Northern Salt 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

1st place at the Gameology Store Championship on January 14, 2017. 10 players. 4 rounds of swiss, cut to top 4. Went 5-1. Superior Claim was MVP. Syrio and Catelyn is awesome.

Matchups: Greyjoy Rose (W) - Thrones WAR test deck from John Barber. Probably (definitely) the only reason I beat him. After getting destroyed by him a few months prior, definitely a great start to the day.

Targ Crossing (W) - Avoided the Dracarys all game and got power challenges through every turn.

Lanni Kraken (W) - Definitely should have lost this game but Gershom got greedy and didn't get off an important PttS. Thanks for that one buddy.

Lanni Kraken (L) - I lost hard on the Gregor Roulette. Lost Edd early on and never had any other big bodies. Got wrecked pretty hard this game.

Bara Kraken (W) - This game was super close but snuck in the last power after opponent being fairly aggressive all game.

Lanni Kraken (W) - Rematch with Michelle (my only loss). Had a small board the entire game but got Superior Claim off twice. Along with Sansa and Riverrun Minstrel, the power rush was fast enough to survive the Lanni onslaught.

I've pretty much only played Greyjoy since the beginning and most recently have been playing Greyjoy Crossing. The problem I always felt was that Balon is actually not that good. He seems really scary but without a lot of other pieces, his auto-unnopposed doesn't really do anything that impactful. And when the UO glass cannon shatters, Greyjoy doesn't really have anything left in the tank.

So seeing the original decklist from Thronerunner looked very interesting. Adds some more stealth and some definite speed to the rush game.Here are the changes I made to Thronerunner's deck:

Overall, I dropped most of the aggro pieces and went all-in on the rush theme.

Plots: -1 Calling the Banners for +1 Trading with the Pentoshi

I've never really liked the inconsistency of Calling the Banners. It usually isn't huge until turn 3 and obviously requires a big board across the table. I preferred the guarantee of Trading.

-1 Valar Morghulis for +1 Wildfire Assault

Valar was just too devastating if I didn't have any saves on a power loaded Edd/partner and small boards are great with all of the stealth.

-1 Summons for +1 Counting Coppers

With the number of individual effective characters, there wasn't anyone I felt I needed to see in order to win. I would much rather draw into the various attachments or Superior Claim.

Characters: -1 Arya Stark - During testing, I would often have her with 2+ dupes, which was usually unnecessary. I also didn't want to see her on setup.

-1 Hodor - I wasn't so much worried about defense. With the additions I made, he was cut.

+1 Jojen Reed - Didn't see him once all day but he was useful when I did during testing. Extra stealth on the power challenge was always great.

-1 Littlefinger - Couldn't really afford more than 1 big neutral so I traded him out for Syrio.

-1 Maester Wendamyr - Originally dropped him for Maester Luwin to get some more cheap intrigue, but I think having more stealth on power challenges would have been better.

-1 Osha - Math shenanigans are fun but she didn't help with the power rush.

+1 Riverrun Minstrel, +1 Sansa Stark (Core) - Probably bad additions overall but just wanted more bodies that helped with power gain. Used both during final match so guess it paid off.

+1 Syrio Forel - He was amazing with Catelyn to shutdown any military shenanigans in the Lanni matchups.

-2 Tumblestone Knight - Dropped them for Septa Mordane and The Blackfish. A little more intrigue and another big renown body.

Attachments: +2 Fishing Net - If you're not playing these in a rush deck, you're crazy. They are so useful if placed well (not always on the biggest defender) and non-terminal is money in the bank. +2 Milk of the Poppy - With the speed of the deck, Nightmares may be a better choice here, but Milk saved me a few times. Also makes the choice of removing a net or the milk on the confiscation turn.

Locations: -1 Gates of Winterfell - Just too many non-stark cards in the deck. Kept missing with this in testing so dropped it.

I only played Winterfell during the final match and didn't use it when I should have. Debated switching it out for Harrenhal (GoH) but not sure I like that card yet.

Events: -2 Put to the Sword - I think this card is just too obvious to get off when you really want to or I'm just a bad player. Was never able to get it off when I had it. Cutting this was the beginning of me going full power rush and letting go of the aggro.

+2 Give Me All The Power - This card won me almost every game. Got it off twice during the final match. It was pretty much unexpected by everyone (probably because it's usually not a very good card and nobody plays it). I usually don't play it either but with the stealth and large Power icons in this deck, it was really easy to get it off. Especially spicy doing it on defense.