"Mag's Choke Slam" - A semi-viable choke deck

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
[French Nat 2019] [Top16] The Rage Cook 5 3 3 1.0

teamjimby 1961

This is a deck that I have been tinkering with for a few months in an attempt to make choke possible. It's done well online and I played it at the side event for Jesse's Name Day and went 3-0. People seemed entertained by it and I probably won't be able to bring it to a tournament anytime soon, so I decided to post it in hopes that other people can enjoy it, improve it, or have tournament success with it.

DECK ORIGINATION AND CONCEPT

The premise of the deck has always been about two core concepts: (1) stealing or denying gold/cards, and (2) stealing characters (which is like stealing gold and cards at the same time!). With that goal in mind, the core of the deck has always been The High Sparrow, "The Rat Cook", Recruiter for the Watch, White Tree, and A Meager Contribution. Rat Cook obviously synergizes well with Dareon because of their cooperative trait synergies to push the choke theme further. In order to push the choke/song synergy to the max, I started out as Banner of the Rose to tap into their various songs and The Blue Bard.

Early testing ran into a few problems. First, the choke package relied too heavily on The High Sparrow, Dareon, and White Tree. If I didn't see at least two of those three cards, the choke was not potent enough. Second, even if my choke was working, they would still eventually get a board. Often I would steal a chud with Recruiter for the Watch, but they just wouldn't do a military challenge, so I had to keep my Recruiter knelt. You can use Marched to the Wall to free up your Recruiter for a fresh recruit, but that combo is a bit sluggish as it leaves your Recruiter unable to trigger his ability on the Marched turn.

Very quickly I added two key cards to the deck to maximize the value of the Recruiters: Maester Aemon (WotW) and our favorite friendly giant, Mag the Mighty. Maester Aemon (WotW) punishes your opponent for not making military challenges while Mag the Mighty makes Recruiters and "The Rat Cook" infinitely more effective. The deck still tended to lose if my opponent had Trade Routes and I didn't have my The High Sparrow, but the addition of Trade Routes to the restricted list has greatly reduced that problem. I eventually moved almost entirely away from the Song theme and Banner Rose, which made The House With the Red Door the best agenda. Banner of the Wolf also has obvious synergies, but that concept has been done before and Ward going on the restricted list made it less appealing. Kings of Winter is also an obvious choke consideration, but it is just too weak and restrictive to be playable.


KEY CARDS

  • White Tree and A Meager Contribution - Any choke deck probably starts with these cards. Not only are you denying your opponent a gold or two every turn, but if you are 2nd player you can use that gold in marshalling. This is helpful as it allows us to run many impactful, low gold plots.

  • The High Sparrow - This is where the real choke happens. With High Sparrow on the board with White Tree, you are limiting your opponent to 6 gold maximum per turn. Add in A Meager Contribution and/or Dareon and the choke becomes oppressive. His card draw limitation can also be very good, especially with the new Gate locations, and he makes Meereen players cry.

  • Recruiter for the Watch - If your opponent has limited gold, they will likely be forced to play several low cost characters. These low cost characters tend to come from rough backgrounds and/or have no families, which makes them easier to recruit to serve the Night's Watch.

  • "The Rat Cook" - Similar to the Recruiter, Rat Cook provides additional choke/attrition pressure. Even though the number of stewards in the deck is lower than one might expect from a Rat Cook deck, usually stealing a 2-4 gold character is enough to push your game plan. The "until end of round" limitation isn't a problem when you can combine Rat Cook with Mag or Breaking Ties.

  • Mag the Mighty - With Recruiter and Rat Cook, the best way to leverage those cards is to kill the character that you stole. These recruiting cards allow you to cut your opponent with both sides of the double-edged sword that is Mag the Mighty. By stealing a character and then winning a military challenge with Mag, you are effectively getting 3 claim military every turn. Most decks won't be able to keep pace with that while you are also choking them out.

  • Maester Aemon (WotW) - Big Aemon puts your opponents in a tough situation with Recruiter and Rat Cook. If they make a military challenge, you just kill their character. If they don't, Aemon hits them with extra military claim (while you have already stolen their likely claim soak). Even if you can't trigger him on military, more often than not you will be able to use him on either intrigue or power.


PLOTS

  • Late Summer Feast is the typical opener. You need the high gold to recover from the HRD setup, and if you have The High Sparrow in play, your opponent can only draw at most 1 extra card from the forced reaction.

  • 2x Marched to the Wall helps push the attrition theme. As mentioned above, it's good with recruiters because you can get rid of two of your opponent's characters (especially those pesky Desert Raiders). Your opponent will expect the first Marched, but the second one can often surprise. While you prefer to March the big characters, Marching chuds also gives you more targets for Yoren and Guarding the Realm. I previously had Valar Dohaeris instead of the 2nd Marched, but I think there is enough choke/attrition that you can skip a reset.

  • Political Disaster is important to maintain the choke when you don't see The High Sparrow. It feels particularly good right now as people are going wider with econ locations via At the Gates. Keep in mind that you get to keep 3 locations thanks to the HRD protection.

  • Nothing Burns Like The Cold hits non-limited economy and many important cards that can get around our game plan such as Dorne, The Water Gardens, Frozen Solid, Venomous Blade, or saves (it feels really good to hit Iron Mines or Bodyguard on a Valar Morghulis turn). The value of this plot gets even better when combined with Political Disaster. It does somewhat limit our ability to add attachments or locations. Otherwise I might have included cards like Bridge of Skulls, Miner's Pick, or Craven.

  • Breaking Ties is still a ridiculous plot, and it's stronger now that people aren't expecting it. And you know what's better than sacrificing your own characters? Sacrificing your opponent's characters! Steal a loyal character with "The Rat Cook" or Recruiter for the Watch, then sac them to bounce a big non-loyal character. Then maybe sac the Recruiter as well while he's still knelt. There are many cheap loyal characters with Messenger Raven, Samwell Tarly (Core), and Three-Finger Hobb (if you're desperate). Breaking Ties is great with Yoren because he can often provide both of the loyal characters you need, or you can sac him to allow you to play a second Yoren. Don't forget that you can bounce cards like The Roseroad, Great Hall, or Gates of the Moon to keep the choke pressure on.

  • Famine is a great choke card, allows you to blow the game open, and is especially good with Maester Aemon (WotW) to get 4 claim of a particular challenge type.


CONCLUSION

I would normally have a tourney report, but I haven't had a chance to take this to a real tournament. As the deck title states, I would consider this deck to be semi-viable at the moment. It's not the most consistent and has a few particularly bad matchups. But, it can absolutely win some games and almost every game I've played with it has been super fun for both me and my opponent (as far as I can tell). I'd be happy to answer any strategy/deckbuilding questions. Otherwise, let me know if you have suggestions or are able to find success with the deck!

29 comments

Apopas 1

I love it! I'd consider Naval Superiority for opening.

Toaster 35

Great deck, what about Tom of Sevenstreams to compliment some of the songs instead of Dareon or in addition to him?

Toaster 35

@ApopasWouldn't you severely cripple your own economy even more with a 4 cost set-up followed by only 2 gold from the plot?

teamjimby 1961

@ApopasToaster beat me to it. Often my setups will be something like Underground Vault and some sort of 1 STR character. Naval would theoretically leave me with 4-5 gold to their potentially zero gold, but that wouldn't be enough for be to stabilize against someone else's half-decent setup. And that's only if Naval actually hits. If they play Varys's Riddle, for example, then I'm way behind.

@ToasterI did at one point have 3x Dareon, 3x Tom of Sevenstreams, and something like 10 songs. The dream scenario is to stand Mag with Tom and "Off To Gulltown", but it happened so rarely. I gradually cut down on the song tech because it was underperforming until I eventually got to where it is now.

Toaster 35

@teamjimbyI suspected as much, the full song package with Mag the Mighty sounds really good on paper, but is probably too inconsistent. What a shame :-)

P_Gedi 182

Ah my good friend! Another fellow High Sparrow player. Love the idea and can see you’ve made a good few changes to the earlier version. I had a similar concept with this but as NW Lion to get the Without His Beard lock on as well for choke and no cards, but it was pretty inconsistent. This seems suitably horrible and yet great as well.

P_Gedi 182

@teamjimby - would you be tempted to play the new NW Flea Bottom Alley, to get around your own sparrow? Perhaps a Tourney Grounds as well?

Apopas 1

@Toaster I had in mind the "Kings of Winter" agenda. I find it more effective than "White Tree" red door because both help to reduce the opponent's income but KoW isn't as vunerable as Red Door.

teamjimby 1961

@P_GediThanks! Yeah, there have been a few changes. Breaking Ties was the big one. Vindictive Rangers have also proven to be very effective, replacing the slot that was previously occupied by Crow Killers. I appreciate your "horrible and yet great" description. That's exactly what I'm going for.

I've considered Flea Bottom Alley, but I don't think it's consistent enough. That card is only great if you have a 3g NW character that doesn't have a "when you marshal..." trigger (RIP Yoren). That leaves us with only 6 full value targets and then Samwell Tarly (Core) and Three-Finger Hobb as low value targets. The Kingsroad is far more versatile and makes it easy to play our important threats like Mag, Aemon, and Sparrow. I wouldn't lose sleep over including it as a 1x though.

Getting around my own High Sparrow isn't really an issue. Other than LSF, all of the plots are 4 gold max. Occasionally he will cost me 1 or 2 gold, but if I'm getting a full 7 (or 8 if I'm second player) and they are getting 6, that's usually already plenty of gold for me. Tourney Grounds has the additional problem of being non-limited, which means it gets hit by my Nothing Burns Like The Cold.

teamjimby 1961

@ApopasYMMV, but I disagree about KoW being more effective. The -1 gold for your opponent is much less reliable, you don't get the +1 gold, and it forces you to play Winter plots instead of high impact plots like Marched to the Wall and Breaking Ties. And specifically with The High Sparrow, KoW would allow them to still get 7 gold whereas White Tree limits them to 6 gold.

Diomedes 3294

Another awesome deck, Jim! One question though: Did your opponents really enjoy being choked? :D

teamjimby 1961

@DiomedesThanks, Hanno! It depends on your definition of "enjoy," I suppose. :-P When the alternatives are getting knelt out by Euron Crow's Eye (KotI), burned by Drogon (IDP), or locked by Builders for the 100th time, most people are pretty excited to play against Mag the Mighty and The High Sparrow!

Apopas 1

@teamjimbyall these would be true if there were not cards like "frozen solid" around which with just one gold destroy your agenda. IMO the red door agenda should have the additional text "this locatin can not bear other possessions or leave play".

teamjimby 1961

@ApopasYeah, HRD certainly could have been stronger, but it is what it is. At least we can potentially get rid of one Frozen Solid with Nothing Burns Like The Cold.

Diomedes 3294

@teamjimby That's true. I for one would enjoy to be choked by The High Sparrow. Love that guy! :P Sadly, my efforts to make him work out of Bara were of no avail. :)

Toaster 35

Three-Finger Hobb is a really good card, but with these super low reserve values I'm a bit skeptical if he can consistently draw cards for us.

Are there alternative plots you would run?

teamjimby 1961

@ToasterYou're absolutely right that the plot lineup is not very Hobb-friendly. He's largely a 3x in the deck because he's a cheap, loyal steward that makes it easier to leverage Rat Cook and Breaking Ties. If he triggers his ability one time, he has earned his value. I made Samwell Tarly (Core) a 2x in part because the reserve boost helps Hobb.

That said, if you wanted some higher reserve plots, I would recommend Varys's Riddle or Fallen from Favor. Riddle is a great opener and FFF kind of fills a similar role as Marched to the Wall in that it frees up your recruiter or gets rid of a milked Sparrow/Recruiter. If you really want a draw plot, I think you would want either Close Call or Exchange of Information. Definitely not Counting Coppers because you'd potentially get blocked by your own High Sparrow.

Toaster 35

It will be tough to choose a plot to take out of the deck though.
What is your thought on adding Gates of the Moon and At the Gates as an opener plot to stabilize future turns as well?

The additional gold shouldn't matter to your opponent too much?

teamjimby 1961

@ToasterIf you had to cut a plot it would probably be the 2nd Marched, but that does feel pretty bad. I am strongly opposed to Gates of the Moon because giving your opponent gold completely defeats the purpose of a choke deck. It might not help them when you have The High Sparrow, but otherwise it negates our entire agenda.

Toaster 35

@teamjimby I felt pretty bad tinkering with the plot deck as well, so I guess congratulations for this really tight deck you created!

PhoenixInferno 15

Played this at the final stop of the Western Championship Circuit - good enough to get a bye for KublaCon, for a shot at Road to Stahleck.

I dropped Dareon because if you can play 59 cards, I think you should. But otherwise, the same deck.

teamjimby 1961

Nice work, Edward! It made me happy to see Mag running wild on the West Coast!

Kentucky Shaun 39

What do you think of Maester Mullin over Three Finger? Con: Not a steward for Rat Cook. Pros: Same cost and strength for an additional icon. His action could make it more likely for Maester Aemon to trigger and he isn’t limited by the low reserve and The High Sparrow.

teamjimby 1961

@Kentucky Shaun Maester Mullin is a good suggestion. He's also another military icon, which we could always use.

Hobb is definitely good in the deck. He's a cheap, dupe-able steward that you can use for Breaking Ties, and if he draws you cards that's a bonus. But I could certainly understand cutting one copy of him if you wanted.

You inspired me to check the last few packs for any other new cards. Nothing really jumps out at me, other than maybe Desperate Attack instead of Famine. Maester Mullin would definitely be useful on a Desperate Attack turn.

Timmy 58

now that shadows becomes consistent, do you still think famine is as good as it used to be ? Should you replace it, what would be your choice ?

teamjimby 1961

@Timmy Regarding Famine, I had often started using Retaliation instead of Famine anyway, and the prevalence of shadows would only make that change even better.

I haven't really touched this deck in a while and I'm not sure how it would do in the current meta (not saying it would be bad, but I just don't know). Great Hall going on the restricted list is definitely a big boost to this deck. I think you absolutely want to make room for 3x Bound for the Wall. I'm also pretty sure that new Yoren (TB) would be better than the Core Set version, but that might require some testing.

Klofinger 1

@teamjimbyregarding Breaking ties, which is banned now and I don’t think that the redesign is useful in this deck. What plot would you suggest? I know the last comment was 4 years ago 😁. But you can always try

teamjimby 1961

@Klofinger Thanks for the comment after 4 years! This was one of my favorite decklists, so I'm always happy to hear that new people are finding it.

Regarding Breaking Ties, I think the redesigned version would still work in this deck. It's not quite as powerful as before, but at least they gave it +1 reserve. If you want to try something different, you could consider The Father. If you're able to steal a unique character of theirs, you'd be able to bounce two of their characters back to hand (importantly before "The Rat Cook" expires and before you would need to stand Recruiter for the Watch).

Klofinger 1

Ok thanks. I‘ll give both Plots a try :)