I always find Night’s Watch to be one of the harder factions to build decks for, I’m not sure why. They strike me as the… most unorthodox faction, if that makes any sense? Anyways. When considering how to build a Vargo-Shagwell deck for them, luckily, there is one big standout card that we can jump right to, and that’s MoD Jon Snow, the version with a power icon. With the potential to get three useful keywords all together on one body, I’m practically obligated to build the deck around him.
And the nice thing about it is that he doesn’t need that much support in order to “work,” you just have to run some cheap guys with the three different traits, which isn’t very different from how you would build most decks anyways. That means, even after throwing in fools and Jon Snow, there is still room for some more stuff in the deck, including the core set Wall as another strategy to pursue if the situation calls for it.
The Night's Watch A Mummer's Farce Plots 1x At the Gates (At the Gates) 1x Close Call (True Steel) 1x Here to Serve (Taking the Black) 1x Outwit (Fury of the Storm) 2x Supporting the Faith (Core Set) 1x Valar Dohaeris (The Archmaester's Key) Characters 3x Begging Brother (Oberyn's Revenge) 1x Benjicot (As High as Honor) 1x Gilly (Guarding the Realm) 3x Highgarden Jester (The Blackwater) 1x Jinglebell (Hear My Words) 3x Jon Snow (Music of Dragons) 1x Maester Aemon (Core Set) 1x Maester Mullin (Pit of Snakes) 2x Old Forest Hunter (Core Set) 1x Old Tattersalt (Hear My Words) 3x Patchface (The Brotherhood Without Banners) 1x Penny (The March on Winterfell) 2x Satin (Watchers on the Wall) 2x Shadow Tower Mason (There Is My Claim) 3x Shagwell (Hear My Words) 3x Vargo Hoat (Forgotten Heroes) Locations 1x Blackbird (Beneath the Red Keep) 2x Castle Black (Bran the Builder) 1x Gates of the Moon (Journey to Oldtown) 1x Great Hall (Redesigns) 1x Mole's Town (Kingsmoot) 2x The Highroad (As High as Honor) 2x The Iron Bank (Redesigns) 2x The Kingsroad (Core Set) 2x The Wall (Core Set) 3x Underground Vault (The Fall of Astapor) Attachments 3x Craven (Called to Arms) 1x Defensive Debris (As High as Honor) 1x Guard Duty (Pit of Snakes) 1x Longclaw (Core Set) 2x Sworn to the Watch (Watchers on the Wall) Events 2x The Crow is a Tricksy Bird (Someone Always Tells) 2x Unbridled Generosity (The Brotherhood Without Banners)
Since the deck only has Jon Snow and Vargo Hoat as its “big” characters, I felt okay to forego Loan from the Iron Bank as the restricted card, and instead use Castle Black. In addition to being a nasty card in its own right, Castle Black can provide a way to stand fools, or to stand one of the deck’s big tricons, in combination with Sworn to the Watch (which also goes with Jon Snow). If you wanted more money you could probably do fine with Late Summer Feast, but when I noticed the deck’s lack of any need for challenge phase gold, I decided to go with double Supporting the Faith.
Night’s Watch has a premier reset counter available in The Crow is a Tricksy Bird, so of course we must include this in the deck. This is supported by a couple Highroads, which can be fetched with Old Tattersalt and/or At the Gates. The ability to force the opponent’s plot selection means that we should also include the ability to cancel it with Outwit, and Night’s Watch has a couple very serviceable maesters in Aemon and Mullin.
For the chumps supporting Jon, Satin provides a combo similar to Castle Black, and Shadow Tower Mason is a good all purpose guy. Old Forest Hunter is the only usable 2 cost ranger here and his ability can also enable The Crow is a Tricksy Bird if you use it in Taxation phase then the following Plot phase. Gilly is a borderline meme card who provides more stealth and goes with bestow. But could just as well be Three-Finger Hobb or something.
Mole’s Town is a nice card to use with bestow, Guard Duty is another borderline card that provides more stands, Longclaw provides renown, and Defensive Debris is an experimental choice I made when I noticed that it also goes with bestow. In hindsight I realize that it’s a bit of anti-synergy with Supporting the Faith, but I’m glad it’s a card I noticed. I want to keep it in mind for further experimentation. Lastly we have the ever-present Craven.
Honestly, I didn’t have Craven in the deck at first, and it feels a bit scummy putting it in. But it’s one of those cases where the extra effectiveness provided is just so much it’s difficult to ignore. Besides, I already managed to cram in basically everything else that I wanted the deck to do, and then some. If you want more meme and less winrate, replace it with a couple Journey to Oldtown and one of something else. Games:
1. Win vs Stark Red Door The Crag: This match was basically just trying to defend military challenges from Alysane and whatever other dudes happened to be around to help her. The opponent used 2x A Storm of Swords and racked up a sizeable power lead, but I eventually made a board that was too large to get through. He used Mad King’s Command on the last turn and I still had enough to defend as Eddard had Craven. I drew all 3 Cravens in this match and it would probably be a loss without that card.
2. Win vs Lannister Alliance Stag Qohor: He conceded when I put Craven on his buffed up Pylos. Strike two for Craven I guess.
3. Win vs Tyrell Aloof and Apart: One of those mystery concedes, although in this case the opponent didn’t even concede before leaving. He had a nice big board with multiple big characters but still just up and left on plot 2.
4. Lose vs Greyjoy Fealty: The opponent got a full board clear on turn 2 with The First Snow of Winter. Since Vargo and Jon are the only characters in the deck above 3 cost, that’ll happen.
5. Win vs Lannister Red Door Tower of the Hand: This was a clansman aggro deck. I screwed up on turn one and ate a 3 claim intrigue (2 claim + Gunthor Son of Gurn) which was really painful. But, I had many dupes to ignore military claim. I did plot 2 Here to Serve and plot 3 Outwit to cancel Valar Morghulis leading the opponent to concede.
6. Win vs Baratheon Aloof and Apart: I figured I was going to lose this early on as I was stalled by Selyse and then hit with Mad King’s Command, while the opponent sat on table and chair. But I got Castle Black to stop the table, and dominated challenges after that with a Vargo (wearing multiple attachments including Sworn to the Watch) + Shagwell + Satin combo. Mole’s Town was used on Robert Baratheon to gain intimidate and renown on Shagwell.
7. Lose vs Greyjoy Kings of Summer: A close game that I lost due to a bad choice on initiative—I still picked the opponent to go first, when I knew I could marshal Jon with intimidate and Satin. D’oh! I also used The Crow is a Tricksy Bird to make him not use Valar Morghulis, which may have been a mistake as he had few cards in hand and no dupes.
8. Lose vs Targaryen Fealty: Yep.
9. Win vs Greyjoy Mummer’s Farce: Fools mirror match! The opposing deck seemed to be normal Greyjoy + fools, similar to my own list. Big characters were controlled by Craven and Maester Mullin, Valar Morghulis was canceled by Outwit, and Vargo Hoat went Super Saiyan with 3 attachments and Satin again.
10. Win vs Targaryen Assault from the Shadows: A win against Targ! Supporting the Faith ruined his turn 2 Blood of the Dragon, and because he is Assault, he can’t get around it, compared to Fealty which can still use Dracarys during Supporting the Faith. I also had Tricksy Bird to force turn 3 Valar Morghulis which he probably knew would be canceled as he went ahead and conceded.
So 7-3 overall, pretty good. The losses to burn and First Snow are to be expected I think, with the third loss against Greyjoy probably being winnable if I played better. I was also excited to score a rare win against Targaryen thanks to Supporting the Faith and Tricksy Bird. This was one of my favorite decks that I’ve made with this agenda, it has a lot of fun combos and I think the concept for it was relatively unique. Funnily enough, Vargo Hoat ended up popping off more than Jon Snow in these test games, just due to draw luck/circumstance.
Next deck.
The weenies deck for Night’s Watch is also one of the more unique among the sixteen, I think, though it’s some sort of attrition/aggro deck so I’m not as partial to it. I’m not sure how or why I had the instinct to combine fools with stewards, but that was my immediate idea here. I didn’t expect it to work very well but found myself surprised that it was actually very effective, or at least far more effective than I initially would have thought.
This deck went through a good bit of revisions and tinkering due to its overall weirdness, though the core concept remained the same. The first thing you might notice is that the deck is 70 cards instead of 60. The reason for this is that there were more tools I wanted to include in the deck, and at the same time, I found myself losing due to being decked multiple times. With the deck’s massive potential draw power, I think some number above 60 is justified, though maybe 70 is too high.
Obviously, some people will probably find the idea of a 70 card deck preposterous, and I myself am normally too OCD to ever go a single card over 60, so by all means; cut wherever you feel that you can if you wanted to make your own iteration of this deck.
The Night's Watch A Mummer's Farce Plots 1x At the Gates (At the Gates) 1x Close Call (True Steel) 1x Exchange of Information (The Shadow City) 1x Marched to the Wall (Core Set) 1x The Annals of Castle Black (Redesigns) 1x The Crone (Hear My Words) 1x Valar Dohaeris (The Archmaester's Key) Characters 3x Benjicot (As High as Honor) 1x Citadel Archivist (Kings of the Isles) 1x Dolorous Edd (Called to Arms) 3x Highgarden Jester (The Blackwater) 3x Jinglebell (Hear My Words) 3x Owen the Oaf (City of Secrets) 3x Patchface (The Brotherhood Without Banners) 3x Penny (The March on Winterfell) 2x Recruiter for the Watch (The Fall of Astapor) 3x Samwell Tarly (Core Set) 3x Satin (Watchers on the Wall) 1x Septon Cellador (Someone Always Tells) 3x Shagwell (Hear My Words) 3x Steward at the Wall (Core Set) 3x Three-Finger Hobb (Redesigns) Locations 1x Gates of the Moon (Journey to Oldtown) 2x Isle of Ravens (There Is My Claim) 3x The Highroad (As High as Honor) 3x The Roseroad (Core Set) 3x Underground Vault (The Fall of Astapor) Attachments 2x A Pinch of Powder (In Daznak's Pit) 2x Lord Steward (Hear My Words) Events 3x "The Rat Cook" (The Archmaester's Key) 3x Lay Waste (Dragons of the East) 3x Mutiny At Craster's Keep (Oberyn's Revenge) 2x Take the Black (Core Set) 3x Tears of Lys (Core Set) 2x The Crow is a Tricksy Bird (Someone Always Tells)
As mentioned above, there is a really high potential draw power here, and part of that is the choice of Exchange of Information as a restricted card. After poring over the restricted list multiple times I settled on it as the best choice to get some of the powerful events and attachments into your hand. Even then, the deck draws so much that it’s only a one-of. If I had to pick a different restricted, Castle Black would probably be fine, or just going with none wouldn’t be crazy. But I’m OCD so I have to have a restricted card. You know how it is.
With 22 one strength characters in the deck (counting duplicates), The Crone is exceptionally strong as a reset-preventer. This is the reason I focus on dupes of one strength stewards instead of including a wider range of stewards. As you can see, the deck is event-heavy and with enough of the right events, can often completely control the opponent’s board state by removing characters or stealing them. This makes the Annals of Castle Black very powerful, and Isle of Ravens can be used to prevent the opponent from benefiting from the plot.
Lord Steward is probably the card that initially caught my eye as a way to combine fools and stewards, with the combo of Satin standing a Lord Steward fool. Along with Mr. Pinchy, Owen the Oaf is incredibly powerful for activating these attachments, which is why he is included at 3x. It is quite common for an opponent to have zero strength with which they can oppose an Owen intrigue. Without him, I might cut Mr. Pinchy.
Between all of the different removal effects and the ever-obnoxious Recruiter for the Watch, there are decent odds of dismantling whatever board you find yourself faced with. And if you can’t, you can defend while whittling around the edges until there is an opening.
1. Win vs Stark Fealty: Multiple Mutinies and Rat Cooks were drawn right away which the opponent could not maintain a board against. He didn’t seem to have any reset either.
2. Win vs Targaryen Rains of Castamere: This was a House Arryn deck with seemingly random Targaryen cards thrown in. The opponent brought 7 cost Littlefinger in for 1 gold using As High as Honor, but didn’t seem to have much else going on. Bronze Yohn Royce lasted one turn before dying to Tears of Lys. When I did Annals with, once again, multiple copies of Mutiny and Rat Cook in the discard, the opponent understandably conceded. Isle of Ravens was handy to remove the opponent’s events before using Annals.
3. Win vs Greyjoy Banner of the Stag: This was a Smugglers deck. My board size quickly dwarfed his, and I played The Crone onto his First Snow of Winter, which is very nice to pull off. His next plot was Valar Morghulis which killed like 8 of my guys or something, but I still had 3 more to immediately marshal out. Septon Cellador was used several times, and on one turn caused Balon Greyjoy to be discarded.
4. Win vs Tyrell Dark Wings Dark Words: The opponent set up Randyll by himself who was Marched. He marshaled only a duped Orton Merryweather, leading to plot 2 his Valar Morghulis vs my The Crone. I had 4 characters protected by the Crone so he scooped.
5. Win vs Night’s Watch Rains of Castamere: Not sure what to say other than just a very dominant game. Opponent’s board was constantly controlled by many stealing effects. The Crone blocked Valar Morghulis. After Morghulis my board got so large that even Great Ranging was stolen by Rat Cook/Lord Steward. Choice of deck size and inclusion of Citadel Archivist were well justified as my draw deck was down to 8 cards at one point before using Marched to the Wall to activate Citadel Archivist.
6. Win vs Night’s Watch Prince That Was Promised: This deck chose Samwell Tarly as its Prince, so it was also a Steward deck, although a very different kind. The opponent set up no characters and did plot 1 Valar Morghulis to kill my 4 chuds I had set up. In hindsight this should have been obvious because his setup was just a single Underground Vault with nothing else, which thoroughly confused me until he revealed his plot. Regardless, I get the idea, and he did dodge The Crone by doing this. But he fell victim to the usual things anyways. Mutinies to get rid of bigs, a huge board of chumps with no resets to use on them anymore since turn 1 was Valar, and Mr. Pinchy triggered every turn.
7. Win vs Martell Aloof and Apart: The opponent’s small characters were removed by Recruiter for the Watch + Marched to the Wall, leaving them with 3 bigs for Valar Dohaeris. Tricksy Bird was used to make them reveal their own Marched, leaving them to concede as they would soon run out of characters.
8. Lose vs Greyjoy Kings of Winter: I think this one might have been pilot error because I chose on plot 2 to use Marched to the Wall to remove duped Fishwhiskers instead of using The Crone against the very predictable First Snow of Winter. Fishwhiskers is a pain, but I ended up losing, so lesson learned I guess.
9. Lose vs Tyrell Aloof and Apart: Another loss to turn 2 First Snow of Winter. Slightly less predictable than Greyjoy Winter, but I think the lesson is the same.
10. Lose vs Baratheon Kings of Summer: This deck had both Hand’s Judgment and Privileged Position, nullifying all my events. It might be winnable if they don’t have small characters to protect from Marched to the Wall or something, but yeah, 6 event cancels is bad for this deck!
Notably, I never ran into Targaryen, not typical Targaryen at least. Any regular Targaryen deck is probably death. The things I died to were First Snow and a bunch of event cancel which I think are both obvious points of failure. But outside of that, the deck had quite a strong performance and does well against a lot of different things. I am conflicted on it, I like it because it is a weird deck, but I also don’t like it because it’s kind of an attrition-y deck. I think this is the only deck I made that has neither bestow support for Shagwell nor Florian and Jonquil. Blame Night’s Watch having too many “no attachments except weapon” characters.
Stark is up next!