Fans of A Game of Thrones: The Card Game take heed! Today and tomorrow, Fantasy Flight Games is happy to present you with a two-part tournament report by the Gen Con Joust Champion, Brett Zeiler.

In today’s segment, Brett discusses his deck choice, card selection, and intended strategy.

GenCon Joust Champion, Brett Zeiler

Greetings all, and welcome to my 2011 Gen Con tournament report! I’ll get things started with my decklist:

House Baratheon
Agenda
The Maester's Path
Plots
Alliance
Calm Before the Storm
Retaliation!
The King’s Law
The Power of Blood x2
Threat from the North
Characters
Carrion Bird x3
Jeyne Westerling x3
Loyal Guard x3
Maester Cressen x1
Maester Pylos x1
Marya Seaworth x1
Selyse Baratheon (Core Set) x1
Knight of Flowers(Secrets and Spies) x2
Maester Lomys x1
Mance Rayder (Return of the Others) x1
Renly Baratheon (The Raven’s Song) x1
Ser Davos Seaworth (The Battle of Blackwater Bay) x1
Ser Guyard Morrigen x1
Archmaester Ebrose x1
Leyton Hightower x1
Melisandre (Return of the Others) x1
Robert Baratheon (The Tower of the Hand) x3
Ser Eldon Estermont x1
Eddard Stark (The Tower of the Hand) x1
Attachments
Apprentice Collar x3
Bodyguard x3
Bronze Link x1
Court Advisor x2
Pale Steel Link x1
Pyromancer's Cache x3
Tin Link x1
Lead Link x1
Martial Law x1
Events
Prosperity and Plenty x2
Locations
Aegon's Garden x2
Narrow Sea x3
Seat of Power x3
Street of Sisters x1
Street of Steel x1
King Robert's Chambers x1
Smuggler's Cove x2
Claw Isle x1

There you have it.

This is a version of the uber-Robert maester deck that has been floating around for a while in Europe. Greg Atkinson introduced it to me two weeks before Gen Con when I still had no idea what I wanted to play at Worlds. I’ve always had a fondness for uber-character decks with lots of attachments, and this one fit right into that play style. (My favorite deck in the game is my Kings of the Sea Viserys attachment deck.)

Modifications

As soon as I saw the deck, I fell in love; I played two or three games with it that first night and continued playing it over the next week. Until that point I was just borrowing Greg’s version of the deck, but once I decided to play it at Gen Con, I figured I’d need to build it myself.

There were a few key differences between Greg’s version and mine. I removed his Copper Link since I didn’t feel the little bit of trait manipulation would be worth the card slot and having one more chain attached to the agenda. While I could have done some cool stuff with it, like giving the Tin Link the Raven trait to remove Black or White Ravens, I decided against it and just trusted in my Carrion Birds to deal with seasons. I also cut the Paper Shields. While the added protection would have been nice, taking them out not only gave me three more card slots to fool around with but also made my deck immune to opponents’ Paper Shields. If you were playing them against me, then they would automatically be dead cards. Anytime I can guarantee you have dead cards, I dig it! Instead, I filled those three cards slots with Melisandre and Archmaester Ebrose for a little bit more power rush as well as a second copy of Knight of Flowers to give him slightly more protection.

I also made room for Prosperity and Plenty to make the deck a little more resilient against attachment control. In testing, I found that if I lost my copies of Apprentice Collar early I had a rough time doing anything, so I made sure I could get them back. Prosperity and Plenty also makes for some neat tricks with recurring Bodyguards in the middle of a challenge for a surprise save on a key character.

Strategy

The Maester’s Path thins my deck before the game starts and gives me instant access to the incredible utility of the Chain attachments. It uses Robert Baratheon from the King’s Landing cycle to stand over and over again during challenges to rush for the win, usually by plot two or three at the latest. To give the deck a little more control it also uses the Lead Link in conjunction with Threat from the North to wipe my opponent’s board. I did this in every game except my two losses, and it always lead to my victory. It’s a very powerful play and the one combination that made me really love this deck.

Retrospect

If I could go back in time I would change a few things, but not much. One of the things I would definitely switch up would be taking out Retaliation! While the plot is easily among the top five plots in the game, most of the time I wished it was anything else. After the first turn, this deck usually wants to go first, and while Retaliation! is very strong on the first turn, I usually lead with Alliance if I have a Jeyne or Pyromancer’s Cache in hand. While I’m still not 100% sure which plot I would put in to replace it, I’m currently leaning towards The Prince That was Promised. While it makes the Chain attachments irrelevant for a turn, it does enable me to go for the win with Robert even if there are cards in shadows.

Brett continues his tournament report tomorrow with match summaries. Building a deck is only one part of the battle, and tomorrow, we’ll learn how Brett’s deck fared against other strategies and how his Baratheon deck overcame adversity to claim the Joust title.