King Mance - The Crow that was promised

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Mance Scales the Wall 1 1 0 1.0

Dzerards 166

Have you been rockiing all that sweet, new, Nights' Watch choke-tech? Have your nasty opponents been taking advantage of the low intiative on most winter plots to make you go first, ensuring you can't spend any of your ill gotten gains in the marshalling phase? Why not use Mance and turn that dubiously aquired wealth into a horde of Wildlings on the cheap!

This deck has been a lot of fun to play. Less so for my opponents. I got called a lot of bad names at the last Summer GNK! I was one challenge away from winning that damn kit too except for stupid treachery! :(

The basic idea is get Mance and the White Tree down. Take all their money. Then use the crazy amount of ambush, plus Craven, to prevent them from winning any important challenges.

Plotswise, Varys's Riddle has done a ton of work. Hitting a Summer Harvest, setting their gold to 2 and then taking it all with White Tree and Meager is just so mean. Plus it has decent reserve considering the effect of the KoW agenda. First Snow into Famine usually will win you the game. Marching Orders trumps Trading with the Pentoshi here I think. Both to get Mance down and to keep your opponent in a hole moneywise. I had Summons in for the game night kit, in order to find Mance; I was thinking of changing to Building orders after seeing how much work Craven did, but after watching Tamas's excellent preformace at Valberg, I'm trying out Counting Coppers. Winter Festival is just a really good plot.

On the character side, there is nothing too flashy. Mance is the main dude. 12 cards can be ambushed in if he is down. Dolorous Edd is brilliant. I did have Jon Snow in as a 1 off, but never played him, so cut him for a second Benjen. Only one character in the 3 cost slot, the aforementioned Always-Jumping-Edd, keeps you protected against both First Snow and Ilyn Payne.

As for the GNK matches: First was against Lanni/Wolf. Mulliganed for White Tree, but didn't see it, then played Summons first plot to find Mance but didn't see him either. Up against Tyrion, Tywin and the Mountion turn 3! Eek! Milks and Craven kept me in the game, as well as the Ever-Bouncing-Edd. Finally dropped Mance, and the Winter Festivals and Iron Throne got me within touching distance. Just needed to win a power challenge. That's fine, I'll just sack this Wildling scout to sneak past Tywin with Littlefinger. What's that, you have treachery. Ok, that's fine, I've got 14 power, I just need to win a challenge with Mance, it'll be ok. Opponent goes "Militry for 26!" "26" says me, "I've only got 11 militly strenght on the board. Are you sure you don't want do it for, I don't know 12 or 13". "Nope 26!""How about 14 or 15, that'll surely win it right?" "Nope 26! I've had enough of your shennanigans!" Ok, fine, how bad could it be? Mountain's Pillage flips another copy of Mance. Bugger...

Second Game also against Lanni/Wolf. This time set up White Tree, Kingsroad and a 4 cost character against 3 and 5 cost characters. His Marched hits my Riddle and he borad wipes the two of us, however I've effectively 9 gold to his 3 for marshalling. A second plot of First Snow sees him end that turn with only Jamie on the board and assuming I'm going to go Marched to the Wall, plays his second Marched into my Famine and that's the game.

Third game went much the same. This time against Lanni/fealty. The openning Riddle hit Summer Harvest, combined with White Tree left him on one gold for marshalling, First Snow followed by Famine again seen my opponent with no characters by the end of the third turn.

8 comments

HidaHayabusa 73

I am a simple man. I see Mance on NW I click like.

Isian.H 706

looks good only thing i am confused about is will, how had he performed, why did you put him in there (stealth and insight?)

superleague 8

The Wildings combo would be better with the few new wildling characters.

Dzerards 166

Will was fine. You didn't really want to see him too early before you had your power icons down, so dropping him to a one off is probably not a bad idea. With Craven you are not as worried about his downside as there should be less attacks coming in.

The Stealth was important for a number of reasons, though mainly for pushing challenges past the likes of a Cravened Tywin. The double insight between him and Sam was also very strong.

The spoiled Northern Refugees card would definitely find a home here. The Bandits I'm not as sure on. I had the Spearwives in earlier, but it was so rare that I had less power than my opponent they weren't pulling their weight.

Tanatos 1

The deck looks awesome, I'm going to give it a try!

Kain8 39

Damn, this does look good, may have to build this for my next game night.

FredInRealLife 247

I feel like you could fit the wall in here easily. The ambush tech gives you some flexibility when it comes to not letting unopposed challenges through. Plus it's a clever way around stealth. Only problem is what do you remove? Is there room for 3x? Maybe 2x...

Dzerards 166

@FredInRealLife I think if you want the Wall in there, your best bet is to remove the White Tree. Having two premium locations at a combined 7 cost is probably too much of a speed bump.

From my experience, this deck gains power so fast between the Iron Throne, Winter Festivals, Mance's Renown and killing off Benjen over and over, that the Wall is probably overkill. One of the reasons I cut the Young Spearwives is it was very rarely that I was behind on power to trigger their ability.

Another downside of the Wall in this deck is nearly half your characters are Neutral and not getting the buff.

I think a better addition is Thoren Smallwood. Same cost. Doesn't slow your tempo. More flexible trigger condition. Another warm body on the board and helps trigger Watchers on the Wall.

My current deck with LoCR is -1 Arry, Will, Rattleshirts, steward, scout, Ser Alliser and castle black. +2 Bandit, Ocean Road. +1 Thoren, Forest Hunter and Watchers.