Tattered Loyalty

"My ragged raiment? A poor thing … yet those tatters fill my foes with fear, and on the battlefield the sight of my rags blowing in the wind emboldens my men more than any banner. And if I want to move unseen, I need only slip it off to become plain and unremarkable." ~ The Tattered Prince, ADwD

"I'm loyal to Martell, and I'm loyal to Battle of the Trident, but these cards ain't loyal" ~ Me, 2024

The Agenda

Battle of the Trident

Those who know me know my love for this agenda, or more specifically the unique level of gameplay it provides. It brings plots out of the binder, it makes your opponent say "sorry what does that agenda do again?", and overall gives you experiences that I feel no other agenda currently provides. As a refresher, it allows you to reveal plots after claim for attacking Army or Commander characters, with the plot Trait being based on the challenge type won. The major downside is that you are limited to only 10 War, Edict or Siege plots, barring you from high economy plots like Late Summer Feast or Trading with the Pentoshi, and resets like Valar Morghulis or Valar Dohaeris.

The key to a good Trident deck is to find the most efficient way to combat its downsides; be it low-cost curves, or pairing aggression with the few resets you do have available to you - both of which I feel I achieved with this version alongside a useful non-loyal package. Due to this, your plots do not need to focus on helping get characters on the board (Reinforcements & Manning the City Walls) and can instead focus on well-needed utility.

The Plots

When your entire agenda is based around revealing plots, you need to make sure you reveal the right plots at right time, be it in the plots phase (naturally) or the challenges phase. To make things simple, I will split up those which are to be revealed regularly verses those to be revealed with the agenda, with overlaps noted.

Regular Plots

• The Father - In almost all scenarios this plot is your opener as it provides you with a healthy amount of income for turn 1, and early pressure against an opponents high-cost unique "bomb" characters. You can remove a duplicate from a bomb, bounce a bomb to hand, disincentivise your opponent from playing a bomb, and worst case can be flipped out for better reserve with BotT - whichever way you take it, it provides you early econ and immediately turns up the heat for your opponent. You can consider not opening this if your opponent has no characters, and/or you have decent economy by turn 1. Note: You have plenty of characters to make the trade worthwhile, such as The Tattered Prince who returns to shadows anyway, Old Bill Bone who can be reused again or Jalabhar Xho who may be stolen next turn. Additionally it is incentivised to marshal/play as much as you can this round, as the low reserve can hurt with passive play.
• Heads on Spikes - This is an early aggression tool to thin your opponent's hand and, hopefully, grant you power & a "killed" character. It's extra useful if you see their hand for your odds with Ghost of High Heart in a previous turn, or have recently bounced a character with The Father. Note: This plot can also be used as an opener if The Father really does not work.
• Battle of the Camps - The high initiative helps you go first, the ability adds further board control alongside your Hosts, and primes you to either win a bunch of unopposed challenges, devastate with a 3 claim follow-up, or flip into a fully drawn hand. Worst case, 5 reserve is fine to be stuck with if there is nothing useful to flip into, and your opponent cries with no standing characters.
• Duel - Decent initiative for the mid-game & a potentially round-defining ability, and is generally a safe "do nothing" plot if you suspect no bombs in their deck. It can also be used with your agenda as a surprise kneel/kill when the situation arises. Note: If you are doing this during the challenges phase, remember that they cannot choose to kneel an already-knelt bomb, so they will be forced to kill whichever one is not knelt. You can sometimes use this to your advantage.
• The Mad King's Command - With great initiative and a board-wipe, this reset has taken the crown as one of the MVP's of this deck. Importantly, because this reduces the character board to 3 after marshalling, you can crush your opponent with intimidate or high claim, and generally use characters like Windblown, Tatters or Desert Raider, or in many cases with Meadowlark on the board to fetch a wider range of characters. Note: You need to plan ahead with this to ensure you have the better outcome; you will rarely have stronger single characters, but if you control their strong characters (eg. Milk/Nightmares) and can add to the board post-MKC, then you're golden.
• Wildfire Assault - Similar to the above, this plot grants a little more initiative for a similar board wipe usually (but not exclusively) during the plot phase and/or gives you a great reason to kill your Daughter or Raider.
• The Pointy End - This is a plot that provides utility that helps against rush, and supports your board control strategy by making important characters more vulnerable. Note: This is also a great option for Trident if you have nothing else to flip & see the benefits.

Better with Trident

• At Prince Doran's Behest - It shocks me that there are still players out there who are surprised about this, but saving this plot exclusively for Trident essentially turns any win into revealing any plot of your choice. It allows you to apply 3 with Desperate Attack, or to get past an opponent successfully defending an important War or Siege trigger (such as Siege Preparations, Duel, The Pointy End). Note: Be careful as you do not want Behest to be your last plot, as you cannot flip into a new plot whilst there are no plots in your plot deck. You WILL be left with Behest if you do not think ahead, so keep that in mind!
• Siege Preparations - All trident players know that this is an invaluable plot to recover a full hand of cards which, in many cases, can completely save your game. Synergises especially well with your reserve boost locations, and helps you refill after vomiting out cheap characters. Note: If you have The Hollow Hill in play, trigger it after this plot to give you the best cards possible, and discard 1 for reserve.
• Desperate Attack - Possibly the most unique element of this deck is your ability to utilise this plot without any downsides. Within trident, it provides you a healthy 3 claim or ; but within it also provides you with 3 claim thanks to Behest. As mentioned throughout this guide, this plot has many interactions you should consider, and ultimately is your most impactful play of the game for a dual combination of board control (), hand control (), or rushing for the win (). Note: If you are not the second player, make sure that you can take the hit from your opponent afterwards, as their claim will be raised by 1.

The Deck

The draw deck adopts a non-loyal strategy which conveniently provides more value out of your cheap characters with STR pump, as well as both hand control & draw. Some cards in this deck are more useful than others, some are essential, and others are just plain fun to play.

Useful/Essential Cards

Characters

• Host of the Boneway - This is the best non-unique Army currently in the game, and it shines in this deck. The high STR on or is great for Trident or Doran's Game, and intimidate is fantastic for board presence alongside easy stand. Note: Squires make this very affordable, so keep them in play if you draw any hosts.
• Windblown - An obviously good choice, and possibly the second best non-unique Army in the game currently which provides stand to most impactful cards in this deck, such as Tatters with renown or Boneway with intimidate.
• Ghost of High Heart - With only non-loyal characters in this deck, she is extremely important with providing STR pump to all your chuds (and intimidating armies), and providing unmatched hand knowledge & control. Really brings the deck together - keep her alive if you can!
• The Tattered Prince - I frequently talk about this card, and how you can turn his downside into an opportunity; a natural Commander, he is a tri-con for Trident, an easy target for Shiny Axe and his forced interrupt can be used alongside your agenda triggers to either bring him back into play (for 2 gold), or keep him safe in shadows for the next plot phase.
• Bastard Daughter - You might be thinking these look a little out of place in this deck, however a weakness I would frequently find is when my opponent finds better strength, especially early on. Therefore these cheeky bastards add wanted control by either preventing claim or thinning their hand - both good outcomes for me. Additionally, an easy target for losing with choosing.

Attachments

• Hotah's Axe - Who doesn't love a free +3 STR? Primary targets for this card are Tatty & his Windy, but even marshalling this for 2 gold on someone like Angy won't do you wrong; always a useful draw.
• Vanguard Leader - Who doesn't love a free +1 STR? No seriously, that alone is surprisingly useful as a bare minimum, and with so many cheap unique characters in this deck it's rarely being wasted... and that's without mentioning it provides the Commander trait to superb targets like Anguy (for multiple challenges) or Edric (for stealth and any icon).

Locations

• Meadowlark - With so many useful cheap characters in the deck, this location does not even need to be in play for long to gain value; some easy fetches are Ghost, Anguy, Jalabhar, Edric, Windblown and Willam.
• The Hollow Hill - This card may as well be "if you remember to trigger me, search the top 10 cards of your deck to find your best character"; there is never a scenario where this location isn't useful and, unless you're extremely tight on economy, always get it into play early to find your key pieces. All characters in this deck are non-loyal, and you can simply fetch the best one for your situation.

Events

• Choosing the Spear - An essential card in providing board aggression in challenges where you are almost certain you'll win - or worst case, you kill a Bastard or Raider. Nobody expects this card, and rarely think of a surprise claim raise within - catch your opponent with their pants down, especially after a reset like MKC.
• Doran's Game (R) - The second and most obvious win condition of this deck - you'll usually be gaining 3-5 power with this if you play your cards right, even if your opponent expects it. Note: Ghost of High Heart can be absolutely vital with ensuring your opponent has no cancels like The Hand's Judgment prior to triggering this event.
• Nightmares - There is rarely a scenario where this card isn't useful, and it proved itself to be essential in ensuring I kept control on my opponent's board-state; there are many impactful character and locations roaming about, so finding these is always welcome.

Wombo Combos

• Windblown + Host of the Boneway - The bread & butter combo to make your opponent cry. Note: There are obviously many good targets for Windblown, but this is usually the best - Tatters is a close second.
• King's Landing Mob + Windblown - On its own, the sickly mob are a great solution to choke your opponent's locations and/or economy, however your opponents can usually see it coming after you declare them as an attacker, and thus, may over-commit to prevent location damage. In these scenarios the specific wording of the mob means that, when your Windings enter play from the top ropes & win the next challenge, they can kneel the actual target location and allow the mob to trigger on that assault rather than its own. This happened twice at worlds, which was a pleasant but planned surprise!
• Meadowlark + Battle of the Trident/At Prince Doran's Behest - Triggering this card once a phase is for chumps; thanks to your agenda and your only plot, you can potentially trigger this multiple times a round to accelerate your fetching capabilities.
• Vanguard Leader + Anguy the Archer/Edric Dayne (Core)/Jalabhar Xho - This attachment allows challenge-useful characters to contribute towards your agenda as Commander's, alongside a +1 STR. Notably these three characters provide special benefits for those challenges; Anguy's non-kneeling, Edric's stealth and icon versatility, and Jalabhar's high STR and icons all help with winning Trident challenges.
• Quentyn Martell (WotN) + Duel - It can get quite frustrating when your opponent holds with a single bomb for most the game, and you're waiting for another to start a duel of the fates. With bad Quentyn, you can force your opponent into a bad scenario by either killing their bomb and kneeling Quentyn, or kneeling their bomb and killing Quentyn, allowing you to kill another character in turn. Note: Ghost, Vanguard and Quentyn provide STR pump to kill bigger targets, and Squire makes him affordable.

Important Tips

Low-Costs? Low Worries!

One major downside of Trident is your lack of high economy plots, thus causing major issues when your economy locations simply don't show up. This deck attempts to solve that with a decent range of low-cost characters, with Squire's to reduce the larger ones. There are also methods to build your hand back up through Dorne, Hollow Hill & Siege Prep, so spilling your hand onto the board early on is generally a viable strategy to maintain board control, especially when considering The Father's low reserve. I wouldn't recommend doing so however if you have no draw cards & don't think you can win a for Siege.

Controlled Aggression

This deck rewards aggression when the time is right. If you find tools early to apply board pressure, such as good icons and Choosing the Spear, then don't be afraid to be aggressive to set your opponent behind early. Otherwise it might be smarter to use your utility plots to control the game, or your control cards to bide some time until you find some game winning cards. Know when you can be aggressive and know when you need to control - master that, and you will master the match.

Siege the initiative

You have quite a few high-initiative plots (and Kingsroad) at your disposal, and deciding when to go first or when to go second can be extremely important. Generally on Mad King, Wildfire or Camping rounds you want to go first & apply pressure, but in other scenarios going second is simply better as it provides opportunity to Drug a bomb, or get Desperate with no drawback. Save those high initiative plots for the rounds where you can do some damage with them, likely in the mid-late game - this is extremely important, as going second on an important round can cost you the game.

Supercharged, or Superf**ked

This is a phenomenon exclusive to which I outlined in my last published deck, and is still relevant here; after revealing your second last plot (either naturally or with your agenda), all of your removed plots will immediately enter your used pile, granting both a minimum of 7 used plots (for Boneway & D-mans Game), and affecting Tatters in a funky way; because his Forced Reaction triggers on plots entering your used pile, he will be forced into shadows for each plot you removed from the game, immediately after revealing. This happens prior to any When Revealed abilities, meaning he can be safe from an incoming reset, or can chew away at any gold or duplicates on him to keep him in play. Just remember this exists, so you are not caught by surprise by a clever player, judge or TheIronThrone.

Weaknesses/Counters

Battle of the Downsides

Early on I mention that this deck was designed to combat the lack of economy & reset plots you have access to due to Battle of the Trident's downside - extending from this, an opponent who knows the card-pool can narrow down your viable choices in what to flip, which can sometimes make you predictable. There isn't necessarily a way to combat this, but being aware of this against a smart player may help you predict their next move. For example, if your opponent has 2 bombs in play, they may assume your next natural plot reveal will be Duel & attempt to cancel it with their own plot. Therefore, saving that Duel for a Trident trigger instead can significantly narrow their choices to counter, as there are few non-plot cards that can counter other plots. Note: Forgotten Plans can cancel any Trident triggers, as your new plot will be blanked.

Crossing the wrong deck

Naturally this deck struggles against rush, specifically those which can win within the first few turns. Cards like Pointy, Raider, Ghost, Willam, Milk and Nightmares can help slow things down, and some surprise STR like Tatters + Axe can prevent important challenges being won. If you see Crossing, control their board as soon as possible to prevent challenges and be smart with your two reset plots.

Low Control breaks your Soul

This deck can also struggle against chud control, such as First Snow or burn, due to your wide range of low cost characters. Ghost, Vanguard & Axe can help negate burn, and cards like Tatters & Windblown can return to shadows to avoid being reset by First Snow or a bad MKC, and always consider keeping Desert Raider in your dead pile if you smell a reset coming.

Stahleck/Worlds 2024

Click here for the tournament results

Spending lots of money & flying 20+ hours to get to Bacharach, Germany from Sydney, Australia to participate in this tournament adds a level of euphoria to the day; I was mostly just happy to be there, and did not worry as much about actually winning and more about having fun. Conveniently I did better than my Stahleck 2022 showing (also with another version of BotT), but this time around I enjoyed each game more because of the lovely discussions and friendliness of each opponent. It really makes me want to come back, and I hope I can sometime in the future... if money allows. I also have left this report fairly late (been extremely busy since we got back), so my recollection of each game is extremely fuzzy - apologies to any of my opponents if I misremembered something; welcome to correct me in the comments! :)

Game 1 (WIN): vs The Lord of the Crossing (Agata)

Starting off the tournament against a counter deck was not ideal, but I am glad I passed it to prove the deck can still work against rush. Choosing the Spear on turn 1 caught them off-guard, encouraging them to marshal out their whole hand in fears of another. This allowed me to follow-up with The Mad King's Command and Desperate Attack in the mid-game with few character in their hand. Ghost of High Heart early also prevented some important cards from being played, like Lady Sansa's Rose, which in hind-sight saved my game. Regardless of my dominance, the game ended extremely close with (I think) 14 vs 15.

Game 2 (WIN): vs Banner of the Wolf (Maximilian.proud)

I found Ghost of High Heart early again, which was a blessing as it revealed the plans for his deck fairly early with some sacrifice & Saved by the Watch. Luckily for me I was able to keep control for most of this game, and tried to keep the board filled with "No Attachment" Armys to prevent Saved from working in his favour. I believe I just won right as the tides were turning his way!

Game 3 (LOSS): vs The Brotherhood Without Banners (Martozar)

The game did not start off so well with some poor draw, however an early Ghost of High Heart with Vanguard Leader on her gave me some options for the agenda, specifically through Behest. Unfortunately, I fell for a Moon Door trap when he used his own Stony Shore Raider to kneel the location & kill Ghost upon attacking. From this point on I was simply trying to catch up, and did some damage - however his insight from TBwB & generally good top-decking had flooded the board with characters each round, regardless of my control. A deserved loss to a great deck builder & player, against a card I designed!

Game 4 (WIN): vs "The Rains of Castamere" (Werner Wißpeintner)

Although I was not aware of it until after, this game was against the marvellous 2nd place from last years Stahleck tournament. Regardless, I felt confident I had many tools to deal with his important characters, with Duel, Heads on Spikes, Milk of the Poppy and Nightmares all doing some major work. The game was still incredibly close, and a Desperate play for 3 claim only just gave me the win. Well played regardless, even though I believe he missed an Arbor Marketplace trigger that could have won an important game-ending challenge.

Game 5 (WIN): vs Trading With Qohor (Francisco Gobantes)

It was a pleasure to fight against my favourite loyalist, and prove to him that orange simply looks better than green. I believe I got lucky early, as he found almost all the economy he could need, but not many attachments for Qohor. Meanwhile I found enough Army cards to keep my options open, and the game was generally straightforward from there. Duel and Milk of the Poppy helped again here, as I expected it would against . I believe the initiative game was incredibly important for this one, and I managed to win most rounds & go first to control his board prior to being able to do any damage back to me.

Game 6 (LOSS): vs Aloof and Apart (Zuzana K.)

This was a matchup definitely in my favour, with cards like The Father returning a big Dragon to hand, Duel for control (both granting prized power with Aloof), Milk for Daenerys and decent hand control to prevent key events. I remember having great control over the board, and decent control of their hand, forcing her to rely on top-decking. Unfortunately for me, the top-decking gods were in her favor and I kept seeing bombs appear each round without additional draw, and I fell behind when she drew into Barristan with a duplicate in the last round. Regardless of this, Zuzana was an amazing player and honestly a complete joy to play against - I really enjoyed this game, despite the loss!

Game 7 (WIN): vs The House With the Red Door (Aljosha)

With being 1 loss away from not making the top cut, and with me losing my bag containing my deck (found by my opponent), I came into this game a bit stressed & sweating. Luckily for me, Aljosha was an absolute joy to play against and we just had loads of fun chatting as we played. Turns out he was a fan of my previous trident deck and thus was trying to remember that deck to combat this one. This version of the deck is quite different to that of 2 years ago and I believe that fact may have helped me, as he did not expect some of the tech I pulled out, such as Choosing the Spear or The Father. Similar to the last game, his deck contained Daenerys and her big dragons, and I had tools to deal with it. Regardless it was still very close, but got lucky with good draw & Ghost removing some key events. Was a pleasure to play with him, and he even let me trigger Meadowlark after the plots phase - what a legend!

Game 8 (LOSS): vs The Lord of the Crossing (ricard.murillo)

Looking back, it felt like this tournament went full circle; starting against rush, and ending with rush. Unfortunately for me, he found Tywin Lannister with a duplicate early, and other cards like Myrcella Baratheon & Grand Maester Pycelle for an explosive start. I did make two notable mistakes which, in hindsight, probably cost me the game: I mistook this Myrcella for the new Myrcella, and I used The Father to remove a duplicate from Tywin Lannister in round 1, rather than bouncing someone like Pycelle back to hand to slow him down, as Pointy End would naturally deal with the duplicate & power later on. I had just hit my power spike right as he took the win, and I believe some slightly better play could have pushed me into the cut and win best , a title given to the very talented Francesco Cirilli. Extremely well-played game regardless, and a deserved win from Ricard!

Although it was a shame that I did not make the top cut, I believe this deck performed exceptionally well in a moment where clearly didn't perform so well (with 0 decks making the top cut). I loved the tournament, I loved the company, and I loved the overall experience - thanks for the great time Germany!

Closing Remarks

Those who know me understand my love for this deck, playing it since Battle of the Trident's release so many years ago, and even though I was initially considering a Alliance for Stahleck (prior to recent legality updates), I am really happy with how this non-loyal, low-cost take on the deck turned out as it provides a simple way to combat the economy downsides and eases the reliance on key cards like Host of the Boneway & Doran's Game.

Looking forward, I am excited to see what we have in store for future releases, such as Ghost Hill Elite in or Battle Beneath the Wall in plots within the latest Sea of Shadows cycle.

I highly recommend people give this deck a go as lots of thought, love, and experience has gone into it; a player better than myself could likely bring it far in a major tournament, as I am fairly mediocre but managed to get 36th at worlds 2024. Happy to answer any questions or suggestions in the comments below, and thanks for reading!