Stahleck Cut 2023 - House Uller built on Sand 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This deck got me into Stahleck Cut this year so I decided to share it as I did with my last such deck back in 2016. I am quite a casual player, I hardly play competitively so I did not test the deck as much as it supposed to. I am open to any suggestions in the comments.

The deck is nothing fancy really, I admit I was quite lucky several times during the Swiss so I am happy that I could exit the tournament with such manner in the cut we played with Alex that we later called the Martell Civil War.

The idea

I played several nasty small char Martell decks during the years based on 2x Retalliation or 2x Marched or even both twice with Wars so I was familiar with the basic drills for decks like this. But I wanted to play Sand Snakes several times during the years and I saw that they got some support lately thanks to G.O.T. My problem was that I was always one Bastard short for triggering the Red Viper or missing one Sand Snake for bouncing the best char with Dorea. What should I do? Luckily during the 8 Regents Tournament the guys in the Tyrell team showed me this magnificent agenda called MFG so I was like let's try this to amend my shortcomings in traits. I was planning surprise triggers on Elia, the Red Viper triggering himself and Dorea cleaning the best chars of the board during challange phase with Lord Uller. So I just built a bit Nedly deck with all the Sand Snakes, Harmen Uller, the Red Viper, and Ellaria so basicaly everybody belonging this branch of the family. I filled up the remaining card slots with some ambush fun using the other benefit of the agenda.

The deck failed badly during the Hungarian Nationals so I was disappointed. Anyway I brought the deck to Stahleck with some minor modifications.

Plots

No Kingdom plots hurts the eco badly so I was hesitant on my eco plot between Plenty and Harvest. I went with latter despite the risks. The Retalliation and the Marched is a must in a deck like this for me, also it was my bad that I skipped Valar in my deck during the Hungarian Nationals. I thought First snow and claim tricks would handle the opponent's wide boards and I was wrong on that. The First Snow is also a good tool with Lord Uller and the plenty of 4-cost chars. The Father is a great plot with Valar coming next and also I can get back Dorea to my hand for further tricks, and it was also my second eco plot for midgame. I know that the deck lacks drawing badly but I went with Close Call anyway instead of Siege prep or Coppers, I just felt I have too many uniques in the deck that can hurt in a longer game.

Chars

Partly covered this part above. I just chose the best Sand Snakes available at this moment. Maybe the most unusual thing is that I play with 3x Lord Uller but it was wonderful to ambush Dorea for free or the bigger girls for 2 gold. The non-unique Sand Snakes are only for military claim, Elia is there for some claim pressure either military or even intrigue if I felt Valar was coming on the opponent's side. I guess many can question my Ellaria in the deck, but I just like the art and the Viper needs his paramour, so I guess that's more than enough to justify her presence at her father's side. She also has a power icon that is very helpful in Martell decks according to my experience. The ambush package besides Harmen is mainly the 3-cost Spy but Areo had his moments but he usually came from Obara.

According to my lastest experience I would definetely put in 3x Dorea now. I must mention that Harmen had much more impact in games than the Viper had. I was also thinking squeezing in one Arys for some Ally discard trick with the agenda but I doubt I would have the eco for that.

Attachments

At first I went for 2-2-2 with icon strips and maybe I had bodyguard in the first versions of the deck for the big guys. I just switched one Condemned to one Sweetsleep for defending Harmen from Milk. The Lance was included mainly for its cheap ambush cost but it was a nice option for some tricky plays. Maybe I should have squeezed in some Scorpions like my fellow Martell players did.

Locations

Not much to discuss regarding the eco, I went with 10 limiteds because of the lack of kingdom plots. I have to mention Bookerman though, who gave a brief insight to my deck at 2am before the joust after the CCG Cube Draft and suggested to go with 3x Kingsroad instead of Summer Sea Port. That was a great suggestion and probably saved a lot of games for me. It was funny to realize he is playing Sand Snakes as well.

If I would change anything I would definetely go for 3x Brimstone since it had such a huge impact during the tournament. The Flea bottom went down to 1x after the Nationals, although back then I had a Broken Man in the deck to discard it for a new one. Also it was nice to have a Flea Bottom once I got my Brimstone Sieged with enough money left to bestow it.

Events

Well I usually go with 3x Vengeance in decks like this. If anyone played against me probably saw my house card with Elia Martell, and I kinda embrace the vengeance story built around her. The funny thing is I saw the card probably twice or three times during 9 games. Many of my games went slowly after I could not hold grip of the opponent with claim/first snow/attachments so maybe I should have gone with more finisher.

Stars:

Lord Uller: He was like an eco plot that I did not have. Ambushing chars in almost every game, collecting renown, beating the Viper in every aspect.

Brimstone: I knew it is great but did not know it is that great. I mean saving my chars before Valars. Ambushing Dorea for free then ambush again with the 1 gold I got from Brimstone. Also the +1 STR was a difference in several challanges as well.

Obara: Got her in every game I think, she was going in and out all day long, luckily I missed the hard-cancel decks.

Fails:

-The deck could not perform its main purpose that I kinda control and hold grip of my opponent's board. Usually they could escape the extra claims and played around the icon strips so I had to attack hands more than I intented and I was winning the games very slowly if I even could.

-The lack of draws (only Nym and River Gate) sometimes showed its burden. I cycled my chars with Obara-Brimstone-Harmen a lot and was hardly low on cards in hand but still I admit that the deck needs more draw instead of some pressure cards.

Best moment:

I don't want to sound cheesy but the moment I was eliminated. I was so excited that maybe I can get into top16 this time. Alex already cancelled my First snow with SAT. I was attacking carefully, previously killing my Tyene for having stealth for the last intrigue rush with Harmen and the Sand Snakes stealthing his Viper. Alex defended with a small maester boosted with PP to oppose my +5 STR win, but I ambushed Dorea and returned the defender to his hand. I was so close with an unopposed Doran's game on my 12 powers I had, but he had another SAT. The Sand Snake rebellion was crushed by the true Lords and Ladies of Dorne because Doran knew, somebody have told him. Alex retalliated with a Scorpion's sting and To the spears so I bent the knee.

Thank you guys for reading this description. It was a long ago that I prepared something like this so I appreciate your time if you spent reading it. Feel free to make suggestions in the comments!

Jamie the House Dayne Knight