Welcome to another Two Guys, One Deck. This week we put together a Greyjoy deck for the first time together. We also had this conversation over two weeks ago and forgot to account for the new cards coming in The King’s Peace. So at the end I will comment on a couple adjustments we made once we realized our blunder.
Alex
Let’s build Greyjoy.
Aaron
We should use Banner of the Lion, because Lannister!
Alex
This should be fun.
It is possible there was more to this decision, but this is a good summary.
Aaron
Let’s start with the Lannister cards and then go from there.
Alex
I like Widow’s Wail – it’s hilarious on Balon.
Aaron
Yeah, let’s do that.
Alex
So, Lion Banner: we want the 3 Merchant, 2 Hound, 3 Tyrion, 2 Jaime, and 2 Widow’s Wail (I always like 2).
Aaron
I’m in for all of those.
Alex
Do we want to go more than the minimum 12?
Or should we move on to Greyjoy and see what happens?
We could add Tickler and/or Joff to get Treachery, which helps with Nymeria.
Aaron
2 Brothel Madame – they help pay for events. I don’t think we have room for Treachery.
Alex
Yes, Madame is in.
Aaron
I just don’t see treachery making it given the size of our event base.
Alex
Madame also helps fill the intrigue hole.
Treachery probably doesn’t fit, but it could replace Milk of the Poppy.
Aaron
I don’t think Milk of the Poppy makes it in, either.
Alex
Then we’ll come back to that. I have 14 Lannister cards – 12 characters and 2 Widow’s Wail.
Seem good for now?
Aaron
Yes. On to Greyjoy characters.
Alex
Okay. 3 Fishmonger.
Aaron
Ah, starting with low end of the curve. Definitely.
Alex
I usually build up to ensure good set-ups.
Aaron
3 Shipwright and 1 Wendy?
Alex
Yeah, but the Navigator can help win initiative, so I want to figure out if he’s worth including or not
Aaron
If we go first, Shipwright is great, and Wendy helps us get out our boats with Support.
I think we start with 2 Navigator and check for space.
Alex
Yes, I love the Shipwright. So 3 Shipwright, 2 Navigator, 1 Wendy.
How hard do you want to go on the Damphair strategy?
Aaron
I think we cut it entirely. Or run a 1-of – if we see it, great.
Alex
I kind of like going just 1 Damphair.
He’s worth a 1-of, because it can be pretty impactful, and if we get him early, people will try to get rid of him even though we don’t care.
Aaron
Agreed. I think we ignore Alannys.
Alex
Yep. We have Madame in that slot.
Black wind’s crew? Probably unneeded.
Aaron
Agreed, but Drowned Men seem good!
Alex
But if we need filler, the Crew is at least efficient.
Drowned Men are actually as good as they seem.
Aaron
Or are they not until after First Snow drops?
Alex
I reworked Jeremy’s Night’s Watch-Banner of the Kraken to be how I like.
Cut dupes of Theon and Asha to make room for Drowned Men and also threw in the Iron Fleet Scout. So good.
So, no, Drowned Men are good now, but even better after First Snow.
I think they’re worth using; never exactly sad to have them. Maybe 2?
Aaron
Let’s add 1 and go up or down depending on space.
Alex
Sure, we can throw in 1. I only want 1 Theon – maybe 2, he can speed things up.
There’s enough Targ around that makes Theon a bit lackluster.
Aaron
I like 2 Theon.
Alex
I can be talked into it. He’s great for speed.
Aaron
If they use a Dracarys! on him, I’m fine.
And if not, he really does gather power quickly.
Alex
Rattleshirt’s Raiders?
Aaron
Ah, neutrals. I think 2. With that and We Do Not Sow, can we skip Confiscation?
Alex
Definitely. It also helps to enable the Raiding Longship and Seastone Chair – get rid of those Noble Lineages I’m attempting to flood the meta with.
2 Asha, 2 Syrio, 2 Reader, and 3 balon puts us at 36 characters, but really top-heavy
Aaron
1 Syrio. We have a ton of Stealth. Agreed on the others.
Alex
Yep, that makes sense.
And only Tyrion is big dude without a military icon already.
Alex
2 Syrio is better in Martell and Daenerys decks – not as good, here.
Aaron
I think we cut Drowned Men for a third Salty.
Alex
Yep, but I am sad about it; the Drowned Men are pretty awesome, surprisingly so.
We’ll make that work post-First Snow
Aaron
Yeah, post-First Snow the world changes.
Add 2 Seal?
Alex
Sure. Pricey, but game-winning.
Do you like any other attachments? I would only consider Bodyguard or Milk of the Poppy.
Throwing Axe is a possibility as well, but I’m not sure how much value we get from it.
Aaron
I don’t think I’d bother. We’ll have a big location base.
Alex
Combined with Stealth, it can create some tough situations, but yeah.
Let’s do locations and then come back.
3 Kingsroad, 3 Roseroad.
Sea Tower or Western Fiefdom at all? Probably 2 Sea Tower.
Aaron
2 Sea Tower.
3 Roseroad, 3 Kingsroad, 2 Great Kraken, 2 Seastone.
Those seem obvious.
Alex
Definitely.
2 Raiding Longship?
Aaron
2 seems right. I see people running 3, though. Thoughts?
Alex
I don’t want 3; that just seems like too many.
Are we using Support of the People?
Aaron
2 I think.
They (the ships) do stack really well, though.
Alex
Well, I’d rather have space for Iron Fleet Scout – our cost curve is pretty high by adding Tyrion and Jaime to Greyjoy.
Aaron
I don’t think we can fit scouts. Let’s do events and come back?
Alex
Okay.
Aaron
We’re only adding 1 high coster by cutting Euron.
Alex
I just mean I’d rather have 1 scout over a third Longship if it comes down to that.
Well, we don’t have a good middle, and The Reader and Syrio are in the deck now, too.
We’ve got some fat to trim.
Aaron
Ah, we do.
Alex
3 Sword, 2 Sow, 2 Support puts us at 60.
Aaron
We NEED 3 Hand’s Judgement.
Alex
Yep, so we gotta cut.
Aaron
1 Theon, Syrio?
Alex
Those are the 2 most likely cuts, which puts us at 33 characters.
Ah, but what about more singles? 1 Asha, 1 Reader, 1 Syrio, 1 Theon.
Keep Syrio in – those three dupes give us 3 HJs.
Aaron
I dont think so.
Asha and Reader are just better and more easily reduced.
Alex
Sure, but do we go down to singles of them anyway for more space?
Aaron
We can cut 1 Rattleshirt.
We can go 1 Theon, 1 Syrio, 1 Rattleshirt.
You okay running Confiscation?
Alex
Yeah, I can run Confiscation. I still cut Syrio to be at 60.
Aaron
Works for me. But I always run 61.
Plots?
Alex
Hold on a second.
You made a point about asking how we deal with Nymeria earlier, and our answer was Milk.
So…what is our answer in this deck?
Aaron
We shouldn’t be as reliant on Balon with Banner of the Lion, so I’m less worried.
Alex
Okay, that makes sense.
Acceptable answer: diversify your options and Nymeria is less potent.
Do we still use Wildfire Assault in the deck?
Aaron
I think so.
Alex
Rise of the Kraken is in, though, yeah?
Confiscation likely necessary.
Note that Confiscation will most likely be played offensively to get rid of attachments on opposing characters in order to enable the use of Raiding Longship.
Aaron
I have 4 plots I know are in: Confiscation, Rise, Summons, Sneak.
After that, I’m all ears.
Alex
It sucks that we want to go first, because we could really benefit from 2 Noble.
I think Clash of Kings could make sense as well.
I guess it is important to mention to readers that Sneak Attack would not be an opener.
Many people used to play this as an aggressive opener with good gold, especially in Greyjoy, but the low reserve value and ability to only make one challenge is pretty stifling. Our intention for the plot in this deck is to use as a “finisher” for a two claim power challenge.
Aaron
Sneak cannot be an opener, which means Calm is and should be in the deck.
Alex
Yeah, or Noble.
Aaron
Marched?
Wildfire?
Alex
Without Noble we can’t guarantee playing Jaime and/or Balon without drawing economy.
Aaron
Or Trading and Wildfire?
Alex
Okay, common openers are Calm, Noble, Trading, Naval, and Summons.
Do you see any others from people as opening plots?
Other than Naval, Calm can win initiative.
Normally we’d tie an opposing Calm on the first turn, but if we have a Kingsroad or Salty Navigator out, we win.
Aaron
None really.
Alex
Then let’s use Calm.
Aaron
Agreed.
Alex
1x Calm Over Westeros
1x Confiscation
1x Rise of the Kraken
1x Sneak Attack
1x Summons
As for the last two, I think we have to use Noble or Trading to ensure we can play Balon/Jaime.
Aaron
I like Trading and Wildfire.
Trading to get out some stuff, then Wildfire it away.
Alex
Works for me.
When do you typically expect to use Summons?
Aaron
Turn 2 or 3.
Alex
Calm -> Summons -> Trading -> Wildfire -> Sneak/Rise/Confiscation
Talking about the theoretical order of plots is important, seeing as we’re taking a bit of a gamble in this deck by adding in Trading with the Pentoshi. Naval Superiority can be a great opener and is arguably even better as a turn 2 play, so a potential turn 3 Trading is just the point in the game where we’ve hopefully removed a few key characters and bait them into flooding the board with all the extra gold. We leave Sneak / Rise / Confiscation as options depending on whether or not we need to kill / close / play slow.
Aaron
Seems right.
Alex
Okay, and we can skip Summons until the end if we have characters we want already.
What do you think of Building Orders? I don’t know what it could replace, so it’s probably not going to make the deck.
Aaron
It’d be great, but space means nope.
It might save us attachment space for characters, too.
Alex
That’s true.
Aaron
Do we want to cut Seal for characters or is it good enough on Balon to not?
Alex
Seal is probably good enough on Balon to not, but the deck feels expensive to me, so I’m tempted to cut Seal.
If Baratheon is prevalent, then it would suck to cut it, especially with Wildfire in our plot deck.
I think we have to keep it in or we create a big weakness.
Aaron
We do have 10 gold to play with for a turn.
Alex
If it gets Navaled, then we’re a bit screwed. But that’s A Game of Thrones.
Thanks for reading this week’s Two Guys, One Deck. You can view the deck on ThronesDB or keep scrolling. Since we built this before The King’s Peace came out, we did get together and make a slight change to find room for Newly Made Lord. Aaron cut Lordsport Shipwright and Syrio for two copies of Newly Made Lord, if you were paying attention, you would know that I had already cut Syrio from my deck (for 60 cards), so I only replaced a Shipwright with Newly Made Lord, it may be worth finding another replacement to get two copies into the 60 card version.
Two Guys, One Deck: Greyjoy Banner of the Lion (#7)
Plots
1x Calm Over Westeros (Core Set)
1x Confiscation (Core Set)
1x Sneak Attack (Core Set)
1x Summons (Core Set)
1x Wildfire Assault (Core Set)
1x Rise of the Kraken (Taking the Black)
1x Trading with the Pentoshi (The Road to Winterfell)
Characters
1x Rattleshirt’s Raiders (Core Set)
1x Aeron Damphair (Core Set)
2x Asha Greyjoy (Core Set)
3x Balon Greyjoy (Core Set)
1x Maester Wendamyr (Core Set)
1x Theon Greyjoy (Core Set)
3x Iron Islands Fishmonger (Core Set)
2x Lordsport Shipwright (Core Set)
3x Salty Navigator (Core Set)
2x Ser Jaime Lannister (Core Set)
3x Tyrion Lannister (Core Set)
3x Lannisport Merchant (Core Set)
2x The Hound (Taking the Black)
2x Brothel Madame (The Road to Winterfell)
2x The Reader (The Road to Winterfell)
1x Newly-Made Lord (The King’s Peace)
Locations
3x The Kingsroad (Core Set)
3x The Roseroad (Core Set)
2x Great Kraken (Core Set)
2x Sea Tower (Core Set)
2x The Seastone Chair (Taking the Black)
2x Raiding Longship (The Road to Winterfell)
Attachments
2x Seal of the Hand (Core Set)
2x Widow’s Wail (Core Set)
Events
3x Put to the Sword (Core Set)
3x The Hand’s Judgment (Core Set)
2x We Do Not Sow (Core Set)
2x Support of the People (Taking the Black)