Top 4 WCWC: "Rat Kings" aka "Cooking by the book" 1.0

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• 1.0

Gerry - my mind is boggled. If you could give an indication to your play strategy, especially considering the numerous 6/7 cost guys, Broken Vows, what you try to set up etc that'd be ACE :D

Also congratulations on your Top 4 with this!

Thanks, hagarrr.

The strategy is generally to survive the first couple of turns by any means necessary while you build up stewards on the board and events in the discard pile. Then you take control of the game by stealing your opponents best characters with Rat Cook and either killing them for claim or sacrificing them as tribute to Mutiny at Crasters to discard the rest of their board (the upside being that they can't save their sacrificed character with any dupes, body guards, or cancellation of the event.)

After you've taken board control, whether over several turns or one big turn with Annals, usually Grenn will eventually win the game by leeching 1-2 power off your opponents house per turn.

That's the main strategy, although obviously it's not always so simple in actual play.

Broken vows is a very flexible card, but aside from specific uses like stealing Taena from combo decks, its main benefit is that you have several high cost characters that are completely useless to your non-Watch opponents (Old bear and Othell being the prime examples.) One game, I gifted the Bear to my opponent for his useful character (I think Nymeria?) then stole him back with Rat Cook and later sacrificed him to Mutiny as my highest cost character. Another game I have Bowen Marsh for a fully-bestowed begging brother.

Hope that answers some questions, I'll check back later.

I can vouch for the begging brother being stolen, made me very sad when it happened :'(

Curious why you Sworn to the Watch didn't made the cut :). There some really good interactions that you may build with it. Mainly:

• "The Last of the Giants" + Sworn to the Watch + Broken Vows
• Broken Vows, Steal, Sworn to the Watch on Unexpected Delay turn.
• It also gives you a few more Stewards and protection from some of the burn.

uBaH:

Sworn+Unexpected Delay was in a previous version of the deck, but it wasn't powerful enough to earn a place in the final version. The combo had too many pieces to go off consistently, and the individual cards weren't impactful enough. Unexpected Delay didn't have enough gold, and there aren't any targets in the deck for sworn to the watch.

I'm thinking finding room for Mag is probably a good idea. He may not work with Broken Vows, but stealing their claim soak with Rat Cook and killing it with Mag is just value.

Hi, may I ask why is fortified position included?

Is the lack of power icons ever a problem, especially against power rush?

@FredInRealLifeI honestly never tested with Mag. My intuition is that he isn't worth the cost, but he could be better than I think.

@MillerFortified is a great plot for this deck because it doesn't blank the steward trait so most of your ticks still work. It was also a meta call because I expected to see a few Brienne and Cersei combo decks.

@Kau the Lion Yes. It's not impossible to win, but you really need to play extremely tight. Remember you can steal your opponents power icons as well, so it's not as bleak as it seems.

So. @Gerrywhat are your thoughts on Coldhands?