Merric Blackman
Australia
Waubra
Victoria
Ramping up my reviewing.
Happily playing games for many, many years.
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I've recently been playing a bit of A Game of Thrones LCG, just before the release of the somewhat disappointing Book 5 in the series. I'd picked up the core game some time ago and played it once or twice, but for this new attempt at the game, I bought the four deluxe expansions that were available: Queen of Dragons, Lords of Winter, Kings of the Storm and Kings of the Sea.
The first three sets have decklists that can be built with the expansion and one core set, but the last doesn't. So, with little experience with the game - and none with Greyjoy - I built the following list. I noticed afterwards that the plots aren't all from Kings of the Sea or the Core Set, so you would need to replace them with cards from (mostly) the core set if you don't have the deluxe sets I do.
This is likely not the best deck that you could play with the cards, but it's one I used to great effect in the two multiplayer (melee) games I've played with it.
All cards are Kings of the Sea unless marked otherwise.
Wardens of the Sea
Greyjoy House Card
No Agenda
Plot Deck
Blockade (core)
Rise of the Kraken
Many Powers Long Asleep (RoR)
The Power of Faith x2 (KotS)
Feast or Famine (KotS)
The King's Law (KotS)
Characters
Aeron Damphair x3
Asha Greyjoy
Balon Greyjoy x3
Dagmar Cleftjaw x3
Euron Crow's Eye x3
Maester Wendamyr
Randyl Tarly x2
Victarion Greyjoy x3
Drowned Disciple x3
Drumbeater
Priest of the Drowned God x2
Scurvy Cutthroat
Sea Raiders x2
Shae (core)
Locations
Aeron's Chambers
Bay of Ice x3
Bloody Keep x2
Gatehouse x2
Iron Island Fiefdoms x3
Longship Iron Victory
Scouting Vessel x3
Sunset Sea x3
The Iron Mines x3
Events
Assertion of Might x2
Retreat x2 (core)
Risen from the Sea x3
The Price of War
Attachments
Seafarer's Bow
Support of Harlaw
Comments on Play
So, how did it play? Rather well. It's won every game it's played - all three of them. How did it do so? By controlling initiative, by gaining extra power through events and characters, and by poor play by other players (well, one other).
The games of AGOT:LCG we played didn't go beyond four turns each, although each took about 90 minutes to play through - I'd dare say it would be quicker if we knew the cards better! During our most recent game, I was playing with Mick, who had the Knight deck of House Baratheon, Sarah, who had the Dragon deck of House Targaryen, and Garth, who was playing the Dire Wolf deck of House Stark, sitting in that order around the table.
The first couple of turns saw Mick bring out a lot of knights (gaining card advantage through his agenda), Garth bring out quite a few dire wolves, and cursing his agenda (which only let him claim power through Battle Challenges). Sarah, surprise, surprise, brought out a couple of dragons, although Dany was nowhere to be seen.
My second plot was Feast or Famine, which I took the Feast from - lots of gold for playing characters, but I couldn't initiate challenges. However, more importantly, it gave me the initiative. Mick was now first player... and I was able to take the role that stopped the dangerous Garth from attacking me with his dire wolves. As Sarah and Mick looked more dangerous (especially Mick with all his knights), Garth concentrated on them instead.
In the third round, The Power of Faith once again gave me the initiative, and my priests went on the attack: Aeron and a Priest of the Drowned God. (I really can't emphasise enough how good The Power of Faith was in this deck, even if non-core/KotS). Mick was first player, and no-one was quite ready to attack me (or I'd blocked them from attacking). Mick was too frightened to attack himself, so Sarah also passed and Garth attacked Mick instead. I took on Garth, and stole some of his power, with Euron Crow's Eye giving my attackers Stealth (and he was short of power icons in any case).
In the fourth and final round, I finally drew a scouting vessel. Rise of the Kraken came out as my plot card, and once again I won initiative. And Mick played Valar Morghulis, after it had been discarded as an option by Sarah. Unfortunately for Mick, I had one Iron Mines in play (well, two, but one had been Frozen Solid by Garth), plus a Risen from the Sea in hand, and two characters (Victarion + Aeron) with duplicates. The net result was that I hardly lost a character. Sarah likewise was fine with her duplicated dragons, but Garth and Mick lost all their troops...
...and from there, it was no trouble at all to, unopposed, win a couple more challenges, play Assertion of Might, and gain about 10 power to take the game.
Is this deck scary as to how much power it can gain quickly? Yes, it surely is. One of the key points as to why it did so well was its control of the initiative - Bay of Ice contributing there and giving card advantage as well.
Before this deck came along, Garth had been extremely successful with the Dragon deck, but now we have a new champion. I guess I need to modify some decks!
Suggested Adjustments to Deck
To make the deck playable with just 1 core set + Kings of the Sea, replace the "Retreat" with another Priest of the Drowned God, and use the following plot cards:
Blockade (core), Rise of the Kraken, Summoning Season (Core), Rains of Autumn (core), Valar Morghulis (core), Wildfire Assault (core), An Empty Throne
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Vytautas Kubilius
Lithuania
Vilnius
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20 locations - not too many? Havent played much yet, but I usually deck around 15-16... Dont you feel "flooded" with locations sometimes?
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Merric Blackman
Australia
Waubra
Victoria
Ramping up my reviewing.
Happily playing games for many, many years.
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Kubilius wrote: 20 locations - not too many? Havent played much yet, but I usually deck around 15-16... Dont you feel "flooded" with locations sometimes?
I still haven't played the game extensively yet myself, but the ship locations all pretty much count as a character with their ability to remove opposing characters from challenges (and other cool things).
I'm sure the deck could be better - I just don't get the chance to play that much. 
Cheers,
Merric
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Viktor Högquist
Sweden
Danderyd
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Kubilius wrote: 20 locations - not too many? Havent played much yet, but I usually deck around 15-16... Dont you feel "flooded" with locations sometimes?
personally I play more locations in a Greyjoy deck, relative to other decks.
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Ramping up my reviewing.
