I wanted to send some thank yous out after a wonderfully fun weekend at Gencon.

First and foremost to my best friend Kevin. I'm so glad you got to come with us this year. It really made it a special year for me having you there. And there is no doubt that our many, many nights playing games over the past few months helped prepare me for my repeated games against Lannister.

Second, to my metamates, travel partners and good friends Will and Justin. We've established some fun and silly traditions based on our many tournaments we've traveled to together. We had a fun, peaceful trip with very few hiccups. I'm already looking forward to the first Saturday we can all get together and play some Warhammer. You guys are great. I'm also extremely proud of the fact that our meta represented 50% of the final four at the Melee table (Kevin and Will), and 50% of the final four of the Joust (Justin and Myself). Thats a pretty sweet accomplishment. Also, to Huseman and Zeiler, the newer members of our meta who made the trip and played some Thrones and represented well. Huseman got a 1st, 2nd and 3rd at his three melee tables, and went 2-2-1 in Joust, and Zeiler had more guts than anyone, choosing to play Martell for the Joust Championship. Major, major props there.

Third, to the many old friends and players I got to see again. Rings, Luke, Ktom, Nate, Jason, Jeff, Lars, Dan, Rob, Eric Lang. It was great getting to see you guys again, catch-up spend time talking, playing games, and hanging out. Special shout out to Rings for his generosity buying a round of drinks Saturday night. And a special should out to Ktom, for again being willing to run the events. He knows the rules better than anyone else, and I can't imagine what our community would be like without him.

Fourth, to all the new friends I made with new and old players. Benton, Wade, Rob, Tony, Erick, Alec, Shayne, Corey. I really enjoyed getting to know all of you guys more, play challenging games, and just build relationships. One day, we all will move on from the game for one reason or another, but I hope and pray that we still share a friendship.

A special congratulations go out to Erick for winning the overall World Championships and Jonathan Benton for winning the Melee Championships. You both are great players and deserve the recognition for your accomplishments.

If there is anyone I forgot to mention, I'm sorry. I had a wonderful weekend, and all of you helped make it that way.

Be Blessed!

First of all: Congratz Greg...the first repeater, how does it feel? I'm still kind of down I didn't make it this year, I could have went over yesterday but I was too tired. I've already decided that I will be there next year.

Second....Greyjoy won its first Gencon Joust Tourney!!! Where is the decklist?????

AFAIK:

2008 Targaryen Defenders of the North - Luke Reed

2007 Martell Treaty Baratheon Icywolf

2006 Lannister - Rings

2005 John Bruno

2004 Greg Akinson

2003 Lannister - Casey Gavin

What houses were 2004 and 2005?

Oh and of course congrats, when I told Ethan... he gave a curt "Good".

Wrecking Ball said:

I'm writing an article now for FFG that will contain the decklist. I want everyone to get to see it soon.

It was a lot of fun winning the joust again. It definitely had a different feel though. In 2004, nobody knew who I was. I came out of nowhere. This year I had several people come up to me stating they thought I was one of the favorites to win it. However, much like 2004, I built my deck at 1 am the morning of the tourney. I played it a few games that night and decided to roll with it. And lo and behold, it performed very well. I had some lucky draws, and I played against Lanny five times, and apparently there appears to be a matchup advantage Greyjoy has over Lanny.

You better be there next year Wrecking Ball!

2004 and 2005 were won with Targ decks.

GRRRR....That dang Greyjoy deck. Again, congrats sir, was excited.

So in terms of breakdown its:

Targaryen 3

Lannister 2

Greyjoy 1

Martel 1

Greg,

Thanks for the kind words. Your meta did really well and is filled with a great bunch of guys.

I had thought about reporting you to the police when I got home as what your Legacy deck

did to mine was I"m sure illegal in most states... but you did apologize in advance for

what was fixing to happen so that was alright. I didn't mind spending the next 20 minutes

watching you play...

I'm looking forward to playing against you guys next year and maybe winning a game

or 2.

Sincerely,

Tony

Congrats man - I have to admit, I never thought that anyone but you or Bruno would win the 2nd one. You say you are a better deck-builder than player, but i disagree totally. ~the deck sucked.

Still can't believe I lost to you first round after basically wiping your board 2nd turn.

Congrats again...~and don't have another kid celebrating your victory!

My first Gencon and My first tournament. All I can say is it was a blast! The best use of Marriott Reward points I've made to date.

Congrats to Erick, Jonathan and Greg on games well played and decks well built! It was great to put faces to names and names to faces. Looking forward to next year. Hopefully there will be some regional tournaments between now and then so that we can get together before a year has gone by.

Peace!

orclrob

I'd like to offer my congratulations to Greg, Jonathan, and Erick for your wins.

The enthusiasm held by Greg and Will on these boards have kept the ember of my excitement for this game alive through my hibernation. God willing, I'll return to GenCon next year.

Congrats to all again.

Looking at that list of champions makes me feel bad for Stark -- have they ever been good?

Hey, at least Stark pulled out Melee this year, right? And I think they can be good in Joust with the right build.

Back on topic, a huge Congrats to Greg and Erick. It was an awesome weekend all around. It was great to play with you guys and also make some wonderful new friends.

I missed some of the familiar faces like Bruno and Staton, but it's great to hear the Braz might make it back next year.

Oh, quick edit. Greg hammered me with a draft deck. ~I think it may have been better than his Joust winning deck. Broken Arm, multiple Locked and Watching the Heavens, Arianne...I thought I was facing the Standard deck I had brought to GenCon.

longclaw said:

How well would they have done w/out those bara characters you were running? or with a reset or two.

We've tried a lot of builds for stark over here, including summer. We always run into the same problem, lack of a means to close the game. Lanni can ignore renown becuase they can kneel the crap out of you, GJ can discard you board, targ can recurse burn, bara can close at any time, and martell....

stark can kill, but what happens when that runs out? (which w/out bear island, which has too many problems, it does).

Actually, the Bara characters were a non-factor, as I only played one to the table the entire tournament. And that one was useful for the renown, but I had Selmy in hand that would have gotten me to fifteen just as easily on that last turn. Resets? At least Will and I were running Wildfire; I can't be sure about Erick or Kevin. I played Erick's Power of Blood when he switched plot decks with me and he and Will both played Wildfire that round. Valar got played at least once in each of my first two games and I won those.

But I agree that Stark can have difficulty closing things out in Joust, mainly due to their lack of draw coupled with no easy way to protect their hand. I had high hopes for Storm Dancer, but it's a lot of work to make that card productive. My Stark decks miss Bounty of the Realm like nobody's business. Outfox would certainly be nice for them too, I'll admit, in order to avoid the board wipe when they are so far behind in card advantage.

Actually, you played Melisandre out of house on the last turn of the Melee, and that was the play that gave you the game. Being in the down position I was, I actually about to play kingmaker in order to feel like I had some choice and impact in the game and so was going to let Kevin make all of his challenges unopposed against me for the game. Unfortunately, your Mel prevented this since his renown would not have counted.

Thanks Dobbler and gang for remembering to stop by Columbia for dinner on Sunday night. That's three years in a row so gotta keep that tradition going. Cool stuff!