So, I want to apologize in advance for anyone that takes the time to read this. It will probably be rather long winded. First off I want to give shout-outs to everyone who helped with the deck. John Bruno(mathlete), Jonathan Benton(longclaw), Chris Perry(xrishadowchaser), Buz Hannon, Larry Gross, and Ben Comstock, all you guys helped in one way or another and my sincerest thanks go out to each one of you. So, after having a nearly 6 month hiatus from actually PLAYING AGoT(not just posting on the FFG boards and at Team Covenant) after my daughter was born, I finally got a day all to myself to hang with my friends(and hopefully make new ones) and play some thrones. I am going to savor these moments The first part of this report will entail the 2 months leading up to the regional…because the deck I played has been in the works for about that long.
Shortly after the regional season had started my now good friend John Bruno posted a contest on FFG's boards where he would take deck submissions from players and the deck he liked the most he would play at a regional. If he made top four he would share whatever prizes he won with the deck builder. Well, I submitted a Targ KotHH deck to him, and through emailing back and forth for a week or so, he chose my deck to play. Some tweaks were made to the deck by him(with my OK) and he took it to the Fresno regional where he placed 4th out of the 17 or so players(little did I know that another person took my original deck to Cincinnati on the same day and actually won the whole regional with it! What are the odds of that happening? *wink* *wink*) . So what did I get for my contribution? A beautiful Targaryen playmat, but more importantly, someone else that I now call friend. That is the best thing about the AGoT community: the people. This is the best gaming community I have ever been a part of…and I have play tons of games. No other game community even comes close. You guys here are top notch, so a tip of the hat to you guys is certainly in order.
So after playing that deck, myself and Bruno continued to keep in touch and tweak the deck. He played a version much closer to my original deck in Sacramento?…I think…I can't remember where it was. So after a tough day there Bruno went 3-2 and missed top 8. With only one regional left in California he had a Lannister KotHH deck that he was considering playing. Ultimately, he decided against it and went with a final tweaked version of my deck. At this point, I think it's safe to say that the deck was as much his as it was mine…if not more so his. The final version looks nowhere near what it was when I sent it to him. So kudos to him on a great deck build. So, he took that deck to Pasadena and won that regional as well. Afterwards, he sent the decklist to me, and said he had some tricks that he wanted to throw in. My first thinking was…tricks? Targ doesn't really do tricks. Sure they have ambush which is surprising but not really tricky. His final .02 was to add some out of house Greyjoy characters to the deck. Well I decided to run Volantis to make them cheaper as well. I thought this was just genius. One character he told me to add was the new Asha from the ToC cycle. She's just nuts! Then I went and added Baelor Blacktyde myself as I wanted some event defense and he was as good as any. Boy, would I not regret the decision to add Asha.
There was one little hiccup this week though. I became sick early in the week, and by game day, I had almost completely lost my voice. Playing was going to be tough as I was doped up on Dayquil and throat lozenges all day. Plus, with how loud is was in that place, actually getting my voice loud enough would prove to be painful all day long. However, I did not despair and looked to bring Fire and Blood to the table.
So, finally, the night before the tournament arrived, and I had a conversation with, Bruno, about the deck and possible match-ups I might see. I was really worried about one deck in particular…anything with Wildlings. I knew for a certain that Wade would be playing Bara Wildlings, our other meta-mate Rob would be playing Stark Wildlings(which he made the finals with at Cincy) so I knew that might be a tough match-up, and Jonathan could possibly play Wildlings as well, either out of Stark or Targ as he has expressed a love for both of those decks recently. After about a 10 minute conversation, there really wasn't much that we had came up with to help with these match-ups other than playing Parting Blow at the right moments to keel the Wildlings Hordes, burning down all the other smaller characters, and hoping that Military claim, Valar, or Westeros Bleeds could clear the board enough for my jumpers to win the day.
So the morning of the tourney arrives and I leave to pick up my buddy, Chris, and his kid. On we go to the store to get set for a grueling day of gaming. On the way, we starting talking about my buddies deck and what he could improve. I give him an idea of running a certain card out of house to make his deck more consistent. Little did I know that it would be my eventual downfall and his rise to victory on the day. He expressed that he wishes for me to keep that tech secret. So let me just say that it's a card that would be worth the 4 gold in just about any house.
So we get to the store and it appears that most of the players have arrived and have begun filling out their deck list sheets. So, I plop down and fill mine out. Before the tourney began I heard that there were FOUR Wlidling decks in attendance…seriously?! What is this…2010? Not what I wanted to hear. Our TO, Jonathan, was supposed to have started the first round at 10:30, but ended up starting it at 11:00. He told everyone that he had completely forgotten what he had put online and was just winging it hoping to get though the day with no mess ups. LOL. Well, at least he's honest. So round 1 was set to start, and the pairings were called. My first opponent would turn out to be a guy that traveled a pretty good distance to make it. So I was happy to have gotten to play against him. Little did I know that this game would turn out to be my closest of the day, and my only loss in Swiss due to the only play mistake that I would make the entire day…
Round 1: Dennis from DC(DCDennis on FFG forum) playing Martell/Kings of Summer - Venemous Blade
So, I draw my opening hand and see a Parting Blow, Queen's Knight, Volantis, Eastern Fiefdom, Meraxes, Red Keep, and Dragon Knight. I keep, pass the setup to Dennis since I don't get one. First plot I play First Snow of Winter, he plays A Time for Ravens. Knowing he is playing summer, I elect for him to go first so that I can get an extra gold if he plays the black raven. He drops one or two characters with 3 cost and passes. I drop my locations, Red Keep in shadows, play no characters, and pass. He takes first challenge, attacks with an intrigue, I ambush in a Queen's Knight to defend and he bounces him back with A Game of Cyvasse. OK, then. Round two, I play Threat from the North since we have the same amount of cards in hand. He plays A Song of Summer…bummer! I win initiative. Elect to go first. I draw into a Bay of Ice and Hatchling's Feast. He plays a Ghaston Grey, and a few characters including the Red Viper. I defend a Military with Viserion but counted the STR wrong and lost him to claim(ok, so I made a couple play mistakes during this game)…**** Song of SUmmer Over the next few turns, I would burn most of his characters while he bounced mine with GG. By round four or five I was down 11 or 12 power to 1…maybe 0. I had gotten him down to 2-3 cards in hand, and had discarded all other copies of his Ghaston Grey. Round six, he drops Valar and plays out 4-5 characters. I play none, and pass. He has no claim, so I let all challenges go unopposed. I had the option of ambushing in a couple characters, but decided against it. During dominance, I kneel four influence and wipe his board with Westeros Bleeds. Then I drop my last plot…Valar Morghulis….wait…why did I just use a WB when I didn't have to? Eh, whatever. It didn't matter in the grand scheme of things anyway. By this time I have tons of Influence on the board including Volantis. I draw up, and draw a Newly Made Lord. Ok, finally! I play him as my only character, discarding his Ghaston Grey once and for all. Now, things are looking nice. Over the next two turns I would climb back into the game, getting back up to 14 power. On the final round, I play out Danaerys Targaryen. He plays a House Messenger, Edric Dayne, a Maester of the Sun, and Carrion Bird. Before going to challenges, I ambush in a Flame Kissed on Edric, pre-challenge, I ambush in my last Dragon Knight, hitting Edric for -2(due to it still being summer) he cancels with He Calls it Thinking giving +2 to the Maester. I take a military challenge with the Knight, win, and he kills the Bird, standing the Maester for Vengeful. I then look at the board, see I can easily win the power challenge, and declare my power challenge with Dany and the NML…wait…I HAD KHAL DROGO IN HAND!! I totally forgot to jump him into play after winning the military. Oh crap, I hope that doesn't matter. I wait…he plays A game of Cyvasse, I have no standing INT icons so he bounces Dany, and defends the power challenge with the Maester. I have no more challenges. He is sitting at 12 power, does his power challenge with his 1 STR Edric, and his two claim Retaliation! seals the win. It was an epic game that I should have won were it not for my one blunder. I will never, EVER, forget Khal Drogo again. LOSS 15 - 12
0-1 after one round…not what I had expected.
Round 2 vs Nate Lewis from TN(0-1) playing Stark/Seige of Winterfell - did not see restricted card
So, this game would be much better. I've known Nate for a few years and he is a great guy. He recently moved about an hour away and hasn't really played any Thrones in the past 9 months. We sit down, and I know this is going to be a great match. Stark Seige uses so many cheap characters that First Snow + Rule by Decree should be enough to give me an edge in the match. That's exactly what happened. He flopped two 2 cost characters. After the first round he had no characters on the board and my military challenge with Baelor Blacktyde had killed his only character left. Round 2 he reveals Building Season and gets a Training Grounds. I get Meraxes. RBD hits him for 5 cards and he drops a bunch of events and a location. He drops a Training Grounds and a couple characters. I play Asha, ambush in a Dragon Knight, and win 3 more challenges. Next turn, I play Search and Detain bouncing his Training Grounds. He plays it again along with another Army character. I play Newly Made Lord, discard his TG, and win 3 more challenges. Next round, I let him win 2 challenges just so I could get some power on his house to steal and after 3 more unopposed challenges the game was over. WIN 15- 3
1-1 after 2 rounds…let's keep it going!
Round 3 vs Andy from Louisville(1-1) - Bara/no agenda - Laughing Storm
So, Andy was a great guy, and even said that his Bara deck was not running what everyone else runs. Thought he did have the Laughing Storm + Val combo…so isn't that what everyone else runs? lol. Anyway, first round he flops 2 locations and 2 characters. I flop nothing.
I play the First Snow as my opening plot. His only 2 cost or lower character on the board was a refugee… and after his first turn of marshaling he had out 2 Sallador's Crew, Brienne of Tarth, the refugee, a Banner for the Storm, and a Wicked Seductress, but only had 3 cards in hand. After the first couple turns he got to about 6-7 power. That's normal for my games, so I wasn't worried. Round 3 saw me play Threat from the North with a Hatchling's Feast to wipe out the two Sallador's Crews, and the Seductress leaving Brienne all alone. He marshalls the new Stannis, I had in play Asha, Jhogo, and during challenges ambushed in a Queen's Knight and Khal Drogo. At the end of that round I had killed Brienne. The next round, I played Retaliation, and after he drew his two cards for the draw phase and got no characters. I went on to win that round. Wow, Asha makes this deck kinda fast. I claimed 13 power in two turns. Not too shabby. WIN 15-3
Round 4 vs Kyle from Boston(3-0) playing Martell/Wildlings(here we go!) - Viper's Bannermen
He flops a couple characters and a couple locations. I flop nothing…again… I see a recurring theme here.
My first plot, as always, is First Snow of Winter and he plays Muster the Realm. Kyle plays a couple characters including a Viper's Bannerman knelt from Flea Bottom. I play Jhogo, Bay of Ice, a Summer Sea and Meraxes. He blanks Jhogo's Icons. He passes on challenges to keep his dudes on the board and gets dominance. Turn 2 marshaling I play Aegon's Hill, and Volantis, then pass, Kyle plays a Wildling Horde, and Osha from out of house. Gotta get those characters out or Aegon's Hill will take them out of your hand. Challenge phase I use the Hill to see his hand….one character and 4 events…so I kill the Lost Spearman with the Hill. Next turn Valar sounds great! So after a round of challenges he is sitting at 3-4 power with me at 0. Round 3, I Valar, he gets his two cards from the Bannermen which turn out to be an event and a location. Draw phase he throws down two characters. I pass on marshaling. He takes his two challenges to get him to 11-12. Whatever, I'm not worried, he has to get to 21 so this game will go for at least a few more rounds. During dominance I draw one with Meraxes, then play a Westeros Bleeds to clear his board again. Over the next 3 rounds I would play Asha, Ser Barristan Selmy, and have a few ambush characters. He would draw nothing but locations and events for two rounds. On the final round, he draws one character, which I burn away and then clean up the last 3 challenges for the win. So, bad draw on his part with me getting just the cards I needed at the right time. Also, having his 2 claim INT challenges never hit my Westeros Bleeds was very lucky. Asha Wins me a game in quick fashion AGAIN. That's 3 in a row. I'm noticing a pattern! WIN 15 - 6
3-1 after four rounds - last round…need to win here to ensure a place in top 8. Anything else is unacceptable!
Round 4 vs Mike(fhornmikey) from Indianapolis(3-1) - Greyjoy Maester's Path - Fear of Winter
It's great to see Mike, I met him last year in Indy at Gencon in a Melee game. in this game we had 3 players playing Dragon decks…talk about ridiculous! So, to make a long story short, he ended up winning the Melee table and costing me my shot at top 16(I placed 17th!). He said after the game that if he had of known that it would put me out that he would have just passed on challenges. I told him not to worry about it and to always play to win. We fast became friends and ended up talking with each other the rest of the day between rounds and during the Joust portion the following day. After learning that he has basically no meta in Indy, I let him know that he would always have a place in TN if he wanted to be adopted into our meta. He loved the idea, and we set it up that he should come to TN to our regional. Fast forward nearly a year and here he is sitting across the table from me in the final round of Swiss. Sorry, our game ended up being a bit one sided at the end buddy.
So after his flop he's sitting on 2 two cost characters…awesome…First Snow here we come. So I play first Snow, he plays A Time for Ravens. Good thing I won initiative here to avoid the winter gold penalty. So I choose to go first, I play a Volantis, Bay of ice, Eastern Fiefdom, Meereneese Brothel and play a character. He plays a couple characters including a Wintertime Marauders. I ambush in a character pre challenge and send his Maester Murenmure and another character back to hand. He wins a challenge or two and decides to discard my Brothel with the Marauder. Understandable when you're playing Maesters. Turn 2 he plays Fear of Winter to my RBD. OK then. My one card is Newly Made Lord to discard his lone Iron Mines. I win a power challenge and he gets in three unopposed two claim challenges. Turn three, I Valar(who didn't see that coming?) and luckily he has no saves. He plays a few characters including Alanys Greyjoy, a Boatswain, Samwell Tarly, Carrion Bird. With my marshaling I play a couple characters. We both win a couple challenges that round. Him with his Conclave and Carrion Bird. Me with a couple more ambush characters. The next round, he reveals At the Gates to get Maester Wyndamyr. I play Magister Illyrio and Dany. I ambush in a Dragon Knight, giving Wyndamyr -1, and attempting to kill the Carrion Bird with Illyrio. He decides to cancel that with Allanys. During dominance, I attempt a Westeros Bleeds that he cancels with Finger Dance. BOO! Next round he Valar's and I reveal Threat from the North. Whydamry saves a couple characters thanks to a Conclave kneeling. and he saves Alanys with Risen from the Sea. Over the next 2 turns, I would burn every character he plays, and go on to win once again with Asha closing the game out for me. Wow, I didn't think she would be that good. I was wrong. WIN 15-5
So, with that win I'm 4-1 and seeded 3rd going into the top 8.
Top 8 Round 1 vs Chris Perry from TN(3-2 in Swiss) playing Martell/KotHH - Viper's Bannermen.
Well, we had already played this game earlier in the week at work and it would have went to time. Well, in top 8…there is no time limit. So I didn't know what to think of that. I draw my opening hand and see what I wanted…a Dragon Thief. Pre-plot I ambush him into play and reveal Rule By Decree dropping Chris down to 4 cards on the opening turn. He plays no characters, and I win 2-3 challenges unopposed. Things are going well so far. Well…over the next 8-9 plots he would slows climb back into the game using Ghaston Grey and what couple Noble characters he had. We both had good card draw and could control the board, but the Viper I couldn't touch. I never drew a Flame Kissed during the game in the hopes that I could kill him. He had lots of control using A Game of Cyvasse, Red Vengence, and Orphans of the Greenblood. With Prince's Plans he was able to recur these cards multiple times throughout the game. This card advantage, couple with his out-of-house card that he had from round 2 and on is what won him the game. I got to 13 power, but couldn't get any closer and his Red Viper and 2x Starfall Calvary with renown won him the game in quick fashion. LOSS 15-13
It was a great day of gaming, and by the end of the day it was almost impossible for me to speak without being in a lot of pain. I honestly am glad that I lost, because I don't think I could have talked through two more games.
After the tourney, a bunch of us went to our friend Wade's house for more games and some good food. I want to give out a few props and slops to people on this day…
Props: Kyle from Boston. Flying down to TN must have been expensive. I'm glad he had fun. After the event he told us that he had more fun at our regional that at all 4 of the regionals he has been in combined. He said that everyone down here was so nice, unlike everyone up north. Haha. Thanks, Kyle! You're welcome back any time.
Props: Dewayne's World of Comics and Games - he sacrificed another evening to allow us to hold our regional in his store. I've been going to his shop for years, and as long as I live in the area, he will always get my business. Thanks, Dewayne!
Props: Jonathan Benton - for putting on a great tournament and being an all around great guy. I'm proud to call you a friend.
Slops: The Weather - It was a burning 105 degrees on Saturday….that NEVER happens in TN. With our 1000000% humidity I thought I was going to die.
Now, for the decklist…
Targ KotHH
House (0)
Agenda (0)
Character (27)
Daenerys Targaryen (GotC) x1
Dragon Knight (TBC) x2
Dragon Thief (AE) x3
Drogon (QoD) x1
Jhogo (OSaS) x1
Khal Drogo (Core) x2
King's Landing Assassin (SaS) x1
Magister Illyrio (VM) x2
Pyat Pree (QoD) x1
Queen's Knight (TWot5K) x3
Ser Barristan Selmy (TftH) x1
Ser Jorah Mormont (WLL) x1
Thundering Calvary (QoD) x1
Viserion (QoD) x1
Newly Made Lord (TftH) x2
Asha Greyjoy (WLL) x1
Daario Naharis (WLL) x1
Baelor Blacktyde (TIoR) x1
Rhaegar Targaryen (BoRF) x1
Location (19)
Aegon's Hill (TTotH) x1
Bay of Ice (KotS) x2
Eastern Fiefdoms (Core) x3
Kingsroad Fiefdom (QoD) x2
Meereen Tourney Grounds (ODG) x2
Meraxes (TBC) x3
Rhaenys's Hill (TBoBB) x1
Summer Sea (Core) x2
The Red Keep (TftRK) x1
Meereenese Brothel (BtW) x1
Volantis (VM) x1
Event (12)
Ambush from the Plains (QoD) x2
The Hatchlings' Feast (ASitD) x3
Parting Blow (PotS) x3
Incinerate (VM) x2
Westeros Bleeds (Core) x2
Attachment (3)
Flame-Kissed (Core) x3
Plot (7)
Fortified Position (LoW) x1
Retaliation! (ASoSilence) x1
Rule by Decree (Core) x1
Search and Detain (HtS) x1
The First Snow of Winter (ODG) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
Threat from the North (PotS) x1
Good game, though I wish I hadn't kept drawing locations!
