Black Flowers (Hand's Judgement Guy final version) 5.0

• Versions

Right, so here it is, the final version. After play testing various versions of this deck rather thoroughly over the the space of a couple of days on OCTGN, I realised it had some rather glaring problems. Targaryan decks had a field day with it, and I had real problems with draw. It also suffered from not having any 1 cost reducer characters in it whatsoever. After some careful contemplation, I moved away from the Tyrell rush style of play and more towards the Night's Watch defend style (which I'm happy with, as this is essentially a false banner deck anyway). General strategy:

• Characters Standyll Tarley and Margery are the stars of the show here, with support from Left & Right a whole slew of quirky ranger characters. The Queen of Thorns is there to help everything Grow Strong (tm) & generally act as a chunky INT defence, which NW sorely lack. Varys is the reset button if you need it, as well as the master of psychological warfare. Syrio is for a bit of extra insurance against Greyjoy decks, in case Benjen or Stonesnake doesn't show. The rest is pretty self explanatory.

• Attachments Not much to say here, except that 3 is definitely the right amount of Milk of the Poppy. Trust me here. You've only got PttS for targeted kills, so you need your Milks for the the horrible game ending characters out there (shout out to Miri, Khal, Dany, Tywin, Balon, Robb Stark etc.) 2 x Building Orders mean you can retrieve these as needed. You might want to take 2 x Heartsbane instead of 2 x Littlebird, but again Building Orders should help you here and Little Birds have more targets than Heartsbane, which has only 1.

• Locations The fun part. Obviously, get the Wall down asap. Trading with the Pentoshi guarantees that you can get it down without sacrificing a big character marshal. Incidentally, I would not use Building Orders on any of these except the Wall and maybe the Arbor. Castle Black and Iron Throne are the top targets for Support of the People, as they generally help more than the Tower in regards to winning the game.

• Events Nightmares is in there to deal with everyone else's horrible locations (Seriously there is nothing worse than not being able to use Maester Aemon as a MIL claim soak because they keep kneeling Winterfell during their MIL challenges). Support of the People is there for the 1 x locations. Sword in the Darkness is great when your opponent isn't expecting it (i.e. most of the time) and you shut down their turn early. And finally, Hand's Judgement... never run less than 3. Never. Literally remove any other event before you touch that.

• Match ups

VS Stark: There are so many Stark builds now that this one is kind of hard to cover. Generally this does well against Stark, since Aemon is there to stop your guys getting killed. Just watch out for Direwolf jank, and Winterfell Castle/Core Catelyn card ability shut down. Also, a Blackfish with 4 power means Core Catelyn never kneels. Between him, Cat and Winterfell, they can totally shut down your card abilities.

VS Greyjoy: Take the wind out of their sails early with your Milks and Rangers and you should be fine. You just need to defend the wall. Your economy will generally be better than theirs, use it to your advantage. Greyjoy can be scary but they're weak to control, and you generally have enough to handle their targeted kills and stealth.

VS Targaryan: The hardest match up. There's not really much to say other than abuse the crap out of your events and Milks, because that is what will see you through this game. You need your characters to live, otherwise you're done for. Against Targ smash bros, you're going to have a very hard time. Always leave a gold for you HJs and watch out for Fealty builds that can Dracarys with 0 gold. If someone has to die, make it Benjen :P

VS Lanni: Save your HJs for their Treachery's. There's a lot of targets for Milk here, but generally you should prioritise Tywin, Tyrion or the Mountain. Tyrion can ruin your day with INT stealth, so either Milk or stick a Little Bird on one of your Rangers (not Benjen). Stonesnake is good for defanging the Mountain's horrible Pillage.

VS Martell: Sneaky, sneaky Martells. Martells love their events, so make sure you cancel them. Top targets for your Milks are Arianne (seriously do not underestimate her, she is one of the best 3 cards they have) and Nymeria Sand. Also playing more aggressively in general helps, as Martell can take a while to get the ball rolling. They have similar weaknesses to this deck though - they're generally less killy and will have worse economy than you.

VS Baratheon: This actually genuinely isn't a bad match up! Standyll shines here, as do Left and Right. Bara normally aren't rocking loads of targeted kills, so that's a plus. Watch out for Maester Cressen with your Milks, if you're clever with them it shouldn't be a problem. Mel, Stannis and Cressen are your Milk targets - woe to the Bara player that doesn't bring Confiscation. It's probably going to be a long game, but you've got the advantage here. As an aside, watch out for the Kraken banner. Lordsport Shiprights help them immensely, as does the Newly Made Lord. Varys is there if you need him.

VS Tyrell: Tyrell are currently fairly 1 dimensional as a main house without clever banner use. They lack the killing power of killy houses and the control of control houses. Keep an eye on whatever banner they're using and adjust tactics accordingly.

VS Night's Watch: There are so few really competitive Night's Watch builds that I don't feel like I need to go into huge detail here. If they're playing at Defending the Wall, then use your superior characters, stealth and Milk to take them down. If they're NW/Kraken deck of Varys/Yoren lols, then treat them as a Greyjoy deck, but without the scary targeted kills. It doesn't matter if they Varys you, your economy will be better.