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Core Set Cards

A Friendly Open review: House Baratheon Fealty.

Goal:

Learn the basics of the game starting from the Core Set. We are reviewing decks that performed well, back in 2015, and why they were good back then. The idea is to help newer player understand the existent mechanics within a faction. Some of these mechanics are still strong today, many years later.

Themes:

Kneeling and Dominance.

The gameplan:

The main objective of the Bara player is to keep in check the level of the opponent. With their tools, Baratheon will control the board of the opponent by kneeling the opponent's character and stealing in the dominance's phase.

• Kneeling engine: Melisandre (Core) is a center piece of kneeling.
• Dominance engine: The Iron Throne (Core) and the Fiery Followers will almost guarantee you to win the dominance phase and help you trigger the Chamber of the Painted Table.

Setup:

Try to get a combination of the following in your starting hand:

• Melisandre (Core) + Seen In Flames + other R'hllor traited cards.
• The Iron Throne (Core) + Chamber of the Painted Table
• A combination of cards costing 6, 2 and 0
• A combination of cards costing 7, 1 and 0
• A combination of cards costing 3, 2 and 2
• The economy of the Core Set is limited, so if you can setup a big character (cost 6 and higher) without getting Marched to the Wall by your opponent, go ahead!

As in any deck, a starting hand with an economy card (limited locations, Dragonstone Port, The Kingsroad, The Roseroad) is always advantageous. Optionally Littlefinger (Core) and Dragonstone Faithful are there to help. Note: Littlefinger (Core) would be better if used in marshalling for his draw ability.

Plots:

• If you have a Lord or a Lady in hand, open with A Noble Cause.
• The first turns are there for you to setup your deck's main game plan.
• Keep the pressure on the opponent with Filthy Accusations
• A Feast for Crows is when you have all your tools to win Dominance: calculate the opponent's character total strength, you can evaluate the characters you will be able to kneel, either from Melisandre (Core) or Robert Baratheon (Core) or from a previous turn with Stannis Baratheon (Core) or from the Dominance package The Iron Throne (Core) + Chamber of the Painted Table.

Key cards:

• Robert Baratheon (Core) + Lightbringer
• If you are the second player and Melisandre (Core) is already on the board from a previous turn, marshal a R'hllor to kneel the opponent or if you have Seen In Flames, you can wait in the challenges phase to surprise your opponent and kneel a character.
• Consolidation of Power is a card that can also be used on your characters. This can be used to win the game when you need 2-3
• If The Red Keep (Core) is on the board, make sure you defend the challenge providing you 2 additional strength and providing draw by the end of the phase.
• Talking about Red Keep, you can also play Ours is the Fury on Robert Baratheon (Core) to get a renown and stand Robert by winning the challenge by defending.
• Remove the Milks on your character with Confiscation and/or Maester Cressen. Protect Melisandre (Core) and Robert Baratheon (Core).
• Other kneel tools: Shireen Baratheon (Core) for claim (or Wildfire Assault), Stannis Baratheon (Core) forces the opponent to choose only 2 characters to stand (next turn, try to be second and kneel more characters with Melisandre, R'hllor or Seen in Flames and double Filthy Accusations).
• Steal from the opponent's faction card with Vanguard Lancer and Chamber of the Painted Table.
• Selyse Baratheon (Core) can give his husband Robert Baratheon (Core) an icon. This can help you defend the or protect you against Tears of Lys.

We inspired ourselves with a deck that performed well in 2015, made by Tsarcastic. You can contact the Friendly Open on Discord where you'll find more advanced decks, discussion with other players and you'll find information on how to join our weekly tournaments. We hope this deck will help you learn more the basics of the game. Enjoy! :)