Kingsguard & Knight (World Cup RList) 1.0

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Here is a deck I built with the World Cup restricted list. I faced the archetype with my Lanni Shadow, got surprisingly trampled / dominated while I was rather used to be the overpowered guy at the table, find the thematic swag in herself, picked Diomedes's list to have a basis and look at the marginal adjustments then modified it.

This deck is not strong at all. At best, it is a good "competitive-casual" deck. But he has a structural economic deficit for high level. He is easy job for Greyjoy, Targ burn / construction, Baratheon hyperkneel... Stark Winterfell (+ Karhold) also tends to be a dead end.

Structural analysis, for the comprehension of the reader :

WHY TYRELL IS UNDERPOWERED AND KINGSGUARD SAVE THE DAY ?

Because Tyrell is too costly and too fragile. The entire faction is badly gamedesigned, because it always cost a little too much with a little too much of economic instability and mechanic fragility to make it works properly.

Passing through the Tyrell cards when deckbuilding is more or less a long litany of "No... No... No...Average...Oh, it's already over !".

Kingsguard agenda solves the issue by providing a structural economic boost. Standing means that you are generating a form of economy, because you prevent claim or grab additional renown. Provided that you are able to build your table, you are playing in acceptable economic terms, if not beneficial ones.

WHY PLAYING TYRELL WITH THE ARCHETYPE, PART 1 : STRONG BODIES ON THE TABLE

Ultimately, you pick Tyrell because the idea of Kingsguard is to take the table and generate renown, which is already the focus of Tyrell. Fortunately, Tyrell is very synergic with the basic mechanics of Kinsguard :

Renly Baratheon (FFH) and Crown of Golden Roses are auto-include x3 because you -really- want to not rely on opponent's choice for standing your characters. Margaery Tyrell (HoT) is a perfectly valid choice since it's an efficient character with the Queen trait. I did not include her because I wanted to focus adjustment slots on economy generation.

Left and Right are MVP since Valar Dohaeris appearance, because they provide the most efficient way to counter this destructive reset. Despite their structural instability of needing the other and being unique, they provide such a "locking" effect that they more than often than not trigger a Valar Morghulis. They are also ones of the few acceptable Tyrell cards...

Randyll Tarly because he "sort of" does what you expect a Tyrell card to do, and you are playing Crown of Golden Roses x3. So put Arbor Marketplace x3 and enjoy.

Green-Apple Knight is the thematic overpowered card that secure Military in attack and provide the compensation for weak intrigue. He is also a small dude who enters play for 1-gold with Balon Swann.

WHY PLAYING TYRELL WITH THE ARCHETYPE, PART 2 : THE MASSIVE ECONOMIC GENERATION SPECIFIC TO TYRELL.

The drawback of playing with big bodies is that you must find a way to put them on table and continue doing so if the game last.

At the Gates + Great Hall is the basis of the deck with The White Swords. It already generates a lot of economy in himself...

What Tyrell can specifically provide in terms of gold is the extra-surplus of Redwyne Straits and the natural synergy of the house with Support of the People to ramp on the gold curve.

The strength of the House in terms of economic generation is rather the draw. Every deck is better with Pleasure Barge x3 while there are no heavy location control in the metagame, in which case you simply do not play it. The key to understand Pleasure Barge is that you will quite often draw the economic location nullifying the drawback.

Support of the People provides an additional small module in the deck with The Mander, Oldtown, The Shield Islands and The Honeywine.

The basic idea is of course Support + Mander allowing you to have the long-term draw and ensuring you to not choke on that aspect of the deck. Then, you must complete the module to ensure his structural stability. The key is to start by putting only 2-gold locations for setup.

Oldtown is auto-include x1 for the draw and passive powergrab. There are no particular synergies with it here, but it still can do the job and you are allowed to be lucky with it.

The Shield Islands are perfect for this deck in this metagame, because everyone draws except you.

The Honeywine is an anti-control deck choice. They generally can deal with whatever economy and draw you will generate, but they struggle a lot with additional power generation who does not leave the table.

"Lord Renly's Ride" was originally the event I chose for this deck, following Diomedes's choice. Then I realized it was not that much of a gain and I was rather looking for economy. After two games, Support was an obvious Café Gourmand for the deck.

THE SEVEN KINGSGUARD TO PLAY IN THE DECK.

Let's face it : They are shit for most of them. The "pure" thematic is a complete failure. You play them because you are forced to, except...

Ser Barristan Selmy (TS) and Ser Balon Swann. They have renown + small textbox. That's all.

Ser Jaime Lannister (LoCR) is good, except for the 5-gold cost. He should be 4-gold or even 6-gold to reduce him better with Great Hall. But not 5-gold. It's too bastard.

The Knight of Flowers (AtG) is Renown + 6-gold + Shadow for reset counter. You will almost never trigger his ability.

Ser Mandon Moore is a good STR body with Int icon.

Ser Arys Oakheart has a textbox and not-Lannister affiliation for Swann, which make him better than Kettleblack, who has an unuseful textbox.

Ser Meryn Trant is 3-gold and his textbox find surprising uses, like Missandei.

Why no Ser Robert Strong ? Because he is always too expensive to play with Shadow in this deck, which is the sole interest of playing him (and it's a bit overkill here, to be honest).

THE SMALL MODULE STABILIZING THE DECK:

Beric Dondarrion + White Cloak is the module stabilizing everything. Dondarrion makes awesome Military claim absorber, something you vitally look for. Since he is Lord and Knight, he provides an excellent backup for the Crown and makes a very valuable Kingsguard with Cloak.

THE PLOTLINE, I.E MAKING THE DECK PLAYABLE

The White Swords is auto-include x2 in order to be able to generate the economy you need and somehow counter Intrigue claim. It also allows to play low reserve plots.

At the Gates + Great Hall is -the- move of the deck. You always open with it, except if your opponent plays double Barring and perfectly knows and applies the midngame of this situation. In which case you might gamble The White Swords T1.

Compelled by the Faith is the anti-reset, because your deck needs to save his power generation more than his character. It is not a shame to play it preventively, since you are not always sure that your opponent can outwit you with Dohaeris. Against Valar Morghulis, it is clearly a better anti-reset than Return to the Fields, the reverse being true with Dohaeris.

You Win Or You Die provides the finish and the second breath.

Because of the World Cup restricted list, I cannot play The King in the North and Return to the Fields. The first provides drastic anti-control, the second the sole efficient counter to Dohaeris. You must give up the idea of metagaming Dohaeris, so I look for anti-control plots.

A Feast for Crows provides 6-gold economy and an anti-control deck effect with the +2 Power. The additional income and the reliability of winning dominance makes it better than Winter Festival, but you still might choose to play the second instead of...

Barring the Gates who is there mainly to counter control decks like Martell and in a smaller measure Stark decks with Winterfell and Karhold with the Winter trait (you are more or less forced to include one Winter plot because of that, in a Stark metagame). It also provides a trap for the mirror.

It is the first time I play Barring, since my technical playstyle is naturally oriented toward being the guy wrecked by Barring. Therefore, I currently do not know if this choice is better or not than Winter Festival. One thing I observed, though, is that it is not easy to place A Feast for Crows, so two of them seems a bit like you are on the verge of losing and desperately try to clinch victory with passive powergrab generation before it's really too late.

Basically, it's whether Barring or Winter Festival does this job better... Close Call is an alternative, but generally too slow nowadays. Beyond Reproach is a good choice, but generally not efficient enough and not necessarily saving the day versus heavy attachment control (I think that it does not save the day at all in normal games). It is a specific metagame plot.