1) Martell Summer is the top build. The fact is that it's won 3 of the 4 Regionals and won every Regional it has been played by a top player. I'm not saying it's the only top build, but the fact that Erick, Luke, and Jerod(sp?) all chose to run it speaks of how the top players are perceiving it's status as a top build.

2)A deck that shuts down your opponents abilities to make challenges effectively is now aggro. Not sure how that will impact the definition of control decks, but obviously aggro is evolving. Never thought of Stark/direwolves as an aggro build before 3 weeks ago.

3)Few players are really excited about Regional season on the boards. Why do I think that is? Not enough new cards or builds in the environment to really generate excitement here on the boards The deck rankings haven't really changed much since the Wildling agenda bann, and the Regional season is demonstrating this to be true. Maybe the last 3 weeks of the season will see more deck variety and surprises at the larger Regionals in the Midwest and Kubla, but so far there haven't been many surprises or excitement on the boards. The most surprising deck may have been Bloodycelts rush deck or Greg's Martell/Shadows deck. But the fact that they are both Martell based speaks volumes in my mind about the current environment. Hopefully I'm wrong.

4)Baratheon is the hardest hit by the Restricted List. The fact that no concensus has been reached as to the best card to run in Baratheon indicates to me that they are the hardest hit. Greyjoy-FoW is the concensus favorite. Lannister-Castellan is the concensus favorite. Martell-VB is the concensus favorite. Stark and Targ-None is the concensus favorite. Baratheon-No concensus. They really need multiple cards on that list to be top tier, and the fact that they can only run one really limits them more than the other Houses.

5)I'm ready for a global attachment removal event. We have one for locations and characters now, why not attachments?

Now, I will grant you that only 2 Regionals to date have had more than 12 players, and that arguably halfway through chronologically may not be half of the total field of players for the Regional Season. But it's all we have to date, Conclusions may be radically different in 3 weeks.

What have you learned so far this Regional season?

I've learned to get a full night's sleep before a tournament to have the stamina to avoid making foolish mistakes and non-optimal play decisions in the semi-finals after taking first seed in the Swiss

FATMOUSE said:

Didn't you learn that from Dan when he tried winning while running on 5hr energy? Maybe it's a NYC tournament thing. BTW, congrats on the strong finish with Greyjoy/Winter.

Correction to above: Clu did not run Martell/Summer, just Martell with no agenda. I still stick with Martell/Summer being top tier build.

One thing I learned is that some cards work really well in the current metagame. For example, He Calls It Thinking, Paper Shield, and especially Shadow of the South. If they're playing any kind of Summer (Martell, Targ, and occasionally others usually do), Shadow of the South is a game changer during the challenges phase. I guess what I mean is metagaming for summer using cards that aren't hurt badly by winter is not a terrible idea, I think. Running winter yourself is a pretty solid idea as well (I had considered GJ winter with holy crests, but decided I wanted something with a bit better draw, hence I ran Martell Brotherhood).

I'm convinced that in any top-tier deck, Paper Shield is a required card, even in aggro decks. I don't know if Erick's deck had Milk of the Poppy in it, but if you're a non-Targ deck that wants to win consistently, I think it's at the least a really useful card to have, if not absolutely necessary.

Cards that reveal instead of draw are ridonkulously strong right now. The Viper's Bannermen makes the summer agenda that much more solid, as you can get cards incredibly fast and be the most efficient deck by far.

I'll probably have more later.

Agreed on Paper shiled and Milk. they are five ro six slots of your deck for most builds.

KP: How is Stark wolves possibly aggro? becuase a coupel fo stark's have renown? Come on - a deck that outright denies its opponent the ability to make challenges is control: by defintion . Geez. i've played that thing - its control, don't buy the hype.

With Regional Season 2011 in USA, I've learned too.

First, sorry for my poor English.

Second, I have learned that there are not lot of people who play Agot in USA.

For the French National only (equi of your regional), we will be more 70. Spain and Italia too I'm sure. The game is in Europe now? I'm very sad for you. I hope sincerely you will be lot of at the Gencon for the "World" (in fact, for the National American)

Katagena said:

Actually, the French National is not equal to one of the US regionals, it is much greater. You have ONE tournament for the entire country. We have 8-10 regionals over the entire country spread out over 6-7 weeks. That means there is not a focus for all the players to show up to one tournament. Each player will go to the one that is closest and easiest to attend. Very few people will travel far if they already have one within an hour or two.

Sorry Dabbler, but not. French National is equal to "one regional" in USA. Our small is equal to one of your state. It's a tiny country. Like Spain and Italia, who have lot of players too.

Agot is in Europe this year. And I think, in 2012 (before the end of the world lol), Europe must host the World Championship.

In France, I have create "Regional" by town. One per year, a Night Watch (TO) can organise in his town a big tournament. And there are lot of people.

For exemple:

National 2009 (November, 29 players)

Regional Lille 2010 (May, 15 players)

National 2010 (June, 36 players)

Regional Tours 2010 (May, 25 players)

Regional Lyon 2010 (October 15 players)

Regional Nantes 2010 (November, 37 players)

Regional Lille 2011 (23 players)

National 2011 (June, 70 player pre-order)

In July, certainly more 25 players for the first Regional paris

Just for France. Inch times, two days, with Multi, and Joust

add Spain (Madrid few months, 70 players), Italy, Switzerland, and the big tournament of Sthaleck (80 players last year)... What'Else?

Katagena said:

First, my board name is Dobbler, not Dabbler.

Second, you might want to check your census statistics. France is a country of 63 million people. Missouri has 6 million people. Minnesota has 6 Million people. Each of those states is ONE TENTH the size in population. Comparing the French National event against one of the 10 regionals in the states is quite silly. Also, France is 212000 sq miles, but compared to Minnesota (84,000 Sq Miles) or Missouri (70,000 sq miles), it is only about 3x the size. So it has ten times the population, yet only 3x the size of some of the middle states in the US. So more people + denser population + the fact that you are calling your event a NATIONAL event...means we shouldn't be surprised that your attendance exceeds that of the regionals in the US.

I think the issue is population density and public transportation. In France (and Europe) you can get many places by train and the time to travel from one end of the country to another is a fraction of the US. So if we took the AGOT players in the US and crammed them into a country the size of France we would start seeing numbers equaling that of those in Europe. France is the size of 3-4 of our states, but the population is MUCH greater than that.

Beaten to the punch.

The truth is, the game is growing everywhere. Last year, LCG days in Minnesota drew 10 people for the Joust portion of their regional. This year they drew 24. That is a 140% increase.

Obviously Game of Thrones has been growing all over the world! Europe, China, the US....the game has seen increasing sales and tournament attendance! And thankfully so! The more the game grows, the longer it will live.

I don't see the need for people to try and belittle tournaments ANYWHERE. Isn't the idea to support the game and all the groups of players?

Hmm... do we actually have more than 70 attendies in all of the regionals?

I mean NYC, DE, and DC don't equal 70 and the northeast corridor has the most rail, dense population, and the area if you exclude Maine is around the area of France.

I do think Europe as a whole has more tourney goers than America as a whole. But we could verify that by just taking the aggregate SUM of all unique attendees and compare.

We might have more than 70. But do we have more than Castile, Navarre, Leon, Aragaon, Al-Andalus, Brittany,France,Burgandy, Lithuania-Poland, HRE, Wallonia, Flanders, Denmark, Wales, Scottland, Normandy, Ulster,Savoy, Prussia, Silesia, Bohemia, Wallachia, Transylvania, Illyria, Helene, Byzantium (oh wait Europe doesn't consider them European), Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, etc

(And yes... not all those countries exist in the present day, but you learn so much from playing Europa Universalis).

Not all players attend regionals, either. In April when I held a Hand of the King event, I got 9 players. Only 2 went to LCG days (and I wasn't one of them, due to work conflicts). Most of our local players don't make it to larger events, but that doesn't make them any less interested in the game, or less important.

To tell the truth, I'd be ecstatic if an American event drew the numbers we are seeing at the European events. It may happen someday.

I agree that there is no reason to argue. We are all AGoT players at heart, and we shouldn't be squabbling over who has the largest attendance.

That being said, I think there are a lot of good players all over the place, and the game is growing by leaps and bounds. Kubla could double attendance this year, and there are still a lot of people who aren't back yet.

Either way, I hope to see some european attendance at gencon. It would be a lot of fun.

Fieras said:

You will. Not me, alas.

I also hope to see some American attendance in Stahleck.

Ok i think Katagena have to reply, but i want to explain somethings

first sorry for my poor english

1) In france you have tournament every 2 weeks on big AGOT meta

2) Few people come to this tournament to compete but mostly to see people and play

3) Really, the last tournament (little one) in Nantes 804 833 inhabitant was played by 12 people...

4)Fieraas, some player speak about going to gencon for year now, but the problem is that lot of people work and can't pay and have holydays for planes to gencon... But maybe one day..

5) European Meta don't really like American's because of two "fact":

- an old and deep "nationalism" about european

- Fact that we think we have more player but nobody hear us at FFG, like if only american are important (for example, people in french forum say that martell will be bann just because americain complain, but french don't have the same way to see AGOT and deckbuild. And really the first thing people said in french forum when they see some of your choice for your "regional" deck was "How can they win???")

But i don't write all that just for problem, i just want to explain the post of Katagena . But really the first real feeling we have (after complaining, we are french at all ) was to be sad for NYC TO....Really

I am sorry to hear you don't like us.

I am also sorry FFG doesn't listen to you.

Yes we can come in Gencon. And American Player can come to Europe.

I hope next year, World will be in Europe. In 2012. And In 2013 for USA, and in 2014 for Europe.

You say "Dobbler" (apologize; I speak in your langage; but we can speak in French if you prefer), that all around the world, Agot grow. Great. The world is too in China, or... Europe. Great.

Katagena said:

How could the world championships be in Europe? Is FFG going to pay thousands and thousands of dollars to send multiple employees over there to run the tournament? Is there a comparable large scale convention to Gencon that is held in Europe? In 2010, the attendance was 30,000 people at Gencon. Why would FFG want to move the world championships away from a venue where there is such exposure to large amounts of people?

I understand your desire to have the World Championships in Europe. But due to the fact that FFG is a company based in the US, and the fact that Gencon is such a large convention that is also based in the US, it just doesn't make logistical sense from FFGs standpoint to have the world championships elsewhere. It would cost a large amount of money without a similar payoff.

Perhaps Katagena's complaint is that the event in the US is hailed as "World Championship" but it is only easily accessible for Americans.

From an ideological standpoint, Katagena is right on.
From a logistical standpoint, however, I think I side with Dobbler.

It would be interesting to host the "Worlds" tournament Olympics-style by visiting various countries, but the reality is that they would not have representative attendance from all countries in which AGoT is played. (Ah, if only we had sponsors like Olympic teams [sigh]). I do think that it is a misnomer to call the tournament at Gencon the "Worlds" tournament, simply for this reason, which I think many in our European community are arguing.

As the expenses for travel continue to increase, this will be an even greater problem. Hosting in particular countries will make AGoT more exclusive, since it will be cost-prohibitive for many players. (I for one can barely afford to travel to Gencon, and would not have the money to fly to Stahleck, no matter how much I would like to go. It would be a similar situation if it were hosted in California, for example.) It's not about national pride or xenophobia, but finances, which I suspect is similar for other players.

Perhaps calling "Worlds" what it is, a "national" tournament, would be more appropriate. But even then, it is not nationally exclusive, so maybe even "Nationals" would be a misnomer. Consequently, I think FFG hosting multiple tournaments world-wide would be appropriate. That might be expecting a lot from a US-based company with no international branches that I know of.

I am curious, and would like to hear from players in France, Italy, Spain, China, etc. From other posts it seems that many of you are playing tournaments every month or so. How do you all have so much time?

I was planning to go to gencon this year... well... indianapolis planes were so expensive so when I tried to plan the trip I changed my mind... I think this winter I will plan to come to NY event... there it is far more accessible to me to come.

I don't know effectively logistic problems for USA tourney. Indeed the attendance is not so great. For example in each tourney I make in a little town (40 000 persons) near my little village (3000 persons) we always reach 15-16 players... this seems to be the same attendace in a USA regionals.

This said I think would be great to have the possibility to compete each other. At the moment I do this via OCTGN2 and certainly is great. Anyway, if world champion cannot be moved from USA, I would strongly appreciate to make this on a city where there is an airport where I can reach it without spending 1000 euro (for example NY would be great).

But this is only a desire ;-)

This year we will have first "real" national after LCG turnout. I think we will be 50 players at minimum. At Stahleck we will be for sure 100+ this year.

Titles are not so important for me, I'm just glad, FFG let also "our champion" to draw a card... this is far better in my desires than a title :-)

Maybe next year situation will increase again and we will get more consideration from FFG. This woul be great for sure. My proposal was to have FFG give us some aid (monetary) to cover at least one part of the travel (for our top4 or at least the winner). But I don't know sincerely the budget of FFG so I don't know if this was feasible or not.

If the HBO series gets popular enough FFG and HBO might reach some sort of agreement, and cross-promote. Then they could say hold a tourney in Belfast (I think?) where they might ship some FFG employees (for agot they need Nate and Damon.), and perhaps the Gencon champion, or if more money is used regionals winners.

The big part would of course be the HBO series cast also being there, along with GRRM.

But unless FFG gets a big enough budget to do this... or HBO subsidizes it as part of their marketing budget recognizing the Stahleck Champion as equal to the Gencon Champion is the best they can do.

Gualdo, I don't know how different it is for Italy -> Indianapolis but for Boston -> Indianapolis it costs about $300 for me. I can't imagine the New York -> Indianapolis as costing more than that. Maybe get a flight to NY and then transfer to a domestic flight?

~Well, my little town of 5,500 has two players that will be in a Regional or two and 'Worlds', so we beat everyone! Woo-hoo!

Jeez, guys...seriously you have that sort of complex about this? I have no doubt in the talent and abilities of our Night's Watch Brother's across the not-so-narrow sea. But FFG has to do what FFG has to do. They give each Regional winner a pass to GenCon I believe (that is what they did in the past). Why should it be different for you? Because you live far away? That is their fault? How about poor players in S. Cali, do they deserve free tickets over a rich European?

Seriously. GenCon is hours away from them, by truck. It gets the largest # of gamers in the World in one place, and if we have learned ANYTHING it is that competative players don't drive much of the sales (they are not getting rich on 70 French competative players I don't think).

It is simple math. They like you. They like us the same. They compenstate us the same. Our largest Regionals will probably have 35 people (we will see at Kubla, which I think will beat Minny). But the winners will get the same thing, i.e. something in EQUAL value.

Back on topic, I don't think we have seen remotely the players and decks that are good. Obviously Erick is up there at the top, and he is playing Martell/Summer. Dobbler is a 2X champion, he played Targ well. Luke doesn't get much practice, and played an easy build, but I would be surprised if he stayed on it after getting a few more games under his belt. We have not seen any other of the consistent top player decks. Seeing Kubla (Cali Regional) along with the always eye-opening stuff out of Gualdo and the rest of Europe will tell us much more heading into 'Worlds'.