Fools in the North
Stark Mummers
Stark doesn’t really like building with a pseudo-banner agenda like Mummers, because it turns off all their “if all your characters are Stark” stuff like Old Gate, Bear Island Scout, etc. Despite that, I’m pretty happy with both of the Stark fools decks. Stark has some good stand effects and keyword characters to go with the agenda. The immediate idea for the big characters deck is using core set Robb Stark to potentially stand all of the fools in play.
The next thing that stood out to me is the new version of the Blackfish, the one that has both printed stealth and renown. He goes nicely with the Vargo/Shagwell combo. Using bestow cards also gives us a chance to bring back Flea Bottom, a card which used to be a Stark staple before its redesign, and is still plenty good if you can support it.
House Stark A Mummer's Farce Plots 1x A Time For Wolves (Wolves of the North) 1x At the Gates (At the Gates) 1x Close Call (True Steel) 2x Late Summer Feast (All Men Are Fools) 1x Return to the Fields (Redesigns) 1x The Withering Cold (Kingsmoot) Characters 2x Arya Stark (Core Set) 3x Begging Brother (Oberyn's Revenge) 1x Benjicot (As High as Honor) 2x Bran Stark (Core Set) 1x Harwin (Forgotten Heroes) 3x Highgarden Jester (The Blackwater) 2x Hodor (No Middle Ground) 1x Hot Pie (For Family Honor) 2x Jeyne Poole (Watchers on the Wall) 1x Jinglebell (Hear My Words) 1x Lady (Bran the Builder) 1x Meera Reed (Redesigns) 3x Patchface (The Brotherhood Without Banners) 1x Penny (The March on Winterfell) 1x Reek (Hear My Words) 3x Robb Stark (Core Set) 1x Sansa Stark (Core Set) 1x Ser Dontos Hollard (House of Thorns) 3x Shagwell (Hear My Words) 3x Smallfolk Mob (The Blackwater) 1x Summer (Core Set) 3x The Blackfish (For the Realm) 3x Vargo Hoat (Forgotten Heroes) Locations 2x Flea Bottom (Redesigns) 1x Gates of the Moon (Journey to Oldtown) 1x Great Hall (Redesigns) 3x Northern Armory (The Shadow City) 2x Street of Silk (True Steel) 2x The Iron Bank (Redesigns) 3x The Roseroad (Core Set) Attachment 1x Nymeria (Wolves of the North) Event 2x Unbridled Generosity (The Brotherhood Without Banners)
The deck ended up being very character heavy, which I think is appropriate whenever you’re planning to kill or sacrifice your own guys. When combining this with a Mummers deck where you want to be able to maintain a wide board and not have to kill your fools for claim or whatever, this definitely means you want to have plenty of cannon fodder to go around. Originally I had The North Remembers in this deck, but I found it to be unhelpful and unnecessary.
Instead, I am pleased to say I found a deck where I think Street of Silk fits perfectly. Maybe it should only be one copy instead of two. But, with 13 characters of the deck being ally or companion, including the important Robb activator Smallfolk Mob, it’s a nice addition. The characters in the deck are fools, bestow cards, Robb/Blackfish, and small uniques to go with Smallfolk Mob. Flea Bottom goes well with these sacrificial weenies, especially Summer and Arya.
Yes, I also put Hot Pie in the deck, because he’s a Companion, and he allows you to use your Companion weenies as economy. He should probably be Rickon instead, I forgot about Rickon for some reason. But if ever there was a deck to actually use Hot Pie, I think he’s decent enough in this one. Just unfortunate that he isn’t a Stark himself. Harwin is fun, but you need to be careful when him and Shagwell are in play together, as he can discard your agenda attachments if his “No attachments except Warhorse” keyword is passed around.
Oh, and Nymeria the attachment, cause it brings intimidate into the mix and can be fetched with the wolves plot if you already drew Summer or something.
Unfortunately core Robb is restricted, so I can’t use Loans here, but money is still very necessary, so I just slapped in Late Summer Feasts as a semi-lazy solution. I think I had one Feast and one Trading with the Pentoshi at first, and I can’t remember why I changed it to two Feasts. It certainly could just be one of each. You could also consider things like A Noble Cause, or even Marching Orders with how character heavy the deck is. But I think my experience was that it’s a deck where you don’t care about giving the opponent a couple more cards as long as you can afford your combo stuff.
The Withering Cold goes with Robb, and you can use Return to the Fields for a guaranteed trigger afterwards if you need it. Return to the Fields is also a card you can play when people play resets. Close Call and Time for Wolves are pretty standard. I think the deck is fine to have no reset as it doesn’t seem suited to any of them, but if you had to have one, maybe Valar Dohaeris since you can try to keep a lot of weenies and lean on your fools if you needed to use it. Games:
1. Lose vs Baratheon Alliance Lannister Targaryen: This was a 7 cost Gregor Voltron deck that had everything on turn one. Probably beatable if you just draw a Begging Brother or something.
2. Win vs Night’s Watch Rains of Castamere: A steward deck that conceded on turn 2 despite having Great Ranging, The Wall, Aemon, and some more things in play. I was doing well in that particular challenges phase but still a bit of a premature concede in my opinion. Oh well.
3. Lose vs Targaryen The Long Voyage: Duped 5 cost Daenerys —> Valar Morghulis —> Burn events.
4. Win vs Tyrell Brotherhood Without Banners: This was a knights deck. The opponent used Highgarden Courtiers to good effect to get an early lead, however, the table turned when Reek came out to steal Beric Dondarrion who had 4 power on him. This prompted him to use Dohaeris, to which I kept all my fools, played more, and gave them all stealth and renown with Shagwell to win.
5. Win vs Targaryen Conclave: This looked like another burn deck? I mostly saw maesters, dragons, and burn events. But this one either didn’t draw 5 cost Daenerys or wasn’t running her, so he just did Valar Morghulis and then conceded when I still had characters.
6. Win vs Baratheon Banner of the Wolf: This was an interesting deck that had several different effects it was trying to abuse. It used core set Eddard, the Wolf King, and some other stand cards (4 cost Storm’s End, I think that’s what it’s called) in combination with The Withering Cold and King in the North. I never drew Robb who would have been huge in this game. Without him the opponent had a far more efficient board as Eddard (who also had Little Bird) could do so much work by himself. The opponent got far ahead early and I felt that I would likely lose, however, they were stalled at 14. I made an absolutely gigantic board and barely clawed back the win on turn 7. Just like my deck, his had no resets!
7. Lose vs Lannister Rains of Castamere: This felt more like a game against Martell Hollow Hill. The opponent used Valar Dohaeris, Valar Morghulis, and Mad King’s Command, and largely sat for 10 plots until repeated use of those eventually removed most of my deck. I screwed up by playing my second Late Summer Feast into Mad King’s Command, expecting Morghulis (which was instead used as the next plot I think). If I didn’t do that maybe there was a chance? But every trigger in the deck is prevented by Alchemists’ Guildhall and Casterly Rock + Begging Brother, so it would still be very difficult.
8. Win vs Tyrell Kingdom of Shadows: I braced myself for a reset heavy game here but in 4 plots I didn’t see any. I find it hard to believe that he seriously didn’t have any. Maybe he was trying to save it for as long as possible but if so, he waited 1 turn too long as I closed the game on plot 4 with a huge board and many renowns.
9. Lose vs Tyrell White Book: This opponent made a gigantic board right away with many large characters. I wonder if he knew I didn’t have any resets or just didn’t care? Either way, this was a case where one could have helped, as their board was way too much bigger than mine to do much, and they showed no qualms about dumping their hand with no saves. I would have benefited a lot from Begging Brothers or Vargo/Unbridled, but drew none of any of them unfortunately.
10. Win vs Greyjoy Rains of Castamere: I got pretty lucky here as the opponent’s first turn had them with only Qarl the Maid, Begging Brother, and Eager Deckhand despite starting with Late Summer Feast. They drew tons of locations but not any of Greyjoy’s patented big scary characters. They did a premature (in my opinion) turn 2 Valar Morghulis even though I only had 4 smaller characters to his 3, which meant I could then do double Late Summer Feast and flood with no worries of resets.
6-4, so winning overall, although by the smallest margin given that the sample size is only ten. Looking at the losses, one was being overpowered by a deck that made a bigger board faster, two were burn/reset spam which are expected, and one I think the other guy just drew the nuts. So out of these, having a reset *maybe* could have saved the first one, but we have to weigh that against having a Valar Morghulis that we probably don’t want in any of the other matches. So, I think the deck is still pretty much fine as is. I liked this one, my favorite decks are this kind that do combos between different characters for powerful effects.
Weenie time.
While losing Alysane hurts, other than that, Stark is obviously well equipped to make a weenie aggro deck:
House Stark A Mummer's Farce Plots 1x A Time For Wolves (Wolves of the North) 1x False Spring (Sands of Dorne) 1x The Long Winter (Wolves of the North) 1x Valar Dohaeris (The Archmaester's Key) 2x Winter Festival (Called to Arms) 1x Winter Reserves (Music of Dragons) Characters 3x Arya Stark (Core Set) 3x Begging Brother (Oberyn's Revenge) 1x Benjicot (As High as Honor) 1x Harwin (Forgotten Heroes) 3x Highgarden Jester (The Blackwater) 1x Jinglebell (Hear My Words) 1x Lady (Bran the Builder) 2x Meera Reed (Redesigns) 1x Old Bill Bone (In Daznak's Pit) 1x Osha (Wolves of the North) 3x Patchface (The Brotherhood Without Banners) 3x Penny (The March on Winterfell) 3x Sansa Stark (Wolves of the North) 2x Septa Mordane (True Steel) 3x Ser Dontos Hollard (House of Thorns) 3x Shagwell (Hear My Words) 2x Summer (Core Set) Locations 1x Gates of the Moon (Journey to Oldtown) 2x Harrenhal (Ghosts of Harrenhal) 3x Northern Keep (The Brotherhood Without Banners) 2x The Iron Bank (Redesigns) 3x The Roseroad (Core Set) 2x Tower of the Hand (Beneath the Red Keep) Events 2x "Florian and Jonquil" (Bran the Builder) 2x Poisoned Coin (Music of Dragons) 2x Shadow of the North (The Blackwater) 2x Unbridled Generosity (The Brotherhood Without Banners) 3x Winter Is Coming (Core Set)
This is one of the few decks where I used both the bestow package and Florian and Jonquil, maybe the only one. I think in hindsight maybe I wouldn’t use the bestow stuff, but the thought process was to do mass stealth spreading the keyword from Meera, Arya, or Penny. The reality is that was probably plenty of stealth already and the bestow stuff could be cut for Frozen Solid or Ice or whatever. Still, in spite of that blemish, the deck operated quite well I think.
I went with winter plots and Tower of the Hand for the potential to get extra fool stands, plus I knew I’d want to have winter plots to recur Meera in a deck like this anyways. Honestly, this is another aspect of the deck that I think wasn’t really worth it, although I was doing it to try and maximize agenda interactions. But the fact is that getting extra stands on these weenies from Tower of the Hand is too much trouble for too little value most of the time. You might still use the winter plots, but if so, probably replace Tower of the Hand with Karhold, or whatever else you might prefer.
Then we’ve got some aggro events and Osha because she’s nice if you manage to be-fool her I guess. I chose 2x Winter Festival because I prefer having more gold, but you could go for more 2 claim plots if you want to push the aggro angle even harder instead. I’m not sure which is actually better, or if there even is a right answer, but my instinct is that maybe the 2 claim angle would be better just because Winter Festival’s power gain gets disabled by Summer plots fairly often.
Again, I feel like my review of this deck is mostly saying all the mistakes I made in building it, but when it came to the games I played with it, it definitely held its own. Maybe if you implement the changes I contemplated above it’d really be a killer! Games:
1. Win vs Night’s Watch Conclave: This was a 6 cost wall deck that sat and did nothing. It looked like I would probably lose due to my deck running out, eventually, but then the opponent had to reveal Valar Morghulis as their final plot. This killed their entire board as they had no dupes, while I still had like 6 characters or something, having had the previous 6 plots to draw over 2/3 of my deck and thus dupe almost everything.
2. Win vs Night’s Watch Banner of the Kraken: A false banner deck that seemed based around mass stealth. Since my deck also had multiple guys with stealth I could prevent unopposed. Once I had a large enough board he did a predictable Morghulis to which I played Dohaeris so that my guys wouldn’t die. After that I played out a bunch more fools and won with multiple uses of Shadow of the North.
3. Win vs Night’s Watch Banner of the Lion: This appeared to be some kind of weird aggro deck, as he opened with Naval Superiority and played Tears of Lys + Put to the Sword on turn one, gaining gold from his set-up Tyrion and using the Hound for the 5 strength military win. But on turn two he only had Tyrion in play and I just did Time for Wolves à Summer to make another board with a couple dupes, and he conceded.
4. Win vs Greyjoy Sea of Blood: This deck started with core Balon to get some fast agenda triggers. I got hit with WDNS and Bloody Cup but the Cup didn’t hurt too much since my board was all 2 cost. Balon was murdered by Poisoned Coin; he was followed by Victarion who was nullified by Meera Reed, and the opponent’s board and hand were destroyed by claim raise military + intrigue challenges.
5. Win vs Lannister Trading With Qohor: This was a non-kneeling weenies deck with Anguy, Myrcella, Casterly Rock, and the kitty attachments. I am fond of this deck but alas the fools defeated it. The opponent’s hand destruction strategy (they also used The Spider’s Web) was completely countered by the Mummers agenda, since my fools can just “draw” cards that can’t be claimed for intrigue.
6. Lose vs Targaryen Valyrian Steel: I had bad draw luck in this game as I had zero locations until turn 3 or 4. The opponent generated a lot of power with Jhiqui and King version of Viserys. I had a chance if I could remove Viserys who had 8 power on him with Poisoned Coin, but unfortunately, I drew this event on the same turn that the opponent reached 15.
7. Win vs Tyrell Kingsguard: This was a fairly close game where I eventually overwhelmed the opponent by having too large of a board with multiple stealth and renown due to Shagwell. His deck ran Valar Dohaeris as his reset which did not work to his favor.
8. Win vs Lannister Rains of Castamere: This was a close game as the opponent used Wildfire Assault and Valar Morghulis to remove many characters on my side. After doing this he had a bigger board including Tywin and Cersei, but I had gotten enough power beforehand to close the game with Winter Festival.
9. Win vs Night’s Watch Aloof and Apart: I got a decent start in this game by killing Jon Snow with Poisoned Coin thanks to Penny. From there I killed most of the opponent’s board with claim raise and the other Poisoned Coin causing him to do Valar Morghulis. After that I made another very large board with many fools and closed with claim raise power challenges. The abundance of stealth prevented the Wall from being used.
10. Win vs Lannister Rains of Castamere: The opponent started with 7 cost Cersei and 2 cost Casterly Rock so I figured I might be in for a rough time. But I had plenty of chumps to defend and minimize the opponent’s power gain. I think plot 2 they did Trading with the Pentoshi and marshaled Tyrion and Tywin. Obviously this led to me revealing Valar Dohaeris as plot 3, while the opponent did… Valar Morghulis, with no saves on their side and 3 on mine. I have no idea what they were thinking but yeah that ended the game. Maybe it was a misclick.
So this deck went for a 9-1 run! The best that I have had so far I am pretty sure. Even the one game that I lost, I think was a winnable matchup, if the RNG gods favored me better. I don’t know, when I look at this deck on paper it doesn’t seem like anything special, but maybe in practice it was more than the sum of its parts? But again, we do have to note that the only Targ I faced was non-burn, and I never was hit with The First Snow of Winter. Either of those can probably easily kill this deck. But as far as weenie aggro goes, it seems pretty top-tier, I guess.