The Terror from the Wolfswood 1.0

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• 1.0

I'd like to see this deck, or one similar, in action. Please link me any videos you may have or know of. Cheers

It is somewhat concerning the lack of Icons. The Kennel masters need support in that to have at least few Icons. Jojen Reed, Osha, Jeyne Westerling are all cheap Icons.

i do love this deck! i took out the direwolf attachments in favor of 3x Ice though and have found success with them. the 4 claim from ice + winter is coming + 2 claim plots won me a game today :)

Thoughts on Roaming Wolfpack? I'm working up a similar deck and with all that intimidate (GW, RW, Nymeria possibly more than once per turn) and no intrigue, I'm thinking A Storm of Swords would be good.

It's also painful to imagine playing Stark Fealty without Winterfell. That card is amazing.

@Echoes of Ice & Fire - Sorry, I don't have anything filmed yet. I may try to put something together this weekend.

@uBaH - I'm not sure how cheap intrigue icons would help this deck and I also don't know what I would take out to make room for them. That being said, it would be nice to squeeze in Jojen as I think his ability would be help. I primarily use the Kennel Masters to make sure I win my military challenges. Anything else is a bonus.

@Snozberriez - Thanks! That substitution makes sense. I don't know if I would go 3x Ice though. I might drop one Lady and Nymeria and put in 2x Ice.

@Scot- Roaming Wolfpack is a fun looking card but I'm not sure how well it would fit in this deck. It is non-loyal and costs 6 which makes getting it out difficult. It also doesn't really help win challenges since there is so much stealth in this deck, the strength bonus is fairly moot. It's not unique so it doesn't gain insight from Ser Rodrik Cassel. Intimidate is an awesome ability but you can get it for much cheaper with Nymeria. I really want to like it, but I'm not sure what deck has room for a 6-cost single icon without a game bending ability. FF said that there would be more money in the next cycle so maybe that becomes reasonable but I don't think it has a place right now. A Storm of Swords would be good but the poor gold value works against playing a 6 cost non-loyal character. You can do it, but it seems like a lot of work for not much benefit. If you want to do multiple military challenges a turn in Stark, I'd much rather have The Blackfish with Nymeria. Hopefully other direwolf cards come out that give Roaming Wolfpack some legs, but probably in a different deck.

@Wrecko I agree after some more play testing. i am going down to 2 Ice and adding nymeria to increase intimidations. The +2 from Ice and the fact that your opponent has to factor that in adds a bit more versatility to the deck imo. Great deck though, thank you for posting!

@Snozberriez- Thanks for trying it out! Nymeria makes sense. I haven't had a chance to try either combination. Thanks for providing feedback. I'm heading to a Spring Kit tournament this weekend so I'll try your edits and post what I find.

@Scot- Winterfell is an amazing card but I find I don't miss it that much in this deck. The plots have high initiative so I usually get to go first which limits the impact of Rains. If Martell was prevalent, I might try to squeeze in a couple copies but since the meta is underestimating Martell at the moment, we can get away without it. A good Martell deck would probably crush this deck without Winterfell.

How did the tournament go? And yes, this deck is fun.

@Wrecko just a quick thought have you tried maybe Battle of the Blackwater into sneak attack and go back to sneak and smash them out after? I was wondering if that would be a viable route. This is all about killing and killing and killing lol

@Wrecko can I ask who you prefer to attach Ice, Lady and Nymeria to?

@Wrecko Also, I was wondering why Shaggydog on has 1 copy?

Also, I was wondering what cards you prefer to get out on set up?

Would this be a good time to focus on Reducers and Locations?

Would you go straight in for a 2 claim plot, even if you didn't draw Greywind and Winter is Coming?

Cheers @Wrecko

Lady and nymeria can only go to robb, arya, donella, reducers and kennel masters. Arya and esp donella are great targets, so you can get them into challenges. There is no point running more than one shaggydog, since summer cannot get him back and after he gets killed, any dupes are dead draws. Ice is great on rodrick, robb and arya. Played 5 round tournament yesterday and started every game with sneak attack, mainly for economy and start pressuring right away. You dont need wic or gw, but you usually have one of them anyway.

Nymeria on arya is great for intimidate. Same goes for robb. With lady or nym you can get donella to mil challenges as well as arya or robb if they get craven.

Thank you @Esmo

I like the idea of placing Lady or Nym on Donella and using a Kennel Master to drop her in on a challenge. If I have two Kennel Master's in play, can I perform the trick twice in one challenge; throwing in a second backup if they have anything to counter the first?

Arya would have the Military icon whilst duped, so I feel that Donella would benefit more from a wolf attachment. However, nice to throw in Arya, using her stealth, with Nym attached for Intimidation.

The more I think about this deck, the more I love it. I especially like the idea of sacrificing Summer whenever possible, in order to put him back in to play for his trigger once again... genius!

Any thoughts on including Bran, reasons for and against and what would be the likely drop?

Has anyone thought about giving Rob The Wolf King attachment, so that he can stay stood on the Mil challenge, and possibly getting a second renown for defending any Mil challenge?

I know that this deck is all about the dogs dinner, but in what circumstances would you consider a Power or an Intrigue challenge?

If you have two kennel masters, you can use both, so yeah.

Brann is great card, but I wouldn't cut any other chars for him. the biggest problem I see with him is that you might not draw into your pressure cards. Making room for him almost certainly decreases your pressure options or makes the deck less flexible (cutting tutor event for him for example).

Wolf king has similiar problem, but it fits the theme of the deck.

If you got icons on board, on winds of winter turn, it is gravy to first kill 2-4 chars (claim, wic, gw) and then do uo 2 claim int with Donella and the same for power with kennel master, Robb or Arya. Also good old Greywind eats steward or kennel master and Robb stands everybody works. Closes games faster.

And yeah, Summer is brilliant, making the deck surprisingly resilient.

@Esmo Jesus!!! of course!!! Grey wind can eat my cards too, I never thought of that!

This deck just gets better and better.

So, if you devoured your Steward, and stood everyone with Rob, would Greywind stand again too, and be able to kneel again too... munching 2 characters? (if there are any opponents characters left to dine on.

@Esmo - In testing, I wasn't doing well, so I chickened out and went with my Targaryen deck - Endless Flame: thronesdb.com The deck is a lot of fun but works best in tournaments where people don't know what to expect. I'm finding my regular opponents are adjusting to it.

Could you let me know how you did in the tournament? What went well and what didn't? I'd really appreciate a second opinion.

@Colinnuts - I think Battle of the Blackwater could be a viable substitute for The Winds of Winter if there are enough dupes in play. It is definitely worth testing. The extra dollar is also beneficial as this deck is tight on money.

@Echoes of Ice & Fire - I agree with @Esmo on most of his comments.

Attachments - Put them on whoever you can and bounce them around. They both have the ability to bounce to different Stark Characters.

Shaggydog - He's a bonus unique direwolf but he doesn't have any ability worth putting more than one copy in or even saving. I just think of him as my 4th direwolf pup.

Plot order - I usually start with Sneak Attack as it has great economy and keeps the pressure on at the start. I typically play whatever I think will disrupt the opponent most. Marched to the Wall is effectively a 2 mil claim plot as well. I usually play Winter Is Coming whenever I see it.

Setup - I'm not certain what the ideal setup is for this deck. Typically I try to put out as many cards as possible but I've found I have great success if I can get Rob and Greywind out turn 1, which means getting them one of them out in set-up. I'll just need to play the deck more and find out. Donnella is an economy card but she might be too expensive for an ideal set-up.

I'd initiate intrigue fairly often to discourage their intrigue challenge, with the board attrition that this deck causes, your opponent will often cherish the cards in their hand.

Same with power challenges. Sending in reducers or Winterfell Kennel Master on power challenges can tie up a much larger character, which is value win for you.

Recent edits I have been playing with include:

• Replacing Lady with Ice
• Replacing Winterfell Kennel Master with Bran Stark

The though process was that Ice provides the same strength boost as Lady but with strong bonus effect. With fewer Direwolf attachments, Winterfell Kennel Master loses utility and Bran Stark provides event control along with occasional Insight. I haven't been having as much success with these changes but I haven't played enough to know if it is due to the changes themselves, bad luck or my opponents adjusting.

Thank you @Wrecko I like the idea of 1 each for Lady and Ice, they both have great use in this deck. I would be loath to remove a wolf/dog card from the deck, and would therefore leave in Winterfell Kennel Master, he gives your opponent uncertain maths. I was also considering Bran, but have gone with one copy of Winterfell for Event control. I have yet to test it.

As well as considering The Wolf King card, which really suits the theme of the deck; keeping Robb stood for a Military challenge, I have also been considering adding Relentless Assault to combine along side it. Greywind, 2 claim, Relentless Assault, Robb not needing to kneel on Military, Winter is Coming = massive kill

I'd like to try 1 each of The Wolf King and Relentless Assault, not sure what to edge out though, any thoughts?

I was also considering a copy of Winterfell Castle for +2 on each character, great for throwing in tons of extra strength when a second character enters Mil.

If you were to run Winter Castle or Winterfell, which would you opt for?

About the tournament: it was small 6 player, round robin affair. I played against Tyrell fealty (win), Nights Watch winter (lost), Stark fealty (win), Tyrell crossing (lost) and Targ summer (win). All in all, I was second, which got me my regionals bye (tournie winner won his 4th SC).

Only the NW winter was pure loss, it was economy choke, varys, night gathers deck, so without ice, ptts or nightmares, I couldn't really do anything about it. Still the game was pretty fun and if I could have had wic in hand on the turn he played varys, it might have gone differently... Anyhow. The tyrell crossing was combination of me being too safe and having bad luck with economy. I didn't go first on 1st turn which let my opponent get too much power. Reason was that my only stealth was Arya and I couldn't risk milk... Anyway, on last turn he flipped heads on spikes and hit char (had 50/50 chance hitting non char), played knight of flowers with every attachment possible (mare, crown, heartsbane, bodyguard) and took the last 2 power... So yeah, bad luck.

Other games went just like the plan, killing everybody until I won. Highlight being the last game vs the tournie winner. It looked like he was going to win, but surprise valar broke him.

What I got away from the tournie was that none of them could really handle the pressure, valar was surprise everytime (Starks don't play valar!), the wolf cards (wolfwood, wolf dream, kennel masters) were confusing because nobody plays them.

I admit that I was lucky that there were no Lanni jumpers, Martell or Bara, but otherwise the deck was really smooth and I had ton of fun with it. Even tho the surprise factor played a big role, I think that even with prior knowledge of the deck, it can still work pretty well. I played few games where my opponent just flooded the board with chuds and got to about 13 power until I valared and got back to to the game with Summer.

Anyway, I feel Castle is redundant, unless you don't have stealth on board. Relentless could work, but I feel that the faction card kneel might be too much when you got other good stuff for it (paying for chars, paying for wic, tutoring a wolf card in dom phase etc).

And about Greywind+Robb standing combo, yeah you get to eat another char! I usually did this during mil challenge. Commit Robb and all the other guys you want to the challenge (Rod for sure, wolves of the north etc), let the opp choose defenders if any, eat steward/master, stand everybody, eat chud, play wic and opponent just lost bunch of chars. Then make pow with Robb (and maybe Arya to get uo). Love it.

Winterfell is a great card, but I do not know what to cut for it and playing it without Donella and or Bear Island on board could be difficult... I actually had pretty hard time playing Bear Island... But I'm notoriously unlucky with my economy draws, seriously...

@Esmo Your point about Winterfell Castle is a good one. There is enough Stealth to not need the extra STR that the Castle offers. Economy and Card draw have usually been my setback, so Bear Island, Gates and Rod are crucial in this deck. However, I am regularly stung on my opponents Intrigue challenge, especially 'Rains', and would love to have Winterfell out, just to use on my opponents Intrigue. I think you are also right about Relentless. There are enough events to clog up the hand without one that will rarely be playable due to the Faction already being knelt. It would be great to pull Relentless off on a two claim plot though ;o) Tempting!

I really feel the The Wolf King should be in this deck, it is so thematic and could do some serious damage if used with Relentless. But even without the Relentless and a second Mil challenge, it offers the chance to trigger his renown on defence too.

About Summer... further to everything stated in the description and comments; I wanted to know if it was best to avoid using him in Set Up, or Marshalling him before there was anyone to bring back, and also if you would dupe Summer or keep his dupes in your hand; ready to marshall once he had been Sacrificed?

@Wrecko would you consider going up to 61 cards to include 1 The Wolf King?

@Esmo Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you had fun playing it in the tourney. I think you hit something that I couldn't get my finger on. Some of my friends had switched to playing Bara which actually has some good cards to counter this deck such as Asshai Priestess which kneels a stealther and provides a body to claim. I think that is part of my reduced success recently. That also motivated me to squeeze in Bran to counter some of the kneeling events. I think this deck just isn't that strong against a Bara deck that is familiar with what I'm trying to do. I should stop trying to make a bad matchup mediocre and diluting what this deck is good at.

@Echoes of Ice & Fire- Winterfell is hard to pay for in this deck, the money is tight and I don't know if you can stand the tempo hit of dropping a your money on a location when you need to keep feeding chuds to be marched or eaten by Greywind. As @Esmo said, you don't need the extra strength from Winterfell Castle because of all the stealth in the deck.

Relentless Assault could be good, but it only works optimally with The Winds of Winter since you only get one challenge with Sneak Attack. If you wanted to try it, I'd replace a Wolf Dreams since they both require kneeling the faction card.

I think you can make a deck with The Wolf King, multiple two claim plots, Relentless Assault, Winterfell Castle and Roose Bolton, but that is similar to Preatorian1011's deck that I listed in my deck description. That deck would likely have need to include economy plots as well. I think that would be fun deck to try out though.

If you think The Wolf King is worth trying, feel free to add it as a 61st card, I really don't put much muster in the requirement to stick to 60 cards. I just didn't see any cards that I had to squeeze in when I first built it.

In terms of dealing with Rains, I find just going first limits what the opponent can do. The worst card you can see in my opinion is A Game of Thrones, but if you've already made your challenges, then that card is easy to ignore.

Thank you @Wrecko, I am now in agreement about Winterfell, I have not yet had it in play. Although I switched from 2 Gates to 1 in favour of 2 Bear Islands. Found I had plenty of cards, even discarding on Reserve. Bear Island seems to have more use for me, shame it doesn't trigger on Ambush!

I was under the impression that Relentless Assault added an extra challenge to Sneak Attack, but if not, I'm gonna drop it in favour of 1 Bran. Amongst many other damaging events, Bran can save Robb (and his accumulation of Renown) from Tears. I think he offers a crucial element of defence in this deck.

I just felt Wolf King was perfectly themed for this deck, I'll run it at my meta on Wed and see how it works. I'm mainly hoping to keep him standing for defence.

Can I ask how you are fitting Bran in, and how many copies. I have one copy in my deck bringing me up to 61 cards but I would like two. Thinking of dropping 1x Arya, seen as she gets the extra dupe when Marshalled.

Avoid playing Summer in setup if you can. Do not drop Arya, it will reduce the chance you will see her in the game. Rather drop kennel master like Wrecko said earlier for Brann.

And yeah, this deck runs best when your opp does not know what to expect. Vs rains is crucial to go first, because then there is no fear of agot plot (scheme). Remember that if or when doing intrigue, rains can be triggered on def too.

Bara is such a rough matchup with asshais kneeling arya (lady or ice on her asap!) and melisandre kneeling rodrick or wolves of the north....

@Echoes of Ice & Fire- 'Cannot' trumps 'can' so Sneak Attack takes precedence over Relentless Assault, unfortunately.

Since Winterfell Kennel Master and Bran Stark cost the same, it is easy to switch out one for one and not affect your cost curve. Another flex card is the third copy of The Wolfswood. I moved it up to three originally since it good on setup, but the deck works fine if you don't have it right away. Definitely try out new cards, make note of what you discard to reserve and what you are stoked to see when you draw.

Arya Stark (Core) and Summer are best avoided in set-up since their reactions make up a large part of their value. To me they are both key cards, especially since they work so well together. Wolf Dreams is a card I would reduce before any of the characters other than Winterfell Kennel Master. I wouldn't dupe Summer either. His effect provide more value than his body on the board. Please let me know how that second Bear Island works for you.

@Esmo- Bara also likes a small board and can keep up with you on cards thanks to The Red Keep. It's a rough matchup.

I took the deck out to my meta this evening, managed to use this deck (or my slightly altered version, which includes 2x Bear Island and 3x Bran).

My opening game was against a well honed Dothraki hoard who swept through me, due to the fact that my set up was shockingly bad. As I didn't see either Rob nor Greywind in my first 7 cards, I had to Mulligan... my second 7 cards were even worse, and I only managed to get one character on the board, who was immediately Marched to the Wall. I made some in roads, but he kept my hand small with Wraiths and Famine. It wasn't pretty

:o(

Sorry

However, the Wolves did get fed in the next game against a Stark/Winter deck. It was a wonderful feast... and when my wolves had dined to their hearts content... the table was unable to replenish. Therefore, my wolves licked their paws clean while winning a stack of unopposed over a couple of 2 claim plots, to take the win.

I love this deck... so much fun!

Bear Island was a real winner for me, I have two in my deck. I didn't see Gates in either game and never managed to get Rod out for card draw. Luckily, I had already wiped the opponents and wasn't in desperate need to draw extra cards. My favourite card in this deck in Wolves of the North, it does some great work.

oh! and the plots worked perfectly :o)

Marched x2 was a big shock against both opponents, and I got my victory on my Valar plot, just from the unopposed and Renown on Robb... no claim needed!!!

very interesting decklist. What would you now cut to enter the Roaming Wolfpack that will be released with the next chapter pack ?

As I mentioned above, I think you would have to significantly change the deck to fit them in. They are expensive (6 cost) and non-loyal so fitting them in without changing the plots is very difficult, and I think the plots are the foundation of the deck. I have regionals coming up this weekend, but I'll try to tweak the deck and fit them in afterwards because I do think it is a really cool direwolf card.