After casual Black Friday melee the day before, 11 players came to NYC to play in the Red Saturday joust, including players for Florida, Delaware, DC and the OCTGN metn. The field was small but full of good, dedicated players.

Dan Strouhal (Twn2Dn) went 7-0 while retaining his Title, defeating Dennis Harrison (need I type in his forum name?) in the final.

1.Targaryen, The Maester's Path

2. Stark, Winter

3. Martell, House of Dreams, bannermen (Morgan Stana)

4. Greayjoy, Winter, Search and Detain (Jim McGovern)

5. Lannister, House of Dreams, Fear of Winter (John Heath)

6. Lannister, Power bt Throne, Fear of Winter (Kyle Szklenski)

7. Stark, Kindly Man, Fear of Winter (Matt Hansen)

8. Targaryen, House of Dreams,(David Stromes)

9. Stark, House of Dreams, Fear of Winter (Anthony Bonilla)

10. Baratheon, Winldlings 3x, Val (Ryan)

11. Martell, Knights of the Hollow Hill, Burning of the Sands (Jerry -missed the first two rounds)

All houses were represented

Yet another close but no cigar day for me! One of these days……

~ Dennis just chalk it up to practice to be overall champion

orclrob said:

~cause after all you don't actually have to win a tournament to be crowned overall champ

orclrob said:

True, though avoiding being DQ'd for half the events probably remains a prerequisite.

___

First of all, I wan to thank Jim (OrangeDragon) for helping organize this event and coordinating the pairings. That is a confusing and thankless task, and we couldn't have done it without him! Also, thank you to Anthony for acquiring the trophy and acting as onsite rules judge, and to Matt for designing the impressive custom playmat that now sits on my shelf There are a few other New York players who helped organize, and thanks to all of you!

I also want to send a shout out to Kyle, Morgan, and Dennis for traveling to the event and for attending the casual melee on Friday afternoon. That was EXACTLY how melee should be played, among friends with plenty of booze to facilitate the (at times seemingly arbitrary and counterproductive) backstabbing. This was a lot of fun, and makes me think FFG should either drop competitive melee, or begin selling beer to participants.

I am bad at tourney reports, mostly because I have a bad memory when it comes to play-by-plays, so instead I'll just refer you to my deck list, which is here: http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/index.html/_/game-of-thrones/game-of-thrones-strategy/1st-place-red-saturday-nyc-black-friday-deck-r384 . The CardGameDB article also contains some basic explanations for why I ran key cards, but feel free to ask questions and I'll answer as best I can. I would also add that John Bruno's deckbuilding had a significant impact on my deck, especially his use of Waste Their Time.

At some point, I would like to post a longer article that compares the Targ KotHH build vs. Targ The Maester's Path. A year ago, I felt TMP was in almost every way a better agenda for Targaryen. Since then, the restriction of the agenda, the printing of several standing effects (most importantly Young Griff and Long Lances), easier access to card draw, new ambush cards at the 2-3 cost slot, the release of House of Dreams, and more character removal (kill/discard) effects available to all houses all lead me to conclude that KotHH is likely a superior build. In short, a Targ player no longer needs to rely on chains to gain card advantage, and doing so runs the risk of putting too many eggs in one basket. That said, Targ Maesters is still an extremely powerful build when crafted in such a way that it offers flexibility in the form of contingency plans (especially alternate approaches to card advantage) in the event the chain mechanic falls apart. Without going into too much detail, I will note that in at least 5 of my games, my primary maester was killed, and in one of them he was stolen (by Reek) and used against me for four turns. While Targ TMP's unchallenged reign may be over, the build remains fun and competitive.

Twn2dn said:

It's alright. Next time I meet Dave in a tournament I'm going to pay those debts like a Lannister. Phenomenal game, I had a lot of fun. It reminds me just how much I love the melee format when playing with good players in a non-competitive environment, which is unfortunately something I rarely do.

Thank you so much to Dan and all of NY for making such a welcoming environment. I had an absolutely amazing time even after losing to Dennis two times when I got to 14 power both games against a deck that I've previously beaten with the deck I was running. Not that I'm bitter.

I loved meeting the new people that were representing -- you two dudes are both awesome and I can't wait to meet you on the field this regionals season. As always, this community is overwhelming with just how amazing it continues to be. Rock on, rock stars.

I hope Dennis brings his winter deck to Baltimore in 2 weeks -- it's one of the few builds we almost never see around here, and I never get to play against

The Red Woman said:

I'll be counting the days, Morgan!

Sounds like it was a great event. i am very regretful i couldn't make it - but a couple of family commitments (one anticipated, one not) knocked me out of both Friday AND Saturday. Won't happen again.

Sorry i didn't get a chance to say "Hey" Morgan - haven't seen you since Origins 2008. Hopefully we can catch up over the winter - maybe in DC after the holidays or something.

also would ahve been nice to meet Dennis finally. We crossed paths at last year's NY Regional in April but were never formally introduced.

I shoudl see the NY guys on Thursday 12/13 - clearing my schedule now for a trip in to the city then.

It really didn't feel like the holiday without attending Black Friday. Will ensure that never happens again.