We defend the Wall alone 7.0

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I was trying to get a tournament in with this deck, but the timing of the Regional tournaments within 5 hours of Cincinnati just didn't line up with my schedule. It looks like I'm out of commission until Gencon.

So, with that in mind, I figured there's no reason to hold back on my list anymore.

A lot of cards have been released since my last deck list, so there will be some significant changes since then but, oddly enough, only a hand full of cards were changed due to the Deluxe box release. A lot of the cards in the deluxe box service other deck types, such as the Jon Snow decks, the Queenscrown decks and the builders decks. I tested a few cards out of the box such as Cotter Pike, Ser Denys Mallister, Builder at the Wall and the Fire that Burns, but each of them didn't make the cut for various reasons. If you're interested in any of those reasons, feel free to ask in the comments below.

Without further ado, let's get to the changes:

Plots:

-1 For the Watch!, +1 Winter Festival

Not much has changed on this front. I was testing a deck that didn't run Qhorin Halfhand and ran Duel but it just wasn't as efficient as I wanted and not having Qhorin sucked so I went back to this.

I added the Winter Festival in the place of For the Watch! because, while For the Watch! is great, it is also situational. Winter Festival, on the other hand, is typically 2 free power unless you, unluckily, fall on your opponent's summer plot. The existence of Time of Plenty makes it a poor opening plot but, turn 2 through turn 5 you're usually in the clear. Even if you land on a Summer plot, you're still getting 5 gold out of it, so the drawback isn't dire. I miss For the Watch! but the truth is, the game has accelerated a bit since my last decklist and the faster you get to 15 the better. These 2 plots, paired with Qhorin, means that I can cut 2 to 3 turns out of the game (if 1 turn equals 2 power gained due to the Wall), making temporary control such as Nightmares, Craven and Milk of the Poppy even stronger and more impactful.

I think this change will be purely meta based. If you have a lot of Summer decks in the area, don't make this change. But, considering Kings of Summer is, statistically, a bad agenda and doesn't typically define a strategy (Kings of Winter is also statistically bad, but you can build a choke deck around it) you're probably in the clear. Just watch out for the Builder deck. They run Kings of Summer so be weary against them. Luckily, the deck typically only runs 3 summer plots.

Ultimately, this is an experimental change, as For the Watch! is one of my favorite plots in the game but I've found it unnecessary in a number of games and power gain is king. I would suggest testing it and making the change if you agree with my assessment. Hell, I may even revert back to For the Watch! (or The Fire That Burns) by the time I get to Gencon. All 3 plots are wonderful options for the deck. The choice will ultimately come down to personal preference.

Characters:

-2 Craster While Craster is a very good character and defending against the reset is great, this deck isn't nearly as weak to Valar as it appeared when Craster was first released. In addition, he's milkable, which just means he's too easy to make useless, since your opponent will often be sitting on a Milk of the Poppy if they run it, since Benjen is basically the only character that it affects other than Craster. It is nice to direct milks onto Craster rather than Benjen, but not worth it at 5 cost. The removal of the Practice Blades (see Attachments section) was the final nail in Craster's proverbial coffin, as being a 5 strength bicon was great, but a 4 strength monocon? Exceedingly worse, especially against Targaryen.

I'd consider adding him back at 1 or 2x if Lanni Rains is dominant in your meta, as their mid challenge Wildfire can really create some headaches if it comes at the wrong time.

-1 Ghost (Core) This was a pure meta card for the tournament I was participating in in my last deck list and is just not strong enough to justify staying in the deck with all the new cards available in the last several chapter packs and the deluxe box.

-1 Samwell Tarly (Core) Sam is lovely, but being a 1 strength character is a very bad situation to be in right now due to Targaryen being everywhere. Once Targ calms down a bit, Sam may re-enter the deck, as he is a very good 2 cost loyal character that just bleeds card efficiency. However, for the time being, it is way too easy to kill Sam on a Blood of the Dragon turn, especially if you don't have the Wall out or it is Nightmares'd. Practice Blade being removed also hurt Sam's value as well. For these same reasons, Gilly did not make the cut.

-1 Ser Waymar Royce Had to make room for Qhorin Halfhand somehow! Plus, 3 cost characters are annoying. 3 cost non loyal characters even more so. Worst cost slot in the entire game. You will be missed, sweet prince. But, really, not that much. Stupid 3 costers...If you cost 3 gold and are not named Halder or Maester Aemon (Core), you can fuck right off, in my opinion.

+3 Qhorin Halfhand I LOVE Qhorin Halfhand. Not only does he have renown to help speed along the deck but he's also really good against a variety of counters. Pyromancers (if your opponent is crazy enough to run them) eat the dust to Qhorin, as do several large army characters that could cause you grief. In addition, with the emergence of the Builder deck built/played/refined by Florian Maas and James Waumsley (http://thronesdb.com/decklist/view/9218/nw-kos-builders-9-0-northampton-regional-1.0), Qhorin is even better. He murders just about every single character in that deck. Prioritize those Castle Black Masons! If they die, the deck is much easier to handle due to the lack of the on demand search.

In fact, the more Wall 'mirror' matches you see, the more valuable Qhorin becomes, as the Night's Watch are one of the biggest nonunique playing decks in the land. The downside is that he has virtually no targets in Targaryen outside of the reducers and maybe some Unsullied, but he's also a 5 strength character and, therefore, will typically take more than 1 card ability to burn alive.

+1 Recruiter for the Watch Granted, I've only been testing this card for 2 weeks or so, but the returns are surprisingly good. There are a ton of really strong 2 cost characters that you can nab with this character. Taking Viserys and Viserion from Targaryen is brutal to them and could save the game for you. They are only 2 strength, but that is enough to protect from Blood of the Dragon and, outside of the blood of the Dragon turn, it protects them from a Plaza of Punishment as long as the Wall is out. So they're...robust enough. I could cut them for any other one card I may need in the future, as they are not essential. But they are definitely a good card and great against Targaryen.

If you're not a fan of this character, he can easily be swapped for a Craster.

+1 Thoren Smallwood Thoren is additional power gain at an affordable cost slot and, with Qhorin Halfhand out, winning on defense adds a lot of value, so it's worth working towards winning on defense a bit when possible (Dragonglass Dagger helps with this as well). Essentially, the Recruiter and Thoren take the place of Craster.

So the cost curve of the deck is taking a +7 net hit due to Qhorin Halfhand. It makes for slightly worse set ups, but it is manageable. His impact is just far too great to ignore him. I started out running him at 1x just to test him but, man, every time I saw him I loved it. I had to make room for him. If your experience is different, then feel free to lower his copies or cut him and play lower cost curve cards to help the deck's economy. If you cut him, I implore that you run Duel though. Great plot when you don't run any 6 costers :).

For those curious, the only reason I didn't include Builder at the Wall is because of the Targaryen match up. They are undeniably valuable, but the potential to lose them in a torrent of Fire is just too high, especially considering I already have 6 characters with 1 strength. I tried to cut 1 strength characters from my deck after testing against Targaryen and the Blood of the Dragon + Nightmares combo almost always resulted in 4 to 5 dead characters. That instantly triggers Slaver's Bay Port and makes Targ's economy rocket out of control.

If you are in a low Targ meta (Somehow. Where do you live? Can I come over?), the Builders at the Wall are fantastic, especially in set up. It is merely a circumstance of timing that leaves them out of this deck, not a lack of value. I couldn't remove the stewards because they are one of the few native intrigue icons in the deck (and are economy) and I couldn't remove the Ravens because they're just that good. Just gotta remember to pick them up every turn against Targaryen. Even if it means cycling your hand a bit.

Attachments:

-2 Practice Blade, +2 Dragonglass Dagger Hey look! Another Targaryen meta call! I used to think Practice Blades were a requirement. They smoothed the icon curve of the deck very nicely and definitely improved the value of characters such as Craster and Samwell. But, with those characters gone (the chicken and the egg scenario here, I suppose), the value of the practice blade goes down considerably. The only characters in the deck that lack a military icon now are Halder, Recruiter for the Watch, Shadow Tower Mason and Steward at the Wall. Recruiter for the Watch should be knelt by the time challenges come along almost every time you play him (otherwise, you wasted 4 gold haha), Shadow Tower Masons get their own military icon relatively easily anyway and Steward at the Wall should probably never hold a blade simply because he's there to chump the intrigue and reduce other character costs, not defend military challenges. Plus putting a Practice Blade on the Shadow Tower Mason always felt wrong because, with just 2 other locations or attachments, they get their own military icon anyway.

Halder will certainly miss the blade, but he has more than enough support around him that he doesn't typically need to participate in military challenges. And besides, this change makes room for the Dragonglass Dagger. Against Targaryen, you probably shouldn't be risking Halder in any challenges if you can help it :). Far too valuable to risk him getting burned.

For those suspicious of this change, keep in mind that this deck runs 3 Halder. So, when Halder is out, the Dragonglass dagger is a net +3 in strength on whoever it is attached to (or +2 to attached character, +1 to someone else.) Not only does this make winning on defense even more reliable (strengthening Qhorin, Thoren and The Shadow Tower), but it also makes you less susceptible to burn since they become immune to character abilities such as Dany's strength reduction, the Unsullied's strength reduction and Greyworm's strength reduction. Putting this attachment on Qhorin Halfhand, with the Wall out, makes him an 8 strength character that is immune to character abilities meaning they'll need 2 Dracarys! or 1 Dracarys and a fully loaded Astapor in order to kill him. 1 Halder trigger essentially puts him out of burnable range while in challenge (he'd die after the challenge but...eh. He would with a Practice Blade too :P).

Plus, Dragonglass Dagger makes the Shadow Tower Masons a 4 strength (5 with the Wall) Tricon once you get those 3 attachments/locations out. Think about that ;).

It's a game of inches and, in this meta, 1 additional strength over Practice Blade is significant and could mean the difference between life and death.

It's a somewhat controversial change, as practice blades are very strong and some Night's Watch players consider them irreplaceable. I used to feel the same way out of fear that removing them would weaken my icon distribution. Then I played the builder deck (http://thronesdb.com/decklist/view/9218/nw-kos-builders-9-0-northampton-regional-1.0) and, well, let's just say when you, for 2 straight months, play a deck that only contains 2 native military icons and 1 native intrigue icon and it still works perfectly, you kind of lose your fear of a poor icon curve.

Locations:

-1 The Iron Throne Baratheon is decimated so soundly by Targaryen that you really aren't worried about running into many of them in a tournament setting. People generally want to win tournaments and, for the time being, bringing Baratheon is a great way to not do that. That makes it acceptable to drop down to 1 Throne in my opinion. I have considered cutting them completely, but they have their uses in non Baratheon match ups as well, so 1 copy seems fine.

+1 Eastwatch-by-the-Sea Talk about efficiency! You gain an additional card that Halder can use for strength buffs, it's loyal so you gain another card that can be reduced by fealty, you gain an additional reserve to help with the Ravens and, on top of all that, you also have the possibility of gaining more card draw if your reserve is higher than your opponent's. Considering I'm running 2 7s and a 10, there is a relatively good chance of being above my opponent on a regular basis. Your Valar turn may be the only turn that you will typically not get the card draw.

Just, please, remember this trigger each round! It's easily the trigger I forget the most in any given game haha. I don't know why. Maybe because it's one of the newest triggers in the deck. But I always seem to forget it for whatever reason. Don't be me. Remember your triggers :).

-3 The Kingsroad, +3 Underground Vault This is another experimental change that I'm not 100% sure will stick but, in early testing, it is promising. People are still running Roseroads, since the Kingsroad is more often cut for the faction specific location, so if you opponent gets one Roseroad out, you're likely triggering this 5 out of 7 turns. If they don't get a Roseroad out, you're probably triggering it 3 times. But you'll almost always get it on turn 1 (people tend to play high gold plots early) so if you get this in set up or on turn 1, it has already paid for itself as soon as you drop it, meaning from that turn on, any 2 gold trigger is pure profit compared to a Roseroad. So, not a bad deal by any means. It's true that you have no control over it triggering but who cares? If your opponent is getting gold, so are you. There are much worse economy locations out there.

Events: No changes on the events. However, I am seriously considering trading The Hand's Judgment for Lay Siege. Why? Well, because of Astapor, Harrenhal (FFH) and Harrenhal (GoH) of course. It also works great against Chamber of the Painted Table, unlike Nightmares (for some reason) and will act as an additional countermeasure against mirror matches (5 events that stop the Wall? Umm...okay!) There really isn't a match up where Lay Siege is a bad card anyway.

Against Baratheon, it kneels the Chamber of the Painted Table, which cannot be Nightmares'd due to the stupid timing of it triggering as a reaction to winning dominance in the Dominance phase beginning prior to any valid action window. It also kneels the The Red Keep so that they can't draw 2 cards.

Against Greyjoy, it kneels Raiding Longship and Iron Fleet Scout if you those would cause a problem in attempting to kneel the Wall. (It also destroys Moat Cailin, which is played ALL the time, right?...right?)

Against Lannister, it destroys Harrenhal (FFH) (Amazing!) and kneels the Tower of the Hand if they used Harrenhal already before you had the chance to Lay it to Siege (although, it's arguable which is the better play, destroying the Harrenhal, or leaving the Harrenhal'd character on the board to die. It'd be a tough call if they Harrenhal'd Tywin. But, then again, they're Lannister so they're probably running fuckin Ghosts of Harrenhal...Just follow that play up with Valar Morghulis and you'll be fine :).)

Against Martell, you can kneel The Boneway when it has 6 tokens on it. Or kneel their Ghaston Grey after declaring Qhorin on a military challenge.

Against Stark, destroy Harrenhal (GoH) if Maester Aemon (Core) is busy (knelt to save against Valar already, for instance) or not out yet. Or kneel Winterfell if there's a certain challenge that you definitely need to trigger some ability in order to successfully defend the Wall.

Against Targaryen, obviously, you can destroy Astapor, which would be a 3 to 5 gold loss for your opponent (massive hit to tempo). It also can kneel Plaza of Punishment or Plaza of Pride if there's ever a time when those are vital for your opponent to hurt your board.

Against The Night's Watch, you can kneel The Wall. You can also kneel Castle Black or The Haunted Forest if, for some reason, kneeling those would be more beneficial than kneeling the Wall (for example, if kneeling Castle Black mid challenge meant that they'll lose the military challenge they were expecting to win, allowing you to kill their standing ranging party with Qhorin, kneel the Haunted Forest and then leave you with an unopposed power challenge to gain 2 power and kneel the Wall simultaneously.)

And Against Tyrell, you can kneel Renly's Pavilion to keep Randyll Tarly kneeling or to win a challenge your opponent was expecting to win, or kneel Highgarden for a reason that would benefit you in some way.

Also, for those heavy reset decks, you can use it to kneel The Eyrie in the standing phase of the previous turn if you're planning a particularly gruesome Valar Morghulis.

It's definitely worth testing and definitely worth heavily considering. The best part, compared to The Hand's Judgment is that it is a proactive card, rather than a reactive card. It is very frustrating saving a gold to counter the Dracarys!, only for my opponent to not even have the damn card haha.