Sungarden (2nd place, Manchester and Reading regionals; Top

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Tyrell Sun 0 0 0 1.0
Sungarden will never die 1 1 3 1.0

jcwamma 2842

So, this is the baby I've been keeping to myself for the last couple of months. First things first, the original build of this deck was not by me but by Antti Korventausta (WWDrakey), the mad scientist of this game. After the Arbor was released I was eager to make a strong Tyrell deck, as a) I knew one must exist; and b) nobody seemed to have found it yet. As the cycle went on it was apparent that the meta was 'big guys', and that going for a straight exchange of such characters would not suit Tyrell well at all. However, with The Arbor allowing for a "long game" approach, Highgarden also working as a control deck, and Banner of the Sun giving a fantastic stall control package, a slower deck seemed like a real genuine deck route to explore, especially with Tyrell's two fantastic filter events, Much and More and the ever-underrated BAMF (Bear and the Maiden Fair, obviously).

With all these thoughts in mind, I basically 'commissioned' a deck from Drakey. The build he produced was a really tough one to get my head around, but exceptionally rewarding to do so. For the exact ethos on how this deck works, I intend to write an article, as there's a lot of in-obvious decisions to unpack here. However, I did want to briefly document the success this deck has had alongside the deck itself. Over the tournaments the deck evolved from his initial build - if you want his post-fishbowling first draft, make the changes described for the Expo regional. Between us we discussed and refined the deck; but overall I would say the concept was a joint one, the actual deck like 95% Drakey's, probably more. The man's a genius, and I was just the lucky one who got to play it.

UK Games Expo Regional:

(-3x Milk of the Poppy, -1x Imprisoned, -1x Highgarden, -1x Rattleshirt's Raiders, -1x The Long Winter; +1x The Hand's Judgement, +2x Tears of Lys, +1x Knights of the Sun, +1x Palace Spearman, +1x Confiscation)

Round One - BYE

Round Two - Greyjoy Lion - Win

Round Three - Targ Lion - Win

Round Four - Lanni Kraken - Loss (may have forgotten Trial by Combat was a card here)

Round Five - Bara Fealty - Win

Round Six - Lanni Crossing - Win

Top 8 - Lanni Dragon - Loss

Manchester Regional:

(-1x Highgarden, -1x The Long Winter, +1x Naval Superiority [which I didn't catch anything significant with all day])

Round One - Stark Watch - Win

Round Two - Targ Lion - Win

Round Three - Martell Lion - Loss

Round Four - Tyrell Sun - Win

Round Five - Stark Fealty - Win

Top 8 - Stark Fealty - Win

Top 4 - Lanni Dragon - Win

Final - Stark Fealty - Loss

Reading Game Night Kit (5 player round robin):

(-1x Highgarden)

Round One - Greyjoy Lion - Win

Round Two - Bara Kraken - Win

Round Three - Martell Lion - Win

Round Four - Martell Crossing - Loss (had already won the round robin before the match started, got cute and made misplays that were capitalised upon)

Reading Regional:

Round One - Lanni Crossing - Win

Round Two - Bara Dragon - Win

Round Three - Martell Fealty - Win

Round Four - Greyjoy Lion - Win

Round Five - Greyjoy Stag - Win

Round Six - Lanni Dragon - Loss

Top 8 - Greyjoy Crossing - Win

Top 4 - Martell Wolf - Win

Final - Lanni Dragon - Loss

Additionally over this time I ran the deck in the OCTGN tournament, winning all 5 games in my first pod (and currently 2-for-2 in my second one). Sadly playing over OCTGN rather than face-to-face leaves me with a worse memory and I cannot describe those games in detail.

Hopefully all the above demonstrates that the deck is strong. Next week I will write the article going into the 'why' of it being strong, and link it in the comments here.

Lastly, since it would be remiss not to mention it - I did go 2-4 with this list in Gencon. However, I don't think I have my head in the sands when I say it was somewhat exceptional circumstances, and the deck should've performed a whole lot better than that, and on another day -would- have performed a whole lot better. I'd urge any naysayers not to judge it from one tournament, but from the broader success I've had with it across several tournaments, as before Gencon my competitive tourney record with the deck was 27-7. Try it for yourself, be prepared to lose while you get your head around how to actually play the bloody thing, then once you have done, have a blast playing one of the most fun decks I've ever piloted across both first and second edition.

51 comments

iaan 17

Awesome bud! Seems like there are a few people around who really kick butt with tyrell.

imabunneh 361

This deck is so legit having watched it played at a high level against other high level players/decks in cuts. It's crazy.

Acloakofred 53

I absolutely love this deck wamma ❤️

ChannelDelibird 1067

I have never enjoyed losing repeatedly to a deck as much as I enjoyed losing to this. It's a thing of beauty. One day I will finally Euron that frakking Arbor, though.

WWDrakey 1

Mad Scientist? Well, I do have scientific background and people have questioned my sanity often enough so... I guess I'll accept it.

Anyway, nice to see this peculiar creation finally find it's way out of the shadows and into the public light.

I have to say, this deck was a devil of a thing to build from scratch. I believe that after I started optimizing in fishbowling (doing testing on the deck's flow against an imaginary opponent) my initial draft, I ended up changing some 15-20 cards in the list, before I was finally satisfied with how it felt. In a way, it almost felt like the deck had a will of it's own, and knew what kind of deck cohesion it wanted to function properly. A willful child, but one that clearly knew what it was doing!

On an inspirational front, there's one person & deck that somewhat affected the direction this deck's character base evolved towards, during optimization. That would be mnBroncos and his Regional Winning Martell Fealty: www.cardgamedb.com

That deck has a refreshingly original approach to building a 2.0 character base, instead of the almost template-feeling "high/low" one that most decks seem to be sporting these days (and which I feel naturally fits best with Lannister cards, hence other Factions need to change the rules instead of playing by ones that don't benefit them!).

All of that said, the deck is an absolute horror to master in practice due to all of the tutor & choice points, and my hat's off to JC for putting in the time & effort to master it to perfection. If played right, the deck seems to be able to beat pretty much anything. However, if played wrong...

WWDrakey 1

Martell Fealty? That would be Martell Lion, of course.

captainslow 1265

Beautiful.

BillyDooku 110

Thank you for sharing. Waiting for that article. Gonna give Tyrell a try.

taijibear 213

Looks like an absolutely fascinating deck, and awesome to see the world given a chance to recognise a Martell player getting legit results: I remember my equal parts wonder and jealousy seeing a guy piloting the Rose banner to top 8 in Birmingham.

The number of choices this would get on any given turn seems amazing... wonder how improbable the chances are of getting some result from it without having an opportunity to get good practice sessions in beforehand.

Well done, guys!

Acudogon 1

looking forward to the article !

teamjimby 1961

@WWDrakeyor Wamma - I'm intrigued by the fact that the deck has no 1-cost characters. How has that worked out for you? I'd be concerned about setups and economy.

PulseGlazer 367

Finally, the fabled Sungarden!

Diavolomaestro 86

That looks amazing! I've been playing a lower-curve version of the same concept and it hasn't been working out so well for me, maybe because it's a Varys one-trick pony and maybe because I don't really know what I'm doing in terms of deckbuilding. The BAMF surprised me but I don't know why--that seems like it should be the perfect tool for drawing Arbor or Varys. My plot deck is almost totally different, because yours is built around a higher curve, and it sounds like yours works better. I'll have to steal this and see how I can make it run. One thing I didn't get--why not 3x Arianne? She seems essential with the informants and HoFlo.

talism 88

Ahh bout time, i tried to weezel this deck out of wama on discord. a while ago. As a tyrell fanboy , i haven't been able to find something consistent! cant wait to master this thing!

barnhartlaw 7

I know it's a broken record but I've been playing Tyrell and Tyrell/Sun and it's a blast but I think Valar will help a lot. I still have trouble keeping up with Lanni barfing out mega characters. And if you can't get a cheeky Varys through it can quickly overwhelm.

eldub 2

instead, you should write that article and have me post it on The White Book...

barnhartlaw 7

This is the deck on OCTGN right now. Hitting up against it about 50-60% of the time.

slanderandlies 122

I hope you don't mind if I add... Flea Bottom Fracas -1 House Dayne Knight -1 Highgarden -1 Rattleshirts Raiders -1 The Knight of Flowers -1 The Long Winter

+1 Ser Colen of Greenpools +1 Knights of the Sun +1 Nightmares +1 Palace Spearman +1 Reinforcements

R1 Tyrell Crossing WIN R2 Lanni Wolf LOSS R3 Stark Fealty WIN R4 Bara Fealty WIN R5 Martell Fealty WIN R6 Night's Watch Fealty WIN R7 GJ Fealty WIN R8 Bara Fealty LOSS

Lost in cut to Lanni Wolf.

Kisses xoxo

slevin38 1

Can't wait to read the article

MiSiO 278

What is the main idea behind this deck?

servetz 30

slanderandlies 122

Obviously because of the Tiebreakers and nothing at all to do with the fact that you can win challenges with them or that they are one of the best cards in the game to put out with Arianne.

GingerThomas 1

Most fun i've had with a deck yet. Played approx 20 games on OCTGN so far with it and won 75% of them. Still feel like I'm getting better at playing it. The reaction of your opponent when they think they've been winning heavily for 2/3 turns whilst all you have been trying to do is get the Arbor in play and set up Varys whilst they are filling their board up is brilliant. Thanks a lot, fantastic deck.

HidaHayabusa 73

I've been playing with this list for quite some time, and although it went through some major alteration, I've concluded in the same numbers/mix exactly. I think that I went with 60 cards and 2 Informants.

The deck is the most fun creation I've seen in some time (including AgoT1) and it generally takes some time to learn to pilot well. Especially timing the Gift of Arbor Red and Bear+Maiden Fair right. At least that was the hardest aspect of the gameplay for me. It feels like a toolbox deck that you need to babysit with correct draws and decisions in order to stay in the game.

jcwamma 2842

The article on the deck is now available at the White Book, here: www.whitebookpodcast.com

If people have any questions that the article doesn't answer, let me know and I'll respond as best I can :).

jcwamma 2842

@Diavolomaestro only 2x Arianne because she doesn't stay on the table long so is relatively secure; with the draw/tutor effects you can find her relatively reliably at 2x; she's abnormally weak to Heads on Spikes, so I don't like her 3x unless she's vital; and she's great, but not as important as Nymeria and Varys, the only 3x unique characters. Lastly, there just isn't room. I wasn't happy at 61 (the only reason I didn't go to 60 was that the card I'd have cut would've been a Gift, and that felt like it would increase the variance rather than decrease it...).

michaelius 1

How usefull is Syrio in this deck ?

GingerThomas 1

@jcwammaGreat article on whitebookpodcast. One thing I don't think you discussed (unless I missed it) is what you find works best as an opening plot? From playing the deck I've found that most of the plots included are very situational. I've found that most of the times I open with Summons as it has the highest reserve (7, best opportunity to stall cards post Varys). At first I was reluctant to pull Varys using Summons as it gives away the game plan but what's really great is that by pulling Varys on Summons it can stall your opponent from putting out extra characters and you can quickly establish board advantage and never need to use him. Interested to hear your thoughts?

jcwamma 2842

@michaeliusIn my experience Syrio is very useful, both for general utility (as well as being at a favourable Arianne-able cost point) and for providing a back-up usage for Nymeria. If Nym gets hit with Nightmares/Milk/Treachery, turning her into a stealth military icon is a pretty valuable consolation prize. This exact scenario actually happened to me in an OCTGN tourney match today, and Syrio proved vital on the round I played him.

@GingerThomasthanks for the praise! I didn't mention a specific opening plot simply because it varies so much - I've literally opened a game with every one of the plots except Pulling (although I think Long Winter was just the one time!). My most common openers (assuming a 'normal' board) are Summons and Song of Summer, the former for fixing setups (or searching for a specific answer to the opponent's setup) as well as the high reserve, and the latter for being non-Navalable and never bad in its own right - and potentially great if there's a Florent Knight in hand! Trading is something I occasionally open with too, but only if I'm relatively confident that the opponent won't Naval, and typically only if I have the Arbor in hand after my redraw and want to immediately drop it without it hitting my early tempo. And I'm definitely a big fan of the Varys reveal - depending on the level of player you're facing, it can seriously psyche them out!

HidaHayabusa 73

The only 'flaw' that I have noticed in the deck while playing it for quite a while, is that sometimes you can get really screwed up in the Setup phase. There are so many 5 costers, and so many cards that you can't really setup (or waste them if you play them), that sometimes feels very weak if you don't get the Arbor and 2 two-costers.

Did you have any similar problems?

jcwamma 2842

This is definitely an issue. The deck hopefully offsets it to an extent by being able to handle a setup/T1 tempo hit reasonably well, but it's a weakness I'd prefer the deck not to have. Although a lot of the time, The Arbor by itself is a quality setup!

HidaHayabusa 73

Yes, some months ago I was running a very similar decklist (http://thronesdb.com/decklist/view/5373/s06e10-appreciation-deck-2.0) and I was THAT close to add Hedge Knights or the Tyrell Spy at 2 cost (name escapes), just to get more 2 costers in the list and make Arbor setup more powerful.

Still playing the list, but without the cute additions (Queen of thorns and Tears), but I've kept Nightmares in.

TinyKing 9

@jcwamma I tried this deck yesterday with some regular play and I have to ask, how do you deal with dupes? I was playing against Stark Fealty and he had at least 2 or 3 dupes before I even had a single Varys out.

jcwamma 2842

@TinyKing There are a few answers, the least-satisfactory of which by far being "sometimes it goes wrong". However, usually between Nymeria, Milk, Imprisoned and Marched (and in a perfect world the second Varys), the deck can cope with dupes as long as the other deck doesn't see a god draw (or you see the bum draw). Stark is a particularly tough match-up due to the combination of core set Arya, Summer, and A Time for Wolves. It's a combo that can be a devil to handle for the deck. You need to focus more on denial of power and stall out until they drop the plot, so you only have to get rid of Arya once - there's nothing more irritating than her screening your Marched, you March her with the hope of pushing some damaging military claim through, then the opponent just uses Summer to get her back again. House Florent Knights can be key here, to remove the dupes on the low-cost characters.

servetz 30

@jcwammaNow that 2 cp are out and renly is coming (better late than never) what do you think could fit well in this deck? Maybe Venomous Blade?

jcwamma 2842

@serve From the first two CPs, nothing. The Tyrell cards are all either unsuited or bad; the Martell cards are all unsuited, bad or (in the case of that Blade) loyal. The neutral cards don't fit, with the possible exception of Varys's Riddle (and it wouldn't be my highest priority to fit in).

servetz 30

thanks, forgot that the blade was loyal...

Whites4 145

I'm curious to hear how you think the deck would change now that Valar is legal and Tyrell has shifted upwards in value while Martell has gone the other way. Would you provide some insight to one looking to use this deck in a current meta?

jcwamma 2842

@Whites4Martell may have shifted down as a main faction, but since the release of Valar in pack 4, Sun actually has the second-highest QR of all the banner agendas. (...Albeit, still a negative one. ONLY mono-faction decks have a positive QR right now, weirdly.)

I think any insight I could provide would be quite obvious stuff honestly - I haven't touched the deck since Valar was released because of the new toys that have been released in the meantime (i.e. Rains of Castamere), so anything I said would be entirely based off theory rather than practice. Possibly @slanderandlies would be able to help out here more than I would, as I believe he's still been playing it?

On the whole I think the big shift that would need to be made would be towards countering stall decks. Bara (or Stag) and NW (or Watch) being able to leverage the Chamber of the Painted Table and/or The Wall could cause a major problem for the old incarnation of the deck, because it just doesn't have the capacity to gain power quickly enough. One card I was torn on adding beforehand was a Pyromancers - being able to tutor it out then drop it in with Arianne was just a lovely combo. With the move towards location-heavy stall in the wider meta I absolutely think this is a worthwhile include now.

Also obviously Valar should go in the deck, but that kinda goes without saying.

slanderandlies 122

Yeah, I won a Trident event with my slightly different (but still heavily inspired by this) build. Obviously Valar goes in, here's what I think the important changes I made are.

Pyromancers: Very necessary in the 'passive tick tock' meta we're living in. I still wouldn't run more than two at a push though.

Spearmaiden: Why Spearmaiden when we're running 5 resets you may ask? I've found chipping through dupes and bodyguards with it makes the resets matter. Also I imagine it's pretty good against Craster.

Ocean Road: Much more useful than Kingsroads in my opinion, with all of the board wipes we have here. Also it reduces so much in this deck.

Whites4 145

Would you have any suggestions regarding which characters to cut for the Pyromancers and Spearmaidens? I appreciate your responses, I'd love to find a way to play Martell in the meta and right now this deck is really interesting to me.

Gabegabe 234

Hello there! Always loved this deck, with seeing how fun Tyrell rains can be I was very interested in possibly resurrecting this deck. I see the changes @slanderandlies made above and like all of them, however, do you think I should find room for renly?

Gabegabe 234

renlys pavilion *

Gabegabe 234

thronesdb.com This is what i would try n make a new version look like, any comments appreciated :)

jcwamma 2842

Apologies for the delayed responses. @Whites4it's kind of tough to say. I wouldn't really take this deck as the starting point anymore, because it's built around an out of date meta; rather I'd start by putting in the absolutely key cards, the current meta answers, and the general glue, then see what spaces you have left and fill it out with whatever you're missing. My guess is that the deck doesn't need multiple KoFs, the House Dayne Knights, or 3x Nymeria (still 1-2x of course) anymore, and probably only 0-1x Rattleshirt's too. That should free up space for some of the newer cards.

@Gabegabe I think that's a good starting point. As mentioned above you can probably reduce the Nym/Raiders. I also don't think you need Dissension (or at least, won't as of tomorrow when pack 6 comes out) because of Ser Arys Oakheart being a natural fit. Renly's Pavilion will absolutely be going in the deck, it's amazing with the Florent Knight - notice that both that and Arianne are any phase actions, so you can manipulate STR then drop the HFK in at just the right moment...

Radix 7

@jcwammaHow do you feel about Ser Hobber Redwyne to tutor out Arianne? I have also been looking at Quentyn and Myrcella. I see Myrcella as being slightly weaker because she is vulnerable to Ward, but not kneeling on defense is also useful.

jcwamma 2842

@Radixin the current meta I'd rather just go up to three Arianne and not worry about putting in an inefficient character who's only really worth it fetch her. Quentyn wasn't worth it in my opinion before Valar was out; now that it is, it's super-expensive (above Arianne threshold is what I consider super-expensive) just for a kill effect. If there was a pre-plot window to trigger the Pavilion and get a saveable character into Quentyn's range it'd be another matter, mind...

Myrcella I definitely think should go in. She's an efficient body, Ward has taken a downturn in the meta because of Night's Watch, and the Renown can help enormously in winning games on time.

Radix 7

@jcwammaI did some testing and agree on Quentyn and Hobber. I never really had the gold to play Quentyn, and I usually had Arianne when I got Hobber. I think bringing Arianne to 3x is a good move as she really gives a kick to the deck without Varys.

I feel there is a bit of redundancy with 3x Varys and Valar. It feels like a bit too much. The problem is also what plot to cut for Valar. I could see cutting down on Varys and even removing some of the BatMF's to give some deck-space.

Biggest thing is could use some more 2 drops. I took out House Dayne Knight, and replaced with Hot Pie and some Courtesan of the Rose's. Helps with the setups as well as providing some protection from Marched. I think the Int-removing attachment is also useful for the long game to keep card advantage.

Gabegabe 234

I think you're missing the point of the deck, u want a full reset you want to disrupt ur oponenets ability to build a board wherein u are recovering faster due to Econ and draw, valar helped this deck a lot and BAMFis key

Radix 7

I understand that, my point is that having Varys and Valar feels redundant. BatMF helps to find cards you need, but it is card disadvantage. If you just use Valar, with no Varys, then you don't need the deck filtering. This allows more room for other support cards to control the opponent.

jcwamma 2842

I've dropped down to 2x Varys and reduced (but not removed) the deck-filtering, for what it's worth.