Schrondinger's Banter 1.0

• Versiones
• 1.0

Well, the people asked and the people get.

As you may have heard, Rowan and I were travelling home from the Weekender, where he proved himself by winning Manchester and I proved myself by winning the 'Golf Shirt Memorial Award for Weekenderlence' and decided to both play Banterbridge at the Roughborough SC.

Car journeys with the two of us frequently descend into absolute nonsense - long time listeners of BBTT may recall our Stark/Seige/Red Keep deck as the worst offender.

The concept is simple and stems from Josh Chamber's original banner Dragon deck at the Paramour Invitational - Banterbridge is bad, because your opponent might get more value. However, they will eventually run out of steam, and if you play only good characters then you never do! If you are scared they will play better characters you are playing the wrong deck.

So the rules of the game: 1) The deck must be immune to First Snow of Winter.

• Dolorous Edd is even better on that turn than normal. Ambush characters in general are more permissable than normal if under 4 cost.
• Josh's original build came about at a time where Stark was rife and so was also immune to Ward.
• Old Nan doesn't count. Marge is forbidden so Rowan is a bad person.
• Noone leverages it as well as you do.

2) You need summer plots -As the old proverbs go, you cant have Banter in the cold without an old woman.

• This means 6 summer plots for me, but 5 can be enough if the other plots are good enough or you have Old Nan.

3) Draw = Win

• Even more so than 1.0, you need Banterbridge, and you need it now - this explains Dragons Tail, Much & More, the Barge and also Time of Plenty - draw, good reserve, good gold. Dig for the Island and the Bridge -> win games.
• You also need a full hand to ensure you have characters to drop in!

4) Banner

• You need to banner, because Tyrell + Neutral on their own doesn't give enough oomph at the top end.

5) Silly expensive characters are good

• Mance, Jaqen, Renly's Host - these are all characters that are hard to include in a normal deck, but when they are free they are more than a little good. And 6 plots are Summer plots - yay Host!

So, why Watch? The original deck ran Dragon - Mirri was good, Aggo likes Summer, Dothraki Horde are good if free. Mirri is less good now Valar has come home, so new banner time. I overheard Josh and Wamma discuss 'Schrondinger's Banter' - what is the most Banter deck? Banterbridge. What is the least? The Wall. And so it was born. Originally the deck ran one Wall but I upped it the day before - it was so good in testing. But what does the Banner bring, or "Why don't you like my presents? :( </3" Attack me with a present? No, Craven. Kill all the presents? No, Craster. This deck can be slow, and Cravening the renown is really useful. Similarly, stealth, but this is more important than the average Watch deck, because the board is so fragile - I almost always open Calm to stabalize, even with Arbor/Banterbridge on setup. The timing on Banterbridge means you can drop in Craster after a Valar or a Wildfire and return the board to play (even the House Florent Knights!). This can end games. It provides much needed stability. Benjen is similarly great because he can be murdered and then put immediately back into play. He can also deter military challenges against your small board. Qhorin adds renown and a small amount of removal - and Song of Summer helps him out. With characters this big, once you are set up its really easy to either force through the power challenge or block all of theirs - the Wall and Thoren help there. Pyromancers are there for the mirror. They actually helped in a test game vs Rowan by nuking his Banterbridge while I only had weaker characters in hand - the most anti Banter this deck can get.

The rest of the card choices are obvious, right?

The deck went 3-0 in testing, 2-2 on the day (Keb knocked my hand out, Valar'd and I couldnt recover (especially with a suprise Podrick/Tyrion play that turn) and Wamma did Wamma things. I beat Tyrell Summer and Tyrell Winter (?!). I had a casual game afterwards which was over before it began when my 1 card setup got marched.

Which brings me to Setup. The best setup is Arbor, Bitterbridge. The second best is some sort of variant with the Wall and maybe some other limited economy. Embrace the one and two card setups, because thats all your getting. Mulligan hard for Banterbridge or the Arbor, and then dig for the other as soon as possible.

In the end the event was one by Rowan: http://thronesdb.com/decklist/view/8074/nanterbridge-loughborough-sc-winner-1.0

Check out this weeks Banter Behind the Throne for more info - link to follow.