Top 4 GenCon: To the Bolton Banner!

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
I Forgot My Plot Deck (Singapore Regionals Top 4) 0 0 0 1.0

chumbert 358

I took this deck to 8-2 at GenCon for a top 4 finish, losing to the eventual champ Tyler Phillips with Martell Wars. It's a fun deck to play if you like keeping the board small and shenanigans in general.

Genesis of the deck was abusing one of my favorite cards, House Florent Knight. Using Mace to get power: tired. Using Mace to discard littles and set up huge Ramsay/Marched to the Wall triggers: wired. Scheming Septon triggers for a surprise Put to the Sword are also nasty, though less prevalent given the relative lack of military strength.

The idea is to have enough gold through Tyrell things (Arbor, Straits, Hightower) to fuel your attrition and the relatively high number of expensive control cards in here like Harrenhal (GoH) and Ward. Where this deck beats out Martell Wolf in my opinion is the ability to switch gears and do degenerate Mace rush things if the game state calls for it. That said, I only ever had more than 3 power on him once, and several games I did not see him. He's nice but not necessary.

Key common plays:

  • HFK to discard a little, then Magic Money Maker to Ramsay off a big.
  • HFK double trigger using Mace, then a 3rd time in standing if necessary to set up a march/ramsay.
  • Flayer/HFK/Ramsay on a king plot turn. They are forced reactions, which means you don't care about that plot because they happen anyway.
  • Scheming septon trigger to set up your hightower spy automatic plus 2 for an unopposed military challenge when you have Put to the Sword in hand (all your military icons are 3 or more strength).

-Triggering Ser Garlan Tyrell (HoT) to seed the discard with Olenna's Informant, then do a second military challenge with another knight after using flea bottom to bring her in.

Lots of other potential fun/wonky plays, but those are tried and true.

Tourney Report:

Round 1: vs Martell Wars This is a tough matchup for me if I don't control the board early, given their ability to cancel my resets and puke out 15 or so gold a turn for a few turns in a row. I couldn't get board control and he played well to cancel my The First Snow of Winter when it could have flipped the game on turn 3. Loss, something like 15-6.

Round 2: vs Martell Wars This one was different. I warded his Ricasso turn 1, then claimed him for military and hit back myself. I don't think he had anyone on the board at the end of the round the rest of the game and I won in classic attrition fashion via unopposed challenges. Win, 15-0

Round 3: Bara Wars By round 2 he has Barristan, Mel and Penrose to my Mace, HFK ( who i had popped in and out the prior standing phase to discard a small body) and another body with 3 str (memory is a bit foggy). I had flipped song of summer, which means my second HFK in hand got his Mel off the board, then in standing I popped HFK out to discard Penrose, leading to Barristan being marched to the wall. He recovered a few turns later and was at 14 power after using Bob and Stannis to swing, but I had 13. Pop scheming septon out with Mace, he comes in to win me dom and trigger Mace. Win, 15-14.

Round 4: Night's Watch Conclave This was just a bad matchup for his deck. Maesters are generally 3 cost or str or lower, and HFK/flayers eat them up. He really couldn't keep a board, and never saw his new wall so I ran away with this one.

Round 5: Tyrell Wars The dreaded Tyrell good stuff deck. This was a deck I am confident against, not least because Bolton Flayer eats the dynamic duo of Left and Right alive. He had both out by turn 2, then tripled up one and duped the other. Bolton flayer came out to eat the triple, which allowed me to set up my best play of the tournament. He marshals Mace, and his board is now tinder Marge, Mace, Alerie, duped Left and Hightower spy. He is first, and uses Mace to remove Alerie to dig as his hand is low from seeing now Hightower yet. I had flipped Breaking Ties and had 2 Ramsay in hand with Ward. I warded the hightower spy, triggered breaking ties twice on the duped left, then marshalled Ramsay to make him choose between Mace and Marge. He keeps Mace, so next turn I flip Valar Dohaeris, and with 11 cost out he keeps mace. But I went first, so I drop Ramsay to get Mace off the board and it's about over from there. We go to time and I win 14-12 after some Oldtown triggers.

Round 6: Stark Wars We were both 4-1 at this point so it was a less stressful game now that they run GenCon like a proper tournament and we were sure to make day 2. He got out early with Robb, Grey Wind and Wyman, but a VD meant he could only keep 1 into my Ramsay trigger, and from then out I controlled the board.

Top 32: Stark Fealty This one was a slog, and he got out ahead early with his own Greatjon to match against my own, but he had greater military strength so advantage him. I was able to reset into Ramsay to take back the board after he missed a Greatjon stand trigger.

Top 16: Lanni Crossing I like this matchup because I should be able to march or ramsay their bigs pretty easily, but it forces you to have those cards really fast, so it always feels like a game of roulette. Luckily, I set up Harrenhal and he did not have treachery, so he couldn't marshal bigs all game. This allowed me to keep using my chud clear machines and control the board, though he did hit with some spikes and tyrion's chains, so it is close.

Top 8: Lanni Crossing A lot more pressure here and it came down to the wire. I didn't see Ramsay all game but he did have to play around it, knowing my deck. This led to some odd plays, like marshalling his The Hound (TtB) on a first snow turn that he played first when his Tywin was unprotected (I had burned my Marched to the wall in a previous round). I close with Mace things.

Top 4: Martell Wars Ah, the end of the line for me and it wasn't really close. I set up Greatjon, money and informer to his host of the boneway and house dayne knight. Opened Song of Summe both to try and get a greatjon kneel off and to avoid giving him tons of money from Pentoshi, but I couldn't get over top of him with military anyway. I needed to see Ramsays and Harranhals but I saw neither, even though I had good economy going. He always had more due to trade routes, calling the banners and some dornish fiefdoms and gates of the moon. I warded his ricasso early but he bounced him back to his hand with big Arianne, and he saw a couple Host of the Boneway along with 2 Knights of the sun to close with a big Doran's Game after cancelling my Dohaeris (even after I pulled one Someone Always Tells earlier with intrigue claim). If they get ahead early and can cancel your reset plots, you're in a rough spot. Tyler piloted a great game both here and in the finals, so nothing but hats off to him.

Overall I was very happy with the deck's performance. Hope you enjoy!

7 comments

celric 414

Great deck, great report, and congrats on a great finish. Thanks for sharing!

WorldSerpent 152

Cool deck, congrats on top 4.

argento 649

Thx for sharing and congrats ! I love the deck.

adam_geek 462

Congrats!I have played you couple times on ironthrone. Really what to know u and have further dissicion on this deck. Can I have your Facebook or something?

higf 119

Congrats! As shown themselves Oldtown? This card to combo with Scheming Septon?

chumbert 358

@adam_geek Thanks! I'm Colt Humbert on FB, feel free to message me there.

@higf I'm not 100% sure what you're asking but Oldtown is there for card draw and power gain. Scheming septon combo is real nice/stupid with it but it's a perfectly fine standalone card. Just play the odds and say character every time. Half the time, you get a power and a card, which are good things. Other times, you know what your pump will be for the spy.

higf 119

@chumbert Thanks! I am playing this deck, it’s very nice!