Check our tournament reports as well as some info from those of us that demoed either Netrunner or Star Wars.

This seems to have been the "Summer of Old School," so let us know what you think of the decks that did the best this time around. Speaking of decks, I'll be posting my Lannister deck from the Top 16 here in its entirety, so I highly encourage the other hosts and any other players to drop by and post their list. We only get so much of an idea about the state of the meta from the stats that I was able to gather for Facebook, so lets swap some insight.

GenCon 2012

House (1)
House Lannister (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
The Power Behind the Throne (LotR) x1

Character (32)
Penny (VD) x1
Daario Naharis (WLL) x1
Tommen Baratheon (SA) x1
Shagga Son of Dolf (DB) x1
Ser Kevan Lannister (LotR) x1
Cersei Lannister (LotR) x2
Bronn (Core) x1
Maester Aemon (Core) x1
Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS) x1
Qyburn (SaS) x1
Ser Jorah Mormont (WLL) x1
Ser Jaime Lannister (TTotH) x1
Carrion Bird (ASoS) x3
Brothel Guard (LotR) x3
Lannisport Moneylender (LotR) x2
Doubting Septa (LotR) x3
Enemy Informer (Core) x3
Newly Made Lord (TftH) x2
Castellan of the Rock (BoRF) x3

Location (18)
Lannisport Brothel (Core) x1
The Iron Throne (LotR) x2
Toll Gate (AE) x2
Golden Tooth Mines (Core) x3
Sunset Sea (Core) x3
The Goldroad (Core) x3
Street of Steel (Core) x1
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
River Row (QoD) x1
Shadowblack Lane (Core) x1

Event (10)
Terminal Schemes (LotR) x2
Paper Shield (QoD) x2
You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf! (Core) x3
Parting Blow (PotS) x3

Attachment (0)

Plot (7)
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
City of Soldiers (TBoBB) x1
Wildfire Assault (Core) x1
Breaking and Entering (LotR) x1
Retaliation! (ASoSilence) x1
At the Gates (GotC) x1
A City Besieged (CD) x1

Dragons - GenCon 4-2

House (1)
House Targaryen (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
The Maester's Path (GotC) x1

Character (30)
Balerion the Black (RotO) x3
Daenerys Targaryen (QoD) x3
Drogon (QoD) x2
Refugee of the Plains (RoW) x3
Rhaegal (QoD) x2
Viserion (QoD) x2
Black Hatchling (QoD) x1
Green Hatchling (QoD) x1
White Hatchling (QoD) x1
Maester Aemon (Core) x1
Oldtown Scholar (FtC) x3
Linked Advisor (TIoR) x3
Strong Belwas (VD) x2
Archmaester Marwyn (CD) x1
True-Queen's Harbinger (QoD) x2

Location (12)
Khal Drogo's Tent (QoD) x2
Summer Sea (Core) x3
Flea Bottom (TGM) x1
Street of Silk (LotR) x1
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
Street of Steel (Core) x1
Meereen (QoD) x1
Astapor (QoD) x1
Yunkai (QoD) x1

Event (8)
Dance With Dragons (Core) x3
Paper Shield (QoD) x3
Retreat (Core) x2

Attachment (10)
Dragon Lore (CbtC) x3
Apprentice Collar (GotC) x1
Black Iron Link (MotA) x1
Bronze Link (FtC) x1
Copper Link (GotC) x1
Gold Link (TIoR) x1
Valyrian Steel Link (HtS) x1
Tin Link (CbtC) x1

Plot (7)
At the Palace of Sorrows (VM) x1
Above the Sorrows (VM) x1
Spending the Winter Stores (QoD) x1
Forgotten Plans (KotStorm) x1
At the Gates (GotC) x1
Outwit (TIoR) x1
Called to Court (ODG) x1

Staton ran the below for 4-2. It also went 5-0 in the warm up.

House (1)
House Martell (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
Kings of Summer (ASoS) x1

Plot (7)
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
Retaliation! (ASoSilence) x1
Manning the City Walls (CD) x1
City of Soldiers (TBoBB) x1
City of Sin (AToT) x1
A Time for Ravens (ACoS) x1
To the Spears! (PotS) x1

Character (35)
Darkstar (PotS) x1
Ellaria Sand (PotS) x1
House Messenger (PotS) x3
Orphan of the Greenblood (PotS) x3
Refugee of the Citadel (RoW) x3
Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS) x1
Southron Mercenaries (TBoBB) x2
The Viper's Bannermen (PotS) x3
The Red Viper (APS) x1
Arianne Martell (PotS) x1
Starfall Cavalry (MotA) x3
Gilly (RoW) x1
Carrion Bird (ASoS) x3
Samwell Tarly (TRS) x2
House Dayne Squire (ASitD) x3
Maester of the Sun (ASoS) x3
Dornish Paramour (TTotH) x1

Location (12)
Street of Steel (Core) x1
Summer Sea (Core) x2
Palace Fountains (PotS) x2
Kingdom of Shadows (KotS) x3
Flea Bottom (TGM) x1
Shadowblack Lane (Core) x1
Water Garden (PotS) x2

Attachment (2)
Black Raven (ASoS) x2

Event (11)
A Game of Cyvasse (ACoS) x3
Seductive Promise (Core) x1
He Calls It Thinking (PotS) x3
Blood for Blood (PotS) x2
Parting Blow (PotS) x2

Kennon said:

Hey, I listened to your podcast and really enjoyed the tournament report and everything. Anyways, I did have a few questions ..I know you mentioned that the "Newly Made Lord" was a huge card for you during the tournament ..but I dont quite understand why. Why not play x3 Condemned by the council instead? Or even Chella for location control among other options. Was it really worth it paying 5 gold for a 3 str power icon with limited location removal ?

I personally wouldn't have run CbtC because of He Calls it Thinking/Paper Shield that I figured would be flying around. The NML is uncancelable for the most part.

@SerArthurDayne- Partly Staton has it right that the NML cannot be cancelled. I expected quite a few Paper Shields around, so that makes Condemned by the Council look less appealing. As well, I have to be able to win a challenge in order to push through the ability to even play the event. Many of the locations that I would want to nuke are those that muck with my ability to effectively make challenges. Take my game against Mallesh, for instance. If I'd been relying on Condemned for my location removal, there's a very good chance that his Black Cells and the like would have kept me from ever being able to use that event. If I do manage to play Condemned, then the opponent has lost one card (the location) and I've lost one card (the event) which puts us at parity, which a slight edge to me due to resources (gold) invested in the location.

Chella suffers from a similar problem in that I need to be able to win challenges with her. The other problem she suffers is an overall lack of Clansmen in my deck. By and large, the most effective play that she could make would be to return an opponent's +1 Gold producer to their hand and effectively tax them 1 and slow the play of Limited cards. Unfortunately, in my deck, she can't hit the control locations or things like Meraxes and GTM. Though, a plus in her favor is at least the fact that she's repeatable, which gives advantage, though since the cards are only returned to hand, it's a pseudo card advantage at best.

Newly Made Lord on the other hand, cannot be cancelled by anything in the LCG right now, and is an instant gratification card. There's no worry that an opponent might have a Burning on the Sand or whatnot to keep me from winning the challenge, because the effect happens the instant I play it. While it can't hit limited cards or those about 3 cost, the large majority of cards that I might care about (all previously mentioned as well as things like Lannisport Brothel, The Dragonpit, Aegon's Hill, Naval Escort, etc) are fair game. Sure I can't nuke The Goldroad, but that's rarely going to be the deciding play in a game. I might sometimes wish that I could hit The Wall, but really… how many folks are out there playing competitive NW decks? A couple other factors to consider are that he is a Lord without negative traits which is ok, and does help activate Kevan Lannister, but the biggest is that when I play him, I'm actually up a card! They lose the location (and invested gold) and I gain a character with no card advantage lost like an event. Basically, I'm paying 3 gold for a slightly below average character and 2 gold to blow up any location that I might want (or however you really want to split up that 5 cost out of house). Honestly, for any deck that can afford him, he's the best location control in the game, hands down.

@Darknoj- I freaking love that Balerion deck. Easily the coolest and most Shagga deck that I ran up against all day. I'm interested in a few things about it. 2 of all the other dragons and 1 of the hatchlings? What drove you to this decision? Also, tell me about Retreat. There are several decks that I've considered this for as a replacement for Narrow Escape when I'm running a different restricted card, but it never winds up making the cut. How has it been for you so far?

I am a shaggy player and end up running a T2 shaggy deck each year at gencon I cant help my self….

The choice to run 2 of each dragon and 1 of each of the hatchlings came down to a lot of things. I wanted to make sure I did not have too many dead cards if a dragon died so running three of any one was out. I found the hachlings let me get the safety of protecting dragons with no draw back if the dragon, it could dupe died. I was also expecting a lot more bara and shadow cards normaly help vs them. The deck was way to tight on space to run two of each hatchling and one of each fit perfectly into my setup*. Potentially I could have gone two hachlings for each dragon but the dragons are just so much better its not really even a choice.

Retreat was put in at the last minute when the maester path became restricted it won over cards like mageis promise (mp) due to mp's influence cost and the low amount of influence in the deck. Unfortunately I got very little play testing in with it prior to GenCon but at the time I felt that the large number of uniques in the deck would take advantage of it. In retrospect the deck is resilient enough to skip it. I would replace it with some direct character removal. Dobbler actual specificly mentioned that he though the deck need some character removal and suggested incinerate. At the time I disagreed due to the low inf curve of the deck but I think he was correct in the bases of the suggestion. I would now replace retreat with dissension and use the copper link to get the job done.

*When I say set up ---- I am referring to the mesh rule of set up not the gold curve one. I find that as you deck approaches a higher cost curve like this one has you need to start looking at your set ups a little differently then just making sure you have lots of cheap stuff. You have to find the right number of cards that jell together such as a two cost shadow card with a three cost maester or a four cost dragon with a one cost land. You can see from the list I tried to make sure I balanced my cost such as 9 four cost to mesh with eight one costs. This helped to optimize my chance at a 4 card set up. Since I was only running four three cost maesters more two cost things would not fit well in the deck unless I moved closer to the normal way of determine set up via gold curve. Basicly three more 2 cost dragons wont help my set ups. In the end even though I find the set up a bit tough at times I chose to stick with the high curve due to the over all usefulness of the characters in the deck.

So what's up with all the MO meta playing Lanni after ranking it 6th on 2C1C? Honestly, now, were you trying to sow misinformation, or just rooting for the underdog?

Darryl, of course, disagreed with us on that particular house ranking, so it's not a particular surprise that he wound up playing Lannister. He'd been tweaking a version of that deck off and on for awhile now.

My story is really kind of sad. I'd been experimenting with all kinds of builds since Regionals and just hadn't found one that clicked for me as much as I would like, and likewise, they had been doing ok, but not spectacularly against some of the other decks that people were testing here. Since I couldn't find something that I felt particularly confident in, I wound up deciding to go with my default deck, which is one that I feel I've played enough of over the last 10 years that I could pretty well have played it in my sleep- that just happened to be Lannister kneel. I figured that intense familiarity would at least give me the tactical edge against quite a few players, and I do have to admit that Darryl is right, The Iron Throne is one of the most powerful cards in the game right now.

Zeiler on the other hand…. I'm not really sure what he was thinking. Playing for fun, I think. Maybe we can get him to drop by and explain a little more.

Kennon said:

Since the big prize zt GenCon was the overall prize and I didn't top 16 the melee I brought a fun deck to the joust. Lanni Brotherhood using Infamy has always seemed like a neat deck and while I was browsing through cards Friday night I saw a stack of Brotherhood guys. I figured it sounded like fun so I built it up using Power Behind the Throne. Not much more to the story than that