Having learned AGoT by only playing Melee in one city (yes, I know everyone hates Melee, so please don't take the time to tell me how wrong I was for ever playing it, I happened to like it), I have moved somewhere only Joust is played (SoCal), and it is a completely different game. It is like starting over entirely but already owning a bunch of cards.

So, I thought I would try to learn with a deck based on the one Humberto Jiménez made it to the Top 2 with at Stahleck 2012 (I made some changes because I didn't own all the cards), and I played it at the tournament John Bruno ran (very smoothly) this past Saturday in Pasadena. It appears I was already messing up the restricted cards thing as it was, and now, after the new FAQ, I am in real trouble, because there are a lot of restricted cards in this deck now. And the SoCal meta is very focused on competitive play, so just continuing with non-tournament legal deck is not a good option down here.

I am therefore asking for help figuring out which restricted card to keep, and what to replace the others with. I was going to write a tournament report, but figured my newbie Joust insights would not be of particular use to anyone, so instead I will just note that after playing it on Saturday I am also thinking of removing the Epic Battles (I am just not yet good enough at predicting in the Plot Phase what will be helpful after Challenges, and playing a Battle of Ruby Ford was what lost me my closest game) and Robb Stark (I kept wishing for more Strength instead of the focused kill, but I could be wrong), and that big game winners for me were Rickard Karstark, Lethal Counterattack, Make an Example, and Paper Shield. I will also note that this meta is very heavy on Targ (and I think Greyjoy and Martell) and that KotHH is the most popular agenda (though House of Dreams was in a lot of tournament decks).

Anyways, below is the deck with all the restricted cards still in. Any specific or general advice is appreciated, as I really do know nothing about Joust yet.

House Stark
The Siege of Winterfell

Plots (7)
Regroup x1
Fear of Winter x1
Dry Season x1
Retaliation! x1
Burning Bridges x1
Respect of the Old Gods x1
At the Gates x1

Characters (40)
Carrion Bird x3
Varys (Secrets and Spies) x1
Robb Stark (Core Set) x1
Catelyn Stark (Lords of Winter) x1
Guard at Riverrun x2
Maester Luwin x1
Rickard Karstark x1
The Blackfish x1
Bolton Refugee x3
Shaggydog (Core Set) x1
Riders of the Red Fork x1
Hodor x1
Knight of Harrenhal x1
Northern Cavalry Flank x1
Ser Kyle Condon x1
Arya Stark (City of Secrets) x1
The Bastard's Elite x3
The Hound (Princes of the Sun) x1
Brienne of Tarth (Princes of the Sun) x1
Damon Dance-For-Me x1
Reek x1
Theon Greyjoy (Princes of the Sun) x1
Wolf Herald (Sacred Bonds) x1
Hungry Mob x3
Sansa Stark (Tales from the Red Keep) x1
Ser Jorah Mormont (Princes of the Sun) x1
Lucas Blackwood x1
Maester Vyman x1
Syrio Forel x1
Meera Reed x2

Events (11)
Narrow Escape x1
Battle of the Bay x1
Lethal Counterattack x2
Endless Endurance x1
Paper Shield x3
Battle of Ruby Ford x1
Make an Example x2

Locations (10)
Narrow Sea x3
Lord Eddard's Chambers x1
Street of Sisters x1
Great Keep x3
River Row x1
Street of Steel x1

Okay, I'll be honest. I can't make heads or tails of this deck. That being said, Meera is a consistently good restricted card in any Stark build. If you are ever having trouble deciding what Restricted card to play out of Stark, it should probably be her.

With seige of Winterfell you want to get in as many military challenges as possible. There's 4 possible power you can't get each round with that agenda. have to speed it up some other way. YOu have Ruby and Lucas. Good. put whispering wood Blackwater Bay and Storm of swords, Mummers Ford to up # challenges. Scratch Fear of Winter. Out of the 40 characters you have i counted 26 2 cost or less. I think you would come out with the short end. And yes, Meeras awesome. Luwin is awesome draw for events. When i have him or wolf dreams or kennels i like to have x 3 of Riders of Red Fork. Increase draw percentage. you might want 2nd Luwin to keep him around longer. with the new list we can start getting out the attachments again. YOu don't have 1 unique with a duplicate. i like to have1 character who's your guy who is key to your deck. But you are running an aggro. And by the way i'm going to open another pandora's box by saying this game was meant for melee. It is the best . There. It represents the true flavor of Thrones. Now, let the threading begin!.oh yeah and that Karstark card wouldn't be used for joust if i remember. Put in 1 more riverun guard. good draw cost/strenth value. works with blackfish ability. Take out lethal counterattack. you have tons of characters to spare and remember you won't get any power from this event. no one wins. Stark have tons of targeted kill events. minus no quarter now unfortunately. Take out Varys. Dissension does same thing(won't see refugees now, but it still gets rid of ally nonetheless) and remember Luwin is drawing out those events for you.

snaggrriss said:

LoL. I love melee, but it always winds up dragging when I play. It's great until you wish the game was over. I've never really figured out how to fix that problem.

snaggrriss said:

Did a lot of that. My current plot list is: Forgotten Plans, Respect of the Old Gods, Storm of Swords, After the Mummers Ford, Burning Bridges, Dry Season, and At the Gates. I am a little nervous about Epic Battles, because as a new Joust player, I am having trouble predicting in the Plot phase how I will be doing after the Dominance phase. Then again, maybe I just need to get better.

snaggrriss said:

I think that is part of the design. I started with a deck that got 2nd at Stahleck, and kept the character distribution intact. I need early, cheap Military Strength, and many of those 26 guys get more Strength than their cost. It works alright, so far. As of tonight, I have played 10 games with various versions of the deck, and won 5. Obviously, I want to raise that percentage, but I think the low cost guys are right.

snaggrriss said:

Actually, I think I will make Luwin my duped guy, and maybe Rickard Karstark (see below) as well. I would rather play Luwin for free with At the Gates, but when I draw I lose that option. If I have two, it is more likely I can play him for free and dupe if I have the 2nd one in hand.

snaggrriss said:

Thank you for saying that! I really think Melee is a better and more dynamic game, as opposed to the iaijistu duel that is Joust. I think it is just player conduct in competitive play that has soured Melee for so many people. Which, of course, just rewards bad sportsmanship with decreased competition. I don't think AGoT should have an overall champion, I think that would help hardcore Joust people enjoy Melee as its own thing. But that's all been said before. By the way, only the second part of Rickard Karstark's text requires multiple opponents. The first part is attacking Military challenges without kneeling, and that is the part this deck loves.

snaggrriss said:

All great advice, and pretty much followed. Thank you!

One question about Lethal Counterattack: The FAQ says: "If, at any time after a challenge begins and attackers are declared, there are no participating characters in that challenge, the challenge ends immediately without resolution." Now, my question is, if I declare a defender on a challenge and kneel him, and then use Lethal Counterattack (kneeling two more characters to fuel it), do I then win the attack, since there is still a participating character (my knelt defender), even though all attackers are dead. Obviously, with No Quarter gone, this is of great importance to Stark Siege!

Yeah the no kneel on Rickard is nice. I'd just put in another north flank instead. Better bang for buck. and they're war crest. Robb core is bad value. Stark have nough targeted kill now (die by the sword) routing the charge, poisoned coin. You're right about counterattack. just have 3rd character knelt. I know in Europe they play lots of stark. not so much Targ. I wonder how a deck with lots of low strength characters would do against a Targ Burn. John Bruno won easily with Targ KoHH over Stark Winter 15-2 for world final. Test it out.