[Arnhem Store - Winner] Powerrushing, Fast & Slow

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
[Prepared in Stahleck 2016 Metagame] Flowering Strong 18 8 5 1.0
Inspiration for
None yet.

Benji 764

Hey ! So, this is the deck I played in the Arnhem Store Championship to won with 6V-0D First of all, a big thanks to all the Dutch organization and the players who make this event possible.

Background of the deck :

It is an update of "Flowering Strong" : https://thronesdb.com/decklist/view/7002/prepared-in-stahleck-2016-metagame-flowering-strong-1.0 I was sad to worked on it on OCTGN and with the Dutch metagame during their Stahleck playtest, but not seeing it played in a tournament. It was true that Targaryen and Night's Watch are not easy matchup, neither Stark is, so it is (and was) not the most safe choice to make for a tournament. It still remains a strong deck, very pleasant to play and face simply because you are playing : you attack and defend challenges, you claim powers, you have economy and draw, you have small combos, you have an "active" reset and you never NPE your opponent. So, I basically pick it again for the Arnhem Store Championship, work on adapting it to the Valar metagame, find alternative solutions for the identified defaults of the first version, and in the end it worked great !

Name of the deck :

I really liked the ambient text of captainslow in Bugatti Balon : [FACTION SYMBOL] [PREPOSITION] [FACTION SYMBOL] So I reflexed for something elaborated, something reflecting that you can go fast or go slow through your powergrab, according to your starting hand and opponent's playstyle. And i thought abouth Kahneman's Book in Behavorial Economics : Thinking, Fast and Slow.

"Powerrushing, Fast & Slow"

That's so "Not Game of Thrones reference". That's so " Hey guys, I have a cultural background but It's cool stuff", and that's so "I am a French cultivated man"(<= I don't have read the book yet, please do not ask me something bypassing the level of the Wikipedia page :) ). And well, The Arbor is Economy, STR boost are Psychology, Kahneman would approve the appropriateness of this name ! :p

Problems tackled from the previous decklist :

1°) I did not have enough pins 2°) I had not enough intrigue icon

1°) is problematic against aggro deck because they will more easily reduce your board. Moreover, more 2-gold cost characters helps you making The Arbor setup while having a board. The reduced presence of FSoW in the metagame ease this strategy. Intrigue icon was a real problem, because I was really dependent on Arbor Knight for this, who died quite fast and needs something around (gold or STR boost) to actually make something in the first challenge you initiate with. I was also playing Paxter 2, but it was a mono-icon character with nothing impressive in term of board presence. So, i was not a threat in this challenge, it was often the one that i sacrified for LotC. With Courtesan of the Rose in 3, i solve 1°) and lift 2°) without completely fixing it, but it's not the goal in this kind of strategy. Having some presence in intrigue icon is satisfying.

3°) I had not enough rush.

I cannot really do something for this. Knight of Summer was not a good solution : Because their renown is a consequence of plots and I do not over-powerrush, tbey poorly influence the fate of a game. Moreover, I cannot overplay Summer Plots, and the two I play are either fastly used ( Calm Over Westeros) or keeped in reserve for Post-Valar (Close Call), they are not fitted for coming at the demand of Knight of Summer.

Instead, I cut Ser Hobber Redwyne and Ser Horas Redwyne. The first of them seems interesting, but he is too "slow" : you have to invest the majority of your marshalling for not immediately playing the card you tutored, and he is poorly impactant on board. His good side is helping resist Valar with a dupe on Margaery, or tutoring a pins with Aleyne. The second is simply too Margaery-dependent, and even when both Marge and Randyll are present, you rapidly realized he has timing problems. Again, he has poor board presence. The Knight of Flowers is perfectly fitting deck mentality : you want to do challenges with the less characters possible. His basic 5STR is excality what is enough to dominate most opponent's characters, and his renown give you the powerrush you were lacking. Moreover, resisting in Valar in this deck means that you want to keep your characters on the board when he occurs. So, have an additional key character in *3 with the Lord trait improve your chances to resist to it.

I realized how Heartsbane was impactant on Randyll and pass in *2. Since it pile up with other good attachments it counter Confiscation. Heartsbane is better than Crown of Golden Roses because "feeding" the Crown is expensive. It is more a psychological tool on Renly.

4°) Fixing character control

In order to arrive at 15, you need to have board control in order to prevent your opponent from making moves breaking you. Mare in Heat seems exceptional, but it is not. You need Knight characters, you need to make it participating in the challenge and thus he will probably not attack, which makes you less likely to trigger LotC, and it seems a bit obvious but you need to have less STR than opponent. The fact that it cost 2 is problematic since you're tight on your gold curve. and it takes the place of a pins. I still find the card is desirable, i think that in *1 at the expense of The Iron Throne is a more generally efficient choice.

Put to the Sword is less relevant in a "save" metagame. The drop of Stark is for me the consequence of the fewest impact of Ice. So I basically give up and play Nightmares*3. Along with Milk of the Poppy, Highgarden and The Hand's Judgment it gives you the needed temporisation. As a consequence, it makes more sense to remove Paxter from the deck.

5°) I had not enough regular draw

And i cannot really do something about that. Since i am not dominant in intrigue, Butterbumps is still not a good solution. I just put an additional Littlefinger because he allows for more middle-term strategy, provides a bit of economy and can take a Bodyguard on him to resist Valar. Lacking draw is also what makes me looking for Support of the People *2, in order to maximize my chance to get The Mander if I feel a Valar-strategy from my opponent, even if it can turns out in dead cards, both for not passing by +5 or because you drew both locations :p (But since you can also tutor KR for CC, you have a backup plan).

6°) I worked on the initiative Because playing second is big with LotC, i worked on the plotline in order to favorise gaining initiative. I struggled with equilibrating economy, initiative and draw in the plotline but Varys's Riddle allowed me to fix this problem, as well as providing a counter to an offensive Valar ruining my table.

7°) A comment on the new (and future cards)

King Renly's Host is definitively what Tyrell needs : keyword. Intimidate in Tyrell is strategically decisive, moreover with LotC, Summer plots are more a bonus since your army can be at 6STR with the potential boosted STR of other characters.

Brienne of Tarth will enter the deck in *1 because she is a printed Renown, has a consequent STR and an exceptional "bonus" ability.


Tournament report :

Connie, Tyrell Summer

She plays for fun, so she goes on for Bitterbridge Encampment and Time of Plenty. At end of T3, I made the biggest economical boom in Westeros by jumping Renly and his host thans to the Encampent. #Swag

?, Greyjoy Fealty

Ok, i have big troubles with names, so sorry for people i am not rather to. I have a poort start with Kof, Marge and pins. But he has a poort start also with Victarion and pins. I Poppy Victarion, I see his 1 gold for We Do Not Sow, and block Asha. T2 I think i have a way out with Mander, but he removes it with NML and get Balon, I manage to prevent unoposed thanks to Marge and Colen. T3, he sends back poppy to hand with Weapons at the Door and forces the decision on We Do Not Sow with Balon, but I counter with HJ. I am at 10-3 at the end of turn, so he plays Rise of the Kraken, but i put my Poppy back on Balon and Nightmares his Raiding Longship so he cannot find unoposed. He does not play any reset, it helped me a lot.

?, Targ Banner Sun

Horrible matchup, but fortunately i have practiced it enough times and played Targaryen, so i know what i have to do and how is deck is working. Still, I get out of this because : 1°)I have perfect knowledge of his deck 2°) I made perfect "passive" moves 3°)I have been -very- lucky that he did not get good draw.

Basically, he had Nymeria Sand and Daenerys Targaryen T1, and i had the choice of playing the two Poppies i had in hand. Knowing he kept gold for a Tears. I poppy Dany because i knew he must not draw any card at all, suffer a -2 in first challenge and have my key characters next to a Dracarys. But knowing he plays Confiscation, i let Nymeria alive and kill Marge with tears. I had still my KoF duplicated, so it was ok. T2, What expected happens, i play the second Poppy on Daenerys and it's fine. Moreover, i draw the third Poppy and make Nymeria unuseful. From that on, i develop my plan and won in the end.

But i have been very lucky to do not see a Khal Drogo or a Viserys Targaryen (Core), neither a Dracarys!. He still had Dany + Dragon and it was impactant.

?, Lannister Castamere

Rick gives him my decklist, so i know what he has. He is a new player with 20 games behind, but brillantly reflex and play. It's a very good test for the deck. I had a poor start, but i rapidly get away with Renly + Randyll + Heartsbane. Poppy with Cersei helped a lot by preventing powergrab from him. I had also the intelligence to let him trigger his Rains. I could prevent it, but i wanna force their use to get rid of them asap. I also voluntary put Crown on Renly to pressure me in overattacking for Rains. It was decisive on T2 since he needed to copy my CC with his VR and knelt his board for that.

Semi-final, ? Tyrell Greyjoy

It is a wildling deck + Greyjoy + The Arbor + Olenna's Informant. He puts me under pressure but i had a too strong board and defend.

Final, Jamie - NW Winter

Ok, so we were under stream. Considering the exhaustion crush I suffered in the Héritiers du Nord final, I was considering my reputation will be damaged if it happened a second time :D Big Pressure :D (<= It's easy to joke of that posteriorly, i was less talkative at the moment) I knew he forced you in playing your hand and then Valar, so i knew i need 1°) Arbor at setup 2°) A duplicate dude 3°) No naval on Trading at T1

And i get everything, except a boring Nightmares on The Arbor at T1. But Reserve 2 at the end of T1 + Heads on Spikes reduced my hand to 1 card (Rattleshirt Raider's, it saved the day he was not discarded). I was probably lucky to put my VR on his Spikes and discard a Haunted Forest. Still, since i loosed my 2x Nightmares which were gamemakers in this configuration, it's a 50-50. After that, It was mental calculation, passing a Support in T2 to get The Mander, removing Cravenx2 on Renly with LotC (and looking at his number of Rangers), and I had the luck to counter his second Winter Festival with Close Call. I play my plot because it was my only good option, he played the Festival at the same time and since I did not expect it, I was involuntary helped.

It was hardcore to bypass his main strategy and manage the mindtrickeness of his dudes gaining icons, the +1 & +military icon of the Swords, the overall +1 of the Wall. And also manage my own -1 STR, potential boosts of +3 and overall boost of +2, as well as the "game power curve" of both players, but it makes me proud of winning this difficult game against a great player !

And contribute to the long lasting rivalry between our countries :D "Sorry, Good Game" Jaime :D

If you have any comments on a card, feel free to ask. As i said, IT can be removed, and thus a second Support could leave. Brienne will enters.

4 comments

tonythetiger891 55

I'm having a very hard time dealing with Greyjoy with this deck. The Stealth they have hurts me badly and the fact that I can't remove their characters just destroys me. They ultimately outrush me to power.

Benji 764

Well, this is not an easy match-up, especially because, as you say, they will outrush you (especially on a Rise of the Kraken turn). I do not believe in removing characters vs Greyjoy, they have too much saves right now. But you have passive removing such as Poppy, Nightmares (for the Rise of the Kraken turn), Highgarden. Margaery helps dealing with Balon ability, If you want to improve this matchup, considering Put to the Torch is great (and is also efficient vs Night's watch). But what to remove ? You could consider Pleasure Barge. This the more dispensable card in the deck. All other events are out of contestation, too efficient in the metagame.

Benji 764

More basically, playing Syrio *1 has always made sense here. And if the match-up is that much a problem, you can try Forgotten Plans, Wildfire was poorly performant during the competition.

iaan 17

Haha, I also bought Kahneman's Book last week. If we play against each other someday we know what topic to talk about. ;)