Doran's Reach 1.0

• Versiones
• 1.0

This deck combines the defensive/counterstrike power of house Martell and the high-strength/bicon characters of house Tyrell . Actually this deck can be played as well in an offensive as in a defensive way. The challenge icons are quite balanced across the whole deck.

I will describe the reasons for including every card first, if you are not interested in that just skip to Strategy.

Characters

Areo Hotah Nice but expensive ambush reaction (athough great with Arianne Martell), solid pricing if marshalled, can be made a bicon with Little Bird or Noble Lineage

Arianne Martell brings quite an amount of flexibility to the game: defend with Arianne, bring in a standing character to defend again (or attack)

Desert Scavenger reducer, just 2 copies due to high gold plots

Doran Martell late-game strength for Arianne Martell and The Red Viper, decent 4-strength bicon with insight

Dornish Paramour great chracter if you are the first player, can pull down one strong character (or even two if attacking together with Maester Caleotte and losing the challenge), nice character to bring out Doran’s Game if combined with Margaery Tyrell or Dawn and the Jousting Contest plot

House Dayne Knight solid 2/2 bicon, house Dayne trait (decent target for Dawn)

Left extremely strong defense power if combined with Right, no unopposed challanges if these two guys are on the board, if you are not the first player they can even attack after defending

Littlefinger well-priced 4/4 bicon, +1 income for expensive characters, draw power

Maester Caleotte steal one icon, even if attacking (even better this way because you won’t suffer any claim)

Margaery Tyrell great bicon, if you can attack/defend with another caracter she is actually a 3-strength tricon! also brings in some flexibility

Obara Sand great defensive character - if you are the first player you can even us her as a monocon switching from to

Palace Spearman extremely well-priced tricon if you are not first, solid bicon if you are

Randyll Tarly high-strength bicon with renown, his effect works extremely well with Margaery Tyrell and Heartsbane

Right see Left

The Knight of Flowers loike a cheaper, always jousting Randyll Tarly - use Little Bird and Dawn, Heartsbane or Margaery Tyrell to bring out Doran’s Game in mid/late game

The Red Viper well-priced tricon with an effect that can hit greatly in late game (even better if combined with Dawn and/or Doran Martell

Attachments

Dawn late game attachment, can be attached to everyone, working great with The Red Viper, The Knight of Flowers, Randyll Tarly and House Dayne Knight

Heartsbane flexible attachment for all the characters, works great with The Knight of Flowers and especially Randyll Tarly

Little Bird get more bicons (Areo Hotah, Obara Sand, maybe Left) or even tricons (Randyll Tarly, The Knight of Flowers) might be reduced to one copy or taken out completely due to the overall strength of this deck

Milk of the Poppy get rid of annoying effects

Noble Lineage see Little Bird (for Areo Hotah, House Dayne Knight, Right) might be taken out due to the overall strength of this deck

Location

Blood Orange Grove reducer, more flexible than The Roseroad

Ghaston Grey hurt your opponent by sending back expensive characters

Sunspear perfect preaparation for a counterstrike

The Kingsroad for some income

The Kingsroad reducer for expensive characters

Events

“The Bear and the Maiden Fair” draw control for yourself (even better with Littlefinger) or your opponent

Confinement ruin a mid-strength character - be careful to play this before the declaration of attackers/defenders

Doran’s Game absolute game changer in round 5 or/and 6

Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken defend only one challenge, lose it, maybe use Maester Caleotte, Sunspear or Ghaston Grey and strike back with force

Plots

Calling the Banners use a wide board on your opponent’s side to boost your economy and bring out the big guys - in my opinion better than Wildfire Assault because you don’t reduce your own board and a wide board against you is not that problematic

Calm Over Westeros Martell wants to lose challenges - in combination with this plot you even cut off the claim, if your opponent revealed A Game of Thrones you can even block him/her completely by choosing and using Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken

Confiscation getr rid of Milk of the Poppy and annoying attachments (basically every weapon, bonus icon or Seal of the Hand, I absolutely hate attachments against me)

Heads on Spikes early-game slow down, if you hit one of their big ones this will hurt especially in early game (imagine having tree copies of Tywin in your deck and losing all of them to Heads)

Jousting Contest great way to use the advantages of your big guys (The Red Viper, Areo Hotah, Randyll Tarly, every Character supported by Doran Martell, Dawn or Heartsbane) - if you have Margaery Tyrell out you can even use her as a second attacker/defender despite this plot card

Rebuilding it’s not that bad to lose intrigue if you can get your important cards back, also this card has a decent income value

Supporting the Faith get lots of gold and reduce the risk of getting hit by events or ambushed characters - Arianne Martell does work tho

Strategy

As said befor this deck can be used as well in an defensive as in an offensive way, depending on your opponent, his plots and the cards you draw (playing defensively might be the “standard” way and more effective, but being forced to go first sometimes the offensive style also worked quite well - especially in the cases I managed to get a wider board than your opponent).

The Plots are mainly chosen in repsect of their income values (and of course Calling the Banners because of it’s effect) to boost the economy. This deck contains not that much really low-cost characters (1 or 2 gold) so income is quite important during the whole game and especially in early game. As said in the descriptin above they are also meant to make defending (and losing) less painful (Rebuilding, Calm Over Westeros) and reduce your opponent’s strength (Heads on Spikes even gives the chance of getting two power without actually doing anything, Confiscation has been talked about extensively). Jousting Contest uses the strength of your characters in mid/late game to win most of the challenges you defend/initiate.

During setup I mostly try to bring out my low-/mid-cost characters to start off with a wide board, the big guys (and girls) can be brought out later - thanks to the overall decent income of this deck.

In the first turn I like to start off with Heads on Spikes to possibly hit my opponent hard on one of his/her unique important characters and get starting early with two power (this might be some motivation for your opponent to intiate power challanges against you - as you remember, Martells love to defend and if you even lose this power challange, your claim on this type of challange is not wasted on the counterstrike, which is the case in most first turns of this game). Talking abot using plots with (relatively) high initiative values I can say that this isn’t a problem at all. Instead of being forced to go first (this has happened to me sometimes against non-Greyjoy decks) you can choose to be the second player.

As my board gets set up (in early game i prefer flexible characters such as Arianne Martell, Margaery Tyrell, Obara Sand and controlling characters like Dornish Paramour or Maester Caleotte; if I manage to bring out Left and Right early this is also great) I prefer to defend and develop my character advantage further through plots like Calm Over Westeros (usually my second plot to prevent early-game kills or discards), Supporting the Faith (Doran’s Game doesn’t srike hard enough in early game so no gold is needed in the challanges phase) or Calling the Banners respective to my opponent’s board. Based on this plots an some economy plots I should be able to bring out more important characters like The Red Viper, Randyll Tarly or The Knight of Flowers to win some challenges. Supported by Sunspear and Ghaston Grey counterstrikes can be won more easily and have greater effect, if you choose to (or are forced to) play offensive style you don’t really need to play them although they can help - just watch your economy and decide according to the situation.

In the later game it is nearly essential to get Doran Martell, Doran’s Game (preferably to be played in turn 5 or/and 6) and, as mentioned earlier, The Red Viper (use “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” to manipulate your draw chances). I like to use plots like Rebuilding (bring back discards) and especially Jousting Contest in this phase. If you manage to have The Red Viper pumped up with Doran Martell/Margaery Tyrell/Dawn) his effect strikes even better and you might get a decent amount of power using Jousting Contest and even more by combining an challenge by The Red Viper with Doran’s Game (calculation: Doran and the Viper with dawn in round 6 give the viper a strength of 17 - an challange defended by a char with less than 8 strength will give you 7 power just for one challenge).

Confiscation canperfectly be played during mid game or spared for turn 7 according to the present situation.

Nice combos

The Knight of Flowers + Heartsbane for a 8-strength jouster with renown (also works with Dawn in late game)

Randyll Tarly + Heartsbane for a 8-strength standing defender/attacker with renown

Left + Right as always standing bicon defenders - no unopposed challanges

Arianne Martell + Areo Hotah for removing someone from a challenge without paying 5 for ambush - especially nice if Arianne Martell is already kneeling

Doran Martell + The Red Viper (+ Dawn) + Doran’s Game (+ Jousting Contest) win a challenge with a lot of strength advance in late game and get a massive amount of power - up to 8 for just one challenge (even more if The Red Viper carries Dawn, is supported by Margaery Tyrell and you can limit the defenders with Confinement, possibly Maester Caleotte and an ambush/Arianne Martell-swap of Areo Hotah - in a perfect case this gives 10 power!!!)

Dornish Paramour + Jousting Contest + Doran’s Game (+ (Margaery Tyrell OR Heartsbane)) easy pull-off for Doran’s Game in late game - just choose a weak defender and you don’t even have to boost Dornish Paramour or use The Red Viper to trigger the event - saving you this massive attacker for an additional challenge

Dornish Paramour + Maester Caleotte kneel a big guy, lose the challenge, remove one icon

House Dayne Knight + Dawn (+ Margaery Tyrell) (+ Jousting Contest) for intimidate - kneel even one of your opponent’s heavy guys

basically every character with Dawn in late game or Heartsbane

Possible changes

There are actually some things left I’m not absolutely sure about:

• Little Bird -1 or -2 is already quite strong in this deck
• Noble Lineage -1 is already really strong in this deck
• Superior Claim +1 or +2 to get even more from the strong characters
• Syrio’s Training +1 for complete icon balance (I don’t think this is really necessary but I don’n want to neglect this possibility from beginning)
• Tears of Lys +1 or +2 to get more from challanges (target kills)

Thank you for reading this really long description - feel free to comment!