NW/Lion Murder/Choke

Card draw simulator
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Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
None yet.

Icarusrising 198

I have been anxiously waiting for White Tree to come out. In preparation for GenCon, I made this NW/Lion choke deck, but didn't have enough time to refine/optimize it in time for the tournament. I was happy to see others were on a similar line of thought with how best to use our new choke tools at GenCon, even if they didn't end up making the T8.

This is my version and it could probably use some more testing and refinement. A few explanations:

  1. Arry/Burned Men/The Hound -- Use Ambush to your benefit and keep them guessing what you're going to play. It's not uncommon to pass on marshalling to keep a pot full of gold for challenges

  2. White Tree/A Meager Contribution/Treachery/Bronn -- Since we are a choke deck, run as much choke as possible. Because you play your cards in Challenges Phase instead of Marshaling, you can afford to always pay Bronn and your opponent will be hurting for cash and won't be able to pay the sellsword.

  3. 2x Marched/Ser Illyn Payne/Take the Black/TTIDFL -- Your opponent will have a hard time playing things to his board, so feel free to steal/kill what they can throw down.

  4. Ghost/Ranging Party/Paid Off -- In a choke deck, you want to keep a board small. Ghost and Ranging Party give you the military presence to ensure military claim every turn. If your opponent somehow has enough military presence, win an Intrigue challenge and kneel them with Paid Off. They shouldn't have enough money to stand them.

  5. Varys/Yoren -- Varys allows you to reset the board once you have your choke in place and Yoren allows you to rebuild quicker.

  6. Old Forest Hunter -- I love this card as he can act like a mini-Tyrion in a pinch. Between Messenger Raven, Arry, and Yoren, you should have sufficient card advantage to allow you to toss cards for gold. He also allows you to play Varys in a pinch if you aren't finding economy and mitigates the gold hit of Famine/Naval

  7. A Song of Summer will become Summer Harvest when available. A normal open will be Varys's Riddle or Summer Harvest in order to combat the opponent's Summer Harvest (as I think that will replace A Noble Cause as the opener of choice) and keep your opponent's gold low. Famine adds to the choke and can apply additional pressure with the 2 claim. Confiscation could probably be something else, but you'll want to keep Illyn Payne and Tyrion off the drugs at all costs.

Those are my thoughts on the deck. I have yet to determine if it would be better to run the Wall or Longclaw to accelerate victory, or if I can simply rely on unopposed challenges to get me there.

Any thoughts?

6 comments

chriswhite 1

What's the thought behind 0-reducers? I'm playing a similar deck, but I find that reducers help out in those Naval/Famine turns, and are your go-to fodder for those 2 Marched to the Wall. (Who are you planning on Marching yourself?)

3 Yoren + 3 Varys seems a bit much. I could be wrong. That's arguably 6 more non-setup cards, and ones that you rarely want more than 1 of per game.

I like a few Milk in my choke, to stop any Tywin/Tyrion money-producing shenanigans. (Honestly, in my opinion, 2 or 3 Milks seems like an auto-include in this age of dangerous characters.)

chriswhite 1

Also, Things I Do For Love seems highly questionable considering you only have 4 Lords in your deck (and no Summons).

Icarusrising 198

I went with 0 reducers due to space restrictions and generally not needing them as the curve is fairly low. You'll also be playing a lot of your cards in challenges instead of marshalling, so they aren't as good.

As far as marched, most of the time, you'll be marching Bronn, Messenger Ravens, Yoren, or other chud (Burned Men, Old Forest Hunter, etc.) Perhaps a Chett is warranted to reclaim Messenger Raven/Ghost...

3 Yoren and 3 Varys could probably be tweaked. Overall, I'm not too worried about setup. Ideally, your setup will be a 4 cost guy, White Tree, and a kingsroad. Use Varys's Riddle turn 1 and if they march, you double march. If they don't, you have good choke right away. Setting up a Yoren isn't the end of the world. You can March him early and still play any dupes you draw.

The lack of Milk and Craven could be an oversight. Definitely worth consideration. If you're not getting value out of TTIDFL, you could easily swap them out for these.

Generally, you're unlikely to be able to afford TTIDFL without Tyrion out, so I don't find it to be too much of a restriction to have to wait for him to hit the board. You can always discard it to Old Forest Hunter if you don't anticipate being able to use it.

I am looking to add more Lannister Lords/Ladies to the deck to make it easier to play TTIDFL, but there aren't a lot of great options. Perhaps it will be easier once the Lanni box comes out.

chriswhite 1

"Ideally, your setup will be a 4 cost guy, White Tree, and a kingsroad. Use Varys's Riddle turn 1 and if they march, you double march."

I've considered this play too, but in my estimation, this is very risky. If I'm your opponent, sitting across from your White Tree (with a possible Meager Contribution in tow) I'm quite likely to open with Trading, and your Riddle will backfire huge-like.

Icarusrising 198

I hadn't thought of that counter play... Indeed would be a hard hit. In those cases, go second and hope you have a Varys!

That being said, I'll be interested to see where the meta goes as far as economy plots are concerned. I was running Trading due to the limited availability of good alternatives for economy. I expect Summer Harvest will take the place of Trading in a lot of decks. Will have to see how things shake out.

Icarusrising 198

Alternatively, you could still set up the 4 cost dude, White Tree, and Kingsroad and open with Naval. If they March you, you still hit their plot and they won't have gold. You will hopefully be able to play 2-3 guys with what you have (particularly if you have Yoren) and March yourself the next turn to clear their big guy they couldn't backup due to no gold.

One reason I'm excited about this deck is all the fun interactions and mind games you can play with your opponent.