WATCH and Turn: Stark Vengeance 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

I’ve always struggled to play defensive Night’s Watch decks so thought I’d turn this on it’s head by going offensive. The main aim of the deck is to put pressure on the opponent by stealing or killing their chuds, allowing you to then remove or kill their big characters.

I typically open with Riddle though Barring the Gates is an alternative for some match-ups. Assuming an early tool set of Recruiter for the Watch, Ward and/or Bribery, the second plot can be Trading with the Pentoshi. If you win Initiative, going first can immediately put pressure on the opponent, even in Marshalling if you have Ramsay Snow, whereas going second normally gives juicier targets. It’s important to know who you are targeting in which match-up, eg Cressen in Bara is an ideal Ward target.

Once you have stolen some of their chuds, use military challenges to expose their biggies with Qhorin doing the best work but Greatjon good early game and Eddard just generally good. The deck relies on some Stealth to make sure you can win some challenges and trigger Qohor. There’s not much space for more than one answer to common problems so use your Milk, Craven and Frozen Solid wisely.

The two real gems of Qohor are firstly the positive 2 costers… Lady Forlorn or Old Bear’s Raven allow you to win one challenge, and swapping one for the other allows you to win a second challenge, then swap in Nymeria for surprise Intimidate. Nymeria only has one decent target in Eddard but it’s a really fun play. The second trick with Qohor is to load up a juicy non-loyal target with Turncloak and Reckless, then flip Jousting Contest. You can win the challenge, grab the character and then get rid of Turncloak with Qohor.

Once you’ve reduced your opponent’s board to their key characters then Marched to the Wall and Ramsay Snow are very painful for them, and actually beneficial for you if you have used Recruiter. Aemon is another option as they are faced with killing their own character with military claim or losing someone else by not making a military challenge (and the other Aemon isn’t needed). Yoren is there to deal with tricks to get characters back into play from the discard pile, though Flea Bottom really needs FroSo. Barring stops otherwise terminal problems like the Hound.

There is no specific win condition but Grand Melee is a plot I’ve never used before and slots in wonderfully here as, even if the opponent still has some big characters, you will probably have double the number or more so can push through unopposed challenges without giving up any going the other way.

Draw is terrible in this deck so I chose Siege Preparations over Coppers. Mag the Mighty is a luxury and probably a bad card in most decks but fits this one well.

I’ve made minor modifications on publishing of +1 Jade Sea Dromond for some location control and +1 Braavos (remember to trigger after stealing their character, not before) at the expense of 2 Underground Vaults but I’m not sure if I’ve got the economy mix right as Ocean Road and Great Hall are average. I welcome suggestions to improve the deck though I don’t have all the cards (I’ve got most of the premium sets but not the last two cycles).