The Reins of Castamere - Heavy Control 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

I think its time...

Plot deck justification:

1) Building Orders: The deck needs a tutor for the key locations, it is very unlikely that you’ll draw into all of them. Bran the Builder is too slow to work, and Building Orders can fetch you seized by the guard or milk of the poppy.

2) Time of Plenty: The primary choice of opener against Targaryen decks to play around naval superiority. The deck has very good filtering options but lacks actual card draw so a +1 draw is big. Also more summer traits in the plot deck is always good.

3) Late Summer Feast: Economy plot, a decent opener but gets shut down by naval. Giving away card draw in the first round is alright. If you don't need the extra gold open with Time of Plenty to be on the safer side.

4) Close Call: Best plot in the entire game. Even if you're not running duplicates I don't see how this card is not an autoinclude in almost all decks. It has the summer trait, sets up your discard pile for Flea Bottom, most of the time draws you 1 card and has a desirable gold and initiative value. (Mord is an important character so 0 initiative is very nice)

5) Valar m: With Bronn, the non-unique core and duplicated Harys/Tyrion valar m greatly helps you gain the upper hand.

6) Valar d: The deck cannot combat against duplicated bigs. Valar d simply gives you extra time to find a solution.

7) Mad king's Command: The ultimate reset of the game. No comments necessary.

S1) Expose Duplicity: Too good of a plot to leave out of the deck but too bad to play it every plot cycle.

S2) Filthy Accusation: goodstuff

S3) Power Behind the Throne: goodstuff

S4) Pointy End: A plot with an excellent text which makes the agenda relevant. Stats are too bad and would be too slow to play it during plot phase.

S5) Wildfire Assault: The deck is lacking proper resets so an extra one in the scheme deck is always nice, especially against NW builders. Can be changed with Forgotten Plans to deny siege preparations or with Spiders Web to strike at your opponents hand.

Game Plan:

Try to setup as many cards as possible but your first goal should be to setup economy. Try to avoid setting up casterly rock (its not the arbor youre not being rewarded for setting it up). Then try to win the game.

Characters:

Bronn with Harys can withstand military claim madness, even better if you have tyrion on board. Against 2+ claim choose bronn and tyrion and return bronn to hand to deny 2 claim.

Balerion is there to remove seized against Free companies matchups. Begging brother is always nice with casterly rock but because of the nature of this deck you wont be able to abuse them until very late game. Cersei's informer is here to filter hand while boosting iron bank (or bronn). Joffrey is a targeted kill and is one of the main targets for regents guard. pay 7 kill a character and put in regents guard but only when they need to be present on the board. Always keep your cards hidden in shadows until the very last second, the less your opponent knows what your gameplan is the more likely it is for them to fall into your small traps.

Lannisport merchant is only here to improve setup and the cost curve of the deck. Without the 1 cost character slot the deck performs really poorly. Mord is a more flexible milk of the poppy and to enable his ability the initiative values on the plots are rather low. Remember to use him before revealing a scheme as those have high values. Also remember that you can use mord during standing phase if you plan to reveal a high initiative plot next round.

Myrcella is a goodstuff card and fills the 2 cost slot. Penny does the same but also provides stealth which is very important. Podrick helps you breath against heavy aggro matchups but you wont play or use him in most matchups. Red Cloaks again fill the 2 cost slot, I also like their ability. Harys Swyft is a more versatile Casterly Rock and probably my favorite card in the deck, the backbone.

I think this deck is the only one out there that properly utilses Ser Kevan Lannister. I see people use him for discounting expensive locations but his main purpose in my opinion is to put back into play your answers (seized, milk, ashemark) or give you a second chance to put one off locations into play (such as iron throne, guildhall, tunnels of the red keep). He can be repeatable when paired with regents guard and is the secondary target for them after joffrey.

Mandon moore and robert strong have really strong kills effects. Set up mandon moore with myrcella or mad kings command. You can make them repeatable with regents guard, and if you need the board presence do just that. Hound is your main draw card. Put him into play with flea bottom and discard him with gold mines to effectively draw cards each round. Finally varys is the new addition, he doesnt deny risen from sea so not super good but you can deny certain jumper strategies with him and the cheap stealth with the intrigue icon is very valuable for the agenda.

Attachments:

Pinch: useable because of core tyrion, if you decide to use the balckwater version (which enables other ridiculous combos) then switch this out. Important to note that shadows tyrion helps you late game while core version helps you contest early game.

Milk of the Poppy: Could be 2 copies if you cut red cloaks. I had teched these in during the martell aloof meta with the broken doran but now that deck isnt around anymore. Should you take a chance when going into competitive play tho, probably not.

Seized by the guard: Decent location control is rare outside of greyjoy but seized is excellent. you might be wondering why not pyromancers cache instead and the answer is the draw it provides. You wont have many locations yourself so wont be able to use the cache on your locations and giving away card draw is terrible.

Events:

Hands Judgement: answers to events are non-existent so this stays in the deck.

Treachery: only here to cancel bodyguard triggers against Stark Fealty.

Locations:

guildhall: super strong control card, useless against shadow decks but tunnels of the red keep turns it into a +1 strength in those scenarios.

ashemark: a terrible card in 50% of the matchups and a game winning card in the other 50%. The hand filtering should help out with the former case.

casterly rock: the staple card of the deck, you can win the game without it as long as you have harys on the board but marshaling the rock will change which side is having fun during the matchup.

flea bottom: usless against targ matchups so remember to dont rely on it. In other matchups it is solid. Set up your discard pile during the early rounds but try to avoid discarding begging bro or varys, you'll need them.

gold mine: hand filtering + non-limited economy

iron bank: bestow synergy + non-limited economy

iron throne: against greyjoy remember to deny risen, raiding the bay of ice and we do not sow, against stark deny frozen solid, against non clansman lannister deny the cache.

tunnel of the red keep: having fewer cards on board isnt terrible when they can all get +4 strength.

western fiefdom: can me marshaled and used immediately and can hold gold bestowed by the rock so its better than neutral options.

I'll probably update this later with specific matchup tips.

Matchup tips (update 1.0):

1)Targaryen

Burn (normal): Not all targaryen burn decks open with naval superiority but I highly suggest you go with time of plenty as your opener. You will be up against many small characters, one version of danny and probably the 6 cost drogon. Ashemark is really good in this matchup but you'll need to have an already established economy because investing 6 gold for 0 board presence is expensive. Slowly build up your economy, if they have gold during challenges try to not participate in any of them. utilise varys and the iron throne to deny burn cards but most importantly deny the merrense market if able as it shuts down your flea bottom setup. Once you see your tunnels you have effectively shut down their game plan so it should be a comfortable experience for you. If you need to deny unopposed challenges make bronn taller and just yolo the hound into them since close call brings him back to where you want him if your opponent somehow manages to reduce him to 0.

Burn (kings of summer hyper draw): Basically same type of gameplan with normal burn but targaryen uses hand discard as an in-faction cost and this deck aims to mitigate the drawback. It is not easy to play against a burn player who has a full hand of 8-10 cards each round and this is where mad kings command really shines. Delay it as much as possible (dont play it as your 7th plot because of how plot cycles work) and hit their hand and board at the same time. Until you reset with mkc you will have to outsmart your opponent over the board otherwise they'll be in too good of a position. Control archetype allows absolutely no room for mistakes and a good player will simply win the game even if you only mess up a very small interaction.

Dothraki: The certified unga bunga archetype of thrones. You will either need bronn + harys/tyrion, podrick or play with no characters in the early rounds as you'll be hit with 6 or more military claim each round. Once you blank their key locations (womb and plaza of pride) the deck completely falls apart. Dothraki has access to two very broken events which you might not be able to save the gold to cancel so try to utilise your varys and iron throne to deny these.

Bestow Mercaneries: targaryen version of the bestow archetype is more about greed than control. It plays flashy cards and while each of them are very strong you can simply stall the game until you fully reset their board. Seized is a problem in this matchup so deny it with varys/throne or play out your balerion to quickly get rid of it.

will continue with other house...