Support of the Merling King - 2nd Bristol Regional

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
0 0 0 1.0

Ryan4815 1280

2nd of 59 at Bristol Regional - piloted by myself

3rd of 28 at Cardiff Regional - piloted by Tagore N

19th of 82 at Blackwater Bay - piloted by Ben F


This is the deck I took to the final of the Bristol regional, losing to the Viper wombocombo deck. Alas, I only made it to 13 before a 104 str challenge happened.

Tagore then took the deck to King of Swiss at Cardiff before losing in the top 4. I had planned to take this to Blackwater Bay, but #spicymeatcrew member Ben Fox piloted it after a dice roll decided it would be the deck he played. On a whim, the five of us had decided to roll for who's deck to play. Instead I piloted Tupaq's NW/X to the top cut.


The deck can adapt easily to most matchups. Rush with Robert Baratheon, Victarion Greyjoy and Asha Greyjoy whilst controlling characters with the usual Melisandre (Core) based R'hllor package and locations with Lordsport Shipwright, Sea Bitch and Newly-Made Lord.

Alternatively play the long game with the The Iron Throne and Chamber of the Painted Table supported by the two reset plots, 3 x Spears of the Merling King and 3 x Iron Mines.

Use the 3 x Support of the People to grab whatever location is most relevant at the time - Red Keep was usually the first to find, but then I'd often find some Iron Mines to set up for Valar Morghulis. Grabbing Sea Bitch lets you deal with the builder matchup by taking The Wall and annoy the players by taking their Plaza of Pride or Astapor.


Quite often I had 15+ locations in play, so Political Disaster can be a pain. I actually never ran into it in Bristol - though in a few games I expected it so held back from spamming the board. It's easy enough to play around, just be wise about how many you marshall.

On the day I opened with Varys's Riddle most games - hitting Summer Harvest four times and Counting Coppers once. Time of Plenty is the other opener. Generally play Wildfire Assault before Valar Morghulis - unless they are a rush deck who will win with renown - as this often lead my opponent into a false sense of security where they emptied their hand after the Wildfire.

Here to Serve is the flex plot slot. A simple switch to Confiscation works, but I would often draw Maester Cressen, then find him with Here to Serve and dupe him, giving me yet another character that will survive post Valar. With Victarion Greyjoy's built in save and all the locations, its not unreasonable to have 4 or 5 characters post reset.


Bristol Results (Me):

  • W v Martell/X
  • W v Bara/Kraken
  • W v Stark/Fealty
  • W v Targ/Fealty
  • W v Martell/Fealty
  • L v GJ/Rains
  • W v Targ/Fealty
  • W v GJ/Rains
  • L v Martell/Rose (combo)

Cardiff Results (Tagore N):

  • W v BYE
  • W v Lanni/Rains
  • W v GJ/X
  • W v NW/Wolf
  • W v GJ/Rains
  • W v Martell/Fealty
  • L v GJ/Rains

Blackwater Results (Ben F):

  • L v ??
  • W v Bara/Kraken
  • W v Stark/Kraken
  • W v Bara/Kraken
  • W v Stark/Fealty
  • L v Targ/Rose
  • L v GJ/Rains
12 comments

Derbo 7

Nice deck! I'm tinkering with Bara-Kraken myself, but have problems with handling Varys. How did you get around him?

Ryan4815 1280

Thanks! There are no specific cards to deal with Varys. If they are going the "The Last of the Giants" + Varys route its quite telegraphed and a cheeky Seen In Flames can put a stop to that. A few of my opponents marshaled him and cleared the board, but you just have to be careful and make sure you keep reserves in hand, same with any reset.

hagarrr 829

Half of the losses are to GJ Rains - any particular issue here?

Banjo 97

@hagarrr Not very many strong Intrigue characters is my bet. Hand control wrecks Bara.

Ryan4815 1280

@hagarrrI think the main difficulty is how quickly Greyjoy can close after wiping the board (Rise of the Kraken etc) as it doesn't give Bara enough time to build back up a decent board state.

Can't speak for the other guys but I lost the first one against GJ/Rains due to seeing no economy against all three Iron Islands Market's and a few early Varys triggers. The second game was a closer match but my abundance of saves and their lack of multiple Varys gave me the win.

mattastrophic 719

It's great to see Baratheon/Kraken doing well!

How has Lord Davos worked out so far?

FredInRealLife 247

I really like the idea of toolboxing locations with Support of the People. Question, when I thought about this build, I was thinking that the focus would be on Marya and Stealth. Did she start at 3x and drop down to 1x, or were you never really thinking about building around that interaction?

iTrvis 371

Congrats on getting to the finals! I've been waiting to see a Bara Kraken list for awhile now.

Qn, with the introduction of the Red Wedding pack, do you think Ser Axel Florent and Silence's Crew would fit into this deck?

Knight_Who_Says_Ni 1

+1 for the question above about marya seaworth, i was wondering the same.

Ryan4815 1280

@mattastrophicBoth Davos's served well. Often I'd play Ser Davos Seaworth (Core) during the early game, before the resets. Then once my econ was built up, kill him and play Ser Davos Seaworth (GoH) duping him with the core one. The little bit of extra draw really fuelled the end game.

@iTrvisSer Axell Florent definitely slots in, at worst he is a well costed bicon. I doubt you'd have the gold to fully bestow him though. As great as Silence's Crew are, I'm not sure where you'd find the room for them as just a big body is not really what this deck is looking for.

@FredInRealLife @Knight_Who_Says_Ni The problem I found with 3x Marya Seaworth is that I'd often draw her before I found a decent stealth body or not be able to afford the setup of paying for her, her ability and e.g. Asha Greyjoy. In the early game this is difficult - as said above the econ is tight. By dropping her to 1x it made it much more likely to have the resources (stealth cards and gold) to support her when drawn.

tomdidiot 89

@hagarrrGJ are just as good at recovering after a Valar as you are, which helps it a lot. Also this deck's matchup vs rains depends a lot on drawing Mel - it's really easy for them to trigger Rains because you have so few Int icons.

DanPH 44

Brought this list with a few changes to our Regionals here in the Philippines. Made it to the finals. Overall very happy. :D

  • Minus 1 Time of Plenty
  • Minus 1 Clash of Kings

Put in 1 Trading with the Pentoshi and 1 Winter Festival.