Hello.

Long post warning. Also this is my first report so might not be the best one...

Kinda tired now, but hope I still make sense, since the game is still in my memory I decided to write this now even when in such sleepless state.

Today I had the honor to play in the first Finnish AGOT tournament. We had chosen to play melee since we had 8 people which would make a good melee with two 4 player tables. The melee was played in Helsinki at a store called Fantasia Pelit, they did really fine job on having the place for us in such short notice. Also special thanks to our tournament hosts who made this all possible.

Before the tournament I had decided that I would play with Lannister and this time use a more defensive strategy in the game playing with kingsguard agenda and some clansmen. With this kind of melee build you have to choose your title realyl carefully thanks to the support ability that lets you get in to defend someone. Without futher text here is the deck that I used

House: Lannister
Agenda: The White Book

Restricted card: Pyromancers Cache

Plots:
A Song of Summer
Loyalty Money Can Buy
Forgotten Plans
Spending the Winter Stores
Wildfire Assault
Fleeing to the Wall
Mutual Blackmail

Characters (37):
2x Mountain Refugee
3x Kingsguard Squire
2x Lannisport Weaponsmith
1x Lannisport Councillor
3x Campfire Mime
2x Lannisport Steward
2x Lion Herald
2x Painted Dogs
1x Son of the Mist
1x Ser Lancel Lannister
1x Grand Maester Pycelle
2x Ser Arys Oakheart
2x Shagga, Son of Dolf
1x Ser Preston Greenfield
1x Chella, Daughter of Cheyk
1x Qyburn
1x Knight of the Flowers (Core)
1x Jhalabar Xho
1x Maester Creylen
1x Ser Jacelyn Bywater
1x Ser Balon Swann
1x Ser Jaime Lannister (Core)
1x Daven Lannister
1x Ser Barristan Selmy (Core)
1x Timett Son of Timett
1x Ser Arthur Dayne

Attachments (3):
3x Pyromancers Cache

Events (7):
3x Misinformation
2x Paper Shield
2x I'm You Writ Small

Locations (13):
3x Goldroad
2x Sunset Sea
1x Lion's Gate
1x Deep Den
2x Western Fiefdoms
1x Queen Cersei's Chambers
2x Golden Tooth Mines
1x Lannisport Brothel

Total: 60

We only played two games. First I was up against WWDrakey who played trait manipulation Targaryen, Murad with KotHH Baratheon rush and Juho who was playing a sandsnake Martell.

With setup I got 2 weapons smiths, councillor, sunset sea and a fielfdoms. So it was good resource start. As a first plot I went to find pyromancers cache to fix my draw and I was also given use of building season which I used to get lion gate (yeah should have gotten golden tooth mines instead I know).

I was chosen to go first since I was playing with the kingsguard agenda. Good thing I drew Deep den which I used to be last in challenges. During marshaling I searched Balon with lion herald and drew it with cache so that I had kingsguard and flooted the table with my characters. The Martell player played all 3 sandsnakes to the table yuck and the KotHH Baratheon (who went last) only played 3 locations which got us all scared of next turn Valar. So for the challenges we just decided to get uo out of the soon to play valar KotHH bara. He surprised us all by not playing Valar next turn instead he played fat Bob with a dupe which soon got Dragon fear on it. WWDrakey had started to play more stuff, mainly dragons, on the table and turning his other guys dragons so that he could use the dragon locations with them and also a Rhaegar Targaryen. The Martell player made WWDrakey nearly faint by using His viper eyes which took a good card out of his hand (yeah ladies and getlemen we had in the same table his viper eyes and deep den!). After the end of the second turn I had most power as I had stedily gained it with few uo and some support defends.

Third turn was the game changing turn as two valars were played and also as Rhaegar went to the deadpile and started new phase no Narrow escape was played, turn before Martell player had revealed it with messenger. During this turn the baratheon that we had picked on exploded with uo Melisandre and other renown guys. I countered this by playing Jhalabar Xho which now was the most hated character in the table as WWDrakey had renown dragons with no-kneel Danny and Martell player had Red Viper. I continued my steady power rise.

Last turn we played, Jhalabar Xho got killed by condemned by the councel and WWDrakey chose the Baratheon player to go first (he wanted to choose me, but I still had deep den on my table). The Baratheon quickly tried to grab as much power as possibly with his renown characters and he succeeded in taking the lead, as my turn came I got into 14 power now I only needed one, I did a gamble and untapped my Campfire Mime with a Kingsguard Squire and tried to get uo intrigue throug. I was stopped by the crown of the reagent title that redirected my challenge into a table that was full of defenders so as I lost the challenge I had to discard one power from my house card and I was in 13. After my turn WWDrakey and his dragons decided that it was time to show what the deck is good for he managed easily to grab 15 powers with his trait manipulated power claiming dragons and no-kneel Daenerys.

The match ended with WWDrakey winning, me as the second player with 13 power, Juha 8 power with the Martell (his last turn never came) and Murad with 4 power (me and WWDrakey stole most of his power in the last turn). ~So I basicly got second thanks to deep den

Now for the winners table with WWDrakey. From the other 1st table came Julukki who played Baratheon rush and Anette who played Summer Martell. The game started with WWDrakey searching for a maester with at the gates and also a character with summoning season that was revealed by Julukki. At this point I was looking for a player to whome to pick to use Spending the Winter Stores. I decided to let Anette go and find a Martell attachment hoping to make a friend and also hoping WWDrakey to use attachment control to the venomous blade instead of my Pyromancers Cache. Our Baratheon player was drawing badly and he didn't have much on table, anti-shadow knight of flowers and anti-shadows Robert. Anette our Martell player made a nice surprise by having 3 Venomous blades in the game from nearly the begining which was heavily controlling our tables.

This game was really balanced as each one of use was at first slowly climbing to get to the 15 power mark . There soon came Problems as we had a bararush suddenly rushing and going to 11 power. Martell player was pretty much forgotten to do whatever she did as she had taste for blood, 2 summer maesters, alot of vengeful and a hand full of cards. No-one wanted to attack her at this state. At this point in time I had 9 power which I had gotten with my kingsguards and my non-millitary-kneeling Jaime Lannister. The Baratheon player was dangerously in 11 power.

Next plot phase begined with valar clearing the board for me, WWDrakey was left with one dragon, Anette with few characters thanks to the maesters and Julukki with anti-shadow Robert and Renly thanks to him playing Power of Blood. The Baratheon player chose to go first and played Wicked Seductress and a refugee. WWDrakey played Aggo. Anette played more vengeful to the table and I was lucky now and got Shaga, Chella and Kevan Lannister from the draw after Valar. At the begining of the challenges I had a game winning plan. I brought Qyburn out of the shadows and then our Martell decided that I was thinking too much so that plan was foiled. (I was going to pick uo Melisandre). During Baratheons turn he didn't manage to grab enough power for himself, WWDrakey was now suffereing since our challenges were usually towards him, Anette got into 14 power during her turn and yet again I only managed to get into 14 power. After challenges Anette our Martell player won the Dominance and the game aswell.

I have to say that I had really fun playing my deck since it was barely ever attacked into and my opponents had to be very careful with the titles. Hard to believe but Deep den actually saved me several times. Painted dogs worked well as a scary character as my opponents usually just let me won and I never had to use its ability. During these games I was unable to get my draw engine going as WWDrakey always destroyed my Caches.

Thank you for reading my wall of text

So, to add to the huge wall of text, here's my report. Since I played in the same tables as Ire, I'll just comment on some small details that I can still remember and talk about my deck a bit more (since I'm fiercely proud of how well it actually works in Melee, for a Targaryen).

The Tourney

Was Held at Fantasiapelit, who arranged us a really nice playing space and were very welcoming hosts. Some of the prizes (Uncut Card Sheets) were graciously donated by Lautapelit.fi. The whole thing was arranged by Anna Terets, who did a splendid job with all of the arrangements.

Deck Concept:

Since QoD just came out, I really wanted to find a viable Targaryen Melee Build (but not one of those Dothraki Wedding things, since I feel that they rely too much on other people not bothering to try and stop you). While the new big dragons are quite neat in theory, they're a bit too costly to just make a deck with 3x of each and some QoD Dany's to boot. However, Rhaegal is really good for Melee (power gain, cannot be controlled with attachments, stealth, 4 STR) and most of the new 1 gold unique dragon-boosting locations also lend themselves pretty well to Melee. If only you could fill your deck up with cheap dragons instead of just using 3 hatchlings. Wait... weren't there some chains that just came out that could help with this? Targaryen Dragon Trait Manipulation it is.

Deck List:

House: Targaryen

Agenda: The Maester's Path

Characters (29):
3x True Queen's Harbinger
2x Refugee of the Plains
3x Carrion Bird
1x Black Hatchling
1x Viserys Targaryen (KotS aka Packrat)
3x Dragon Thief
1x Ser Jorah Mormont
1x Maester Aemon
1x White Hatchling
2x Advisor to the Crown
2x Oldtown Advisor
1x Jhogo (Brotherhood)
1x Aggo
3x Rhaegal
2x Daenerys Targaryen
1x Khal Drogo (DotN)
1x Rhaegar Targaryen

Attachments (10):
2x Apprentice Chain
3x Copper Link
1x Bronze Link
3x Dragon Fear
1x Bones of a Child

Events (6):
2x Dance With Dragons
2x At Night They Howl
2x True Power

Locations (16):
3x Summer Sea
1x Xaro's Home
3x Eastern Fiefdoms
1x Khal Drogo's Tent
1x Astapor
1x Qarth
2x Meereen
2x Yunkai
2x Lady Daenerys's Chambers

Card Notes:

• There are a few cards in the deck that don't pass The Butzlaff Test ("Is it a good card?" Yes -> Keep It, No -> Remove), namely Oldtown Advisor, but I was a bit afraid of not getting my chains out early enough. In hindsight a OOH Maester Luwin (even with only 6 events) would have been a whole lot better
• While the deck tries to play 'nice' (positive trait manipulation) instead of Dobbler (negative trait manipulation and looting all their dudes), I DID put the Carrion Birds in there, just in case...
• Khal Drogo was meant as more of a Red Herring (to draw control and fear, and make my dragons look more cuddly) and Rhaegar was just a nice big character I could slap some chains on and make him pretend to be a Dragon.

Comments on the Games:

Qualifier:

In both our games I wrecked Ire's draw engine (Winter Store'd Cache) by Turn 2. How's that for Collusion? In the first game I got Meereen, Yunkai and Astapor running and two Dance With Dragons in Hand in the beginning, together with Viserion. I used a Carrion Bird to shuffle a Smuggler's Cove from our lurking KotHH Baratheon, expected a Valar on Turn 2 and was surprised to not get one. Instead, our Martell Wall of Sandsnakes was getting quite impossible to pass (tricons with stealth, vengeful and deadly, right...). And to make matters worse, the player revealed a Narrow Escape with House Messenger, so I pretty much felt that something needed to be done. Played Rhaegar on the table to start planning a Valar. A bit before plot 3 I discreetly asked Ire if he wanted to throw his only card to stop NE at some point (he only had one card due to some draw engine problems, go figure) and he agreed, so Valar. And another one from Murad. And Ire didn't even have to toss his card due to Rhaegar's response. Plot 4 I got to search for a character via the Martell players Summongin Season and got Rhaegal (he got the Viper, not a big surprise) dance'd a copy of Rhaegal to have a dupe and played him/her, used Dany's Chambers a bit and played some other characters as well (Black Hatchling and another one). Our Baratheon promptly started to go critical. Got rid of uo Melissandre with Dragon Fear (fun in Melee) next turn and played Aggo, but was left with no claim soak to speak of. Had to kill Aggo for claim, but got to 11 power with trait manipulation, Rhaegal, Yunkai and Dragons Do Not Kneel Dany by the end of plot 5. On the final plot had to choose Murad to go first, which also dropped me down to third, but thankfully Ire wasn't able to pull it off before me. One 2 claim power challenge with 4 dragons (Rhaegal, 2 hatchlings and a trait manipulated Dany) and two with renown. Won.

Final:

The final table was filled with our usual game group. And they all had an idea of what my deck could do. Uh oh. Got a bad start, but was afraid to mulligan. Things were made worse by Anette killing two of my characters with Venomous Blades before challenges even started. Managed to get rid of Flower Boy with Dragon Fear to stall our lighting-fast Baratheon. Was getting hit on pretty badly for several rounds (more venomous blades) since Anette was pushing me to Valar, but I didn't want to oblige her since she had two Maester of the Sun's and Julukki had a duped Robert... plus I pretty much knew Anette would cancel the response on Rhaegal's dupe. (I knew that she knew that...). So I was left a bit behind in power until Julukki Wildfire'd on Round 3. Anette lost one Maester and no-one considered me a threat, so I Valar'd on the next turn, and didn't even lose Rhaegal. Promptly rose on Round 4 from 2 to 5 power with Dany and Rhaegal, but was still quite a bit behind. Another unopposed Melissandre got Dragon Fear'd, but Julukki was still looking like the one to beat, with Ire nicely in second. Final turn I manage to climb up to 8 or 9 power and was finally picking up speed, but we'd all missed Anette's rise with Taste for Blood, supports and Darkstar. Ire got pretty high (13 power?), Julukki lost a bit due to Melissandre dying, but still managed 12... at which point we happened to look at Anette's power. She was up to 14 and would win dominance due to Vengeful. Nobody had a way of stopping her anymore, so that was pretty much it. And that made me fourth.

What Worked:

• Rhaegal is a beast in Melee, and much less vulnerable than most powergrabbers due to the No Attachments.
• Attachment destruction was pretty priceless in Melee and could have used more, maybe a few of Dany's handmaidens.
• Should have had The Loyalty Money Can Buy instead of Stay of Execution, but I just find that plot too ridiculous, and decided to leave it out just for the spite of it.

What didn't:

• Oldtown Advisor (but happily we'll soon get the new guy for Targaryen)
• Being too obvious about my Valar in the last game and thus allowing Julukki to time his Power of Blood correctly. Stupid.

Once more a big thanks to all of the organizers, good times were had by all. And finally, some pictures of our participants can be found here and of the final table players here.

Thanks for the reports. Nice to get a report on the fledgling OP scene in Finland. Do you guys see Melee being the more popular format as time goes on, or was that just this tournament?

kpmccoy21 said:

For a while we were thinking of having both a Joust and a Melee this weekend, but due to time constraints we chose to just have the Melee. The choice was based around the Melee being better (more exciting) for demoing purposes for any people that wanted to come and have a look at what the game is like. The format for future Tourneys will probably vary, although the Melee Tourney was very cool.

I like that Dragon deck. Yoink!

Penfold said:

Why, thank you!

...and, since I forgot to post the breakdown for Houses:

3x Baratheon
- One with No Agenda (3rd, Fury of the Stag)
- One with Knights of the Hollow Hill (tied 6th)
- One with Summer Agenda (8th)

2x Martell
- One with No Agenda (5th, Narrow Escape)
- One with Summer Agenda (1st, Venomous Blade)

1x Targaryen (Maester's Path, 4th, Fury of the Dragon)

1x Stark (Knights of the Hollow Hill, tied 6th)

1x Lannister (The White Book, 2nd, Pyromancer's Cache)

...also noted the restricted cards I knew about.

Hey WWDrakey nice deck!

I'm curious, what plots were you using in your deck? I think you forgot to put them in your deck list...

Hmm... I wonder how I managed to miss those.

I think I was running:

• Valar Morghulis
• At The Gates (to fix influence)
• Mad King's Legacy (attachment control)
• Fury of the Dragon
• Stay of Execution (Daenerys, Rhaegar, Viserys and trait manipulation! A Dragon Thief King ought to be fun...)
• Retaliation (claim, initiative)
• Herding the Masses OR Lineage and Legacy (not sure which, either way never played it)