The BAMFs on the Wall 1.0

• Versiones

Needed a new deck for a GNK to interrupt a period of playing lots and lots of NW/Lion, so I freshened things up by playing exactly the same factions. It's a very different deck in practice, though, and I think it has quite a lot of potential. I hadn't played a Leaping Lions deck before and being able to jump in almost any character to defend the Wall for one or zero gold at a time seemed like a good deal. Turns out that it's quite a lot of fun.

Went 3-1 at the GNK, beating Tyrell/Fealty, Martell/Watch and NW/Wolf, though I think that it can do better. A couple of tweaks (and maybe a better pilot) could be all that it needs.

Strengths of the deck:

• Only a couple of cards that you really NEED (Tywin Lannister (Core) and The Wall) and it's very easy to make sure that you find them. Unless your setup is amazing, you probably want to mulligan if neither are in your starting hand, but in most games this deck opens Counting Coppers to go and fetch those pieces. If you still haven't got them, Grand Maester Pycelle and Building Orders should do the rest. From there, your hand usually stays pretty full. (In one game, I discarded SIX cards for reserve at the end of round two.)

• Other Wall decks can have some trouble with the tempo hit from spending 4 gold on marshalling the Wall in the first place - it's tough to build it early and keep it standing when you do. Not so when you have jumper events.

• A Game of Thrones routinely catches people out. Against decks that would otherwise punish your board for opening with Coppers, this plot gets you stabilised. And Lannister is just the best faction to utilise this plot as a means to defend the Wall. Anything trying to rush you is made very sad.

• When you save all your gold for ambush characters and events, nobody seems very interested in trying to wrest control of Bronn from you. Why, yes, I will have a one-gold tricon defending the Wall, thank you.

• You only need to get to nine power before you play Winter Festival, marshal Benjen Stark and defend for a round before flipping Wildfire Assault for the win. If I remember correctly, this is how I closed all three of my wins on the day.

Weaknesses:

• Bran Stark. This deck isn't all that interested in repeatedly thinning your board but it might be worth a second Ser Ilyn Payne just to chop off that stupid boy's head at the earliest possible opportunity. Make sure you use Hear Me Roar! to do it as paying a full six for Ilyn is not really the best use of your money.

• Running only two five-gold plots (and only one that can pay for Tywin on its own) might be something of a risk. If the season agendas haven't dissuaded your meta from running Naval Superiority, you may need to rethink the plot lineup (or tell your friends what Summer Harvest is and tell them to stop playing Naval ffs). Basically, just don't play Noble until you have Tywin in hand.

Changes I would consider:

• Bambi's delightful NW/Wolf list is probably going to increase the popularity of Ward for the immediate future, which makes two Cersei Lannister (Core) risky. Pycelle, too, but the deck really likes his insight so it's probably worth keeping him at 2x. You want to keep up your number of unique Lannisters for I Never Bet Against My Family, so maybe a second Ilyn for Cersei is worth considering, or possibly Janos Slynt.

• Games in which you don't see your jumper events can be irritating (survivable, but irritating). A second Shadowblack Lane could be worth it, although it's nice to keep your faction card standing for Dolorous Edd or INBAMF where possible.

• I have only once triggered Tower of the Hand so far, to drop Widow's Wail onto The Tickler for a surprise win and then bring the Wail straight back to hand. I can imagine a scenario in which it is beneficial to Tower your own Tywin out of play in order to delay an opponent who is making good use of Eddard Stark (WotN) or The Blackfish, however. Still, this slot could be another Shadowblack or Treachery if you prefer (or your cut to 60 if you're one of those people).

• Treachery is massive and I should probably make room for a third somewhere.

• It felt like too much of an indulgence to me but there might be some mileage in a defensive The First Snow of Winter if you can play it just right. The plots feel pretty solid as they are, though.