Hi All,

After about nine months of being too lazy to make separate decks for melee and jousts, I have branched out with my first attempt at a Stark deck specifically melee. It took me a while to break the habit of thinking 'OMGZ, NORTHERN CAV FLANK' were auto-includes. They're in my Bolton joust deck, and whilst astonishly tough, draw agro in melee games like a *****! I've toned the characters down in this to a less obviously aggressive level to avoid being gang-banged and I welcome any critique available.

CONCEPT: Get Catelyn into play and secure her there, hiding behind her ability to stop my hand being plundered. Poke and prod at opponents to win easy military challenges whilst staying largely defensive. Go for the big win with Storm of Swords and an aggressive final turn utilisting the renown characters and Feigned Retreat (if necessary).

AGENDA

Siege of Winterfell

PLOTS

Storm of Swords
Wildfire Assault
Summoning Season
A Time for Ravens
Condemned by the Realm
Fury of the Wolf
Take Them by Surprise

LOCATIONS - 15

3 Narrow Sea
3 Northern Fiefdom
1 Street of Steel
2 Great Keep
1 Eddard's Chambers
1 Hidden Chambers
2 Frozen Outpost
1 Tower of the Hand
1 Storm Dancer

EVENTS - 10

3 Feigned Retreat
3 Judgement of the Hand
2 To Be a Wolf
1 Endless Endurance
1 Lethal Counterattack

ATTACHMENTS - 5

1 White Raven
2 Frozen Solid
1 In the Name of the King
1 Nymeria

CHARACTERS - 30

1 Blackfish
1 Eddard Stark (Core)
1 Robb Stark (LoW)
2 King Robb's Companions
3 Catelyn Stark (aToT)
1 Brienne of Tarth
2 Meera Reed
2 Arya Stark (CoS)
3 Guardian Wolf
1 Ser Dontus Hollard
1 Hodor
1 Lucas Blackwood
3 House Umber Berserkers
3 Flayed Men
2 Guard at Riverrun
3 Riders of the Red Fork

Good evening MrGloverGlover.

As I don't know what cards you have access, I will base all my suggestions on those cards that have been re-printed in triple format.

Unfortunately Melee is an area that I do not have much success in winning, so please take my suggestions with a pinch of salt.

Condemned by the Realm is too risky personally, even in Melee. You have to make sure that the opponent you pick will not choose one of your own characters, which is possible due to your agenda. Did you pick it for the gold or for the effect? If for the gold, what about taking one less gold and using The Minstrel's Muse? Whilst the effect will do nothing for you, it ties for third highest base initiative in the game making sure you are likely to determine first player. An alternative is Retaliation and making sure you are player 2.

Due to Catelyn being critical to your defense against Intrigue, what do you think about using more Shadow cards, to make sure you can be certain her ability will turn on? An option I was thinking of is Syrio Forel, as he can give you the option to bounce him in and out of the shadows, but also adds some stealth to help push through your own Military challenges.
If you did increase your shadow count, how would you feel about City of Lies? Whilst its income is only average, getting cards cheaply into the shadows whilst giving you initiative 6 could be worth while.

How do you feel about Battle of the Bay? Used on a turn when you win Initiative, it would allow you to clear the board even more whilst also earning more power.

With Meera Reed bouncing between the shadows, the chance your own characters die and if Syrio is added, how would you feel about Parting Blow? You could kneel a character that could cause you trouble, and also replaces itself with a new card.

Hopefully it has given you some food for thought

Condemned by the Realm is a good melee opening plot if you run Hollow Hill agenda, however as NuFenix pointed out it is quite risky otherwise. If you have Greyjoy in your meta then Take Them By Suprise is a really really bad plot because they have the event that ninjas initiative and you end up with no hand. I would stick Search and Detain and Retaliation or The King's Law in place of those two. Having a few Lords and Ladies in the deck Red Wedding is worth looking at.

Northern Cavalry Flank combined with Winterfell Practice Yard is awesome. Feigned Retreat is nice but can sometimes be dead because of lack of influence and tbh if you are running a Siege deck and it's working you probably don't need it. Hands Judgement is a card that sounds good but is a waste of deck space most of the time, you can only use it when you have gold and in order to be able to have to option on it you have to keep saving gold turn after turn, it looks good but it is usually a big fail in practice. I would recommend Peasant Defenders and Northern Steel because they make defensive beasts for net 3 gold. Swap The Flayed Men with The Bastards Elite because you are less likely to lose the military challenge and because if you do you can always use them to settle the claim so your opponent never gets them. I would also swap Core Eddard for KLE Eddard as he is super special awesome. Overall I would aim to bring down your total number of events + attachments to 10 - 12 and up your character count if possible incase you get into one of those melee games where everyone repeatedly gets massacred.

Arrdet said:

Only if your opponents are nasty; most opponents will choose to kill someone else's character if given the option. There is a chance they will kill Cat though if she is pissing everyone off, so you will probably want to use CbtR early on if you can. There are better options though; Song of Summer is always a good choice since the stats are good, you don't even need the text box.

Arrdet said:

Yea, TtbS should only be used by GJ players, and in melee you definitely don't want to use this.

Arrdet said:

Not as useful for melee; theres a much better chance of seeing many Lords and Ladies on the board, opponent to your left will choose two characters controlled by the remaining two opponents if possible to prevent you from getting power.

Arrdet said:

Agreed.

I would also add more White Ravens, if someone plays Summer or "Carrion Birds" your White Raven out of play, you'll never see another one. I'd add another To Be a Wolf because its just an awesome, awesome card, and add more cheap and efficient Stark guys for better setups. Stark is full of undercosted characters, but your deck has a lot of expensive ones. Get rid of Flayed Men, they make you a target since opponents can push through challenges to grab hold of them, and I agree with NuFenix that you should add Syrio.
One thing about the deck in general - it might piss people off. You're taking away their gold with Winter and preventing Intrigue challenges with Catelyn, you might as well be using the Northern Calvalry Flank.