two of the losses i describe in the thread linked, but i'l recap.

The loss to Casey had a lot to do with him playing like 10 characters by the first marshalling phase. when i played LGR after the tourney it was a similar thing, it doesn't handle that many characters at once and they both bounced back w/out an issue to turn 2 valars. I got closer against LGR when i waited a turn longer to valar, but still stalled at 9 power.

The loss to dan had a lot to do with me not thinking about Dragonpit before dan played it and pulling my QoT out of shadows. It also had a lot to do with my strealing the wrong charcater with my fury plot, i took streetwaif instead of shadow cat, in that game shadowcat would have been the better steal.

The 3rd loss was to Alec's baratheon deck which for some reason i am 0-3 against in tournamnets and like 50-5 against in any other game.

Re Distinct mastery: I always want to slip them in, but then i feel like i'm too event heavy. I need the location control events for GJ/Lanni games as i can hit locations they would protect from fleeing in lanni's case and in GJ's case i can make winter hurt more for them then for me.

Re Bastard of robert: i like them a lot as well, i just like ORP a tad bit more as with their tricon-ed-ness i have more flexibilty and w/ mel out they get STR boost.

Lars said:

I'm quite sure it was positive comments by you to me several months ago about Distinct Mastery that got me to reconsider them and decide to include 3x in my Stark treaty deck, and they've been there ever since. I don't remember for sure, but I think I zinged you with them a couple times during our pickup games at Black Friday. (Since pretty much all of my heavy hitters have either a War crest or a Noble crest, they almost are never dead weight in my hands.)

yeah, don't get me wrong it is a great card that i'd love to have them in my deck, but not to make a deck w/ no draw a 66 card deck, and I tend to value cancel a little more then i do stand, so the hand's judgments stay for me. I've won games with seductive promise, and location control is needed, so i just can't find the slots for them, especially since they are a redundeny in my deck, not a new tech factor. If i didn't have the bannermen they'd be in there for sure (bannerman go on bobbie, renly, mel and stannis usually, so thats most of my important crests and with kingdom of shadows i can in theory stand QoT and/or syrio to get all but 2, with only one of those 2 having a keyword.)

Again - my suggestion would be to three characters for the events. Thirty six is definitely on the high side.

I'm with you on the Old Red Priest as well - but I wasn't suggetsing cutting them for Bastards. I'd look at the three and four cost slots to find two cuts to make room for two Bastards.

its not really 36 its 31 as printed, and usually around 29-30, becuase of dupes (while i might draw 36 characters i can never play 36 characters). with the deck being focused on keeping characters around and already having issues with being out charactered on the board i think it might run into speed issues at 25-28 characters. Plus the bannerman often never see the table as a character and get played as an event like attachment lowering the true character count by 3 again.

My 3+ gold slot isn't that large, and is filled with the meat of the deck characters. 5 gold slot = eddard (cancel and draw...). 4 gold = mel, robert, stannis, arena knight (all have renown, all do something else for me). 3 gold = Knight of flowers, Maergery, QoT, Renly, and davos. (renly and KoF have renown and help the rush/icon diversity, maergery has noble crest and helps control characters, davos is the best save in the deck, flipping QoT for the win is fun too). Pseudo 3 gold slot = Royal Entoruage (i don't think i've ever payed for these guys, just have to remember a bit more often that i can play them from discard pile too) and bannerman (the reason Distinct mastery is not in the deck).

so thats only 1/3 of the characters that i pay gold for and 2/3 of the deck is under 3 gold. I could go to a 2 ORPs and 2 Bastard of Roberts, but then its hard for me to chump block/attack, but will see.

Lars said:

Just reskimmed what I wrote and realized it comes across like "What were you thinking?!?!" and not the acknowledgment that I intended that your suggestion led to what I think is important piece of my deck. The six surprise stands in my deck (3x Distinct Mastery and 3x To Be a Wolf) help the deck to "steal" challenge victories, which is important since I can't afford too much give-and-take with challenges given the Treaty condition.

ah, well then glad i could help

Lars said:

See - I think you need all six stand cards. and maybe the boat as well.

I understand your reluctance to cut characters to get the 2 x Bastards in - but that's why eveyr player is different. Personally Eddard deosn't make any of my builds anymore becuase of his cost - buti know he is popular wiht a lot of Baratheon players.

We're quibbling here though. Your deck is pretty uch a model of what a consistemnt LCG Baratheon deck looks like.

just a quick word about eddard, w/ the streets and the seas i hardly ever pay full price for him even though he is worth 5 gold against lanni.