I'm waiting for Nick to show up but he's disappeared or something.

Since this is the last round and It seems USA groups is not yet finished I think there is no problem to add one day when needed. Inform us about result as the match is over ;-)

Here's the classification after the last round!!!

1st place Zsa

2nd place Kuba

3rd place Jaquen

4th: tie gualdo/Deco

In the next few days I'll play extra game with Deco to know our 4th warrior that will challenge against Usa boys ;-)

According to longclaw next tournament phase will begin next monday 29th march 2010.

1st USA vs 4th Europe

1st Europe vs 4th USA

2nd USA vs 3th Europe

2ns Europe vs 3th USA

In the next days some other details will be added.

Compliments to all the players!!! It was so nice play with all of you and I think this kind of events will grow in the time and maybe one day we can make an online league ;-)

-------------------------------------------------------

1st Round:
Fifagi - Alucard = Fifagi Wins
Jeko - Ser Arthur Dayne = Jeko Wins
Nick - Deco = Deco Wins
Kuba - Pyat Pree = Kuba Wins
Elooooooi - Spettro = Eloiiiiiii Wins
Gilgamesh - Zsa = Zsa Wins
Gualdo - WWDrakey = WWDrakey Wins
Ghost - Rogue30 = Rogue30 Wins
Jaquen - Barbanera = Jaquen Wins

2nd Round
Deco - Rogue30 = Deco Wins
Jaquen - Kuba = Kuba Wins
Fifagi - Jeko = Jeko Wins
Zsa - Eloiiiiiii = Zsa Wins
WWDrakey - Alucard = WWDrakey Wins
Gualdo - Nick = Gualdo Wins
Pyat Pree - Barbanera = Pyat Pree Wins
Ser Arthur Dayne - Ghost = Ghost Wins
Spettro - Gilgamesh = Gilgamesh Wins

3rd Round
Deco - Kuba = Kuba Wins
Zsa - Jeko = Zsa Wins
WWDrakey - Jaquen = Jaquen Wins
Gualdo - Ghost = Gualdo Wins
Pyat Pree - Rogue30 = Rogue30 Wins
Fifagi - Eloiiiiiii = Fifagi Wins
Gilgamesh - Alucard = tie
Ser Arthur Dayne - Barbanera = tie
Spettro - Nick = Nick Wins

4th Round
Zsa - Kuba = Zsa Wins
Gualdo - Fifagi = Gualdo Wins
Deko - Jeko = Deco Wins
Jaquen - Rogue30 = Jaquen wins
WWDrakey - Gilgamesh = WWDrakey Wins
Pyat Pree - Ghost = Ghost Wins
Nick - Eloiiiiiii = Nick Wins
Alucard - Ser Arthur Dayne = tie
Barbanera - Spettro = Barbanera Wins

Ahh... So close yet still so far... =)

As I won't be playing against the American boys, I think I could present my location-heavy Baratheon semi-control semi-rush deck here:

CHARACTERS (31):

• 1x Selyse Baratheon (CS)
• 1x Robert Baratheon (CS)
• 2x Stannis Baratheon
• 1x Ser Davos Seaworth (CS)
• 1x Brienne of Tarth (CS)
• 1x Edric Storm
• 2x Bastard of Robert
• 3x Banner for the Storm
• 1x Renly Baratheon (Raven's Song)
• 3x Highgarden Refugee
• 1x Joffrey Baratheon (PoTS)
• 3x Royal Entourage
• 2x The Queen of Thorns
• 2x Margaery Tyrell (Red Keep)
• 1x Jon Arryn
• 1x Varys (Secrets and Spies)
• 1x Syrio Forel
• 3x Carrion Bird
• 1x Knight of Flowers (Secrets and Spies)

LOCATIONS (19):

• 3x Seat of Power
• 3x Black Cells
• 3x Kingswood Trail
• 1x King Robert's Chambers
• 3x Stormlands Fiefdoms
• 3x Narrow Sea
• 2x King's Landing
• 1x Street of Sisters

EVENTS (7):

• 2x Compelled by the Crown
• 3x Distinct Mastery
• 2x Seductive Promise

ATTACHMENTS (3):

• 2x Bodyguard
• 1x Lightbringer

PLOTS (7):

• Fury of the Stag
• Wildfire Assault
• An Empty Throne
• City of Lies
• 2x The Power of Blood
• Winter Festival

IDEA:

Idea was to go for a combination of rush (Renown, stealth, standing) and reusable control (Locations, Margaery), as I thought I might counterbalance the normal problem of running out of steam in rush decks with a proper amount of control (due to lack of draw in Baratheon). Also I tried having some out-of-challenges ways (Queen of Thorns, Winter Festival) of obtaining power, in order to not get stuck at ~13 power. Also since I figured winter would be popular in Europe (most good Stark builds are winter).

WHAT WORKED:

Counterbalancing the cost of setting up the shadow control with Seas and Throne allowed for good starts with decent amount of characters together with some control on turn 1. I tried to get 2 shadow cards in hand after setup, and start off with City of Lies, which together with Throne of Power gave me ~10 gold worth of playing on turn 1. Margaery was a clear MVP, turning many near-hopeless situations into wins by giving me additional free control, while still being a good card in its own right. The Shadow control was quite a bit more effective than my actual rush. Seductive Promise turned around 2 games around mid-game (stole Marauders and a Northern Cavalry Flank) - works nicely together with the control. Banners and Entourage were pretty solid.

WHAT DIDN'T:

The deck didn't have good consistency in it's games, with different aspects of it relying on very few cards. Some games I was rush, some games I was control, sometimes neither. Usually had to take a mulligan due to the freaky cost-curve, and often didn't help matters. Of these the control aspect was much more solid, since drawing into one control location usually gave me some control over the game already. Bad choices in renown chars (only one Renly and Robert? why, oh why Jon Arryn?) and also some in events (Compelled didn't do much...) lead to often finding dead cards in hand. I played 3 of my 4 match-ups against winter, and this deck really took a hit from the resource denial... Only thing that kept me in it were the Throne of Powers... The gold cost of the shadow locations together with renown chars is simply really hard to live with. I didn't run into a Lannister, so I don't really know how badly I'd have gotten beaten. Propably quite bad.

WHAT I WOULD CHANGE:

OUT: Compelled, Jon Arryn, Brienne, Davos, one Stannis

IN: More copies of the solid/affordable renown chars (Renly, little Joffrey, Knight of Flowers), a third bastard, a third seductive promise, something affordable (a third bodyguard). Could try using Great Halls or Kingdom of Shadows.

Drakey.

I like your theory and and analysis. When margery and QoT came out I instantly put a deck very similuar to this together. I found a lot fo the same issues as you did (a little of this and a little of that doesn't often lead up to something tasty...and woe when both miss). Though I didn't have Seat of Power aviliable to me at the time, it might speed it up but judging from your experience the deck would still suffer from unrealibilty.

I also 100% agree about taking compelled out. Its one of those cards that when you look you think seems perfect, then in game situations, especially joust, you are often left with it just chillin in hand. One of the problems is tht you need to draw and attach a banner attach first and with no supplimental draw you are at the mercy of the Random.

Jon Arryn is another one that looks better then he is at first. I would have stuck bara loving eddard in before going to Jon.

Drakey win the tournament?

Gualdo, French player have the information for your "OCTG" Championship. May be few french player will particip next month.

Great!!!

WWDrakey didn't won the tournament. Top 4 European will play against TOP4 USA. Next tournament I think it will be better to follow tournament rules to define "number of rounding". In our case the rounds should have been 5 and I think a lot of tie would be eliminated :-(

the formula should be "log base 2 of X where X is number of players > rounded exceeding ;-)

This was our first tournament so I think and hope was very good and next ones will be better, greater and HARDER ;-)

Lars said:

Isn't that the truth about Compelled by the Crown? Talk about a card that looks good "on paper" but just fails miserably. It's usually easy to tell about relative power level of cards (and we love to argue/debate the ones that aren't easy to judge), but every once in a while one really fools you, as this one did me. (Another one was Dragon Sight, I'm ashamed to say now - such a cool concept that is fairly useless.)

I still have a feeling that Bara Shadows can be good if we can find the right build for it. In fact, I think we Americans have a player who is running a similar deck and doing well so far in our side of the tourney, although it may be a more traditional Bara build as I haven't talked with him at length about it.

It pains me to run them, but Dragon's Tail and Counting Favors aren't terrible in a Bara deck, especially if you're playing Lannister or Martell, houses that max their draw quite easily. Don't get me wrong, I'd love for them to have something better. But the ability to ~10 gold worth of cards during the first turn means overextending is a huge danger in Baratheon, and they pretty much have to have something that refills their hand, almost at any cost. Power of Blood is the only thing keeping Bara rush even in the game most of the time with their quick starts and tendency to run out of gas the longer the game goes.

longclaw said:

Dragon's tail doesn't seem to make it for me as its really only a gain of 1 card (you forwent the card you could have drawn to draw dragon's tail) for yourself and a free 2 for opponent.

Counting favors is always floating around, but my plot choices are really competative (do i take out fleeing or rule by decree, both cards that help me reset power level after a reset?) and i still choke on giving 3 (yeah they can draw but are they guaranteed 3?) cards to my opponent at least in joust.

Dragon's tail is a weak event in my opinion. The ONLY time you are at an advantage when playing this is when the opponent has already maxed out his draw.

Otherwise, as Lars mentioned, you get a bonus of only one card.

If the opponent has one card drawn or none, playing this will actually help your opponent . If he has already drawn 2, it's even-steven. So all in all, the card can be used vs 2 houses and even then in specific situations (maxed out draw).

Counting favors is a better option I think, but you have only 7 plots and its benefit is again very situational. More a matter of choice and deck-building in this case, unlike Dragon's tail .

Oh, believe me, guys, you're preaching to the choir about Dragon's Tail and Counting Favors. I think it's sad that I'm even having to consider them in Bara. Your other options are pretty much Shadows draw or Sam, and King's Landing might be enough if you're running a lot of Shadows. It's fairly reliable, but I'd rather be running Twilight Market for some extra King's Landing locations. Summer Agenda is too dangerous for my tastes, especially in a rush build without a lot of control when you need to fight off a Winter deck or even just Carrion Birds taking away your draw.

To be fair, I haven't tried rings' suggestion of some out-of-house draw with Alliance, so maybe that's the answer for straight Bara rush.

I had tommen in my baras deck pre Alliance (again forcing a plot choice on my already narrowed slots) it was hit or miss and the cheapest to use. I've thought about seastone chair and we have a bara guy running it in his deck here, haven't gotten to play him much lately though so i'm not sure how well it works.

I'm also not a big fan of OOH as an answer to in house problems, maybe in ITE+ era targ where they had a lot of cards that helped you play and a bonus to OOH (the event that got rid of gold penalty AND reduced by one for OOH and the guy that ignored gold penalities) Also one MWNK and my draw is on the other side of the board.

I pretty much agree with Dragon's Tail just not being quite worth it, and it's more of a filler to replace an actually useful event. Counting Favors sort of mighthelp, but the plot choices are pretty tight in Baratheon anyways. And somehow OOH draw also doesn't work for me.

BTW, I actually started thinking more about the supposed competitive Shadow-Control deck that could exist for Bara (in light of recent discussions), and made a new thread for that discussion in the Deck Construction section. (Trying to avoid getting too carried away from the original subject of the thread... )

I won last extra game with Deco's Lannister. 2 to 0.

The deck played very well. Man (Queen) of the matches.... Alannys... in combination with winter and Support for the harlaw she is "a moster".

I discarded always top card to Deco so lots of luck from my side... I'm happy cause Deco is one of the greatest player in italy and I learn always lots of things playing against him.

Last 2 matches I've lost 2-1 both times... this one I did it ;-)

Let's wait longclaw for World TOP 8!!!

I'm very happy to be there.... :-)

Houses played for the American rundown -

1. Erick - Lannister
2. Jonathan - Martell
3. Paul - Lannister/Shadows
4. Dan - Martell/Summer
5. Daniel - Baratheon
6. Wade - Lannister/Shadows
7. Anthony - Greyjoy/Winter
8. Rob - Stark
9. Damon - Greyjoy/Winter
10. Mark - Stark
11. Nathan - Lannister/Treaty Martell
12. John - Baratheon?
13. Josh - Baratheon
14. Luke - Martell
15. Tony - Martell
16. Pete - Baratheon

Based on Paul's opponent's SoS, he will be ranked 3rd seed over Dan who tied with him on first tie-breaker...
Seedings are listed below in a tournament style pairing...

US1 -Erick(finitesquarewell) vs. EU4 -Andrea (Gualdo) EU1 -Zsa vs. US4 -Dan(twn2dn)
EU2 -Kuba vs. US3 -Paul US2 -Jonathan (longclaw)vs. EU3 -Jaquen

The winner of Erick/Andrea will play the winner of Kuba/Paul to determine who goes against the winner of the other side of the bracket.
Congrats to all the top 8 and good luck!

Thx Jonathan... we are very excited to be here!!! Let's play, battle, and have fun!!! ;-)

longclaw said:

Wow, I love that two Martell decks made it. I'm looking forward to beating up on some Lanni , and maybe next tourney Lanni will be excluded from the top four spots entirely. ~One can only dream....

On an unrelated note, I gotta say that my most interesting (and stressful) game so far was against Perthius, who played a Stark deck. Though I ultimately took the win, he really put the pressure on. (The game against Erick was good too, of course, but there were fewer game-changing surprises that wreaked havoc on the nerves.)

Also, do people intend to play best 2 of 3 or just one game? I've done both, going case-by-case based on what my opponent's preferences are. Either way works for me. (Obviously multiple games rounds things out better, but it also takes the surprise factor out of the second and third games, especially with regard to triggering responses.)

How can I contact Paul?

In our tournament 99% of the cases we played best of 3, but I think we can decide with our opponent case by case. You are right about surprising for 2nd and 3rd match most of all related to plots (is him running valar or not) and others key factors.

Twn2dn said:

As someone who prefers to play Stark but has drifted away of late given how poorly I've fared at building a strong Stark deck, I'm hoping Perthius will share a little about his deck when the OCTGN tourney is done.

Also "our" Jaquen has played a very solid Stark Deck... and I'm playing it too in our "just started" italian online tournament... I thinke they are very strong, most of all with last releases...

As someone who prefers to play Stark but has drifted away of late given how poorly I've fared at building a strong Stark deck, I'm hoping Perthius will share a little about his deck when the OCTGN tourney is done.

For what it is worth.. below is my Stark deck. I bult it to fight Lanni kneel. Wouldn't you know it, I never faced a Lannister deck :-)

Characters (30)

Arya Stark x2 (Core Set)
Jeyne Westerling x1
Carrion Bird x3
Eddard Stark x3 (Cancel Eddard)
Northern Calvary Flank x2
Randyl Tarly x1
Hungry MOb x3
King Robb's Host x1
Bolton Refugee x3
Robb Stark (King) x2
Hodor x1
Jon Snow x1 (core set)
Northern Infantry x2
Knight of Tumblestone x2
Catelyn Stark x1
Old Nan x1
Ghost x1 (Core Set)

Locations (13)

Northern Fiefdom x3
Great Keep x3
Lord Eddard's Chambers x1
Godswood x1
Street of Steel x1
Street of Sisters x1
Narrow Sea x3

Events (15)

Winter is Coming x3
Distinct Mastery x3
Bound by Duty x2
To Be A wolf x3
The Price of War x2
The Dragon's Tail x2

Attachments (2)
Bodyguard x2

Plots

Fury of the Wolf
The Power of Arms x2
Counting Favors x1
The Power of the Blood x1
After the Mummers Ford x1
Fleeing to the Wall x1

From a draw perspective I assumed that my opponent would have better draw then me
and would be at or near their max so counting favors and dragon's tail were acceptable.

At the last minute I swapped out Valor for Fleeing to the Walls. The concept that winter
is coming and Power of Arms would be enough to keep opponents characters at bay.

Toughest opponents were the Martell Decks as the above does not really have an answer
for the icon removal and red vengeance.

Still was fun to play.

a Lannister deck during the tourney. smiles.

I have to agree with Gualdo... Jaquen's Stark deck was really good, and he was playing it excellently. Hope to see him and the other Europeans give you American boys a proper run for your money!

So what do we have... 4 Lannister (both unbeaten decks were Lanni), 2 Martell (both US) and two Winters (GJ and Stark from Europe)? Also one more Lanni and 2 Bara at similar points, but slightly weaker SoS.

Based on this, as a rough estimate, I'd say that Lannister still holds the throne quite clearly (5 out of 11 that went at least 3-1 are Lannister) , but below that it's starting to get pretty interesting. Also one could deduce, that aggressive decks do better in Europe, and more control-oriented builds in the US. Now we just gotta see how the finals play out... =)

LetsGoRed said:

I'd be happy to :-) But I should warn you, I won two by forfeit and lost the other two so I don't know if I can call it a "strong" Stark deck

So this was the first LCG deck I've built. I normally play ITE+ format (all cards from ITE on, up to 3 copies of each) with my brothers. I didn't have time to playtest it so I've made improvements since the tourney, but here's the deck I played:

Stark Aggro (60 Cards)

Plots (7)

The Red Wedding
Fury of the Wolf
Battle of Oxcross
A Song of Summer
Siege of Riverrun
After the Mummer's Ford
Mutual Cause

Characters (35)

3 x Robb Stark (KotS)
3 x Jeyne Westerling
3 x King Robb's Host
2 x House Umber Berserkers
1 x Northern Cavalry Flank
3 x Brienne of Tarth (PotS)
3 x Theon Greyjoy (PotS)
3 x Ser Jorah Mormont
3 x Jory Cassel
1 x Dacey Mormont
1 x Varys (KL)
1 x Cat o' the Canals
1 x Hodor
1 x The Hound (PotS)
3 x Bolton Refugee
3 x Carrion Bird

Locations (3)

3 x Bay of Ice

Attachments (1)

1 x Northern Steel

Events (21)

3 x Winter is Coming
3 x To Be a Wolf
3 x Kill for Your King!
3 x The Price of War
2 x The Battle of the Whispering Wood
2 x Battle of Ruby Ford
2 x Cannot be Bribed, Cannot be Bought
2 x Parting Blow
1 x Seductive Promise

The concept:

• Pure aggression. No gold / influence locations, no characters with saves: e.g. Maester Aemon, Arya Stark (KL)
• Get board control early & keep it. Theon & Price of War for location control, lots of dupes & Cat of the Canals to come out of Valar in better shape than the opponent. Jory prevents the dupes from becoming dead cards in your hand if the original is killed.
• Anti-Lanni tech. Cannot be Bribed, Cannot be Bought & To Be a Wolf prevent Lanni from protecting their locations by kneeling all War characters. To Be a Wolf is good vs all houses and I expected to see kneel in some non-lanni decks too (Muster, Kinswood Trail, Fights No Sword Can Win)
• High quality draw. My hope was the high draw houses would have attachment control, location control & gold/influence locations mixed in with their draw and I would be drawing purely characters & offensive events.

What I learned:

• Location control isn't what it used to be. In ITE+ format the old Iron Throne was in every deck, and adding to that cards like Septon of the Isles (ITLP) it was very difficult to justify a cost 3 location. In LCG format I think Bear Island is much stronger than I gave it credit for.
• Needs more War crests; A couple of times I drew Price of War but didn't have a War character, or had one but couldn't keep it standing.
• Northern Cavalry Flank > House Umber Berserkers; I thought House Umber Berserkers + Parting Blow would be a nice board control combo but it didn't benefit me hugely as I had no cardless saves and the combo rarely came up. With the extra 1 STR, Deadly & War crest Northern Cavalry Flank are better even without their ability, and their ability is a monster! Agendas seem more common in LCG Jousts than ITE+ jousts and with Bay of Ice I go first more often than not.
• The low gold concept has its drawbacks. When I was in the lead I gained power very slowly, giving the opponent a chance to Valar, play nothing and come back at me strong the next turn. Blockade really hurt me too. With more income I could use cards like Eddard Stark (Core), Trident Reinforcements & Bear Island.
• Shadows characters make it very hard to win an Epic Battle challenge & prevent them from winning one too.
• It's really hard to keep the season neutral! I thought with 3 Carrion Birds, 3 To Be A Wolf, strong military & good initiative it would be a breeze to draw birds & keep the season neutral. I was very wrong. Especially against Martell, venemous blade makes it soooo hard to stop them from making it summer and getting that extra card each turn.

Stark Aggro v2 (Still 60 cards)

Removed (7)

2 x House Umber Berserkers
1 x Northern Steel
1 x The Battle of the Whispering Wood
1 x Battle of Ruby Ford
2 x Parting Blow

Added (7)

2 x Northern Cavalry Flank
1 x Northern Scavengers
2 x Seductive Promise
1 x Lethal Counterattack
1 x By the Light of the Sun

With the Deadly of the additional Northern Cavalry Flanks Seductive Promise becomes that much better. I am very tempted to add a Bear Island to the mix but I can't bring myself to remove any other cards. I may have to try making a high gold Stark deck with Bear Island & Eddard in it.