C-C-C-Combo Breaker (Baratheon, Conclave)

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
None yet.

ChrisChris 994

When you play A Game of Thrones: The Card Game: Second Edition, you either join the masses wailing for restrictions and limits to combo decks or you play decks tuned to only beating combo decks.

So we turn to Baratheon, the mighty stags brought low by an abundance of stand and speed in the game at this moment, to save us from this tide of Hyper Vipers, Wonder Women and Iron Briennes. In fact, you could say that it’s their abscense from competition that has allowed the combo decks to flourish.

It’s ironic. What was one of the original NPE factions, first through mass kneel and later through Chamber stall, now is needed to stop the decks that truly don’t care what their opponent does.

Those are thoughts enough. It is time for the deck. Combo decks thus far in second edition depend upon a central character having one big turn after playing The Annals of Castle Black. You can beat them in two ways: rush to victory before they make challenges on their Annals turn or disrupting and withstanding the Annals turn. We are concerned here with the latter.

The easiest way to win is through smart plot play. Fortified Position, Forgotten Plans or Your King Commands It can all nullify an Annals turn before the draw phase.

You can also limit the key character and win through attachments and kneel. In the Name of Your King! and Traitor to the Crown effectively force your opponent to only make intrigue challenges (huge against Brienne and the Viper) and kneel from Even Handed Justice and Stinking Drunk keep them down and on the ground.

Of course, if you can knock out the central elements even before the Annals turn, all the better. A well-placed Melisandre (GtR) will force a concede before the third plot. Barring that Queen's Men, Seen In Flames and Ruby of R'hllor can all remove the locations, attachments and characters your opponent needs in hand.

Game, set, match.

You’re welcome.

3 comments

Palpa 122

Great work. How does it compete against "normal" decks?

chriswhite 1

As someone who has been playing Bara-Conclave for a while, as competitively as possible, I can assure you that it is already a not-particularly-strong deck. So to hamstring it further by putting in all these combo-countering cards, I'm not sure what your point is––yes, you may have a 100% win-rate against the 60% of combo-decks that you run into at future SC tournaments. But I can assure you that you will have a 0% win-rate against the other 40% of non-combo decks you face. So... doesn't this just prove the dominance of the thing you're trying to prove is not-dominant...?

ChrisChris 994

I admit: it is a bit of a joke deck, but there is something real beneath it. Combo decks have been a thing since Annals was released. Every few months a new variant is developed. Some people celebrate the creativity in finding ironclad combos in places as unexpected as Knighted or To the Rose Banner!, but more cry for restrictions and errata.

I find myself with a foot in both camps. I appreciate the originality in discovering these combinations and the rigor in developing them into something playable and consistent, but I am sympathetic, too, to those who complain these decks are no fun to play against. I do not, however, have patience for those demanding the designers change the game. This is a space they have decided to explore and allow, for the time being at least, and until they decide it's a problem and change the rules, we need to deal with it.

I do think Baratheon is a natural predator to these decks with the wide variety of disruption available to the stags, and their generally suppressed appearance in tournaments has allowed combo to find prominence. This deck was meant to point out answers, both in faction, out of faction and in plots. If you aren't interested in playing Baratheon but are concerned about combo in the field, you need to be considering those other options like Fortified Position and finding another deck that can leverage it.

If you think combo is a problem you have two real options: drop out of the game or counter it. We play the game we have, not the game we wished we had. I think it's fine. You may as well whine about rush or agro. They're archetypes. They're fine.