This was my first GenCon and although I didn’t originally plan to attend, I wanted to be on top of my game so the other SoCal players had some good competition before going to Indy. I originally had a Stark Maesters build with 4 city plots, RBD, Fury, Tully search/reveal plot, Bran to cycle them all and lots of war-crest based events. While this was fun, it wasn’t consistent enough to be a real option. Thanks to Rings for putting the nail in that coffin because I actually considered playing it! I had also dabbled with converting my old House Dayne deck (hah!) to a Maester deck (the link utility is just awesome), but settled on summer for consistent card draw (assuming I could maintain summer), the bonus gold for the Viper’s Bannermen and Maester of the Sun’s ability. I expected to see a ton of Maesters and lots of Lanni, especially since Martell was dinged by Burning on the Sands hitting the restricted list. Also I anticipated a good amount of Winter to counter the popular Summer agenda, and I really thought Targ Summer, with their attachment control and recursion from the discard pile, would be the house to beat this year… boy was I wrong! Ghaston Grey and Maester Bob were big surprises to me… and I didn’t see one Targ! Here’s the decklist:
Martell / Kings of Summer
Rule by Decree
Fleeing to the Wall
Threat from the East
Time for Ravens
Retaliation
To the Spears
Valar
33 Chars:
3x Darkstar
3x Lost Spearman
3x Maester of the Sun
3x Carrion Bird
3x Refugee of the Citadel
2x Ellaria Sand
2x Hellholt Engineer
2x Dornish Paramour
2x Samwell Tarly
2x The Viper's Bannermen
Gilly
Bandit of Summer
Southron Mercenaries
Maester of Lemonwood
The Conclave
Southron Scavenger
Obella Sand
Ser Aerys Oakheart
11 Events:
3x Paper Shield
2x Nightmares
2x The Viper's Rage
2x Ill Tidings
2x He Calls it Thinking
13 Locs:
3x Summer Sea
3x Palace Fountain
Water Garden
Shadowblack Lane
Lost Oasis
River Row
Street of Sisters
Inn of the Kneeling Man
Street of Steel
5 attachments:
2x Black Raven
2x Venemous Blade
Taste for Blood
62 cards total
Round 1 vs Mike “Shenanigans” from Chicago playing Stark Siege
Okay… first GenCon… here we go! Momentum continuously shifted in this game. He got hopper Catelyn out early but I got rid of her with Threat from the East. I flooded the board, but couldn’t win a military challenge against his big mean armies (I think I saw 2 Northern Cavalry flanks?) so Battle of Oxcross hurt me pretty badly. He duped Blackfish, but I cancelled the save with He Calls it Thinking on my Valar. With 3 minutes left, I had the board position and setup for the kill with 2 copies of The Viper’s Rage in my hand and To The Spears ready to go… then he revealed Calm Before the Storm (characters are immune to events this round). Oh no! He marshaled King Robb (Renown? Ugh!) and while Taste for Blood collected power that turn, I couldn’t come out with the win. Final score was 11-9, and congrats to Mike—who was a real pleasure to play against—for going 4-2 with Stark Siege! 0-1
Round 2 vs Jerod “Clu” from Iowa (I think?) playing Bara Winter
Winter? ****! I knew it was going to happen! That’s okay… with 7 ravens in my deck I was prepared. Still, I was a bit intimidated after playing Jerod in the warmup tourney. He beat my Lanni Maesters with a very innovative Targ build based on hopping characters in and out of challenges… lots of moving parts! I knew his decision-making and deck-building skills were solid. That’s okay though, it was time for my BRILLIANT opening move: Rule by Decree on the first round! I was hoping he'd reveal A Time for Ravens so I can become first player and make his plot trigger first, therefore giving him 8 cards in hand when RBD triggers. So I went for it and… HE PLAYED CITY OF SIN! Doh! Rough start! I should have thought about this one a little bit more, since I had my own bara shadows deck. That’s what I get for gambling! Regardless, Jerod also had a slow start and I managed to win the seasons battle. Sam Tarly helped me get cards back into my hand. 15-0 was the final and I was relieved to at least get a win. Jerod was all class and would continue to be so pleasant throughout the weekend. 1-1
Round 3 – Dan from MO (not Dobbler’s meta though) playing Lanni Maesters
Dan was a very nice returning player from the CCG days. I believe he borrowed the deck for the tournament. I was familiar with this build and did my best to prepare for it by playing a similar version in the warmup tourney, so I think I had its tricks figured out. He opened with At the Gates to go get Riders of the Red Fork. I flooded the board and used plots to control his hand size and number of locations. Vengeful really paid off and it seemed that I had an answer for everything he did, which made for a pretty quick game. We chatted for a while afterwards and he shared some really interesting tales of the pre-LCG era. By this time I was feeling good, two 15-0 victories under my belt. 2-1
Round 4 – Brian “goshdarnstud” from Chicago playing Martell Summer
Martell summer huh? Multiple reducers and 2 Viper’s Bannermen early proved to be the difference in Brian’s favor this time around. I was playing from behind most of the time and eventually I had to Valar, playing Nightmares on one Bannerman and He Calls it Thinking on the other, but he still managed to reclaim board position. A timely Game of Cyvasse sent Darkstar back to my hand which sent my world into a spiral, lol. Next round he played To the Spears with the Conclave out, and I managed to last one more round by playing The Viper’s Rage. It was too little, too late though. I think the final was 15-4? Brian played very soundly, always seemed to have one card less than me so I couldn’t RBD, and got the right cards at the right time. 2-2
Round 5 – Jon from MO playing Martell Brotherhood
Looking at his agenda, I knew it was Beric time… not to mention mad huntsman, flea bottom fun, and probably some other trickery. I think he was from Dobbler’s meta so I knew I needed to be on my toes! All that said, I saw nightmares in my hand after a mulligan. Normally I’d save this for a pre-plot valar on Beric, which would be a pretty wise move. A great move. A smart move! I also rationalized, thinking of how I’ve seen veteran players in my meta consistently dupe Beric for this very reason. That meant I had no guarantee for success… and I was still jaded from my failure earlier. So I basically talked myself out of saving Nightmares (I had another one in my deck anyway… right?) and went for it! Pre-plot nightmares on Ellaria (lol) and a revealed Rule by Decree caused him to discard down to 4 cards. This really set the tone for the game and paid off (believe it or not)! I was able to stifle Jon’s card draw and control most of the game. At one point he had Taste for blood on Beric, but I recognized that as immediate trouble and used Ill Tidings on a Maester of the Sun to get that removed. I think he had to discard 2 cards when I played Threat from the North so that plot continued to pay dividends. He ended up getting very close to the win using the Prince that was Promised on Beric with a flaming sword (yikes), however I came out victorious at 15-13. 3-2
Round 6 – Jay “Bloodycelt” (I think?) from Boston – Bara with Martell Alliance
I assumed this one might be something power-grabby, but I hadn’t played any serious alliance deck before. However, bonus card draw or gold? Awesome! I knew I had to be ready though… anyone playing this alliance at GenCon probably had something nasty coming my way. He opened with Summoning Season to go get the Viper, but didn’t have the gold to pay for him. Next round I discarded the Viper from his hand with Threat from the East, since I figured the he was pretty crucial to Jay’s strategy if he summoned him first turn. By the challenges phase I was facing Arianne and Renly, plus a smuggler’s cove. I played nightmares on the cove just to avoid unopposed so he didn’t run away with it too fast. By the next turn he played Standy Robert and was able to protect them all with Power of Blood. I needed shadows or lost oasis something fierce, but despite the bonus card, they never came. I don’t remember exactly what happened after that, but any power I had was stolen away and with no more tricks up my sleeve the final was 0-15. He played a great game and I wished him well in the cut to 16. 3-3
That put me at a .500 record after 6 rounds, which is not bad for a first GenCon!
Congrats to Zeiler for the joust victory with Bara (earning him a delicious chilled shot of patron!) and to Greg for making both finals using his championship card, which some said couldn’t be done given the 50 minute rounds in joust. The great melee fiasco of 2011 left a bad taste in my mouth, but as I’ve said before, I play this game to hang out with all the great people and this trip was no different. It was fun meeting a lot of new folks from different parts of the country as well as seeing old friends from Kubla. Special thanks to Ram, Mathlete, Deathjester and Crevic for convincing me to go and making this an unforgettable experience. Everyone from California finished with at least a .500 record, with two in the top 8, so it’s good to see the West continuing to be a presence in competitive Thrones. All in all, a great time and I hope to be able to attend next year!
James aka "Bronson"
