I know WIll is going to be posting the decks for top 4 within the next couple days, but I figured I'd post mine to get some conversation going until then. I'll try to post a tourney report and some more in depth insight later (i.e. when I didn't just drag myself out of bed) but I'll give some preliminary thoughts alongside the deck. Without further ado:

House Stark

AGENDA: Knights of the Realm

Plots (7):

Retaliation!

Respect of the Old Gods

Search and Detain

At the Gates

City of Soldiers

The Power of Arms

Regroup

Characters (36):

Bolton Refugee x3

Hodor x1

Knight of the Red Fork x3

Ser Jorah Mormont x1

Knight of Harrenhal x3

Knight of the Tumblestone x3

Sansa Stark (KL) x1

Osha x1

Ser Kyle Condon x3

Maester Luwin x2

Caetlyn Stark (KoW) x1

Brienne of Tarth (PotS) x1

Jory Cassel x1

Ser Rodrik Caseel x1

Ser Edmure Tully x1

Meera Reed x3

Arya Stark (KL) x1

The Blackfish x3

Northern Cavalry Flank x2

Robb Stark (KoW) x1

Attachments (0):

Events (10):

Narrow Escape x3

The Price of War x2

Die by the Sword x2

No Quarter x3

Locations (14):

Great Keep x3

Narrow Sea x3

Lord Eddard's Chambers x1

Kingdom of Shadows x2

Harrenhal x2

Bear Island x3

The basic idea behind the deck is to play more knights than your opponent (obv) and get ahead in board position. While Stark doesn't really have that many knights (and the Knights of the Red Fork are only really playable on setup or in very particular board positions) in theory you have enough direct kill to cull your opponent's knights to a manageable level. I never had fewer knights than any of my opponents and most of the time had more, so I was always up in card advantage. Between the agenda, Luwin, Harrenhal, and Ser Kyle Condon the deck draws a crazy number of cards and I usually had 10+ in my hand at the end of the game. As long as I had a Narrow Escape in hand I never worried about a reset and my opponents rarely had any cards in hand between the claim two intrigue I did almost every turn and having to play significantly more characters each turn than normal thanks to my kill effects. I was Valar/Wildfired several times in the day, and only once did my opponent have a hand to discard to cancel my Narrow Escape.

There are a few changes I'd try to make if I were playing it again. I think the plots could use some work; I wanted to overload on claim two to make every turn as brutal as possible for my opponent but I was a little lacking in gold. As much as I dislike the plot in general I was considering adding in Twist of Fate as a finisher to drop a bunch of cards onto the board to overwhelm my opponent. I'd also consider taking out Regroup and adding in another The Power of Arms to get a smidgen more gold, but getting back a timely No Quarter or Die by the Sword is awesome and I'm not sure I'd want to give that up. Aside from that really the only change I'd think about would be taking out a few (non-Knight) characters to play a few more resources. I dislike the Godswood (and other 2 cost reducers) but I think it might have a place in this deck since I am almost always killing off Ser Kyle Condon each turn as claim soak and replaying him the next turn.

I welcome thoughts and opinions on the deck. For the record I played against Baratheon Maester Rush, Martell Sandsnakes, Targaryen Summer Burn, and Greyjoy WInter Choke in the preliminary rounds and then Targaryen Maester Burn and the same Baratheon Maester Rush in top 4, so I played against a fairly diverse field. For the most part I rarely felt out of control in a game, the deck just plays more of a delayed game. It can't out rush a rush deck or out control a control deck, but it has enough going on to outlast and overpower most opponents. It's (in my opinion) a strong deck that I recommend you take a look at for testing purposes.

Interesting, thanks for posting! How do you like the Knights of Harrenhal? Did you find them very useful beyond the trait?

I actually really liked them in all the games I played them. They make intrigue challenges (which the deck usually has some issues with if there are several of them or if they are for a lot of strength) no big deal. Yea, you are loosing a card, but it's the card that's the worst for you right now. You never risk having that No Quarter pulled out of your hand that you were counting on, and you get to throw away that Knight of the Red Fork you don't want to play. I rarely subscribe to the "claim fodder" method of thinking, but this guy changes that considerably. I heartily approve.

With your limited resources how often did you play bear island? I have a similar deck that I play but it uses streets and carrion birds instead of bear island. It is a very fun card but I feel like 3 cost locations are so hard to play in joust. Was the sandsnake deck able to get no use for grief off against you?

I played Bear Island in every one of my games except against Greyjoy choke. It's a beast and automatically puts your opponent on the defensive. I wouldn't dream of taking it out.

And no, I don't think he was playing No Use for Grief. Just trying to flood the board with slivers...I mean Sand Snakes. Which I, for the most part, murdered with Bear Island/events. However, the more combo version of the deck could give me trouble if they get it out early. I played a for fun match against a friend playing the combo version, and it basically came down to me winning since he didn't have No Use for Grief.

I did play a deck with it some time ago but since dropped it in favor of other stuff. I loved bear island but I just feel like it ends up hit with newly made lord or condemed by the council so easily. I know you did not play against these decks but in theory how does it match up with greyjoy maesters and lannister power behind the throne. Those are the two decks I seem to have the most issues with out of stark.

Nice work, ser! It's funny, I was testing a deck similar to this for my regionals yesterday, although mine had more neutral knights so no Bear Island. I, too, found the Harrenhal knights to be pretty awesome, they're a good addition for sure.

Good looking deck you got there, and congrats on the win! I always wanted to build a Stark murder deck, but I am absolutely terrible at making and playing Stark decks. This cycle gave them a pretty good boost. (Shamelessly netdecking this) Well done!

Crevic said:

Glad I'm not the only one. Every Stark deck I've tried to play just collapses in on itself miserably. I'm gonna try out a Stark Wildling deck next, I fully expect it to be yet another embarrassment.

Congrats on the great looking deck.

As sort of an aside, have you guys been seeing much shadows lately? I've noticed a lot of Stark players running no-shadows Sansa, and I've seen few players running shadows besides Meera and a handful of others.

What percentage of decks do people think are running ANY shadows these days (even only 1-2 cards)? How many is the typical deck running? Are shadows-heavy builds at all popular in any metas?

Just curious...have regionals on my mind and just wondering what's going on elsewhere.

Zero really, which is a shame since I love the mechanic. That was, after all, the reason they errata'd that standing version of Bob. It is my favourite mechanic in the game but I don't really see it having much play. Especially after the resurgence of GJC, having a flexible gold pool a requirement for optimal performance can be a liability. With the brothel guards there is easier repeatable kneel out of Lannister that lets you use TPBtT or even go agendaless if your fearing a Flanking. Aside from the random aside (ie Young Griff, Fiery Kiss, Meera, new Varys) Shadows has been steadily slipping away as a dedicated theme. I expect you will find it splashed for the above mentioned cards because of their value intrinsically - they don't rely on the other stuff to get the job done and are powerful on their own, something you never see with the seasonal cards (as they require a lot of card slots to dedicate to making, and keeping, the season that is required for their effects). You can splash in Meera, you can't splash in Wintertime Marauders.

So ya, I'd say 1-3 shadows cards (depending on the house). This is, of course, outside of the Shadows oriented burn decks that are going to proliferate with the new Illyrio.

The only shadows I see are a few key in house cards like Meera out of Stark and VB out of Martell plus a couple of neutrals. The only neutrals I see are Varys and Syrio. Those are for obvious reasons.

Congrats to the 1st place.

I rebuilt the deck and will test it out this evening. Looks definitely like fun.