I'd think KotHH + Red Keep would take care of that...

Shadows-heavy control decks scare me... even the "old standby" Lanni HyperKneel, particularly with the CoS agenda and Black Cells to boot. Condemned is a non-solution in those cases, and the Pyromancer's Apprentice is hard to pull off, since they're likely saving gold for their own behaviors. And I haven't seen a War Crest-heavy tourney deck that can pull of the MIL challenge response.

And maybe I'm just paranoid after years of playing against clu's character-lite constructs.

Maester_LUke said:

I've never strayed too far from the Shadows control decks. Combine them with the additional control from Lanny or Martell, and it becomes a very tough control matchup. However, these decks are gold intensive, so Fleeing to the Wall does really hurt them. You have to choose: Keep income or keep shadows control locations.

Dobbler said:

Heaven forbid if we get a more general recursion ability, like River Gate or Constant Rebuilding, back in the card pool. Stark's "Support of the Sept" or Greyjoy's "King Balon's Command, would be interesting to see people play that deck-style out of a different house.

Dobbler said:

Yes, Dobbler - I feel like I let that game get away, but you deserve credit for pulling it off. You were able to keep just enough locations to allow you to keep your lock going (in conjunction with your plots) to give yourself the time. The plots should not be discounted at all. Without them, I think the outcome would have been different. And without having the right locations in play (even after Fleeing) and the appropriate cards to trigger their effects, again I think the outcome would have been different. I wish we had time to play again, even just for fun. Hope you enjoy the rest of your regional season (mine is over, since MN is the only one I attend).

Looks like I was wrong. 9 people showed, maybe the smallest NYC Regional ever, definitely the smallest in recent memory.

Here's the breakdown from Wolfgang Senff's blog over at cardgamedb.com

GJ winter
Lannister kneel
Stark siege x 2
Martell/Bara alliance
Martell summer
Martell brotherhood
Targ summer
Targ dothraki

I understand that they did 5 rounds of Swiss then cut to the top 4. Seems weird to me, but maybe that's the norm with 9 people. I'm no TO. Haven't heard who made the cut.

kpmccoy21 said:

I was disappointed with the low turnout...we had a few last-minute cancelations (I was expected 11-12 at a minimum, with possible for 14+). Nevertheless, I think this was probably the result of a few factors:

1. Many people couldn't play 2-3 regionals in a row. For the most part, players who attended regionals at DC or DE didn't attend NYC. I think I was the only person at all three. This was, I think, in large part because the three regionals were all in May.

2. May is kind of a bad month...finals for students/teachers, and the beginning of summer for a lot of people.

3. The recent FAQ (and how the Bara stuff was initially handled) turned some people off to the regionals. Though I think there was a bit of overreaction, it's definitely the case that it affects how some people view the game. And I knew of at least a couple people who decided to pseudo-boycott regionals because of it.

We can't do a lot about #3, but next year I'll be avoiding scheduling NYC amid consecutive regionals...too much competition for limited time. Chances are, NYC will shoot for slightly earlier or slightly later as well. The end of May just seems like a bad time.

On the more substantive aspects of the regionals, I have to say this was *THE BEST* regionals season in terms of variety and fun games since the game transitioned to LCG. Despite what people say on the forums, playing against Martell is not an auto-loss, and there is quite a bit of variety in the environment. I *LOVE* where things are headed!

kpmccoy21 said:

I was disappointed with the low turnout...we had a few last-minute cancelations (I was expected 11-12 at a minimum, with possible for 14+). Nevertheless, I think this was probably the result of a few factors:

1. Many people couldn't play 2-3 regionals in a row. For the most part, players who attended regionals at DC or DE didn't attend NYC. I think I was the only person at all three. This was, I think, in large part because the three regionals were all in May.

2. May is kind of a bad month...finals for students/teachers, and the beginning of summer for a lot of people.

3. The recent FAQ (and how the Bara stuff was initially handled) turned some people off to the regionals. Though I think there was a bit of overreaction, it's definitely the case that it affects how some people view the game. And I knew of at least a couple people who decided to pseudo-boycott regionals because of it.

We can't do a lot about #3, but next year I'll be avoiding scheduling NYC amid consecutive regionals...too much competition for limited time. Chances are, NYC will shoot for slightly earlier or slightly later as well. The end of May just seems like a bad time.

On the more substantive aspects of the regionals, I have to say this was *THE BEST* regionals season in terms of variety and fun games since the game transitioned to LCG. Despite what people say on the forums, playing against Martell is not an auto-loss, and there is quite a bit of variety in the environment. I *LOVE* where things are headed!

OK. So heres a brief report.

Top 4:

1. Eric (finitesquarewell) Martell Summer.

2. Me Martell/Bara Alliance -> granted, I did this more for To the Spears than anything else, I switched it at last minute.

3/4 (Please enlighten Dan): Anthony Greyjoy Winter, Dan Targaryen (Agenda?)

So my matches:

(1) vs. LetsgoRed - Stark (No Agenda) - L

So... I managed to get 9 power on the viper mostly through taste for blood. He milked the viper. I summoned val, he summoned nan, then ravened the viper back to my deck. And for the most part had board dominance. I valared too late.

(2) Bye

(3) vs. Kyle (wolfgangsenriff) - Martell Brotherhood.

So Kyle built this voltron Berric deck from hell that reminds me not only of the horrible english dub, but of my first decks with Pentoshi Mercenaries loaded up with attachments.... Little issue was he had taste for blood on Berric and triggered it. So, I power farmed him and got an early lead and due to the protection of power of blood was able to keep it and win. (Bear in mind in our testing last night and prior... he always beat me with this deck).

(4) vs. Anthony - Greyjoy Winter

This was intense, brutal, by the skin of my teeth. He got winter on early and three marauders, I sacrificed three characters and 7 power by timing a double valar (so neither of us could save), and then with ellaria's help managed to just eke out a win.

(5) vs. Eric - Martell Summer

So Dan, if you could send me those pictures you took.... ok I managed to keep Arianne on board, and Retaliation. So claim 3 intrigue. Then He made it summer, and I managed to get the Bannermen out. Then val, then the viper, and renly, and mel. We loaded both our sides with characters (Me 6 him 7). I got to 11 power... before he managed to stall and win with 5 min to go. (Oh and his first big intrigue claim took my darkstar... the look on his face was priceless).

Top 4 cut:

vs. Anthony (again)

This one was very different, he didn't get many characters out, and I exploded with Viper's Bannermen back in and out... which mostly was discarded by a RBD. Alannys also cut my hand down. By the end it was Mel, Marya, and I think Renly. He had Balon, Alannys, and Victarion. I manged to get a distraction off and knelt Balon. I won using Mel's dominance ability. I'm pleased he made such a brutal Greyjoy deck.

vs. Eric (again)

My draw - suck, his draw weenie dump. He win turn 3... doh!

Postmortem:

(1) I didn't realize the agenda doesn't reduce gold penalty during setup... aegon's gardens are being replaced.

(2) Despite losing to Erick, I think the tourney results can show that rush is very viable. I also noticed even when games did get drawn out to turn 5 or 6, I was still in the game (except against Jason).

(3) Building a deck with to take advantage of val is very important if you use her. I regret adding A Game of Cyvasse due to the fact that unlike my other events like Distraction, I won't be able to use it in marshalling with Val.

(4) Do not underestimate Brienne.

Deck List

Deck - 60 Cards Avg Cost 1.8

30 Characters (40% Mil 63% Int 70% Pow)
3x Melisandre / Defenders of the North
3x The Red Viper / Princes of the Sun
3x Val / Defenders of the North
2x Brienne of Tarth / Princes of the Sun
2x Marya Seaworth / King’s of the Storm
2x Renly Baratheon / A Time for Ravens
2x Robert Baratheon / King’s Landing
1x Arianne Martell / Princes of the Sun
1x Ellaria Sand / Princes of the Sun
1x Darkstar / Princes of the Sun
1x Stannis Baratheon / Princes of the Sun
3x Flea Bottom Scavenger / King’s Landing
3x Orphan of the Greenblood / Princes of the Sun
3x The Viper’s Bannermen / Princes of the Sun

15 Resources
3x Aegon’s Garden / Core Set
3x Seat of Power / Defenders of the North
3x Summer Sea / Core Set
2x Water Garden / Core Set
1x River Row / Queen of the Dragons
1x Shadowblack Lane / Core Set
1x Street of Steel / Core Set
1x Street of Sisters / Core Set

15 Other Cards
3x Bodyguard / Core Set
3x Milk of the Poppy / Core Set
3x Taste for Blood / Princes of the Sun
2x Distraction / Core Set
2x A Game of Cyvasse / A Time for Ravens
2x The Viper’s Rage / King’s Landing

7 Plots - avg income 3.6
2x The Power of Blood / Core Set
1x Loyalty Money Can Buy / Queen of Dragons
1x Retaliation! / Brotherhood
1x Summoning Season / Core Set
1x To the Spears! / Princes of the Sun
1x Valar Morghulis / Core Set

bloodycelt said:

Which Stannis was this? "Anti"-Lord or Night's Watch?

Very intriguing deck... with some updates, I'd be curious to see how my most recent "rush Viper" build would have played. Do you have any idea on the ratio of turns on your opponents' draw vs. gold bonus from your agenda?

Bloodycelt, congrats on your top 2 finish. Nice to see that Martell/Baratheon deck is still running strong. I am curious how it would run in a broader field, but guiding it to second in that field was no mean feat. Congratulations!

Thanks for the TR and decklist.

Man, I'd love to see this Greyjoy deck that keeps getting mentioned. Any chance Fatmouse would be willing to share the decklist, if he hasn't somewhere already?

Sound like everyone had a really good time! Congrats to the Top Four and finitestarkwell in particular.

Twn2Dn - I am sure our numbers will be better in 2012. I think running it in June, after finals are over is a good idea (like we did in 2010) and its hard to imagne R&D would implement such a preemptory, drastic and ill conceived decision as they did ths year. Looking forward to seeing all hte NYC players and some of the other East Coast meta in a few weeks as the summer progresses.

Its a typo: Its Core Stannis. (I have no Night's Watch)

Though now that you mention it... Lords of the Storm version might be interesting since it kills the opponent's draw.

There was also a few martell cards revealed on these card sheets that could make the alliance agenda drawback an advantage rather than a disadvantage.

There was a lot of tech against the viper and beric at the tourney, and since Brotherhood is very strong, I think it will continue to escalate. Most of my games To the Spears was more of a game winner than the viper himself.

@Bloodycelt: I've uploaded 5 of the photos I took here http://www.cardgamedb.com/forums/index.php?/blog/10/entry-32-nyc-regional-2011-photos/. I didn't realize I can only create one "blog" thread on CardGameDB, so it looks like these are under the "DC regionals" blog, but this is actually NYC.

Note how cool the trophy is that LetsGoRed had made. Amazing...and we'll have another great one for Black Friday this year.

In case people are keeping track, here are the stats: 3x Martell (1x summer, 1x brotherhood, 1x alliance), 2x Stark (both seige), 2x Targ (1x summer, 1x maesters), 1x Lannister (no agenda), 1x Greyjoy (winter). Again, no Bara...though Bloodycelt's Martell alliance looked more like a Bara deck than a Martell deck, from what I saw.

Overall, this event had much more aggro than control...though it's important to note these days that even aggro-heavy decks have a good amount of control (GJ with winter, Targ dothraki + burn, Stark seige + direwolves, etc.). Each game I played felt very distinct/different.

And one last point - Anthony had some very innovative ideas for his Greyjoy that I hope he shares at some point. I was definitely impressed with what he came up with. (Hint: His deck was GJ winter, but he ran some interesting cards that worked very well for him.)

There is a 1 plot and 5 card difference between my Bara/Alliance and Martell/Alliance build. I switched primarily because Martel's To the Spears is golden for Bara. Despite the house card I consider the deck to be a Bara build.

Also can a mod place this after my decklist?

Copyright © 2011, Jason Kenney
Contributors: Josh Staton
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in deck list and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of the deck list must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS DECK IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS DECK, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

(Force Points to those that know where I got this from )

Actually looking at it the Bara version is 12 cards different.

Here it is:
Deck - 60 Cards Avg Cost 1.6

Bara/Alliance
31 Characters (43% Mil 59% Int 71% Pow)
3x Eddard Stark / King's Landing
3x Melisandre / Defenders of the North
3x The Red Viper / Princes of the Sun
3x Val / Defenders of the North
2x Brienne of Tarth / Princes of the Sun
2x Marya Seaworth / King’s of the Storm
2x Renly Baratheon / A Time for Ravens
2x Robert Baratheon / King’s Landing
1x Arianne Martell / Princes of the Sun
1x Ellaria Sand / Princes of the Sun
3x Flea Bottom Scavenger / King’s Landing
3x Orphan of the Greenblood / Princes of the Sun
3x Loyal Guard / Defenders of the North

14 Resources
3x Aegon’s Garden / Core Set
3x Seat of Power / Defenders of the North
2x Narrow Sea / Core Set
2x Water Garden / Core Set
1x River Row / Queen of the Dragons
1x Shadowblack Lane / Core Set
1x Street of Steel / Core Set
1x Street of Sisters / Core Set

15 Other Cards
3x Bodyguard / Core Set
3x Milk of the Poppy / Core Set
3x Taste for Blood / Princes of the Sun
3x Distraction / Core Set
3x Obey the King / Brotherhood

7 Plots - avg income 3.6
2x The Power of Blood / Core Set
1x Loyalty Money Can Buy / Queen of Dragons
1x Retaliation! / Brotherhood
1x Summoning Season / Core Set
1x Relentless Persecution / Brotherhood
1x Valar Morghulis / Core Set

Copyright © 2011, Jason Kenney
Contributors: Josh Staton
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in deck list and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of the deck list must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS DECK IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS DECK, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

(Force Points to those that know where I got this from )

Twn2dn said:

Eh, unless you finish top 2, no one really cares about any cool "tricks" a deck has.

Congrats to Erick for a job well done!

I do, I do! I am very interested to see your Greyjoy list. Hands down my favorite house, no matter how frequently I lose. Nice to see what people might be trying with them.

Thanks to everyone who came to NYC to play in this year's 'Moot/regional and a big thanks to Dan (Twn2dn) for taking on the bulk of the organizational effort.

Just a short-n-sweet report from a guy who didn't even make the cut...

Just to correct a nit in bloodycelt's report, I ran the Siege agenda with my Stark deck. I had no Direwolves and a build that I think can be fairly described as aggro-ish: focus was on winning challenges, particularly Mil, with a lot of claim 2 (5 of my 7 plots were claim 2) to create board dominance. To try to come out even/ahead when my opponent resets the board I ran Cat 'o Canals and several character dups with Widow's Watch. I had a fair bit of Int for a Stark deck as my plan for card "advantage" was in part to win some claim 2 Int challenges and drop Rule by Decree as a plot if things were getting out of hand. Northern Cavalry Flank is a great card right now as agendas are quite prevalent. Old Nan was the hero (Lars, thanks for encouraging me to put her in) in my game against Bloodycelt as she removed Red Viper that had a dup and Bodyguard on him (actually, at that point, one of those might have been used up) plus Taste of Blood that had generated a bunch of power on RV. In my second game against Anthony and his GJ Winter, he got a tremendous amount of locations set up fairly quick --I desperately wished at that point I had Fleeing to the Wall in my plot deck to try to get back into the game. In my game against Finitesquarewell, the big turning point was when he got off a claim 3 Int on me and pulled *3* of my military heavyweight characters. After that I draw any more of my Mil strong characters and couldn't win Mil challenges and so couldn't grab power or turn board advantage my way --Erick coasted to the win. In my two other games, the deck worked as I hoped, getting early board advantage and repeatedly beating the opponent's boad down with claim 2 military --against a Lanni no agenda deck I flopped much better and came out of his early Valar better and he so never had any character presence to speak. Against a Targ deck I got off a claim 2 plus deadly military challenge thanks to an Endless Endurance (he put in three characters against the challenge thinking to win and only lose one to Deadly, but Endless Endurance swung the challenge to me) to eliminate 3 characters, then dropped Fear of Winter and Rule by Decree as my next two plots which kept me in the driver's seat for the win. So, 3-2 and missing the cut on SoS comparison after only playing about six games the last few months was frankly better than I expected.

LetsGoRed said:

Out of curiosity, Jason, what was your other claim 1 plot, aside from RBD? I like the fact that you're running RBD as a back up to the claim 2 intrigues... Stark can bring a some definite strength, esp. with Endless Endurance, but doesn't quite have the counter-control to avoid some tricks... (~PotS Brienne + Malleon's Tome maybe?) In the "olden days," Stark often used Here to Serve (the predecessor to At the Gates) to get a good OoH Maester for additional INT. And I can imagine Fleeing would have been a good add... "fairly aggro" probably needs the bump, if you don't have the room for event-based location control... and probably don't want to see it cancelled.

And props for the Old Nan play with the Carrion Bird.

gistrationp said:

Ditto... I want to see if I'm going the right direction with my Greyjoy winter deck, w/o the Kings of Winter agenda.

And kudos for breaking Erick's otherwise unbeaten streak, going back to Days of Ice & Fire.

Does anyone have a list of the restricted cards people used for this.

Fieras said:

Erick and I (both Martell, him Summer, me Brohood) ran Venomous Blade, obviously. Jason (Bloodycelt) ran Val. Jason (LetsGoRed) ran FoW. If I had to guess, I'd say Fatmouse probably ran FoW also, but I'm not entirely sure. Ryan (Jack Merridew) ran Castellan of the Rock. I would guess that the other Stark deck also ran FoW, as it seemed like that kind of deck. I am not sure what Dan (Twn2dn) ran, and can't even hazard a guess, as it was quite an interesting deck. I am also not sure of what the other Targ deck ran (Dothraki, played by Rich, a newcomer who is awesome and really funny).