Champion de France 2016 : The Young and the White Wolf

Left on Core Set with a sketch, the first cycle reinforced Stark by providing support cards. Wolves of the North finally provides them the lacking ones to build a complete mechanic. In the following, Stark Fealty becomes a dominant deck of the metagame, with a strategy relying on board construction, defense and focus toward power challenge.

Authors of the blog also worked on the archetype, and Benji's version was successfully played by the young prodigee Meilhem, who won the Championnat de France 2016 at 17 years ! Therefore, the  article is now a bit updated. 

House Stark

Fealty

Plot (7)

 A Noble Cause
Calling the Banners
Calm Over Westeros
Building Orders
Summons
Counting Coppers
Confiscation

Character (34)

Winterfell Steward *3
Tumblestone Knight *3
Shaggydog *1
Hodor *1
Bran Stark *3
Sansa Stark (WotN) *2
Arya Stark (Core) *2
Septa Mordane *1
Maester Luwin *1
Jory Cassel *1
Catelyn Stark (Core) *3
Jon Snow (WotN) *3
Littlefinger *2
The Blackfish *3
Robb Stark (Core) *3
Eddard Stark (WotN) *3

Attachment (10)

Frozen Solid *2
Milk of the Poppy *3
Ice *3
Ward*2

Location (13)

Heart Tree Grove *3
The Roseroad *3
The Kingsroad *3
Winterfell Crypt *1
Gates of Winterfell *1
Winterfell*2

Event (2)

The Hand's Judgment *2


Overall Strategy:

Stark is a board construction deck, relying on opposition to challenges and focus on power challenge to get ahead of opponent in a long-distance race toward 15. As a consequence, he is vulnerable at military claim while being poorly able to defend intrigue. A crucial goal is to have the economic power to create a board and generate enough card advantage to definitively lock the game. 

Numbers: 

4 Characters of cost 3
8 Draw cards (Counting Arya) (+ Luwin) + 3 plots
9 Pure non-setupable cards
10 Characters of cost 2
14 “Non-setupable” cards (10 + Ice *2 + Winterfell *2)
14 Economic cards
18 Loyal Cards (8 differents)

Deck Statistics on Thrones DB

Stark specificity: expensive attachments and location

Ice, Winterfell and Ward are extremely powerful card. The problem is their economic cost, creating “non-setupable” cards and increasing variance of the deck.

Ice makes you games if your opponent can't protect the expensive character he played, a frequent case justifying three exemplaries of the card. The STR bonuses helps you being sure you pass the challenge on the turn it is played, allowing to not be crushed by Confiscation on the next plot phase.

Winterfell is generally played in *3, an option I disagree with. You don’t want to see the card at setup; otherwise you would be vulnerable to First Snow of Winter or Marched to the Wall. You don’t want to see it at T1 since you’re building your character board and quite the same for T2. You want to see Winterfell as a definitive locker, removing opponent’s ability to play an effect badly damaging your board and possibility to contest you in challenges. *3 is for vital cards that you want to see as soon as possible, *2 for card that I want to see once per game. If you also consider that a duplicate is useless since the only likely location control affecting it is We Do Not Sow, you understand why I take it *2.

Ward is expensive, but consequences of character control are so huge that it’s an almost perfect card. Even if you play nothing else, it will be enough to generate a board difference. I don’t play the combo with Marched to the Wall, It does not fit the rest of my deck, I rather rely on the accumulation of attachments to make Confiscation a tough choice. Note the card is excellent in the Baratheon matchup to get rid of Cressen.

The plotline: Don’t stop board construction

Necessity to see cards and the needed economic power to play them lead me to a plotline with three economics plots and three “board construction” ones.

A Noble Cause and Calling the Banners are pure economic plots for different timing of the game, Noble Cause being the classic opener, reliably providing you 7 gold to rapidly develop your board, allowing to play the important cards before an intrigue claim and accelerating the time to play polyvalent card advantage plots. Even if you take a Naval Superiority upon it, you are still able to play a cheap Lord or Lady, a specificity of Stark family helping to stabilize deck's behavior.

Calling the Banners is the perfect mid-game economic plot for this deck. You are willing to build a board, hold it, and are not primarily concerned by attacking in military. Calling provides you the perfect support for this strategy : you obtain the gold to play the (expensive) remaining cards in your hand, strengthening your position. You have initiative to name your opponent first player, facing a wall.

Calm Over Westeros is a stabilizer. It's a semi-economic plot, since he provides you 5 gold and is likely to reduce your military claim, making yourself save the investment done in one character, as well as keeping your table. His polyvalence allows you to play it if you need to protect your hand in early game if needed, or prevent you from a spotted Naval Superiority. If odds are such that you don't play it in early game, he is still of excellent use at middle/end game to create a differential in power.

Summons and Building Season helps you finding the appropriate solution according to game state, plus having the economical power to play it. Building Season is more prone to find a response to opponent’s strategy, while Summons search the lacking family leader, acting as a board builder, a finisher or a Wildfire recover.

Counting Coppers, since you are generally leaved with an empty hand at the end of T2, while it is crucial to always have cards to play in order to never stop the engine.

Confiscation is compulsory since you’re vulnerable to Milk of the Poppy and this is the only statistically reliable way to bypass it.

Wardens of the North is the great absent. Testing it rapidly reveals it’s a card you play once your board is already developed, thus a “win more” card. Moreover, if your board is developed, you’re probably already winning in the end, thus it only makes the difference in the final rush of even games, an unlikely situation where other plots already make a difference.

Trading with the Pentoshi is not considered either. It's not an opening plot since giving 3 gold to the opponent on T1 help him as much as the additional 3 golds (compared to Noble Cause) help you. Some houses are particularly willing to have these bonus golds, like Targaryen to play Mirri or Nightwatch to install a board. Thus, you are accelerating the time when your opponent could play his card advantage plots. Trading is a good economic plot for middle game if you manage to have a larger hand size than your opponent at that time, or if you play an explosive rush. But it is not the case here.

Leaders:

Nothing unquestionable there. Eddard Stark WotN and Robb Stark CS stand out of the melee. 

Eddard Stark (WotN), despite being non-loyal and complicating a bit economy, has a great STR to fix the board, as well as opportunity to make you benefit from defending. The drawback of engaging another character is demanding especially if you’re first player.

Robb Stark (CS) presents the basic statistics for his house and opponent can get around his ability, but he remains the perfect finisher with Jon Snow or Grey Wind and at least modifies opponent’s play. The draw provided by Luwin is efficient.

Then, The Blackfish and Catelyn Stark WoTN could be considered, remembering the expensive attachments and location.

Catelyn Stark WotN seems the most desirable since she provides the weak icon of the family plus the important one, while The Blackfish has the repeated ones. She also provides further STR to lock the game and an ability decreasing consequences of military claim. But she is expensive, while playing the deck reveal how much paying the 6 golds of Eddard Stark is consequent. Each gold being important, she creates inestability in the deck. She has an influence inversely proportional to her timing of entrance, can be countered by opponent adapting his strategy and requires mechanics around her to be played efficiently.

Because if Catelyn Stark (WotN) is played instead of The Blackfish, three slots will be liberated by the absence of Catelyn Stark (CS). It seems great, right? But in fact, two of these slots must be attributed to Arya's Gift in order to protect Catelyn from a Milk of the Poppy or Attainted. And the problem of this card is to be instable in term of efficiency : in many games she will stuck in your hand, and in some where you can play it, you will find yourself moving a Milk of the Poppy toward a non-desirable target such as Arya Stark. The last slot should be attributed, in my view, at a Riverrun Minstrel, simply for being a 4-gold cost character with Intrigue and Power. But is ability is far from being gamebreaker, if she even changes something at the fate of the game. Once again, it smells instability.

Catelyn Stark (CS), instead, is the benchmark of 10/10 for this game. She is auto sufficient, have a far better Cost/Efficiency ratio, especially when entering the board. Her ability allows you to block your opponent from doing trick while one of the major interest of Catelyn Stark (WotN) is precisely to have enough STR to defend the challenge and don't suffer some effects, if you managed to have enough STR on her. Last but not least : When you remove Catelyn Stark (CS) from 4 (and 5) gold characters, the gold curve at these slots is poor. She provides an invaluable stabilization at the dorsal spine of the deck.

Thus, the last family leader is The Blackfish. He provides renown, possible draw (but it’s not your priority to activate) and a possibly rush ability with Eddard Stark if you make a blast start with the two. He is polyvalent and enters the deck to take the last slots, in *3 despite his lack of decisiveness.

The Cornerstone: Cheap Cost Characters 

Playing expensive cards is good to win in AGoT V2, but as at chess, you need pawn to stabilize your deck, not only at setup but also to absorb military claim. This is the supportive role of 2-gold cost characters : being easily played along family leaders at setup or first turn.

Winterfell Steward is an obvious choice. 

Tumblestone Knight is less. But they have the desired icon with as much STR as their cost, a reliable bonus with the power icon and a House Tully trait possibly useful.
Shaggydog and Hodor have the required military icon with more STR than their cost, the second also having the strong icon of the family.

Sansa Stark WotN  is curing the intrigue weakness of house Stark while reinforcing the strong icon. Loyalty makes her cost a very affordable price, and her drawback simply make herself a balanced card.

Bran Stark could be seen as a “character location”. At a smaller cost than Winterfell, he mainly helps locking table. But as a character, he can participate in power challenges at the expense of being vulnerable to military claim and reset. 

Presence of high basic STR characters at cheap cost allows the use of Winterfell Crypts. One exemplary is enough since the card is not fully reliable. It has the subtlety of not synerging well with Shaggydog in practice, but very well with Eddard Stark (Cf.Tywin Lannister).

Excellent deck mechanics support at 3 gold

Stukov showed in previous articles (this and this) the mathematical poorness of 3-gold cost. Thus, characters justifying to be played at that cost must provide excellent support to deck mechanics. They are also limited to four exemplaries.

Arya Stark CS perfectly does the job. She is the only natural stealth of Stark family, being a poison for Asha and Theon. Her duplicate absorb a military claim and allows her to resist First Snow of Winter, and if loosing it she remains with the important icon of the deck. Her drawbacks are less important there: She is bad at setup, but her cost does not make her a setup card. If you draw the second exemplary, it’s still good since she relies on her dupe and is prone to be military claim. Thus the *2: great advantages, few inconvenient.

Maester Luwin and Septa Mordane lead a bit different fight. Luwin provides the weak and strong icon of the deck, with an excellent support to major characters, reinforcing board position with draw on Robb and immunity to Wildfire and First Snow of Winter for Bran. stealth on Jon is a comfort. Mordane is specialized in supporting intrigue, the weak icon of the deck. Her 3 STR is noticeable since it will allow her to dominate other cheap cost characters, generally at 1 or 2 STR. The bonus she provides are well-shared, both in Intrigue (+2 STR of Sansa, Icon for Arya) and support to deck overall strategy (renown of Sansa, immunity to First Snow of Winter and Wildfire for Arya). 

Summer does not pass the cut since I find him “soft”, only allowing poor cost/STR reinforcement at table. He also provides the worst icon at his cost, be of poor efficiency in setup and early game, while Bran Stark is held up by Hand's Judgment  there. But he is loyal, and his ability could make the difference in a game if you precisely take back Bran Stark or Arya Stark. There are pros and cons, and I consider the cons make a too large opportunity cost.

The Dorsal Spine: 4 and 5 gold characters.

Four and Five gold characters are still supportive characters, but their ability
ies are superior to cheap cost characters.

Jon Snow and Grey Wind are the compulsory Baratheon metagame, since their combo with Robb is your way out of this matchup. Experience told me superiority of Stark toward Baratheon is a common myth, since it’s simply the possibility to trigger Robb’s ability that makes you win. All the matchup lies there. Thus, since you need to see Robb + another character, I put at least 3 copies of Jon + Grey Wind in a deck.

So, how to balance slots allocated to each one?

Jon is better than Grey Wind at metagaming Baratheon since he does not need to be kneeled, thus being not counter able with Melisandre or problematic in terms of timing with Robert. Outside of this matchup, Grey Wind is not particularly good, being in contradiction with your overall strategy: he is an aggressive military character. Intimidate could make you think he forces opponents to behave at least, but not that much in fact due to his insufficient STR to act alone. His killing ability is not impressive outside of Martell without Robb, but in fact, Jon’s ability is also much better with Robb, and more impressive. Finally, Jon has a hidden virtue: he could prevent opponents to do military challenges. If you know you’re going to lose a character anyway, why not sacrificing him to defend and claim renown?

That’s the reasoning behind Jon Snow *3, despite he is a *2 character.

Littlefinger cures all the Stark disease: lack of intrigue and draw, plus this 1 gold that often lacks to pay a support card such as Frozen Solid or Milk of the Poppy. It  makes him desirable to see every game, justifying the *2. Drawing his duplicate is still useful to absorb military claim. He is a bit expensive, still.

Catelyn Stark (CS), nothing much to say and i already expand on her previously : Loyal to be reduced + solid 4 STR for 4 Gold + weak and strong icon of her faction +powerful and reliable ability. = benchmark for 10/10 in AGoT V2.

Donella Hornwood will enter the deck in *1, probably taking a slot of Littlefinger, but it is also possible to remove one Catelyn Stark.

Jory Cassel has the basic Cost/STR & Icon ratio of his family, which is currently pretty solid. He provides further resistance to First Snow of Winter and an additional security against kill effect flowing inside the metagame. But he has the problem of being "soft" : he does not impact the game directly with his ability, and is a bit expensive by consequence. With Valar Morghulis, he is likely to pass in *2.

Last slots: Denying contest to the opponent

The trio of non-setup able cards at cheap cost, Frozen Solid, Milk of the Poppy and Hand’s Judgment support the board contest of House Stark by providing an overall deny to opponent cards. 

Location control should be played in *2 if possible and Frozen Solid is possibly the best for his non-conditionality, but also not allowing duplicates to be a solution. Milk of the Poppy further gives opponents the impression they can’t find a way to bypass this stark wall. The numerous presences of attachments make Confiscation a tougher choice than ever.

Hand’s Judgment could be perceived as excessive precaution, but Bran Stark is fragile and could leave at military claim if too much under pressure, and you would prefer using him as a final locker rather than sacrificing him in early game. Catelyn Stark is not omnipotent and Winterfell could not be on the board. Moreover, one gold is generally enough to play it, but it's often what precisely sadden you : 1 gold is crucial for your development, thus Hand's Judgment will be better played as a late game card, when your board will be constructed and gold is in excess. Thus the *2.

In the future, since it mainly serves as a kill counter, it will perhaps be reimplaced by Bodyguard to deal with Valar Morghulis.

Last polishing

Gates of Winterfell is in *1 because it's not a great card for drawing. You have 14/59 chances to fail. It's roughly 1/4, thus when you play the card, you roughly have (3/4)*(3/4) to be immediately successful at generating positive card advantage, which is barely over 50%. You need to see the card three turns for efficiency, but she is not desirable at setup or first turn. Thus, I see her as a filter card.

Lady is absent since I almost always feel I had a more important thing to play than her when I draw the only exemplary I played. You can perfectly integrate her by removing one exemplary of Jon Snow.

The future

Valar Morghulis will make Bodyguard *3 and Jory Cassel *2 a necessity, in my view. The looser will probably be Hand's Judgment because your neutral slots are limited, and Milk of the Poppy is a powerful card. Moreover, as a consequence of Valar Morghulis, it's possible that we see less Milk of the Poppy, thus less Confiscation in the metagame, making the powerful more powerful.

If it turns out to be the case, the empty slot in the plotline could be filled by Here to Serve to immune Bran Stark  to plots,  tutoring Maester Luwin being efficient all the time since he provides an intrigue icon at least.