Hi all,

I've been playing around on CardgameDB with building a Martell deck themed around House Dayne (with the idea to end up buying and running it, of course). Adding in essentially everything with a House Dayne Trait or Starfall in the name, I've found that there are only a handful of unique characters (via Ser Gerold, Ser Arthur and Lord Edric), and the deck ends up as very intrigue and military based, with a lot of weenie characters. I've thrown in some influence-bringing Paramours for the events, and some Power icon characters such as Maester Kedry to make sure I'm not demolished in those challenges.

My questions are, though:

1) Should I run with the Kings of Summer Agenda, or the Knights of the Realm one? Both have their place, and I can't really decide (mostly because I run the KotR Knight deck with a few personal tweaks out of the Bara expansion). Summer allows Knights and Maester of the Sun to trigger some cool abilities, but then again I have a lot of knights that I can get onto the table quickly

2) What the hell am I doing with events? I findt his is one of the hardest parts of deckbuilding, as there are so many of them to choose from. Martell doubly so as a lot of them require influence.

3) This deck is certainly a Nedly one, but is it a weedy one to be dispatched with ease by the simplest of core deck builds?

Any other comments, criticisms or suggestions are very welcome, as this is the first deck I've built from scratch.

Dawn of Starfall

House (1)
House Martell (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
Kings of Summer (ASoS) x1

Character (32)
Darkstar (PotS) x3
Ser Arthur Dayne (TWoW) x2
Edric Dayne (IG) x1
Maester Kedry (FtC) x1
Starfall Bannerman (ASoS) x3
Starfall Cavalry (MotA) x3
House Dayne Knight (PotS) x3
Lord Edric's Knight (PotS) x3
House Dayne Skirmisher (PotS) x2
House Dayne Squire (ASitD) x2
Starfall Advisor (TWH) x2
Besiegers of Dorne (TWot5K) x1
House Dayne Reserves (PotS) x1
Knights of the Sun (ASoS) x1
Dornish Paramour (TTotH) x1
Maester of the Sun (ASoS) x1
Starfall Healer (RotO) x1
Starfall Merchant (RoR) x1

Location (16)
Lord Doran's Chambers (PotS) x1
Dorne (PotS) x1
Starfall (ASitD) x1
The Tower of Joy (TRS) x1
Training Grounds (LoW) x1
Dornish Fiefdoms (PotS) x3
Water Garden (PotS) x3
Southron Vessel (IG) x2
Palace Fountains (PotS) x2
Kingsroad Fiefdom (QoD) x1

Event (11)
Paper Shield (QoD) x3
Fallen and Reborn (RoR) x2
Red Vengeance (PotS) x2
He Calls It Thinking (PotS) x2
Someone Always Tells (PotS) x1
Wars Are Won with Quills (PotS) x1

Attachment (6)
Dawn (TRS) x2
Black Raven (ASoS) x3
War Scorpion (BoRF) x1

Plot (7)
A Song of Summer (ASoS) x1
Fury of the Sun (AE) x1
Loyalty Money Can Buy (QoD) x1
Muster the Realm! (QoD) x1
Take Them by Surprise (LoW) x1
To the Spears! (PotS) x1
Tourney for the Hand (Core) x1

I like the knights agenda better, if your deck can support it.

Not to complicate things, but I ran a House Dayne/Kingsguard deck for a while that did pretty good. I've in cluded it here so you wouldn't have to go digging through all the old posts if you wanted to see it. Personally I'd perfer the Knights agenda, since you're not relying on maintaining the seasonal condition to use the agenda's abilities.

Martell/The White Book

Plots
1x Fury of the Sun
1x A Song of Summer
1x Attack From the Sea
1x Tourney for the Hand
1x Wildfire Assault
1x The Tides of War
1x Fleeing to the Wall

Characters

3x House Dayne Knight
2x Kingsguard Squire
3x Lord Edric’s Knight
3x Starfall Bannerman
1x Ser Meryn Trant
3x House Dayne Skirmisher
3x Knights of the Sun
1x Ser Preston Greenfield
1x Knight of Flowers (Core)
1x Ser Osmund Kettleblack
1x The Hound (AToT)
1x Ser Arys Oakheart
2x Besiegers of Dorne
2x Darkstar
1x Doran Martell
1x Ser Mandon Moore
1x Ser Barristan Selmy (Core)
1x Ser Arthur Dayne
2x The Red Viper (PoS)
1x House Dayne Reserves

Locations

3x Summer Sea
3x Water Garden
3x Palace Fountains
3x Dornish Feifdoms
1x Lord Doran’s Chambers
3x Lost Oasis
1x Dorne
1x Norvos

Attachments

2x The Broken Spear
2x Rusted Sword
1x Dawn
3x Vemonous Sword

Events

2x Rumors of War
2x Muster
2x The Shadow of the South
1x Make an Example

Total Cards: 67
Shadow Crest: 6

1. Martell/Kings of Summer is a very popular deck right now, although it doesn't generally use a House Dayne theme. With your build, you'll probably be able to always draw the extra card off of KotR, except perhaps after a reset. Most decks don't run enough Knights for you to worry. Don't forget you can keep Summer in your deck without running the agenda.

2. Martell/Summer in its current popular build generally runs the following events

3 x Red Vengeance

3 x He Calls it Thinking

3 x A Game of Cyvasse

Sometimes Paper Shield and Burning on the Sand are also included, but with Burning on the Sand Restricted now, most Martell players go for Venomous Blade. The Prince's Plans is sure to become a staple now too, although the influence price is high.

3. Speaking of Influence, you might want some more in your deck. Another Martell staple is the Viper's Bannermen. They're amazing card advantage that doesn't count against the draw cap, although they're not House Dayne. Venomous Blade would be a good addition, and if you toss in enough noble crests, Ghaston Grey can be great.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

I love my Bara Knight deck to bits, but I've got this nagging feeling that running another KotR agena deck from a different house would be a waste, and it would suffer from little brother syndrome. I have other plans for a Kingsguard Agenda, too, so here is not the place.

I completely hadn't linked up the fact that I could make it Summer with the ravens to use some of the card abiities, yet not require the Kings of Summer Agenda.

Thanks Shenanigans for narrowing down the events a little, there are so many possibilities with Martell that I often have no idea where to start. I think it does need some more influence, certainly, which I could probably fit in there with some extra draw from the KotR agenda, or if I could afford the Viper's Bannermen in there somewhere. Thankfully the Plots have a lot of gold, so this should be acceptable.

i wondered what all the fuss about Ghaston Grey was until I noticed a 3-cost Edric Dayne can bounce higher-cost characters out of play, a very Martellesque "hurt me some, hurt you more" mechanic. Makes me consider adding in 3x Bastard in Hiding, as he's a pointless noble who I can bring in for 3 out of house and get then rid of opponent's characters.

Certainly some points to think on, so I will refine this deck a little further. Thanks again.

Starblayde said:

Sadly not. You have to return a Martell Noble with Ghaston, Edric is currently, and probably will remain, as cheap as it comes. God forbid we ever see a 2 or even 1 cost in-house Noble.

Whizz is right. GG would see an awful lot of OOH play if it didn't have that restriction. That said, GG is still pretty amazing; bouncing Edric Dayne (or the Red Viper or Arianne Martell) can be costly, but it's going to be more costly to your opponent more often than not, and he's not a bad character to boot.

With all these Knights, Myrcella Lannister could be useful. She's vulnerable, but has a great ability for Knights and turns off other Queens.

As far as other Martell standards, Flea Bottom Scavenger can be excellent in an opening hand, Taste for Blood is popular, and so is Sunstroke. Achemist's Shop is fun if you have enough Weapons, which with House Dayne and its Knights can work (Dawn, Venomous Blade, Poisoned Knife even). Orphan of the Greenblood is great cheap control. Lost Oasis is great if you have enough Stealth (remember you can declare stealth on any character without Stealth for the effect)

I listed the standards, but other events to consider include Condemned by the Council, Ill Tidings (if you include enough Maesters; great for getting rid of Milk of the Poppy), Desperate Tactics (if you include enough armies; works great with The Viper's Bannermen), Dissension, Make an Example, and The Viper's Rage. The last one can be especially devastating. And even though it's restricted, you might want to try Narrow Escape. I've seen it used to devastating effect in a Martell deck.

One of the Martell themes you will notice is that of doing nasty stuff when you lose challenges. The best Martell decks I've seen not only control you out of your gourd, but keep you doubting whether you want to attack or not.

Keep us posted on how the deck turns out and performs. I'd love to see House Dayne have a viable and fun deck.

Hmm, plenty of food for thought there, thanks guys.

Dammit on the Ghaston Grey - though the lesson there is read the card more carefully next time. As for the events and attachments, Martell always make me feel like I have to run with 30 events, 20 attachments and about a billion influence to include in everything I might want to play.

I like what Myrcella could bring to this deck, and it allows me to stick to theme and throw in Ser Aerys (who can die for claim if need be, as Daynes have been killing Oakhearts for thousands of years, right?) and Myrcella's Guard. Dropping the Beseigers of Dorne and their War Scorpion attachment would probably work best as, despite being a House Dayne trait card, they're not really synergistic with a Knight deck.

I'm coming around to KotR for this deck - hey, I love knights - though I may drop the '... of the Sun' characters and the Ravens in order to make some more room for the likes of Hedge Knights, Knighted attachments and some more influence providing locations, then it's just down to selecting the right events. There's also room for some more Knights. Beric and PReston Greenfield spring to mind, as well as the Gerold Hightower from Here to Serve. I want to be careful and not make it too similar to either my planned Kingsguard deck, or my current Bara Knights deck either.

After having gone through the cards I actually own, this 60+ card deck currently stands at a massive 25 cards!

Another pack of PotS (as I bought the 2x version a while back) is first on the shopping list, though, followed by Here to Serve, Illyrio's Gift (Edric Dayne & Southron Vessel) and Rituals of R'hllor (Fallen and Reborn, Starfall Merchant). Then I'll either delve into the way back machine for some specific chapter packs, or try and get them individually from somewhere like eaglecard.org