Lannistag Power Control 1.0

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Long read incoming, not for faint of heart/idiots who don't like deck explanations.

So at first I was running Baratheon with Banner of the Lion, but then I look at Bara cards and realized, 'oh hey, literally all the best cards in the game are bannerable' (it's a word, trust me). So now I'm playing a much stronger deck that doesn't lose much.

What's it do, doe? Idea here is hand/power control and just stalling the board out until you can either win the game off a wildfire'd Joffrey or until your board is just so big that their stealth and/or strength isn't really an issue anymore.

Can struggle against a really strong early Kraken or Targ (or Stark - fuck off Michael, stop winning with it.) start, but the relative lack of military isn't actually a huge deal, and here's why (in order of importance/magnitude/BaraBullshit):

1. Bara Kneeling Bullshit (BKB, for the Dota fans): playing against an early aggro deck? #1 reason that Mel on setup is FIIIINE. Naturally, setup is very important against these decks because being able to have a response on turn one against the Mil aggro is pretty vital to stop the snow-balling, and this is one way to handle it - now you can drop a cheap fieryFo or SeenIn on turn 1 along with Jaime or Tywin, or whatever else. Win Win.

2. Filthy Accusations - Yep, only running one - I know, shocking, but why run 2 when I have a built-in FA with Mel 'n the Kneely Bunch? Playing a turn one FA tends to be pretty unsuspected, and in a lannister goldmine deck, you can afford the early tempo hit if you've got a decent setup - here we're probably looking at a reducer or two + kings/rose + LanniLord/Lady or a few mid-range chompers as the ideal setup for a Filthy A start.

3. Tyrion Lannister: Yes, the short little fuck with no mil icon. He's literally the best. All you got is int and pow after setup? aww man, if only we could deal with their military...oh wait, we just played HeadsOnSpikes to take initiative and we have Tears and/or Things... in hand?! Man, I guess we just win now. Because that's actually how good Tyrion is, and everyone is afraid of him for that reason.

Plots - Literally the most imporant part of 2.0, in my opinion. So I'm still not 100% on the make-up of these, but I think it's close. I went through a couple different variations with AGoT and Marched and only 1 NobleC, but here's why I came back to this setup:

Just by the nature of the deck, the cards you keep/have on board tend to be singularly very strong cards (Tyrion, Tywin, Cersei, Jaime, Mel, etc.), so your board usually ends up being an attractive Marched target, and doing some of that work FOR your opponent is...less than ideal.

The above is a reason is why we play two NobleC's. Strong and numerous are the lords and ladies of Westeros, in this deck, so being able to boost them into play is great. Against a lot of decks, playing second is fine on turn 1 and 3(more often 4, I find) if it gets you a Jaime and a Tywin in play to defend/ramp.

Now the primary reason for NOT running two NobleC's, and the reason I keep flip-flopping on how many I'm running: Game of Thrones is great in this deck, for obvious reasons, but having the initiative in this deck is great. It nets you two gold against the milk your opponent is going to play on Tywin, it forces them to make a tough deployment decision to answer the fact that you just kneeled Drogo with a Rhllor card, it lets you force them to decide between dom+painted table and a successful challenge as player 2, etc. etc. etc. etc. Seriously, initiative is that good here, and both 3 and 0 are not great ways of winning it.

Alternative plot considerations:

-NobleC
-HeadsOn (only would consider this if I'm swapping it for an effectively-2claim plot - WoW/SoS/Sneak/etc.)

+Game o Trones /
+Winds of Winter /
+Storm of Swords (too unreliable, imo, even with Jaime) /
+Calling Banners /
+Rebuilding /
+Naval Superiority (HEAR ME OUT, I think it's playable in the ever-rich Lannister deck)

Cards

+1 Cressen -1 Littlefinger is a consideration, as the gold is not necessarily a huge deal in this deck, and the card draw can even be unwanted at times.

Chamber of the Painted Table is, apparently, undervalued - play 2 because having it early applies mega pressure and makes the math/decision-making harder for your opponent.

Treachery - Not convinced this is a must-include yet. Great against the Martells and Targs and Night' watches of the world, but I think a second Hand's Judgment might be more impactful.