My question specifically pertains to two of the Stark themes I've seen.

1.) Siege - What exactly is "Siege" and how does it work?

2.) Direwolves - The only Direwolf cards I have access to currently are from the Core Set. From what I've seen, certain Direwolves are downright killers (Shaggydog) and others make bad situations a little less bad (Summer and Nymeria). However, I'm not certain how a Direwolf deck would work. What does one need to look for when building, or playing, a Direwolf deck?

Thanks in advance!

-Ben

BenStark said:

A Siege deck simply refers to a Stark deck running Siege of Winterfell; there are a variety of ways to run decks with Siege since Stark does military challenges so well - common elements would be using anything that gives you extra M challenges each Round, Storm of Swords, Epic Battles, Lucas Blackwood, etc.

BenStark said:

Probably the most common builds involve running Pups, Wolfpacks, Wolfswood, 3x Feral Pack, 3x Kennels, and Shaggydog and Grey Wind attachments (and Siege since all the wolves have M icons and nothing else). The idea is to swarm the board with stealthy deadly weenies to push through M challenges, and then kneel standing wolves to trigger Shaggydog when you are attacked, especially on Intrigue, reducing the STR of attacking characters to 0. You can also use the wolves to reduce attacking characters to 1 STR and then eat them with Grey Wind; using the At Night They Howl event allows you to stand all the wolves and continue the carnage even when your opponent thinks it is safe b/c you are knelt out. Rickon Stark was a huge boon to Direwolf decks, since he allows you to copy the search on Kennels and grab 2 wolves at once.

@Ben: All of what Skowza said will make sense once you get the Lords of Winter deluxe expansion.

You can have a look at the cards inlcuded in that box by using one of the card databases out there (some links in my signature)

The two themes also have some overlap: Siege of Winterfell is a popular agenda for Direwolf decks, which makes sense given the Military focus of both.

I was experimenting to a siege - stark deck but i found it a bit one-dimensional...

Which siege theme is considered at the moment a good one? siege - wolf?, siege - army (crest)? something else? and what is the key cards of it?

it seems the old favorites of the stark like lethal counterstrike, winter is coming, bear island, guilty, distraction are not used too much these times.

Also which are the defences of the deck? Only Frozen Solid seems to be auto include... Paper shields? Narrow escape? other stark cards? And of characters? Catelyn?

Thank you

Yusaku said:

I'll try my best to answer this, but keep in mind that my Stark decks usually fail. I feel like Direwolf decks should have gotten a boost in the latest cycle with the addition of the Guardian Wolf, Riders of the Red Fork, and especially Rickon, but the attachment hate introduced in the Maester cycle may have hurt them just as much since Shaggydog is pretty important defensively in a DW build. Although I've never actually tried an Army build, I think key components of that build would be "free armies" Robb and Jeyne, possibly Summoning Season or Heralds as a backup plan for Robb in case Jeyne gets Flame-Kissed or something... Gates of Winterfell might also be useful if you are using the Heralds.
As I stated earlier, one of the key components of any Siege deck is going to be the ability to make multiple M challenges each Round to make sure you can win in a reasonable amount of time. A good opponent probably won't even make M challenges against you to prevent you from picking up extra power on defense. You would probably need to use some combination of Storm of Swords, After the Mummers Ford, Lucas Blackwood, and Epic Battles.

Yusaku said:

Lethal Counterattack works best out of a weenie deck when you flood the board and can afford to kneel out two claim-soak guys.
I think Bear Island doesn't see a lot of play because it prevents you from using non-Stark cards and most people would use at least Street of Steel and River Row. It's also useless against another Stark player and against any character with attachments (i.e. Maesters) and Stark doesn't exactly lead the way in attachment control.
Guilty... I've never used this card or seen any decent Stark deck using it (my intent is not to criticize your suggestion that it is a staple). Stark doesn't have a whole lot of use for influence, if forced to choose I would use Great Keep over Fiefdoms, and I'd rather use my N characters to win challenges and renown.

Yusaku said:

Frozen Solid is always a good choice, Frozen Moat is probably pretty close to an auto-include as well (shuts off renown, Beric, Dragons, and a lot more). "No-STR defender" Catelyn is good, jumping Catelyn is nice too; Cat o' the Canals or KL Arya, Vyman is useful, and probably any efficient Stark characters like Hungry Mob and Hodor can fit in most decks. I've also always found Old Nan to be extremely handy, removing opponent's traits is often more helpful than adding them to your own guys.

A classic Stark archetype that worked very well at one time but isn't as strong now is the Siege Epic Battle build using 9+ Epic Battles, 3x Syrio, and a host of 0 and 1 cost characters. This is also the only Stark deck that I've ever had much luck with - the idea is to get down a huge setup of 0 and 1 cost cards and hopefully get Syrio in setup or after you draw back up. Pre-plot action Epic Battle followed by FoW first turn, Rule by Decree second turn, often followed by Blockade. If you did get your hands on Syrio, you push through challenges and put him back into Shadows so he is ready for the Epic phase; if you can't get you hands on him or win a challenge to get him back into Shadows, hopefully your weenies will still be able to overrun, and with enough Epic Battles in the deck you can win by Round 3 (I once won on Round 1 by sheer luck).

Skowza, thanks for the thorough reply! Very informative and analytical

I think right now the stark decks (especially the siege ones) seems to be rather weak in comparison with bara-maesters, lanni/brotherhood, summer martel, greyjoy-choke or even dragon decks.

The main problems that i faced playing them was the lack of a nice card drawing system and the disadvantage against intrigue and sometimes against power challenges.

Although the maester cycle gave some great cards for house stark (maester luwin, rickon, widow's watch) seems, at least at the moment, to not be a dominant house.

However i am not consider myself a very good player so i might be building or playing the decks with a wrong way...

Yusaku said:

i have to disagree, by no means is Stark the best house but a well built Stark deck is absolutly demonic

jack merridew said:

I am sure that someone with more skill than me can make a very powerfull stark deck. I just expressed the feeling that i have playing a bit and reading tournament reviews...

btw i would welcome to see a solid stark deck that runs well in the current environment!