Ok, here is my deck that I played at the Joust. Interestingly I played a variant of this deck for Melee, but the melee version had less control and more power grab.

A couple of quick notes...if I had it to do over again, I would replace Summoning Season with Fortified Position. When playing practice games with the deck, most of the games I lost were due to not getting a Bannermen or Fleabottom Scavenger to start the game. So I put in Summoning Season to help ensure I got them. I never needed it all day. But multiple times I could have used Fortified Position.

The deck is predicated on lots of surprise characters, nutty draw with bouncing Bannermen and destroying someones hand. Red Vengeance was mostly used on INT challenges, but occasionally I used it on MIL challenges. I knew my weakness would be against rush decks, but I didn't expect too many. I faced three rush decks and went 1-2 against them. I went 7-0 against everything else.

Card	Expansion set	Amount
House Card (1)
House Martell	Regionals 2011	1
Agendas (1)
Knights of the Hollow Hill	Mountains of the Moon	1
Plots (7)
Valar Morghulis	Core Set	1
Marched to the Wall	Lords of Winter	1
Loyalty Money Can Buy	Queen of the Dragons	1
Muster the Realm	Queen of the Dragons	1
Desolate Passage	The Raven's Song	1
Retaliation!	A Song of Silence	1
Summoning Season	Core Set	1
Characters (28)
Orphan of the Greenblood x3	Princes of the Sun	3
Areo Hotah x1	Ancient Enemies	1
Edric Dayne x3	Illyrio's Gift	3
Flea Bottom Scavenger x3	Time of Trials	3
The Viper's Bannermen x3	Princes of the Sun	3
House Dayne Reserves x2	Princes of the Sun	2
The Red Viper x1	Princes of the Sun	1
Southron Scavengers x2	A Change of Seasons	2
Arianne Martell x3	Princes of the Sun	3
Darkstar x1	Princes of the Sun	1
Ellaria Sand x1	Princes of the Sun	1
Men With No King x2	Scattered Armies	2
Ser Arys Oakheart x1	Princes of the Sun	1
House Dayne Skirmisher x2	Princes of the Sun	2
Events (22)
Beguiled Bodyguard x2	Scattered Armies	2
Favorable Ground x2	Queen of the Dragons	2
Desperate Tactics x2	Battle of Ruby Ford	2
Narrow Escape x3	Kings of the Storm	3
He Calls It Thinking x3	Princes of the Sun	3
Missing Recruit x2	Scattered Armies	2
Red Vengeance x3	Princes of the Sun	3
Spy in Their Midst x2	Scattered Armies	2
Parting Blow x3	Princes of the Sun	3
Locations (13)
Pyre of the False Gods x1	Kings of the Storm	1
Dornish Fiefdoms x3	Princes of the Sun	3
Palace Fountains x3	Princes of the Sun	3
Ghaston Grey x3	Forging the Chain	3
Summer Sea x3	Queen of the Dragons	3

Hmm, it cut out my quantities, let me see if I can fix that

EDIT: You will need to highlight the text to see the quantities. I don't know why it is acting the way it is.

Dobbler said:

~And i just thought it´s a pretty straightforward highlander deck that made it to the final table. ;-)

Great deck Greg! It's nice to see something outside of the cookie cutter preform well.

Dobbler said:

I'm hoping you'll post it later, but what were the specific differences in the melee build? How many cards difference?

And I was going to question whether you'd characterize Brett's deck as a rush build until I read Old Ben's commentary on non-innovative-ness (or the inverse). The three games I got to watch a Shadows Bob Maester deck run, they always devolved into issues of control. Though thinking back, I suppose the Bob's were only trying to counter control enough to push things through.

You simply ROCK!

I knew high-STR characters (ie armies) and Narrow Escape were going to be a problem for that Targ build. Unfortunately for me, you ran both together.

Nice work Greg, way to just crush your opponent in the semi-finals round and make him like a disgruntled newb

I just want to migrate the conversation from the other thread saying how much we love Greg.

Awsome deck Greg cant wait to see what you bring to the table next year.

I'm trying to educate myself by figuring out how this deck works and I have a few questions:

1)Desperate Tactics is just there to work as a draw engine in conjunction with Viper's B-men. Correct?

2)Pyre: trying to figure out how this is used. It seems like if it comes out early it does no good. Is that right?

3)Areo Hotah: how do you exploit his ability? My problem is, if there were a situation where it would be to your advantage to lose 3 challenges, the opponent won't make 3 challenges. Trying to figure this out....

Thanks to anyone willing to share some wisdom...

JackT said:

It also lets him put in a standing army after using the previous Bannermen in a challenge.

Play Pyre after you've got a couple events in the discard pile and start getting them back. Better than the put on the bottom of deck ability.

If you're opponent won two challenges attacking you on a turn where you revealed Retaliation! as your plot, when you attack back, they have to let you win, or face the increased claim. I suppose it's also a nice threat with the 2 INF from the agenda when you're not playing an event.

~Of course, I could let Greg answer these questions.

What do you guys think about Focused Offense in the deck? I've been toying around with the idea, and the more I think of it, the more I'm inclined to try it, as there are so many situations it can be put to good use... do you think this will be a case where the risks outweight the benefits, or is the deck resilient enough to play it?

Twn2dn was running Targ Maesters, and his report says your deck destroyed him. But you lost in the finals to a Bara Maesters deck. What was the difference between these two decks (or the way that they were played) that you observed that made the difference between losing to one and an "unequivocal mauling" on the other?

perpetual noob said:

Fatter bob with all the chains is a powerhouse of burn, or attachment control, or whatever other chain you want to use on him. Plus with a few chains he can out Str the large armies. Its another beast altogether.

Drunken Allegations seems like a decent first turn plot as well. Also Attack from the Sea. Just thinking...

Some questions:

1. Any changes in this build including new chapter packs available?

2. What you could advice against rush maester baraethon deck?

3. Which changes have you done in melee version?

Awesome deck and very original.