Ravens in the Summer Sun 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Took this deck to an undefeated day (4-0) at tournament this weekend. The tourney was allowing proxies of the next pack and the Lannister box.

I'd asked to play with Stannis Baratheon (TIMC) (who I think makes this even stronger), but we decided to make this more like what we thought the World Championship meta might look like and we don't know if that pack will be out. Lord Stannis Baratheon (Core) would have to suffice.

So with said proxies I faced 2 Tully Rushes (trying the new Ser Edmure Tully), a NW Winter Choke, and a Lanni "The Rains of Castamere" attrition deck.

My first match was against NW Winter Choke. He had White Tree and A Meager Contribution early which got me on a slower start. My Summer plots were weakening his choke potential though. I had a pretty small board, but I had the dom package rolling. He had a chance to get back in the game with The Winds of Winter turn, but I found a R'hollr card and knelt Ghost which ended his chances of winnowing my board.

In one Stark matchup I was able to Milk The Blackfish right before a 4 power Blackfish + Syrio Forel + Catelyn Stark (WotN) might have put him back in the game. I had great power support early via The Red Keep + Kingswood and after I played White Raven he had to Wildfire Assault earlier than he would have liked just to prevent me from running away with the game.

In the other Stark matchup I was holding on for power, but Edmure was threatening to take power from Gendry as soon as he earned it. When I found a Milk of the Poppy for Edmure it didn't matter that Blackfish had 4 power, Robert Baratheon + City Watch + Ser Davos Seaworth (with renown thanks to A Tourney for the King) closed it out.

In the last game I was up against a kill heavy Lannister Castamere. He got a big board jump on me as he played Summer Harvest over my Calm Over Westeros and then marched my Littlefinger leaving me with 0 characters. But with Summer Harvest, good location economy and a Milk of the Poppy for Tyrion Lannister (Core) that sweet summer bonus gold and reserve allowed me to regain a solid character footing. When I played Mel the following turn he was able to Treachery the kneel effect. However, I won an intrigue challenge offensively which took a 2nd treachery from his hand. He had a Rattleshirt's Raiders but with my Robert Baratheon out and 2x A Song of Summer, he couldn't win the MIL to take the Milk off Tyrion. He finally played Confiscation to clear it, but I had a 2nd and Tyrion went back to la-la-land. If things had gone a little bit differently, he might have been able to trigger his agenda to play Wildfire at a more opportune moment, but as it happened...King Bob was still the King.

Really great time playing with everyone (Robb, Matt, Jim, Zach).

Much like the NW Wall decks that are growing in popularity, I think this archetype has some legs. Overall, I feel like it's a step up from NW defense. In NW D, it can be really hard to close out a game if Pyromancers, Put to the Torch, or bad luck drawing cards doesn't let you keep The Wall on the board.

On the other hand, Bara Dom only requires you to win 1 challenge a turn and dom. Chamber/Kingswood/Red Keep/Throne/White Raven/Gendry are all helpful, but losing any 1 of those cards won't hurt nearly as much as a NW deck that loses its Wall. Enjoy!