Targ Event Control 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Took this deck to two store championships this weekend and was pleased with its performance. The idea was to include Stark so that I could get access to Bran since I find that in most games that I play it is events that determine the outcome of the game, and also with the new good attachments in The Kings Peace, Viserys/Waking the Dragon provides unmatched attachment control.

The first day I didn't get the results that I wanted and lost two games due to not seeing Bran/Hand's and not being able to cancel my opponents key event or protect my key event. In the first game it was a Seen in Flames that discarded my PTTS and knelt my dragon so I couldn't play Dracarys that turn or PTTS his Mel and then he happened to rip Dracarys from my hand on an intrigue challenge, and that pretty much sealed the game. The second loss I couldn't protect my Dracarys from his Hand's Judgement to ensure Tyrion died and that allowed him to take control of that game.

The second day I ended up with only 1 loss and finished Second overall, with a misplay on my behalf that might of been able to turn the game a little bit, but always tough to predict how things would have turned out.

The deck has a great matchup against other Targ decks, does well against Bara, and generally eats Greyjoy for lunch. It has a harder match against Lanni as it doesn't have a solid answer to Tywin, so against Lanni you generally need to pressure the board early and look for Drogo and Arya/Syrio so you can control his board size and hope to clear Tywin with military claim or Marched. Plaza really helps with that as well to keep the chud off the table. Lord of the Crossing decks can also provide some problems if you let their board get too big because they can protect key units from Dracary's with the str bonus from the third challenge, but if you keep them in check with your kill then their big units are vulnerable on the first challenge they make and hopefully they can't make a third.

People will probably question the lack of Counting Coppers in Targ with their weaker draw ability. I think in one game I regretted not having it in the deck, and since you are not running fealty the lower gold plots are much harder to work with, hence no Winds of Winter as well. Trading with the Pentoshi is a strange choice but it worked well for me most of the weekend. Generally it is there for a turn where I need to get a couple big things on the board and most cases I was able to pressure the opponents hand enough that I was getting more out of my gold than they were. Obviously you never want to play this when Tywin is around and that drawback did hurt me in one game.

Overall it is a very consistent and strong deck, if your meta is super Lanni heavy then it might not be the best call, but if Targ/Bara are more prevalent then this might be a deck to try out.