Ok, let's try this again.

I've order Lords of Winter and should have it by Friday. I've got a game coming up this weekend and want to go ahead try to build a deck or two to play against a friend.

I'm wanting a Direwolf deck for sure, and atleast another Stark deck, probably running Siege. I've got one of each of the following: Core Set, Lords of Winter, Dreadfort Betrayal, Mountains of the Moon, Isle of Ravens, Called by the Conclave, and Mask of the Archmaester.

I've got a few ideas, but with so few cards actually in hand, I'm having trouble getting everything to balance, specifically gold production.

Thanks for all the help and understanding in advance!

Ben

i know a lot of people don't like doing this but have you considered using proxies?

print out a copy of the card you want and slide it into a sleeve along with a card your not using?

it could really help you until you buy all the cards you need, i only suggest it because your stark cards are kinda disjointed with the chapter packs you have i don't think you have enough for a direwolf deck you might be able to do a Tully defense deck

As a rule, I don't really like to use proxys. I tried it a few times with other games and was accused of cheating, so theres a bit of a sour taste when it comes to proxys.

I didn't think I had enough for a Direwolf deck. I can't find any decklists on line to show me what a Direwolf deck looks like. I think I could run a Tully deck. And I'd want to do something with Siege.

A Direwolf deck is in general based around 1 maybe 2 cards. The primary card is Shaggydog (attachment version from LoW). The attachment allows you to kneel any direwolf card (of which he is one even though he is an attachment) to reduce an attacking character's str by 2. He is generally paired with Grey Wind (attachment version also) who kills any character of str 1 or lower (str 2 if attached to Robb). You'll probably want 2-3 copies of Shaggy. 1-2 copies of Grey Wind. Then add some more direwolves, maybe an attachment or two and some character direwolves - Pup & Wolf Pack are good cause they're cheap, maybe a couple of others. You will use these for challenges if need be but mostly to fuel Shaggydog's effect so your opponent can't win challenges against you, and to kill off a character each round if he tries. Given the numbers of Direwolves you will probably want to play 1-3 copies of Winterfell Kennels to pull Direwolf cards from your deck and possibly At Night They Howl to stand them. At this point you have a Direwolf deck, the rest is platform for your key attachments and additional filler, design per your playstyle. So you could just as easily build a Direwolf Siege deck or a Direwolf Maester deck.

Freerider said:

That being the case (and the fact that my wife won't let us buy another core set :/ ), I'll just have to work at it. But I think I've got some ideas.

For the Direwolf Deck, include the Wolves and the human counterparts. Throw in a few copies of Rikkon to mimic the search ability for Kennels, and Guardian Direwolf might actually be useful in this deck because of characters like Robb and Bran. I think I can make a Direwolf Deck, just not a good one.

I'm getting stumped on a second deck. I was thinking maybe a War crest Tully Deck, with a little rounding out from some cards from the Core Set. I originally wanted to build a deck around Siege, but I think that Siege would wind up hurting the Tullys. Robb Stark (LoW) would be useful, since he can target cards with the "Tully" keyword.

Am I barking up the right tree or have I lost the scent entirely?

Yeah you've got a scent, the key will just be refinement. Rikkon is great an either deck. Guardian Wolf is good as well because it will be a surprise and because the best "platform" characters for your direwolf attachments are generally going to be your noble lord or lady characters. I have seen Tully done both with and without Siege, just depends on your focus. Since Stark in general is lacking in stealth Siege may give you the chance at some extra power. I generally don't like putting all my eggs in one basket that way but I've certainly seen it work. The biggest issue with a Tully deck is that they great for board flooding but in general the only really good Tully character is the Blackfish. If you can pull it off Riverrun is great, but more often you may find that a Tully deck is just not fast enough at claiming power to win vs some decks.

You could always try to put the two together as well. Tully defense and Direwolf anti attacker effects paired up would make it much more likely you could trigger Riverrun to claim power on your Tullys.

I toyed around with mixing the two, but I ran into a balance problem. I'm either favoring one side or the other and can't find a balance between the two.

Ok, so I picked up LoW and put two decks together. In the initial play tests, they did pretty well. But I was playing against my wife using the Core decks. I think they're as good as they're gonna get with what I've got but I figured I post them on here anyways to see if I'm missing something. Tell me what you think.

Stark - Tully Deck

House Stark

Plots: 7

Holding the Trident

Take Them By Surprise

The Power of Arms

Respect of the Old Gods

Storm of Swords

Building Season

Family, Duty, Honor

Characters: 29

Eddard Stark (Core)

The Blackfish x3 (Low)

King Robb's Companions x2 (LoW)

Greatjon Umber (Core)

Hoster Tully x2 (LoW)

Knight of the Red Fork x3 (LoW)

House Tully Recruiter (Core)

Trident Reinforcements (Core)

Guard at Riverrun x3 (LoW)

Edmure's Host x3 (LoW)

Riverrun Messenger x3 (LoW)

War Host of the North (Core)

Robb Stark (LoW)

Knight of the Tumblestone (Core)

Catelyn Stark x2 (LoW)

Ser Edmure Tully (LoW)

Locations: 19

Training Grounds (LoW)

Frozen Outpost x3 (LoW)

Godswood x3 (LoW)

Riverrun x3 (LoW)

Narrow Sea x3 (LoW)

Northern Fiefdoms x2 (LoW)

Great Keep x2 (LoW)

Lord Eddards Chambers x1 (Core)

Street of Steel x1 (Core)

Events: 10

Die by the Sword x2 (LoW)

Endless Endurance x2 (LoW)

Routing the Charge x3 (LoW)

Bran the Builder's Legacy (Core)

King In the North (Core)

Guilty! (Core)

Attachments: 3

Crown of Winter (LoW)

Ice (Core)

Frozen Solid (LoW)

As my primary Stark Deck, I like it. I'm sure it needs work but I noticed a few things. I hardly ever payed for a Character and never payed full price. The Blackfish kept the scales tipped in my favor with the card draw and the Renown. I was able to counteract a poor setup with some search cards. On a turn in which I had 3 gold, I was able to play Edmure's Host and Warhost of the North for free. It seems to run pretty well.

Stark - Direwolf

House Stark

Siege of Winterfell

Plots: 7

Take By Surprise

Marched to the Wall

Mutual Enemies

Stoic Resolve

Storm of Swords

Respect of the Old Gods

Calm Before The Storm

Characters: 27

Bran Stark (Core)

Rickon Stark x3 (LoW)

Robb Stark (Core)

Galbart Glover x3 (CbtC)

Kennel Master (Core)

Hodor (Core)

Direwolf Pup (Core)

Eddard Stark (LoW)

Wolf Pack x3 (LoW)

Robb Stark x2 (LoW)

Guardian Wolf x3 (TIoR)

Sansa Stark (Core)

Lady (Core)

Shaggydog (Core)

Summer (LoW)

Arya Stark (Core)

Catelyn Stark (Core)

Jojen Reed (LoW)

Locations: 14

Great Keep x3 (LoW)

Street of Steel (LoW)

Northern Fiefdoms x3 (LoW)

Narrow Sea (LoW)

Winterfell Kennels (Core)

Crossroads (Core)

Godswood (Core)

Lord Eddard's Chambers (LoW)

Winterfell Castle (Core)

Wolfswood (LoW)

Events: 10

Endless Endurance (LoW)

At Night They Howl x3 (LoW)

Wolf Dreams x3 (LoW)

Distraction (Core)

Lethal Counterattack (Core)

Winter Is Coming (Core)

Attachments: 9

Frozen Solid x2 (LoW)

Grey Wind x3 (LoW)

Shaggydog x2 (LoW)

Nymeria (Core)

Ok, so the few times I ran this deck, it was alright. Admittedly, this deck was secondary priority and will continue on that way until Defenders of the North re-releases. The plots were chosen for gold cost, init, and claim values mostly; and an attempt not to screw over any of my other decks right now. I don't like the small amount of wolves I'm running, but only time can change that. It runs alright. Any thoughts on either one?

Just 1 thought for now - War Host of the North is an awful card, get rid of it and use something else. There is little practical difference between a 7-STR character and an 11-STR character, and although the War Host does have a W crest, it is a really expensive monocon with no abilities and can be stealthed by 1-cost characters. It might look impressive at first glance, but compare it to other 6 and 7-cost characters and it'll look awful.

What would you suggest replacing it with?

If you're running LoW Robb, I'd recommend King Robb's Host if you need a big army.

What set is it in?

It's in War of the Five Kings, sorry!