NW KOW- 2nd Swiss (7-1) Battle for the Wall 17

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Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
None yet.

Adkadi 323

Here is the 'choke' list I used in 'Battle for the Wall 17' for getting the 2nd Swiss position. It has suffered a lot of changes from the last version I played for winning Dorne as I felt Valar made the typical aggresive control of the deck (in terms of board) useless in some cases (stalling decks) or not efective ( a lot of saves in the meta) so I wanted to reach a middle-point building where I could change the win condition depending on the matchup or even adapt the way of playing during the match if the initial plan you had becomes unachievable for some reason.

So, specially inspired by Qhorin renown, I tried to give the deck a 'rush' approach without losing too much in the aggresive side, which of course is something unavoidable, being Qhorin the main representation of this plan. This way, the first thing I did was to transform PttS in suprising Wall appearances where my Rangers and Wildlings will hide if they can't beat the opponents in the cold battleground, and to include 1 more 5-gold plot to be able to pay Qhorin & Varys in the same game if necessary leading me to use 2 Winter Festival to be coherent with the new strategy. And of course, if you play the Wall, you have to play 3x Craven.

On the other hand The plotline has higher reserve and economy than it had before so I decided I could run only Sam as a reserve bonus, taking away its copies and the "God's eye" I used to run in my lists. The plotline also counts with The Long Winter absence for obvious (rush) reasons.

The result was not bad, 7-1 in the Swiss getting the 2nd place, being my only defeat against Alex Trigonakis and his Lanni-Rains Swiss champion, where I lost due to a huge HUGE misscount in a match I think I had totally under control. Truth to be told, I was very lucky to not be pairing against any heavy summer deck. In Top 32 I lost against the nemesis of the deck, Bara-kneeling-fealty, against Wesker, a great friend and player from Spanish meta who played a very good match even when he started with a weak setup.

As always, thanks to all of my opponents and people who made possible this event, specially to all the Battle for the Wall Staff!! Next stop: ZGZ with the NW box!!!

11 comments

HidaHayabusa 73

Wasn't the All Men are Fools legal? If it was why no Barring the Gates?

Adkadi 323

Ops! forgot to say it, All Men are fools wasn't legal for this Tournament.

Dydra 1494

Cool tech =) I was watching the results online and was curious what you are running as NW/KoW

Pietroia 56

gz for you cool placement , just 2 questions. didn't u find first snow dangerous as nw ? with so many char with low cost and whith all men are fools which changes would u make ?

Thanks man and gz again =)

wan12345 1

gz for your good result, have also some questions. Like Pietroia i wonder why you play first snow and did you find maester aemon without here to serve? i also played nw some months ago and couldn't think of playing without here to serve. did you get some good plays out of varys riddle?

kaikou 728

Congratz bro, great tournament. You always surprise us with your winter Night Watch skills.

Adkadi 323

@Dydra, haha thx! Maybe not as funny as stealing opponents char as your deck does! haha I really loved your Stahleck list!

@Pietroia, Actually I find FSOW to be one of the key parts of my Winter decks. Maybe is a bit tricky to use it for the reasons you said but there are nothing more 'choking' than this effect, specially following by Famine. Also, it is amazing in valar meta, not only because wennies are being more played, but because in the valar turn itself the opponent can easily start the following turn only with the single powerful character he managed to save. I agree is not an easy plot to play but you have your tricks...or better said... you have Old Forest Hunter... Regarding All Men are fools, I think this chapter will change the deck completely as barring the gates seems to strong to be ignored...Didn't test the chapter though

@wan12345 Aemon has never been a key card in my winter decks, actually is the first time he makes the cut for a great tournament. You can play without him perfectly and then you will have other alternatives. In this deck I like to see its inclusion as another copy of Qhorin, which almost always calls the valar. I see him in a lot of games during the day, more than 50% i would say actually, but as i said, I'm very used to not having him in my decks. About Varys's Riddle.. the thing is that I don't usually think about his effect, I usually just play it if I have Varys in hand and I think I'll need to use him. During the day it catches a Summer Harvest, Building orders, and Marched... which is not bad, my favourite plot in the game by the way.

@kaikou Already told you, but you do suprise me with your way of playing, congrats again! hope to play with you soon!

Antrim 213

Great deck and greater player. Even though our decks are very different I was very impressed with how you played it, and it's been the first time I've felt like I was facing a better NW player than me. Will see you (and hopefully beat you) in Zaragoza bro!

iaan 17

Awesome deck! 2 questions:

  1. What is the kind of setup you try to achieve with this deck?
  2. Could you maybe try to describe the "flow of the game" for me? Like how do you start and how do you use Varys and First Snow? Thx mate!

Adkadi 323

@iaan

  1. Economy. Consider your hand as a weak one if you don't find permanent (kingsroad is not the best option) economy on it. No matter if it is a roseroad or a white tree, just try to have more economy than your opponent, actually, the choke has nothing to do with your opponent not having gold but with you having more than him using more efficient chars and aggresive plots. Then, if you have Old Forest Hunter in hand, try to calculate what can you do with all your extra gold. This guy is the most important of the deck and the one that gives this archetype its strenght, it generates unbalanced first turns where you start with a claim 2 plot with the same gold of a Noble Cause, it is insane, and don't forget to combine his ability with hand reposition from Littlefinger.

  2. The deck has different plans depending on the matchups and the opponent setup. The original plan is being aggresive first turns, trying to force the opponent valar and go for the power rush afterwards. But of course this depends in several things... A Varys in hand for example, against no-lanni players, can make a Varys's Riddle opening to be a good plan, the way you can go second and play it after the first opponent marshalling (usually done with an economic plot). If you have Varys as your plan for the first turns, don't use first snow, as you will give him cheap characters to play afterwards. And keep in mind that playing Varys with you having 0 economy is not a good plan either. About first snow, you can just go for the typical plan of having more 4+ chars in the second turn than your opponent, leaving him in an uncomfortable position. When you play more games with this deck you find out OFH gives you some opportunities to flip this plot out in 1st turn, combining with craven to protect the small board and start the choke from there (and making him to discard a lot of cards of reserve). This strategy is something I tried as my main plan in the last tournament I played in Spain, trying to make this oppening an stable option. It turned out to not be so effective but not so bad either, I could see how almost every deck feel totally uncomfortable with this situation even with a decent hand, making them to do bad choices (specially in taxation phase). Remember, your best characters can usually be played with this plot, (except qhorin if you don't have OFH), and most of the time, the opponent will only drop 1 4+ char.

But for me, apart from the economy, the key part of the deck is the reserve. You need to calculate how many cards you will have before taxation phase, counting with intrigue claim, and don't exceed on marshalling or OFH discarding with this figure in mind. This is specially important in a reset meta, and is the trickiest thing of the deck. As a clue, if at the end of the first turn you had to discard 3+ cards for reserve, the game is not going good for you... I'd even say it doesn't matter how good your board position is. So, in case you don't have economy enough to start with a low reserve plot, just go for 5-gold-plot to develop some board...

iaan 17

@AdkadiThanks for your detailed answer mate! I'm going to start testing soon and will maybe take your deck to one regional. Thx again!