House of Wolves: 2-1 GNK Sydney Australia (12 Players) 1.0

• Versions

Hey guys! Usually play Nights Watch but thought I'd give Stark a crack :)

Pretty standard Stark Deck here except I've traded Fealty for Kings of Winter, and tried to maximise Winter Plots where possible without losing any utility.

I've had really positive results with this deck lately and decided to take it to a local Games Night here in Sydney, Australia, and went 2-1.

Game 1: Stark/Fealty (15-0 Win) This game went in my favour simply because I better than my opponent. He opened with Osha, Rickon, Catelyn and an economy location, while I opened with Robb Stark a Chud and some economy. My opponent then marshalled an Eddard Stark, I put down Ice and another renown character winning me the Military and killing Eddard. I then first snowed pretty much his entire board and followed with a Famine.

Game 2: Baratheon/Banner of the Watch (15-5 Win) I got a pretty lucky setup here. My opponent opened with a Ranging Party, a Chamber of the Painted Table and a chud. I open with a Cat, a Wildling Scout, a Gates of Winterfell and a Rose Road. My opponent gives me first turn in which I marshal Jon Snow and an Ice while also duping Catelyn, while he marshals Melisandre, an Asshai Priestess (kneeling Catelyn and then the Wilding Scout) and finishes up by playing a Craven on Jon Snow.

I get lucky due to the fact I have an Arya's gift in hand, so I use it to place the craven on my Wildling Scout, Sacrifice the Wildling scout to stealth past his ranging party and kill Melisandre. While that was great, my opponent still managed to get 6 power from both Chamber of the Painted table and doing multiple unopposed challenges. After the first round, however, I'm able to get a good grip on the game as I've removed the main grunt of control which was Mel.

Game 3: Targaryen/Summer (3-15 Loss) I have a laid out game plan vs Targaryen, in which I want to see either Cat, Bran or Winterfell (any of the three is fine) in my opening hand. I saw Cat AND Winterfell in my opening hand, set up Catelyn and Septa Mordane with some economy which was great. I then set up Robb Stark but draw in to Blackfish, which made me greedy for more renown characters and for some very silly reason I just decided not to marshal Winterfell + some Chuds, which really made my board state fragile to double military Challenges from Drogo and it was basically game over from there.

I really felt silly about not following my game plan in the 3rd game, but alas mistakes happen and I should've been patient instead of trying to push the aggro renown rush.

MVPs: Arya's Gift, Pack Survives and Wilding Scout.

These guys really, really allow for some amazing control options and are used in every single game. I've also never really found that I'm in dire need of Confiscation - I have considered running Rattleshirt Raiders but I'm not really sure what I would remove to get them in there.

I'm also really in love with the plot line up - I found that fealty wasn't really doing that much for me and against any deck that isn't running Kings of Summer the choke can be very frustrating, especially with a First Snow followed by a Famine. The deck can go for the Renown Rush + Winter Festival but it can also play the long game, with card draw generated by Gates and Blackfish.

Let me know what you guys think, and try out Stark Winter! It's amazing when you're basically always able to trigger card abilities and often prevent all card abilities from your opponent. Bran, Catelyn, Pack Survives, Arya's Gift and Winterfell + all the winter plots is a really nice control package.