I've been trying to build a sensible Night's Watch deck, and am getting nowhere.

I've run it out of neutral house to allow for Stark and Baratheon cards, but it still doesn't click. Yes I've got mostly tricon characters, but unless I get a defenders of the North or Two out early on, I struggle. There's also a major gold shortage- most of the decent cards are just too expensive.

I'm considering switching it to Baratheron - Baratheon Wall, and the Stannis who gives all Night's Watch +1 strength. Still not sure how to make it powerful enough to make up for the agenda penalties.

Has anyone else had much luck with watch decks? I've seen a few out of Lannister which seem effective, but not very plausible thematically. Is the whole watch idea worth pursuing (from a Nedly point of view) or should I just give up on it?

If you want an all out NW deck you want to run it out of Stark.

With Old Bear's Crow giving all your guys [war] crests Frozen Outpost is amazing. Combine it with the neutral Wall and you can throw in a knelt guy to any challenge, even a tiny one, stand him and make him huge.

Very annoying to try and get around.

Stark also gets you Wolves of the North to go with Defenders and Wildling Horde so you get 9 guys with huge strength that you can play for 3 gold with At The Wall (2 gold for the woofs)

Use the recruiter to make those wolves NW and they're tricon beasts.

How competitive the deck is inversely proportional to how thematic it is... i.e. a lot of the NW guys just suck. Old Bear is too expensive, Benjen is kinda useless along with Denys and Cellador, Dolorous Edd doesn't do much for Stark since hitting the draw cap is unlikely unless you find some way to abuse Sam with the plethora of Ravens that are available. Core Jon + Ghost, Aemon, Satin, Sam, Stonesnake and OB Crow are probably the only good uniques. Qhorin is ok, better out of Stark.

If your opponent has no location control then you've probably won as soon as you get The Wall; but given the lack of discounts available for neutral cards and the extra power you'll need to win, losing The Wall or not getting it into play at all means you simply can't win. And pray your opponent doesn't use Aegon's Hill. NW is a weird sort of glass cannon imo... is The Wall working and do you have DotN in your hand? Congratulations! you've destroyed the vile Red Falcon and saved the universe. Consider yourself a hero.

I have tested some different Night's Watch builds recently. Even if those builds did work out and I won some games they all had one problem in common: the decks were so slow I wouldn't want to take them to a tournament.