at least 90% of the time when I play AGoT, I play against the same 2 or 3 people, and do all the deck-building, card acquiring etc.

Generally, this isn't too much of a problem, but it does mean that we get very isolated from whatever might be going on in the wider world- when someone comes up with a good new tactic, there's only very few people left to think of alternatives.

I recently built a new Stark deck, centred around Widow's Watch - building season to get it out first round if necessary, and 2x most of the key charachters - Robb, Eddard, Catelyn, Sansa, Greatjon, Roose Bolton, Bastard of Bolton, Blackfish.

It works

Really well.

To the point where I have no real idea how to deal with it. The Stark player can Valar, and unless the other player has a very lucky guess and matches their timing, it's a wipe-out versus a big pile of characters still in play.

Greyjoy seems reasonably well protect - they can use Newly-made Lord to discard Widow's Watch, or Ours for the Taking to do the same trick themselves, and there are one or two useful-looking plots: Burning Bridges comes to mind - but generally, we can find a way to break this deck. The other houses seem pretty much stuck

Any thoughts?

Mighty Jim said:

There are quite a few things that can still control characters reasonably well. That said, Widow's Watch *is* quite good, but there are many things that just get around dupes easily enough. Here are some examples:

He Calls it Thinking - This card can (ridiculously, in my opinion) cancel dupe-saves, so it doesn't matter that you have an extra dupe right away.

Assault on King's Landing - Characters and locations cannot be saved. 'nuff said. Is also a Military Battle card, which is quite useful in some decks.

Threat from the North - Reduce the character's str down to 1 or lower and TftN just instantly discards them, and the dupe doesn't save them.

Burn in general - Most burn effects that Targ has simply ignore dupes because discarding the dupe does not put them into a state that they would not be burned by (whereas a card like Rise of the Kraken would theoretically by adding 1 to their str).

Die by the Sword - It's not "Cannot be saved", but one extra dupe gone is an extra dupe gone. Win a military with a war crest and hit someone important, then Valar.

Condemned by the Council - It's usually quite simple to hit Stark with Condemned by the Council. So kill Widow's Watch, and that's that for shenanigans. Cool part is that usually, Widow's Watch takes a little while to kick in since it is so expensive, so if you can get this off the first or second turn, you can really put the hurt on them.

There are tons of other ways of getting around it; these are just a few of my favorite ways.

And don't forget Princes of the Sun Brienne: as long as she is participating in a challenge, other players cannot trigger effects (this includes saves).

Drinking the Sea is good if you can find room.

You opponents might consider running:

Wildfire Assault - Sure, it'll leave some guys standing, but dupes can't save anybody who isn't one of the chosen three.

Outwit - Flip it first turn to cancel a Building Season

Dry Season - Enjoy a whole turn of Widow's Watch sitting around doing nothing

Valar (or, higher risk, Good for the Gander)- Because if they flip it at the same time as you Valar then everybody has to survive twice... if they gandered, then they get higher gold and claim than you to bounce back with

The Power of Blood - Because a Martell hyper-viper or Baratheon nobles build can happily just go 'shields up' when you try to wipe the board... then it can probably beat you in a foot race to 15 power

Alternatively, as Widow's Watch decks tend to involve running several key uniques, your opponents might try running non-kill character control. All the dupes in the world can't stop you from being locked down by Castellan of the Rock or Alchemists Guildhall, nor does it protect you from icon-stripping at the hands of The Prince's Wrath.

Finally, I suspect that your Watch deck could probably be outrun by something like Targaryen Dragons or Lannister Clansmen. Both archetypes involve running difficult to kill guys (Dragons use dupes, Clansmen use Timmett) and steaming to a quick win on turn 2 or 3. I've had quite a lot of luck with a melee dragon deck recently, I'd be happy to send over a decklist if you want to see it.

LoneWanderer said:

That's not quite true - Dry Season only hits non-unique locations. Widow's Watch is unique. Burning Bridges works just fine, though.

WolfgangSenff said:

Great point from Wolfgang there.

If your opponents have better reading capabilities than me, that will help them significantly.

Thanks some really useful suggestions there - I'd completely forgotten the uses of Wildfire assault. Lots of the others I'd just not used before.

Now I just REALLY need the King's Landing Reprints to arrive, so I can get things like Condemned by the Council...

Mighty Jim said:

The new(er) Put to the Torch (sorry, I forget names! The win a military with a War credit dude to burn two locations) is a stand-in for Condemned. Many houses can have a War Crest sub-theme fairly easily (Bara and Stark for sure, but Lanni and Targ have a few good ones as well).

Price of War is what you're looking for.