The men and women of the Iron Islands are a harsh and unyielding people, descended from raiders and pirates. The ironborn were brought into the Seven Kingdoms by the Targaryen conquest under the Greyjoys of Pyke, but they have never truly acclimated to the customs of the mainland.

There are still those among the ironborn who dream of a future when they are free to sail the waves as they please, pillaging the coasts of Westeros.

The Greyjoys are tactical and impulsive. They want to attack and exploit any weakness in their opponents and take advantage of temporary opportunities by gaining benefits from unopposed challenges.

House Greyjoy is rash and quick to act, so they prefer to be the first player. They also play the tempo game well. In addition, the Greyjoys do not sow and they’re quick to raze the fields of their foes by destroying enemy locations. Finally, House Greyjoy is resilient and difficult to kill. After all, what is dead may never die…

 

Themes and Strength

Stealth, Intimidate, Unopposed, Drowned God, Location Control

The primary Greyjoy strategy focuses on winning “unopposed” challenges. They feature many “stealth” characters who can bypass defenders, such as Asha Greyjoy (Core) and Theon Greyjoy (Core). Their most potent threat is undoubtedly Balon Greyjoy (Core), who can only be blocked a characters with equal or higher strength. The Greyjoys also use other tricks, such as Raiding Longship, Fishing Net, and Kraken’s Grasp (Core) to neutralize defending characters. Then, after successfully winning a challenge without defenders, there are many powerful benefits such as targeted kill from Seastone Chair, card draw from The Reader, and power gain from Great Kraken (Core). Some of these tricks can’t affect opposing characters who wield attachments, so Greyjoys often run some form of attachment removal like Weapons at the Door.

The Greyjoys are the most location-dependent faction. They love warships like Iron Fleet Scout (Core) and other cards that benefit when you amass a large fleet like Drowned Men (Core). But beware of Put to the Torch (Core) and Political Disaster.

Speaking of location control, the Greyjoys themselves specialize in that area, with both “soft” control from Lordsport Shipwright (Core) and “hard” removal from Newly Made Lord and We Do Not Sow. On a tangentially-related note, Greyjoy's also like to Pillage (keyword) opposing decks, and then take the spoils with cards like Euron Crow's Eye (Core).

Finally, the Greyjoys are hard to kill. “Save” effects like Risen from the Sea and Iron Mines (R) help them escape death from military claim or card effects like Tears of Lys and Put to the Sword. They also have Aeron Damphair (Core) to revive any Ironborn-traited character.

^{† References above provided by scantrell24}

 

Deckbuilding Series

The Friendly Council is a deckbuilding series for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game (Second Edition). This is a new Friendly Open project, aimed at helping beginner and intermediate-level players build their own decks.

 

Decklists (beginners)

- Greyjoy / Fealty by GrzeÅ› SzczepaÅ„ski

This deck is made by Grześ Szczepański, which is one of the most creative and unconventional deckbuilders in AGoT lcg, and is by many considered to be the one inventing the Baratheon Conclave archetype. Grześ (JP profile), is a supporter of underdog decks, and you'll seldom see him play a top tier deck!

 

Decklists (intermediate)

- Greyjoy / Crossing by Eusebio and The Friendly Council