Chair Control (with Card Selection Ideas) 1.0

• Versiones
• 1.0

Grayjoy got The Seastone Chair which I’m focusing on in this version of Greyjoy Faelty. I cut Milk of the Poppy since it prevents you from killing the target.

They also got Rise of the Kraken which wins games when you’re ahead, and can steal wins if your opponent isn’t careful. 8 power turn + renown is the dream and its not as rare as it sounds.

The last new addition is Support of the People which allows you to search for whatever location you need and reduces the number of copies required to see them often.

PLOTS

A Noble Cause hits 17 out of the 31 character cards. Its up in the air with Calling the Banners since this deck doesn’t focus on your opponent’s claim soak, they usually have a board full of characters in the mid to late game. If you decide not to run Wildfire Assault, Banners is easily better. Otherwise, take your pick. Beware of Naval Superiority.

Calm Over Westeros is one of my favorite plots. It allows you to turn off Lannister intrigue for a turn or prevent a mil counter attack from an aggro deck. 5 gold is tasty.

Counting Coppers came in over my original idea of Building Orders since it usually comes down when in top deck mode to accomplish the same thing. I do miss searching for Little Bird but sometimes you need a character instead. So far, it seems better in the late game. Beware of Naval Superiority.

Naval Superiority hits so many things, I rarely miss with it, but you probably shouldn’t play this plot if you don’t know the meta or generally struggle in the plot phase. If you miss with this, you immediately give up your lead. With that disclaimer out of the way, basically the only time you shouldn’t play it is if you’re ahead on board and believe your opponent might Wildfire Assault your overextended board, Filthy Accusations your Balon Greyjoy, or Calm Over Westeros your superior military. Against a murder deck, you should also be wary of two claim plays with Sneak Attack, The Winds of Winter or the like.

It’s usually used when you know the opponent is going to Confiscation your Little Bird or Marched to the Wall your only character. Money plots: A Noble Cause, Calling the Banners, or lesser used Marching Orders and Supporting the Faith are easy to predict if they don’t have their bomb out yet and need money to get rolling (usually first or second turn), and stupidly easy to predict if they used Summons last turn and didn’t play a bomb. Building Orders, Summons or Counting Coppers when they’re low on cards or if you think they might be going for a missing piece on their board (slightly less good here since those are low gold plots, but still, now they play nothing) likewise, hits the new Here to Serve but they still get their maester. Randomly hits Heads on Spikes against slot machine players. It even hits A Feast for Crows if that Nightwatch player was going for a power play. Worth mentioning is currently unseen plots such as Muster the Realm, Rebuilding, Reinforcements, and Taxation.

Rise of the Kraken is amazing to say the least. Used almost exclusively in the late game or when you have overwhelming board presence, but can also be used if you know you can get a couple unopposed challenges through. Initiative 8 means you usually get to choose and is especially potent if your opponent uses Wildfire Assault since it only has a initiative of 7.

Sneak Attack I run over The Winds of Winter because I found that I never wanted to play winds. Not enough gold, not enough initiative, and I usually only wanted the power challenge to hit anyway. I go for this when I want to get my Support of the People to go off and/or suck some of the power out of an opponent who is close to victory. When used with Balon Greyjoy and other renown (Theon Greyjoy for instance) it can swing hard for a 4-5 power play.

Wildfire Assault works well here. At first I was running Marched to the Wall instead, but against high level players, they wont setup only one character anyway, and if they do, just bluff hard (a smile usually works) that you are marching them, and they just might try to counter march you. Nothing feels better than watching them march themself! All that aside, since The Seastone Chair is targeting down their best characters, they always have junk to march later in the game, and all those little annoying dudes make it pretty difficult to get an unopposed off in an even game or when behind. For these reasons, I believe Wildfire is the correct choice for this kind of Greyjoy deck.

OTHER PLOT CHOICES

Building Orders is one I really do often miss. Its a little slow but finding the The Seastone Chair is so important, it might be worth the slow turn. Also finds those valuable Little Birds and Iron Fleet Scouts. And even if you have your chair and your birdies and your scouts, it still hits 33% of the deck 10 times. You’ll find something and even economy is useful.

Summons is also decent because the Greyjoy characters are why you play Greyjoy at all. It is also slow, but Balon Greyjoy wins games. Asha Greyjoy and Theon Greyjoy make unopposed happen, or at the very least, win challenges. Even finding an Aeron Damphair might be clutch. I don’t like searching for Euron Crow’s Eye because he most likely will sit in my hand and get intrigued out the turn i find him. Regardless, this is definitely an option if you don’t like one of the passive plots I’ve chosen.

Filthy Accusations is another card that can work well in Greyjoy, but again, it just feels it a little too slow. In a winning board state, it might let you get an advantage, but if its even or they go for money that turn and play something even bigger, you come out even at best and slightly worse more often. The only time it will give you an advantage for sure is if they play a passive plot like Summons.

Rebuilding is worth mentioning because if the meta starts to focus on location removal (which is a very real possibility) it’d be nice to be able to get The Iron Throne or the Great Kraken back into the deck. There is also plenty of wonderful events I wouldn’t mind having additional copies of.

CHARACTERS

Aeron Damphair with The Iron Throne can snowball. I usually use Support of the People to find the Throne. He is clutch in bringing you back into the game, especially if he finds Balon’s missing head.

Alannys Greyjoy is nice one of. shes cheap, has intrigue, and is never a dead card, so I can toss her to claim if need be. Don’t forget about her text! Count your opponent’s cards.

Asha Greyjoy and Theon Greyjoy are the typical annoying stealthers to help activate The Seastone Chair, Put to the Sword, We Do Not Sow, etc. Easy 3 ofs.

Balon Greyjoy is the mvp of the deck. Iron Fleet Scout makes him single handedly win a mil challenge unopposed and activates The Seastone Chair. He does what Asha and her brother does, but better .. especially if he gets his ship. Against an intrigue deck, dont play him unless there is a bird on his shoulder. (Tears of Lys & Little Bird)

Black Wind’s Crew is great bang for the buck, decent mil claim soak and I’m rarely against pillage (except in the rare case it hits a blank and gets them closer to an answer .. but worth the risk)

Drowned Men is still decent, but and at a cost of 4, they sometimes just sit in my hand till late game or get intrigued out. Seems ok at two since they’re still great once you’ve got a couple ships.

Euron Crow’s Eye is still a power house. We Do Not Sow usually activates him. Locations are quickly becoming a focal point in my meta, and stealing anything is great. At worst, you get economy. At best, their Chamber of the Painted Table & The Iron Throne combo is now yours. Late game is usually about card draw, and there are plenty of stealable card drawing locations.

Iron Islands Fishmonger is essential. Reducer / claim fodder / sushi expert.

Littlefinger 4 str intrigue is something this deck really needs, and economy wins games.

Lordsport Shipwright feels perfect at two copies, but I can see an argument for a third if locations become the most common win condition. There are some decks hes a superstar against. Nightwatch’s Castle Black and Martell’s Ghaston Grey come to mind. But even just turning off their kings road can help starve them. Especially on a Naval Superiority turn. And he has an Int icon.

Maester Wendamyr has been my mvp for getting successful Support of the People events off. This deck hits power pretty well already, but he just makes it easy. It’s also pretty fun to give him a Little Bird and win unopposed intrigue challenges.

Salty Navigator is great fodder, and a nice tie breaker in plot phase. (setup into turn one A Noble Cause for instance). Seems good at two.

ATTACHMENTS

Little Bird is essential in this deck. Protection against Tears of Lys is becoming more of a factor as control decks get more popular. The Hound is bringing back Lannister in a big way, and again, this deck suffers from intrigue. It really shines on Asha Greyjoy since its usually easy to get an unopposed stealth intrigue challenge of 4 and lets her stand to continue her duties. But valid targets include: Aeron Damphair, Balon Greyjoy, Black Wind’s Crew, Asha Greyjoy, Iron Islands Fishmonger, Maester Wendamyr, Salty Navigator, and Theon Greyjoy. In setup, I put it on whatever I think is going to die. Against an intrigue heavy deck, I don’t play important characters until I have this to play with on them. That includes Aeron if I need to get back Balon or a stealther. It hasn’t happened to me yet, but its also a must have card against the mirror match since it protects any essential character against the opponents The Seastone Chair. I wish I could run another copy.

LOCATIONS

The Seastone Chair is the card that made me come back to Greyjoy. Being able to target kill something is insanely powerful in a game where most characters never come back. Other decks will bend over backwards attempting to hold back this effect, but Greyjoy always finds a way. The military challenge must be unopposed, so key cards to consider are: Balon Greyjoy - the end all be all best character to activate the chair. Stealthers (Asha Greyjoy & Theon Greyjoy) to sneak past any character that happens to have a military icon. The Kraken’s Grasp is especially sneaky since it turns off the chump block and makes it unopposed, but remember you must be first player to use this event. Its worth noting that since the wording of the card gives up all of your military claim, two claim plots and Calm Over Westeros do nothing to change the effect. Likewise, since the targeted character cannot have an attachment, We Do Not Sow becomes especially important to use before your military challenge. You do not have to be first player for it to work, so feel free to go second on the turn you play Balon Greyjoy if you fear they have a Milk of the Poppy.

The Iron Throne is a really fun card in this deck. As I mentioned earlier, its nuts with Aeron Damphair but even if hes not around, this card can wins games on its own. +1 Power every round (unless ridiculously behind) is a clock some decks can’t deal with. Better yet, it puts you on an even playing field with other Iron Throne decks. One copy since you can find it with Support of the People and I haven’t seen it destroyed yet.

Great Kraken is a terrific card. He makes your best character even better, but even if you don’t have Balon Greyjoy, card draw is usually all you need to win the race against other murder decks. Late game, the extra power can make the Rise of the Kraken or Sneak Attack power turns swing even harder. Only thing I didn’t like about this card was having to run multiple copies and drawing it as a dead card. Oh .. hello Support of the People. One copy ftw.

Iron Fleet Scout has always been nuts with Balon Greyjoy but with The Seastone Chair on the table, you win the game. Buffs every character in the deck except Littlefinger. Costs 0. Isn’t limited. Can drop 3 of them in startup. Buffs Drowned Men. I can’t praise this card enough.

The Kingsroad I only run two because the deck is already pretty location heavy, and when in top-deck mode, it becomes a bit of a dead draw. Also, since 2 claim plots are less important in this deck, the plot income is a bit higher over typical Greyjoy decks. I tend to focus on control and trickle economy, but cutting a copy of The Roseroad instead is an option if you prefer the burst economy.

The Roseroad I love this card. It is so much easier to make plot decisions when they have (+1) (+2) or (+3) gold on them.

EVENTS

Put to the Sword has been good at two, but I don’t like to rely on it for several reasons. (1) The Hand’s Judgment is a thing. (2) Duplicates. (3) saving two gold usually doesn’t work out and (4) win by 5 or more means Asha Greyjoy or Theon Greyjoy can’t solo it. The only reason I still keep it in the deck is to kill those problem characters that have weapons or other attachments on them. Once you kill that guy, the game is usually yours.

Risen from the Sea has saved more games than I can count. It can be risky however. As nice as its would be to make my Balon Greyjoy 6 strength, if I haven’t seen The Hand’s Judgment from my opponent yet, I usually end up using it as extra mil claim soak on my Salty Navigator. Against a Mil focused deck, it’s best saved it to counter Put to the Sword.

Support of the People is the reason this deck seems more passive than your typical Greyjoy Faelty deck. It finds whatever locations you’re missing, and allows you to run single copies of Great Kraken and The Iron Throne so they don’t become dead draws. If your economy is behind, it finds The Roseroad. If you have everything you need, it gets you another Iron Fleet Scout. The power icons are heavy in the deck, so winning by 5 is rarely a problem.

The Kraken’s Grasp is a combat trick people tend to forget about. It helps get unopposed for The Seastone Chair, We Do Not Sow, Support of the People, etc. It really shines on your Rise of the Kraken turn since your opponent will likely chump block at least one of your challenges.

We Do Not Sow allows you to get away with not running Confiscation or Rattleshirt’s Raiders and eliminating specific locations can cripple certain decks. It always has a target and unopposed is a Greyjoy specialty. Particularly great in removing an attachment to let The Seastone Chair do its thing. I really want a third copy, but I’m having trouble finding a cut. It might even be worth 61 cards because at least in my meta, its all about location location location.

CUTS & OTHER CARD CANDIDATES

Throwing Axe I used to run 61 cards and one less Little Bird for two of these, but since I don’t really care about maximizing claim soak, this card tended to be rather useless. (except that one time Maester Wendamyr with Little Bird used The Kraken’s Grasp to kill Tyrion Lannister .. why does no one ever believe I have a grasp in my hand?)

Seal of the Hand is another card I’m strongly considering. I’m not sure how to lose if Balon Greyjoy picks this up. That said, it puts a lot of eggs in one basket. If that basket gets high on Milk of the Poppy you’re really going to wish you had more We Do Not Sows.