Kubla was great fun, as it always is. Everyone who had a good time at Kubla owes a thank you to rings for coming all the way down here and organizing it. Much appreciated sir! It has been erroneously reported that this year was my 3rd consecutive Kubla joust win. Unfortunately, I did not win the joust last year. I made it to the title match, but was predictably trounced by mathlete. I did win the melee last year, thanks to the bold strategy of cajoling the other two players to gang beat rings.
This year I did a poor job of taking mental notes, so I can't give a tourney report with game recaps.
I won the joust, but with a field of just 6, and only 3 rounds in the whole tourney, it was pretty much a crapshoot. Deathjester deserves most of what credit there is anyway. It was his deck, and with the constraints the current format places on deckbuilding, it was quite a nice one. My three games were against Jesse (who I never get to play), my brother Jeff, and rings. Jeff and rings both got 14 power during the game, but I was able to come back both times (at one point Jeff, who was using rings's Bara deck, was up 14-5).
The cube draft was the most fun I had all weekend. I love drafts, and I love classic. Again, I can't take much credit for winning the draft. Our pod had a ridiculous preponderence of both elite cards and resource cards, and we also had the new players in our pod, which made drafting a good deck fairly easy. There were some game highlights I remember from the draft.
In my first game my opponent was Alex, who I didn't know and assumed was a new player. He also got to 14 power during the game, and there was a scary moment for me when, after winning a power challenge, he declared "that's game" because it was his last power token. I was stunned and alarmed, because I had counted his power before the challenge and didn't think he could get up to 15. It turns out that he actually only had 14 power tokens with him but he thought he had 15, so when he had them all in play he assumed he won.
The other memorable moment was against Ronnie. Two years ago at Kubla we met in the Top-8. He was kicking my ass badly, but the turn I threw Winter Storm he forgot about it and flooded the board with characters who were all subsequently discarded. In a challenge later that turn he forgot that one of my character was immune to character abilities, which lost him a challenge he could easily have won by sending more STR (and if he had won all his challenges that turn, he could have won the game). So we had some history. In this game, I had the upper hand from the start, but the momentum was shifting steadily, and I knew the current turn was a critical one. If I didn't win this turn, I probably wouldn't at all. At one point he military challenges me. I have 14 power and a guy with renown. If I win the challenge, I win. Thanks to a STR buff event I had in my hand, I won the challenge and the game. However, immediately after the game concludes, Ronnie looks at his hand and realizes he has a Horseback Archers he forgot to use! That would have won him the challenge, and might well have eventually won him the game. Ah, good times.
The melee was fun as well. I was using a Lanni Army/Military Battle effect deck. I took 1st in my first two games, and then in the final game I was quitely and steadily building the power I needed, but never got a chance to make my bid. Christi, using a Bara rush deck, had shot out to a big power lead. On the final turn I knew someone besides Christi would have to win initative or she would likely win. I had a 7 initative plot, but I assumed either Dan or rings would play a high initiative plot while I played a low initative plot whose effect I liked. Unfortunately, Dan and rings both played low initative plots while Christi played a 6 initative plot. Yes, I know, I play bad. I still had one more shot to foil her, but she had the counter with a well-timed Put to the Question. Well played, and a well deserved victory. I was getting tired of winning Kubla events anyway 
So, that's all for Kubla this year. Big thanks again to rings for running the event. I wasn't sure I was even going to show, but when I looked at the Kublacon event schedule and saw "A Game of Thrones - Matt Ley", I said to myself "if he can travel 1000 miles to run this thing, I can drive 30 minutes to play in it". It was great as always to see all my AGOT friends. Dan and Christi, i'll see you two for Calicon, if not before then. Johnny, thanks for the deck. I enjoyed our chat after the joust. Helped keep me awake too, because I was starting to feel the effects of sleep deprivation! Jesse, Erwo, Brooks, Ronnie, Matt R, great to see you all too. It was also nice to see Brandon, even though the slacker didn't play any of our AGOT events. Boo! The absence of more than a few friends was deflating, but the people who came made it a great time.
Now I gotta get my game in shape for Calicon!