I’ve been playing Thrones, on and off, for almost 2 years: I started at the tail-end of the Defenders cycle (which, incidentally, is by far, still my least favourite cycle in the game). Thrones was pretty much my first CCG/LCG, apart from a small dip into Pokemon (which, quite frankly, doesn’t really count),. I’m traditionally a Stark and Bara player, but I’ve dabbled with pretty much every House, but I decided to try a more controlly build this time around, and went with Targ.
I was a little nervous going in to Stoke. Even though I had previously played at Stahleck and didn’t completely slip up (I made the cut, but lost in the first round of the cut by 1 power), I had barely played in the last 2 months (Exams – both mine and my meta-mate Michael’s), and I was playing a house I generally avoided, and in a completely unfamiliar meta (I had expected a lot of Greyjoy Choke, and all my experiences of playing against Greyjoy choke were distinctly unpleasant). In retrospect, I did much better than I thought I would, but not as well as I probably could have.

First round: Vs Gareth– Baratheon/The Maester’s Path
This shouldn’t be a bad matchup. Bara plays lots of lovely toasty burnable people, and my Meerenee Brothel should be able to get rid of any troublesome chains. When I saw him flop the Laughing Storm and a Maester, I knew exactly what was coming. We both have pre-plot actions (I had a flame kissed ready to toast his Initiate of the Citadel), but he wins the pre-plot coin flip, and then proceeds to Citadel Law into a Rule by Decree. I toss 3 cards from my hand, then he reveals a Threat from the East, and chooses to discard. I’m down to 1 card by the end of the first plot phase. I manage to hold on for 7 plots (mostly by Valaring early to kill his laughing storm), but I could never recover from ending the first plot phase 6-1 down in cards with no setup.
0 -1

Second Round: Vs Daniel– Stark/Siege of Winterfell
This was probably much closer than it should have been. Serious props to Daniel, who hadn’t been playing for long, yet was able to give an old(ish) dog like me a serious run for his money with a deck that most people would dismiss as uncompetitive! I favourable Grounded first turn to wipe his board of resources, and Valared second turn to wipe he board, but the sheer number of cheap direwolves was problematic and characters was problematic. The game was fairly evenly balanced, with him grabbing power off siege, and me slowly whittling away at his hands/weenies until he revealed Focused Assault while I had a Bungled Orders. I planned to take advantage of the “No Defending” bit of Focused assault, so attacked with a power challenge. I expected his core set Greatjon t defend. What I didn’t expect was the Endless Endurance he had in hand, allowing him to win the challenge, and resulting in me not being able to wreck his bungled orders. He managed to swing in a power challenge with focused Assault and with Winter is Coming, managed to do an 8 power swing, and bring him disturbingly close to winning.
I managed to regain control of the board, though, and the burn was a bit too much for his Stark weenies.
1-1

Third Round: Vs Kev – Baratheon/Knights of the Realm
This was a really unfortunate game for Kev. He had mulliganed into a four card flop with no resource locations. Once I wiped his initial board with a Valar and a TfTN, it was plain sailing, and I had no trouble getting to 15.
2-1

Fourth round vs Warren – Greyjoy/The Maester’s Path
Warren mentioned that he wasn't particularly keen about facing Targ - given tha, he held out remarkably well. First Turn, I expected a Fear of Winter, so I played Forgotten plans, to which heresponde by playing a Citadel laws to force me to flip to something else. Unfortunately for him, he didn't expect me to flip into a Bungled Orders, and he bascially didn't attack first turn. He got Alannys out early, and I decided that she was way too dangerous to let live, so played Threat from the North earlier than I probably should have to make sure I could burn her (and, I believe, Wendamyr as well) He then proceeded to Rule by Decree me, and got Asha out. As I, by now, had way more than 3 non-character cards in my discard pile, she was attacking me multiple times a turn until I Flame kissed her when my plots cycle and I played TfTN. This game was fairly close in terms of power, but i felt in control of the game pretty much all the time, as I was keeping his maesters off the table, and had all my draw and influence set up.
3-1

Fifth Round vs Neil Targaryen Maesters/The Maester’s Path
I drew no burn at all in this game. I played this straight – as a Targ Ambush Aggro deck against a Targ Maester deck that was trying to burn me, which I found quite ironic, given that I spent most of my game burning everyone else’s board. I flipped bungled orders first turn, and he laid out a small bunch of characters – I think he was probably expecting me to do the standard Bungled -> Valar. Instead, when he declared his first intrigue challenge against me and won, I revealed Retaliation, dumped a Viserion, Queen’s Knight and Dragon Thief onto the field, then proceeded to win an intrigue, a military and a power .
I drew very little burn this game, and I basically played it straight as an aggro deck, slowly whittling away at his hand and controlling the board through military challenges. Perhaps the most memorable moment was a back and forth during the 4th round. Neil had brought a Craster out, and Craster was causing me a lot of grief because Strength 5 meant I Wasn’t pushing intrigue challenges through. I played Jorah, discarding Craster. He then brought Varys out of shadows to discard Jorah. I then played Amush from the plains to get Jorah back from my discard pile and discard Varys, to which he responded by ambushing in a flame-kissed and killing Jorah off for good.
He never really got any chains off, and he never had the influence for all the tricks he was running in his deck.
4-1, and made the cut to Top 8

Quarter-Final: vs Rob – Martell/Knights of the Hollow Hill
I played awfully this game, or, to be more precise, I made 2 awful misplays, and then played brilliantly during the rest of the game to try make up for it.
He got the scourge out early, and that was eating away at my hand
I proceeded to empty my hand, and had plenty of cards ready to bounce in, the plan was for him to attack into my bundled orders, for me to lose, and then for me to flip my retaliation and attack him with claim 2 military, intrigue, and power, clear his board, force an early valar while I still had plenty of cards left in hand (due to me playing ambush from the plains to drop in a thundering cavalry from my discard pile).
Yeah, I kind of forgot the me LOSING the challenge bit. I defended with Pyat Pree, won the challenge, and HE flipped valar, wiping out my board, and leaving me with 3 cards in hand.
I spend the next few turns trying to claw my way back, but I wasn’t really drawing my burn. He had gotten his Scourge and Arianne out, and that was beginning to destroy my hand, because I kept chucking cards to be able to keep up the pressure. I eventually draw the Burn Barristan, only to see him play a Bowl of Brown, which I presume was in there as anti-maester tech. He then plays the Viper, which is able to attack me without kneeling and get a lot of power as I had to dump a lot onto the board to counter the Scourge and the other Martell control tricks he was playing.
My worst play of the tournament was my 6th plot, I could either Valar or Forgotten plans. I decided it’d be a great idea to play forgotten plans to stop the viper from attacking three times on from a “To The Spears!” forgetting that 1. The Viper could have attacked me multiple times anyway because I had more characters on the field, and 2. I could have just killed the Viper with a valar. The Viper then proceeded to attack me 3 times, and take him to 15 power (with 6 on the Viper).

Concluding Thoughts

Props to Steve and Eddie for running a fantastic tournament, to Chris and Michael for all their help in playtesting and deckbuilding (even if I did end up ignoring a lot of advice Chris was giving ), to James and Becky for helping to drag me back into the game (and especially to James for winning his first ever tourney), and to British rail for not messing up

Slops to Customs for holding back the Tourney kit, to me for mucking up so badly in my quarter-final and to my university for scheduling exams at a really inconvenient time and making me have to miss the Stafford regional

Also, a bit of shameless advertising, if anyone is in London and wants a game, drop us an e-mail or a message at http://www.meetup.com/London-AGOT-LCG-Meetup-Group/ We’re currently in the process of moving to a permanent home at a LGS (we used to play at a pub), but hopefully, I’ll be able to sort everything out soon enough. Hopefully, we'll be able to host a regional of our own next year!

The Decklist
House Targaryen
Agenda: Knights of the Hollow Hill
Restricted Card: Pyromancer’s Cache
Plots
Search and Detain
Retaliation
Valar Morghulis
Bungled Orders
Threat from the North
Forgotten Plans
Lineage and Legacy

Characters (26)
Dragon Thief x 3
Queen’s Knight x 3
Refugee of the Plains x 3
Thundering Cavalry x 2
Dragon Knight x 2
Viserys Targaryen (Core)
Khal Drogo (Core)
Daenerys Targaryen (Secrets of Oldtown)
Pyat Pree
The Titan’s Bastard
Ser Jorah Mormon (A Tale of Champions)
Brown Ben Plumm
Viserion (Queen of Dragons)
Drogon (Queen of Dragons)
Ser Barristan Selmy (A Tale of Champions)
Jhogo (Brotherhood without Banners) x 3

Locations (19)
Summer Sea x 3
Eastern Fiefdoms x 3
Kingsroad Fiefdom x 3
Lady Daenaerys’s Chambers
The Red Keep x 2
Meereeneese Brothel
Meereen Tourney Grounds
Meraxes x 2
Bay of Ice x 3

Attachments (7)
Pyromancer’s Cache x 3
Flame-Kissed x 3
Dragon Skull

Events (9)
The Hatchling’s Feast x 3
Forever Burning x 2
Ambush from the Plains x 2
Favorable Ground x 2