Three Kings - 2nd place Vegas Regional 1.0

• Versiones
• 1.0

This is the deck I took to the Las Vegas Regional, finishing second going 5-2. I was really interested in making a deck with the new Bara knights work with King at the Wall so Banner of the Rose was the obvious agenda.

The deck is focused on the only challenge that actually wins you the game: POWER! It turns out that it is really hard for your opponent to win if they never can win a power challenge. Sure the deck is really weak on intrigue, but you draw enough from King at the Wall, The Red Keep and Moon Boy that it isn't the end of the world. In fact, giving some early unopposed intrigue is great since it gives your opponent power to steal.

As for the specific cards, Ser Cortnay, Ser Davos, Ser Justin and The Bastard of Nightsong all make great Kings at the Wall and are great deterrents of your opponent declaring chump challenges. Brienne is absolutely amazing as she is nearly always turned on and can survive Valar D with any of the aforementioned knights. Similarly, the Green Apple Knights are pretty reliably on, Fossaoway provides a much needed intrigue icon and can have renown if you want and Garlan is cheap renown. Getting two challenges out of King Bob with the Courtiers or Ser Justin is game winning. King Stannis is more useful for being a king but you usually are winning dominance so his reaction is pretty reliable. The three most interesting non-character cards are Traitor to the Crown (when put on their biggest power icon it makes it nearly impossible for your opponent to win a power challenge), Arbor Queen (amazing when you have multiple challenge characters and great anti-burn protection) and Stormlands Fiefdom (use it early to get your opponents renown and use it to safeguard your own renown from resets).

As for the plots, King in the North is super powerful, opening Calm (almost always intrigue) allows you to build the board and Barring the Gates shuts down all those annoying shenanigans. Trade Routes is good against everyone but Martell where you have to just hope you get lucky that they don't play a plot that lets them use Someone Always Tales. Everyone seems to have forgotten about Wildfire Assault as it catches so many people off guard when they think they are getting a strong board presence. Close Call usually is the sixth or seventh plot and could probably get cut for something (Clash of Kings or Snowed Under) but it provides a nice safety blanket and usually draws a card.

As mentioned, the one major weakness of the deck is its lack of intrigue icons, and unfortunately, there is an orange faction that just so happens to have a way to get power from winning intrigue challenges. Both of my losses (first round and championship) were against Fred Byrd's Martell Wars and both went about as expected with Venomous Blades taking out the Green Apple Knights and Courtiers and eventual Doran's Games delivering the mercy kill. That said, no deck is perfect and even the Martell matchup can be winnable if it is a Core Arianne / flea bottom focused deck, but alas Fred was playing Big Arianne, didn't make mistakes and got the well earned championship.