Would it be considerd unsportsman like conduct by abusing an infinate combo to use Then continually knell the and restand to search your deack and then do the hound/Killer of the wonded. Then using the fastest netwrok connection, Lyanna Stark with killer of the wounded that has had both clansman and nightswatch added to him to knell for Satin's deck search mechaninc and then with The Hound (PoTs) and Son of the Mist with Dorne to play trhe hound (ally) from my hand being last one and triggering a power on the clansaman, and then repeating 14 times.. The Hound for free everyturn thanks to Dorne.0

Why do you think it would be considered unsportsman like conduct to use cards to create an infinite combo? It is not, but curious as to why you think it would be.

So… how reliable is that 6 card "auto-win" combo (Killer, Lyanna, Hound, Son of the Mist, Dorne, "Clansman" trait granter), particularly since we're talking about at least 3 different Houses and no other cards in hand?

ktom said:

Highly. It made 50 points in 5 swiss rounds in the French Melee regionals. 5 wins at marshalling 1st turn. The guy deckbuild was well-thought to optimize the chance that the combo will happen.

And, to answer the question here, the judges did not consider this unsportmanship.

in the melee greece nationals there was a guy that used that combo as well and got second place.

I tried drawing it about 10-15 times and it works surprisingly well. Main it works it that AGoT has setup and with this deck you'll be drawing into about 14-15 cards total out of 60 and those plus plot will allow you to assemble this combo. And from all the setups I tried it seems that it triggers about 60-70% of the time which gives you 60-70% win rate unless your opponent has drawn Dissension/etc.=)

I think this combo is completely fine. The problem, I think, is that the melee "metagame" still heavily favors rush and other aggro builds. In melee, there isn't enough control. To be clear, there are plenty of options, people just don't find them attractive. All it would take is 1x Nightmares, Dissension (which always has targets in melee), Confession, Flame-Kissed/Dragon Attack/Threat from the North, or a Milk of the Poppy/Frozen Solid to stop the combo.

Playing against Martell sand snakes is similar…that deck can easily be stopped if people work together to neuter it early, and never "trade" search plot effects with the Martell player. What usually happens though is someone cares more about their own board position and doesn't worry about the person next to them who is about to put every sand snake they have into play.

It's basically the tragedy of the commons, where everyone agrees that the combo player is a "threat," but nobody wants to commit any resources to defeating that person.

I suspect that as time goes by, some particularly savvy players will be able to build a control deck that doesn't just make people mad, but actually wins. If that control player sits across from the combo player, chances are the combo player is going to become a punching bag for most of the game.

Twn2dn said:

Speaking of Sandsnakes and sportsmanship, at Days in November I got matched with a metamate sitting opposite me (does anyone else random seat their melee tables?) in the first round. I'd helped him hone his "No Use for Grief" deck for a couple weeks before hand, and I was torn between pointing out what was needed to stop it, and watching it go off. He had the first turn Viper and a second turn Wildfire to get things rolling, but I actually lost the game when I won a challenge against a Targ player with Bungled Orders out and he "wheel'd" into Valar with about 10 power on my characters. If I'd just challenged someone else I would have won. I did feel conflicted about saying anything in advance of the event, but I repeatedly pointed out to my opponent's what was going to have to happen to stop him.

Maester_LUke said:

First of all, I do use random seating in Melees, at the request of the players in my meta.

Secondly, the Melee question of where the lines of sportsmanship lies in terms of "hey, I think this guy's gonna win!" or "Why are you attacking me, that guy has lots more power" is an interesting one, and one that my meta faces on a semi-regular basis. We haven't ever really drawn up guidelines, but considering that we're a small group, we all do our best to stay polite.