Jackie and Steve Talk It Out [3-3 German Nats]

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

ChannelDelibird 1067

I've been playing variants of this deck for a few weeks and a few tournaments, so I thought it was worth posting something. This list went 3-3 at German Nationals the other day; if it had come across more of the Stark decks and NW/Steel that it was particularly well-placed to beat, it might have done better!

Pretty much ever since the latest FAQ freed up Jackie and the Hightower, I've been on Tyrell tricks with Flea Bottom in one shape or another. The amount of draw available to Tyrell at the moment just makes me feel so resource-poor every time that I play something else!

I'll try not to go overboard in the description here, but here are the most important/cool parts of the deck:

Draw. The Hightower is the most important card in the deck, and Jackie is second. Even if the situation is looking dire for you, if you have access to just one Informer, you have hope. You pretty much never need to bestow her for more than 1g unless you absolutely have to dig for one specific card right that second or you'll lose; otherwise she'll gleefully mill you out, Archivist or no. Also relevant: Steve and Oldtown, obviously.

HFK/Sorrows is obviously very potent and is what allows the deck to break through all manner of stubborn opponents. Remember that you can use the Faith's Decree to ignore Bodyguards.

I haven't always been running First Snow in these decks as there are obviously so many chuds in it, but there are plenty of things that you'll be happy to re-ambush. Most importantly, First Snow is a fantastic plot at the moment because it can blow out Stark and NW if used correctly.

This version of the deck goes heavy on the remove-from-challenge tech. I've always run 3x Diplomat with it (because it's so powerful with Loras on a Sorrows turn, often my preferred closing method) but I added 3x Highgarden and Jousting Contest for German Nats and that proved really effective. It's really handy against the swarm decks (and also the Bara Red Keep).

Fealty/Tibwhid might look like a dichotomy but it just requires some careful thinking. Earlier on, Fealty will be more important so that you can set up your Hightower engine and, as a default, using it for Steve is always good, but you'll find that you draw so much that you might want to leave your faction card standing sometimes even if you don't have Tibwhid in hand yet - because you might very soon.

Pulling the Strings is typically used to copy At the Gates to go find Gate of the Gods, thereby switching on the Faith's Decree if it hasn't been already. If you don't need to fetch the location, though, you'll most likely be waiting out a YWoYD.

That 1x Chair was an inspired suggestion from Wamma for an earlier iteration of the deck (which I'll likely post as well soon, it's also great) and it does great work here. The volume of draw means that you'll almost always be pushing your reserve, and the relative lack of renown means that a touch of passive power can really help to push the advantage earned by your control tricks.

Nightmares is here so that you can HFK Craster. But hey, Nightmares is always good even if you aren't against NW.


tl;dr, if you're having trouble with Stark and NW at the moment, you should try this out. Unless Greyjoy gets a completely ridiculous turn 1, that's a favourable matchup as well. But the sheer versatility offered by its draw means that all manner of matchups can be navigated by careful filtering.

Its weaknesses - at least, the ones thus far observed - include Qohor-based voltron (a little too quick and a little too flexible for our tricks to strangle them). The Bara matchup is usually okay depending on the exact build, but Hanno obliterated me at German Nats with Bara/Conclave - the High Sparrow is awful for this deck, you need to immediately HFK him or you'll definitely lose, but even without him there's just a bit too much counter-control in that specific kind of passive Bara deck.

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