Baratheon

Agendas (3)
Blood of the First Men,
The Last Giants,
The Free Folk.

Plots (7)
Threat from the East
Forgotten Plans
The Power of Arms
The First Snow of Winter
Rule by Decree
Retaliation!
Twist of Fate

Characters (36)
Highgarden Refugee x3
Orell the Eagle x2
Melisandre (Return of the Others) x2
Marya Seaworth x1
Gilly x1
Crow Killers x2
Mance Rayder (Return of the Others) x1
Veteran Knight x3
Skinchanger x3
Free Man x3
The Wildling Horde x3
Val x3
Craster x1
Osha x1
Brienne of Tarth (Princes of the Sun) x1
Varamyr Sixskins x1
Rattleshirt's Raiders x1
The Laughing Storm x3
Renly Baratheon (The Raven's Song) x1

Events (7)
Die by the Sword x3
Seductive Promise x2
The Price of War x2

Locations (14)
Street of Silk x1
River Row x1
Aegon's Garden x3
Street of Sisters x1
Narrow Sea x2
Flea Bottom x1
Massey's Hook x2
Ocean Road x1
The Land Beyond the Wall x1
Street of Steel x1

Attachments (3)
Climbing Spikes

96 players attended the joust championship. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I was the one who built the deck but Anfalas played it! Our team work paid off in the end, I guess^^Some of my choices will surprise you and you should be aware that this deck was specially built for the French environment and that it might not work as well where you live.

First, thank you for posting this deck. It's great to see top decks posted, though I understand why some a reluctant.

Other the obvious Val-TLS and TLS-Plot Synergy, what are some of the major tech of the deck that really made it a success over just any other Bara deck featuring the previously mentioned combos?

mardukch said:

Thanks for posting this, Chris! And congratulations!

Great deck. I think Veteran Knight is a nice touch. Takes care of Stark/Targ Warcrest decks nicely. How big of a problem was Flame-Kissed on Val?

ScottieATF said:

Woudn't call TLS- TFTE a combo but rather a glitch. Hope they fix it soon. The sooner the better.

ScottieATF said:

ScottieATF said:

I won’t be able to tell you anything about the games Anfalas played as I was also playing simultaneously. I will however explain the choices I made when conceptualizing this deck.

I think a good starting point would be to explain the state of the game in France when I first built the deck.

I started deck-building in April after the TO announced which cycles would be legal for this year’s Championship. I always deck-build in function of what I expect my opponents to play. Some will say that it's crazy, but It is only risky if you do not do it thoroughly.

I wasn't expecting a wide range of archetypes for this year’s championship as some of the decks I had seen in the past couple months were way ahead of all the others. I thought that Baratheon Knights of the Realm, Targaryen Burn, Greyjoy Choke and Stark SoW would be the ones that would make it in this year’s top32.

Baratheon Knights of the Realm was clearly the strongest archetype. With the comeback of the Laughing Storm and the infamous First Snow of Winter + Fear of Winter + Rule by Decree combo, they would rank among the top decks of the French Championship. In an environment where control decks were basically dead, big aggro/ rush baratheon decks did not have much left standing in their ways. Baratheon knights of the Realm would won against Targaryen Burn, Greyjoy Choke, but would lose to Stark SoW 55% of the time(11 games out of 20 games played at home).

Then, there was Targaryen Burn. Note that the the Burn deck I based my analysis on was the one that won the big tournament in Zaragoza, Spain. That was the second best archetype I expected. It was really efficient against Stark SoW that would reach 12 points on average during the first 4 rounds but then lose its grip on the game because of the Targaryen archetype's massive burn effects, Valar Morghulis, Threat from the North and the First Snow of Winter (again!). Choke was also an easy match-up for Targ Burn, which could easily get rid of the Fishermen, B&P and the Boatswains.

Starks SoW were also a good option but their efficiency would greatly depend on the number of Baratheons and Targaryens. Then, they also had a mixed match-up against Choke; choke decks that would run Naval Escorts clearly had an advantage against SoW whereas the one that only relied on the choke mechanic would be disadvantaged. Finally, Starks SoW clearly had a problem with the First Snow of Winter.

Then came the last archetype; Greyjoy choke. I expected many French players to play it.

In my opinion, it was clearly the worst choice that could be made but I knew that many players would be dazzled by the Greyjoy’s recent results in Stahleck or Nantes (a major French tournament). They would therefore give it a try.
Nuggetz (another Swiss player) and I both agreed that Chokes would reach the top32, possibly scoring really well in the Swiss rounds, but only to lose in the finals to the other three major archetypes (quick side note: this is exactly what happened).
Other types of decks would be played, of course, but I didn’t expect any of them to do well in our environment.

The Baratheon Wildling idea came to me after one of the Swiss players (Xenomax) talked about how we should post false results of our monthly tournament on the French forum to set French players on the wrong deck-building path (we’re evil witches, we know^^). We wrote on the French forum that a Night’s Watch deck won the tournament, and it got me thinking. I was desperately looking for a deck that could potentially beat all four archetypes and Baratheon Wildings came as an illumination.
Wildlings didn’t fear Baratheons KotR because they had high strength, stealth (Smuggler’s Cove be damned!) and were not sensitive to the TLS + Threat from the East combo, when the Laughing Storm was in play. Moreover, Wildings didn’t fear the First Snow of Winter… they would beat Knights of the Realm at their own game.

Needless to say that Targaryens wouldn’t stand a chance against Wildings because of their high Strength and high claim. Also, one huge advantage was that you could top deck 90% of the time; Val could die, sure, but the deck would work decently without her as long as you weren’t too unlucky and your opponent not too lucky^^ (I guess, this answers Helmut’s question.)

Chokes were also easy to beat, as long as you got rid of Gylbert early on in the gane, which would be easy enough with Die by the Sword and Seductive Promise (you can’t take control of Gylbert, but you can still steal your opponent’s claim absorbers and kill him with a simple military challenge).

Stark SoW was clearly the worst match-up but the Stealth-giving agenda and the First Snow of Winter would come in handy against it. The Stark opponents wouldn’t be able to use stealth on your wildlings with his Carrion Birds or Syrio Forel and you would also often match his military strength. No… the greatest problem was Meera and there was not much the deck could do against her, except killing her with Die by the Sword. Still, Stark SoW was tough but not unbeatable.

Now, to answer your question more precisely, Scottie, here’s a card by card walkthrough. I will only point out the not-so-obvious interactions of the deck:

Agendas (3)
Blood of the First Men, not as useful as it used to be, but necessary to dominate the table, especially against Greyjoy Chokes

The Last Giants, Very efficient against burn

The Free Folk, Stealth is the most important keyword in an aggressive environment. It is the key to winning all of your challenges. It also works perfectly with Melisandre (more stealth means more unopposed challenges!)

Plots (7)
Threat from the East, has 2 functions. The first obvious one is to control your opponent’s hand with TLS. The second one is to allow you to draw three cards when you only have TLS in play

Forgotten Plans, Many players either play Blockade, Fear of Winter or the First Snow of Winter and it is crucial. It prevents you from losing the game when you get a bad starting hand.

The Power of Arms, You have to be aggressive when not running Valar Morghulis. The first function of this plot is obviously its high claim. Then, you sometimes need a strength boost against some archetypes like SoW or Targ Burn

The First Snow of Winter. You get to keep your nasty characters and your opponent will most likely lose all of his challenges.

Rule by Decree, Acts as a deathblow after FSoW or against control decks that would keep their cards in their hand.

Retaliation!,

Twist of Fate, the most controversial plot… You have to use it wisely and it needs some time getting used to, but it is worth it in the end. I believe Anfalas would not have won the semi-final without it. You also need the high gold/ high claim ratio. Here, I have to thank FireFox, who showed me how powerful it was

Characters (36)
Highgarden Refugee x3.

Orell the Eagle x2, One of the central cards in this deck. Combined with all the other Wildlings having stealth, it will allow you to get at least one unopposed challenge each round if not two with Massey’s Hook or Marya Seaworth

Melisandre (Return of the Others) x2. Great with Wildlings. Allows you to win as quickly as a normal deck.

Marya Seaworth x1

Gilly x1, Cost:0 Strength 2 INT… what else?

Crow Killers x2 Essentially used against SoW

Mance Rayder (Return of the Others) x1 Blanking an agenda will make you win more quickly… And Yeah… You can blank all three agendas with Marya and Massey’s Hook. Who said Wildlings needed 21 powers to win?^^

Veteran Knight x3, 3 functions: allows you to play Die by the Sword and Price of War; KotR players do not expect it; are incredibly useful against aggressive SoW

Skinchanger x3

Free Man x3 Stands The Wildling Horde on the FSoW

The Wildling Horde x3

Val x3

Craster x1

Osha x1 Additional Stealth in military AND intrigue challenge each round

Brienne of Tarth (Princes of the Sun) x1, Brienne was added by Anfalas. My version ran the Painted Table instead, but he was right, Brienne is much more useful

Varamyr Sixskins x1

Rattleshirt's Raiders x1

The Laughing Storm x3

Renly Baratheon (The Raven's Song) x1, Cost 3: 4 STR INT PW and Renown. Some sort of wildling, Anfalas would say^^

Events (7)
Die by the Sword x3, when you plan on not playing Valar Morghulis, you better run some selective kill

Seductive Promise x2, Same reason as DbtS. Steals knights, maesters

The Price of War x2 You also need some location control

Locations (14)
Street of Silk x1,

River Row x1

Aegon's Garden x3

Street of Sisters x1

Narrow Sea x2

Flea Bottom x1

Massey's Hook x2, Stands all your Wildings, extremely annoying with Orell the Eagle and the Wildling Horde. A central card in the deck

Ocean Road x1

The Land Beyond the Wall x1

Street of Steel x1

Attachments (3)
Climbing Spikes, very effective against Targaryens that will probably never be able to discard it. It is often better than the Price of War as more and more Targaryens run unique locations 3x in their decks.

There, that was the deck played by the French Champion; Anfalas.

For those wondering why I didn’t play this deck myself even though I built it, let’s just say that I’m an old stubborn player and I rather have safe draw than massive draw. I played a baratheon KotR and ranked 4th in this championship.

Great deck and excellent write-up. Thank you for sharing and congrats on placing 4th and engineering the winning deck!

Also, interesting play on falsifying tourney results… do you think it helped?

~BTW: Martell/White Book is taking SoCal by storm these days. Watch out everyone!

msommi said:

How is it a 'glitch'? I don't really expect it to get fixed.

Bronson said:

Who knows, probably not but we like to do it Littlefinger style, in Switzerland.

Interesting strategy in falsifying results. However, I don't think I like it. People like to do statistics breakdowns and write articles on it, and you are essentially making their writing worthless and incorrect.

___

finitesquarewell said:

~With your reputation, you could probably get half the field at GenCon to show up with Neutral House/Alliance decks, LOL.

Ratatoskr said:

How did you guess the deck Corey's building him for DC?

finitesquarewell said:

~When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.

Congrats on the 4th place finish, mardukch… and some truly impressive metagame analysis. Is Anfalas tourney report/ your decklist posted on the French forums?

HoyaLawya said:

Hollow Hill and all the refugees FTW.