Anyone have any use for Balerion the Black? He is extremely powerful but expensive. Is there a way to get enough income as Targs? Tempting to build a deck around him, but risky too. Ideas?

Dragon Lore

/thread

Flint said:

Varamyr Sixskins?

Warren12 said:

Yes and no. You get Balerion into play with Varamyr, but you don't get to use his Response. Varamyr is a put into play effect, but Balerion's Reponse requires him to be played from hand. Plus, you have to discard Balerion at the end of the phase, unless you cancel Varamyr with Bloodrider, in which case you get to keep Balerion, Varamyr and Bloodrider in play. Neat, huh?

A guy in my meta is running a Balerion build right now. It needs some tweaks, but he is able to get him into play virtually every turn… the real problem with him is HCiT, BloodRider, etc - Lanni Iron Throne is particularly bad since Targ doesnt handle Locations well.

One of my friends just runs a couple high gold plots like Take Them By Surprise, 3x summer sea, 2x great pyramid, and street of silk (among other resources). He usually doesn't get Balerion out until late in the game, but he does end up being able to just "hardcast" him if the game goes on long enough. It kind of puts you on a timer since if the game goes long enough for him to amass the necessary resources it can be a huge power swing. One option I've thought of is using the Summer agenda since it lets you count more gold and you also have synergy with a 5 gold plot (Song of Summer).

Another option is Planning Ahead, although with its poor stats and the requirement that you marshal nothing or very little for a turn, it's probably not worth it.

tibs3688 said:

So can you kneel and discard multiple reducers to affect the next card put into play? i.e. kneel great pyramid x3 and discard summer sea x1 and pay 2 gold to bring Balerion the Black into play? I cant find anything in the rules or faq that says you can. I can only infer from the flowcharts that you can only do one at a time. If someone could point out where it says that I would be greatful.

Also can I play Balerion (or any unique) and his duplicate in the same marshalling phase to protect from Valar Morguhlis in the next roud?

All the cards say "Reduce the next character you play by x" right?

So what makes you think you cant use 3 and reduce the next character you play by x times 3? Yes you do them one at a time, incase an opponent wants to cancel the response but then you do another and another and bam the next character you do actually play gets reduced by x times 3. You wont find it spelled out in the rules though, its just how it works. (I'll prob be proven wrong about finding it written in the faq, ive not actually looked at the faq to check yet)

Its common for people to use them first chance they get even when your opponent is the active player taking his marshalling actions so that even if your opponent makes you discard a location the reduction effect is still around until you play your next character. So your opponent is marshalling first he plays a character, you can take an action and kneel a reducer, he can then take another action and play a character/attachment etc etc, he might also nuke one of your locations, you can choose the already knelt reducer location and then when he is finished and its your turn to collect gold and marshall, the first character you play still gets its cost reduced even though the reducer location is no longer in play..neat huh?

Yes you can play a Balerions dupe during your marshalling phase right after you played him, same way as any other character.

Totalgit said:

So if I understand it correctly we are down to a timing issue. So it would go:

My marshalling phase:

Kneel Great Pyramid

->Opponent response

Kneel Great Pyramid

->Opponent response

Kneel Great Pyramid

->Opponent response

Discard Summer Sea

->Opponent response

Pay 2 gold

Put Balerion the Black into play

It seems like Maester Aemon + Dragon Lore might be the better option, or at least less chance of interrupt.

A little tougher, but in an Influence heavy deck, you can Ambush Balerion into play using the Dragon Egg. I managed it for the first time a week or two ago, and boy was it sweet.

Yea, but you can't use his Response then. Ambush is a put into play effect, Balerion only works when played from hand.