Gotcha Bitch! (top 4 Michigan Prime) 1.0

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So, here's my list from the Michigan Prime event where I made top 4 before having to drop to go celebrate my birthday. I'm not going to do a game-by-game rundown, but I will give some general notes. My only loss all day was to Eric Swanson's Lanni City of Shadows (he ended up winning the whole thing). Obviously a steal shit deck struggles against people who don't marshal things, and it REALLY struggles against The Red Keep (DotE)and Alchemists' Guildhall. So, if you want to take this to a tourney and think there'll be a lot of shadows, maybe find room for Expose Duplicity. Anyway, it basically ran away with all of my other games because stealing stuff all the time is really rough on anyone who wants to, idk, marshal characters and do challenges. So, below I'll explain some of the key mechanisms that allow you to make the extended theft plays that make this thing so consistently awful to play against.

One: Obviously putting Mercenary Contract on an opponent's character and stealing it with Bribery is super strong and you can take any character whose cost you can play plus the extra 1g for contract. If you think your opponent runs cancels, either don't swing to hard with this (Bribery is free to cancel with The Hand's Judgment) or make sure you have your own HJ.

Two: Bound for the Wall is a stupid card and I fully expect it to be restricted by the time Worlds rolls around. Win a challenge, play it, win games. My pulls for the day were Robert Baratheon (LMHR), Robert Baratheon (Core), Euron Crow's Eye (Core), and a Maester Cressen to take a negative attachment off of the aforementioned Core Bob.

Three:Yoren (TB) is REALLY good. I like to combo him with The Prince Who Came Too Late to steal someone and march that character plus a big. He's also obviously hilarious with Breaking Ties, Coldhands, Return to the Fields, and Unexpected Return. Do NOT let him die. He allows you to manipulate your opponent's board consistently and mercilessly. Just make sure you take the person you take from them off the board before you bounce the current Yoren out of play.

Four: Recruiter for the Watch is very strong. He raises the floor on the characters your opponent can put into play and basically creates a soft choke effect.

Five: Old Forest Hunter and Missandei is just good fun. It's a dumb interaction. Also, The OFH allows you to make sure you get your Three-Finger Hobb triggers, so make sure to do that. Also, they're loyal.

Six: Breaking Ties is your restricted card for a reason. With all the ways you have to steal your opponent's loyal cards and use them to bounce their non-loyal guys, it's allows for stupid powerful board control.

Seven: Broken Vows is my personal favorite jank (genius) in this deck, and it's all thanks to that sweet, sweet boy, Aegon Targaryen. With just an Aegon Targaryen and a Broken Vows, you get to functionally Yoren (TB) your opponent for one less gold and without conditional return of the card you take. To do this, you play Aegon Targaryen in marshaling phase and trigger him. You then get a Garrison on the Wall and activate Broken Vows. Take the biggest eligible target on your opponent's board and give them the Garrison. When the marshaling phase ends, Garrison on the Wall returns to YOUR hand, but you get to keep their character. Yes, it feels amazing. Yes, you can see the light leave their eyes even when playing online. Yes, if you also have either Sworn to the Watch or Gifts for the Widow you can make this play with Daario Naharis to steal big, non-loyal six-drops like Randyll Tarly and Ser Jaime Lannister (Core). Yes, they WILL concede if you do this. No, you should not feel bad.

Eight: Now we're into the deep jank, and it's all about those lovely boys Coldhands and Janos Slynt (TSC). These interactions require you to remember that character that are removed from play return to their OWNERS, not to the person who held them last. So, by doing things like using Broken Vows on a character that is NOT going to return to your hand but then playing Coldhands to remove the character you OWN from your opponent's side of the board, you can make it so, whenever Coldhands leaves, you get your dude back. This is especially funny if you give them Yoren (TB) or someone big like Daario Naharis. You can then force this return by playing like 3 different plots you have or sacking your own Coldhands to put Janos Slynt (TSC) into play.

So, yeah, there are a lot of really messed up things this deck does to your opponent's board. About half the cards in the deck are dedicated to doing this, and the other half help you draw or tutor them, so it's very consistent. So, have fun, if you're into this kind of thing. Hope you enjoy.