Being A Bastard Works 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

So this deck came about with the idea that I wanted to build off of a silly theme. My first thought was a Sand Snake deck because I don't understand why I don't see a lot of people running the lower cost stuff like Bastard Daughter even in theme lists. So in tinkering I noticed a lot of the Sand Snakes had another equally interesting keyword, Bastards.

So I had to make Bastards another theme of the deck, so off I went to the Nights Watch! What better bastard than Jon Snow, plus walls are fun. Sure whatever I was stretching. Then I realized there was only one bastard in the Nights Watch, and I don't really care about their schtick so what was I to do?

After doing a quick search on this very website I learned there was actually one card in the whole game whos rules cared about these poor unloved bastards. Enter Gendry!

So Gendry really wants you to win dominance, if you do he gets a power. If your opponent does you have to remove a power from him or sacrifice a bastard. My thought on the matter was "Well the Bastard Daughter and the Bastard in Hiding are cheep as hell and have icons, plus they give me a Gendry buffer just in case. From there it was fill in slots with cool Sand Snakes and some good cards (Tears of Lys, Attainted, Doran's Game) and I had a deck!

There was one final problem though, I needed more Baratheons. So in went Melisandre and her kneeling engine to give me some more board control, add a pinch of The Iron Throne and just a dash of The Red Viper and it was time for plots!

This was a pretty easy decision; Trading with the Pentoshi and Calling the Banners for a chunk of gold when I need it, Marched to the Wall to take advantage of misplays and shitty starts (Sorry not sorry), Filthy Accusations Confiscation Counting Coppers and Summons for utility and to pad the turns and that's that!

Now the deck has changed just a little to what it currently is, it was originally running 1 Maester of Starfall a second Areo Hotah a second Dawn but I had to make room for 2 Tyene Sand and Shireen Baratheon to round out the kids.

So how does this pile do? The answer to that is an interesting one.

It's pretty damn good.

I've played a decent amount of games with it against my local play groups and I can honestly say the Sand Snakes icon denial (Nymeria Sand specifically) along with the Melisandre kneel engine is pretty brutal when it happens, which I have to say is surprisingly often. Military challenges aren't bad because I can either deny the icon or worst case kill a little bastard for claim, I often win Intrigue (Icon Denial plus Kneeling make Doran's Game real good) which makes Tears of Lys a good way to remove problems, and Political Power is all over the place in this deck. Finally Dominance is a snap with the Iron Throne out, but when it's unavailable just counting carefully and not playing sloppy usually let's me get that.

So is this the perfect deck? No, not by a long shot. However I think it can be competitive and I have had an immensely fun time playing it! I plan on taking this to any events I get to go to so any feedback is appreciated, and to quote Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan "Being a Bastard works."