Joey Kreins ended up being the TO for this.

16 people. I dont have the house breakdown, but Joey Kreins does have it, including agendas and restricted cards. I know I was the only person playing Bara, and we had 4 lannister, At least 3 targ, at least 3 stark, and at least 2 martell. Not sure where the other 4 fit in.

(4) Joey Kreins(Phoenixember) - Targ Maesters def. (1) John Deatrick(Fieras) - Bara Treaty to South
(2) Lucas Sydlaske(Syd) - Stark Siege def. 3. Brooks Mitchell(The Kingg) - Greyjoy/Lannister Alliance

(2) Lucas Sydlaske def. (4) Joey Kreins in the finals.

Congrats to Lucas Sydlaske for his first regionals victory.

Awesome! Gratz to Lucas and the rest of the top four! Looking forward to seeing the stat breakdown soon.

Also, looking forward to analyzing some of these stats in combination with the recently posted NY stats and those previously posted to get a clearer picture of where we're headed. This could take a bit though…

Here's the official tournament report for SF Regionals:

First of all I want to say thank you to Gamescape SF for hosting it. Their store has an awesome selection and their staff was very accommodating to us. I ended up running the tournament yesterday for SF Regionals, as an employee of the store who knew little about AGOT was going to be running it and decided to hand the reins over to us.

Since I wasn't prepared to run things, we didn't have decklists done, but I did take down houses, agendas and restricted cards for a break down of that. Because we had a few newer players from San Francisco who were used to mostly playing Melee and had been in the game for less than a year, it skewed the numbers a little bit. For example, one of the SF players had no restricted card at all, and three of the five SF players made up three of the five Lannister players. Oddly enough, every house was somehow represented in the Top 4, as one deck was playing Baratheon/Martell, another was Greyjoy/Lannister, and the other two decks were Stark and Targaryen. I put the breakdowns of everything at the bottom of this post.

We had 16 players total, seven from the Sactown Mafia Meta, four from the Wardens of the West (East Bay) Meta, and five newer players from San Francisco. Since we had 16, we chose to do four rounds of Swiss then cut to a Top 4. There was no Melee held at this event.

I forget a lot of my personal match details at this point, but i'll put down some notes from each match.

Round 1 vs. Lucas Sydlaske - Luke was playing Stark Siege. He came out of the gate with Fear of Winter but I was able to slow him down with Search and Detain and some burn. Eventually his aggressive play was too much for me to handle and he was able to overwhelm me for the win. 0-1.

Round 2 vs. Jamie - Jamie was one of the newer players from SF and was playing Lannister/Power Behind The Throne. My burn proved to be too much for him and I was able to exploit the drawback on his agenda several times. 1-1.

Round 3 vs. Mike - Mike was another of the SF players, and was playing Lannister Clansmen. Again the burn proved to be too much for Lannister to handle, especially when I dropped his Timett before he was able to kneel him. 2-1.

Round 4 vs. David - David was playing Targaryen/Knights of the Hollow Hill. This match ended up being a battle of attrition as expected, constantly burning down each other's characters. In the end, it was my Maester Aemon with a few links on him (Apprentice Collar, Bronze, Valyrian Steel) and Thundering Cavalries that put me over the top. Although nobody ever had a clear control of this game, I was in the lead of power from the start, and was able to finish the game off on the seventh plot. 3-1

Semi-finals vs. John Deatrick - I made the cut to top 4 barely as the 4 seed, and had to play the only 4-0 from the Swiss rounds in the first match. John's deck got out to a great start as he was able to put out Red Viper, Arianne Martell, Knight of Flowers, Laughing Storm and Royal Entourage early. One Hatchling's Feast ended up swinging the back back a bit in my favor as I wiped a lot of that off of the board in one swoop. John contnued to put pressure on me and the score was 14-1 at one point (with no links off my agenda), before I was finally able to get full control of the game. I had Flame-Kissed recurring with Bronze Link and Daenerys' Chambers every turn and John had no means of extra draw, so I was able to burn down anything else he played at will after I got his board cleared. Eventually I was able to take the game on Dominance on the seventh plot.

Finals vs. Lucas Sydlaske - I made an incredibly dumb mistake by playing Rule By Decree on the first plot after Luke used an epic battle card. Somehow I got the numbers mixed up in my head and thought it would hit him. It was pointless to even continue from there with him having played Fear of Winter and having a far superior flop to me, so I just forfeited and gave Luke the win. Even if I hadn't made that mistake, I doubt I could have won this game. Luke was off to a much better start than I was and I think he would have overwhelmed me pretty quickly.

Final Standings

1st - Lucas Sydlaske - Stark/Siege of Winterfell/Fear of Winter

2nd - Joey Kreins - Targaryen/Maester's Path/Fury of the Dragon

3rd - John Deatrick - Baratheon/Treaty To The South/Val

4th - Brooks Mitchell - Greyjoy/Alliance (Lannister)/Castellan of the Rock

Houses

Targaryen - 3

Lannister - 5

Greyjoy - 3

Baratheon - 1

Martell - 1

Stark - 3

Agendas

Maester's Path - 4

Power Behind The Throne - 1

Alliance - 1

Siege Of Winterfell - 2

Treaty To The South - 1

Knights of the Hollow Hill - 2

City of Shadows - 1

None - 4

Restricted Card

Fury of the Dragon - 2

Fury of the Lion - 1

Castellan of the Rock - 1

Fear of Winter - 3

Pyromancer's Cache - 3

Fury of the Kraken - 1

Val - 2

Viper's Bannermen - 1

Venomous Blade - 1

None - 1

And of those Stark decks…I played all three…

Sounds like a great time! Congratz to Lucas!!

The 5 Lanni and 1 Martell is a very interesting contrast to NYC

To give some clarification, since a couple people have asked, Venomous Blade was the restricted card in a Stark City of Shadows deck. The counts on the restricted cards are not incorrect.

So here is a short report on my tourney:

I was playing Bara Treaty to the South. It was pretty similar to my last version, except I swapped some cards out for Val and TLS.

I also swapped a few plots around.

Round 1 vs Jaime (SF Meta, Lannister PBtT)

Jaime said beforehand that he was "just showing up to get his butt kicked". He is a melee-only player, and scared me a little when he got to 6 power on turn 1. (Remember, he only needs 10 to win). This happened to be the only match of the day where I got my Val and TLS combo out. On turn 2, pre-plot, I got 3 cards into my hand, and rolled over him with about 8 characters in play. 1-0

Round 2 vs Garrett (SF Meta, Stark Shadows)

Flopped TLS, so I decided to open with Threat from the East. I drew 3, and he drew 3, then he discarded 3. Fortunately for me, those 3 were 2 white ravens and a carrion bird. His lack of winter really slowed his deck down and I won this game on turn 2. 2-0

Round 3 vs David (Sac/Davis Meta, Targ KotHH)

By turn 2, I had TRV, Robert, Eddard, Arianne and KoF out in play. His Threat from the North comboed with Hatchlings feast quickly dispatched Rob, Arianne, and Eddard. However, the following turn, I drew into Robert again and replayed him. He drew pretty dead for the next 2 turns and I just overpowered him. Pretty sure a single flame kissed would have turned the tides for him, but fortunately he pretty much drew locations. 3-0

Round 4 vs Luke (Tourney Winner, Concord Meta, Stark Siege)

In all reality, Luke deserved this win. He played the game right, and it actually cost him. Had he played badly, I think he would have won. This went about 3 turns, if I remember correctly. Going into turn 3, I had about 9 power and Power of Blood out. He had 4 power and Storm of Swords. He had 3 stealthers on the board and sent 2 of them on the first challenge, stealthing everyone but TRV. At this point, I completely brain farted and didn't remember he had 2 military challenges. I said out loud "I can let this through and you are only at 7 power, no big deal" So I did. He then proceeded to (to my surprise) initiate a 2nd military challenge. Fortunately, he only had 1 stealther left. I chump blocked with Stannis (I think) and he got up to 9 power. Now, his next mistake was saying "Well I can't get unopposed, so I guess I am done". To be honest, I forgot he didn't get unopposed because of his agenda. (Its been about 2 months since i played the game). Had he sent an intrigue challenge, I am pretty sure I would have blocked it. So rusty! Anyhow, he topped at 9, and I swung and won for about 8 power with TRV, Arianne and Robert and it was over. Dodged a bullet on this one.

Top 4 - Semis vs Joey (Targ Maesters)

Joey pretty much did the same thing that David did on turn 2 and wrecked my board. A turn or so later, I had Arianne, TRV, and KoF in play with about 12 power. I had red wedding at the ready to give myself the win, but infortunately, that would have left me 1 power short. Going into that turn, Joey got a mil challenge through and I had to choose who to kill. I think I may have made the wrong decision, but I let viper die. Arianne was the only legal target for the Distinct mastery in my hand, and KoF had 4 power on him to TRV's zero. I let viper die. The next turn, I played the 11 initiative plot, hoping to go first and win out, but thanks to 2 bay of ice, a Kingsroad fiefdom, and a retaliation, Joey won initiative by 1. I didn't have a hand to lose, fortunately. So, I ended up going first anyway, but Joey stalled me at 14. His 2 claim military ended my tournament.

So I hadn't really played much in a really long time. I think once in about the last 3-4 months. That being said, this tourney went pretty well for me and I had a lot of fun.

Item of note: In 4/5 of my games, my opponent's first plot was search and detain. EVERY single time, I won initiative against it. It was pretty easy to predict. Thanks to everyone who showed. 16 was fun, but I look forward to the 40+ that should be at Kubla, and of course, the melee. I still consider myself to be a melee player, and my success in Joust is simply coincidence.

nice TR Fieras. Do you think the Treaty is worth it? or can't just the Alliance Plot suffice to splash Viper w/o giving your opponent the lower win threshold?

Stag Lord said:

To be honest, my deck has cut it close a few times, but I don't think I've ever lost a game I was still putting up a fight in. From memory, I can't think of a loss I've had that could have been turned around if the opponent had needed 15 power instead of 10, but as I said, people have come close.

My average win comes probably on turn 3, although I win on turn 2 quite often. Sometimes as long as 4 or 5 turns against control decks, but rare I get a win later than that.

I JUST took out the alliance plot in my latest iteration. I was running eddard, cache and jeyne, but after taking out the latter 2, I switched to a 5 gold plot instead.

Alliance agenda puts more gold and more cards in your opponent's hands. I can't think of a better way for them to be able to stop my rush than with more resources and more cards. Treaty (In my opinion) is far superior to Alliance in the case of my deck. ( I know you werent asking about the agenda, but this is just my 2 cents on it).

For the record, I run the following martell cards (Clearly more than just viper):

3x viper
3x orphan
3x arianne
3x messenger
2x sea

My previous variant also had 3x taste for blood and 2x ellaria sand (as well as the additional sea). However, I dont see myself taking out any of the current 14 martell cards I have in the deck. They are all just too good.

That being said, I know people have made treaty to the north and treaty to the isles variants and those are pretty good as well.

Ah - yeah: you are way more comitted to the Vipers than i would be. You really need the Treaty Agenda. i am too much of a purist to pollute my deck with that much Dornish trash. But i agree with your thinking, given your approach.

Bloodycelt has had success here in the Northeast with similar constructs.

I also wholly agree with you on the Alliance agenda. a power rush deck can never hand its opponents to tools that Agenda provides. Choosing that approach is basically cutting your own throat.

Stag Lord said:

If you remember from my calicon post (The first time I ran the deck), Bloodycelt at worlds was my inspiration to build the deck. He definitely gets creator points on it.

I feel like that deck might have issues with first turn fear of winter? Have you faced it much and if so any success?

SirDuck said:

Never saw fear of winter turn 1. Plus, I usually flop pretty well. It would certainly slow me down, though. Honestly, you see Fear of Winter a lot less since it's been on the restricted list.