Hey twn2dn,

Shoot me an email if you have a chance to chat some Targ strategies at some point. I don't want to post too much on the boards before Kubla since all Littlefinger's spies will be watching here hehe

[email protected]

The location heavy start is for opposing Stark. I'm not saying make a deck heavy on locations, but when facing stark favor the gold spending on locations at first while playing expendable characters, and saving anything useful till after hes killed everyone.

For Baratheon best advise: Summoning Season -> OOH Core Melisandre or OOH Jabalar Xho

Though I am surprised... I've never beaten a Targ deck with a baratheon deck since usually a 2nd turn Threat from the North + Hatchlings' Feast kills anyone important. And then if I get back on my feet the Valar does me in.

And because of recursion, hand discard is a small cost to cancel narrow escape.

bloodycelt said:

I think my shuffling needs work since in the last 8 games I played with Targ I never drew a Hatchling Feast before like the 8th plot

LaughingTree said:

Ktom managed to and hosed me at New York. And it happened to me at Gencon IIRC.

But if you put one copy of either Xho or Mel and Summoned him that would buy you time since that slows down the renown engine.

I was pointing out that I've yet to beat a Targ deck with a Baratheon deck.

bloodycelt said:

Though I suspect your actual argument was that you can play the same Targ deck against a bunch of decks, and that one simply needs to play it *differently*, I think the sort of anti-house tech your talking about won't really do that. For example, Mel would be a decent anti-Baratheon card, but to guarantee it, I have to run a 4-g OOH character that's pretty terrible against most other houses AND Summoning Season, which is (again) taking a slot out of my plot deck and is terrible against many other houses. Now 1 plot and 1 draw deck card won't take a huge edge from my deck, but if I then do that for Martell, Stark, etc. I get to the point where my deck has a few counters to several different strategies but doesn't do anything on its own. Moreover, the more I dilute the deck, the less real tool boxing it has. There are just too many potential deck types for me to reliably tech against other decks.

So yeah, in the situations above, maybe Mel or whatever counter-strategy would be a good option. If you're constantly playing against the same person, then this might be a viable strategy. But given that a typical person plays against a variety of decks at a tournament, this wouldn't lead to a viable tournament-competitive deck. At least, that's what I've found in my experience.

To clarify, I'm not saying there isn't a viable Targ deck that stacks up well against a variety of decks. But assuming there is, it certainly isn't filled with house-specific counters or contingencies to be played against House X.

I was advocating using Summoning Season and 1 Mel.

Aegon's Hill is gold against any house. But is particularly useful against Stark early on since you may not have any intrigue characters left standing.

Ambush works well against Stark and Lanni. (Not so well against bara).

Martell you want to have characters that can come in and out of play. And good attachment removal. Maybe even summon Brienne of Tarth.

(This is where I wish Targ had the OOH tech they used to).

Greyjoy... Targ usually owns them. Burn, Burn, Burn.

So... what does this pattern suggest:

1. You need lots of influence. And have Drogo, Titan's Bastard, Queen's Knight, Dragon Theif, possibly the reinfocement events. This allows for having challengers post Stark murder/Lanni kneel.

2. Attachment Control: Mad King's Legacy (Sorry I think having a plot to get rid of that frozen solid on mereen brothel is needed), Dragon Thief and Merrennese Brothel.

3. Aegon's Hill

4. Summoning Season: 1 Mel, 1 Brienne.

5. Multi resets: Westeros Bleeds, Valar, Threat from the North + Dragon's Feast.

6. At this point Dobbler's Agenda might be worth a try... against Bara it would be a problem... but then with Mel and Brienne summonable you might get by.

Something else: There's an event from A Clash of Arms or Time of Raven's I forget but it kneels all characters with power icons. And Targ also has an event that lets them auto-win a power challenge.

If you go shadows route: Black Cells + Kingswood Trail + Alchemist Guild Hall is fairly brutal. I find the best thing to do against rush is valar early and then do a second reset on turn 3/4 once you've gotten card advantage.