First off let me begin by thanking those who need to be thanked:

1) As always, thanks to my wife for encouraging me to go have fun with friends.
2) To all who helped FFG run the events. It’s great to see the game grow, and you guys did a wonderful job.
3) To Maester Luke for organizing the draft Saturday night. We’re a hard bunch to keep in line, even before you add the “chaos” into the chaos draft. Well done sir!
5) To rings for the deck advice (more on that later).
6) To my travel buddy cha0s for coming with to Gencon, and helping me test decks a few times prior.
7) To Alec for a great final joust game and the play mat.
8) To the most awesome group to ever play a game. I truly enjoyed seeing all of you once again, and meeting the many new friends that came with you. I had a blast just hanging out.

Melee Report

About a week before Gencon, Maester Luke was out in San Diego for Comic Con. I asked him what type of melee decks people generally played on the other side of the Rockies, and he specifically mentioned that most people gravitated towards rush builds. I fully planned on listening to him, but got lazy at the last second, ended up sticking with my Stark Defense deck, and suffered the consequences!

House Stark

Characters:
2X Catelyn Stark (Core Set)
1X Shaggydog (Core Set)
1X Hodor (Core Set)
1X Maester Aemon (Core Set)
1X Old Nan (A Clash of Arms)
2X Bringers of Law (A Clash of Arms)
2X Northern Cavalry Flank (A Time of Ravens)
3X Bolton Refugee (A Time of Ravens)
1X Maester Vyman (A Time of Ravens)
1X Mance Rayder (A Time of Ravens)
3X Carrion Bird (A Time of Ravens)
1X Varys (King's Landing)
1X Robb Stark (Kings of the Sea)
2X Peasant Defenders (King's Landing)
1X Littlefinger (King's Landing)
2X Eddard Stark (King's Landing)
1X Ser Jorah Mormont (Princes of the Sun)
1X Osha (Defenders of the North)
1X Brienne of Tarth (Princes of the Sun)
1X The Blackfish (Lords of Winter)

Locations:
1X Storm Dancer (King's Landing)
3X Northern Fiefdoms (Core Set)
1X Lord Eddard's Chambers (Core Set)
3X Great Keep (Core Set)
2X Godswood (Core Set)
3X Narrow Sea (Core Set)
2X Den of the Wolf (A Time of Ravens)

Attachments:
3X Icy Catapult (A Clash of Arms)
3X Northern Steel (King's Landing)
2X Bodyguard (Core Set)

Events:
3X Bound by Duty (King's Landing)
2X Guilty! (Core Set)
3X To Be a Wolf (A Clash of Arms)

Plots:
1X Summoning Season (Core Set)
1X Mutual Cause (Core Set)
1X Wildfire Assault (Core Set)
2X The Power of Blood (Core Set)
1X Fury of the Wolf (A Clash of Arms)
1X The Minstrel's Muse (Defenders of the North)

So the object of the deck is pretty simple: build up a defense to encourage opponent’s to attack each other, and pick off UO power where you can.

Round 1
I can’t remember who was at my table, but there were 3 rush decks: Bara, Stark Siege, and Martell. I rushed ahead to take 8 power by the second or third plot, inciting the wrath of my table mates. Soon after my board position was destroyed (with two Condemned by the Realms), and then everyone rushed right past me. I finished 4th due to pushing for power too soon, and too slowly. I went from 1st to 4th in the last round, without even losing a single power counter.
0 points (and day over for me already)

Round 2
Lots of Strak and Bara again, but I can’t remember the details. I got to around 8 power, and once again incited the wrath of the table. I was going last and I believe I played Minstrels Muse. The table decided to kneel me out, but fortunately they knelt themselves out in the process, and I had 2 To Be a Wolf’s in my hand when it was my turn. I was able to stand Eddard twice and grab power and Dominance for 1st place.
10 points (maybe it’s not so over)

Round 3
An announcement was made that we would be playing 4 rounds, giving me hope that if I could win my next 2 games, I might just have a shot. Unfortunately, my deck was just too slow to keep up in this game. I was at another table with 3 rush decks, and was blown out of the water with their speed taking 4th.
10 points (Now it’s really over!)

Round 4 “The One I Remember Most”
I was at a table of three with John Williams playing Bara, and Jonathon Benton playing Stark Siege. Benton was clearly in charge at this table and was going to win on the 3rd or 4th plot. John had just passed me up to take 2nd place, but I was able to grab some power and take 2nd place back (I believe from Renown) before Longclaw won the table.
15 points

Wow! How I wished I had sucked it up, and built a rush deck like I intended to do. After Kublacon (where I got blown out by 3 rush decks at the final table) I had some how managed to convince myself it was only due to my poor flop, and that my Defensive minded deck was still decent. I still don’t think the deck is that bad, but it certainly doesn’t have what it takes to compete when everyone is power grabbing. Live and learn.

Congratulations to all who made the final table. Especially Brett for winning (~who is without a doubt still talking about it non stop!), and cha0s for being so, so close to winning it, but still taking 2nd.

Joust Report

I brought 3 joust decks with me to Gencon. Martell, Targ, and my GJ Winter deck that took 2nd at Kublacon. Having tested each deck a couple of times, I wasn’t pleased with any of them for various reasons. That night after the melee I decided to pick rings’ brain about the current environment, and the best possible match ups for certain decks. I decided to go with my Martell deck, as I felt it was fast enough to beat most other rush decks, and immune enough to beat control decks. Also, with my limited playing opportunities, I figured this was just the kind of deck I needed to play to minimize my chances of screwing things up.

I still had some problems with the deck however. One, I felt Red Vengeance was slowing the deck down. I felt I was devoting too much influence just to be able to pull RV off early. Two, I was terrified of the Bara Fury stealing my Viper with tons of power for the win. Three, I hate one trick pony decks.

Rings suggested Burning on the Sands, which instantly took care of problems 1 and 2, and I felt the Viper was a good enough pony that I was willing to build around him. Rings tends to put a lot of emphasis on every card being cost efficient and immediately useful when deck building, and his ideas were just what I felt I was missing from my deck.

House Martell

Characters:
1X The Bastard of Godsgrace (A Clash of Arms)
1X Myrcella Lannister (Kings of the Sea)
3X Refugee of the Citadel (A Time of Ravens)
2X Flea Bottom Scavenger (King's Landing)
3X Dornish Paramour (King's Landing)
3X The Red Viper (Princes of the Sun)
1X Arianne Martell (Princes of the Sun)
1X Darkstar (Princes of the Sun)
1X Ellaria Sand (Princes of the Sun)
1X Ser Aerys Oakheart (Princes of the Sun)
3X House Messenger (Princes of the Sun)
3X Orphan of the Greenblood (Princes of the Sun)
2X Herald of the Sun (A Clash of Arms)
2X Maester of Lemonwood (Defenders of the North)
1X Areo Hotah (Princes of the Sun)
1X Varys (King's Landing)
3X Carrion Bird (A Time of Ravens)

Locations:
3X Lost Oasis (King's Landing)
2X Dornish Fiefdoms (Princes of the Sun)
1X Lord Doran's Chambers (Princes of the Sun)
3X Summer Sea (Princes of the Sun)
3X Palace Fountains (Princes of the Sun)
2X Water Garden (Princes of the Sun)
1X Shadowblack Lane (Core Set)

Attachments:
3X Venomous Blade (King's Landing)
2X Taste for Blood (Princes of the Sun)
2X Bodyguard (Core Set)

Events:
3X He Calls It Thinking (Princes of the Sun)
3X Condemned by the Council (King's Landing)
3X Burning on the Sand (Defenders of the North)

Plots:
1X Fury of the Sun (A Clash of Arms)
1X Uneasy Truce (Core Set)
2X The Power of Blood (Core Set)
1X Valar Morghulis (Core Set)
1X Fear of Winter (Defenders of the North)
1X Summoning Season (Core Set)

~The object of the deck is deep and complex, only for the most sophisticated of players! Flop big, draw a lot, dupe the Viper, and run like hell.

Round 1
v. Ben playing Stark Shadows
I did not want to see a Shadows deck right away with AGH hitting my Viper. I got the Viper out early, and had plenty of He Calls it Thinking to cancel AGH enough times to grab 15 power. Ben is a great player and he fared pretty well throughout the day. This game was just a matter of the Viper out rushing Ben’s control.
MVP - He Calls it Thinking (and TRV of course)
1-0

Round 2
v. Paul playing Lanni
Paul was playing a Lanni deck that set up well for a first turn Blockade followed by RBD. I had 0 military icons out, so I played Uneasy Truce which set up for a whopping first turn with 0 challenges I think. The rest of the game was a very good match up of plots. It took me a while to get the Viper out, but once he hit the table he rushed off for the win in about the 6th round.
MVP - TRV all by himself
2-0

Round 3
v. Kyle playing Lanni
Kyle’s deck was build around grabbing tons of power on KLE Joff. Kyle played a herald and put Joff on top of his deck, so the next plot phase I played Summoning Season to grab a dupe for the Viper I already had in hand. Kyle stuck with his KLE Joff. I believe I played the Viper with a dupe that turn, but watched as Joff grabbed up power. I still had too many characters, and the Viper was kneeling for challenges. Joff finally managed to grab about 9 power before I played Valar to remove him from the table. I was able to save the Viper, and play out Power of Blood for the next two rounds until I got to 15 power.
MVP – Valar
3-0

Round 4
v. Greg (Dobbler) playing Martel Wildlings w/ 3 (?) agendas
This game is up there as far as the most enjoyable games I’ve ever played. Things were going well for my deck, and both Greg and I were low on cards in hand. Late in the game, Greg played Viper’s Bannermen and then Cyvassed them back to his hand right before an imminent Valar, drawing quite a few cards. Eventually, the game came down to me having 13 power and having the strength to win a power challenge with The Red Viper for the win…. Only Greg had 8 cards in hand now, and I was sure one of them was Burning on the Sands! I was out of dupes, and out of Power of Bloods. Valar was coming next, and this was my only chance to win. I sent TRV on the challenge and sure enough, Greg nerfed it with Burning on the Sands. The Viper ate a Valar and the rest of the game involved me fighting a clawing to keep every bit of power I could. We almost played to time, but I’m glad Greg was able to get the win in the last round. It was well deserved.
MVP – Greg’s Viper’s Bannermen
3-1

Round 5
v. Josh (Staton) playing Bara rush (duh!?)
By this point in the tourney, the jitters were gone. Bara was certainly one of the matchups I did not want to see, but I was feeling good. Staton rushed out to grab a bunch of power early, but I was right behind him. I was keeping a Burning in the Sands in my hand to counter his Fury Power Challenge, but luckily I think I drew in to all three. That really allowed me to nerf his challenges and keep his vigilant characters knelt. I remember eventually Staton Played Valar when I played Power of Blood, and it ended up hurting him more than me, as my power was consolidated on TRV, while his was spread out. This also made his character count much higher than mine, allowing my Viper to go crazy for the win.
MVP – Burning on the Sands
4-1

Round 6
v. Mallesh playing GJ KoW
Having played this deck a Kublacon, I knew it was vulnerable to speed. Fortunately for Mallesh, he played a Wintertime Marauders on the flop along with Alannys first turn, and he made it winter. Mallesh destroyed my hand and board position the entire game. Multiple times he would cancel my events only to stand the Marauders again to discard a dupe on the Viper. Without any dupes, I was forced to play my last Power of Blood, and Mallesh gambled and went with Valar. That really hurt him, and the Viper was able to finish out the game.
MVP – Power of Blood
5-1 and 3rd seed in the finals!!!

Quarterfinals
v. #6 seed Staton playing Bara rush
I beat him once, but I was sure doing it twice would be much more difficult. Staton managed to give Margery vigilant early in the game to force me through my plot deck quickly. I managed to draw into a Viper and a dupe, so I used my summoning season to get Ellaria, as she was the perfect card to slow Bara rush down. On one draw phase I drew into 2 Burning on the Sands. I used on early to keep Staton’s vigilant knelt, and saved one for the Fury. Eventually, Staton played his Fury plot, went first, and knelt out to get the power challenge across. I nerfed it with my second copy of BotS, and managed to wrap the game up.
MVP – Ellaria for slowing the rush down, and a timely BotS
6-1

Semifinals
v. Matt (rings) playing Martell Wildlings with 4 agendas
I had tested my deck against Matt’s the night before (before we both tweaked them) and had won, so I was feeling ok. It took me a while to find a dupe for my Viper, but eventually he hit the table with 2 dupes and a Bodyguard. Towards the end of the game all I needed was a power challenge to wrap things up. ~I got so desperate for icons and stealth that I pulled the magical “discarding your own Shadow Varys” trick that all the elite players such as I know how to do. In the last round Matt’s deck failed to give him any power icons, leaving me a free UO challenge for the win.
MVP - ~Varys (and TRV of course)
7-1

Finals
v. Alec Irwin (skeltonator?) playing Lanni
While I was waiting for the semifinal between Erick and Alec to finish, I was rather conflicted on who I wanted to play. I knew my deck matched up better against Erick’s, but didn’t really want to play the #1 seed. When Alec got the win I was excited for him, and excited for our game, until he flopped Lannisport Brothel. I knew immediately I needed to draw into a Condemned by the Council or else my Viper was toast. I spent the first several turns trying to draw, and got nothing. I risked a challenge when the Viper had to kneel, knowing I had a He Calls it Thinking in my hand. However, I was not prepared to see City plots coming. The next round Alec knelt the Viper with his plot, and then continued to keep him down with the Brothel. I drew and drew, but eventually Alec got enough power from UO challenges to win. ***Never do this!!!*** I decided to look at what the next card (about half way through my deck) was, and sure enough, it was Condemned. By that time, there was no way I would have been able to win an Intrigue challenge to trigger it, but I decided to beat the crap out of the card with my fist anyway, just to show it who is boss. I’d like to think I could have at least put up more of a fight had I seen it earlier in the game. Either way I was facing a great deck played wonderfully by Alec.
7-2 for 2nd place in Joust

Overall, I was very pleased. All I wanted out of the day was to finish with a winning record, but making it to the final table was awesome. I fully realize that my deck (or rather The Red Viper) did most of the hard work, but I picked it, tuned it with help, and played it well, so I was somewhat pleased with myself and my performance. Alec was gracious enough to give me the play mat he won, as he already had one, which was extremely kind. He is a great opponent to play against, ~even if he did sabotage me by getting Cartman’s version of Pokerface stuck in my head during our game!! I had my mistakes throughout the day, but nothing that hurt me too bad. That, combined with an absolutely fantastic time competing against fantastic people is all I could have asked for from the Joust event.

I was shocked and excited to see that cha0s and I were able to sweep 2nd places in all three events. I only hope that that will encourage the other great players out here on the West coast to look seriously at attending Worlds next year.

Congratulations to the champions Alec (Joust), Erick (Overall), and Brett (melee) on their victories.

~Whew!!! I know I appreciate these kinds of posts, but is anybody seriously going to read all of this?

Awesome TR man! And glad to see you, and dan!, make it out this year. You are the only person to make playing against martell enjoyable. lol Also, I think that you counted for a lot more than your deck for your wins. My deck was undefeated against martell decks until I played you. Before our games I was sure that if I played Martell I was going to win. So touche salesman, touche!

I read all of it. Fantastic TR! Nice to see someone playing a deck to my liking, and doing so well with it! (only definitely tighter and better focused than anything I ever build ) I don't really subscribe to all this wildling and FoW nonsense, so it's great to see decks like this and Staton's Bara Rush still doing well at the highest level. Anyways, congrats on the 2nd place! Well played sir, well played.

I also read it all! And, speaking as a new player (been playing for about a month or so), I thank you VERY much, for the wonderfull insight you provided to the top tournaments, players and plays this wonderfull game has! My compliments to you, sir, both ofr the win and for the TR!

BTW, is there any chance you or another elite player like you could share the trick with discarding Varys? Is there some timing conundrum I'm unaware of, that, if Varys is the only ally in play, even if he comes out of shadows you don't have to discard him ot his own power?

Once again, thanks for the TR! It really is appreciated (by me at the least).

great thread ;-) Compliments for your playing at Gencon ;-)

John, congrats on a fantastic day. It was so good to see you and Dan this year. Hopefully you guys can drag out a few more West Coasters next year!

Thanks for the TR (did read it all) and congratulations to everyone who participated this year at GenCon. A special congratulations goes out to all the champions! Well done.

Staton said:

~ There is something wrong with a martel deck that is fun to play against :-P

I'm curious about something however... I notice its a trend in agot to put in 2x, and 1x of various things. Could you do me a favor, try the deck where outside of plots you must include 3x of each card... AND keep the deck count at 60.

Great TR man. I will do my best to get mine up this weekend.

tovra.pt said:

lol.... that's the magic trick

You bring him out of shadows when he's the only ally, raise you hands in the air, and say, "Yay me!" as you move him to the discard pile. It's a great trick to convince your opponent that you really aren't that smart. Of course, rings already knew that about me....

All sarcasm aside, I just goofed.... there is no trick.

Deathjester26 said:

Oh, well... I was kind of hoping so, even thought about asking ktom... anyway, nice catch, hehehe... made me lol ...

Great report, thanks for taking the time to write it up! Congrats on your 2nd place finish, you and chaos both had a fantastic GenCon and were awesome to hang out with.

tovra.pt said:

You could run Fortified Position to be a trickster

And great report Deathjester26. I and the rest of the community appreciate it!

Yes thank you for the review! Outstanding report! I read it too! I wish I could say our little meta had a bigger part in getting you ready for the tournament. Fact is, we're still learning... little by little! What was it that someone said... "Iron sharpens iron?" Something like that? Hehe. Great showing in the tourney. You make Socal (and the entire West Coast) proud! Hopefully next year Socal can send more players.

Great report. Waiting for more form others.

@tovra.pt: ~ sign means joke

Congrats John. Our last session you did a lot of testing with your Targ deck. I was surprised to see you switched to Martel. The few times we have played I don't think I have seen you use Martel once. Looks like you made the correct decision.

Congrats John. You are a sharp player and a great guy, it is always nice when those two things come together in a player who places well in a major.

West coast is representing well in Thrones this year.

Rogue30 said:

@tovra.pt: ~ sign means joke

Didn't notice it in the report. Ah, well, I didn't knew it, so, even if I'd notice I would think it was a typo or something. Anyway, thanks for the explanation

Ya know the varys trick... can always use that to fuel a response to a character leaving play... or a card coming out of shadows.... if the situation makes it worthwhile.

Parting Blow for example.

Congrats bud!

You far over-stated my help to your deck, but I appreciate the shout-out regardless.

I couldn't have asked for a better guy to knock me out of contention. I never feel bad about losing to a friend.