Just a quick reminder that the NYC regionals are this Saturday, May 21st. More information is here: javascript:void(0);/*1305653113138*/ .

Separately, what do you think we'll see at the NYC regionals?

1. Will Martell Summer/Brotherhood win, like they did in DC and Minnesota?
2. Will Stark Direwolves rise up to defeat Martell and take the throne, like they did in DE?
3. Will Targaryen finally win?
4. Will Baratheon be played by more than one person?

Any ideas? What unexpected expectations do you have?

Overwhelming Martell again.

While i really do want to play a Targ dragon or burn deck i seriously doubt my ability to make it work. also im not a very good player, so i will probably cop out and play a Martell Viper deck or a Lannister shadows

As I commented during the dinner break on Saturday (sitting across from Dobbler and next to clu), I'm surprised no one meta'd byplaying Southron Scavengers (aToR 50) or Bandit of Summer (aToR 96). I know rings hates the concept of traitors, but I think it's part of the totality of deck-building and card environment when one house rises in dominance. You just have to accept that they can be dead draws in alternative matches. (or you presume your dominating those so hard it doesn't bother you to have them)

I believe Erick played the relevant corresponding cards against Lannister in his Lanni deck in the 2009 GenCon Joust. I'm sure they helped him in a winner's bracket that was heavy with the Lions, but I'm pretty sure the downside hit him hard in his finals match-up with Greg's Greyjoy/Winter.

Maester_LUke said:

the traitors were good throughout the day, even hitting sunset sea against greyjoy... the problem in that final was more along the lines of greg's damned saves and wintertime marauders than anything my own deck was doing, haha

I was sure they more than paid for themselves, but I may have misheard that they were clogging your hand in the draw-up and first turn. :/

You'll definitely be seeing this:

Erick, I hope it complements your decor.

And you'll see me getting back to my roots and playing Stark (and no Treaty) as previously stated.

If it's like most of the recent NYC events, you'll see 4 decks that reflect the overall Metagame and everything else will be different. Stark, Baratheon, Targ will make an appearance, but light on Martell.

Such a cool trophy! Dang, I need to get to NYC one of these days for this

GJ was just a good matchup vs. Lanni in general. Dobbs also somehow beat me after I cleared his board 1st (2nd?) turn in the 1st round of that tourney. I didn't lose another game except vs. Erick and his traitors (a running theme, no ~ needed).

@LetsGoRed: Wow, that thing is nicer than the actual regionals trophy. ~Maybe we should just skip the official game support next year and have you come up with the prizes

@kpmccoy: Yeah, I hope that's the case. I for one will be playing either Targ or Stark, but may also tech against Martell (despite Erick's objections that this is "inefficient" ).

Oh, and my prediction is that we'll have 4 different houses in the top-4 again, but this time no Lanni.

In Minnesota, teching against Martell would have been beneficial. However, 33% of the field is not a number I expect to see at most regionals. I expect most regionals would be 25% Martell, which is still a disproportionate number, but not big enough to run Traitors in my mind.

However, if you know your meta well enough to know that 60%+ would be running Greyjoy and Martell combined, then the Martell Traitors would be a smart play. However, I don't see that happening in most metas.

Dobbler said:

After all, if you're shooting for first, playing against at least 1-2 Martell decks seems pretty likely, and those games are likely to be among the hardest (depending on what you're playing).

What traitor are you guys talking about?

Bandit of Summer discards a Targ or Martell location NOT a GJ and Martell and the other Martell/Greyjoy scavengers traitors discard a card from hand not a location. So is there some traitor I am missing here?

Bandit of summer might play. There should be a lot of targ/martell.

Thanks for the compliments on the trophy.

Btw, for anyone interested in an AGoT "Black Friday" (our fall tournament) t-shirt, we have some available at cost ($12).

(We only have a few grey Black Friday IV t-shirts remaining.) If you are interested and will be at the tournament this Saturday, please email us ( [email protected] ) to let us know style, size, and quantity you want and you can pick it up at the tournament this weekend.

Fieras said:

Great, that stops me from play Targ now, all because of Martell. ~Can I start another Traitors rant NOW please?

@LetsGoRed: Man, those look neat stacked up like that. Maybe some of the new players will want some this weekend. If not, I may pick up an extra for myself.

FYI--the Forging the Chain chapter pack (just released) will NOT be legal for this weekend's NYC regionals event. I think I've emailed all likely attendees, but just in case I missed anyone, feel free to shoot the NYC night's watch a message, and I'll reply as soon as I can.

Thanks!

Martell is one of the more difficult houses to beat (which makes sense... their house themes involve making things difficult.)

Brotherhood is just plain nasty. Wouldn't Lanni Shadows beat the **** out of it though? I mean the uber kneel you sit and watch them win build.

bloodycelt said:

Twn2dn said:

In my first game with Luke, Fleeing to the Wall didn't hurt me because I couldn't draw any locations anyways. I never saw Black Cells or AGH. In the second game, his second Fleeing did hurt me, but I'm not sure it would have mattered. Honestly, Luke just beat me, plain and simple.

In my game against Matt, ASoIaFFan, he hit me twice with Fleeing and I somehow still survived.

The problem with fleeing is most decks don't have more than 3 necessary locations. I keep saying they need a plot that just discards all of them (along with characters and hand).

@Dobbler: Ah, guess I misunderstood. Well anyway, it's clear that shadows still has a place in top tier play.

I don't think we need a better "Fleeing," something like Valar for locations. But I think if all houses had better access to some form of location hate (doesn't need to be discard, just something that penalizes location-heavy decks), I think that'd be a good thing.

Well we do have a Westeros Bleeds for locations now in the form of Favorable Ground. I'm curious if anyone is running it.

im also interested to see if anyone is gonna be running favorable ground, because it is just death to an ambush heavy deck