We defend the Wall alone

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
We defend the Wall alone 37 32 37 2.0
Inspiration for
All Your Gold Are Belong To Us 4 3 0 1.0
Kawaii SpaceMarine "We defend the Wall alone" Bannerman Enco 2 1 3 1.0
We defend the Wall alone 72 48 77 4.0

Joe From Cincinnati 1672

Alright, The previous version of this deck has made it onto the first page of the Hall of Fame! Haha!

So now, I can post a new version and see how far I can get it up the list :P.

And oh my god, what a time to do it. This 2 month dead period was absolutely killing me! But we finally have some new cards to play with. And they are quite the doozies.

Here is a list of the reasonings for each change:

Calling the Banners over Calm Over Westeros.

I'm opening either Trading or Here to Serve every game anyway, so I'd rather have a second bomb dropping plot than a solid opening plot now. I value the gold over the claim reduction in my games now.

Removing Forgotten Plans/Fortified Posiition for Wildfire Assault.

The reason I did this was mainly because the only plot in the entire game I want to play Forgotten Plans to stop is First Snow of Winter. The problem is, if you have a First Snow of Winter susceptible board of 2 to 3 low cost characters and 1 to 2 4+ characters, your opponent can choose to use First Snow that turn, or the next turn or the turn after. There is no specific window that First Snow can consistently be predicted because, it turns out, if your board is First Snowable on turn 2, chances are it'll still be First Snowable on turn 3. And turn 4. And the person using First Snow can just build up an even more powerful board and wait out your Forgotten Plans.

You can play it when you think they may FSoW, but if you miss you're fucked. And now you also played a bad plot. It's good for when you can't afford to be First Snowed, like if you have nothing but low cost characters and no 4+ in your hand. But if you did miss the FS, you're likely not in all that better of a position to resist it the following turn. And with only 4 gold, you're not repairing your board that turn anyway. There are times when it will come in handy, like when you have 1 4+ in play and 2 in hand and you need two turns to play those 2, you Forgotten Plans to keep your board state for a turn and then by the next turn, you'll have a more resistant board. But this is all mostly out of your control.

I found it much easier to just adjust my deck and playstyle to prioritize getting my 4+ costers out so that, if my opponent did First Snow, I would be able to reliably defend military that turn and have 3 to 4 characters going into the following turn.

Wildfire, on the other hand, would have come in awfully handy in a few tournaments recently. I found myself being around 13 to 14 power going into what ended up being the final turn a lot of times recently. Since my opponent never wants to hand me 2 power, Benjen will reliably be on the board at the end of the game unless I never drew him or unless I killed him myself for the power boost. So Wildfire is actually a relatively reliable 2 power plot, as well as potentially clearing some power off their board.

I am also battling with the idea of using Fortified Position, as it has so many uses such as:

Use 1: Lots of Renown on the board that you want to slow down. This is great because if you're facing a stark Fealty deck, you can remove, essentially, 5 power from the board if they get too many renown guys on the board. This has won me several games just by preventing them from ramping so quickly.

Use 2: There is stealth or intimidate on the board that your defenses are not prepared to stop. This is most common against Greyjoy, but there is also some stealth in other factions, such as Davos in Baratheon and the like.

Use 3: Stop triggered abilities for a turn. The most notable uses are against the likes of Stannis Baratheon. If your board is knelt out, you can use this plot to reset everything because Stannis can't control you for a turn. Other notable uses are against Nymeria, Tyene, Mirri, Ilyn. Any character that has a triggered ability that will disrupt our ability to defend the Wall.

Fortified Position may sneak into the deck at some point, but I just have no idea where...And that's all I have to say about that.

-2 Tears of Lys +2 Nightmares

Other changes include adding Nightmares in place of Tears of Lys. The one turn neutering of a character or location tended to be more valuable. Too much Lannister and Martell for tears to be effective consistently.

-2 The Watcher on the Walls So this may be the biggest surprise of the changes and I am not 100% on it yet. In my meta, my opponents know that I run the Watcher on the Walls, so if I ever have two rangers out, they very very rarely do a military challenge of any kind of value against me. I have this event in my hand for turns on end and then it gets intrigued out. There is, maybe, 1 game out of 20 where this card would have been useful and even then, only if you drew it at the right time. It's a bit too conditional for my liking and just the threat of its existence is more useful than the card itself. Unfortunate. Hope I don't regret removing it.

-1 The Sword in the Darkness Another threat is more valuable than the card itself event. I still run 1 because if, I draw it, I can just drop For the Watch and dare my opponent to under commit. But in my meta, no one ever does anymore. Maybe I'll up it to 2 prior to Gencon (and maybe add Watcher back), as there will be a lot of people unfamiliar with the Night's Watch there. Until then, I don't use these events all that often , as I've burned my meta mates with them so much that they don't even test it anymore.

+1 Milk of the Poppy This is a call based on how many characters there are that need to be milked. Tyene, Ilyn, Mirri, Tywin, Nymeria, all the renowners in Stark. The list could go on for ages. Blanking characters is never a bad thing.

-1 Littlebird +1 Old Bear's Raven I found Littlebird was just a worse version of OBR 90% of the time anyway. I will say it is nice to give Benjen an intrigue icon, and I may end up reverting back to this eventually but the OBR is just so stupid good haha. This is a tough one, but it opened up a neutral slot for that third milk, so I think it's worth it.

+2 White Tree Is this the right call? I don't know. It seems awfully expensive. But if it can prevent a tears or a Put to the Sword or if it can stop my opponent from playing both Balon and Asha in the same turn, it'll be worth it.

I will say that I am apprehensive with it, but I'll add it now and then maybe remove it later if I don't like the feel of it in the deck. I do feel like this card is only good in a deck that runs at least 2 Sworn Brothers. If you aren't running the Sworn brothers, don't run this. Because you won't want to spend 3 gold or 2 gold and fealty on it very often. But with the sworn brothers, it becomes more manageable.

+2 Arry Oh my god, this card. So freaking good. I could go on for a long time about the applications for this card, but I'll spare you. The highlights of this card are: Great icons, great cost to strength ratio, loyal, at cost ambush, immune to First Snow of Winter, can come back to hand for free and draw a card, can dodge Valar, Varys, Wildfire or claim/marched if she's the only one left on the board. She makes Alliser better because if you have her and Alliser in hand and your opponent decides not to do a military challenge because you saved 4 gold, you just play her instead. Or, if you have her on the board, you can just pick her up, draw a card and replay her. She avoids stealth, she avoids....anything. Just an all around incredible card and, really, the best card Night's Watch has gotten since Core set.

-1 Chett + 2 Halder I never once triggered Chett's ability in the 20 or so games I played with him in my deck. He's a solid card with at cost strength ratio, but he's susceptible to First Snow and often the last character I want to play if I have any other options at 3 gold. Plus, Arry makes up for removing an intrigue icon from the deck.

Halder, on the other hand, is incredible. With Old Bear's Raven, Longclaw, Practice Blade and, next pack, Craven (yes, you will be able to kneel your Cravens because you still control them) you can pump up your characters pretty well, especially the Old Bear. I've had games where I had Halder and the Old Bear out and Old Bear became a 10 to 12 strength tricon with stealth that didn't kneel to defend.

-1 Littlefinger +1 House Maester Preferential change. Gives me a second Maester to grab if I already have Aemon out and need more defenders. It does increase my weakness to First Snow, but the other changes should cover that up a bit.

-1 Maester Aemon With Here to Serve, I don't need 3. I still want the option to dupe Aemon or get him back if forced to march him though, so 2 is the right call, I think.

-1 Old Forest Hunter With no Watcher on the Walls, this card loses a bit of value. And I had to make room for Arry.

-1 Ser Alliser Thorne I was seeing him a bit too often and he's just not good enough for his cost. He may be better with Arry, as I said in her section, but I still don't want to see him too early. for 6 gold, he doesn't do enough

-1 Stonesnake Same as Alliser, he doesn't do enough for his cost. I can't wait for more characters to come that are actually worth their gold. When I compare this guy to Arry, I wonder why they thought this guy should have only had 1 icon.

+1 Veteran Builder A solid power icon for defending that shit late game and a nice little relief valve if the Wall falls for some reason.

21 comments

Guardian 14

quick question, how have Rattleshirt's Raiders performed so far?

Joe From Cincinnati 1672

@GuardianThey're most useful against Martell. I've had several games where I was able to purge the Old Bear of all 3 icon removal attachments using this guy and Will (for stealth). Other games, he eats Nymeria's removal because they don't want him participating in challenges to remove their attachments, leaving my Old Bear and Benjen with both of their icons (or any icons that the attachments haven't removed).

But they've removed milks on occasion as well.

Plus, they're a military 4 coster that can't be Warded. Overall, I have nothing bad to say about them. Just a solid character that performs their purpose well. With so little attachment control in the game right now, I'm enjoying them. I would probably boost them to 2x, but I had other things to do with my neutral slots.

MeatLoafX 22

I've made similar changes in my deck, but I'm not willing to put white tree in a non choke deck... Yet. Let me know how it works out. I think my plots are currently the same and we differ on some event and attachment numbers, but not the type.

I think I'm a bigger fan of th unsworn apprentice. In practice, do you just not find him as useful?

Joe From Cincinnati 1672

@MeatLoafX1x may be too low haha. It's just a matter of space, with Arry being added and testing the sworn brothers with the Whitetree. If I don't like the Whitetree, I can remove the sworn brothers and then add a second unsworn apprentice back.

It isn't that they're bad, just that their primary purpose was to cover up intrigue icons, and Arry fixes that pretty well.

I try to limit my publishes of this deck because I don't want to publish with only 1 or 2 changes, that would get ridiculous. So I'll have to see how I like the Whitetree. I haven't yet been able to test it (and with Gencon in 1 week now, I'll need to be testing it haha.)

ironlix 1

These are nice changes! Agree with the sub of Forgotten Plans for Wildfire Assault. Will like to know if White Tree performs as expected in the field.

What do you think about the possibility of a NW Wildlings deck with Mance Rayder? Although there are not many good Wildlings cards now.

HidaHayabusa 73

You got the whole thing in the right way. However, I think that if you go with White Tree, you'll need Meager Contribution as well. Otherwise, you can easily get rid of it.

Joe From Cincinnati 1672

@ironlixI honestly haven't put much thought into a NW Wildling deck. Though Mance does look good defending the Wall. I think if they get more wildlings with two icons it would become even better. If you have a decklist, I'd love to look it over.

@HidaHayabusaYea, I'm not sure about the White tree. I included it in this list because I'm still running the sworn brothers, so I figured I'd add a few more targets for them. And whitetree's ability is strong in its own right. It doesn't actually become choke until you use Meager and maybe Kings of Winter from the next pack etc but 1 gold a turn isn't a bad thing for this deck, especially when it is coming directly from your opponent.

It may end up coming out in the long run. I'll have plenty of testing to do in the lead up to Gencon, so we'll see if they make the cut.

HidaHayabusa 73

You don't have to run a whole theme (choke) for Meager and White tree to function well. I was always a fan of Meager, because it can randomly screw up good starts or just help you get the big costs in. However, I do understand deck space limitations so I won't insist on running it instead of useful events. Personally I'll run both in my version, and I am not planning on choking the opponent, just ping him a bit if it matters.

I'd also increase the number of Veteran builders because they are amazing Practice Blade carriers. Not sure about 3 Ravens also. In theory they look awesome, in practice they suck if they stack, and you are not even running a full set of Forest Hunter.

Slycosby 14

I totally agree with you on Halder. He is so helpful in how he makes the math difficult for my opponents, especially in melee. I will eventually post my Black Creep deck and would love to see what you think about it.

Joe From Cincinnati 1672

@HidaHayabusa I just don't have room for Meager haha. Maybe I'll just remove the tree. We'll see.

2 Veteran builders is a good number, I think I want to remove the sworn brothers and beef up the veteran builder to 2x and add a few other cards to make room if I do remove the whitetree. Still need to test haha. The Wednesday night before Gencon will be a feverish testing period leading up to noon on thursday XD.

@SlycosbyI'd be happy to look over your deck list whenever you post it :)

Isian.H 706

@HidaHayabusawhen you are getting 3 messenger ravens out a turn, thats when it works best, I love the draw and u can always use as claim soak if you have to.

manson0815 1

Which 2 Cards would u put in for Whit Tree?

Vercicaris 1

Any opinions on how well Delorous Ed will fit in? And Ser Alliser Thorne has saved me a few times so it's tempting to keep a 2x of him.

BergerFett 7

I found white tree to cause fits.

How do you protect old bear. I played this deck at a local tournament and was torn apart by targeted kill.

White tree + Brothel Madame seems really strong as well.

Joe From Cincinnati 1672

@manson0815Well, now that Craven and Dolorous Edd are coming out, there will be a lot of changes going into this deck and, unfortunately, I think White Tree is going to be a casualty of those changes.

@VercicarisI think Edd is unbelievably good. I will be running 2x of him, dropping to 1x as the rangers we've seen spoiled begin coming out in the next few packs.

@BergerFettI think White Tree is an interesting card, but it seems out of place in this deck. Especially since Haunted Forest is coming out in a few chapter packs. The locations in this deck are generally dedicated to defending, and White Tree is more of a choke function.

As for Old Bear, I only play him if I have Maester Aemon out. That's precisely what Here to Serve is for. If I open the game with Old Bear in my set up, my turn 1 is Here to Serve 99.9% of the time. If I have him in hand, I'll Here to Serve and play him the following turn.

Alternatively, if I get Old Bear's Raven onto him, I feel less worried about losing him to a Tears of Lys and may hold off on Here to Serve for a turn or two. One thing I see a lot is people using Aemon to protect military claim when their opponent has 1 gold and hasn't done an intrigue challenge yet. That's the definition of leaving yourself wide open and I've fallen for it in the past. You just need to have a little soak for situations like that.

What targeted kill has been hurting you and has Aemon not been helping with that?

And yes, White Tree + Brothel Madame is very good in a choke deck. In a wall defense deck, I'm not so sure. Again, choke just kind of feels forced in with this deck. Of course, that is just my opinion.

When I build my NW Kings of Winter deck, you better believe I'll be running 3 White Trees! :)

BergerFett 7

@Joe From CincinnatiI have been testing the NW/Lion dubbed "from the windows to the walls". I find the gold denial is solid as hell and gives me gold for Take the Black and The Watcher on the Walls.

I tried this deck and I could not get it to work, many times I could open with Old bear, raven, longclaw, training sword, and aemon and eventually they made it threw with a PTTS or just seastone chair.... maybe its the meta. Also I am not the best player. I did better with your "we defend the wall alone 2.0" deck to be honest. If not running The Watcher on the Walls I think having 2 ranger cards out camping 1 gold is a good shell game.

NW choke seems solid, I like NW Summer in theory due to extra gold and +str from summer plots.

Joe From Cincinnati 1672

@BergerFettI think it's a meta thing. The reason I don't run Watchers anymore is because my opponent would literally never do a military challenge of more than 4 or 5 when I had 2 rangers and fealty standing. The card became a dead card in my hand in nearly every game except when the Mountain or Jaime was out and even then, they'd be extremely cautious with those challenges, often only doing them if they had a Hand's Judgment as well.

It's important to note, though, that if they were Seastone Chair-ing Old Bear when he had a longclaw, Raven or Practice Blade they were cheating. It says no attachments as a targeting restriction.

I played NW Lion and it made my soul feel dirty, so I went back to NW Fealty haha.

Gold denial is, undoubtedly, amazing. It's just the opportunity cost that I can't get around. I can either have White Tree for 3 gold or I can have another defender for the Wall, or Castle Black and Shadow Tower, or that extra military strength to stop the +5 for PttS.

Then again, I am kind of a one track thinker. If I'm focused on defending, I don't really want to see something that doesn't help me defend, so that may be a weakness of mine haha.

BergerFett 7

@Joe From CincinnatiFair. Yea i think it was things like weapons at the door or confiscation that opened up the chair... I played GJ first cycle and played the blitz game this cycle i went for the exact opposite.

I guess if not running The Watcher on the Walls when keeping your Faction card standing and have 2 rangers out should be enough of a deterrient. I will continue to test out the NW/Lion I do think craven is going to help keep old bear up

Joe From Cincinnati 1672

@BergerFettI cannot express how excited I am about Craven :D. That's going to be a 3x in every Wall deck until it cycles out.

BergerFett 7

@Joe From Cincinnatithe question i have is does it replace milk if you are running nightmares? Does weapon's at the door become an issue and do you try to plot counter it? The next 2 CPs seem great for NW and I am excited to play them through the rest of the cycle.

Joe From Cincinnati 1672

@BergerFettWith no kill, I have no problem running 3 milk and 3 craven as well as 2 or 3 nightmares. Blanking and otherwise making characters useless is very good in this game. I'm not too worried about Weapons at the Door. The attachments come back to my hand, so I can just replay them the following turn. If a deck is willing to run a plot with bad gold just for one turn of getting their characters back, I am okay with that. Reserve may be an issue on that turn, but such is life.