is there any kind of nightwatch deck viable?

Velsharoon said:

Viable as in can win a good amount of games or viable as in can take a major tournament? I've had one that could win some games, but I don't think it would be quite up to bringing to a tourney.

viable as in can win some games and be fun

That depends. Are you a Shagga player or a Jamie player?

If you're just looking for some fun, yes, absolutely.

I'm interested in making a Nightwatch deck as well.

Any suggestions on what expansion(s) I need to make that happen?

How about for a Wildling deck to play against it?

I've got the "A King in the North" and "Return of the Others" chapter packs, but I need more Nightswatch characters and agendas. Where do I find them?

gatharion said:

Try going to AGOT Dabbler and doing a search for the traits you are interested in (in this case NIght's Watch and Wildlings). There are other search sites available too, but I use this one the most.

http://letronedeferjce.forumactif.com/t2623-cf-2011-au-mur-et-au-moulin-1er-ex-aequo-des-rondes-suisses

In french sorry, but there are link.

Best Night Watch deck I have seen.

Wildlings I think are tricky, but there's definitely potential for a Night's Watch Deck,

Mine's at a fairly early stage, but for joust at least, I think it's strong. - Run 3 North Agendas: Rangers, Builders and Stewards - 6 extra power to win the game, but virtually all your characters have all 3 icons, are some of them are pretty cheap, so for joust it shouldn't matter too much.

I'm still deliberating how to run them. Neutral house seems the most Nedly, but there are a few decent Stark cards in there, so it can be cheaper to run as a Stark deck (Jon Snow and Ghost are compulsory of course) if you run it neutral, then there's some fun to be had with Baratheon cards, DoTN Stannis, The Wall, etc. plus you can throw in Stannis' cavalry or Stannis' Northern Cavalry for some extra deadly - KoTS Cavalry is particularly nice as they get renown when there's a Night's Watch character in play.

If you want to run Winter (which helps with some of the Watch bits and pieces) i'd throw in shadow Stalker as well.

gatharion said:

You probably want the whole Defenders of the North Cycle for viable Watch Decks. It'll give you enough cards for a Wildling Deck too, but it won't be as good.

With the introduction of the new card Old Bear's Crow , I have decided I am a glutton for punishment and tried to come back to running a deck with this trait as the theme. I have pasted below what I have been playing with. The idea was to get Robb out and have him use his Any Phase ability to buff the Night's Watch trait. I also wanted the crown to make it winter without choking myself out, NW is expensive. I feel like the deck is too SLOW. Any suggestions on how to speed them up? I want to try and win before I have to drop Valar on turn 7.

Stark Night's Watch

House (1)
House Stark (Core) x1

Agenda (3)
The Rangers (WotN) x1
The Stewards (AKitN) x1
The Builders (ASitD) x1

Plot (7)
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
The Winds of Winter (TWoW) x1
At the Wall (ASitD) x1
Forgotten Plans (KotStorm) x1
Loyalty Money Can Buy (QoD) x1
Winter Festival (WotN) x1
Muster the Realm! (QoD) x1

Character (33)
Benjen Stark (BtW) x1
Builder of the Watch (ASitD) x1
Defenders of the North (AKitN) x3
Denys Mallister (PotS) x1
Dolorous Edd (TWH) x1
Jon Snow (Core) x1
Lost Ranger (RotO) x3
Maester Aemon (Core) x1
Old Bear Mormont (RotO) x1
Old Bear's Crow (TGM) x2
Qhorin Halfhand (LoW) x1
Ranger of the Watch (WotN) x3
Shadow Tower Knight (TftH) x3
Steward of the Watch (AKitN) x3
Stonesnake (BtW) x1
Ghost (Core) x1
Coldhands (RotO) x1
Robb Stark (LoW) x1
Hodor (Core) x1
Jeyne Westerling (ASoS) x1
Meera Reed (TftH) x1
Ser Rodrik Cassel (Core) x1

Location (16)
Lord Eddard's Chambers (LoW) x1
Great Keep (LoW) x2
The Gift (EB) x1
River Row (QoD) x1
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
Street of Steel (Core) x1
Shivering Sea (KotS) x2
The Wall (RotO) x1
The Shadow Tower (TWH) x1
Mole Town Brothel (LoW) x1
Bay of Ice (KotS) x3
Frozen Moat (BtW) x1

Event (0)

Attachment (15)
Crown of Winter (LoW) x2
Bodyguard (Core) x1
Formal Petition (PotS) x1
Longclaw (ASitD) x1
Rusted Sword (PotS) x2
Freezing Rain (FtC) x2
Winter Cache (WotN) x3
Pyromancer's Cache (TWot5K) x3

This seems like a very strange deck... so many attachments and no events! I would start by cutting a ton of attachments; Bodyguard, for example, can only be played on like 3 characters in the whole deck. Consider adding Direct Assault since you have virtually no location control, Winter is Coming is always a nice surprise too. I would tweak the deck a bit and take out Winter entirely, you really aren't using many cards that take advantage of it. The only draw mechanic that I see is an OOH attachment which is vulnerable to both attachment and location hate, so I would add at least 1x Blackfish (3x is better) and 3x Guard at Riverrun. Given the low Initiative on your plots (0,2,2,4,3,5,2) the 3x Bay of Ice is not reliable and may just be giving your opponents card advantage.
And this is personal preference I suppose, but I consider Old Nan almost an auto-include. She has tons of uses in any deck: add a NW or King trait, take away an opponent's Maester or Lord trait, the possibilities are endless.

AceManUSC said:

It doesn't have to be expensive... lose some of the more expensive cards and take advantage of the fact that Stark has a lot of cheap and efficient characters, you don't need the entire deck to be NW guys. I would go without Mormont and Coldhands (too expensive), Denys Mallister (you have virtually no influence anyway), and Benjen and Shadow Tower Knight (too... pointless). It might also seem expensive because you have so many attachments and so few 0 and 1 cost characters.
I assume you know that Street reducers don't work on the NW guys who don't have printed icons, right?

AceManUSC said:

Add more characters with Renown and more 2 claim plots (and my previous suggestion Winter is Coming) and stick Lucas Blackwood in for the chance at an extra M challenge. You can add RotO Mance Rayder to blank an Agenda when you hit 19 power; he's also a King to help power up your Cache.

The location control was coming from the Freezing Rain and Meera. If the neutral icon reducers (streets, etc) don't work for Night's Watch, then this whole game mechanic is dead to me and has lost all my interest. I understood them to be valid since the Agenda's changed the game state by giving NW characters icons. Since the reducers don't specifically call for the icons to be printed , I took it to be valid. The agenda's are giving them the icons.

AceManUSC said:

The Agendas give them icons once they are in play. You won't be able to use the Streets because they don't have the icons when they are in your hand.

So playing them means that they aren't in play? When are they in play, when my hand let's go and they hit the table?

I really think NW still works best out of Lanni - Clownboat style, gold + draw + Dolorous Edd for insane draw = win. Bought and Paid For (finally) controls blanking attachments on The Wall, which really helps.

This is my Stark NW. Slowest deck on earth but it can win games .

House Card (1)
House Stark Regionals/Ice&Fire days 2011 1

Agendas (3)
The Rangers Wolves of the North 1
The Builders A Sword in the Darkness 1
The Stewards A King in the North 1

Plots (7)
Feast or Famine Kings of the Storm 1
The Minstrel's Muse Return of the Others 1
Wildfire Assault Core Set 1
Retaliation! A Song of Silence 1
Building Season Core Set 1
Fury of the Wolf Ancient Enemies 1
Respect of the Old Gods Lords of Winter 1

Characters (35)
Benjen Stark Beyond the Wall 1
Brienne of Tarth Princes of the Sun 1
Theon Greyjoy Princes of the Sun 1
Carrion Bird The Winds of Winter 3
Stonesnake Beyond the Wall 1
Hodor Core Set 1
Samwell Tarly The Raven's Song 3
Qhorin Halfhand Lords of Winter 1
Shadow Tower Knight Tourney For The Hand 1
Jon Snow Core Set 1
Ghost Core Set 1
Guard at Riverrun Lords of Winter 3
Bolton Refugee Refugees of War 3
Defenders of the North A King in the North 3
Old Bear's Crow The Grand Melee 3
Maester Aemon Core Set 1
The Blackfish Lords of Winter 1
Northern Cavalry Flank Scattered Armies 3
Ranger of the Watch Wolves of the North 3

Events (8)
Routing the Charge Lords of Winter 2
They Shall Not Cross Lords of Winter 2
The Price of War Kings of the Sea 2
Winter is Coming Core Set 2

Locations (15)
Frozen Outpost Lords of Winter 1
Great Keep Lords of Winter 3
Frozen Moat Beyond the Wall 2
River Row Queen of the Dragons 1
Street of Steel Lords of Winter 1
Flea Bottom The Grand Melee 1
The Wall Return of the Others 2
Winterfell Lords of Winter 1
Narrow Sea Kings of the Storm 3

Attachments (2)
Frozen Solid Lords of Winter 2

Yes, when you put the card on the table it has been played (past tense). Card effects do not affect cards that are not in play unless the card specifically says otherwise, so cards in your hand and card in your deck, and cards in your discard and dead piles that have the NW trait are unaffected by your Agendas.

Most players don't actually read their reducers but they say, "Marshalling: Kneel Street of Steel to lower the cost of the next character with a Military icon you play this phase by 1." That means the character in your hand must have the military icon before it is put in play not after. Very minor quibble, but the game breaks down if card effects can affect cards not in play without specifically stating so.

Then, that logic just broke the NW as ever being viable. The design choice by FFG is bizarre.

Designer 1: "Let's make them expensive, difficult to cost reduce, and require that they win by two more power for each icon they want to add through an Agenda."

Designer 2: "21 power to win sounds good, right? Oh, and let's not have too many renowns either, we can't have them racing their way to 21 now, can we?"

AceManUSC said:

Thats a little harsh... the cost may be difficult to reduce but they aren't unplayable. Unless they changed the text on Wildling Horde with the reprint (to only work with Wildling Agendas) then the Horde still gets reduced by the NW Agendas giving you six 4-cost 8-STR Deadly Army characters to work with. The Wall + DotN gives you an 8-STR Deadly defender that cannot be bypassed by stealth and escapes Valars. You also don't need to run every Agenda, it works just as well if you build enough printed icons of a given type in and only run two of them.
And we've had 3 cycles, multiple House boxes and restrictions and errata since the DotN cycle... you can't really judge the design at this point. When DotN was the current cycle players were happy to run a bunch of Agendas even if required 12 additional power.

Castle Black, Shivering Sea, The Gift, Flea Bottom can all be used to reduce the cost of Neutrals / Night's Watch characters, with Shivering Sea being the only one that has to be discarded, but Castle Black can be used repeatedly all turn, making only your first Night's Watch character full price.

In addition, you have access to the expensive The Wall to bounce expensive characters down during challenges to come back to hand and be safe from Valar.