Horny Knights - 2nd Bara Stahleck 2.0

• Versiones
• 2.0
• 1.0

In a certain Baratheon Facebook group (come join!) I talked myself into playing the only House that matters at Stahleck.

After some testing sessions with a horrible last week before Stahleck I decided to play the most established deck: Qohor Rose. Compared to my Regional Winner from August I made the following changes:

• Confiscation -> 2nd Trade Routes: I expect fewer attachments I could actually discard with Confiscation with the , , and being 60% of the field. The 2nd Trade Routes was the right call.
• 3x The Roseroad -> 3x Stormlands Fiefdom: Non-limited econ seems fine in an Alliance deck that has to play more than 9 limiteds. 2-cost locations are good with Peace and Prosperity. With the 2nd Trade Routes the tempo hit isn't that bad. I can at least steal my power back that's on warded characters. I would probably reduce the numbers of fiefdoms after Stahleck.
• 3rd Ser Davos, Ser Loras, Brightwater Knight -> Ser Mark, 2nd & 3rd Nightsong: 1 more character to hold King at the Wall, because of more I prefer the 5-coster. No Red Ronnet because he can't be crowned a king.
• Ocean Road -> 3rd Great Hall: Nothing is worse than not being able to play Bob.
• Seized by the Guard, 2nd Tourney Lance -> 3rd Knighted, 2nd Isle of Ravens: I don't have gold for Seized by the Guard. Without Isle of Ravens you can quickly run out of STR boosts, especially when you cycle them for Randyll. That's also why I went for the 3rd Knighted instead of Tourney Lance.

Stahleck Report

Crossing 0-1

I was ahead 13-2 with help from The Honeywine out, but when we both flipped You Win Or You Die and he went first with Drogon, Khal Drogo, and Plaza of Pride on the board, things went downhill. If I would have flipped The King in the North, I could probably close, but I was afraid of that king Targ got nowadays. The round after that we tie again with initiative 8 (Marched to the Wall vs. A Tourney for the King), he goes first, I draw no characters, that's game.

Crossing 1-1

I milk Robb and Greatjon round, she plays Compelled by the Faith, I can counter with The King in the North next round. She doesn't see Meera, No One, or Ward, so I can close round 3.

Crossing 2-1

We finish round 1 with 10-9 power in my favor (lots of unopposed on both sides, Heads on Spikes + Superior Claim on his side, tricon Randyll Tarly and claim on my side). I decide to go for it and play You Win Or You Die, his 2nd Heads misses, I'm getting lucky with Ser Mark and get The Bastard of Nightsong into play to force my challenge through.

Rains 3-1

Duped Robb against my board of knights. I can counter his Valar Morghulis with Trade Routes and play Ser Garlan and 2 Highgarden Courtiers. Next round 2 Trade Routes: Bob hits the board, but he has a Begging Brother and Ward for Garlan. Tricon Bob with his 2 Courtiers can force his challenges through milking the Begging Brother. Next round he can counter my The King in the North with Rains->A Game of Thrones. My Barring the Gates next turn seals the deal.

Fealty 3-2

This time I got destroyed by Valar Morghulis. We are both low on locations, but he has duped Robb, duped Cat, and duped Meera. I don't see any dupes for my knights, I can only protect Ser Garlan with a goat Bodyguard. Well, here comes Ward again, poor Garlan. I go for You Win Or You Die, but don't find any dupes. I kill Greatjon and Garlan, he valars as expected and I can't recover.

Qohor Rose 4-2

Decisive game for best stag! I had 5 locations, he had none, so my King at the Wall was doing great work while his wasn't. He played a reset with Valar Dohaeris, but I had enough cards (and the 2nd Trade Routes) to recover.

Wars 4-3

Boy, this game will haunt me...I had the stronger board and could qohor milks on Asha and Vic. He can slow down my power gain with We Do Not Sow on The Honeywine. He had a Raider from Pyke, but I could King in the North him with Bob and Messi on the table. He can't marshal anything with only 2 cards left in hand (Euron and Risen. Then it happened, he pillages another copy of Bob, plays Weapons at the Door to get rid of Bob's Bodyguard. He draws Iron Mines and I pick Euron instead of Risen, so he can even save the Raider from Pyke while I lose my entire board with 7 power on characters. I draw into some good cards (cheap knights including all 3 Green-Apples, but he draws 2 Pinch of Powder with his next 4 cards. The game goes to plot 8 when time is called. He wins 11-10.

Kraken 5-3

A shadows deck that never got going. He set up 4 cards in shadows while I had duped Penrose and lots of cheap locations. Round 1 I can marshal almost all my hand, so his hand control with Shadows Cersei isn't doing much. I play The King in the North and draw 4 cards with King at the Wall, then I close it turn 3 with A Tourney for the King.

Conclusion

I'm quite happy with the result: 5-3 is ok for Bara right now. I was a bit sad I didn't win the amazing mat for Best Baratheon, but Björn from Sweden is a worthy champion of House Baratheon. :)

I still like this deck a lot, the knight synergy is pretty cool, and I think the deck can go toe-to-toe with the top decks. The King in the North, Barring the Gates, and 3 Milks of the Poppy are needed control against all the Targ and Stark shenanigans. Sadly, Targ can counter The King in the North (until Hizdahr gets restricted that is). I would probably replace the 2nd Trade Routes for Valar Dohaeris or Varys's Riddle (because the 3 Valar Morghulis that hit me were all really obvious), and then play cheaper econ than Stormlands Fiefdom.

What other decks are viable right now? The lack of econ tricks compared to the other factions (Hizdahr, Missandei, Qotho, Vince, Ward, Water Gardens, good Flea Bottom characters, Arianne, Queen of Thorns, Starfall Spy, Raider from Pyke the list is endless...) or just strong econ cards (Bara got the worst cost 2 econ location in both cycles) kinda force Bara to play one of the econ agendas to keep pace. At least the agendas with econ penalty like The House With the Red Door or Assault from the Shadows are pretty tough to play. I prefer Kings of Summer over Fealty because most loyal Bara cards are high-cost characters, but more importantly 2 good Bara cards, Big Selyse and In the Name of Your King!, require a faction card kneel. I guess all these decks play the dominance module and at least some amount of kneel like Gilles' Banner Wolf deck (Top 16 at Worlds), Björn's Summer deck (best Bara at Stahleck), or my Summer deck (Winner Brawl).

I tested this Wars deck with The High Sparrow to stop the opponent's advantage, but the aggro decks these days get him quickly off the board. I also built this fun Assault deck, but the econ penalty hurts Bara a lot. Is there a way to use Salladhor Saan as an econ trick with A Pinch of Powder? ;-)