Family, Duty, Honour - Top 4 UK Nationals, Best in House Var 1.0

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• 1.0

This is the deck that I piloted to Top 4 at UK Nationals and to best in house at Varberg Morgulis, winning the stunning metal house plaques that Emil made for the tournament. THe deck went 7-2 at UK Nationals and 4-2 at Varberg. In between those tournaments, it won the vast majority of casual games.

The deck started off a fun police build, that under the advice of renowned players Isian Hasmuja and James Waumsley, took increasing inspiration from Qt's deck that came second at Blackwater. I sprinkled in some flea bottom madness and frozen solids, to create the deck.

The deck can reliably take a lot of pressure from your opponent, allowing big retaliatory swings through power challenges with multiple renown characters and winter is coming, which was an MVP. Sansa is incredibly powerful when you see her early, allowing you to consistently accrue power. My advice would be to play defensively and focus on winning the power challenges, unless you see a use for a powerful 2-claim military or intrigue challenge with Winter is Coming. Summer is an MVP with flea bottom and makes Arya, Sansa and most importantly, Dacey Mormont, an ever-present board threat.

Quite often, players who watched the deck thought I had lost when they viewed the early stages of the game, which is testament to the deck's ability to recover. As an example, I'd watch the Varberg Swiss Round 1 against Andreas Rybeck.

I would produce a detailed game list, but I wrote a full one earlier and lost it due to terrible internet at work. However, these are the games I played and the results.

UK Nationals

Game 1 - Martell Rains (Vince Tee) - Win

Game 2 - Tyrell Rains (James Parsons) - Win

Game 3 - Stark Watch (Joel Pearson) - Mod Loss

Game 4 - Martell Crossing (Sam Ashfeld) - Win

Game 5 - Targaryen Rose (David Comerford) - Win

Game 6 - Targaryen Lion (Joe Harrison) - Win

Game 7 - Targaryen Fealty - Win

Game 8 - Greyjoy Rains (Tagore Nakornchai) - Win

Game 9 - Night's Watch Fealty (Darren Hazelden) - Loss

I feel the deck would benefit from the addition of begging brother and/or rattleshirt. Varys was more present in Varberg and the Brother would have helped me against him and also helps counter NW's reliance on Aemon. On the Varys point though, I think the amount of begging brothers will discourage players relying on Varys in the future.

I feel that NW can be a problem. I struggle against the wall as a player generally, but negative attachments can really slow the pace of the deck. Against the wall, I feel Stark has to Rush and I failed to find Arya's gift in my final game to give Eddard courage to attack and not be a craven against an army of str 2 construction workers and cleaners.

The deck is strong though and the character base is great. I'll be posting another deck later, with 100% Goose Bolton.

In the meantime, I hope you have fun with the deck and remember.... Winter is Coming.