I posted this in my last thread but I then realized no one will probably see it because of the title. I was wondering, I see people complaining about not liking "Take them by Surprise" as a plot, and I personally do not like Wildfire Assault for my Direwolves deck out of Lords of Winter. I feel Wildfire would hurt me just as much due to my amount of characters. Does anyone have any suggestions for good plots for this deck? I run Siege of Winterfell, and it's the deck out of Lords of Winter for Direwolves as I said.

Keep in mind that my Direwolf decks have never been that great, but typical Siege plots include After the Mummer's Ford, Storm of Swords, Siege of Riverrun and probably The Battle of Oxcross and Respect of the Old Gods.
Take Them by Surprise isn't a bad plot necessarily, but GJ can play Ahead of the Tide against it, and there are various cards that increase Initiative... Overzealous Scout, Bay of Ice, Kingsroad Fiefdom to name a few. If your opponent is running an Initiative-heavy deck, discarding your hand may decide the game.

Could you clarify those plots for me, what the do and what chapter pack they're from? Please please

There are a couple of databases that you might want to look into...

agot.dbler.com/

CardGameDB.com

info.wsisiz.edu.pl/~szczesnj/index.php

www.agotcards.org

I've been running the following in my direwolf deck.

Take Them by Surprise (Lords of Winter) 5,11,1 - "If you lose initiative, discard your hand."

Fury of the Wolf (Ancient Enemies) 5,7,1 - "Military Battle. House Stark only. After you win a military challenge against an opponent with a Lannister or Greyjoy house card, choose and kill a character controlled by that opponent."

Desolate Passage (The Raven's Song) 4,3,1 - "Each player cannot declare more than one attacker or defender in each challenge"

Siege of Riverrun (Kings of the Sea) 3,4,2 - "Military Battle. You cannot declare intrigue challenges."

Mutual Cause (Core Set) 3,3,2 - "When revealed, if you have more than one opponent, choose an opponent. You and that opponent cannot declare power challenges against one another this round."

Storm of Swords (Lords of Winter) 2,6,1 - You may innitiate an additional military challenge during the challenge phase."

Respect of the Old Gods (Lords of Winter) 2,2,2 - "House Stark only. Lower the cost of the first Stark character you play during the marshalling phase by 2."

These have worked well for me. Storm of Swords and Respect the Old Gods are no-brainers for a direwolf deck to me. The option of an additional military challenge with siege more than outweighs the low gold bonus and essentially gives this plot deck 4 claim 2 cards. Respect the Old Gods has low initiative but it's text makes it a 4 gold, claim 2 card and can also soften the effect of a blockad played by your opponent. Fury and Take them by surprise are high gold cards with high initiative which can be invaluable in a melee as you can usually gain +3 military str by choosing the Lord Commander of the Kingsgaurd title. In a joust they still provide gold and initiative and fury gives you the extra benefit of an additional kill OF YOUR CHOICE when playing pesky Lannisters. Mutual Cause and Siege of Riverrun are great 2 claim cards with higher gold + initiative than most claim 2's and their penalties won't hurt you any when running siege. Some would leave out desolate passage but I think it comes in handy when I have a slow start or when I have high str characters out like King Robb's Host or Wolves of the North.

I really like Battle of Oxcross for melee; people feel obligated to make a M challenge, and hopefully at least one of them will be unopposed and you can use the title to redirect it to yourself, claiming 3 power for winning it and causing that player to not win a M challenge so the plot text kicks in...

Skowza said:

Agreed this would fit perfectly in place of my desolate passage card. Unfortunately I'm late to the game and waiting for the new Princes of the Sun set to come out (coincidentally the day after my bday =D) to own this awesome card...

I don't really like after the mummer's ford as it gives your opponent an extra chance to attack w military as well. Good I know IF you can win all challenges on offense and defense. However I've found that too often the 5 initiative forces me to pass on one of them so that I don't have everyone knelt when my opponents turn comes around, in which case they can avoid it altogether in favor of a power or intrigue challenge. Maybe I'm just not seizing the proper moment with it... I've taken advantage of this with at night they howl though but also been raped by paper shield or a similar event cancelling card.

I know this is a silly question. Is Feral Pack good to use in my Direwolf deck? I think I only lose Deadly on Hodor, I know it's dumb I just wanted to make sure.

Feral Pack is awesome as long as you have very few non-Stark characters in the deck.

Oh wow so I should take out my Neutral Allies? I have Benjen, Jon Snow, Ghost, Qhorin Halfhand, Rourge and Maester Aemon...should I remove those with the Feral Packs in the deck then?

I run Feral Pack and some neutrals. He's a good wolf, and gets better at the times when you don't have neutrals. I also run Winterfel Kennels x2 to get the wolves at the right time. Helps make up for Stark's lack of draw.

jmccarthy said:

I've been kicking around throwing another kennels in I'm only running 1 currently. And I put Wolf Herald's in my deck thinking it was a pretty good search card, am I wrong in this? Should I take them back out?

Heralds are ok so long as you only have one or two. Winterfell kennels would maybe serve you better with 2 and you could always include some wolf dreams events from the Lords of Winter expansion. Sansa Stark and the Blackfish can help you with your draw as well. Blackfish won't get the most out of his ability in this deck but he's still a 3 str character with renown that allows you to draw a card when you win a military challenge