Events 2 (7) -----
Support of the Kingdom x1 Core Set B172
Compelled by the Crown x1 Calling the Banners F107
* Battle of Ruby Ford x1 The Battle of Ruby Ford F87
The Battle at the Wall x1 Epic Battles F67
To Be a Stag x1 Sacred Bonds F46
Put to the Question x1 A House of Thorns R124
Seductive Promise x1 Iron Throne Edition C206

I've never tested it with other decks, but it seems pretty competitive (i've worked hard on it and I tried to take lot of care on cost curve and icon balancing).

But as everything I do, is far from perfection.

What do you think?

Suggestions are welcome.

DB_Cooper said:

Must haves: Vale, Reach Riverlands. Davos 5K, Tarth in both Decks, Events I would play Terminal Schemes and Make him Fly. 5K Stannis and 5K Robert are better the the ITE. Milk of the poppy. in the second Deck. I would prefer Wildfire as Reset Plot

D'oh!

Thanks ktom, from a theoretical point it sounded good. With no Ravens... that could be really hard to force seasons and recycle my ravens. If Seasonal decks see a decent amount of competitive play though, it may work out pretty well anyway, just use your opponents season cards.