Let's dive right in shall we.
I've slept and been to work, I can't remember a lot of names and some of the details may be sketchy especially the melee rounds.
I have a reputation in Stoke. It goes something like this. "Dan would probably be an alright player if he actually built a deck ahead of time and tested rather than waking up with an epiphany at 4am that just epically fails"
Ed runs a massive a event once a year. Last year Season One of the TV series was first prize, this year it was a replica Needle from Valyrian Steel.
Right says I. No pratting about then. After several attempts at some cool joust ideas I couldn't settle on one I liked. I'd been trying to make a mostly ambush deck for ages and just couldn't get it to work. When I saw John Bruno's deck after Worlds I knew that's what I SHOULD have been doing and built it. I played a few games on OCTGN and got destroyed. It's not a deck you can just pick up and play it punishes you severely if you get it wrong. I stuck with it, figured out the subtle synergies and grew more confident. Fairly certain I'd do OK in the joust rounds it got put to one side and I didn't take it to the store.
Now comes the melee - I originally had a hellholdt deck and died a little inside after the DC posse decided to break it in half and stomp it into tiny pieces. Ed asked why it was broken, we showed him, Hellholdt got banned in the melee rounds (which is probably a good thing). So I've got a week to build a melee deck. I've been playing with a Martell deck using the house attachments that get you a power when someone else wins a specific challenge.
True Queens' Loyalist
,
Blood Debt
and erm..
the Stark one
. It basically walls up behind
Ellaria Sand
and
Taste For Blood
and just waits until people are silly enough to let you win passively. It's just not very reliable. I threw a Stark Siege / Epic Battles deck together that was pretty fast and a pretty much cookie cutter Bara rush but neither really enthralled me. I settled on the Siege deck….. and then it happened. Fast asleep on Saturday night, 3:23am BAM! BRAINWAVE!
I head downstairs, this is awesome. it can't fail, nobody will see it coming.
House: Lannister
Agenda: None (It had PBtT but I took it out as it can make you a target for people looking for easy draw/power especially if there's a Martell icon stripper about, and let's face it even with Hellholdt going there was a good chance they'd be there - about 30% of the field it turns out)
Plot:
Valar Morghulis
Shadows and Spiders (for the 6+ Dragon decks I was likley to see. We like our Dragons here in the UK. Didn't get one on my table in either game)
Alliance (part of the awesome 3am tech wizadry)
2 x Power of Blood
Red Wedding
Spending the Winter Stores (1x Vat of Wildfire for those **** Scourges)
Characters:
3 x Mountain Refugee
1 x Penny
1 x Grand Maester Pycelle (core)
2 x Myrcella Lannister (TotC)
2 x Doubting Septa
1 x Tommen Baratheon
2 x Cersei Lannister (LotR)
3 x Joffrey Baratheon (Core)
3 x Melissandre (Core) - Told you - 3am Tech Wizadry, nobody will see this **** coming I told myself
3 x Yezzan's Grotesquerie - These guys are AMAZING.
2 x Varys (TotC) - I though I had 3 but looks like I cut one which would account for his failure to turn up in either game
1 x Maester Aemon (Core)
1 x Chella
1 x Lancel Lannister
1 x Ser Kevan Lannister
1 x Ser Aerys Oakheart
2 x Maester Creylen -Who just rocks in melee
Attachments (here's the wizadry):
3 x Slander and Lies
3 x Head of a Dwarf
3 x Enslaved
2 x Rich Lands and a Keep
1 x Vat of Wildfire
Events:
3 x You Killed The Wrong Dwarf
2 x Seductive Promise - Managed to swipe a Viper's Bannermen with a Yezzan's attack
Locations:
1 x Sweet Cersei
1 x Lannisport Tourney Grounds
1 x Irone Throne
3 x Golden Tooth Mines
3 x Kingdom of Shadow
3 x Sunset Sea
3 x Lannisport Treasury
1 x Cersei's Bedchambers
It does a couple of things. You've got a fair few Lords and Ladies to Abuse with Joff. Ideally you want to sneak your way to 11 power and then Wrong Dwarf and Valar for a dirty plot phase win. Thispart of the deck worked out pretty well in game 2.
Annnnd then you've got the crazy stuff. I had this epic idea. Head of a dwarf something small and non-unique so you have to put your power on it, play Mel so that powers doesn't count, enslave it for the win when you can. It's a nice theory and there are other things you can do with a Head of a Dwarf character. Slander and Lies gives you insane income for example, or you can put it on a refugee so all their power gets discarded if they don't win Dominance and can't pay. It just, well, it just doesn't work. At best it slows down a rush deck IF you can get Mel out and keep her out. Death tends to happen before you can enslave something that small so you can't win off it. Seductive promise is alright, but it gets cancelled easy.
Melee Rounds:
Round 1: Cookie Cutter Bara, Martell KotHH (brave man), Martell Quentyn Agenda
Apparently the guy with KotHH has never played Melee before. OK, he's got L5R playmet and dice though so I'm not underestimating him, I maintain there's no such thing as "bad" L5R players. Even bad L5R players are at least average at everything else CCG wise in my experience. This was the only unknown. We ran the new guy through melee, titles etc and how they work and cracked on. I dropped a cersei early and grabbed about 8 power in turn 1. I honestly had no idea I could run my deck so fast and felt a little uneasy with the target I'd painted on my untested deck in the first challenge phase. There were some strange plays from the KotHH across the table. Penny got Venomous Bladed without any real explanation despite pointing out she was there to slow the bara deck by forcing some extra discard (nobody's kneeling a Knight of Flowers in a hurry). I think he just wanted to kill something. Dominance turn 1 and Westeros Bleeds comes out. See - never underestimate an L5R player. They're sneaky bastards (I reckon he plays Scorpion… or maybe Spider). Another odd play but a good one, I lose Cersei, a Yezzan's and some trivial bits. Quentyn gets discarded - Martell player 2 is not impressed and Flowers gets his save cancelled. Board swept quite nicely.
This put on a bit of a back foot from now on, I had to defend my early lead with no presence. Bugger. For the next coupld of turns I made sure the guy to my right was in the support role to me to at least lower the number of incoming attacks. The Bara deck takes advantage of the board sweep and sneaks it's way to about 10 power
Plot 4: The Bara deck has some sort of renown thing out and 4 power off the win, Quentyn Martell has a Viper and 4 power on house, KotHH Martell has nothing and I have Yezzan's, Kevan and some random bits with a Creylen in hand. I'm fairly sure there's a Valar coming so I drop Power of Blood to keep the Viper alive so he can rinse the Bara deck. - Yep - Valar arrives, Viper survives. Unfortunatley I find myself in last position and start to think maybe the Viper might get it with some sneaky opposing power, especially when he grabs the Master of Whispers. The other Martell then drops HIS viper. Not good, but he's Valar'd so my power is safe from him. I drop Creylen and keep 3 gold, 5 power to go and I'm home free. I just have to hope with the Bara deck going before me that all the icon stripping and kneeling and God knows what else goes his way. Quentyn Viper strips everything important off the bara deck and runs 3 unoppsed in with an Aerys tagging a long for the power and claiming an opposed title power (redirect gets used on the red which I took to the face and chumped a Septa). Nice, Creylen gets me a power for the Intrigue and the Quentyn deck is on 13. The Bara deck is out of the running at this point and even if the KotHH deck runs rampant he has no claim or opposing title. KotHH Viper goes nuts, Creylen grabs another power. Neither of these powers get hit with a He Calls it Thinking. This concerns me, we've only seen one all game from wither Martell deck and we're a good 3rd through both decks. My challenges 3 power to go. Power challenge the Bara deck - KotHH supports but doesn't jump in as he's only got the Viper UO + claim. get in, 1 power to go I debate playing responses for a while. there HAS to be a He Calls it Thinking out there, let's see how good the new guy to melee is…. Seductive Promise on a knelt Knight of Summerhall… gotcha! He Calls it Thinking comes out to stop me grabbing a guy. fair enough says I, he's probably got 2 then. it's win now or fall over to the other Viper next turn. Intrigue the Bara deck with no defence. KotHH jumps the Viper in for support Vs Creylen…. who pays 1 gold for the winning power despite losing. Creylen remains my favourite melee card in Lannister.
Round 2
At this point I'm actually quite confident in my dumbass early morning deck. It doesn't occur to me that I haven't actually seen any of my stupid tech yet….. yet.
Brian?: Martell Quentyn - James: Martell Alliance Lannister - New Fella: Bara Asshai.
We were called on the second to last table, I joke that this must be the table for the guys who scrubbed out last game keeping my win a secret. "Yeah pretty much agree 2 of the others" "nah I won mine" says the Quentyn deck. Excellent. I have established I suck and there's a threatening deck on the table. Hopefully the others have figured that out muahahahahah. Goddamn I love Melee tabletalk.
The other 2 are UK regional winner and prize support stealer James Walmsley (who professes to be **** at melee) and a guy who has only been playing a couple of months and can only build with cards he owns. This could prove problematic, I have to make sure I can talk the table into keeping the Martell player in check so he doesn't use the inexperienced guy as a power battery.
Turn 1 both Martell decks drop out a Bannerman. The new guys makes the most epic play at this point. Ser Preston MOFO-ing Greenfield. Who the hell plays Preston? Inspired play that he had no idea he was making. He knew what it did but I don't think he realised how much that was going to piss off the 2 card draw demons on either side of him. Brian gets so blinkered with this that when I run Yezzan's in with the power title for a Seductive Promise on his bannermen he just hands it over determined to play his Thinking on Preston. SWEET. As it happens James play HCiT in Dominance and Brian says things I probably can't repeat when I ask him why he didn't use his on the Promise
I start to see tech, a bara refugee gets Head of a dwarfed… and then buggers off having only stalled out 1 power. I get a Cersei out, a Joff with a dupe and Creylen, I'm set. I enslave a Greenblood Orphan for future use and I think I've probably got it in the bag.
Oh how wrong was I. Cersei and her 4 power get Search and Detained next turn which Power of Blood obviously does nothing about. New guys fishes for Core Set Mel, not good.
I actually manage to hit Mel with my intrigue challenge and I'm fairly sure I'm home free again. I've crawled back up to 11, all I need now is to Valar my ass off the table and have Joff claim a load of power. Unfortuantely a misplay earlier means that I KNOW there's a He Calls it Thinking in a 15 card Martell hand. Balls. I have to wait a turn.
New Guy fished for Mel because he BLOODY HAD ONE AND GRABBED A DUPE! Noooooooooooooooo. This is only a real issue because time has just been called and we won't get to the next plot phase for me to Jofrrey my win. I resign myself to 3rd place since Brian is on zero power and I can't use 8 of mine as Mel's a *****.
I'm not proud of what happens next.
James is sat on 10 power 2 on characters.
So am I and I have 8 of it on characters so can't use it.
The Bara deck only has 6
I'm in last place on challenges again. and military unopposed on the Bara deck.
"If you kill Mel for the claim and free up my power, I will power challenge James dropping him to 9, I'll steal a guy with power dropping him to 8 and I'll play 3 You Killed a Wrong Dwarf on your characters to give you 2nd place"
I had, I hooked him in. 2nd place is not too shabby. It almost worked until James opened his mouth to point out I probably didn't HAVE 2 Wrong Dwarves and he was Already in 2nd place anyway.
Quick Dan think…. erm. i still have a Power challenge left, I can take you to 3rd. 2nd or 3rd your call… annnnnnd Mel dies.
I'm an ass - I wrong dwarf one of my guys and pass to Dominance.
I help myself sleep at night by remembering I'm Lannister at Heart and Cersei's the ***** Queen of the Manipulators, it's what she would have wanted.
Joust
I'll not bother with a deck list - it's John Bruno's Worlds deck - 3 cards to make it 60 (Daenerys and the Queens' Knights with ermmm something taken out for a Ghost of High Heart)
Game 1: Nick Martell Summer
I've only played Nick once before and I grabbed 15 power in turn one with a monster Bara/Martell treaty deck vs Greyjoy. I don't actually know how well he plays. He's won both melees though so he's fairly decent.
He drops out Martell Summer on me, I guess House Dayne but shrug it off as a "nobody plays Dayne" it must be something else. Turns out I was wrong. I see a Street Waif and a long Lances REALLY early and he's only running Wildfire as his sweeper - it pretty much goes down hill from there for him. He mentions by about plot 3 or 4 that he does have big guys in the deck and I'm in trouble when the "no attachments" guys come out. They arrive, I stop playing Flame Kissed in favour of multiple Str 3 incinerates.
Game 2: Jeff (who would go on to win) Lanni Clansmen (yes clansmen)
Another deck that nobody plays. Great. Having built clansmen I know what they do and I know Timmet is an arse to burn with a kill effect and Painted Dogs can also be a nuisance. I get some stupidly lucky intrigue challenges though early and hit a waif killing Illyn Payne followed by 2 Painted Dogs. Timmet arrives and refuses to die for a couple of turns before getting incinerated since the Brothel was keeping Pyat Pree knelt. It's a bit back and forth as I don't see a waif for ages so I'm relying on hand and draw as opposed to discard deck but I hold out and force him to no hand and no board. It's just a case of mopping up.
You can't underestimate Jeff. He's a very good card flopper. I surmise that he's just toying with me probing for weaknesses against my deck since we're both likely to top 4 anyway and he'll whoop my ass then.
Game 3: Dan (pretty much a mirror match - John Bruno's deck without much of the black bordered stuff, I suspect because Dan doesn't own it as he had to read a few, replacing the missing cards with Summer)
Dan drops Targ KotHH and I exclaim my happiness that I've got a mirror match. It's a stupidly intense game every time that can go either way. and I love it. "Oh this isn't Bruno's" he says. Bugger, straight up burn then, I can probably handle that. Turns out it WAS Bruno's deck. What irks me about net decking, is not that people do it. Copying somwthing is the greatest form of flattery and this deck is a joy to control. Just if you're going to do it, acknowledge it. Don't try to make out the you somehow managed to create an 80% mimic with all the bizzare tech cards nobody plays (Waste Their Time / Recruitment etc)
Other than that it was still an enjoyable game. Hard fought and I push harder and faster for power eventually taking the win at time. I establish in this game the first to hit Meraxes is proably going to win since power is so hard to get in a challenge.
Semi-Finals
I get Dan again and screw it up big style. For some reason I held a Company of the Cat til challenegs. This is where it fell apart. I think I was marshalling first so wanted to hide my play as long as possible. I Drop the company in challenges, draw meraxes and lose it to an Intrigue claim after the cats are burnt off. It's pretty much over here. I re-evaluate and I hope I can force a slow game of attrition until time. Dan gets 1 power a turn that I have a hard time getting off him and over 90 minutes it's a slow 1 power a turn loss. I don't know why I held the cat, as soon as I drew that **** boat I knew what was going to happen.
I hold him off to 12 power each on time. Next to claim power wins - he's got it in Dominance. He has 2 Dragon Knights and a Carrion Bird. He Military Challenges. I pop Rhaenys's Hill and pray.
Daario gets rid of one Dragon Knight, A dragon Knight drops the other to 0 STR as it's Summer. Just a Carrion bird left. MORE epic fail from me. I could have Mereen Tourneyed the bird before this to give him 0 str. I know he's got 2 hatchlings feasts in hand and I NEED to win this to get rid of Summer and stop the Fields of Fire he also has. I stupidly over commit and in the heat of the moment forget Jhogo is attacking Dothraki only. I fail to draw 3 cards, in my dismay, despite winning I forget to use a carrion bird to turn off Summer. I can't win a challenge - 10 minutes of checking every available combo I have leaves me powerless to stop the Dominance win.
A thoroughly enjoyable day. I probably didn't deserve to be in the Semi's having talked my way to a win on table 2 of the melee, but then that's half the fun of the format. I did get a Lannister cupcake and some wooden house tokens though.
Now I'm off to buy me my own Longlaw to beat Jeff's ass with.