Let me start by thanking FFG for putting this awesome weekend together. Thank you Nate and all the FFG volunteers for your hard work. I also need to thank all the phenomenal players who came out to Gencon and really made the weekend a blast, you guys are the reason I play this game. I want to thank my tour guide Johnny (deathjester) for making the trip out from CA with me and showing me the ropes. Next year we will be bring more peeps from our great State. Thanks to Rings for his hospitality, booze and great deck building advice. Thanks to LUke for organizing the Drunk Draft. I made sure the name accurately represented the event!

I had great expectations of participating in all the scheduled AGoT events (except the highlander) but fell short of that goal mostly due to excessive drinking and late nights. I did play in the Melee on Thursday and the Joust on Friday and the League throughout the weekend. Here is my story:

JOUST DECK

House Stark ( The Siege of Winterfell )

Characters:
3X Wolf Pack (Lords of Winter)
1X Eddard Stark (Core Set)
1X Shaggydog (Core Set)
1X Hodor (Core Set)
3X Carrion Bird (A Time of Ravens)
3X Bolton Refugee (A Time of Ravens)
1X Cat o' the Canals (A Time of Ravens)
3X Hungry Mob (King's Landing)
3X Shadowcat (Kings of the Sea)
3X Syrio Forel (King's Landing)
1X Ser Jorah Mormont (Princes of the Sun)
3X Direwolf Pup (Core Set)
3X Peasant Defenders (King's Landing)
2X Former Champion (Princes of the Sun)
1X The Hound (Princes of the Sun)
1X Theon Greyjoy (Princes of the Sun)
2X Guard at Riverrun (Lords of Winter)

Locations:
1X Street of Steel (Core Set)
3X Narrow Sea (Core Set)
1X Bay of Ice (Kings of the Sea)
3X Northern Fiefdoms (Lords of Winter)

Attachments:
3X Frozen Solid (Lords of Winter)
3X Icy Catapult (A Clash of Arms)
1X Needle (A Time of Ravens)

Events:
3X The Battle of the Whispering Wood (A Clash of Arms)
3X Battle of the Bay (King's Landing)
3X Lethal Counterattack (Core Set)
2X Feigned Retreat (Defenders of the North)

Plots:
1X Storm of Swords (Lords of Winter)
1X Take Them by Surprise (Lords of Winter)
1X Blockade (Core Set)
1X Rule by Decree (Core Set)
1X Fury of the Wolf (A Clash of Arms)
1X Fear of Winter (Defenders of the North)
1X Valar Morghulis (Core Set)

Oooppps, I will add more soon. Sry to leave you hangin...

Thx for sharing... waiting for more ;-)

Ok sorry for the delay....so this deck was designed with the thought that Stark Siege decks would be running rampant at Gencon. I included the Lethal Counterstrike/Feigned Retreat to combat this. I left out Winter is Coming because I was also predicting Martell to be a very popular house and I hate to raise the claim on a military challenge while the Martell is holding a Red Vengeance. Ugh...Anyways this deck was designed to control the opponent with the Fear of Winter/Blockade/Rule by Decree plot combo and then power grab with consistent multiple military challenges. Here is how it played out:

Round 1
Opponent Bye

This guys is horrible. I don't like to talk smack but this guy never wins. I'm pretty sure his record is 0-infinity. But I did get my full 5 points. Thx

Record: 1-0

Round 2
Opponent: Nathan playing Martell

I flopped well, I think 4 cards (3 characters or so including Stalwart Ned and a Sea) and I had an epic battle in my hand. I played my epic battle pre-plot and hit Nathan with a first turn Fear of Winter (BIG surprise)...I however was surprised by his choice of plot, he Valared! First turn Valar....hmmmm I never saw that coming. I proceeded to go first, put Ned on the top of my deck and immediately drew him into my hand. Using my Narrow sea from the flop, I played Ned again. Poor Nathan was afraid to put any characters out because they would most certainly die. I got to 5 power on the first turn with my UO Mil. challenge and Ned claiming his response for entering play and his renown, but Nathan kept my from getting to use my epic battle. Next turn I hit Nathan with a blockade and he was left w/o being able to play any characters again. I quickly went to 9 power with an UO Mil. and renown. Next turn I'm pretty sure I went with Storm of Swords and got an extra Mil. challenge. Game, set, match. Nathan congratulated me and we decided to play a rematch in which I saw the power of Nathan's build. He designed it character light and was running something like 24-26 events. He managed to control everything I sent at him the second game and worked me over pretty good. He is a great player and I was lucky to beat him the first game.

Record: 2-0

Round 3
Opponent Greg (Dobbler) playing Martell

Another Martell deck?!? At least I somewhat expected this but I have never played against Greg so I have no real idea of what he is capable of, just the epic stories of his past achievements as a player. Needless to say, I'm a bit worried. I wish there was more to say but our game really came down to the first turn when I Fear of Wintered and was hoping to squeeze a 2 claim Mil. through which Greg anticipated and help me off with his Burning on the Sands. ****, ok I told myself, regroup and get him next round. Next round he had another Burning on the Sands waiting to soak my Mil. challenge...and the rest of the round was a blur. I valared to clear him of some nasty high STR characters but then my deck proceeded to $h!T on me and I could'nt draw a character to save my life. Greg played flawlessly and I never stood a chance after that first BotS.

Record: 2-1

Round 4
Opponent Mallesh playing GJ Winter

I never liked this match up because of the GJ Fury plot and its ability to slow down my deck with its saves. I was looking good after a few rounds of beating up on Mallesh although his saves were keeping him in the game. I had a big chance to do some major damage in one of my epic phases where I brought Syrio out of shadows and had a Hungry Mob and Wolf Pack standing ready to go. To this very moment, I'm not sure why I chose to do what I did next and I think it really changed the outcome of the game by my silly mistake. Mallesh had only a Distinguished Boatswine standing and a Wintertime Marauders kneeling. In this epic phase I sent ONLY Syrio (WTF why not everyone?) on the challenge stealthing the Boatswine. Mallesh then stood the Marauders with Distinct Mastery and I lost the challenge. Syrio was stranded on the table and then Valar hit next. That was a HUGE mistake on my part and I knew it. I kept thinking I still had a good chance to recover but my deck decided that was not the case. I didn't draw a character for the next 3 rounds and Mallesh battled valiantly to overtake me and won.

Record: 2-2

Round 5
Opponent Todd playing Targaryen

At this point I am devastated that I let the previous game get so far out of control. Ugh, I kept replaying the events in my head and I knew that my chances at final table were pretty slim. I decided that I would play out the rest of my games and just have fun cause that was what I was there for. I did just that in the game against Todd. He had a unique Targ build with a bunch of burn and then Rhaenys' Hill to retrieve the killed characters for one big challenge phase. We played back and forth for a few plots and I had built up quite the dead pile which Todd had his eye on. In the 4th round challenge phase he popped his hill to get my 8-10 dead characters...unfortunately for him it was the turn he had Threat from the North revealed and 4 of them were immediately discarded. The rest of the characters had only Military icons and so he was only able to do one challenge. I finally managed to get a few epic battle events to work and I won in the 4th or 5th plot. I have got to hand it to Todd though for his efforts and apologize for the lack of useful characters in my dead pile.

Record 3-2

Round 6
Opponent Casey playing Martell (I think)

I have never played against Casey but I was aware that he was a past World Champion and so i knew he was going to be a challenge. The first turn proved pivotal in this game similarly to the game with Greg, although this time the luck was on my side. I dropped Fear of Winter and Casey decided to go first. He brought his big Martell Army out of shadows and intrigued me. For claim he pulled my feigned retreat, unluckily for him I had another one in my hand. He left the big army standing to defend against my 2 claim (which he did) but I used my event as my one card and wiped his board. From there Casey climbing uphill and he just couldn't get enough momentum to get back into it.

Record: 4-2

At this point I knew it would be up to SoS for the tie-breakers at 4-2 record. I figured I did not have enough to make it to the top 8 and I was right. I finished 10th in the joust and missed the top 8 by a few SoS points. ****!!!!

I was fairly happy with the way my deck performed. In hindsight I can see a few things I would have done differently...but isn't that always the case?

CONGRATS again to Alec, the Joust Champion. Well done Ser!

Dude it was awesome getting to meet you! ~You look soooooo californian! Hope to see you there next year. And next year I really have to see you dancing backwards up the escalator!

Staton said:

Oh man, I want to see this happen.

Great report.

cha0s said:

~ yeah, 4STR for 1 gold, pigs!

Staton said:

This is what happens when you express your concern about your friends ability to handle the on coming escalator.... I guess he proved me wrong!

Great TR man. I had a blast. And congrats on coming in 2nd in melee and overall, or last I guess.... lol

Good job all around, Mr. ChaOs. Great to see the only West Coast guys do well. ~You would have done even better not playing Stark.

Sorry about not securing that Overall Worlds title...Eric beats me 19 of 20 times with that matchup

Congrats again on a good showing (~but not good enough)!