[Héritiers du Nord 2016 - Finalist] And not a soul to hear 2.0

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• 2.0

There is the deck that I played at Héritiers du Nord 2016, driving him toward the final with a ratio of 7V-2D. The tournament version was slighty different, with Syrio x2 and Ilyn Payne x2 before reimplacing them for Chella, Kevan and Gregor. Close Call was a second Counting Coppers. If you want yo know my future development, they are very simple : see which cards are not generally efficient to cut them for Nightmares. I perfectly knew what Nightmares provides in this deck, but i cannot judge the other cards, thus i evaluate them at the fire of a real tournament. Boy King seems largely cutable right now, Chella is probably a bit too slow and expensive, and Seal x2 is probably under efficient since it's expensive and not awesome with all faction leaders. Kevan has also to be judge on his reliability, and Widow's Wail is a useful tool but perhaps less overall influent than Nightmares. I just want one thing : stick with 32/33 characetrs. This is very important to have characters before any other type of cards, both for faction leaders making the game and military claims to suffer. You get the idea : i will slowly judge each opportunity before deciding what to cut for Nightmares. Right now, knowing the general behavior of the deck, I cut Boy King and one Seal of the Hand. I will also playtest Podrick Payne, who will reimplace one Burned Men.

Astro, my bête noire, beats the deck in round. We laugh together on the incredible unluckiness i had on this game, verifying once again that I can do whatever I want against thim, I will always lose in the end. Then Meilhem beats the deck in the official final, thanks to a better start and mental exhaustion due to a long day plus biological desire to go to sleep after eating a consistent pizza, which makes me accelerating the defeat by missplaying. In the officiously BO3 (where I was waked up by the slap), I dominated the second game thanks to Cersei + Casterly Roc, but a second Poppy on her blocked me at 2 points of the victory for a while, and allowed him to came back close to the victory. On the decisive game, I successfully put Meilhem under pressure in the decisive one, with a Jaime + Ilyn + Casterly Roc+ Red Cloak ideal (and probably lucky) start, leaving him with few board and no hand, but he topdecks and tutor everything he needed and reverse the game. Overall, a very disputed game.

I had a though confrontation with a Rains of Castamere playing Clansman, as well as Cersei CS + Trial by Combat. He heavily put me under pressure since he got more faction leaders than me, and I managed a way out on Wildfire, but difference between loss and defeat was small.

Other confrontations were successful.

This a very important deck for me, for considerations that I will not extend here since the explanations are very long (because of the importance of this deck for me, yes). This is the deck that I plan to constantly play in tournament since he perfectly fits me as a player. In order to explain the deckbuild, I will go step by step to the reasoning that leads me toward the final version of the deck.

The family

Tywin Lannister (CS) x3 Cersei Lannister (LocR) x3 Jaime Lannister (CS) x3 Tyrion Lannister (CS) x3

Cersei Lannister was the needed character to complete Lannister in term of faction leaders. Lannister, despite being dominant in intrigue, were lacking of a character supporting their offensive gamedesign in this icon. They were also lacking of power grab and power icon, as well as a faction leader bypassing Dracarys ! with Daenerys at the table. Cersei provides everything of that and thus give Lannister full polyvalence among their basic faction leaders. In match-up considerations, she is terrible for Night's Watch and their weakness in intrigue, as well as their reliance on Old Forest Hunter. She is also an excellent counter to Stannis Baratheon, a nightmare of Lannister mechanics previously to her appearance. Jaime was important thanks to his non-kneeling and powergrab ability, thus a second character in the same vein is suddenly opening the match-up. It is also valuable against the combo IT + Painted Table.

The paws

Lannisport Merchant x3 Bronn x1 Red Cloaks x3 Burned Men x3 Tickler x1

Bronn, despite being a character to use with caution, increase your chances to do Tywin or Cersei setup. The first case is ideal, the second case must be very cautiously done, and need one economic location. Always remind the amount of gold your opponent has before playing Bronn, or it could be gameloss. If you're first player, try to estimate how much gold you will need to prevent your opponent from contesting it. And do not hesitate to kill him immediately on military claim if you feel that his possession is uncertain on next round (because you will play Counting Coppers).

Red Cloaks are awesome. Since they were released, I knew they were the character Lannister desperately needed to support their offensive mechanics : 2 gold, 2 STR, mil - int and no drawback. The fact that they get a bonus ability is sweet, and is regularly influent in triggering the agenda.

On total, I have 11 characters of gold cost 1/2, which is necessary for the stability of the deck at setup and resilience at military claim.

Intermediate cost characters

The Hound x2 Rattleshirt's Raiders x2

I go at the necessary there, and remove the somewhat superficial. The deck bounds his gold curve, and in this case the 3/4 gold cost characters must really justify their presence by being very cost-efficient (more on this later). No doubts for the Hound, more for Rattleshirt's Raiders who can be really subefficient, but their attachment metagame ability fitting the mechanics of the deck and their resilience at FSoW is much needed and grant them an immovable place.

Economic Locations

Western fiefdom x3 The Roseroad x3 The Kingsroad x3

Non-setupable cards

Milk of the poppy x3 Treachery x3

In both sections, I automatically enter evidence. At this time, I have 42 cards in the deck. The overall picture of the deck becomes clearer, and i can turn to the most evident choices of plotline.

Plotline (Part 1)

A Noble Cause Summons Counting Coppers Confiscation

A Noble Cause is my opener, it is statistically sure and do not have drawback. The only problem of the plot is the low initiative, and starting on T1 is generally problematic. But in this deck, You have two offensive characters (Jaime and Cersei) not kneeling to attack in important early game challenges, which is excellent. Also, the agenda lift the problem of being first player (more on this later).

Summonsis a long time basic of my Lannister decks, simply because I could do bad starts without Tywin or Tyrion. Now that Cersei (LocR) is released, it allows me to tutor an additional excellent character with it. It is also a Valar metagame consideration : I am careful with my start, trying to not overextend on board, then play Summons at T2 to search for a duplicate of leader(s) at the board, or in hand if I can immediately play him. Just having one duplicated leader is enough to counter Valar (and you have an additional trick and considerations for that, see later).

Counting Coppers because you have Tywin and Tyrion, who bypass the low economy drawback of the plot, and Confiscation for poppy.

The Agenda (Part 1)

It could seems weird that I only start to speak about the agenda now, after all this is the reason of the deck, the card I love. What the agenda says is that you have bonus plot. Thus, because they are bonus, they are not the main concern of the deck. Like the normal plotline, I want to see how the main elements of the deck behave before making choices for bonuses. Understanding this fact is the essence of playing Rains of Castamere : your normal deck must be self-sufficient.

Filthy Accusations Power Behind the Throne Wildfire Assault

They are the three main elements of the bonus plotline.

Filthy Accusationslargely removed the penalty of being first player, especially on T1 when the opponent is likely to only have one faction leader on board. Remember that you are not forced to play it as soon as possible, this is your strongest effect both because of his power, both because of his polyvalence. Thus, you can sometimes not trigger the agenda simply to reserve it for a later situation where he will be much needed.

Power Behind the Throneis a must have because of his polyvalence. Other Scheme plots are somehow conditional, and in practice a standing plot is very versatile. The best utility is with Tywin, allowing him to make two challenges in the same phase is extremely efficient in term of powergrab and creates a difference at reaching victory condition. Otherwise, he can be useful for defending intrigue with an offensive leader, defend military with Jaime, or when you are first player prevent opponent from winning one challenge in attack.

Wildfire Assault will not be played when you win - after all you win - but is compulsory for badly engaged games. If you use it in a basic plotline, Wildfire is not enough in Lannister : Opponent will keep his main characters and immediately marshal other ones to rebuild a board. But in challenge phases, things change. First, marshalling has passed, which means the window for completing a board is removed and last marshalling could only have been wasted cards. Second, you probably have been aggressive in intrigue (and at least you have the claim of the challenge you trigger Wildfire) and reduce his hand previously : he will not rebuild a board easily. Third, you can ambush characters to absorb military claim ( Burned Men) or dominate table ( The Hound). Thus, you have excellent basis for playing Wildfire, and you will discover further tricks along the most expert considerations of the deck.

Completing the deck : consequences of the agenda

Casterly Rock x2 Tears of Lys x2

Casterly Rock was previously a good card, but was not doing enough to justify entering the decks, since you often lack of characters to make two intrigue challenges. Still, it was extremely efficient against Stark, who could be outrushed by the unopposed they leaved as well as seeing their Winterfell or Catelyn not preventing move from Lannister in intrigue challenges. And same for Night Watch, who are very vulnerable to this card. It is also useful against Greyjoy to cope with their rush and their occasional draw in challenge phase (since they always are first player, you will always discard what they draw). I also like the card against Targaryen, because they tend to draw and rely on their events, which are now insecure. What was lacking was Cersei LocR, obviously. She now becomes insane, literally oppressing hands and powergrabbing like crazy. But it would be a bit unstable to only rely on her, and Castral Roc finds a more basic utilisation with the need for a 5 STR differences in at least one intrigue challenge, and the help of the second plotline to lift the downside of kneeling characters for focusing in intrigue.

Tears of Lys also are a consequence. This event leave the metagame because of Lannister domination, but I still like it : it is a direct kill at affordable cost 1 and a condition automatically satisfied in Lannister. Of course, many characters have an intrigue icon, but I remarked that in every matchup you can find interesting target, which makes the event at least interesting because both players will lose one card and you will make an economical benefit. One excellent subtlety is the possibility to trigger it after Wildfire in the window of response, which turns it in a very offensive reset. Or, if you control Casterly Roc, trigger Wildfire in first intrigue challenge, then go for military and do a second intrigue and play tears. This move is also realizable with other configurations that will soon be presented, they basically consist in killing something between the two intrigue challenge.

Cards fitting Lannister mechanics

Put to the Sword x2 Seal of the Hand x2 Syrio Forel x1

Put to the Sword is harder to pass in this deck, because you play Cersei and not Gregor. But still, you can finance it with Tyrion, and on contrary to Tears you have a difficult condition to satisfy but no restriction on your target. I like the 2/2 and "easy but restricted and delayed / harder but unrestricted and immediate" balance found in the removing character module, which consist in 4 cards of this type in total, a reliable number.

Seal of the Hand When Cersei was not present you needed to see the Seal if you wanted to win the Baratheon matchup, up to the point I played it in x3 in May 2015, when Gregor was released. The match-up is easier with Cersei LocR, thus Seal x2 is enough since it is expensive and neutral. The card is amazing with Tywin Lannister (which justify largely his presence), but less impressive with the other faction leaders, even if Tyrion has a good synergy with it thanks to his stealth.

Syrio Forel helps satisfying the agenda condition thanks to his stealth, and his synergy with Cersei is great. He is also interesting for other faction leaders, since it helps obtaining unopposed with Jaime, make Tywin unstoppable, obtain a military icon with Tyrion. He also allows passing Put to the Sword easily with the double stealth in military. In a sense, he makes the same job than Gregor at a lowest cost, differences being that Gregor can occasionally kill people and lock military challenge in defence if there are no stealth on your opponent board, as well as being reducible with Lannister economy and NC, while Syrio is excellent for a Greyjoy match-up, but his neutrality makes him expensive if he is not in optimal condition to support your board. He was in x2 at the tournament, but I choose to pass all unique characters in x1 after a practical experience of Valar, at the exception of main ones.

Finishing the deck : looking at last slots of plotline first

So now 51 slots are filled, and if you are experienced in Lannister and plays this deck, you will rapidly understand why all the possible choices are doubting. So before turning to this final settings, it is probably better to look at the plotline - the constant part of your deck in every game- before deciding which secondary cards are of the best utility (I will focus first on the ones chosen, and the ones removed later).

Trading with the Pentoshi First Snow of Winter Close Call

I wrote on Stukov's blog what I thought about Trading with the Pentoshi : it is not an opener. And each time I was constrained in doing it because of a difficult starting hand, it was obvious that I was not helping myself: opponent can fully develop at the board and plays is hand. Which is particularly terrible when you are dominating intrigue challenge against all factions. I rather said that Trading was ideally a mid-game plot, when you have reduced opponent's hand while yours was protected (or you draw), and you want to play it to take advantage at the board: gold given becomes virtual. And Lannister fits very well this condition, while having very expensive characters that makes the need for an "urgency" plot like Trading desirable. Additionally, because you can play Wildfire in challenge phase and the following explained plot, First Snow of Winter, just the turn after Trading, it helps largely dealing with the drawback of the plot.

The First Snow of Winter was not in the deck at the start. As I said to Henri and Guet when looking at their World Championship deck, FSoW is so much expected in the metagame that everybody counter it at deckbuilding and makes it sub efficient when played. The fact that Valar was released, a second potentially extremely impacting table reset, mechanically modified decks composition in the metagame and thus creates an increase in power for FSoW. But it was not the main considerations at basis. It was rather match-up considerations that decides me : If you can pass and a Wildfire in challenge phase, and FSoW at the end of marshalling, you put an heavy pressure on Stark and Night's Watch matchup, factions currently dominating the metagame. They hate both plots. They have to suffer the two. There is an additional consideration. I was looking at my deck and though a good economic plot with good initiative and sweet effect would be welcome in the deck, but I cannot found something satisfying all the conditions. Economy was very important for me because I paradoxically feel constrained on it when Tywin is not there. Then, I realized that FSoW provides reversed economy : you don't have additional one, but opponent loses his investments. You send them back to hand while you dominate intrigue, and become free to attack on his main characters. It looks aggressive. It looks like you do not allow your deck to block or your opponent to breathe. It looks great.

Close Call enters the deck in last position. I playtested the double Counting Coppers of Henri at worlds, but it was problematic without Tywin while I needed economy. Thus, I became interested in a good economic plot creating card advantage. Calm Over Westeros answers present, as always, except when I realized his anti-synergy with the agenda : you need to have Calm revealed. Which is good when you are second player. But it's not sure to happen, and a good opponent will play around the plot if he wins initiative. Even if you win it by yourself, you could be in a situation where you want to be first player : it happens more than occasionally with this deck. Goodbye, my lover. You have been the one for me. Remains Time of Plenty, but it is not acceptable in my view to play two plots providing an advantage to the opponent. Remained Close Call. Intermediate economy, desirable effect in a VM metagame or to come back from a difficult early game where you lost a key character, just the additional pinch of draw you need. Ok, it is zero initiative, but the deck deals well with this, at least in early game when FA and PBtT are available.

Finishing the deck : Last plots of second plotline

You do not need Littlefinger's Meddling, you will have the needed economy with Tyrion and Tywin while your event line does not consist in expensive ones hard to trigger, and for which the decision fully relies on you and not the opponent situation (Treachery, Nightmares if he enters the deck).

It is between A Game of Thrones, Varys' Riddle and Warden of the West.

Wardens of the West enters first. Between all of your main characters, they all are self-sufficient except Tyrion. He needs cards around him to become efficient, which creates instability. Since triggering the agenda is not hard with a stealth, playing Wardens of the West suddenly makes Tyrion self-sufficient. Moreover, despite dominating in intrigue, it's hard for you to really reduce opponent's hand without Castral Roc. Looking at the size of hands in T1 and T2, discarding three cards is often synonym of leaving the opponent with few solutions (or not at all). What really makes Warden of the West shine is the possibility opened by First Snow of Winter. Warden is not condemned to be an early game plot, he becomes efficient as soon as you're able to finance it on a FSoW turn in midgame. With a minimum amount of effort, you get rid of all opponent's cheap cost characters for the rest of the game, and can focus on emptying his table. The synergy with Castral Roc is great, but efficiency of the plot relies on the two previously mentioned cards. Discarding 6 cards is unlikely to happens. The plot has also a synergy with Cersei, who can claim power with it.

Varys's Riddletakes the last slot. Possessing a plot able to provides you with a card advantage bonuses is great : this deck has an interest in triggering either CC, Summons or Building Orders. It is also a Valar Morghulis metagame considerations : if your opponent took too much advantage of his Valar, or his left without any hand after playing it, you can take a desperate move to trigger his own Valar a second time to also empty his board. It could also be used as a Confiscation, which creates the subtle move of playing an attachment because you precisely want to use opponent's Confiscation next turn. Overall, it is more a tool than a needed plot

A Game of Thrones do not pass the cut. His main advantage is to provide you with one additional plot that makes the first player position less penalizing. The drawback is that you need Cersei or Tywin + Seal of the Hand in order to defend intrigue after winning by a 5 STR differential. Moreover, since Greyjoy always named themselves first player, playing with Rains makes the plot pass from super efficient to non useful in the matchup.

Completing the deck with the most appropriate cards

Queen's Assassin x2 Widow's Wail x1 Bodyguard x2 The Boy King x1 Chella daughter of Cheik x1 Ser Gregor Clegane x1 Kevan Lannister x1

The Queen's Assassinare perfectly fitting the deck mechanic. Additional pins at cost 2 is desirable to have a good proportions of military claims in case of urgency. Additional character with ambush to make profitable Tyrion Lannister is also desirable. Moreover, his aggressive ability is extremely useful with two offensive resets in challenge phase. Finally, he is very synergic with FSoW since it makes him going back to hand at exactly the time you want it inside, so you can normally pay him to have characters for challenge.

Widow's Wail is a nice tool allowing to gain one challenge by surprise or be sure to trigger the agenda ( a good opponent will expect you to possibly play it). It also helps to increase the uncertainty module of the deck. Simple and efficient card.

Bodyguardwas mandatory in a early Valar metagame : people will play it even if not perfectly knowing all the implications Valar had on the games. Because I wanted to avoid being "stupidly" crushed by a Valar Morghulis played in favourable conditions, since I really depend on my main characters, I invested in protecting them. And at least, it provides a military claim for one gold as well as a protection against kill event. It was at the expense of the Nightmares, and I dislike being forced to this choice. Nightmares is in the ideal condition for being played in this deck : since you dominate intrigue, you can keep them in your hand, waiting for the right moment. You have many other surprising moves and generate gold in challenge phase with Tyrion, which make your Nightmares less easily predictable. One of the problem of Nightmares is that you do not solve the problem : you only make the opponent having a suboptimal turn, with all the consequences it implies. As play test revealed it to me, both by playing Nightmares and suffering from it, it does not change the long term fate of the game because it does not change board situation. But, if you can make the fate of the game rapidly change because you only need one turn, then it's great. And in Lannister, it is like you only need to install yourself, and when you have the advantage it will be difficult to reverse the game for your opponent. Then, a temporisation card pilling up with the others cancel effects (Milk of the Poppy, Treachery) is very desirable.

The Boy Kingdoes not look impressive at first : gaining power is great but does not make card advantage. I realized that when dominated, Boy King allows me to stick to my opponent in power, while otherwise I could definitively be too far away from him. When dominating, it also helps me in closing the games faster. In the end, I find it is a great card, but I am not sure if she really impact the fate of a game and still consider to remove it, something I will try for sure.

Chella Daughter of Cheyk is basically interesting for possessing the two most important icons of the deck and staying on board with FSoW. The fact that she gains STR is interesting for the agenda, but what really makes the difference is the possibility to makes her an additional main characters when triggering Wildfire. Very often, the problem with triggering Wildfire in a balanced situation is that you will lose as much as your opponent, perhaps a bit less because you can ambush afterwards. But with Chella, you create a new major character who will immediately intimidate one opponent's character. And this possibility is strong.

Ser Gregor Clegane and Ser Kevan Lannister. First of all, they were two Ser Ilyn Payne. At first glance, it seems logical to play Payne, he has a powerful ability and there are many 2 gold cost characters in the deck for setup. That was my initial reasoning, and maybe you thought I made an error in the decklist when reading it, but reality crush this choice. Because the opening is NC + Summons, Ilyn can ruins it by not being Lord and forcing you to go on Trading with the Pentoshi. Then, you will play it when you have economy on middle game, which is precisely the situation when your FSoW will clean the table one turn later. Additionally, investing so much for a character not participating in challenges is really damaging, and experience told me his ability is not game breaking : I was playing Targaryen in playtest and faced him till the start of the game, and still was able to cope with the threat he puts on my dragon. Even if he constraints me a lot, I still won at the end. Playing him also revealed this subtle considerations, and I remind that psychology of human makes them focuses on bad experiences they had, while a more realistic picture would probably prove that Ilyn is less frightening than what he looks like.

You probably get the point of Kevan and Gregor : They are Lord for NC, and they are good expensive unique characters that you play in *1 for metagaming Valar (no dead cards). I prefer playing expensive unique characters, this is how you win in V2.

Kevan is a kind of 3 gold cost character in my view, since he allows a free utilisation of one Kingsroad. Thus, he has more STR than his cost and two icons, while not getting back to hand on FSoW. It would be instable if it was only that, but you play Poppy, Sealf of the Hand and Casterly Roc. For the first of them, everybody plays Confiscation to remove as soon as possible, thus Kevan could be viewed as a 5 gold characters that summons a poppy. You play an half-expensive character to neutralize a faction leader : great deal. This is not possible to discard Casterly and Seal by yourself, unfortunately, but Kevan still provides an interesting counter to Confiscation on a Seal of the Hand. But you have a trick with Rains and Kevan to easily play Casterly Roc and Seal of the Hand : you play CC, switch your plot in challenges to lower your reserve, discard the card of interest and summons it next turn with Kevan.

Then explanations are complete. I will just say that Gold Cloaks, Grand Maester Pycelleor Shae were not enough impacting on games relatively to their cost, and Ser Amory Lorch was rarely renown. Alayaya was disappointing because many events or ambush cards can be triggered before her, and Lancel does not fit in the deck.

I would conclude on a big, big thanks toward Mr and Mme Wells for their tournament organization and to the French Northern community of AGoT. This kind of week-end is why you appreciate this game.