Two Guys, One Deck: Martell Rose

by Alex Kern (agktmte) and Aaron Glazer (PulseGlazer)


It’s been a while, but we have returned! This time around Aaron and I will be revisiting an old idea, and we’ll see if it can work in this Lannister and aggro-dominant metagame.

Alex
I want to build something with Varys, I think. Haven’t seen him around much lately. It’s time.

Aaron
Baratheon Banner of the Sun?

Alex
Maybe we can use Ghaston Grey too.

Aaron
Then Martell Stag? Or Martell Kraken?

Alex
Which works best against Lannister?

Aaron
Probably Martell Stag, but it doesn’t use Varys. Like the deck from Paris.

Martell Kraken has some synergy. Varys, then drop Asha and win.

Alex
Well, what else does Kraken give that actually synergizes with Martell though?

Aaron
We could always go with Banner of the Rose.

Alex
That could be good. Any new Tyrell stuff for the deck?

Aaron
Nope, but plenty of new Martell cards.

Alex
Okay, I think I like Martell Rose. Is the Roseroad Patrol non-Loyal?

Aaron
I…don’t know what that is.

Alex
The new 4-cost Tyrell army with conditional stealth.

Aaron
I don’t like that card. I do like Knights of the Sun though.

Alex
It was the only new Tyrell card I could think of that might be worth using. Since it could pretty reliably have Stealth if you use The Red Viper and Margaery, etc. But I also like Knights of the Sun a lot.

Aaron
I don’t want to use The Red Viper, not with Varys.

Alex
Agreed, The Red Viper with the Roseroad Patrol is a different kind of deck.

Aaron
I don’t think we’ll be going into the 6 or 7 cost slot at all, besides Varys. So let’s fill in the character base.

Desert Scavenger and Garden Caretaker 3 each, as always? Or should we use fewer Caretakers?

And do we want to use Mare in Heat? If so we can cut the 3 Caretakers for 3 Arbor Knights.

Alex
We can do fewer Caretakers and the Mare in Heat thing if you want. Let’s discuss it. What does it do for us?

Aaron
If we have a lot of low-cost characters, it can help us win the challenges we need.

Alex
If we do that, do we also use Tourney for the King or Jousting Contest in the plot deck?

Aaron
We can do that with Mare in Heat, but unless we use Hedge Knight we won’t have many power icons.

Alex
Then we’ll have to use Hedge Knight, but this just seems like it would get wrecked too much by First Snow of Winter.

Aaron
Exactly. So, let’s not?

Alex
Agreed. No Mare in Heat, let’s skip those knights.

Aaron
I still want to try without the Caretakers for now and see where we end up.

Alex
Sounds good to me. 3 Greenblood Trader, of course. Other 2-drops?

Aaron
No need for Arbor Knight, but I like 2 House Dayne Knight still.

Alex
Maybe Courtesan of the Rose instead? I do value that power icon. And we can use Bastard Daughters for military.

Aaron
I still like the House Dayne Knight more, especially if we run a Dawn. And yes, let’s go with 2 Bastard Daughters and 2 House Dayne Knights for now.

Alex
Yes, with Dawn the House Dayne Knights are better. That gives us only 7 2s and 3 1s?

Aaron
So far…We can add more later if needed. And I don’t want Edric, do you?

Alex
I can skip him for now, probably completely. I’m never satisfied with him in any decks, ever.

Aaron
I like him in Lannister, but he gets expensive.

Alex
However, if we end up with icon attachments and Dawn, he could be worth a single spot.

Aaron
We’ll see as we go, but probably not.

Alex
Okay, let’s move on to those 3-cost characters. 1 or 2 Areo Hotah?

Aaron
Either way, let’s go with 1 for now.

Alex
And Margaery?

Aaron
All 3 copies, we need ways for our weenies to win challenges.

Alex
Olenna’s Informant? I would like to add them since it seems like a primary reason to use this faction combination.

Aaron
2 I think. They’re great with Arianne.

Alex
I could go for 3 even, but your moderation is welcome, so let’s go with two for now. Any other 3-cost?

Aaron
Am I crazy for thinking that Dornish Paramour is a good meta call? As a single, dragging in Tywin or Robert seems like a good way to force through some power challenges.

Alex
That’s not crazy, but I’m not sure there’s space.

Aaron
Oh, we’re missing an obvious 3-coster.

Alex
You are going to say Maester Caleotte and I am going to say that I don’t like him that much. Then you’ll talk me into including a single copy. So let’s do that.

Aaron
I really like him. You want power and he just wins power challenges. People let him through unopposed so you can’t remove an icon.

Alex
Or he just loses them because you opponent values power and just shuts down those weak challenges.

Aaron
But if he loses the power challenge than I can remove an icon and shut down something else my opponent wants to do.

Alex
You might, or not because they have so many other characters that it doesn’t do much at all.

Aaron
Well, with a Varys deck the board should be small, so he’s a lot better.

Alex
Agreed that Caleotte is better on a small board. I’ll give you Caleotte or Dornish Paramour, but not both. Choose one.

Aaron
Maester Caleotte then!

Alex
Okay. He’s in.

Aaron
No Obara? I don’t like her, but am wondering why you don’t.

Alex
Not sure, if we play Nymeria then maybe a single, but in general I am consistently underwhelmed outside of Baratheon by Obara.

Aaron
*If* we play Nymeria? But yes, Obara is a Baratheon card and way better if we go first, which I’d rather not.

Alex
I also don’t want too many 3-cost characters. First Snow of Winter is just too painful.

Aaron
Time for 4-costers — the meat of the deck. 2 Knights of the Sun?

Alex
Yes, and how do you feel about Rattleshirt’s Raiders?

Aaron
I love them, but I don’t think they’re needed with the board resets.

Alex
Milk of the Poppy on Arianne is really sad. And Bodyguards when we want to Varys.

Aaron
I think we run a Confiscation, and going second should keep Milk of the Poppy off of Arianne.

Alex
Okay, with the right plots I think we can do without the Raiders. So how many Palace Spearmen?

Aaron
2 seems right. They’re really good.

Alex
On to the 5-costers?

Aaron
Yes. Nymeria Sand, Arianne Martell, and Knight of Flowers all x3?

Alex
Looks good to me. Any meta-call neutrals? Littlefinger or Syrio?

Aaron
I like 2 Syrio. He helps the weenies win more.

Alex
Okay, we can fit him in for now. 3 copies of Varys and done with characters?

Aaron
There’s one more 6-coster I want to include.

Alex
Okay, what do you have in mind? 1 Quentyn?

Aaron
Yes. 1 copy of Quentyn Martell. If we are planning to go second his Stealth and +1 STR will be good.

Alex
I just remember another Tyrell card that’s new we might want to use: Hobber. For the Lady search.

Aaron
Yeah, let’s put one of him in there too.

Alex
All right, that gives us 37 characters. Possibly too many, so we can revisit if we need to make some cuts later. Let’s do locations next. Make sure we fit in Ghaston Grey before anything else.

Aaron
9 Limited locations to start.

Alex
6 neutrals and then 3 Blood Orange Grove. Agreed. And three Ghaston Grey?

Aaron
Unless you want to play only 2 just in case of Frozen Solid. But I’m fine with 3.

Alex
Do you want Sunspear, Boneway, or anything else?

Aaron
I like 2 of each.

Alex
Okay, and Tourney Grounds?

Aaron
Impossible until we decide events.

Alex
Okay, let’s move on to events then. And also, I don’t love Sunspear.

Aaron
Okay, lets go down to 1 Sunspear then. And for the events I want 3 Tears of Lys and 2 His Viper Eyes. Anything else?

Alex
Not much space for anything else, but Hand’s Judgment, Nightmares, and Vengeance for Elia are worth considering. We also still need more Tyrell cards in the deck.

Aaron
So we’ll probably need to stop there for events and find room for Tyrell cards instead.

Alex
That works for me. We have 4 spots left for attachments now.

Aaron
I wanted 6 attachments: Attainted, Condemned, and Milk of the Poppy at 2 each.

Alex
Any of those more important than His Viper Eyes?

Aaron
No.

Alex
More important than any of the characters? For example, I’m not sure we can fit Syrio into this deck.

Aaron
And no Dawn means the House Dayne Knights are gettng any extra value.

Alex
We also still need Tyrell cards, so maybe swap the House Dayne Knights for two Courtesans of the Rose?

Aaron
I can do that.

Alex
We can also cut 2 Syrio for the attachments and the final Tyrell card.

Aaron
Sure. A single Garden Caretaker? We still need to make one more cut.

Alex
Sunspear completely? The second Boneway?

Aaron
Let’s cut the second Boneway.

Alex
And with that, we have a 61 card draw deck. So let’s figure out those plots.

First, I’d like to mention that I like Clash of Kings for the deck, definitely a top 10 choice, but maybe not in. It gives us initiative control and a way to get power, especially with the Informants for an extra power challenge.

Aaron
Sure, but seems unlikely to make the cut. Let’s start with the obvious inclusions. I’m thinking Summons to get Varys, Calling the Banners to play him, Confiscation, Marched to the Wall, and Wildfire Assault.

Alex
I like those five; I’d end up adding them in as well.

Aaron
I’d like a second way to play Varys, just in case.

Alex
A Noble Cause, which would also help pay for Arianne, Knight of Flowers, or Quentyn. Or a second Calling the Banners. Noble doesn’t have the initiative control that Calling does, though.

Aaron
Is there an init control with gold?

Alex
Fallen from Favor.

Aaron
Feast for Crows?

Alex
1 initiative is not control. And it only has 4 reserve.

Aaron
It’s more than 0! Hmm, I like both of those. Let’s try Fallen.

Alex
Wait, let’s take a moment. I like it’s potential usage to get rid of a Milk of the Poppy on Arianne as well if we’ve already Confiscated something else.

Aaron
What about Filthy? Or a 2-claim?

Alex
So Fallen is in?

Aaron
Yup.

Alex
I like Clash, as I said before, but maybe not more than Filthy or Winds; the 2 claim is really good with Informants. It’s possible we could do some big damage that round if needed, ut much less initiative than Clash and low gold.

Also, we need to consider card draw: Counting?

Aaron
But what do we follow Varys with if we don’t need Marched?

Alex
FFF if we haven’t yet and boards are clear.

Aaron
Shrug, that gives them a recovery.
Naval?

Alex
We could Naval, but I’m having bad luck with it in practice; so many Summer and Winter plots lately.

Everyone is playing around it despite no one using it, at least locally.

Aaron
Generally not after a Varys, though.

Alex
But what can we do post-Varys with Naval?

If it keeps us down it’s not particularly great.

Aaron
True.

Alex
We need to capitalize by coming out stronger, so I like following with FFF for gold and initiative or with 2 claim since it probably wins initiative against a gold plot. and we could even go first that round to push the 2 claim.

But we may not have military icons, etc. so that’s maybe not ideal

Aaron
Know what we could do that’d be awesome?

Alex
Nope, but I like the sound of this.

Aaron
But we’d have to edit the draw deck.

Alex
Haha, that’s what we get for not building plots first.

Aaron
Muster the Realm?

Alex
Not enough armies, only the 2 knights, the only others we can add are Tyrell and they are STR 3.

We could add Wildling Horde, which I like.

Aaron
Ah, Palace Spearmen aren’t armies?

Alex
Nope, much to my chagrin that trait got cut in playtesting somewhere along the way.

Probably Schoenthal’s fault — not thematic enough or whatever.

Aaron
Then forget that idea.

How about Calm to play on a First Snow turn?

Alex
Yes, probably necessary. It also lets us play one of our top end characters.

So the 5 you mentioned first, Calm, and Favor? Counting? Winds? Second Marched?

Aaron
Clash or Ranger’s Cache are the final other ideas.

Alex
I have found Ranger’s Cache to be too slow for my tastes, but maybe I haven’t built for it properly, or I should just go in to my games with the mindset of opening with it.

I never play it because I want something immediately.

Aaron
I think I like Calm best. Good for FSoW or Varys.

Hmm, what about Building Orders?

Alex
Building is good with the other attachments, too.

Aaron
Get a Ghaston or Milk. But I think Fallen from Favor is in.

Alex
Oh, then FFF and Calm make 7.

Aaron
So now I’m rethinking. Building or Calm?

Alex
That’s tough. I think we may really want Calm on the FSoW turn, but it does nothing against Mirri.

Aaron
Let’s go Calm. I’d err on the side of economy.

Alex
Probably wise, but building for GG or Milk solves a lot of problems.

Aaron
True…

Alex
Are you sure we want FFF still if Calm is included?

Aaron
Yes, we def need a native way to play Varys.

Alex
Okay, and sacrificing our own to play Varys only matters in regards to claim soak, since we trigger him anyway.

Aaron
Yes.

Alex
Then let’s go risky and play Building.

Aaron
I’m with it.

Alex
A Ghaston keeps them from challenging on the FSoW turn anyway.

Aaron
If we run Building, I want a third His Viper Eyes.

Alex
Since GG will be more reliable, you want to discard that character more reliably too?

Aaron
Nods.

Alex
Agreed, what to cut? Sunspear completely?

Aaron
No, you wanted extra power gain; that’s what Sunspear is.

Boneway too, and 2 different ways protects from Stark.

Alex
Also, I like Quentyn with Marge.

Just thinking about it makes me happy.

Aaron
You know that Maester you don’t like?

He just got cut.

Alex
Okay, we good?

Aaron
Yup — good deck.

Alex
Any tips or tricks for it you want to include?

Aaron
Be Sam Braatz.


The final list can be found on ThronesDB.

Thanks for reading. If you have any suggestions for future builds or just want to talk decks sometime, hit us up on the various media.

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