I didn't really know what to expect from the NY meta. I came into the event thinking there might be as many as 3-4 Targ decks and expected a lot of Lannister and Greyjoy because of the results posted by them at Stahleck and Days of Ice and Fire. I didn't expect much Martell because of the popularity of Greyjoy. I thought the field would be up in the 40 player range, but it ended up being 19 players in the end. Pretty shocking to me that there were 6 Targ and 5 Stark decks out of those.
I've been really interested in making Targaryen work and I enjoy a lot of their themes in theory, if not always in execution. I took a Summer Burn deck knowing that Winter would be popular and a tense match up. I'd rather play what I enjoy and want to play rather than what I may feel is objectively the "best." Summer was my only option because I'm very Maester-adverse and need draw, even if it's extremely fragile.
Decklist
Plots
Loyalty Money Can Buy
A Time for Ravens
Retaliation!
Wildfire Assault
Regroup
Valar Morghulis
Threat from the North
Characters (31)
2x Jhogo (Brotherhood)
1x Khal Drogo (Core)
1x Daenerys Targaryen (Oldtown)
1x Viserys Targaryen (Core)
1x Ser Jorah Mormont
1x Ser Barristan Selmy (Tourney for the Hand)
1x Pyat Pree
1x Aggo
1x Rakharo
1x Black Hatchling
1x Gilly
2x Samwell Tarly
2x Red Warlock
3x Carrion Bird
3x Shadow Seer
3x Shadow Parasite
3x Killer of the Wounded
3x Refugee of the Plains
Locations (18)
3x Myrish Villa
3x Summer Sea
3x Eastern Fiefdoms
3x Khal Drogo's Tent
3x Lady Daenerys' Chambers
3x Meereenese Brothel
Events (6)
3x Forever Burning
3x Field of Fire
Attachments (9)
3x Black Raven
3x Flame-Kissed
3x Dragon Skull
Thoughts / Reflections
Red Warlock is helpful against Winter, you can make it Summer and search out another Black Raven for protection. It's a form of card advantage that is desperately needed in Targ. It shines the most when you have Lady Daenerys' Chambers out and an attachment in your discard pile. I also enjoy the fact that it is 3 cost which makes it able to retrieve Dragon Skulls with the Chambers. I was hoping that I would get good setups and initial draws against Winter. Some combination of Samwell, Black Raven, Carrion Bird, Red Warlock, and Chambers can allow me to win the season battle. When you're not facing Winter it ensures you're going to see the burn card you need.
Shadow Parasite was included to make my setups better and to provide much needed intrigue icons. I felt like I had enough burn effects to justify including it.
Many people are sour on Aggo and Rakharo, I got a lot of questions about why I included them. I feel that they're really solid choices, I have tons of dothraki to fuel their abilities and Targ has a serious problem with bad cost/STR ratios. It's also very hard to include claim 2 plots in Targ and these guys are somewhat like running 2 claim for intrigue / power challenges when they're out. I also liked the fact that being 3 cost allows me to recur Dragon Skulls with them.
Daenerys is expensive, but I like the +1 ability due to the aforementioned poor cost/STR ratio and it helps against any burn matchups. I'm partial to the core version of Drogo because Targ can't really use cost reducers and having a character you can use without paying its gold cost is a godsend. The other Targ players elected for the search version from QoD. I can't fault them for that, any sort of card advantage is a huge boon for Targ, but they did say they wished they'd run the core version due to all the other burn decks. When he gets burned his STR is 0, so you can't search for any dothraki.
Wildfire Assault was included because burn is essentially spot removal. I was afraid of swarm decks overrunning me. I don't like running 3 Khal Drogo's Tent. I probably should have run two copies and also ran The Red Keep, especially since I have Shadow Seer. I felt like Newly Made Lord and Price of War would be really common, however, so I wasn't too concerned with having 3 copies. My earlier version had 2 Brothel and 3 Dragon Thieves. When I decided to run Field of Fire I had to cut Dragon Thieves because I didn't have enough influence. Dragon Thieves make my setups worse and cutting them made me feel like I had to run 3 Meereenese Brothels. An earlier version also had 2 Chambers but because I feared a lot of Newly Made Lords and Price of Wars I upped it to 3.
Field of Fire was an X-factor card for me. I was never able to force people to overcommit on any single challenge which would have made it extremely powerful, but it's a much needed terminal effect, makes Killer of the Wounded stand, adds a lot of STR to Parasites, and is just a big surprise that the opponent generally can't calculate. Core Drogo was another card that shined for me. In one game I knelt out two Killer of the Wounded to push through a challenge with Threat from the North out. When Drogo came into play his STR was reduced and the Killer of Wounded stood up. Pyat Pree never went off for me, I wasn't able to push through challenges solo with him. He did make some opponents play much more conservatvely, using multiple blockers or not declaring challenges to make sure they had STR back to block him, however.
Tourney Report
First Round - Martell/Lannister Alliance
I think my opponent's name was Rich, but I'm not totally sure. I mulliganed into a mediocre setup and redrew into a mediocre hand. He started the game with a very good setup, something like 5-6 cards with two of them being Golden Tooth Mines, a Lost Spearman, I think a Goldroad and another 0 cost card. I was able to establish Summer first turn and keep it up all game, but I forgot to trigger Alliance the first few turns which hurt a lot. He had Lannisport Brothel and 2 Toll Gates out immediately which pretty much ended the game from the beginning. My uniques like Jhogo and Daenerys were kept knelt out by the Brothel while all my non-unique monocons were removed from challenges by Toll Gate. This effectively prevented me form getting challenges in while his military challenges picked my guys off.
I knew going into this tournament that location based control was a big weakness for my deck. I had 3 Condemned by the Council in my early versions but ended up having to cut them because there's just no room. Summer eats up 9 cards and I didn't feel comfortable cutting any burn, because at that point it would become very unreliable.
(0-1)
Second Round - Martell / Knights of the Hollow Hill
I don't know my opponent's name. He told me he was a new player with a Magic background. I had a good setup and a good hand. I believe Aggo, Rakharo 2 Refugees, and 2 Killer of the Wounded were out in the first turn or two. He played Red Viper as his sole character first turn after designating me to go first. I figured he had Red Vengeance for the military challenge or he perhaps made a mistake because he was a new player. I declared a military challenge with the Deadly (Aggo) which he defended and then he played No Use for Grief. He put out Doreah, Obella, Obara, Sarella, and ever other Sandsnake out with dupes as well as the 2 STR non-unique Sandsnake. I'd read about the Sandsnake deck at Days of Ice and Fire but had never played one, this caught me off guard.
Thankfully, I had Flame-Kissed in hand and a Chambers in play from setup. I burned one of the snakes on turn one, flipped Threat from the North on turn 2 which wiped out Doreah and another unique Sand Snake. Marshalled a Killer of the Wounded into play with Myrish Villa which allowed me to return my Flame-Kissed which I then used to take out another unique 3 STR Sandnake. This left him with maybe 4 characters left. I maintained control well throughout, but he eventually got Taste for Blood and Oberyn's Guile up on Sarella, and I didn't draw a Brothel to get rid of it. It looked like the game was going to go to time until I finally wiped his board for once and for all and he conceded before time. I was really happy that he was a good sport and didn't stall out.
(1-1)
Third Round - Targaryen / Maester's Path / Burn
Forgot his name but he was one of the organizers with Dan Strouhal I believe. I thought I remembered his name as Jason, but maybe it was Chris. I'd played my deck against Casey Galvan's Targ Maester Burn deck and knew that it was more consistent and resilient than non-Maester versions. I was somewhat wary going into this game and didn't fully expect to win.
I started out with a Brothel in setup, Forever Burning and Flame-Kissed in my starting hand. He first turn At the Gates'd an Advisor into play, which was his only maester out turn 1. I was able to Flame-Kiss and Forever Burning it before he could get chains on. He did eventually get 2-3 chains off his agenda, but I was able to kill removing them and kill the Maesters they were attached to (Dragon Skull for the win). Even though I had a strong position all game and opened up extremely strong, we both kept recurring burn attachments (and he recurred the Apprentice Collar and another chain I kept removing) with the Chambers and Forever Burning and the game lasted until just before time. During the final turn we played I killed the last Maester in his deck (he had around 4-5 chains on his agenda) and he conceded rather than force it to time. I believe I was around 11-12 power at that point but probably wouldn't have been able to get 15 power before time. He was a very good sport and a good player - I was appreciative of both.
(2-1)
Fourth Round - Martell / Baratheon Alliance
My opponent was Jason (bloodycelt). I knew that if I got a good setup I could win, but also knew that his deck was capable on turn 2 wins and he could easily overrun me and win before I could draw into my pieces.
He had Val, Banner of the Storm, and some 0 cost locations in setup. I was happy to see Brothel, Forever Burning, and Flame-Kissed by turn 1. I marshaled first turn and immediately used Flame-Kissed immediately on Val. He marshalled Melisandre and another Banner of the Storm during his turn. He was able to get somewhere around 5 power from Melisandre + standing effects, he also put the Banner of the Storm on Melisandre. Second turn I was able to get my Chambers out and recur Flame-Kissed with a Killer of the Wounded. He marshaled Arianne Martell who I burned immediately and then later on burned Melisandre (after removing banner attachment with Brothel) in the same turn. I was able to rip Brienne of Tarth from his hand with an intrigue challenge on turn 1, and I pulled a Fat Bob out on turn 2 with an intrigue challenge. Turn 3 he dropped King Renly who i burned immediately and at this point the game was over. I felt bad because I had such a solid setup that he couldn't keep anything out against me.
(3-1)
Fifth Round - Greyjoy / Kings of Winter
I was playing against Anthony (fatmouse). I knew that if I won this game I had a good chance of making top 4 and I also knew that I needed a good setup to be able to keep it Summer and win. He got a 6 card setup, something like 2 Boatswains, Mance Rayder, Refugee, and 2 locations I believe. I got a very mediocre setup and an even worse draw.
First turn I searched out a Black Raven but couldn't play it because I only had the one. He played a King Balon's Host and Kingsmoot Hopeful round 1. I played Samwell Tarly in the event he marshaled out a White Raven so I could get some draw to make up for the penalty on my next turn. Second turn I played Wildfire Assault and he went down to Mance Rayder, Balon's Host, and the Hopeful but I didn't draw anything good. He dropped a Scouting Vessel while I played Ser Jorah and had out Shadow Seer, a Parasite, and a Refugee and Carrion Bird. At some point I was forced to play my Black Raven to get the 2 cards in hopes that I would get some burn or another Black Raven but it didn't happen. Kept getting locations and other useless things.
He knew Targ was going to have a large presence at the event and his deck had some beefy dudes in it. I'm used to Winter decks with lower STR characters that are more easily handled.
(3-2)
I missed the cut as there were five people that were 4-1. Since Anthony had a bye the first round due to 19 participants he lost out on strength of schedule. My friend made top 4 with a Stark Knights agenda deck with a lot of claim 2 plots and Bay of Ice for draw, but Gualdo's Siege deck was more aggro and Gualdo went on to the finals against Dan, where his "******* was spread wide open" - in his words.