R&D Journal

A Song of Sand and Snow

by Adam DeWulf

The deck I played at ChiCon III was pretty typical for my play style. At heart I'm a control player, not the complete lock-down type, but I like to ensure the game me and my opponent are playing is played on my terms, and not theirs. Personally, I think the best way to accomplish this is by controlling my opponent's characters in whatever way I can. I prefer character-based character control instead of event or location based control as this allows me the flexibility to make my own challenges and keep a constant, forceful level of pressure on my opponent. There is definitely a certain amount of 'tool-boxing' in the deck, an approach I'm more comfortable with than a deck that is focused on one, or even two, strategies. The deck originally started as a unique character deck designed to maximize the power of Stark and Martell's uniques and then protecting them with Put to the Question, Edict of the Prince and The Winding Walls (so good!). The deck previously used Prove One's Worth as a final push for the win.

House/Agenda

The house I'm most comfortable with is Martell, which fits nicely with my play style. I'm a firm believer that when competing at a major event it is important to play a house, agenda or deck that you are comfortable and familiar with more than one chosen with the meta-game in mind. There is enough going on during these games, with just your opponent's deck, that trying to keep your own deck straight (what's in it and how it's supposed to play) is an added difficulty better left alone. I also think Treaty is the best agenda in the game (yes, even more so than Defenders) as it allows the blending and enhancement of two houses' strengths, and if the house pairing is chosen well, you can also cover the shortcomings of each house. To me, getting to 20 power is no more difficult than reaching 15 if the deck is well built and played. With all that in mind Stark was chosen as my treaty house because this added some needed muscle in the form of renown and keywords as well as some utility that Martell lacks.

The Eyrie x3

I think it's important to start with my choice of running The Eyrie. While The Eyrie is a risky proposition in today's environment, with the popularity of Stark Traitors and Greyjoy Kings of Salt and Rock, I was willing to take the chance because of the options The Eyrie offers. The ability to guarantee a resilient source of gold and influence to power the deck's effects and pay for the 32 characters in the deck make The Eyrie the least card intensive option for resources. Granted, the inclusion of The Eyrie did necessitate the need to run protection for its use (see below) but the cards I used to this end are intrinsically solid cards on their own, and would never be 'wasted slots' if nothing untoward happened to my Eyrie.

Plots

Winter Storm (A House of Thorns U137)
On Raven's Wings (Iron Throne Edition U227)
Take Them By Surprise (Iron Throne Edition R231)
The Gathering Storm (Iron Throne Edition F241)
Benjen's Cache (Iron Throne Edition F242)
The First Snow of Winter (A Song of Night R145)
Whose Name May Not Be Spoken (Winter Edition U237)

My plot selection was designed primarily to augment the focus of my deck, which was controlling my opponent's characters. This was accomplished with The First Snow of Winter and Winter Storm. Additional plots were selected for 'troubleshooting' any issues I ran into during the game via search (Benjen's and Raven's) or protecting my Eyrie via Whose Name May Not Be Spoken and Take Them by Surprise (played first turn to ensure I got my first marshalling and in case I drew a Frozen Solid against another Eyrie). The Gathering Storm is there for gold and claim, just good old fashioned stats. One possible change for the deck would have been to add Fleeing to the Wall since the deck is fairly light on permanent locations and this likely would have replaced On Raven's Wings.

Characters

My character selection can best be broken down into four types: resource, control, 'phat' and meta-game.

"Resource Characters"

*Samwell Tarly x1 (A Song of Twilight R90)
*Darkstar x1 (A Song of Twilight R64)
*Myrcella Lannister x1 (Five Kings Edition R132)
Lord Anders' Honor Guard x1 (A House of Thorns R49)
Martyr for the Realm x1 (Winter Promotion P13)
House Dayne Courier x3 (A House of Thorns C48)

All these characters provide either added income (Couriers), cards (Myrcella, Darkstar, Martyr and Honor Guard) or options (Samwell). I consider Darkstar a resource character because his major benefit is his Response when in a challenge solo, not the stat boost or Deadly. It's important to the deck to get and keep the Martell Iron Throne (WED) in play so the Martyr was included. In hindsight, two Thrones and the Martyr was possibly overkill and she could have been swapped out for another character or event.

"Control Characters"

* Arya Stark x1 (Five Kings Edition U5)
* Mord x1 (A House of Talons U87)
* Septon Chayle x1 (Iron Throne Edition R11)
* Ghost of High Heart x1 (A House of Talons R82)
* Varys x1 (Iron Throne Edition R158)
* Ser Arys Oakheart x1 (Iron Throne Edition R132)
Prince's Loyalist x2 (A Song of Twilight U71)
Personal Guard x1 (Winter Promotion P5)
Wildling Elder x3 (Winter Promotion P12)

Most of these characters are designed to hamper my opponent's characters with ability cancels, strength reduction/not counting, or kill/discard/kneel. The variety of effects helps to have tools for just about any situation. The fact I was running several doomed cards allowed my Prince's Loyalists to cancel other Loyalists more readily should I face a Martell deck in a mirror match. Many people forget the Loyalist's controller needs to have Doomed cards in the dead pile to power the cancel against influence-costed character abilities. Wildling Elders are used for spot location control and allowed bouncing of income/effect generating locations to slow down my opponent.

"Phat Characters"

* Eddard Stark x1 (Five Kings Edition U8)
* Jon Snow x1 (Five Kings Edition U11)
* The Red Viper x1 (Five Kings Edition U134)
* The Blackfish x1 (A House of Talons R4)
* Arianne Martell x1 (Iron Throne Edition U110)
* Brienne of Tarth x1 (Iron Throne Edition R130)
* Ser Jorah Mormont x1 (Iron Throne Edition R133)
* Nymeria Sand x1 (A Song of Twilight R65)
* Shaggydog x1 (Winter Edition R9)

These characters are in the deck to provide much needed muscle by providing the punch necessary to win challenges. Jorah and Nymeria have the added bonus of being 2 cost and ignoring The First Snow of Winter. Shaggydog may seem odd but with three Stark lords to power his boosts and deadly, he can put early pressure on opponents. The 4 cost uniques, Eddard, Viper, and Blackfish, are primarily in the deck for renown to help speed the deck but also provide some great keywords and abilities to continue putting pressure on my opponent. Arianne and Brienne have built-in protection and Arianne fuels the Locked in the Tower/ Martell Iron Throne Combo. I would likely change the versions of both Eddard and The Red Viper that the deck uses to the ITE versions as those provide a bit more consistent and reliable punch than the 5KE versions.

"Meta-game Characters"

* Robb Stark x1 (Five Kings Edition R12)
* Syrio Forel x1 (Five Kings Edition R173)
* The Bastard of Bolton x1 (A House of Thorns R69)

With Defenders of the North running wild last ChiCon, The Bastard of Bolton was included to force Defenders of the North decks to hopefully be a little more conservative. Robb Stark provides a King to turn off other Kings, and Syrio's ability to give deadly was included to provide protection from I'm You Writ Small since I assumed Lannister decks would be popular.

Locations

* The Riverlands x1 (Five Kings Edition R161)
* The Reach x1 (Five Kings Edition R162)
* Lord Eddard's Chambers x1 (Iron Throne Edition U18)
* Lord Doran's Chambers x1 (Iron Throne Edition U121)
Narrow Sea x3 (Iron Throne Edition U142)
Summer Sea x3 (Iron Throne Edition U143)
* The (Martell) Iron Throne x2 (Winter Edition U122)

With the inclusion of The Eyrie I was able to run fairly light (for me) on locations. The plethora of seas allowed for fast starts as I could drop one or two first turn and throw out some large characters early. The choice of the two Kingdom locations was purely for their influence and gold and I chose these two in particular because I expected more Intrigue Gambit and Power Struggle plots than Military Battle. The Martell Iron Throne was included for recurring Locked in the Tower or Venom in the Cup for added character control. Also, with the new ruling on cancelled doomed events I could get my Massing at Twilight back if they were cancelled.

Attachments

Frozen Solid x3 (Winter Edition U2)

For me this card provided protection for The Eyrie against other Frozen Solids and High Tide (or the less seen Foot-hold on the Shore) since Stark and Greyjoy were likely to be popular. In any match-up against other houses than these, the ability to shut down key location effects or even gold/influence was highly important to hampering my opponent's options.

Events

Put to the Question x3 (A House of Thorns R124)
Locked in the Tower x3 (Iron Throne Edition C191)
Venom in the Cup x2 (Iron Throne Edition U214 )
Massing at Twilight x3 (A Song of Twilight C127)

The event selection is pretty straightforward. Massing at Twilight provides cheap draw and powers the Prince's Loyalists while Locked in the Tower and Venom in the Cup provide strong character control. Venom in the Cup was especially effective in conjunction with the Wildling Elder to remove key characters early. Put to the Question is to protect the multitude of unique cards in the deck. I've also found Put to the Question useful to counter effects played on my opponent's characters on multiple occasions (I canceled a Venom in the Cup my opponent used on his character during the final match).

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the deck and the thinking that went into it. I look forward to seeing everyone (and their decks!) this coming Nationals season. Good luck!

Adam DeWulf was the winner of the main event at ChiCon III: The Battle for the Bowl of Brown.

Check out other R&D articles.

You may also want to check out Michael Hurley's ChiCon article,
ChiCon III: My First Step Into a Larger World