(Post 1: Intro & Overall)
(Post 2: Melee)
(Post 3: Joust)

I know there will be a ton of Worlds Tourney reports, many of which will be better written and/or written by players who placed far better than I did. What I hope to offer is the perspective of a player attending his very first event – loving it, and hopefully convincing you to head out to something like this!

I've been playing for about a full year now, but my local meta is non-existent and my only gaming options are over OCTGN. I'd been playing more and more in the lead-up to worlds, but still wasn't convinced until Erick Butzlaff invited me to join him and the DC meta splitting some hotel rooms and rides. I finally decided to shell out the extortionate amounts of money to fly off my lonely little rock and play some Thrones in person. I had a Joust deck I really liked and built myself, although I knew it wasn't T1, and the constant reminder by members of the community about how awesome events like these are… so I was feeling pretty good about it.

Darknoj + Mike P. adopted me into their "OCTGN meta" and helped me iron out the last few kinks in my deck in the week or two prior to the tournament, as well as lend me a pair of cards for my melee deck. I avoided taking any of my other cards to the tourney, convinced I'd try last minute revisions to my decks – which I'm convinced are a bad idea. It also saved me 50$ in luggage fees, so there's that.

I never played a single game I didn't enjoy, and I had a chance to chat with people from practically every Meta. I played a wide variety of decks, and saw even more variety out there, got to practice every language I speak, chatted with Nate French over beers about the game in general, demo the Star Wars LCG (and recieve a copy). In short: a fantastic time. I even placed far better than I expected! I played as part of the OCTGN meta, stayed with the DC meta, drank with the Worlds meta. I'd like to say that any reputation the DC meta has is probably more a result of being a large group of good friends, which makes them clique-y compared to other smaller metas. They were welcoming, kind, and helpful, and strong competitive players.

I'll touch briefly on my conversation with Nate, where I wanted to thank whomever was responsible for the increasingly amazing artwork in the most recent chapter packs, and for not quashing the existence and support of OCTGN – both Mike P. And myself rely on it exclusively to play the game, and it's what keeps us buying cards and hooked to the game. Nate clearly understood our situation, which is great to hear.

I wanted to share something he said when I asked him about how tournaments fit in to his work. He explained that tournaments are the inspiration for the direction of the game – to break up things he didn't like, to improve some of the things he did, to see what the “next step” has to or could be. While not his own words, it seemed to me that tournaments were the starting point of the creative process, which for him culminated when a card finishes playtesting, gets its final art, and becomes “a card”.

Day 1 (Thursday) Darknoj ran a small warm-up tournament in the FFG shop, which I brought his Targ Balerion GenCon 2012 deck. Playing in person, getting comfortable with playing with physical cards, and being reminded to strip my chains off my agenda did wonders for my nerves the next day. Unfortunately, as is usually the case, whenever I take a day off after long stretches of crazy work, I get sick… so I wasn't able to stick around and socialize like I'd hoped to.

Part 2: Melee

I've never played a melee game. OCTGN doesn't lend itself well to the format - so I had no idea what to build, how to play it… and I wasn't particularly worried about it. I was fairly certain that no matter what I built, I couldn't plan for all eventualities in a 4 player game, so I picked a few cards that looked great (Euron Greyjoy, King Balon's Host) and built the rest of the deck around them. I was reassured it might work by Raul (r480 on OCTGN), who played something similar at a Spanish event. You'll find my decklist http://www.agotcards.org/deck/v/17565

The entire melee was coloured by the presence of a strong DC meta playing nearly identical Martell decks running the Scourge, Brimstone and Hellholt engineer. It's a very good deck on it's own, but where it really shines is paired with another identical deck - the Hellhollt engineers can trigger off one another's kneeling scourges to strip the board's icons. My placing as high as I did is due exclusively to luck of the draw, and never being paired against 2 of these decks.

Game 1: Three player table with Mason (Stark Siege) and Maekar (Targ Dragons, Heir to the Iron Throne) (French National Champion, Worlds Melee winner). It's a shame to get a 3 player table - which aside from the title difficulties can significantly reduce the effectiveness of Euron and Corpse Lake. Mason and I both knew Maekar was the real threat, and managed to slow his dragons down enough that we thought we'd stopped him at 13 power. I was poised with Rise of the Kraken to take me from 8 to 15 without breaking a sweat when Maekar sealed the deal with Formal Petition. That left Mason and I both tied for second, which sounds fine until you realize it's a three player table. Still… 4 points.

Game 2: A fantastic and close 4 way game with Mason (Stark Siege), a Targ KotHH played by a Warhammer Invasion player whose name escapes me, and a DC meta Martell (Ben). Things were going very well for me until Targ played a Favorable Ground, tearing up my board position quite badly. I managed to top-deck into Tarle Thrice-Drowned and bait Mason into attacking me for military (twice) to push me to 15 power with Tarle.

Game 3: Lanni Brotherhood (Matthew?), a Martell DC deck (Brian) and a Martell deck (Brett Zeiler). Euron actually got support of saltcliffe for the first time… and never, ever had any icons to do anything with it. Corpse lake and a good rise of the Kraken turn pushed me to tying for second, depending on how Brian had chosen to challenge, it could easily have been a 3 way tie for second.

To my *great* surprise, I made the cut with 18 points and found myself playing a fourth game.
This table was full of fantastic people playing great decks… and then there's me. Rick (Martell Scourge/Brimstone), Jon Andrews (Lanni PBTT) and Derek (Stark Siege) (Overall Champion) all had good light-hearted table talk and a relaxed attitude to the game. A ridiculously strong opening by Jon on turn one pretty much turned us all against him, and his intrigues and power against me left me in pretty poor shape. Rick, from an unassuming start managed to direct his icon stripping to tear apart Jon's icons, leaving me to trounce him and rise to 10 or so power over two turns - thanks to Desolate Passage and King Balon's host slowing things down a bit. Derek flipped War of the 5 Kings, hoping to change the game state allowing someone to Valar away all the very well protected Nobles, and without the ability to stop Rick from getting 4 winning challenges with his beefed up Red Viper, we all scrambled to find something to hamper him. He took first, Derek second, and I took third.

The final table, which I'm sure has been discussed to death, included Erick, Dennis and Rick all playing the same Martell deck, and Maekar playing his Targ dragons. It resulted in the disqualification of the three players playing control, something I disagree with (at least for the reasons given). Sure, the tables with multiple DC decks and the idea of their interaction did not sit well with me at all, but that is a discussion for another thread.

Part 3 (Joust)

I really really like the deck I built – it's the second time I've built something I feel is original, competitive-ish, and fun. It made it's way through about 50 iterations in the month prior to Worlds, switching drastically from running Night's Watch Agendas to No Agenda + Aeron, to Maesters path – but the idea was always the same – Greyjoy with “The Wall”. The decklist is here: http://www.agotcards.org/deck/v/17114

Match 1 (1-0) : Mason (Bara). We're clearly fated to meet – two melee tables and our first joust table. He was running an Asshai Bara deck. It's a deck I know how to play – if I lose any intrigue challenge Altars of Fire and Condemened by the Council will completely destroy my deck, but so long as I can hold off intrigue challenges, I will win. His first intrigue challenge lost to Wendamyr and Cotter Pyke (my only Night's Watch), and the game was under my control from then on. Desolate passage worked its usual wonders against Power of Faith.

Match 2: (1-1): John Bruno (Targ KotHH) (Melee Winner). I've spent a lot of time teching my deck against targ, so I figured I stood a reasonable chance when I had Theon in play, Horn of Dragons, Condemened by the Realm and a Newly Made Lord in hand. Boy was I wrong. I chose to play building season because I felt I had the location control necessary, and his Marched to the wall destroyed Theon. He dug out Aegon's Hill, going second to avoid any newly made lords, and stripped my hand of Aemon. I chose to play the wall first turn, which was probably a mistake, and he picked Aemon out of my hand. Turn two, my NML killed the Hill, and I thought I was safe, only to have my hand torn apart by Waste their time on and confessions to keep me completely controlled. I made it to about 12 power with a powerful Asha, boosted with Horn of Dragons – but I never pulled a single chain off my agenda. When Bruno decided to turn the tables on me, flipping Search and Detain to my Regroup (to recover Alannys) the game was his. I never had enough gold to get the wall OR alannys in play, and lost on plot 8.

Match 3 (2-1): Matthew (Lanni PBTT) of Wisconsin. Another deck I know how to play – avoid losing intrigue challenges, and I can actually win quite quickly. His first intrigue met my Defenders of the North, only to be misinformations (doh!), as did his second intrigue. He couldn't believe I had two defenders of the north, but then again… he had two misinformations. He didn't pull anything critical out of hand, and I turn two valar'd to get rid of Cersei. He fear of wintered and was forced to marshall in an Arrogant Contender, which ate a dissession to let me survive the turn unscathed. From then on, with alannys, murenmure, wendamyr and a full hand of night's watch, the game was mine.

Match 4 (2-2): Derek S. (Overall Champion) Stark Knights. A stark match up… I know how these go – Brienne, Frozen Solid, Meera… and apparently Borderlands Keep! On the first turn, he Frozen Solids the Wall. I can't win a single challenge to pull off the tin link. Turn two, I debate Valar and Wildfire, and choose the latter – but he Narrow Escapes everything back, and I can't afford to cancel it. I take a bit of a beating, and am forced to use Alannys to save her from a a no quarter, which is followed instantly by a Price of War which destroys The Wall. I'm in trouble, although I win one challenge and pull a Gold link, which will allow me to play the cost of my Wall if I regroup it. For some reason, I forget that was my plan and Valar turn three to buy time, but he Narrow Escapes again – I have to discard my last remaining card, trapping me without a wall and sealing the game. If I'd remembered I was going to regroup the wall, I might have lasted another turn or two – but it was only a matter of time until Brienne or Meera destroyed me.

Match 5 (2-3) : Metamate Mike P playing a Bara Maesters with Steel Link and Stand. It's a fast deck and probably a pretty decent match up for me – but he has a 6 card setup and draws into his only Ghost of High Heart, which gets to look at my hand AND strip my only Night's Watch. I bluff a turn two valar to duck his outwit, and instead use Desolate Passage to slow things down. He Ghost of High Heart's another Night's watch out of my hand turn 2, again trapping me without one. Praying to draw into another… but no luck. He has one apprentice collar on his agenda when I valar on Turn 3, but with Forging the Chain and Pylos, he wins it comfortably on turn 3 when I fail to draw into a Night's Watch.

Match 6 (3-3): Ben, playing Targ KotHH. When he gets a Mereneese Brothel, Meraxes and Lady Danys chambers, I fear for my poor Maesters. My flop includes a murenmure and an apprentice collar and I drop the wall, and Asha with Captain of the Iron Fleet. The ability to kill the brothel on turn 2 with NML and the Retaliation followed by Regroup let me strip his hand of 4 cards and stack up some good power. The Threat from the North turn cost me alannys and a boatswain, but Murenmure and Asha were untouchable. He wasn't able to get a character presence on the board, and Asha quickly wrapped up the game.

One thing I'd like to add is that there was a huge variety of decks. I was afraid half the field would be Targ KotHH, the other half Stark Winter - and that really wasn't the case. The fun and interesting decks I saw, the builds out of every house (except Netural?), the presence of each house in the Top 16 (Or did Martell not make it? I can't remember) speaks to a nice balance in the game, and confirms what many people have said going in - that the house rankings are probably closer than they've ever been.

I'd also like to add that the winning deck is *brilliant*. I'd never seen Waste their time, I'd never seen confession played with influence - but when John Bruno looks at your hand every single turn, there is nothing you can do to confuse challenge math or surprise him. I'm extremely glad I got to play against him and see that deck in action.

I was at your 3rd table and am from DC. I didn't grab hellholt and chose Brimstone over the Scourge because I didn't see any challenge phase kneeling locations to bargain with. That game was the DC Martell melee deck standing on its own.

It was great to meet you and to get a chance to play against you too. You put forth a valiant effort with Rise of the Kraken last turn. I knew I had to make sure to get the title you supported to prevent you from getting all that uo power against me for a win before my turn.

Something I wanted to add but forgot to - it's eerie how, after playing these people over OCTGN, chatting with some on the Skype group, or listening to their podcasts, the minute I have a face to put to the names in person, I have an intense feeling of Deja vu and having met everyone previously years and years ago.

Edit: My round 2 joust match up should read "Bruno (Joust Champion)", not "Melee Winner" - thanks Derek S. for catching it.