Join Us & Die 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is one of my favorite decks I've made. This deck is heavily built around Night Gathers..., Now My Watch Begins, and Old Bear Mormont (WotW). The core concept of the deck is that you put characters into the opponents' discard pile and then you make them take the black and join the Night's Watch.

So, to explain why I made this deck the way that I did....

1. Choking hands simply doesn't work consistently, and mid-late game is almost always going to whiff. Plus, your opponent may catch onto your gameplan and simply never discard characters. What I wanted was to take that power out of their hand, and the best way to do so was with Pillage. As such, I included three copies of both Black Wind's Crew and Wildling Horde. The horde works VERY well with Jon Snow (WotW), allowing them to discard two cards per turn, and they can buff Jon's strength if he stealth's in for an attack. Black Wind's Crew is the cheapest pillaging characters in the game. I had considered using the Lannisters for this, but there are other key reasons to choose the Greyjoys instead.

2. Why the Greyjoys? Three primary reasons. The first is that Black Wind's Crew is the best pillaging unit in the game. A 3 cost 3 strength 2 icon unit that also has pillage is simply unbeatable bang for the buck. They're a great early pillager. The second reason I chose Greyjoy is Asha Greyjoy and Theon Greyjoy. These two are workhorses that can single-handedly win games for you. They are best used to either rush a win early or to end the game after you Valar Morghulis. Your opponent will have a very difficult time dealing with them, especially if you team up Asha and Jon on military challenges. This is essentially your entire second avenue to victory tied up in just these two characters. The third reason I chose Greyjoy is because of Iron Mines. You cannot simply dump Valar Morghulis into a deck, cross your fingers, and hope it all turns out well. That's a recipe for disaster. You have to build your deck around that card, and that means building your deck around making sure your characters survive the Valar. The Night's Watch only have two avenues for doing this (between Aemon and Ghost), but it's not enough. You need The Iron Mines if you plan on playing Valar. This deck lets you refill the board after a Valar using your opponents' discard pile, but you'll also have a few of your own characters alive as well. That cannot be understated.

3. Battle of the Blackwater? WTF? Yes, that's right. You use it for two huge reasons, and they are gamechangers. The first reason is so that you can fill your opponents' discard pile with powerful characters that you can then play with Night Gathers... or Old Bear Mormont (WotW). That can win you the game on its own. However, it also sets up Valar Morghulis. "That doesn't make sense, you're only setting your own characters up to be killed if you precede Valar with Battle of the Blackwater". Au contraire. See, you have Ghost (WotW), Iron Mines, and Maester Aemon (Core). You have the ability to wipe out all dupes, including your own, and Valar the board (which your opponent won't expect since you played the Blackwater). But you can keep 3-5 characters alive during the Valar. And still be plucking characters out of your opponent's discard pile. It works. Trust me. And there's plenty of games where I haven't needed to fire it at all, but if you are facing a triple-duped Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo, Blackwater will win you the game. Not only will you kill both of their best characters with the ensuing Valar, you'll then play their own Danny and Drogo from their discard pile. Game, set, match.

4. So how do you fill someone's discard pile? You have a lot of avenues. Your best choice is Queenscrown. This lets you choose who goes to the discard pile from your opponents' deck. And for only one gold it is a very powerful card. Your next choice is Black Wind's Crew and Wildling Horde. Their pillaging will drip away characters bit by bit. The only downside is you are beholden to luck as to who/what gets discarded. The third and most interesting choice is Battle of the Blackwater. With this card you know exactly what's getting discarded, and it's almost guaranteed to be your opponents' key characters. Woe unto the player who has a triple-duped The Red Viper (Core) when you play this card, because they've just given you two copies of him to put into play later. The fourth and final method is less fancy but still works consistently, and that is Marched to the Wall. You may only ever hit weenies with it, but they'll soon be your weenies, and any swing in strength on the board is a win.

5. Okay, so I filled their discard pile, now what? Now you use Old Bear Mormont (WotW), Night Gathers..., or Now My Watch Begins to put them into play. There is ONE VERY IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER: You collect gold after the 'when revealed' effects happen on a plot. This means that you cannot play Now My Watch Begins in response to either Battle of the Blackwater or Marched to the Wall. "Wait, so why include it?!" Because it's an insanely powerful card. If your opponent saves a strong character with a dupe, you can use it in response. If you pillage a character out of their deck you can play it in response. If you use Queenscrown to choose a character out of their deck, you can play it in response. Imagine a turn one Tyrion Lannister (Core) stolen from your opponent for three gold. Imagine doing it right after a Valar Morghulis.

6. Anything else? Yup. Use Grenn with Jon Snow (WotW). Use Superior Claim to surprise your opponent on the turn you play Valar. "Oh, he has 0 claim, well I don't need to worry about losing this power challenge....oh crap." Why Maester Aemon (WotW)? He's a great character to put into play after a successful Valar, and he forces your opponent to make bad choices when on defense. Obviously he's not useful if your core version of Aemon dies, so I only include one. Your mileage may vary, you could consider replacing him with Ygritte who works well with the stealth mechanism of the deck.

That's about it. I hope you find the deck interesting. Comments and criticisms are always welcome!