Conquest of Braavos: Targaryen Fealty Battle of Braavos Winn

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darkcrystalxd 57

This is the deck I used to win the Battle of Braavos tournament in Mountin View, CA. As people know I am a big Targaryen fan, and almost exclusively play Targ decks. I decided that Fealty was the agenda choice since this deck always could use extra econ. And unlike Kings of Summer fealty allows you to higher impact plots.

The main strength of the deck is very high econ with Beggar King and Slaver's Bay Port that allows you to get multiple combo pieces of either bloodriders or Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons. This deck has to apply a lot of early pressure to succeed, with either Khal Drogo or Dracarys!. The main use of dracarys in usually not killing major characters, since players are very likely to protect those, it's killing the lower cost characters so that those big charactes are open to claim or Marched to the Wall.

The big MVP of the deck is Jhogo, his stealth and high str are so important to push through the closing power challenges or a Put to the Sword. Ser Barristan Selmy (LoCR), a card I put in just as another backup, did a surprising amount of work during the tourney participating in multiple challenges per turn.

This deck is a little vulnerable to resets such as Varys and Valar Morghulis since it has no protection for the major chars. So you might need hold some charactes until you draw dupes if you are scared if the resets. This deck also has plenty of single copies of some characters that you don't have to protect and can just drop to pressure the board.

As you can tell this deck has a sacrilegious amount of cards, 63. After today if I had to remove a couple of cards to bring the total down to 61 I would remove the 1x Quaithe of the Shadow and 1x Ser Jorah Mormont. Jorah kept dying and I never had a use for the second copy.

The plot deck is heavily based around using Beggar King and the Slaver's Bay Port, with plots that have low gold but impacting effects. I usually opened with Summer Harvest and I keep pressure on with Marched to the Wall and Blood of the Dragon while using Counting Coppers to refuel the hand when necessary.

If you don't like using Blood of the Dragon I would recommend swapping it out for another Counting Coppers (since the deck could use the draw) and a Summer Harvest for Calling the Banners.

Game 1: David Moran, Targ Fealty (W)

In this game I just managed to get out my higher impact characters first. My Blood of the Dragon hit him hard, since I had Daenerys Targaryen on the board, opening a lot of his characters to burn. Ser Barristan Selmy (TS) was especially useful this game, there was a turn where he got to participate in all four challenges.

Game 2: Lance Kreutzinger, Targ Fealty (W)

I got out both Jhogo and Rakharo on the first turn which let me apply plenty of claim with the stealth and intimidate. The fact that he saw no Dracarys! and couldn't get a military challenge through meant he had no way to pressure my board. After I got Khal Drogo out the game was easy to close with the double and the bloodrider synergy.

Game 3: Matt Fraser, Lanni Rains (W)

Matt played a jumping clansman deck and managed to get 7 power on his first turn with Heads on Spikes, a duped Tywin Lannister (Core), and a Power Behind the Throne he triggered off his agenda. I stayed even with Jhogo stealth and by thinning his board from the less important big characters like Ser Jaime Lannister (Core) and Timett Son of Timett. When I finally managed to isolate Tywin my Marched to the Wall was already spent. I was considering Valar Morghulis to kill him off since my board was heavily duped, but I decided that Jhogo and Rakharo were enough to control him. Matt, however, in anticipation of my Valar played his own March to try to only discard his Tywin, I didn't Valar, he marched his Tywin. I won in the following challenge phase.

Game 4: Emma Zelus, Targ LoTC (W)

She opened the game really strong with a lot of low cost characters and good econ. I opened with Khal Drogo, Beggar King and a 0-cost econ location. Khal got marched away and my other characters got burned to crisps.She managed to gain power quickly with her agenda (11-0 at one point) I managed to stabilize with my Valar, and built my board from there with the help of a couple Slaver's Bay Port. Emma accidentally put her only dead dragon into her discard pile with Close Call and then she didn't have a target for Fire and Blood, so she was forced to claim an important character. After I dracarysed her Dany I closed the game with my own Dany.

Game 5: Brad Norman, Targ Kraken (L)

The pressure started early on his side with a Victarion Greyjoy that was protected with multiple Bodyguards and Iron Mines. He used Crown of Gold and Dracarys! to kill Aggo and Rakharo. I had a swing turn planned in which I had the means to kill both Dany and Victarion, my two remaining characters, Khal Drogo and Ser Barristan Selmy (LoCR), were both killed with Dracarys! and the game was over then and there.

Quarterfinals: Corey Briggs, Greyjoy Winter (W)

During the first turn I had to make a choice: Corey had The Seastone Chair out and I had to choose between giving Dany Beggar King or using Nightmares on the chair. I chose Beggar King for the future econ and it promptly got discarded with We Do Not Sow and Dany killed. He managed to keep my hand low with the winter agenda and Wraiths in Their Midst. I kept his character count low with Dracarys! and Crown of Gold and he didn't have the draw to rebuild his board so my I won of UO power in and Jorah's renown.

Semifinals: Shelby Anderson, Tyrell Wolf (W)

This is the match-up I was terrified of the entire day. Shelby's deck was full of resets, kill and all around spooky cards. His deck had a lot of good ways to kill/discard and control the hand. I got pretty lucky this game and he never managed to get his economy rolling to play out his most threatening cards like Varys and Harrenhal (GoH) but the constant threat of them meant I had to hold key cards in hand until I drew Nightmares. I took care of both copies of Ward with Viserys Targaryen (Core) and Confiscation. And when he finally managed to bring out Varys I was too far ahead closed the game with Dany and her babies before he had a chance to pop him.

Finals: Jason Wentworth, Bara Kraken (W)

Jason is a meta mate of mine and we both have a lot of experience playing each other, and the games never go in his favor. Today was no different. I played crown of gold on his Robert Baratheon and followed with Blood of the Dragon on the next turn. I played both Aggo and Jhogo and managed to get plenty of Aggo triggers because Jason revealed summer plots of his own. From our practice matches I knew he didn't have any resets so I kept swarming the board and playing more characters. On the last turn I had Dany, all three dragons, Khal, Aggo and Jhogo. I swung with enough strength to win off the renown and the Fickle Bannerman with three power on him.

A special thanks for AJ Klein for organizing the event and for Game Kastle for hosting.

7 comments

H2Masri 1

Congrats on your win and great write up. I was theorycrafting changing one Summer Harvest for Heads on Spikes, and adding 2x Tarred Heads in place of PTTS or Nightmares. I also really like running 2x Plaza of Punishment.

Would you add another one?

linkingverbs 197

How did you feel about scrapping Kingsroad all together for Slaver's Bay Port?

darkcrystalxd 57

`@linkingverbsI really don't like one time use limited cards. And since I have a lot of low gold plots. It's nice to have good econ when you flip each of those plots. Especially if you don't have begger king.

@H2Masri The nightmares are crucial to the deck since it's your only form of location control. For tarred heads I think it's usually better to just kill from the board. Jhogo can easily push the win by 5 on mil. Heads on spikes could definitely work as an opener, but it heavily relies on having begger king on setup. The reason this for only one plaza is that I expected a lot of location control at this event (there was). If I were to put a second in I would take out a copy of Drogon.

H2Masri 1

Any ideas what you plan on changing to fit in Plaza of Pride and Dothraki Honor Guard? Or do you plan on running either card at all?

darkcrystalxd 57

@H2Masri Plaza of pride is definitely going in the deck. Probably taking out a Viserys Targaryen (Core) or a Viserion. Most of the time my hand has 4-5 cards in it, so I don't think the Honor Guard will be worth it. I will definitely still test it when the card comes out.

zack 126

What do you think of Jaqen H'ghar instead of Mirri Maz Duur ? Same price and strengh, for an extra military icon, and will kill in addition to his regular claim instead of as an alternative.

The only drawbacks I can see is that its cost cannot be reduced by Illyrio's Estate, but in a deck where most economy comes from Slaver's Bay Port and The Roseroad that doesn't seem a big deal. (Note: Mirri Maz Duur is not loyal, so its cost cannot be reduced by Fealty either.)

Thoughts?

darkcrystalxd 57

@zack Treachery makes Jaqen cry. Also, Jaqen can't kill anyone that enters play after he does. So the extra icon isn't worth it.