Drowned God WtC - Kings of the Isles

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Derivado de
Ninguno. Éste es un mazo hecho de cero.
Inspiración para
Drowned God WtC - Kings of the Isles - Final Version 4 2 3 2.0

Benji 764

The Drowned God I develop since the release of Tarle, in a final version that is mainly clear, since most of the card are straightforward to identify in the current development of the thematic. But the remaining choices and plots are more insightful.

Against competitive decks, it has evolved from "Zero chance" to "Give resistance but lacks something" to "Have a chance in all matchup" since the thematic has all the cards it needed, now that Drowned Prophet and Old Grey Gull are released. The only problem is the metagame dependence of this strategy, and his inherent weakness toward Sea of Blood... So it does not seem to be metagame favorable nowadays. SoB has limitations that could prevent him from dominating the metagame, but I bet he will setup himself as a classic with 1/2/3 archetypes. Stark (Ward, notably) is a very unfavorable matchup.

The best advantage of the deck is his unusal logic and the lack of comprehension of every opponent, creating passive errors.

The first useful adding of the box is Drowned Prophet (2 gold, 2 STR, Drowned Disciple/character tutor + Fill dead pile, and Old Grey Gull, the engine to fill the dead pile by yourself.

Since the deck had tremendous problems against Milk of the Poppy and repetitive trigger like Drogon (IDP) or Qhorin Halfhand, it also provides an answer to these threats by sending the character under Poppy back to hand, or recycling the Drowned God Fanatic. Additionally, it is indirect card advantage by sending one/two characters back to hand before a reset, which can be used as an additional save for Aeron Damphair (Core) in addition for being a needed DG + Iroborn for him.

Old Wyk is an indirect consequence of Old Grey Gull. The card barely make the cut otherwise. But since you have a way to send the character back to hand, it changes everything. Since the card cost 2 it's the cost you search for setup, it provides the second entry in challenge phase ( Drowned God Fanatic being the first one) and is the only respawn of Aeron one he is dead (but a tricky one due to dead pile order).

Dragonbinder is necessary because there is a huge difference between one Disciple (slow) and two Disciple (uvery fast). It also allows to fill your dead pile by yourself and provides additional counter to Drogon (IDP). Important detail : it potentially gives save.

Iron Islands Fishmonger are needed for economy. You don't have much regular eco available. But in this deck you do not necessarily need to kill Fishmonger, so you can use them as regular economy (and they are nice on Dohaeris for this strategy of 3-gold cost characters).

Milk of the Poppy is the solution to most threats.

Risen from the Sea and Iron Mines are necessary because your strength is your table. You do not want it to be wipe out : suffering a Valar M is bad for you (which is counter-intuitive) because Drowned God are expensive to build together and strong when it is the case. Additionally, Aeron CS must not die. And this amount of save is necessary vs Sea of Blood for this purpose.

Wex Pyke, Old Bill Bone are 2 gold-2STR-Mil Int feeling the blank. Old Bill also provides a desirable ability in this metagame and FSoW resilience. Hagen's Daughter is 2/3 gold, 2 STR, Mil +repetitive mil claim (desirable here) and FSoW resilience + Ironborn (you may let her die just to respawn her with Aeron).

-------------- Plotline ----------------

Summer Harvest is a perfect opener because you just want to copy the pace of your opponent. If he is fast, you have a table. If he is slow, you wait for building a table later. Winning initiative is granted, and even if the opponent plays Varys's Riddle it's still a good move because he must name himself first player and will only have a 3 gold differential toward you, while you can cope with a small table.

Varys's Riddle was first here to counter the damaging Valar M on you. Since you have many saves, you can make survive the key character while your opponent is unlikely to have more than one save for a character. Then I realized he had a basic utility since 5-6-1 and a bit of experience allows you to detect the CC/TR/EoI moments.

Valar Morghulis and Valar Dohaeris are not meant to be played regularly. They are "credible threats" : I expect my opponent to have built against them and expect the first to be played, thus play accordingly. What interest me is to make sure that the opponent takes into account the fact that I can play them if the situation requires it. Which is precious because I want to win time and the bonus psychological effect is always nice.

Valar Morghulis is tricky to use. You will sometimes have an opportunity to play it T1 to identify. You will sometimes have an opportunity to play it and clear opponent's board, but it is so obvious that your opponent will prepare for it. You must not fall in the trap of a win more Valar. And you will sometimes understand you are losing the game by T3 and this is your best way out, but you need to correctly play around it (by evaluating if you can delay it for one turn : usually yes). Valar Dohaeris is mainly here to provide solution against a weak point of the deck : facing a panel of big characters. It solves it on his own, and can occasionally buy time/control attachment.

Trade Routes because you dramatically need economy. And once you have used one to spread on the table, you miss the other to recover from a potential additional reset from the opponent.

Trading with the Pentoshi to have certitude about a high income (required in rare situations, but more necessary with Sea of Blood)

Building Orders = 1) Nagga's Ribbs. The location helps, but is not a winning condition like before. 2) Milk of the Poppy. To win time. 3) Dragonbinder (Disciple). To close the game. 4) Economy. So it's basically playable at any time. Especially when you have nothing to do and just want to tempo with a bit of money while constructing economy.

Counting Coppers, Uneasy Truce. Both easy to understand. Remember to detect the moments to use Uneasy Truce on an aggressive plot (King in the North, FSoW, Claim 2)...

Confiscation is far less useful than before since the deck is not dependent on cards neutralized by attachments, but I still feel more comfortable with an easy on-demand solution rather than anything else shaky... And the statistics are nice.

--------------------Things to know ---------------------

Challenges = something you oppose to prevent the opponent from winning point. If you can, win the power challenge. Sometimes the intrigue one.

Evaluating your strength = The deck finish very fast, so you must evaluate your current strength by different criterions than normal decks. So you must be really clear about the different synergies of the deck in your mind.

Staying Cool.
Because you will always miss something at the start of a game. You will always be uncomfortable of how your deck could finish. That's why you must remember that your finish is very fast and practice the deck to be emotionally comfortable with this aspect.

Aeron + Old Wyk requires him to be on top of dead pile. You can remove non-unique behind him with Tarle. You must not trigger Fanatic / Given to the Drowned God (on opponent's intrigue challenge) if this is not vital. You must take into account the fact that the opponent will win the military challenge and make a claim that would change the top character. Therefore you must go first or save someone.

Dragonbinder steals Dragon. Since it's not the most important use of it here, you are strongly likely to forget it once you will be rather to tutor Disciple/Aeron/Tarle.

You must think about the points holder. Aeron will normally be the holder on regular games. But it must be Tarle against Stark (Ward). And against Poppy, you might want to send Aeron back to hand with Grey Gull. So the holder could be Grey Gull/Disciple.

Table is the strength. That's why the strategy needs 33 characters to always have something to play and avoid military claim on the impacting characters.

If you trigger a rush with two Disciple and are not able to finish on this turn, the opponent will react by Morghulis/Dohaeris on the following turn. So you must have that in mind when starting it.

Given to the Drowned God + Tarle = Don't hesitate to do it if you know you can reasonably expect to respawn him with Aeron later without being countered. Tarle is mainly good for finish.

Order of saves on a Valar M : #1 Aeron, #2 Disciple #3 Tarle/Grey Gull.

The only victory condition in the current state of the thematic is to have one Disciple. Any other lack/loss is manageable. But it does not help to lose Aeron since it is pretty hard to recover him once dead.

There is always a "Poppy before or after Dohaeris" dilemma. The answer depends on the character, but Randyll should always be Poppied on sight.

Priest of the DG is a dominance winner when there is no Nagga.

Repeating that Old Wyk + Grey Gull send the character back to hand if you cannot satisfy the +5 STR condition seems legit.

-------------------Summary------------------

As I said in the intro, the deckbuild is mainly cristal-clear because most of the cards are straightforward choices. The insight is on the last cards and the last plots. And this strategy requires numerous play to really have in mind the details of it (order of dead pile, planning game pace and being comfortable with it, being clear with the synergies, key cards in the matchup, subtile moves).

The only thing that lacks DG nowadays is : 2-gold, Ironborn, Kill to save a character or Reduce Military claim by 2. It would give an additional character to spam the table, an additional Iroborn to respawn and (mainly) the ability to resist aggro (targeted kill and damaging claim 2).

7 comentarios

Toaster 35

@Benji: thank you for the very comprehensive write up and in-depth explanation about the strategy and the key cards. I feel a lot more comfortable with the Drowned Gods now thanks to you.

What is your opinion on using Raider from Pyke with A Pinch of Powder abusing the increased strength from Driftwood Cudgel to force through challenges and establish a bit of board control / slow down on the opponent? Do you think it requires too many valuable slots to add in that combination?

Is there anything useful that can be done with Great Wyk? Or is it just for a totally different type of deck?

Thanks again :)

Benji 764

Hi Toaster.

Thanks. I would say that the problem of Pinch of Powder is that it's very costly in an economy limited strategy. Raider from Pyke and Driftwood Cugdel are not efficient enough by themselves to justify cutting slots of useful stuff.

However, the idea is not deprived of merits and I think this is an interesting variation. I would then cut the three non-DG cheap characters, the three Poppy and probably two copies of Old Wyk for the Cudgel.

I do not even considered playing Great Wyk. I do not understand why I would play a so expensive cards while there is anti-location in the metagame, that the card do nothing by herself, requires precise conditions to work well (Tarle, Aeron + Apostle, Old Wyk when it triggers...) and that she does not even discard at random. This is obvious that the card should have costed 2, and her conditionality requires either to discard at random or to further decrease her price at 1-gold if the opponent can choose the card he discards. Since Iron Mines exists, I think I am pretty reasonable in my saying.

Benji 764

You actually give me willingness to test the card, and Great Wyk is actually interesting. I still think it's 1 gold too much for competitive play... But it turns out that I would probably find it okay like it is for 2 gold. I just do not get why it does work with Fanatic on The Iron Throne.

Benji 764

*does not work

Alfalfa 16

hi there ! thanks for sharing. Dont you think "On a Misty Morn" could bea useful card on this deck ? Keep trying different ways to make drowned god works but always seems too slow or to many pieces needed

Benji 764

Hello Alfalfa, It could be an excellent card if it was allowing to send back unique characters (There is no solution for Aeron, since the 3-gold DG event is way too expensive and poorly useful generally). Since it does not allow to send back characters, and you generally prefer your Drowned God in your dead pile, it has interesting utility but it's not primordial.

Toaster 35

"On a Misty Morn" is mostly useful to bring back Drowned God Fanatic I feel it's a great one of.