So I'm Rick, conniving villain or innocent bystander but most likely something in between. I'm currently stuck at the Denver airport wtih a delayed flight and have decided to share my story, thoughts and perspective to those who care.

I am not from DC and have no hometown meta but I'm probably a sattelite member of the DC meta (props to the new NC meta and the PA crowd as well). The reason being is that those guys are awesome, like most Thrones players I have met. They are why I am still playing this game and traveling around the country. I have mixed feelings to the extent the DC meta takes the team mentality to the game but the reason is because of how close those guys are and how they truly enjoy the success of their friends. There are certainly some personalities in that group (looking at you Dennis) but they are all quality people and I'm better off for being able to call them all friends. My personal instinct is a little more cutthroat. I play to enjoy the game and have fun but right or wrong, I have fun when I win.

Deckbuilding is slightly above paying for new cards and below sleeving and de-sleeving cards on things I enjoy about the game. I have also recently lost some excitement for the game and am no longer making my usual moderate or bad decks. Because of this, both my melee and joust decks were decklists from Erick, though I knew Stark Winter was what I wanted to play after being owned by it at GenCon and the OCTGN tourney. In regards to the melee deck, it is a strong deck by itself, which it proved repeatedly, and I find it hard to imagine an errata that would change that deck choice and even composition.

In the final game I only cared about me winning and did everything in my power to make this happen. I came very close in the second to last round and probably misplayed something to come up short. In the final round I knew it was unlikely to come to me before Dennis won but I swapped titles with Mathieu so that if he made any challenges I could redirect it to myself to try and win with renown on defense. I kept my scourge back to try and stall Dennis but ended up using it on Erick to try to stop him from weasling into 2nd. If I had had a Hellholt Engineer I would have certainly tried to shut down Dennis but as it was, his win was pretty inevitable in that last round.

I personally didn't mind being DQ'd as I wasn't going to win the game at that point. Also overall champion seems odd to me (Derek is an awesome guy, great player, and now has a sweet warhammer as a testament to his skill). I do, however, find the reason for the DQ to be confusing. What we were accused of was simply not true. Imagine what a game with 1 control deck and 3 rush decks looks like and how enjoyable that game would be for the one control player. Mathieu is a great player, obviously, but he brought rush to a control party and that was just unlucky for him. There was certainly no ill will toward anyone and I promise you that every player at that table was trying to win that game.

For those of you who still feel wronged by me, take some satisfaction in my joust results which had me going undefeated in swiss only to be clowned out immediately (GG Bradley).

Like always I had a great weekend, love all the Thrones players even more, and really appreciate FFG and all those who make this game and these events possible. Can't wait till next time guys.

I am glad to hear you are looking forward to next time. I still wish you would have played the melee deck without the 1 card that made it silly(you know which one I'm talking about.) From what I hear one of the other players played it without that card. Either way I know you, and I know you enjoy winning so I think you did your best at the final table to win. That at times meant doing stuff to stay in the good graces of the other Martell players. I don't care to get into my personal feelings about the entire issue, you and I talked in length about my feelings already. I want the game to be fun, and let me tell you the game that Darknoj and I played against you and Chad was anything but fun…

Hehe. I've been on the wrong side of your devious desire to win before. I'll never make a deal with you in the final round again, that's for sure. When I saw you being so quiet in the video, I knew you probably had some plan hatching.

Plan a trip up for our next tourney. You've already got a place to sleep.

Rick. Add me on skype. I want to play some matches on OCTGN now that you are a bigshot.

Congrats on making it to the final table. Nikki and I felt that the ruling was bull.

Plan a trip up for our next tourney.

Do you know when your next tourney is going to be? I really want to make it up to one and play against the best (it's hard to argue that the DC meta isn't the best). I realize that it probably won't be anytime soon, considering that Worlds just ended. Just thought I'd ask.

We will try to have one in Feb/Mar probably.

pencil me in!

(New rule suggestion: latest version of OCTGN required )

i dont think i have ever met a more relaxed human than rick. he defines 'go with the flow'.

Yeah, I agree Dennis. I played against him in the ¿2nd? game of melee in gencon and he got screwed by ghaston grey by a martel player giving me the win after sneeking 3 conclaves and another renown char in a to the spears turn (i was the last in the initiative order)….he didn't even complain.

I also love Rick. Class act guy, until you randomly get slapped in the face by the guy and we can't remember why it happened. Lol. But all in all, I had a great time with all of my boys at Worlds. Shout out to the DC Meta for being too good

Rick is a suave motherf*cker. Great body.

edit: language complaint.

dcdennis said:

The Rick abides.