Mira Wars (Winner, TW 2019, 2 regionals, lots of stuff) 1.0

• Versiones
• 1.0

Sharing the list for historical purposes; its pretty much dead with the new restricted list.

I played this deck pretty much nonstop from July 2018 to Feb 2019. It's an insanely powerful list, but it requires a fair bit of practice and there's a lot of deckbuilding traps people can fall into when they're playing it. I'll go through the core strengths of the deck here.

And before you ask, I do believe the deck is dead right now (as a T1 deck anyway). You can rebuild but it won't be nearly as consistent without new material, and with the Martell Box behind us I don't see that happening any time soon.

PILLAR 1: SOMEONE ALWAYS TELLS The first (and in my mind, the strongest) pillar of the Wars deck is the ability to consistently threaten Someone Always Tells. This card is so meta-warping and will win you more games in isolation than any other card on this list (even Doran's Game). Trade Routes? Nah. Reset? Nah. Draw? Good luck!

The best cards in any competitive deck are the ones that decisively swing close games. This card does that in a way few others can, with very little counterplay.

Elements of this pillar:

• SOMEONE ALWAYS TELLS

• SER CLETUS YRONWOOD: When he's on the board, you win initiative. This gives you 3 different plots that you can flip safely and still go first if you want to. Oh, he's also No Attachments except Weapon, for some goddess-forsaken reason, so he can't be warded or milked!

• IN DORAN'S NAME: Amazing card. Glad it's not on the restricted list. Playing this in taxation is how you maximize the impact of SAT, because you can flip literally anything and still have the gold to cancel. In my finals game at TW, I played this, flipped into VM, and canceled my opponent's Trade Routes. You can't come back from that.

• RETURN TO THE FIELDS: This was a late include for Throneswar and I was very happy with how it performed for me. The thing that I like most about this card is its flexibility; you can see what your opponent has, take stock, and make the appropriate choice. Flipping it into VM is pretty valuable, and in a desperate situation, you can even chance saccing 3 characters hoping to draw your SAT if you don't have it yet! It works pretty regularly.

• TRADE ROUTES: It's probably a good thing this is getting restricted, but not being able to play it in Wars is the biggest blow, much bigger than the one from Dorne.

PILLAR 2: USED PLOTS This is the signature synergy of this deck, one that gets much more attention than SAT. Every turn that the game continues, you only continue to get stronger. It's relatively normal to be at 3 used plots after the first turn, which is just insane. Until the end of the game, each Used plot card you draw will be pure gasoline for the fire.

ELEMENTS OF THIS PILLAR:

• DORAN'S GAME: The flashiest of the effects by far, this is the closer. Winning games in a single challenge is VERY POWERFUL. But even if this card were deleted from existence, the core of the deck would still be very powerful (something that no one seems to take my word for, but hey).
• SECRET SCHEMES: Do you like drawing 8 cards? I do it every other game.
• IN DORAN'S NAME: Oftentimes you will be in a position where Cletus is on the board, you're at 5+ used plots, and you still have a TR and a Fields, with a SAT in hand. In these situations you have literally nothing to lose by not just vomitting your entire hand onto the board. This card helps you do that.
• AT PRINCE DORAN'S BEHEST: Almost always will be your opener. Occasionally (like when you set up character lite with few characters in hand after draw-up) you might open The Long Plan instead.
• RICASSO: Self-explanatory. Put Dawn on him when you're playing against Targ! Protecting him dramatically increases your win %.
• HOST OF THE BONEWAY: Strong, swole armies of dudes, ladies, and theybies, these husky armies provide incredible value and are what you will use to win games, with or without Doran's Game.
• KNIGHTS OF THE SUN/QUENTYN MARTELL: Efficient renown bodies with power icons, help you close out the games where Doran's Game is checked by your opponent.
• AREO HOTAH: I've taken to calling him "good hotah". Those moments when you can get him for almost free are incredibly satisfying, and triggering him even once is enough to win the game most of the time.
• THE WATER GARDENS: Self-explanatory. Most often gets used in the challenges phase to give you free SAT for cancelling burn/bad stuff, or for playing prince's plan to get the Doran's Game Trigger with only one gold showing.
• THE PRINCE'S PLAN: Always, Always, ALWAYS remember your lose triggers! Recurring this event is the key to pulling out close games in the challenges phase. There are many times in wide boards where I will chump challenge to fork my opponent - Unopposed, or defend and I lose? In these situations I will play Prince's Plans on other characters only to recur them during challenge resolution, get them back, and play them again (double dipping!).
• DAWN: Pure value. Did you know Desert Raider has the House Dayne trait? Put it on Arianne when you're playing against Tyrell or Bara Rose, and you'll be golden.

PILLAR 3: STALL/CONTROL The number one way to beat Martell Wars is to win fast. There are many different strategies you can use to Stall your opponent and/or control their characters. It's ok to lose for 4 turns, as long as you're losing slowly.

ELEMENTS OF THIS PILLAR:

• ARIANNE MARTELL: The absolute girl. What a unit. Insight? Nice. Power icon? Double Nice. Trigger to hand bounce, in the year of our lord [everyone plays YWOYD and theres no save for this effect]? Amazing.
• AREO HOTAH: S tier card. Smashes crossing.
• BEGGING BROTHER: These guys are great for decks that can afford them. You can afford them. They are your lifeline when playing against GJ; use them!
• VENOMOUS BLADE: The value of this card has faded since last summer, but it remains mostly as a hard counter to builders.
• HIS VIPER EYES: Meta call vs Sea of Blood. It's a good card when the meta calls for it.
• MILK OF THE POPPY
• DESERT RAIDER
• STARFALL

Some other cards which aren't part of a pillar but are worth mentioning anyway:

• 2x ISLE OF RAVENS: This card grants sustain. With so many events, it's important that you limit down to 2x for everything except Secret Schemes (since it itself draws you cards). There are some games where you will need 3. Isle gives you 3. Additionally, it can help you recover from unlucky intrigue claim or pillage, it can really screw with flea bottom decks (like Targ), and it is good soak for Nothing Burns if anyone still plays that plot.
• 2x DORNE: Only thing to say here is; you can afford to lose this card. It sucks to not have it but it's not essential most of the time.

Thats it. Thanks for reading! And if you are going to give resurrecting this list a go, hit me up in those DMs with your list! I'm not going to be actively developing/playing this anymore because it's just getting stale for me, but I'm happy to help otherwise <3.