Knights of the Sunflower 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

First off, this deck needs more testing and hopefully should have some better feedback after just a couple of games on OCTGN. In the meantime criticism and suggestions are more than welcome. Secondly, I am no expert or pro - just trying to do a bit of a write-up so the actual experts and pros can clear up the thinking.

I was initially interested primarily in building a Martell fealty deck with the release of Nymeria Sand. However, as I was building the deck realised that Banner of the Rose presented some interesting additional options.

Why Banner of the Rose?

Good:

• Arbor Knight and Garden Caretaker are solid low cost fills.
• Lady Sansa's Rose works with Arbor Knight, The Knight of Flowers and House Dayne Knight giving me some more surprise options for the late game - apart from Doran's Game.
• Olenna's Informant is a nice bounce/drop for Arianne Martell.
• Margaery Tyrell is great at 3 and can make all the potential difference for a late game Doran's Game and/or Lady Sansa's Rose.
• The Knight of Flowers and Randyll Tarly gives me renown and fairly solid potential finishers.

Bad:

• Nothing to help with draw.
• The big hitters are potentially vulnerable to Tears of Lys and without a lot of duplicates other removal, although that is not a banner issue.

What about Martell as the main House?

Good:

• Straight off the bat - Nymeria Sand is the single biggest reasons to try this deck. If you don't see her early or at all - it can eventually get tough.
• The icon manipulation from Nymeria Sand, Edric Dayne, Maester Caleotte and Confinement is the House's obvious strength and with the added threat from Lady Sansa's Rose is key to the strategy of making powerful and impactful strategic snipes.
• Arianne Martell allows for extra tricks and is essentially a stand.
• The Martell curve without The Red Viper and Doran Martell between 1, 2, 3 and 5 is pretty strong in terms of good solid cards that you don't really need the bigger hitters. They all offer something useful and decent icon spread.
• Ghaston Grey and Sunspear are good locations.

Neutrals:

• Not much to say here apart from perhaps the Little Birds that provide protection for the heavies from the Rose Banner, but is also a good additional icon target for cards like Areo Hotah.
• There could be room for Seal of the Hand at the cost of some events.

SWOT:

Being no pro at aGoT this is my take:

S: Overall the setups for this deck has been fairly good with enough low cost characters. The icon manipulation can keep you alive long enough, there is enough claim soak and enough impact / trickery cards to create opportunities and openings. As an added benefit there is renown available and options to deal with big characters across the table.

O: Through Nymeria Sand and icon manipulation to make a mid-late game impact with Doran's Game and Lady Sansa's Rose. There is also enough opportunities to land a Tears of Lys along the same lines to deal with powerful characters across the board. In general for now in the environment there is not much to deny opportunities - but see the threats.

W: Draw, draw and draw. This might be the biggest problem for this deck. Potential solution is to switch House and Banner; but that would be giving up on Martell as a main House. Alternatively Counting Coppers, Trading with the Pentoshi and The Long Plan are all option that could and should probably be considered as a potential plot adjustment.

No Varys. Initially the deck had no Wildfire Assault, but I found in the games that I played it is required. The deck with the current plots can be fairly resilient, but eventually with no resets your icon manipulation and str boosts are not enough and you might not be able to pull of the big play in mid-late game window. I had more than one game where I never felt out of it - until the late game where they had enough characters on the board that, that became the biggest problem for landing impact plays.

No Milk of the Poppy can be a weakness if you don't get your icon manipulation cards - so again - draw, draw, draw...Maybe 1 more Greenblood Trader should go in...

T: The biggest threat out there so far for the deck that I have encountered in limited play testing is Lannister hand manipulation. Maybe it was just that specific day - but there is a lot of Lannister out there and Tyrion Lannister, Cersei Lannister, Wardens of the West and Casterly Rock can be deadly early on - especially because of draw, draw, draw...

Nymeria getting Milk of the Poppy is also a big threat so is the usual Dracarys!.

Conclusion:

In the end this deck probably needs more draw - before everything else. Nothing you can do for now with this House/Banner combo apart from Greenblood Trader and Counting Coppers.

Not seeing Nymeria and icon manipulation can make things hard, especially against repeated intrigue challenges (Lanni decks), but the deck is fairly resilient into mid/late game with its claim soak and low cost characters with impact, providing you get your combos and can keep the board manageable.

I have not tested a lot against Greyjoy, Bara and Targ - so much Lannister out there - but assume it would make you think again about Syrio Forel and Seal of the Hand which I had in at other times and is probably meta depended.