Freezerburn: A Stark Burn Retrospective
Welcome back to Decks By Democracy. With the release of the new FAQ and then our local Regional fast approaching, the second deck to be built for this column got a bit delayed. Nonetheless, as promised, the deck has been completed and I'm here to talk about it finally. This time the challenge was to build a non-Targaryen burn deck. So without further delay, allow me to introduce Freezerburn.
House:
House Stark
Agenda:
The Maester's Path
Plots:Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
At the Gates (GotC) x1
The Minstrel's Muse (RotO) x1
Forging the Chain (FtC) x1
A Time for Ravens (ACoS) x1
The Winds of Winter (TWoW) x1
Threat From the North (PotS) x1
Characters (27):
Maester of the Last Hearth (HtS) x3
Maester Vyman (TWoW) x1
Lyanna Stark (ODG) x1
Qhorin Halfhand (LoW) x1
Septa Mordane (AToT) x1
Wyman Manderly (RotK) x1
Maester Aemon (Core) x1
Oldtown Scholar (FtC) x3
Arya Stark (tHoBaW) x3
Eddard Stark (TTotH) x1
Hodor (Core) x1
Hungry Mob (CoS) x3
Old Nan (BoRF) x1
Ser Jorah Mormont (PotS) x1
Ser Kyle Condon (APS) x1
Oldtown Advisor (GotC) x2
Maester Luwin (FtC) x1
Sansa Stark (TftRK) x1
Locations (13):
Great Keep (Core) x3
Lord Eddard's Chambers (Core) x1
Narrow Sea (Core) x3
Northern Fiefdoms (Core) x3
The Last River (TftH) x1
Street of Steel (Core) x1
Shadowblack Lane (Core) x1
Attachments (22):
Pale Steel Link (FtC) x2
Bronze Link (FtC) x2
Valyrian Steel Link (HtS) x2
Lead Link (CbtC) x3
Apprentice Collar (GotC) x3
Copper Link (GotC) x2
Greyscale (tHoBaW) x3
White Raven (TWoW) x1
The Long Winter (ACoS) x2
Grey Wind (LoW) x2
Events (3):
At Night They Howl (LoW) x3
Synopsis:
Burn can be rough outside of Targaryen. Most of the other houses don't have much, but in looking through Stark I found a couple, most notably The Long Winter. Of course the next logical step was to include Maesters, as the lead links create huge flamethrowers quickly. The added benefit being that Maester of the Last Hearths can save creatures in Winter (which you'll need it to be to make The Long Winter work), giving some added fun with Copper Links. All that's left is something to make the burn terminal. For this we have 3 different things: Grey Wind, who can kill anyone once they've been sufficiently burnt to 1 or less, Threat From the North, and Greyscale, which will discard them and can be played for free with the Pale Steel Link. Build up Aemon and the Maester of the Last Hearths, then crank out the burn. In case of valar or target kill, there's a lot of easy saving available too.
Characters:
I started with lots of maesters, of course. The Maester of the Last Hearths are explained above, and Aemon is around for the same self-saving reasons. Luwin and Vyman are auto-includes, and a pair of Oldtown Advisors gives a little bit of cancel. Rounded out with the weenies maesters, just to ensure we have one around at all times. Arya and Wyman Manderly become even more useful than normal with the heavy burn going on, leaving most characters vulnerable to their abilities. Lyanna Stark adds another layer of -1 to non-uniques when knelt, rendering a generous amount of non-uniques useless, especially during Winds of Winter and Threat From the North rounds. Septa Mordane is a nice counter to shadows decks should you run across them, or just a cheap unique character to sacrifice to trigger Arya if not. Eddard Stark and Kyle Condon add a little bit of supplemental draw should you need it, and the rest are just in there because they're cheap and good for their cost. Just be careful with Jorah during the Threat From the North round.
Locations:
All production, with the exception of a little bit of extra burn with The Last River. Pretty straightforward.
Attachments:
So many attachments! Since the lead links are powered by chains, I've included 2-3 of every chain I use on the agenda. Apprentice Collars protect your maesters from burn, make spare maesters, and cost 0 for the Forging the Chain round. Copper Links make creatures for the +1 bonus or saving ability of the Master of the Last Hearths. Pale Steel Link and Bronze Link allow you to recur the chains that do end up discarded, as well as cycling the Greyscales for quick reuse. Pale Steel Link also has the benefit of being able to put into play more than 1 limited card a round for accelerated setup early game. Draw is important, so I have 2 Valyrian Steel Links as well. In the non-chain attachment area, I have 2 of Grey Wind because terminal effects are important, just like Greyscale (which I have 3 of since they are non-unique). And of course The Long Winter. This card is amazing for this deck, giving almost all of your opponent's characters -1 all the time! Note there's only 1 White Raven. This is because with Pale Steel Link and Bronze Link, 1 is all you need to win the season battle.
Events:Only 3 copies of At Night They Howl. These take advantage of the Copper Links as well, allowing you to use your maesters multiple times over the course of a Threat From the North round, or just to use Greyscale multiple times, or for extra attacks. The options are vast for what you can do when re-standing linked maesters.
Plots:
Two tutor plots to get the game started. Get yourself Aemon or a Maester of the Last Hearth turn 1 with At the Gates, and then A Time for Ravens on turn 2 to make it winter and turn on your saves and hopefully The Long Winter. After that it's a couple of plots to spam burn across all your opponent's characters, Forging the Chain to recur some chains should you lose some, Valar Morghulis just in case, and The Minstrel's Muse for a quick power rush (another use for At Night They Howl, as multi-chained maesters with Apprentice Collars win dominance easily) or just for the gold if you need some quick board presence but are light on production.
So there you have it: Freezerburn in all it's glory. It's not the strongest deck I've ever made, but it's a lot of fun and it's surprisingly stable. Once all the pieces are in order, it is pretty much unstoppable.
Voting for the next deck will be starting soon at a post to be made this week. Here's the link to the voting thread: http://www.cardgamedb.com/forums/index.php?/topic/7371-decks-by-democracy/
