The Lion, The Witch and The Viper - Rayleigh SC 5th

by ShiftyMcNinja Tue 24 Feb - 7:41

Vince asked me to write up the list when I was done with the deck to let people know just what goes into a current character light control build. I'll make this a pseudo TR for Rayleigh as well.

I originally wanted to build a Martell Hollow Hill deck and consulted my resident deck builder about the list I had. Rowan/Cobrabubbles was quick to point out that I had no reliable draw engine, especially now rivers are shit. So we abandoned Martell and moved into Lannister as it could at least provide some draw.

Now we have a house, Lannister, and an Agenda, Knight's of the Hollow Hill, the next thing I need for any deck is 3 copies of The Red Viper. The good one. Now we have that we need to draw some cards, thankfully Lannister provides some good options: 3x Golden Tooth Mines; 1x The Mander; 3x Doubting Septa; 3x Ashemark Knight. I was sceptical over the Septa and Knights, I like my control decks to be as close to 3 characters as possible, however Rowan insisted pointed out some sweet plays we could make with them and I agreed they could stay.

Once we have draw we need some more control elements, as we're Hollow Hill you immediately look at cards that require influence, Lannister doesn't have many in house options but the 2 they do have are pretty good, walk of shame was amazing every time I played it and Double Bluff is hilarious. After that you get Westeros Bleeds which is just insane and Favourable Ground which is always a good thing to have access to. I'm always a bug fan of Supported by the Smith when I'm playing Favourable Ground especially alongside Ashemark Knight as it lets me play sweet out of house locations. A single Judged by the Father to get back dead Vipers seems like a good place to be as I can be more aggressive with him this way. As for non-influence control elements you get Lannisport Brothel and The Iron Throne as locations wit repeatable uses. Event wise there is Harry the Riverlands, Questioned Claim, The Only Game That Matters, Secret Orders and Misinformation. The latter of which is amazing, especially in conjunction with the plot Shadow's and Spiders.

All that's left now is economy, obviously we can't play gold locations which is odd for Lannister, but we need influence, so we start with the normal ones 3x Sunset Sea, 3x Kingsroad Fiefdom, 3x Western Fiefdoms and Norvos. The Norvos is super improtant when playing the Viper out of house in Hollow Hill as it means he costs 5 and 90% of the plots you want to play are 3 gold plots, this plus the 2 from your agenda means you play him most of the time. Rowan convinced me to add a single Ashemark as well, this was good for a few reasons, 1 it let me reliably play the Viper more and 2 it gave me discard outlets for my out of house locations to then Supported them back.

Onto the out of house locations, originally we were playing quite a few but as the list was refined more and more it became apparent I would have to say bye to more of them, slowly we lost things like the Greyjoy boats, The Scourge and Great Wyk. In the end all that survived were a single Brightwater Keep for the amazing interaction with Ashemark and it's Knights and a single Pyre of the False Gods because I love event recursion in my control decks. While not locations, Freezing Rain was a major player and was out of house, I honestly believe all Hollow Hill decks should be playing at least 2 of these. i stole the idea off of Wedge and his Stahleck Targaryen Hollow Hill build, but it is so good, just dealing with problem locations and being able to move it was great, You can even start blanking gold locations in marshalling to choke your opponent at little to no cost.

As for plots Rowan made a case for all 3 reset plots as I ave little hard removal in the main deck and I agreed, however looking back on it the Wildfire was underwhelming. After that we knew we needed Shadows and Spiders to combo with out 3 Misinformation and Desolate Passage to combo with Questioned Claim and more likely Walk of Shame. After that I always like including atleast one 5 gold plot so that I can play the Viper without any other help, especially when he is the only win condition I have like in this deck. Rowan suggested Crossing the Ruby Ford and at first I thought he was crazy and we should just be playing Fury of the Lion, I was wrong Crossing did great work for me all day. That small piece of value can be huge,especially as this deck tends to stabilise wit the opponent on 12/13 power so nabbing one away is very helpful as it can equate to an extra turn or two. Tat left one slot left and I joked we should play A Task for the King to fetch Pyre/Keep as they were really sweet, I even realised that if we already had them we could even grab Norvos. After a few games of testing though I realised that this plot was very important because it could grab the Norvos and that most of the time you should indeed grab the Norvos as it provides you with the extra influence and allows you to play The Viper whenever you draw him.

That just left our restricted, Rowan and I were torn over what to play, there were lots of good choices, Pentoshi Manor as extra control, Pyromancer's Cache for extra draw, The Red Keep for extra influence, however all of the were deemed more of a luxury. We settled on Blessed by the Maiden firstly because I love the card and want it in every deck I play, secondly extra recursion is always helpful in this sort of deck and finally because in the days leading up to this people had been joking around with "Blessed by the Rheece" and had even mocked up an image for it. I felt obligated at that point.

So there we have it, the story of how I settled on the list, here is the list in full:

http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/gameofthrones/game-of-thrones-deck-share?p=28325&deck=gotdeck_54e5074ee01b6

As for my games the first 3 were pretty simple: Round 1 I lost to Greyjoy Black Sails after he blows up all my draw and then Milk of the Poppies my Red Viper, Rounds 2&3 I got double Mines by turn 2 and was able to draw enough control to stabilise against both of my Targaryen NA opponents, both of whom were unlucky in that their draws weren't great and mine was. Round 4 though, first of all I was somehow in with a shout of making the cut with what I believe to be a terrible deck. However I then find out I'm paired against James 'Wamma' Waumsley, the man who had won every SC he had entered, probably the best player in the country, and upon sitting down opposite him he reveals he is playing House of Dreams Highgarden. My immediate thought is to just scoop as I have no way to answer that and know that as soon as I win a single challenge with The Viper he is rendered useless for the rest of the game. James convinces me to play anyway obviously having more faith in my deck than I did. At around turn 5/6 I Valar James' board away and am surprised to find him with little to no follow up, just a Kevan who triggered for a Sunset Sea, this ended up being a mistake as it stopped his dockside brothel activation for the turn. With James slowing down and me finally kicking into gear I start to believe and thanks to some fortuitous draws on my behalf and some less than fortuitous draws on James' I stumble to 15 power with nothing more than an Ashemark Knight and a Doubting Septa. So, after winning the impossible match up against a hard counter being piloted against the best player in the country, my reward? To miss the cut on strength of schedule. Why always me?

Anyway, I'd like to thank Rowan for his input on the deck and congratulate him on finally making the cut. Also, congrats to Becky on winning and keeping the Waumsley-Frith SC domination at 100%. I'd also like to thank Craven for letting sleep on his couch that night after a late night of sweet gaming action and Dave for driving me to Taco Bell and a train station so I could get home.

Now seriously people, this deck is a good laugh, however if you want to win do not play it, it kinda sucks. I got very lucky. It is however great fun and full of sweet little synergies so play away in your casual meet ups.