Reserved Greyjoys (Top 8 Varberg Morghulis)

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
New deck: House Greyjoy/ King's of Winter 1 0 0 1.0

Jimorie 187

This is the deck I played at Varberg Morghulis and managed to go 5-2 with, which was a great result for me.

The deck is very straight forward to play. You try to get the opponent's hand size down with a first round Wraiths in Their Midst (possibly accentuated with Alannys Greyjoy), and if successful Heads on Spikes is often a strong follow-up. If they escaped the reserve crunch by flooding the board you have several ways to punish that in the forms of Wildfire Assault, The First Snow of Winter and 3 x Varys. Keep the board small and leverage the unopposed groove of the Greyjoys. You don't have to go first.

  • R1 vs Stark Fealty. Close game only saved by a clutch Nightmares on Eddard Stark (WotN). 1-0.
  • R2 vs Stark Fealty. One-sided game after a first round Varys. 2-0.
  • R3 vs Targaryen Kraken. Mirri Maz Duur killed my Varys. 2-1.
  • R4 vs Baratheon Wolf. Discarding The Red Keep round 1 helped me here. 3-1.
  • R5 vs Night's Watch Winter. A game of no resources. The Seastone Chair was good. 4-1.
  • R6 vs Lannister Dragon. Close game but Fishwhiskers couldn't be stopped. 5-1.
  • Top8. vs Night's Watch Fealty. Another close game, but I lost to a better player. 5-2.

There's a recording of the top 8 game at AGOT Nordic's Twitch page: https://www.twitch.tv/agotnordic/v/87325285. Top 8 game starts around 4:43.

31 comments

VJCB 1

Cool concept! Will try it out. Any changes you would make post-tourney?

Thanks for sharing!

Jimorie 187

Thanks, VCJB! I don't feel that there was any card in particular that was underperforming for me, seen across all the games. So I don't have any straight up 1-for-1 change that I would make.

In some games I would have loved to have another Winter Festival instead of Calling the Banners, but without Calling you limit your ability to play Varys effectively.

VJCB 1

What do you think of Famine? overkill?

Jimorie 187

Yes, Famine could be a contender. I haven't tried it, and not sure what I'd replace.

Robs 1

@Jimoriecongrats on making tops. btw that was a great top8 game with the board advantage swinging back and forth. a real pleasure to watch. I wonder whether the single Great Kraken and Pyke did you any good during the tournament ? Don't you feel that having only one of each was some sort of a drawback since you cannot rely on drawing them consistently, hence making them 'win more' cards in this deck ?

Thorik 108

Isn't Euron Crow's Eye too expensive for this deck? Did you manage to play him with consistency?

Jimorie 187

@Robs Thanks! I got some good use out of Pyke and Great Kraken, but obviously not in every game. Pyke was fairly useless in one game, but then it saved my ass against a stealthy Mirri in another. I only recall playing Great Kraken in one game where it helped me quickly close a game that was most likely already won. On that basis I can agree that both cards can border on being 'win more' cards, but I don't really follow the logic that they're made more so by running fewer copies...?

My main argument for running just one copy of each is that I really don't want to draw duplicates of unique locations when I'm top-decking late in the game. And in tight games you will be top-decking with this deck. That being said, I did run two copies of The Seastone Chair because I felt it's a stronger card in this deck and is better on setup.

Jimorie 187

@Thorik I did play Euron Crow's Eye consistently throughout the tournament, but you're right that it can be a stretch for this deck to afford him. He's a good card to top-deck late in the game when you have the economy up. His ability to single-handedly block Mirri can also be key in the current meta. I'd keep him.

The real challenge was rather to afford Varys. ;)

Robs 1

@Jimoriemy logic is that if a deck doesn't really rely on certain cards, they act more like a 'win more' type of cards. And yours definitely dosen't rely on those two. Nevertheless topdecking Pyke and/or Great Kraken during late game might change things a bit, for example the Mirri case : ] Just to finish this thread - you don't feel like changing them to other cards just to make drawing more consistent would be a good idea ?

Btw what would be your ideal setup for this very deck ?

Jimorie 187

@Robs Maybe we have different ideas of what 'win more' means, but let's not discuss that. =)

This deck doesn't really rely on any specific card. With no search and very little draw you can't rely on playing Varys or any other card every game either.

If you can setup 4 cards or more that includes a Limited card, that's usually a taker. I like to see Alannys Greyjoy in the opening hand, but if it doesn't hurt the setup I will keep her in hand until first player has been decided. Similarly with Varys who is also nice to see early so you can plan ahead, but he is usually not setup material.

TheBrianFactor 7

I'm a die-hard Greyjoy player and have been loving toying around with a Kings of Winter agenda. I love your deck concept and mine have been very similar...but I'm failing to see the use of The Iron Throne when you're not running Aeron Damphair. Is it clearly to run for contention with the dominance power gain, or is it to help cancel the Kings of Winter reserve penalty?

krockel 187

Petter,
Congrats on a good showing. Send MirriĀ“s regards to Varys ;)
//Martin

VJCB 1

@Jimorie, playing around with this now. Thinking of A Noble Cause instead of Calling the Banners. Initiative is not great, but do not get a lot of mileage out of CTB because generally there are not that many characters on the table :-) Playing plots as follows: Mist - Heads - CTB/ANC

Jimorie 187

@TheBrianFactor: The Iron Throne obviously helps you win the dominance power, which is always good. The extra reserve is good if you have it out on turn 1 when you play Wraiths in Their Midst, but it usually doesn't do much after that. It's a solid card without extra synergies, in my opinion, but you can certainly play something else instead of it.

I'd keep some locations in the deck, though, to spend gold on when you're planning a reset.

Aeron Damphair (Core) would not be a bad addition to the deck either, though. You have enough Ironborns. But I think his cost 3 and single power icon works against him.

Jimorie 187

@krockel: Thanks! You too. ^^

They'll meet again, I'm sure. ;)

Jimorie 187

@VJCB: If it works for you! =)

For me Calling the Banners was mostly there for the sake of playing Varys, and the initiative is important for that.

RoflRoy 22

Nice deck, I am preparing something similar for the time Valar hits the Board! That is going to be awesome.

Robs 1

@JimorieI forgot to ask - how Captain's Daughter did perform for you ?

Jimorie 187

@RoflRoy: Yes, I'm also looking forward to Valar! ^^ Captain's Daughter was good. She consumed several Milk of the Poppy, which was fine by me. It's very much a meta call, though. With Banner of the Dragon and Banner of the Lion being so popular I think she's solid.

Jimorie 187

@Robs: Oops. Mixed you up with @RoflRoy, see my answer above.

Nestalim 1

Congrats, I like the list, but not the plot. It seems hard to put Euron on the table with only Calling that can sometime pull him out, no ?

Jimorie 187

@Nestalim: Euron Crow's Eye can certainly be difficult to pay for. Except for the Calling the Banners turn, you will need some economy in place to play him. See my comments above regarding why I still choose to play him.

What plots would you run instead? I find it difficult to drop any from the current list.

Robs 1

@JimorieI personally like to play Supporting the Faith in GJ decks. It could be swapped for Heads on Spikes in you deck. Makes easy to play Euron Crow's Eye but the drawback is that it really hurts the ability to play Nightmares the turn this plot is revealed.

Nestalim 1

@jimorie well I'm not a fan of Heads on Spikes but the initiative on it is pretty good. I think I woud have put another Calling the Banners for the initiative or A Noble Cause to be sure to put Euron into play or have some flexibility for Balon (you can have Balon + a Nightmare/We do not sow if you have 0 eco).

How Fishwiskers performed ?

Jimorie 187

@Robs and @Nestalim: I like the combination of Wraiths in Their Midst and Heads on Spikes too much to drop either from the deck, but you should go with your own feeling.

@Nestalim: Fishwhiskers is great on the Winter turns. I got fairly good value out of him with my four Winter plots, but more would've been better obviously.

cfcfolio 19

Great deck, great player! Congrats on the top 8

Robs 1

@JimorieI've been toying with the different builds of GJ/Winter for a while now and would like to ask if you did run into problem with discarding your cards on the first Wraiths in Their Midst turn while reducing your own reserve ? That's the problem it is bugging me the most currently with this type of decks.

Jimorie 187

Hi @Robs, yes I often had to discard a card or two myself on a first turn Wraiths in Their Midst. I didn't feel it was a big deal if my opponent ended up with fewer cards in hand, though. Overall I think this deck is a lot weaker now than it used to be, at least in my meta. There are too many summer plots around. Time of Plenty for example is a strong counter to the first turn Wraiths.

Gabegabe 234

Hello, awesome list. How would u adapt it to valar? Being as you can't run three of everyone anymore, I want to make Gj winter work :)

Jimorie 187

Hi @Gabegabe, I haven't run Greyjoy Winter since Varberg Morghulis. I don't think the release of Valar Morghulis prevents you from running 3 copies of your unique characters, though. At least not in Greyjoy.

If I were to play this deck again I would probably try something like:

-1 Wildfire Assault
-3 Varys
-2 Theon Greyjoy
-1 The Kingsroad

+1 Valar Morghulis
+3 Victarion Greyjoy
+1 Sea Bitch
+1 King Balon's Solar
+1 Risen from the Sea

The big play of this deck at the time was Varys, which wasn't typically played out of Greyjoy in my meta. But Varys was also problematic to afford. With Valar Morghulis you can achieve the same thing, on demand and without needing any economy in place. Of course, it's not nearly as much of a surprise to your opponent, but alas...

Gabegabe 234

awesome! thank you :)