As many of you know, Da Wolf Pack (the Greater Chicagoland meta) hosted a tournament this past Saturday. Brian (goshdarnstud) was kind of enough to host the event at his home and organize the tournament in general. We had twelve players from three states, and the six houses were equally represented with the exception of only 1 Greyjoy deck to 3 Targaryen decks.
I decided to play Stark Siege for a couple reasons. One, I recently revamped the deck to be more similar to the top-performing European Stark Siege decks (thanks Kralicht and Humber!) I'd seen, and wanted to see how such a deck performed in the U.S. environment. Second, I thought that with the Lannister box not legal for this tourney, there would be a dearth of Lanni kneel, which is probably the toughest matchup for this deck.
Agenda
Siege of Winterfell
Plots
Respect of the Old Gods x1
Retaliation! x1
Fleeing to the Wall x1
Fear of Winter x1
Rule by Decree x1
The Red Wedding x1
Valar Morghulis x1
Characters (39)
The Blackfish x2
Catelyn Stark (LoW) x2
Brienne of Tarth (PotS) x1
Hodor x1
Jeyne Westerling x1
Lucas Blackwood x1
Maester Vyman x1
Arya Stark (CoS) x1
Meera Reed x1
Syrio Forel x1
Reek x1
Sansa Stark (TftRK) x1
Shaggydog x1
Varys (SaS) x1
Roose Bolton x1
The Hound (PotS) x1
Jory Cassel x1
Theon Greyjoy (PotS) x1
Robb Stark (LoW) x1
Bolton Refugee x3
The Bastard's Elite x3
Northern Cavalry Flank x3
Carrion Bird x3
Hungry Mob x3
Guard at Riverrun x2
Riders of the Red Fork x1
Attachments (4)
Frozen Solid x3
Needle x1
Events (5)
The Battle of the Whispering Wood x2
Battle of the Ruby Ford x1
The Price of War x1
Die by the Sword x1
Locations (12)
Great Keep x3
Narrow Sea x3
Borderland Keep x2
Lord Eddard's Chambers x1
River Row x1
Street of Steel x1
Street of Sisters x1
The deck plays pretty straightforwardly, with consistent 4-6 card drops. I would generally start with Respect of the Old Gods to put the pressure on immediately; then follow up with Fear of Winter, then RBD or Fleeing depending on the situation. I would tend to hold some characters in hand to recover from Valar. The real all-star of this deck is the Northern Cavalry Flank. It's cost-effective, durable and a real pain for many decks to deal with, what with the proliferation of Agendas in the environment.
Swiss Round 1 vs Tony - Targaryen KOTHH burn
Tony is a great guy who is one of the most seasoned players in the meta. His decks are always good and he always gives you a tough match. That said, I wasn't too worried, as I could flood the board with enough beef to be able to push past all but the most excessive amounts of burn. His Meereen Tourney Ground combined with Shadow Parasites held me in abeyance for a bit, but I had too much military for him to deal with and took the match 15-0 on turn 6 (I believe)
1-0
Swiss Round 2 vs. Jesse (Complord) - Greyjoy Mill/Raid KoW
Jesse (our only Wisconsin representative and another great guy) was playing Greyjoy and that scared me a bit. I don't run a lot of resources in my deck, but having one or two available is important to keep it running smoothly, especially if I want to drop anything 4-cost or above. Luckily, Jesse's focus was on discarding my deck and dropping irritating characters, which he did immediately with The Knight. I knew he'd be trouble, especially once Jesse duped him. Luckily, I got Jesse in a position where he didn't have any intrigue icons out, and I dropped Reek and took the Knight. I then used Varys to get rid of Reek. After that it was pretty much over and I took the win 15-0
2-0
Swiss Round 3 vs. Gerry - Martell KOTHH/Bounce
Gerry is a relatively new player who has a real talent for building and playing decks. He got The Red Viper out pretty early, but that was his only real Military defense for most of the match. I was able to use Rule By Decree and Fear of Winter to keep him on the ropes a bit, but dueling Valars hit me hard as well, and we ended up in one of those glorious last turns (due to time) where if either of us had played slightly differently, we could have won. As it was though, we tied 12-12 and both took a modified win.
2-0-1
Swiss Round 4 vs. Jerod (Clu) - Stark TMP/Shadows
I know Jerod as a really nice guy and a heck of a player, so I expected a hard fought and grueling match. I wasn't disappointed. I was able to keep him from using the chains too much with my kill effects and Frozen Solid. However, Jerod used Meera Reed to great effect, usually blanking my Northern Cavalry Flank or Blackfish. The real kicker was that he was able to return her to the Shadows after one of my characters died, so he got a lot of use out of her. Eventually, he left her in play at the end of a turn and I was able to use the Red Wedding to get rid of her and snag 2 power for myself. That was the turning point and I took the match 15-?
3-0-1
After the Swiss, I was tied with Luke Reed (Maester_Luke) by record, but I edged him on strength of schedule, so I was the #1 seed. The cut to top 8 put me up against the #8 seed
Finals Round 1 vs. Brian (bbleers) Lannister Kneel/no agenda
That's right, no agenda and the matchup I'd been dreading. I held on longer than I thought I would in this match, but Brian had too many answers and played too well for me to do much. he kept my Flanks and other beef knelt out and used City plots to great effect. He took me down on turn 6 or 7. My consolation was that he went on to the final table, where he was matched up against Tony, who was the #7 seed. Tony eventually took that match and was crowned the champ.
3-1-1
Overall, I was very pleased with the deck, especially after I did very well in 2 just-for-fun matches against Luke's killer Martell Summer deck once we were both eliminated. I expected NCF, Catelyn, and Frozen Solid to be great, but I was pleasantly surprised at the usefulness of Jory Cassel, Borderland Keep, and Reek, all of which outperformed my expectations. I think it might fall out of favor with the incoming tidal wave of Lannister Kneel from the box, but I think Europe's contention of Stark's dominance got at least a little creedence.
Thanks again to Brian for organizing/hosting, everyone who showed up, and especially my opponents, who made it a really fun day.
