Hello,

So I am still somewhat of a new player, I have x2 core set, all the deluxe expansion and almost every chapter pack. So my options for building a deck should be pretty wide open.

Right now I am running a Lannister knight rush type of deck. Using all of the Kingsguard, with the squires to untap, plus a decent amount of attachments to combo with some of my plot cards. It seemed to be a decent deck, however my friend is running a military heavy stark deck and just is straight up owning me. Last night we played about 10 games and I won maybe two of them.

Its difficult because, he will play cards like peasant defender then throw northern steel on it, and they become like a 7 or 8 strength character for two gold. That coupled with lots of cheap wolves and some other low gold cost but high strength characters. Basically If I cant get a stranglehold within the first few turns, he ends up getting stealth with all his wolves and bear island to make victory pretty much impossible.

If he gets a half decent draw he usualy has about 12 strength worth of characters on the first turn, then will play focused offense and other high claim cards and take me out.

So, what is the best counter to this strategy ? I can make pretty much any deck with the cards I have. I was looking at the Greyjoy cards, as they are one of my favorite houses, however they seem to be pretty horrible for the Joust game format. Im really kind of lost and pretty frustrated because of stupid cards like bear island tapping to kill any of my guys, I put in a lot of attachments to try and counter it but that card and ones like Eddard Stark reducing my claim when I do attack, just makes it seems like I have to come up with a new strategy.

Any suggestions ? ( anything but maester chain required strategy )

This game has plentiful options to deal with many low-cost characters. First of all, you should consider having a "Reset" card (Valar Morghulis or Wildfire Assault) in your plot deck. If he has 8 characters out to your 3, a wildfire assault will rapidly even the odds. Other solutions to many characters include Targaryen Burn decks (A variety of abilities which reduce a character's strength, and kill them if their strength hits 0), or cards which kill low-str characters (Ser Ilyn Payne being a good lannister example).

It sounds like your opponent is trouncing you primarily through military challenges - so don't play to his strength, play to yours. Out-draw him and win intrigue challenges to deplete his resources, then reset the board with Valar or Wildfire, stacking the odds greatly in your favour (since you now have a hand-full of cards).

Expect to lose military challenges - find ways to work that to your advantage (and to his frustration). Cards like "Maester Aemon" can act as effective "claim soaks", being sacrificed to a military challenge every turn and saving himself. Suddenly his biggest strength (Strong military challenges) becomes just a way to get one of your characters to kneel.

Stop playing Lannister like Stark...

Lannister is primarily a control House and while they do have some aggro builds, Knight Rush is really not going to stand up against a dedicated Stark kill 'em all deck. If you want to play that game try clansmen. IF you want to aggro him to death, do Intrigue and Power and expect to lose military.

You can also run a hybrid deck where you use a fair amount of challenge/character control effects to let you waltz in again and again to win your challenges. Wars are Won with Quills with a number of high initiative plots will let you hit him for an Intrigue challenge he probably can't stop you ply this and now he cannot defend or attack during military challenges which gives you a free kill while protecting your own guys.

There are a LOT of ways for a Lannister deck to beat a Stark deck like you are describing, but you have to play to that House's strengths just the same way you have to take advantage of Stark's weaknesses.

Draw, intrigue challenges and a good potion of kneeling cards gives Lannister usually an adavantage in the long run over Stark. I´m interested how your deck looks like, maybe we could make some better solutions than. From my first knee.-jerk reaction i´m in the min dto say that Lannister with lots of neutral kingsguard charachters is just way to slow and costy, expecially if you are playing against a low costed Stark military aggro deck.

And yes of course Valar Morghulis is one of th best friends of a Lannister player. The city plots are other good friends.

Weenie rush for Stark frequently involves characters with only M icons, its why Siege of Winterfell works so well. As everyone said, focus on P and I challenges and be sure to have plenty of claim soak in your deck.
You can also use plots like Uneasy Truce, Muster the Realm and Lineage and Legacy to hamper M challenges.

I really think that a most simple kneeler deck would do the trick. Enemy informer, Cersei's attendant, King Joffrey's guard (and Tommen Baratheon for getting it for 4 gold), Castellan of the rock, Cersei (with the shadow reaction), Flogged and chained, A Lannister pays his debt (so you came with that character to fight? OK... ), and most importantly: Fights no sword can win - with Intrigue gambit plots. He can have all the military icon characters - knelt in the plot phase. And if he is the first player, even better. At least the kneeler characters you marshall will put down the rest to their knees

Also Dissension could come in handy if Peasant defender, Hodor or Hungry mob are the main problems.

Miklos said:

Play a Kneeling deck with some focus on hand destruction, put in charcters like Lady Genna and Littlefinger (shadows) and the old kneeling staples also lannister pays his debts is a great card against Stark

jack merridew said:

War of Attrition + Lady Genna. A hilarious combo.

I really hate those dirty north men with a passion, I cant wait to play him again and make a nice cloak out of his stupid dire wolves and have that traitor Sansa beaten senseless.

Thanks to you guys I am going make bear island a stark graveyard I appreciate the feedback, its definitely given me some idea's, I never realized how good Dissension is, that alone is going help so much against him.

One other question though, is there no deck that can go head to head with a stark military deck ? without resorting to tricks with intrique or kneeling/burning etc ? Would a Martell deck with vipersbannermen etc be able to do it ?

SerArthurDayne said:

By "go head to head" I assume you mean in M power... probably not. Stark is built to be the M powerhouse and other Houses have different strengths; a lot of new players tend to focus too much on the M challenge as a way to victory and see Stark's M power as being unbalanced. There are definitely ways to handle Stark from every House; a good Bara rush deck running 2x Power of Blood doesn't care about Stark winning M challenges since the good Bara characters can't die anyway... Targ burn can toast the hell out of them (Hatchlings Feast + Threat From the North can wipe the entire board), Lanni kneels them and destroys their hand, VB helps Martell clean out all those low-STR characters, GJ has that handy Intimidate keyword...

SerArthurDayne said:

Martell deck runnng red vengeance and burning on the sands absolutely wrecks stark military decks.

Skowza said:

Assuming the board is 3 characters exactly

Fieras said:

Fieras said:

Thats where FB comes in handy