So I find myself spending most of my (very limited) mental energy on my Joust deck for GenCon, and neglecting my Melee deck. I've toyed around with three or four different Dragon builds, but I'm starting to hit a brick wall as far as creativity.

Anyone have any thoughts along the lines of a fun, interesting deck to play in Melee? I'm not looking for the "best" deck, nor do I expect anyone to divulge all their super-secret Melee tech. I'm just looking for something that will be fun and perhaps moderately effective, perhaps even <gasp> a theme deck of some type.

Perhaps some general advice on what to consider for one.

Firstly, I just started playing this game in the middle of May, so my experience is terribly limited to understanding the rules of the game. So I may not give great advice, but here is part of my understanding of what is helpful in Melee.

Decent melee strategy in decks I think would be having characters and cards that help you when players do things that are likely during melee. For example, "Draw a card when an opponent reveals a card." or "Take 1 gold from the treasury when an opponent plays an event card." Just something to keep in mind.

There are plots that depend on multiple opponents. "If you have more than one opponent, choose an opponent. You and that opponent cannot declare M challenges against each other this round."

You may want to avoid using characters that have abilities that can easily be disrupted by other opponents. "If X is the only King character in play, X gains..."

I do not know if having a lot of the same unique characters is a good strategy. I'd think that you become an easy target if you have particular characters that can be very strong early. If your unique characters are killed early, you could be in trouble. So, power rush types of decks are probably discouraged here. If you build a deck that slowly builds strength, then you might be much less of a target early.

I mean, at least this is where I'd start considering building a melee deck. But my consideration is limited to my little experience.

Boy this is a tough one. At the moment, I suppose my mind is taken up largely by the possibilities that I see in the direction the melee game could take with the spoiled cards for the next chapter pack cycle.

Some key factors to consider, I think, along with what Bomb said.

Initiative really does matter in melee. That isn't to say that you should ignore powerful, low initiative plots, but the rewards for playing higher stats and carefully planning out the order that players marshall and challenge in are significantly higher in melee.

Closers are important. Since you'll have 2-3 other players looking to stop you, it's generally difficult to maintain full board control for extended periods of time. I would say that all decks, rush or control need a way to close out the game in the final stages. Whether that's some variety of bomb-ish renown character, power grabbing events, or something else, likely depends on the decktype.

In really broad strokes, the most popular decks that I saw in melee at Regionals this year were Baratheon rush, Greyjoy unopposed, and Lannister Kingsguard. Last year also saw a great deal of Martell Viper/ Taste for Blood decks. Off and on, I've seen people experimenting with Stark Tullies using Riverrun, or Stark Boltons utilizing In Ramsay's Name. Targaryen tends to be a less popular melee deck, though some have been testing dragons as you said. At our Regional, Dobbler actually brought a Targaryen burn deck to the final table, so there is something to be said for those large blanket strength reducing and removal effects.

Thanks for the tips folks.

I saw quite a variety of Melee decks (including all those you mentioned Kennon, except for Lanni Kingsguard) at the one Regional I went to this year (Iowa City) and that was actually very cool. I like seeing how different decks (and players) interact.

As far as specific Houses/decks, here's my rundown and thoughts on them so far.

- Stark - I love Stark overall and Siege of Winterfell, which I'd probably play with this, is a fun card to build a deck around (probably with Direwolves.) The deck is also pretty straightforward and has a nice theme, which I love. It might get a bit repetitive to play, though

- Baratheon - I would probably want to go with Knights of the Realm, lords with protection, and anti-shadows, but I worry that as soon as people see a Baratheon House Card they'll think rush and I'll get ganged up upon, which i had enough of at GenCon last year tyvm

- Lannister - I've never enjoyed playing this House, and it doesn't strike me as particularly Melee-friendly, either.

- Greyjoy - An unopposed deck does hold some interest for me, and winning initiative a lot would be nice, but I'd feel like playing Winter, and I don't feel like arguing with a bunch of Summer decks. This is a contender, though.

- Martell - I haven't played much Martell, and never in Melee, so I don't really know what to think of it.

- Targaryen - Like I said, Dragons, Maesters, Knights of the Hollow Hill, Kings of Summer, all hold interest for me. I'm just trying how best to try this. Heck, even Dothraki or Heir to the Iron Throne might be nice.

- Neutral - I know people shy away from this, which might be why I try it, perhaps with Brotherhood, perhaps with Kingsguard.

Anyway, those are just my journeyman thoughts on the matter. I'd welcome any others.

Stark Reset. use KotHH and 3 copies of a bunch of unique locations, plus in house limited reducers. Then use Umber Berzerkers, shadows arya, stalwart, valar, wildfire, FoW, Condemned by the Realm, Marched to the Wall, and the likes to just keep killing lots of characters while you recur yours. You will drag the game to an incredibly slow pace, but you will keep pulling characters, eventually they wont. Oh ya, and use Fortified Position to get rid of Berics that show up. You can sweep locations with the new event, abuse Guilty, and get recursion out of Glove+WW to get dupes of your locations back. Enjoy.

Mathias Fricot said:

Wow, that sounds sinister and absolutely lovely. Thanks Mathias.

I'm going to throw together a decklist in the next day or two and see what I can do. I'll be sure to post it here to get feedback.

Shenanigans said:

They are not very Melee friendly BUT i did see a pretty solid build around immune to triggered effects Joffrey who claims a power every time he stands in melee, rusted sword and devious intentions and he was pretty beastly

jack merridew said:

Lannister appeared to be a pretty good ally in 2 vs 2 games with all their kneeling abilities.

Bomb said:

2 vs 2 is a very different beast from a standard melee. It plays a lot more like a 1 vs 1 game in that your opponents never change and control effects are stronger as you have only 2 as opposed to 3 opponents.

Lannister Melee will be amazing after the next cycle. Just wait for the new Varys and the use of Deep Den. It will be good my friends.

How much trait manipulation + Horn of Dragons do people expect in melee at GenCon? I'm trying to decide how much attachment control to add to my deck.

Does it seem high to expect 25-35% Greyjoy in melee, with maybe 3/4 of those running Horn of Dragons? (So altogether maybe 1 in 5 decks would be running the Horn?)

I think most GJ will have one copy of the horn. Not sure if they will all run Trait Manip...i would think more like 1 in 6 or 7 decks will have it.

every targ deck will be running Battle of Astapor as sure as poutine is cheesy

and poutin has a lot of cheese (curds) ...well if its done right...

If you want to play Targ, Dothraki are reallllllllyyy effective in melee. Really. take a look at some event, and you will understand why^^

In another way, if you want to play something different, you can try bara/see who is stronger or Martell/i always play first (hard to play in melee) but what can be really effective is GJ/summer with theon and all the chain that are around^^