The Greyjoy raiding theme has been in place for a few cycles now, with a theme of discarding opponents decks. But the discard theme has taken a back seat to choke, which has become incredibly popular. Are discard decks viable, in either Joust or Melee? Or is it still an underdeveloped theme?

I dunno, they don't get a lot of play around here either.

It seems like it would be, just the way people like to build their decks though. 60 cards... lots of x3...

It's kind of dumb that someone can just play Barristan and cripple a deck completely built around this mechanic though, since Barristan is pretty decent anyway.

Raiding decks are generally not regarded as a viable deck type yet. The general consensus is that raiding doesn't work because it doesn't directly contribute to you winning the game in any way. There are a few useful effects like Euron's Mongrel, and raiding does fuel Fishmonger's Square to give GJ some draw mechanics other than LIV, but the deck is usually easily beaten by stronger archetypes. Its also NPE as most people hate mill. I ran one for a while that only used a few raiding mechanics to fuel FM Square, mostly Frostfang Peaks and mixed it with GJ Holy mechanics and as much board control as I could stuff in; Besieged Shipyard can really slow the game down. It was ok, but it wasn't anywhere near a tier-1 deck.

Hopefully it will be viable, at some point. I had hoped mill would get more love in this new chapter cycle, but it looks like choke is getting all the top cards. It would be nice if there were more cards like Raiding Fleet (AKitN), but that one is so expensive it seems almost ridiculous to think you could get more than one out per game. I also think it's a matter of milling their deck faster than they can win, which doesn't seem to be like a possibility at this point. I don't see why you couldn't make a decent choke deck with some mill sprinkled in, however (talk about NPE). Might have to try that myself.

I think the raiding deck can be kind of viable in joust, but not in melee. The problem with melee is that, because you're doing something that hates on everyone, you just get targeted immediately. In joust, though, I've found the way to play it is with 3x Naval Escort, some other warships (maybe 8 or so others, with Ambitious Oarsman to help pay for raiders, if needed), and then just slowly building up and not losing military challenges until you can pump out a 40+ str win in a power challenge, and then use We Take Westeros. This can pretty consistently discard 20-30 cards in one shot by the third turn, but the problem is that even after you do that, it's not necessarily easy to get board control. And if they're intrigue-heavy, then it's hard to get the right cards together as it is, which is pretty crappy. Overall, I think it could go 2-3 or 3-2 in a big tournament, but likely not better than that without some massive luck, and some massive cajones.

i am in the process of building a deck around this theme (opponent deck depletion). It mainly centers around Motley Crewman / Frostfangs / Drowned Fanatic. It is a very risky build (using KotHH) but with a good opening draw I think I can completely deplete a deck in 3 turns. I am play testing it this weekend. If it works out I will post the Deck List.

We Take Westeros + Naval Escort = Done

The deck is viable, I played one very effectively in the early days of the Brotherhood cycle, and there are plenty of cards that help it out. The downside is that it is a true NPE deck. I have discarded entire decks, especailly when using 3x Frostfang Peaks and making it Winter I can hit 6 cards each Plot phase, more if the Motley Crewman is in play. But until you can claim repeatable power from discarding cards I doubt it will be attempted in a tournament deck.

I think the way to go is to use raiding to power other effects, not to discard the opponents entire deck. If your aim is to discard all their deck either you do it so early it becomes a very frustrating game for your opponent or you don't and it becomes a frustrating game for you as your understrength characters get steamrolled. I like the new Euron that both mills and benefits from it on one card, or the new Alannys and Baelor Blacktyde that can interact with the discard pile but aren't useless if you don't draw mill cards, unlike Fishmonger's Square/Euron's Mongrel/Motley Crewman. Or Bloodthirsty Crew, which is a good character even without the mill. Or Nagga's Hill, which can work with raiding or just general discard from play effects like the Greyjoy Fury plot or Newly Made Lord.

Thanks to their auto-include plot, Rise of the Kraken, Greyjoys only need to be halfway to victory when they Rise. Assuming you win initiative and have a few ways to win unopposed, you don't need to fret too much over gearing the entire deck towards one win strategy like other houses do. Furthermore, the nice thing about raiding compared to choke is that so many of its cards are conducive to your eventual Rise of the Kraken. The Knight + Scouting Vessel = 6 power. Kraken Tattoo + a fairly high strength character + a couple of milling effects = a character which no one can defend against. Training Vessel + Bloodthirsty Crew = an unopposed intrigue against most houses, and some hefty mill to go with it.

Penfold said:

Man, that's a cool combo.

Good ideas on this thread, I need to try putting a deck together just for fun.