S5: Who to Draft?

Last year, the top players in GoT fantasy were the killers. All the sexing, insulting, and drinking couldn’t get you more than a handful of points. But oh that sweet sweet killing! The top five scorers for Season Four were: Tormund Giantsbane, Ygritte, Jon Snow, The Hound, and Styr. By a wide margin. So even though the point balance has been spread out a little bit, at the end of the day, killing and injurying someone is still the best route to fantasy success. Does it skew who’s actually good in fantasy GoT? Of course it does.

If you go over last season’s archives, you’ll see that a majority of points were awarded during the big battle scenes. Therefore, this season, the key is to grab players who will be in fighting scenes and slice and dice their way across the screen.

Basically that means some of the more popular characters, the ones that will appear on-screen the most, are nigh useless. But who should go #1 for Season 5? Well, the clear answer is our man in the North, Jon Snow. He was drafted #1 overall in our league last season and I see no reason he shouldn’t go #1 in everyone’s league. Jon is a five (six) tool GoT fantasy player and he’s guaranteed to be in lots of swordfights. After that though, it’s a toss up. I mean, three-fourths of the top five from last year — Ygritte, The Hound, Styr — are dead or presumed dead, so that elevates Mr. Snow to the top by default, unless you think Tormund Giantsbane can repeat his huge scores from last season.

With a player roster full of new names, and a changing landscape in Westeros and Essos, we’re gonna take a few guesses at which players could likely end up the season as top scorers. And look at some dark horses and overrated players.

Arya Stark: She finished last season at #6 (albeit with scores far below Styr) and since she’s about to become a full fledged killer, that ranking can only go up. We wouldn’t argue with making Arya a top pick for Season 5 drafts.

Daario Naharis: Daario II is going to play a bigger role this year and since he complained about having nothing to do last season, it’s likely he’ll get a few more battle scenes in Season 5. Plus, he’s guaranteed at least a few nudity and sexing points since he’s Khaleesi’s new boy toy.

Tormund Giantsbane: He was our number one overall scorer last season on the strength of basically two episodes so it’s possible he’ll finish up high again. Of course, it’s also possible he’ll get killed in a battle right away, so draft him at your peril.

SLEEPERS
Stannis Baratheon: Here we go, maybe the most likely candidate to win “Most Improved Player.” Stannis is finally in a position to do some fighting and even if he is a Type-A bore, he’s going to get much more to do this season. Assuming Stannis is involved in at least one big battle, he should easily outpace last year’s paltry point total. Similar to: Mance Rayder. Both leaders tend to stand around planning a lot but not doing much of anything, can that change this season?

Sand Snakes: There’s three of these dangerous ladies being introduced to us this season: Tyene, Nymeria, and Obara. Surely the Red Viper's bastards will get to avenge their father in some way right? Also, keep an eye on Ellaria Sand as she could definitely find her way into some drinking and sexing points.

Missandei and Grey Worm: We don’t care if they score a lot, we just ‘ship them and it looks like we’ll get our dream come true this season. Give them all the points! Can Missandei tutor us in Westerosi? Give a hand for Nathalie Emmanuel’s star turn in Fast & Furious 7 as the most beautiful hacker ever! (Also, Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella featured Robb Stark / Richard Madden as the prince, plus Xaro Xhoan Daxos / Nonso Anozie as his captain of the guards! Who else did sharp eyed GoT fans see in the movies recently? Oh, and Sophie Turner is going to be Jean Grey in the next X-Men!?! What!)

YOU DECIDE
Cersei and Tyrion Lannister: It's a shame more points won't be awarded for screen time or political manipulation. Instead, these two siblings will have to count on copious amounts of verbal daggers and drinking to pump up their value. While neither are likely to kill -- even though Tyrion gets a few low blows in per season -- both get so much screen time that they're guaranteed to rank as some of the higher scoring players. Just beware that their fantasy ceiling is limited by how little they actually do.

Petyr Baelish: He's potentially a five tool player but won't do enough of any one thing to outperform most of the battle heavy no-names. Still, Little Finger is a safe selection just to get some points on the board.

STAY AWAYS
Daenerys Targaryen: While’s she’s a central figure in the show, Dany’s dragons don’t count for kills or injuries and she’s not going to do a whole lot else. Maybe a few drinking scenes, a few (body doubled) nudity scenes, and one or two sex scenes. Let the Mother of Dragons fall in your draft, she’s not going to score much for you. Keep Khaleesi in your hearts but off your roster...

Jaime Lannister: Last season he got two instances of sexing and one of drinking for a grand total of eleven points. Bran Stark, Petyr Baelish, and Samwell Tarly each got more kill points than the Kingslayer. This season, Jaime will be traveling to Dorne to retrieve his daughter and maybe he’ll get into some verbal spats but since he’s useless with a sword now, it’s unlikely he’ll be getting any killing or injury points. At least his pride has somewhat returned now that he has a golden hand.

Varys: Ha, you must be kidding right? Varys is the "most screen time, least scoring main character,” unless you count Margaery Tyrell. While both Varys and Margaery have many gifts, none of them include fantasy GoT scoring.

SLEEPERS
Anybody with a sword basically. I’m talking to you Thoros of Myr, Yara Greyjoy, Brienne of Tarth, Davos Seaworth, Bronn, Beric Dondarrion, Barristan Selmy, etc. Basically, don’t draft Doran Martell, Oberyn’s brother, who we hear is chairbound from, um, gout?