Brett Zeiler of Springfield, MO is now the reigning Melee World Champion! Many, many congrats to one of the most deserving guys I know. Our melee decks were different by maybe 5 cards, but it looks like that was enough.

For those curious, the rest of the top 4 were:

Wade Freeman of TN (Stark)

Daniel Machado (sp?) of CA (Bara)

Sandy ?? of OH (Bara)

and Greyjoy for Brett.

Thanks for posting Kennon! Not surprised Martell didn't make the final table even though many people saw them as a serious contender. I'm guessing too many players found ways and expected to deal with the Viper, Taste for Blood and Ellaria.

Way to go GJ! Have always believed GJ was strong in Melee. It's one of the best Houses for making a late rush. I didn't expect anyone to run it, and I'm sure many others thought the same! Probably gave it the right edge. Was it a Winter deck? I can't wait to hear/read about the philosophy of the deck.

Congrats Brett! I wish I could have been there. Guess there's always next year

As a Greyjoy Winter player I can only be happy about it ;-) Congrats!!!

Good to hear. Hope it was an enjoyable game.

Any chance of having some of the succesful deckslists shared here?

Usually, the championship lists get posted after GenCon, and I'm sure cha0s will post his list as well.

Yes I would love to see deck lists from any of the top 8.

And some deatuils of teh final match please....

Did Greyjoy go last one turn - get close and then flip Rise of the Kraken to ensure the final, brutal push in challenge pahse?

The Bara decks probably lacked the control to slow GJ up when he withstood the inital rush - I also consider teh Greyjoy one of the top tow melee houses.

And how many total players were in the melee?

Stag Lord said:

Stag Lord said:

I really thought Margaery would have mucked up Rise of the Kraken. I'd be surprised to hear if the win was taken with Rise while two Bara players were at the final table.

By the way, apparently you needed to win three games and get at least second in your fourth to qualify for the finals table. That's pretty tough to do with any deck, and my guess is that the gameplay each round (forming alliances, etc.) may have been a bigger factor than the actual details of each decklist.

Also, consensus among the players I talked with was that Siege of Winterfell was "the deck" to play, and it was especially good given that one could choose the redirect title to reduce the vulnerability to non-military challenges.

And the winner of Highlander is...

bloodycelt. Congrats, Jay! (I believe he was playing a Bara deck, but I don't know for certain.)

Sweet, Darryl just had me watch the Day 1 GenCon video where you can see an awesome reaction shot from me when Zeiler played Ahead of the Tide as an opponent at the final table (It was Wade, right?) revealed Take them By Surprise. As Zeiler and I had discussed, that event is clutch for GJ in melee and I was really excited to see someone get a hand discarded that way.

GREAT!!! Now I know what the reaction was for... and as a grey player: compliments for that :-)