The Green Avalanche - Harrenhal IV Winner (6-1) 1.0

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• 1.0

Hi everyone! Just wanted to share a super fun deck I've been working on for a while. Rush is here. You are not prepared.

Building the Deck

In the weeks leading up to this tournament, I’d been thinking about how to combat the abundance of stall decks in the meta (Table/Chair, Wall, Boneway, etc.). While I enjoy playing those decks, I also seem to have an instinctive aversion to whatever the current “best” deck is, especially this early in the season. The thought occurred to me that a rush deck could be a natural counter to this meta, since most of the current stall decks need to spend the first three rounds trying to get their engine running. My goal, then, was to find a deck that could consistently win on turn 2 or 3. (Spolers: it exists!)

I’ve been tinkering with Rush decks for a while now. Previous versions of this deck were run out of Tyrell Crossing and had more summer tech, but those were more mid-range decks rather than true rush. They also are still extremely vulnerable to resets – non-uniques with renown are great, but difficult to keep around. When the All Men are Fools pack came out, I was immediately intrigued by the All Men are Fools event, which seemed like a crazy powerful card to me. Worth it even if you only had one or two ladies out; broken if you had three or more. The lack of an upper threshold or a challenge restriction makes this card extremely powerful in conjunction with Superior Claim. By themselves, SC and AMaF are not that great in joust. But the redundancy of having 6 free power claim events in your deck and the fact that you can trigger both off the same challenge gives this deck the ability to close out a game like nothing else.

Thinking about how best to abuse this event made me immediately think of the Wolf banner. Lots of ladies to build up redundancy for AMaF, and WotN Eddard for even more rush. I concluded that the Summer rush tech in Tyrell is mostly a trap, and pretty much prevents you from using one of the best plots in the game: Winter Festival. Cutting the Knights of Summer was absolutely the right call. Tyrell Summer wants to go “wide” with its board, which makes it very vulnerable to Valar, Varys, and Wildfire, which has seen a resurgence now that Tinder Marge exists. Keeping your power and rush potential concentrated onto fewer, more powerful characters means that you can focus on drawing dupes and using stand effects to get 2 or 3 uses out of them each round.

One of the key choices I made here was to run Core Set Marge over the new one. I also think there is a Tyrell Wolf build focused around the new Marge, which may turn out to better than this one—but running another 6-cost character is problematic for the deck, and if you are trying to rush you may not even get to use Tinder Marge’s ability. I am willing to be proved wrong on this, but imo the old Marge fits this deck better.

3x Nightmares is also absolutely key to this deck. There are some cards that can shut down your whole game plan, like Ghaston Grey, Varys, or Nymeria Sand. Nightmares gives you a way to deal with those problem cards. It is the only reactionary card in the deck, but it is necessary.

How the Deck Plays

I have consistently ended round 1 at 9 or 10 power with this deck if I draw the right cards. The great thing about this deck is that it is not your typical “glass cannon” rush build. If you don’t see the right cards at first or if your opponent gets a great start, this deck is perfectly fine with biding its time and playing defensively until you can find an opening. This was the case in my final game, where I got 8 power in one challenge and won on dominance. If the stars aligned correctly, I could see this deck winning on turn 1, but that would be rare.

The heavy hitters in this deck are pretty obvious: Eddard, Randyll, Brienne, Renly. If you can get two of them out at the same time you’re in good shape. Of these Eddard and Randyll obviously offer the most potential. Using both of them in two or three challenges will end the game very quickly. Early on, don’t be afraid to claim a heavy-hitter if you don’t have any dupes on them—you will be able to get them back next round with Ghosts of Harrenhal. Saving your dupes for an aggressive Valar can seal the game if it is going longer. Remember to watch out for Kings on your opponent’s side if you plan on saving Renly. ;)

Changes to the Deck

If I could make one change to the deck, it would be to cut the Ocean Road and maybe one other card to make room for 2x Roseroad. I think they are needed to offset the Pleasure Barges if the game goes longer. I could also see cutting the Knight of Flowers for another copy of Sansa.

On to the actual tourney! http://thejoustingpavilion.com/tournaments/3395/games

Round 1: Scott Anderson – Tyrell/Sun – L

I was worried as soon as I saw Scott’s house and agenda. Nymeria and the icon removal attachments are really bad news for Eddard and Randyll. From the first round my opponent was able to control my board and limit the amount of use I could get out of Randyll. Nymeria kept him contained to one challenge, and the Arbor made sure that his board was growing while mine was shrinking. I didn’t see any Pleasure Barges, which might have given me the gas I needed to rush, but he was able to keep me down long enough to get the win. Great game, would have loved to have a rematch in the cut, but it was not to be.

Round 2: Micah Aspiras – Lannister/Kraken – W

Going into this game I knew that Micah wasn’t that interested in winning. Her entire goal was to get the special Captain of the Iron Fleet mat. At every Harrenhal tournament, the player who has the most total cards in their opponents’ discard piles after the swiss gets the mat. Her deck was focused on pillage shenanigans with the new LotR Tywin. I got a great start and just focused on winning power challenges, letting her discard as many cards as possible to help her toward her goal. There were a few moments holding my breath hoping Gregor didn’t kill off my big characters, but I successfully escaped un-gregored.

Round 3: Travis Kallsen – Lannister/Rains – W

I can’t remember many details from this game, but I do remember that Travis didn’t see Harrenhall, and he missed on his NBAMF, which hurt him. I remember expecting him to Valar two or three rounds in a row, but I don’t think he was running it.

Round 4: Geoff Bergh – Lannister/Kraken – W

This game was very close. Geoff’s deck was centered around going first and kneeling out my board with Victarion and Janos Slynt, which he accomplished two rounds in a row. I think we ended the game 15 to 12, and he would have won if he had won initiative on the last round. This was another game where I was expecting an aggressive Valar that never came.

Round 5: Tim Schirm – Baratheon/Fealty – W

I was a bit nervous about this matchup—Tim is a great player and was the only one playing yellow cards on the day. Kneel is an interesting beast for this deck. On the one hand it can be a favorable matchup with all of the standing effects, but on the other hand it can be hard to deal with if you don’t draw your stand tech. Luckily I was able to get Eddard and Randyll out with Marge and Jeyne Westerling to support them. I focused on attacking his hand in the beginning and two timely Nightmares’ on his defending Robert kept him from triggering the Red Keep two rounds in a row. A couple of power events sealed the deal.

Semifinal: Brandon Zimmer – Tyrell/Alliance: Lion/Wolf – W

The showdown!! The previous Lord of Harrenhal was running a deck focused on getting as many triggers from the new Marge as possible, and it had been performing very well all day. We both set up mostly chuds. Between his mulligan, Summons, Pleasure Barge, and Gift of Arbor Red, Brandon searched through about 40 cards in the first round to find Marge but couldn’t find her. Instead he found Ser Hobber to go and fetch her, but his board was very weak on power icons with Jamie and Lancel. He gave me a second copy of All Men are Fools from the GoAR; underestimating the avalanche that was about to happen. He cancelled one of my power events with Bran, but I still ended round 1 at 9 power (could have been 12). His Round 2 Wildfire pared the board down but I kept Arya instead of Brienne, letting me sneak past his power icons and get to 14 power. My Round 3 Ghosts of HH brought Brienne back and a power challenge with everyone sealed the win.

Final: Cody Lightfuss – Lannister/Watch – W

This was a great game, but I will admit that I was glad to not have to face Mark MacLennan’s Martell Kraken, which would have been much harder for my deck to deal with. Quorin Halfhand was one of the lynchpins of Cody’s deck, but his ability doesn’t do much against my deck since there are so few non-uniques. The first two rounds of this game were very slow. I had two AMaF and one Superior Claim in hand from round one, but two Cravens on Renly slowed me down significantly. I played defensively, but Tyrion’s stealth was ruining my life so I knew I had to Valar. Luckily I had drawn the right dupes so at the end of round 2 I had triple-duped Marge, triple -duped Renly, and duped Brienne. My Valar killed Tyrion and his army of chuds, leaving Quorin. On round four Cody had Tywin and Quorin, which were enough to push past my defenses in the power challenge, but I hit back with Arya to kneel the Haunted Forest and got an unopposed power challenge with Brienne where I got 8 power in one challenge (UO, Claim, Renown, SC, and AMaF for 3). An unopposed Intrigue challenge with Marge put me at 14, and dominance won it for me.

I had an amazing time at Harrenhal. Thanks to my opponents for being awesome to play with, and props to Chris Heinrich and Ryan Ritter for running a great tournament.