Home ArticlesGuest Writer One Collection, 14 Decks: AGoT 2.0 as an Off-the-Shelf Game

One Collection, 14 Decks: AGoT 2.0 as an Off-the-Shelf Game

by ChannelDelibird
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Recently, a user on the AGoT LCG subreddit (r/agameofthroneslcg) posted asking if there was a set of decks that could all be built out of one complete FFG-era 2.0 collection, to be treated as just an off-the-shelf experience that casual players could pick up every now and then to get a flavour of the game without having to worry about deckbuilding. Not being someone to turn down a ridiculous deckbuilding challenge, and unable to find an answer that already existed, I made one myself.

I’ve put together a set of 14 decks that can all be built at the same time (with one asterisk that I only spotted after publication – there’s a fourth Fealty agenda. But that’s easy enough to proxy or swap if you need to). They are strictly for casual play and don’t adhere to any Restricted List (though ridiculous interactions are pretty much nonexistent), but I’m hopeful that they should be a useful resource for anyone who’s hoping to treat the game as a ‘complete’ board game into which to dip here and there in the coming years, rather than as an all-consuming hobby.

With the set designed to offer a glimpse of the breadth of the amazing things that are possible in this great game, each faction is represented twice as either a main faction or through a Banner agenda, and I also made sure to include some of the most interesting agendas to have been published that still feel accessible for newbies. A lot of key cards are spread thinly, particularly neutrals and resets (only six of these decks could run a plot with the word Valar in its title, of course), and I also erred on the side of including more interesting 1x cards rather than bumping some of the best ones up to 2x or 3x, in order to show off as many cool things as I felt possible while still giving a mostly coherent playing experience. My comiserations to Baratheon and Greyjoy loyalists who drew the short straws as banner factions in one deck each; I thought it was important to include a couple of these not only to ensure that I had enough cards but also because banners have been an important part of the game since the Core Set.

The full set of decks can be found on ThronesDB. They all have the tag ‘[One Collection Casual]’ in the title so that’s an easy way to search for them. Like this!

Direct links to the decks are here:

  • Baratheon – Assault from the Shadows (Assault is one of the coolest agendas ever published, so I had to get it in somewhere. As the only Bara-main deck, this incorporates some of the kneel, dominance and power-challenge themes as well as a couple of shadowy tricks.)
  • Greyjoy – Fealty (This one’s mostly focused on unopposed as the lone Greyjoy-main. Obviously this kinda had to be one of the decks on Valar Morghulis but I wanted to limit saves to 2x Risen and no Mines as counters like Hand’s Judgment are very rare in this environment.)
  • Lannister – “The Rains of Castamere” (This felt like the natural place to show off Rains, one of the best card designs in 2.0. It’s a fairly aggressive, goodstuffy deck with an intrigue focus and a jumper subtheme)
  • Lannister – Banner of the Kraken (Greyjoy’s second appearance is to show off the pillage subtheme! Also somehow I managed to turn this into a bit of a shadows deck, too, to show off some of the cool possibilities of that mechanic without it getting overbearing.)
  • Martell – The House with the Red Door (Built with Starfall in mind as the HRD location, but there are a couple of options. The first deck that must rely on Varys as its reset, which is not ideal but I’ve only got so much with which to work here.)
  • Martell – Banner of the Stag (Probably the weirdest deck on the list, this is a Bastard-themed deck, borrowing Gendry and the Bastard of Nightsong as key parts of its banner package alongside the Sand Snakes. As compensation I gave this deck some cool tricks like Behest into Naval Superiority.)
  • Night’s Watch – Fealty (It wouldn’t be right to do this without a Core Wall defence deck for the Watch. Don’t worry, there are no Abandoned Strongholds.)
  • Night’s Watch – The Brotherhood Without Banners (Brotherhood is a really fun agenda for casual play and I felt it important to give the wildlings a look-in somewhere – why not achieve some theme with Jon Snow? There’s a little bit of the Watch’s choke theme in here but otherwise it’s mostly just wildlings doing their wild thing in the winter.)
  • Stark – Fealty (If you don’t want to fiddle with the fourth copy of Fealty, this is the one to change to Kings of Winter (but I think it needs the money). Anyway, here are the direwolves to murder your board!)
  • Stark – Trading with Qohor (Qohor is the least newbie-friendly agenda in this set, but it’s such a brilliant design that I wanted casual players to see it. This is more of a good-stuff build with a tinge of rush, with a healthy helping of House Tully characters.)
  • Targaryen – Fealty (The deck where Dany and her dragons burn everything. If not now for 1x Fire and Flesh, then when?)
  • Targaryen – The Lord of the Crossing (The deck where Drogo and his bloodriders slaughter everything. At a guess, this is the strongest deck in the set.)
  • Tyrell – The Lord of the Crossing (Knights and Ladies had to get their moment in this collection. This is the rushiest deck of the set, in that it doesn’t really have any option other than to open Name Day Tourney. Go quick, hand out roses, profit.)
  • Tyrell – The Conclave (God, I love Conclave. So dreamy. Anyway, here’s some Tyrell goodstuff with Renly and Tinder Marge, hamstrung by only having Varys and First Snow for resets.)

Hopefully they can be a useful resource for many years to come.

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Dylan Young

Thanks for this!

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