I don't know if anyone else is having this problem, but I am having a very difficult time making a good Baratheon deck with the Core set and the LCG cards. I have two copies of the Core set, and one of each of the Ravens chapter packs. I've tried a number of different builds, but they just don't seem to able to compete with the other houses.

Any advice?

I dont know for sure. I havent built a deck like that yet, since we still play Standart, but I was thinking a while about building a LCG Baratheon deck.

I think that the problem might be that Baratheon has some really really good cards in the pre-CoreSet CP. King Robert's Host should be awesome with Renly or Selyse out there. Also The Fox's Teeth is a very strong character. Then Claw Isle is a good location and Martial Law a good attachment. If I were you i would buy at least the The War of Five Kings CP. I dont think that Bara has strong cards in the ToR CP so far.

From the CoreSet and generally I would play a lot of cards with renown, because I think that is the strong side of Baratheon in LCG or anywhere. You just have to make sure that key characters like Robert survive, so have a few claim soakers or Lightbringer, Ser Davos Seaworth or Bodyguard.

I would also use Support of the Kingdom as a location control and winning power challenges should be easy for you.

I dont know what plots I would use, cause I havent got that far yet, but I would definetly not miss the Wildfire Assault

Hope it hepls a little.

Try a Winter build using burning sword and Shadow Stalker, with claim soak, renown , and power grab to round it out. That ability to kill characters with the Shadow Stalker is incredible, and a burning sword makes it difficult to get rid of. You can get one of these guys in play with a Burning Sword and a savable character drop your own Valar after having protected the SS and then wreck havoc, since you don't need claim to execute the kill, just the win during Winter.

Oh, and Desolate Passage is your friend.

This is the Bara deck I'm currently running.

Shadows of Winter - LCG (Baratheon - Kings of Winter)

----- Plots (7) avg income: 3.8 -----
Desolate Passage x1 The Raven's Song F79
A Time for Ravens x1 A Change of Seasons F59
The Winds of Winter x1 The Winds of Winter F40
Rains of Autumn x1 Core Set B184
Good for the Gander x1 Core Set B185
Wildfire Assault x1 Core Set L191
Fury of the Stag x1 Ancient Enemies F27

----- Characters (30) avg cost: 2.8 -----
Shadow Stalker x3 A Change of Seasons F46
Mance Rayder x1 The Winds of Winter F33
Carrion Bird x3 The Winds of Winter F35
Robert Baratheon x1 Core Set B71
Stannis Baratheon x1 Core Set B72
Renly Baratheon x1 Core Set B73
Melisandre x1 Core Set B74
Ser Davos Seaworth x1 Core Set B75
Brienne of Tarth x1 Core Set B76
Old Red Priest x3 Core Set B84
Army of the Faithful x1 Core Set B85
Maester Aemon x1 Core Set T151
Fiery Followers x3 Sacred Bonds F53
Royal Guard x3 Sacred Bonds F58
Bringers of Law x3 Ancient Enemies F40
House Florent Scouts x3 The War of Five Kings F14

----- Locations (18 ) avg cost: 0.8 -----
Stormlands Fiefdoms x1 Core Set B92
Stormlands Fiefdoms x1 Core Set B93
King Robert's Chambers x1 Core Set B94
Aegon's Garden x1 Core Set B95
Aegon's Garden x1 Core Set B96
Aegon's Garden x1 Core Set B97
Great Hall x1 Core Set B98
Narrow Sea x3 Core Set B99
Street of Steel x1 Core Set S139
Shadowblack Lane x1 Core Set L144
Crossroads x3 Core Set B148
Street of Sisters x1 Core Set B149
Claw Isle x2 Epic Battles F73

----- Attachments (12) avg cost: 1.5 -----
Burning Sword x3 A Change of Seasons F43
White Raven x3 The Winds of Winter F24
Lightbringer x1 Core Set B68
Milk of the Poppy x2 Core Set B145
Hunting Spear x3 The Battle of Ruby Ford F95

----- Events (6) -----
Support of the Kingdom x3 Core Set B172
Seductive Promise x3 Core Set T175

Control oriented, the idea is to make it Winter get a Shdow Stalker with a Burning Sword, a Bringers of Law with a Hunting Spear, and Lightbringer or Maester Aemon into play. If I can do this the deck begins to cripple opponents pretty easily (targeted kill with Shadow Stalker can be brutal), and use Seductive Promise and Support of the Kingdom as additional removal of pesky cards.

Thanks for sharing, it helps. I am curious about the selection of Good for the Gander though. Its a plot I always consider, but never seems to make the cut. Have you (or anyone else) had much success with it?

I tend to use it mostly in melee. I get some success with it in joust, but dropping it in melee as the 2-4th plot usually gets me a search or draw plot. The thing I love about the plot in general (especially if I've used the Burning sword pre-plot) is double up on Valar. IT is rare that they will have multiple saves for the same characters which means the couple of characters they thought would survive go goodbye, leaving me with someone like the Shadow Stalker to wreck havoc.

So finally I kicked myself to make the deck. I had only one CoreSet available since I am plannig to use the other one to make it an example for new players. I had bunch of CPs so I thought it would be easy. But LCG is a lot different then Standart. At first I thought that I just make a normal deck without an agenda but it seemd that without it I wont have enough cards. When I build a deck I usually have like 100 cards I thought that might fit in and keep reducing to 60 to 64. After I summoned all the cards for this deck I was only on 59 cards. Mostly I was lacking good income locations. Then I had only very few events since I could use only one CoreSet for it. So I used the winter theme just to annoy opponents draw and to use Shadow Stalker, but I have unfortunately only one. I rearanged the cards and I was on 61, I made it 60 just to have a 60 card deck, I dont think that ever happend to me before.

You can see the outcome here: tzumainn.com/agot/decks/deck.php

Comments are welcome.

Honestly, I'd get rid of the Winter theme and replace it with Summer, and use Summer Champions x3 for renown and the knight trait if you have them. With only a single card that is powered by Winter I can't help but think your deck would be better this way. If you don't have SC x3 I still think Summer with some OOH characters would end up providing you with a better seasonal themed deck.

dormouse said:

Question: If you are hoping for a Winter theme, why did you choose not the use The Wall? The ability to not kneel to defend, plus using the NW saves on Bara staples like Robert and Mel makes this a card/theme to consider.

Honestly because I turned it from a Summer to a Winter deck 5 mnutes before playing it and just stripped out everything that said Summer and put in the Winter cards you see. I've got it on my 'to do list' before next weeks game.

JerusalemJones said:

I will try the wall, it is a nice idea.

@dormous Winter is better since you can mess up with opponents draw, i love when they have to discard randomly

dormouse said:

Burning Sword can't go on Shadow Stalker. unique chars only.

The funny thing is I knew that, have corrected someone else on it... and still wrote it wrong! It should be hunting spear on both with the Burning Swords protecting the Bara Brothers.

I played a League deck similar to this and it destroyed both the Lanni and Stark deck that I had never beaten before. I think running it as a Winter deck is good, mostly because winter should help you more than the stark (if they play seasons) and then the vigilant and standing reaks havoc with Lanni's kneeling effects.

Also, The burning sword is amazing.

Hey, I just put up my idea for Bara LCG, though it needs some help, if anyone could check it out. Its similar to Dormouse's but more focused on the vigilant angle. I was hoping I might get some advice on it, since I usually don't play bara much, but since greyjoy is kinda on the ouskirts right now, they're my back up. its posted here:

http://tzumainn.com/agot/decks/deck.php?current_deck_id=15842

i'd drop the 3x vigalant stags and 3x crossroads they are nice, but maybe not in winter where the 2 ghold on the crosroads hurts you. Try 3x distinct master instead.

For family and honor seems a little redundant and could be dropped.

that gets you to 67.

I'm not a fan of hunting spear and thus wouldn't have it (putting you at 64 if you want to dorp it) and if you wanted to be at 60 i'd drop 2x bringers of law, 1x royal guard and 1x refugee of the citadel.

Bringers of Law with Hunting Spear are a monster, giving you a self standing tricon defender. I mean if they don't have stealth on their side we are looking at two 4 STR characters commiting to get a challenge through, and completely wiping out their ability to send through chump attackers to force you to kneel out.

As to crossroads... you have to remember while 2 gold in winter is not a fun thing to pay you need to get gold out to offset as much of your own loss due to winter as well as ensure you have at least one or two influence in play to be able to abu... er use Renly to the best effect.

according to his comments on Tzu's site he was looking for help trimming the deck thats how i would trim it.

Never said any of those were bad cards, just that is how i would get down to or closer to 60. he also already removed the vigilant stags and i think has less need for crossroads now. Hunting spear may or may not be a good card, but is it better then any of his other attachments?

What would you trim?

I didn't get a chance to see what he originally had, but I probably would have cut the banner sub-theme in favor of keeping Vigilant Stag and adding Fiery Followers.

I've been playing a fairly simple, season-neutral Baratheon deck built around keeping renown characters safe.

Key characters: Robert, Stannis, (King) Renly, Melissandre, and Brienne

All of the above have renown and are unique, so they can be duped (I run three copies of each) and they can all take Lightbringer (one copy in the deck). Each is also a Lord or Lady, so they can all take Bodyguard (three copies). Robert, Stannis, and Rely are nobles, so I also run two copies of Power of Blood.

For more speed, I run three copies of the Baratheon bannerman characters — the ones that can be attached on another character to give it vigilant. Also, since four of the above characters have crests, I run three copies of Distinct Mastery.

Three Heralds of the Stag allow me to search for the dupes of the unique renown characters.

I also include Samwell, three Carrion Birds, one White Raven and one Black Raven. This gives me both card draw and ways to mess with my opponent's season mechanic.

The rest of the deck is support and fodder. The play style hinges on the principal that everything that is not a character with renown is expendable.

I experimented with a winter dedication with The Wall and Burning Swords, but I didn't like what it did to my resource curve, so I dropped it (and I never seemed to be able to afford to get out the Wall anyway – I always needed to get more characters in play).

I run Valar, but I try not to use it unless I have at least two characters that can be saved from it. I'm very interested in trying to work in some Rookery plot rotation so I don't get stuck with a claim zero plot for a whole round, but so far I haven't actually attempted it.

This deck has been working pretty well against a variety of builds, but it's not nearly as fast as the Baratheon builds of the past. It's more like a bulldozer: slow moving, but once it's gets going, it's hard to stop.

mauglir said:

I guess that's really my problem. My deck sounds similar to yours, bodyguards, unique renown characters, etc., but it just seems so slow compared to the Baratheon decks of old. I really miss the old Baratheon power grab cards.

Hi agree with a lot of the people on this forum. My thoughts on the Baratheon's are that they are great if you can get them out early and keep them alive. In one game i played i was able to aquire 8 power easily in three turns. It is when the other players are able to clear my board that i get into trouble. I am moving to arizona this summer and i would like to continue playing there as well. If anyone has any suggestions on where to look for people to play with and tournements to enter i would appreciate some advice.

I probably wouldnt trim because if he can pull off his card draw his attachments seem like they would pay off in the long run. My opinion is a little biased though since i run Baratheon myself.