Relight My Fire (2nd at Sack of Astapor - SG Joust) 1.0

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• 1.0

The finalized list I took to The Sack of Astapor (SG). Some of the Card Choices are explained:

The week before, the deck was still being fine tuned especially in terms of the plots. Targ Burn (with Wars) is generally confined to 2 versions - one with the King tech, and the other with more draw and control. I stuck to the King tech assuming (wrongly) that many people would play Tyrell and hence, The King in the North. That single plot is worst for Martell; and while it can limit the deck's options for that round, the bulk of the action in the form of events (Dracarys!, Consuming Flames, A Dragon Is No Slave) can still be played. Tyrells can usually close with that plot, or greatly accelerate their board or Win Condition.

Beggar King is a small but necessary inclusion for two reasons - to protect against that plot which I am really quite terrified of (as a Martell player generally, the number of board interactions is next to 0 on that plot) ; and also as a good gold generating source, as most of the plots are low on revealed gold.

Some people believe that Shadowblack Lane is a 'win-more' card, but I disagree. It generally finds answers that, while your opponent may have knowledge of, sometimes the knowledge of it in hand as a threat is sufficient for them to make less than optimized plays. Beside the single Funeral Pyre (again, in a meta full of cheap Lords and Ladies), there is no Faction Kneel for this deck.

Stormcrows is a cheap chud that can come in handy in a Martell matchup, especially on a Blood of the Dragon turn.

The single Mirri Maz Duur helps against intrigue-weak decks, of which the Starks especially come to mind. It is also helpful in the mirror when their Daenerys Targaryen (TFM) is hiding behind plenty of claim-soaks. Targetted kill beyond the burn is especially important in an era where Mace Tyrell (HoT) - who can just sit back and throw chuds the whole day - is rampant.

There are absolutely zero copies of The Hand's Judgment, in part because of the lack of space, but also because I did not see it being more useful compared to the more active Nightmares. In retrospect, I should have at least 2 copies to stop Doran's Game, a card which suddenly became in vogue again thanks to The Wars To Come.

I think the way to play Targ Burn is to treat it as a Tempo-control deck, where you generally want to go 2nd and burn out important characters / challenges. If I am unsure of which challenge to let through / win, I usually do a gold-for-gold ratio: am I spending more gold to get rid of a particular character than what they would pay for it? It's okay to let certain challenges through - especially if you have a Fire and Blood waiting. often helps you seed your discard pile with targets for Flea Bottom, and Isle of Ravens is there to hose opposing Flea bottoms, as well as shuffle back important events.

For a Faction, Targaryens really rely on drawing plenty of cards to get to their answers, hence two copies of Littlefinger recognizes that draw is never enough for a deck that runs through its hands pretty quick. In essence, Targ Burn is really scary when it has a full hand; and there are times when I would not marshal anything and keep 7 gold, threatening scary events. What you want to find on setup is always economy, which is probably one of the important reasons for my loss to Jason (a great player!) in the Finals.

Moving forward, does Targ Burn have a place in the meta? My answer is yes, but it can certainly be more streamlined. As a deck, it has very few flex slots for utility or tech cards, but I think the upcoming Meeren would be great, and some people find The Skahazadhan as a better income generator which feeds the discard pile. I would definitely change the plot deck to include at least some location control - Nothing Burns Like The Cold, and maybe even Seized by the Guard to control locations like Dorne. The weakness of Targ is generally to control their income, so Kings of Winter in a Stark shell might find some purchase.

Is there a place for the new Dragons? Yes. But that would mean drastically changing parts of the deck (Plots, locations) to support them. In general, ambushing in a 6-cost Drogon (IDP) is not as scary because there are plenty of answers to it. (Even the much vaunted Duel!) But I would like to see and build a deck that runs all the new dragons, reducing the perennial Targ hosers - Ser Ilyn Payne and The First Snow of Winter.

Thank you to my practice family - The Silent Sisters, who besides the games, have really good players, and more importantly, excellent company and good people all around. A game like this really lives or dies by the community, and we are always glad to be building something fun and meaningful, even for new players.
Thank you to all my opponents - I always try to learn something from all my games - and thanks to all the Organizers of The Sack of Astapor (The Small Council - Chewy, Ben, Travis, etc - sorry if I missed anyone out) for running a smooth and great tournament!