The Deck Doctor w/ Kenno (#1) 1.0

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• 1.0

Firstly I want to start off with saying that I enjoyed the article, it was a good read as always. However I have a few questions regarding the deck. What is the role of this deck and why did you decide to go Martell main? If your intent is to build the best Varys control deck you are probably better off playing Lannister Banner of the Sun, if your intent is to build the best Ghaston Grey deck a setup like Sam Bratz's Worlds deck I think will have more merrit. The problem I have with this deck is that it excells at nothing to me, it can leverage Ghaston quite a bit but it lacks enough power characters to really close out a game. What does Martell give you? It basically only gives you Ghaston Grey and what are you giving up? Tywin, Cersei and Wardens of the West. It will lose the 'mini curve' or 1st edition curve aspect but you will have more consistent ways to strip their hand, making your board reset more potent. You also have a fine back up plan with Tywin shenanigans. Tywin gives you the gold to really be able to afford all the toys you want to mess with your opponent. Treachery is a good card but I am not sure if you even want to run it or run it in such numbers. Things I Do For Love is also a way to bounce characters if you go Lanni Martell. If you do go Martell main I would probably drop Arianne to 1 as she isnt doing anything interesting to me, same goes for the Littlefinger, I think we can do without him. Possibly I would add a second Joffrey and Jaime, this would make your ability to play Things I do much more reliable and if you insist on playing Treachery then it will help you get that one off as well. I would then drop both milks for 2 copies of Things I do. Seeing how we are playing 2 Joffs now I would want a second Widows Wail, dropping a copy of Areo Hotah is probably fine seeing how we are now playing 1 Arianne. What does this revised version do? I can more reliably play the Lannister events and it has more bounce effects. You can now leverage your board whipe, bounce and hand strip combo much more. I still thinks its inferior to running Lanni main but if you want to go this route that is how I would do it. The deck would then be:

House Martell / Banner of the Lion

Plots 1x Calling the Banners (Core Set) 1x Calm Over Westeros (Core Set) 1x Counting Coppers (Core Set) 1x Heads on Spikes (Core Set) 1x Marched to the Wall (Core Set) 1x Summons (Core Set) 1x The Long Plan (Taking the Black)

Characters 3x Varys (Core Set) 1x Rattleshirt’s Raiders (Core Set) 2x Joffrey Baratheon (Core Set) 3x Ser Jaime Lannister (Core Set) 1x The Tickler (Core Set) 3x Tyrion Lannister (Core Set) 3x Lannisport Merchant (Core Set) 1x Areo Hotah (Core Set) 1x Arianne Martell (Core Set) 2x Maester Caleotte (Core Set) 1x Obara Sand (Core Set) 3x Desert Scavenger (Core Set) 3x Greenblood Trader (Core Set) 2x The Hound (Taking the Black) 3x Bastard Daughter (Taking the Black) 2x Nymeria Sand (The Road to Winterfell) 1x Syrio Forel (The Road to Winterfell)

Locations 3x The Kingsroad (Core Set) 3x The Roseroad (Core Set) 3x Ghaston Grey (Core Set) 2x Sunspear (Core Set) 2x Blood Orange Grove (Core Set)

Attachments 2x Widow’s Wail (Core Set)

Events 3x Tears of Lys (Core Set) 2x The Hand’s Judgment (Core Set) 3x Treachery (Core Set) 2x Things I Do For Love (Core Set)

Hey @Barnie25! You are correct in recognizing that we were trying to emulate Sam Braatz' worlds deck, albeit in a different flavor.

I love Lannister so much, but it seems running Varys and Tywin / Jaime to push out huge challenges then having a Varys as a reset button in case things don't go according to plan is not a playstyle I enjoy.

It's because of this: more often that not, I'm digging for Jaime / Tywin dupes instead of just controlling the board, because post-Varys, you really can't afford to pay for a second Tywin / Jaime barring a Kingsroad. Even if you're Lannister, you're not rich post-Varys because your economy comes from either Tywin (which gets discarded or marched anyway) or Tyrion (challenges).

I think that you're underestimating the pressure that Ghaston Grey provides in a meta dominated by big characters. Also, running smaller characters means that I'm less concerned about Daracrys, Milk, Kneel and Direct Kill, which all shape the meta now. The deck wants to "blank" as much cards as possible from the opponent.

Second, you are also right that the deck does not excel at anything in particular (sans "blanking" cards). That, I completely agree with. I credit Alvaro for much of my deckbuilding philosophy in that you just put good cards together, and play well -- you don't need gimmicks or crutches.

We can still leverage Intrigue into a board wipe, but ultimately, post-Varys, even with decent hand, the opponent won't be able to marshall out much, if any. Nymeria Sand is there to control the board post-Varys anyway. Ser Jaime Lannister for a renown finish.

While I've conceded to your earlier points and have justified why we chose these cards, I believe running 2x Areo Hotah is the right call. We can always Marched him to get another trigger off, and he's not bad during setup. Also, 2x Arianne helps pay for the Neutral and Lannsiter characters, since she can be reduced by the Blood Orange Groves.

With that said, your build is a lot similar to the other deck that I pitched to @agktmte -- it leverages Things I Do For Love, Ghaston Grey, Intrigue and runs 2x Heads on Spikes. They're both vastly different builds, in my opinion, and it is a completely valid and good deck as well. I have two-three different builds for Martell-Lion. :P

Thanks for your inputs!