So... I'm trying to put together a melee deck for a competition. This will be the first time I've played in a competition, and only the third time I've played melee. I'm not expecting to win, but it would be nice not to just be getting kicked all the time, never having more than one character or any power out.

Can people recommend any strategies for putting a melee deck together - any types of deck that work particularly well (or badly) I have all the packs except king's Landing cycle (waiting for those re-prints to arrive) and the 3x Kings of the Sea, upto Tourney for the Hand.

hmm... possibly I wasn't clear enough - I'm not expecting someone to just give me a decklist, I'm more concerned with broad archetypes.

For example, I can't imagine a Lannister Kneel Deck working well in Melee - I'm never going to successfully kneel out the threat from 3 opponents.

Likewise, Bara rush just makes my characters too much of a target

Night's Watch works well for joust, but 21 power is a pretty high target for melee - as i understand it, when a player gets too far ahead, people will just all start jumping on him.

what basic deck-types are currently good in melee?

I'm guessing that, post Days of Ice and Fire, you'll be running into several No Use For Grief combo decks.

If you don't bring an effective answer for them, they could well ruin your day.

So far as I can tell, the best option at present is to run 'Power of Blood' to stop them from killing their Viper for a couple of turns (giving them no use for No Use For Grief, ha ha). Then using either Hand's Judgement or Seasick to cancel NUFG once you've used the PoB's.

As such, given that you'll be flipping 'Power of Blood' a lot, why not go for:

1. The obvious Baratheon approach. It's got plenty of rush potential, immediate or delayed. Also, with chains still being strong as they are, you could always try spicing things up with Maesters.

2. Greyjoy Winter/Choke. It's always been a strong contender that can get quick wins, the new renown attachment and location zapping supercards are just icing on the cake. Plus, Seasick can really spoil an NUFG attempt. Also, it runs Maesters pretty effectively.

3. Old School Martell Hyper-Viper Summer... after all, why not? Red Viper is a great card, Power of Blood works for him and Arianne, and you all kinds of challenge cancel/backfire effects to keep you safe from the rest of the table.

Finally... if you share my paranoia about getting wiped out by combo; have you considered Herald of the King as secret tech to foil NUFG's (plus a whole host of irritating stuff that Stark can do these days)?

It's hard to say what's good in melee right now if the AToC cards are legal; a good general strategy is to build something that doesn't appear threatening to your opponents (so they won't gang up on you) and build something that doesn't have gaping holes (like no I icons) for your opponents to farm. And use some cards that'll make friends, Building Season, Summoning Season, etc.

I really don't think you need to worry too much about NUfG decks; even with the new Sand Snakes, the mechanics are still too fragile. There's also the probability of multiple resets which will remove SS characters pretty quickly. If you are really worried about that, run a Targ burn deck designed for melee... TftN with 1 or 2 other cards will pretty much wipe the board of all those weak Sand Snakes along with all their dupes, leaving your opponent with a severe shortage of characters.