Night's Watch Sun (Varys) 2.0

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• 2.0
• 1.0

Hey guys, yesterday we held a Store Championship with 22 players in Marietta, GA, and I brought a Night’s Watch Sun deck to give Varys and Naval Superiority a chance at the spotlight because they’ve both been underrepresented here.
My results were less than stellar, but I want to share a few salient points about the deck. It’s built to win intrigue challenges for a couple turns, wipe the board with Varys, then recover stronger than the opponent.

Round 1 vs Targ Rose After a mulligan, I started with Bastard Daughter, Samwell, Dayne Knight, and Sunspear against the Targ player’s duped Randyll, Viserys, and a Roseroad. I opened with Naval and scored a semi-hit on his Calling the Banners. He marshaled Rhaegal and I pulled a Dracarys for intrigue claim. Turn 2 I still had no economy and was forced to fetch some with Building Orders. Meanwhile he flipped Noble Cause and marshalled Dany, so I needed Varys ASAP. Three turns, a Summons, and multiple Raven draws later, I ran out of time and lost without seeing the spymaster.

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Round 2 vs Targ Sun I setup Ghost, a Paramour, and a Kingsroad against Caleotte, Drogon, Loyalist, and Roseroad. Of course I promptly drew all 3 Varys, and he brought out an unprotected Dany so I decided to wipe the board. Unfortunately, I took a calculated risk to attempt an intrigue challenge with Varys first because I had 2 claim from Sunspear, and I felt confident that my opponent would have used Dracarys on the previous turn if he had one. Turns out, he drew a Dracarys that turn and killed Varys with it. I think the game would have been even odds if he didn’t have it.

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Round 3 vs Night’s Watch Kraken Early on, I finally saw economy and had Sam’s Insight working each turn, while my opponent kept his hand stocked with a Messenger Raven. He dropped a Varys on the board, but I killed him with Nymeria and Tears, which was satisfying.

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Round 4 vs Stark Fealty I fell behind against an army of Stark chuds (2 Knights, Sansa, Direwolf Pup, Summer, Bran, etc) after an awful mulligan into Arianne and Unsworn Apprentice. Turn 3 I could have wiped the board with Varys, but I made an error and under-defended a military challenge, counting on Hand’s Judgment to stop his Sword, which is a bad idea with Bran on the board. Varys died.

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Round 5 vs Martell Lion My Nymeria and Messenger Raven did work all game, while his Nymeria took multiple Milks during the game and wasn’t a factor. My Bastard Daughters and his lack of draw turned the game in my favor, then Nymeria and Tears combined to kill Jaime to secure the win. My opponent didn’t see Ghaston until it was too late.

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Conclusion With better luck, this style of Night’s Watch Sun has potential, but a few factors prevent it from reaching tier 1 tournament status. First, it’s too reliant on Varys, and he doesn’t always show up on time. Second, it needs more efficient low-end characters, preferably with power icons to balance the icon spread. Dayne Knight, Edric, Unsword Apprentice and Veteran Builder aren’t ideal. Third, it could use at least one renown character to close games faster.