i cannot believe this is happening already. where did the time go?

predictions? conspiracies? will a meta-sotan ever win or will those pesky out-of-towners win it again?

bring the hate!

No doubt. Time flies indeed.

No real predictions to speak of, other than the obvious. I will participate in the joust and miss the melee again (because it's always held on Friday which is a work day for me).

Someone will be accused of collusion at some point. It seems to be the "in thing".

Nickler will win a game he should have lost and lose a game he should have won.

My fate will be determined by the quality of my draw and my matchups. I will make at least one blundering error at some point in one of the games.

Kalentalis will be dropping a "f-bomb" somewhere.

King Blith will bring a solid deck, make playoffs, and lose in playoffs to a play mistake that should not have happened while playing against the deck he lost against previously because he didn't think through his opponent's known cards properly.

I will not win a single game at the event (but that is because I won't be there).

Dobbler will be the expected winner, but I think someone else might actually sneak out a win.

Mathias will do better than he expects.

Nick-ler will play Targ, go 3-0, and then lose the rest of his games. Unless he goes 4-0. Then he will take first.

Katie and I have been looking forward to this for awhile. Actually been practicing alot latey for it too. As a side note, I'll actually be playing a non bara house for melee!

Staton said:

/me checks weather in hell.

holy crap... it HAS frozen over.

My prediction is that I will stay the entire time on Saturday as opposed to the last event at FFG when there was a fraking blizzard! Oh and that I'll finish bottom half. (I figured I'll set the bar high this time)

I predict you won't drink 1/2 as many Chocolate Cake shots since I won't be there (is Paul going - he was the other half of that particular issue).

I have to go with the favorite in Dobbs - playing a lot + experience + podcasts = being the favorite, and he plays a lot. ~Plus he told me he is playing shirtless to mess with his opponents.

Hey, hey! I do all of those things too!

Of course, I'm only half as hairy as Dobbler and twice as tanned, so Me being shirtless is probably distracting in an entirely different manner...

Minnesota regionals have twice been the site of a big win for me. However, I know the deck Kennon is bringing, and it is a beast. Also, I never win at Melee, and since melee is part of the championship, it should definitely drop me a notch in the "favorites" category. If I had to pick a winner, I'd pick Maester LUke or Kennon. Both perform well in Melee and are good joust players.

I'm looking forward to see all of you guys real soon. We are bringing a car of 3 or 4, and leaving tomorrow afternoon so we have all of Friday to relax and hopefully record some podcasts.

Kennon said:

Kennon, one of these days you are going to break through (to the other side) and I am going to have to give you respect.

Today is not that day.

I think Kennon will win it. Just cuz it's about time. I suspect this cocky new player will show up (me), and get the first eliminated prizes for both joust and melee. And that a good time will be had by all.

I predict that I will finally be able to put some face to the screen names on here.

And finally about to start the epic trek north! See everyone there! We'll be bringing a very out of control man with us!

Staton said:

Woot! I'm in my staging area of Rochester. I'll be there tomorrow morning.

Dobbler said:

What do you think of possibly doing some interviews with the top 4 or something? Kinda cool to have an interviews piece on your podcast.

I agree with the interviews, but I'd rather here from the designersto be honest. If you have time for both then the winner of Melee and Joust would be really nice. It would be cool to hear their thoughts on the metagame, what they went through in designing their deck. But all of that is not as interesting to me as hearing from the people who design the actual game, and what they go through to come up with all these ideas.

Looking forward to reading, if not hearing, all about it.

Good luck everyone!

Some early statistics

Friday night Melee - 15 attendees

5 Stark - (Knights of the Hollow Hill, Siege, 3x no agenda)

4 Greyjoy - (Alliance, 3x No agenda)

3 Neutral - (3x Brotherhood w/o banners)

2 Lanny - (2x The White Book)

1 Baratheon - (1x Knights of the Hollow Hill)

Final will be played tomorrow after 3 rounds of melee swiss tonight.

Final Table will be:

Will Lentz (Kennon)- Greyjoy (30 points)

Greg Atkinson (Dobbler) - Lanny White Book (30 Points)

Jerod Leopold (clu) - Baratheon Knights of the Hollow Hill (19 Points)

Nick Agranoff (The Nick-ler) - Lanny White Book (18 points)

Nice to see 2 people taking Lannister to the final table in Melee. Surprised that no one took Martell or Targ at all in Melee.

Greg - thanks for the breakdown on decks - always interesting.

Sorry I couldn't make this one.

LordofBrewtown said:

we are sorry too LOB. would have been nice to see you.

Well, I'm sure you guys are having fun. Keep us updated on what's going on!

2011 Minnesota Regional

My Deck: Martell with the Kings of Summer Agenda

I agonized over the decision of what to play leading up

to the Regional. I wanted to play Stark, but just could

not put a deck together that was competitive enough. I

didn't want to run wildlings, as I like the majority of

my cards to be of the house I'm playing. So in the end I

ended up bringing what I felt was my most competitive

deck, which ended up being my Martell Summer deck. I

expected to see a lot of Targaryen since their expansion

was just released, and I suspected I'd see some Martell

as well, but didn't think there'd be as many as there

ended up being. My deck had done well against other

Martell decks I'd played in the local meta and I was

prepared for Targaryen antics. In the end, I met no

Targaryen decks and far too many (for my taste) Martell

opponents.

First round vs. Lannister Clansmen (played by Sam) : Sam

quickly ran out of cards and ran out of options. He

could never really get his deck going. 1-0

Second round vs. Neutral Brotherhood (played by Noel) :

Noel got Hollow Hill out right away along with The Mad

Huntsman, but I milked the Huntsman right away and then

pulled Maester Cressen from his hand during an intrigue

claim before he could play him to get rid of the milk.

It was smooth sailing after that. 2-0

Third round vs. Martell Shadows Agenda (played by

Dobbler) : Was good to see Dobbler again. I had played

him the previous year as well. I got off to a good start

and was up 10-1 on power. But then Dobbler got his lock

in place and I was unable to advance further from there.

My first loss of the day. 2-1

Fourth round vs. Martell (played by Jens) : This was my

closest game of the day and the most fun. Won it at the

end 15-14, with Darkstar's renown giving me the win. If

I did not win on my turn (I went first), my opponent

would have won for sure. Thoroughly enjoyable game. 3-1

Fifth round vs. Martell Kings of Summer (played by

Brian) : A direct mirror match with a local meta-mate. I

don't enjoy playing against my own house, but here was

the third in a row. Brian is always fun to play and is a

good guy. In the end, I took this match and waited to

see if my record would be good enough to make the cut to

final four. 4-1

Turns out I had the same record as King Blith, and that

we had both lost to the same opponent (Dobbler), so our

strength of schedule was an exact match as well. It was

decided that we would have to have a playoff to see who

made the final four.

Final Four game vs. Stark Wildlings (both agendas) :

Blith never got going and the game was over quickly.

This put me in the final four along with three other

Martell decks (ugh).

First game of the final round I was matched with another

mirror match with Maester Luke (the top seed), who was

also playing Martell Kings of Summer : Our decks were

almost exact copies. Main differences being Luke ran

Alchemists Shop to my Lost Oasis and I think one of his

plots was different than mine. Luke had some fortuitous

intrigue wins, discarding some of my key cards early. I

never recovered and he cruised to a relatively easy

victory. We had time so started to play another because

Luke was sure my deck was capable of playing better than

it did in our official game. He was right, I was doing

much better in our second game before we called it

because Luke's next opponent was ready for him in the

final. As usual, Luke was a gracious opponent and a joy

to play against and I wished him well.

So that's it. For the second year in a row I finished

fourth. Not bad, especially considering we had 24

participants this year, which was more than double what

we had last year. Maester Luke ended up beating Dobbler

for the title game.

For anyone who took the time to read all this, I hope

you enjoyed it. I hope I got the names right (please

forgive me if I did not, I went off memory as I did not

write anything down during the games). Had a good time

and enjoyed some good games. Thanks to my local MN

meta-mates for the preparation leading up to the

Regional and for being all around good guys and fun to

play with and to the FFG staff for putting together a smooth, enjoyable event.

to sum up...

Melee Chump-ian: Will "Kennon" playing Greyjoy

White Walkers (otherwise known as Others) at the final table: Me playing Lannister White Book, Greg "Dobbler" playing Lannister White Book and Jerod "Clu" playing Baratheon Knights of the Hollow Hill

Joust Champ: Lucas "Maester LUke" playing Martell Summer

Other Top 4's: Greg "Dobbler" playing Martell Shadows, Matthew "ASoIaFfan" Martell Summer and... now i feel bad for not remembering who was 3rd.

Overall Champ: Greg "Dobbler" playing Lannister White book (melee) and Martell (Joust)

Overall Bridesmaid: Will "Kennon" playing Greyjoy (melee) and Baratheon

Overall Suckers (tied for 3-4 Overall): Me and Jerod "Clu"

thanks for everyone who showed up to play and party. i had a great time and as Marty McFly said before me, "it's been educational". ^__^

Had an awesome time at this event guys. You are an awesome group of players. Did a lot better than I expected.

Melee

Unopposed Greyjoy

15 Points - 3 points from final Table

Joust

Lanni Hyperkneel

3-2

15 points

30 overall.

You guys are awesome, welcoming and fun. Cannot wait to sit across from you guys again!