Crosspost from cardgamedb.com column Crimson and Gold.

Worlds Recap & Report:

The Seasons chapter pack, an FAQ, and the Kingsguard chapter pack changed the meta in a big way. With so little time to playtest the new hotness before Worlds, I decided to stick with what I know best and play Lannister shadows in the Joust tournament.

Ser Jaime Lannister provides insane card advantage, Tyrion Lannister closes games, and Pentoshi Manor does evil things round after round. I felt that those three cards would give me a solid foundation to build on. However, I still hadn’t settled on a plot lineup, restricted card, or Agenda.

Opening with City of Lies in round one leads naturally into other Cities, but running the entire set of Besieged, Sin, Soldiers and Spiders means neglecting either Cersei’s Scheme or On My Oath. City pots also necessitate main-decking my restricted card, and I wasn’t thrilled with Pyromancer’s Cache or Castellan of the Rock due to their weaknesses versus Targaryen, which boasts attachment removal and the ambush keyword to avoid Marshalling-phase kneel effects. Castellan’s Limited Response also conflicts with Guild Hall, so that was a strike against him.

Alternatively, I could have dropped the Cities for a more conventional plot lineup with Shadows and Spiders, Men of Pride, and a restricted card like Retaliation or Fear of Winter. The main deck would have Jaime, Tommen, Golden Tooth Mines and Widow’s Wail for draw, and Enemy Informer and Guild Hall for target kneel.

I debated between No Agenda and HoD Tunnels of the Red Keep, but eventually chose No Agenda in part for its superior setups. I figured that House Clegane Brigands and Tyrion could handle burn, and with so much draw I’d eventually find answers for everything else. Here’s my final decklist:

House Lannister
No Agenda

Characters (31)
Lannisport Weaponsmith (Core) x3
Lannisport Moneylender (LotR) x2
Castellan of the Rock (BoRF) x2
House Clegane Brigands (AToTT) x2
Silent Sisters (KotS) x1
Syrio Forel (TftRK) x1
The Hound (TK) x1
Ser Boros Blount (TK) x1
Ser Preston Greenfield (TK) x2
Qyburn (SaS) x1
Varys (SaS) x1
Ser Mandon Moore (TK) x1
Ser Jaime Lannister (TK) x2
Tyrion Lannister (CoS) x2
Tommen Baratheon (SA) x2
Ser Lancel Lannister (TPoL) x1
Cersei Lannister (AToT) x1
Margaery Tyrell (AToTT) x1
Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS) x1
Ser Kevan Lannister (VM) x1
Tywin Lannister (TK) x1
Littlefinger (SaS) x1

Locations (20)
Sunset Sea (Core) x3
The Goldroad (Core) x3
The Searoad (KotStorm) x1
Lannisport Treasury (LotR) x1
Twilight Market (AToT) x1
Kingdom of Shadows (KotS) x2
The Iron Throne (LotR) x1
Lannisport Brothel (Core) x1
Alchemist's Guild Hall (TBoBB) x1
Pentoshi Manor (AHM) x3
Golden Tooth Mines (Core) x3

Events (7)
I'm You Writ Small (Core) x1
You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf! (Core) x1
Nightmares (LoW) x1
Condemned by the Council (AToT) x2
A House Divided (WLL) x2

Attachments (2)
Widow's Wail (LotR) x1
Enslaved (THoBaW) x1

Plots (7)
City of Lies (CoS) x1
A City Besieged (CD) x1
City of Sin (AToT) x1
City of Soldiers (TBoBB) x1
City of Spiders (TftRK) x1
On My Oath (TK) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1

The Joust Tournament:

Round 1: Bye from winning the Tennessee Regional

I considered declining the Bye because I didn’t want to sit around for an hour, and I didn’t want to enter round 2 cold while everyone else had already warmed up. On the other hand, I’m not completely stupid, so I took the win.

1-0

Round 2: vs. Dave Stromes (Vaapad) from NYC running Targ KotHH with Hatchling’s Feast

It’s no secret that Targ burn is my most hated archetype. Unfortunately, Dave confirmed that stance and handed me an early loss. I took my mulligan, got another weak setup, and then couldn’t draw any economy until roughly turn 4 when it didn’t matter. Meanwhile Dave marshaled The Great Pyramid of Meereen and The Red Keep on turn 1, so he had no trouble managing a double resource curve. Favorable Ground kicked my ass twice, discarding Golden Tooth Mines, The Iron Throne, and 2x Pentoshi Manor, and crushing my only hope of stalling the game long enough to re-establish board position. Jaime single-handedly kept the game from becoming a complete embarrassment, but Dave jumped in Jorah with Ambushed from the Plains to discard the Castellan, then marshaled Jorah later to discard Littlefinger. Meanwhile Khal Drogo came out to play every turn and I could never discard him. It was a demoralizing loss, but I had at least avoided any grievous errors.

1-1

Round 3: vs. Ronnie from Sacramento running Greyjoy Song of Ice with Asha Greyjoy

In this game I made a mistake immediately by keeping a setup with 2x Golden Tooth Mine. Normally that’s a setup to die for, but Ronnie’s agenda negated my card advantage and put me in an early hole. He marshalled two Marauders right away, so I Valar’d on turn 2, but he had a Risen from the Sea in hand. A House Divided bounced Asha to buy me some time, but once again I couldn’t find any gold locations, and the choke took hold. 3-gold City plots weren’t helping in that department either. Around turn 4 his Ice Fisherman stole my last gold dragon that was intended for either Qyburn or Guild Hall, and thus sealed my fate.

1-2

Round 4: vs. Rick from Minneapolis running Stark HoD Harrenhal with Bolton Refugee

Yet again I flopped a mediocre setup, but sometimes them’s the breaks. Rick opened with At the Gates for Maester Luwin, but one of my kneel effects took care of that problem… or so I thought. I sent some chud on an intrigue challenge, then Rick stood Luwin with Distinct Maestery, opposed, won the challenge, and took control of the game. He just flooded the board and ran me over with Randyl Tarly, Riders of the Red Fork, and The Price of War. Rick timed his Outwit perfectly against my Valar, and that was that. Our game ended so quickly that I busted out my Bara KotHH for fun, and it actually went off! Small consolation though.

1-3

Round 5: vs. Taylor from Columbus, OH running Targ KotHH with Negotiations at the Great Sept

I setup Tommen, a Weaponsmith, and GTM in hopes of drawing out his Threat from the North early and getting that unpleasantness over with, and sure enough, he flipped it turn 1. From there I finally established some economy, got my draw engines going, and won an intrigue challenge every turn. Tywin, Tyrion and Jaime all played a part, plus 2x Pentoshi came out and actually stuck around for the first time all day. It was a decisive victory.

2-3

Round 6: vs. Mark from Minneapolis running Greyjoy Black Sails (not sure about his restricted)

I got a strong setup and drew exactly what I needed. The Iron Throne did work (or at least threatened to, which amounts to the same thing), my City plots were finally effective, and Jaime drew a ton of cards. Tywin Lannister became a non-kneeling monster for one turn and teased out Mark’s Valar, then the rest of the crew cleaned up.

3-3

The Top 16:

Congratulations to everyone who made the cut, and especially to Alvaro for winning the championship with House Lannister! He and I played a couple of games on Friday, and he was in complete control the entire time. If you’re interested here are links to the bracket , video of the Swiss featured tables , and video of games after the cu t. I believe I have all of the following information correct:

Greg Atkinson running Greyjoy KotHH with Search and Detain
Dave Stromes running Targ KotHH with Hatchling’s Feast
John Bruno running Lanni No Agenda with Castellan of the Rock
Ryan Jones running Greyjoy HoD (Longship Iron Victory) with Asha Greyjoy
Steve Simoni running Bara Black Sails with Narrow Escape
Alvaro Rodrigues running Lanni No Agenda with Castellan of the Rock
Dennis Harrison running Targ KotHH with Hatchling’s Feast
Brooks Mitchell running Martell No Agenda (Quentyn) with Burning on the Sand
Jesse Shingen running Targ No Agenda (Dothraki) with Refugee of the Plains
Leonard Vautrin running Lanni HoD (Tunnels) with Pyromancer’s Cache
James Speck running Martell No Agenda (Quentyn) with Orphan of the Greenblood
Dan Seefeldt running Stark HoD (Harrenhal) with Meera Reed
Matt Ley running Lanni No Agenda with Fear of Winter
Will Lentz running Lanni Knights of the Realm with Pyromancer’s Cache
Tiny Grimes running Targ KotHH with Hatchling’s Feast
Chad Jamnik running Bara KotHH with Negotiations

Houses: 5 Lannister, 4 Targaryen, 2 Martell, 2 Baratheon, 2 Greyjoy, 1 Stark
Agendas: 6 No Agenda / Character Agenda, 5 Knights of the Hollow Hill, 3 House of Dreams, 1 Black Sails, 1 Knights of the Realm

Published Decklists and Reports:
These are all worth a look if you haven't seen them yet.
Greg’s deck and report
Simoni’s report
Leonard Vautrin’s deck
Bruno’s deck
Dave Stromes’s deck
Dennis Harrison’s deck

Second Chance Tournament:

I made the following changes for the Sunday tournament, which had about 20-25 players:
- 1 City Besieged
- 1 City of Sin
- 1 City of Soldiers
- 1 City of Spiders
- 1 Weaponsmith (had too many chuds)
- 2 Castellan (freeing up the restricted slot)
- 1 Littlefinger
- 1 Kevan Lannister
- 2 A House Divided
+ 1 Retaliation! (beceause 4 gold and 2 claim is awesome)
+ 1 Men of Pride (because 4 gold and 2 claim is awesome)
+ 1 Shadows and Spiders
+ 1 Cersei’s Scheme
+ 1 House Payne Enforcer
+ 2 Enemy Informer (target kneel replacing Castellan)
+ 1 Pyromancer’s Apprentice (needed more location control with Besieged gone)
+ 1 Shadowblack Lane (didn’t want to get screwed on economy again)
+ 1 Alchemist’s Guild Hall (room for more Limited Responses with Castellan gone)
+ 1 Parting Blow (combos with Preston and Syrio)

Round 1: vs. Leonard from Switzerland running Lanni HoD Tunnels

So, it turns out the French champ can play. He made some brilliant moves, but mostly this game boiled down to location control. He discarded my The Iron Throne with Besieged, and then played his own Throne, and I didn’t have an answer available. In the mid-game he was drawing 2 cards with Cache for every 1 that I took with GTM, so things quickly got out of hand. Terminal Schemes killed my Jaime. He marshalled ]Littlefinger for free, I discarded it with Varys, and then a turn or two later he marshaled another copy of Littlefinger. Stealthy non-kneelers that come out for 0 gold are hard to beat.

0-1

Round 2: vs. Jovan from Chicago running Lanni No Agenda

Jovan marshaled 2 GTMs and a Cache immediately. Then I got greedy and made a stupid mistake with challenge math, so it took an extra turn before I could trigger Condemned by the Council to turn the card advantage battle around. His war crest Armies combined with Die by the Sword, Terminal Schemes and The Price of War made life difficult, but eventually I got Tyrion rolling and won some high-claim challenges.

1-1

Round 3 vs. Murray from Chicago running Lanni HoD Tunnels

Once again I’m playing Lanni, and once again it’s a race to see who can draw more cards. By turn 4-ish I had 3 GTMs on the board along with tons of gold locations. Cards in hand plus money to marshall them leads to good things. By turn 7 I had Tywin, Tyrion and 2 Brigands on the board winning almost every challenge. In the pivitoal round I knelt his Jaime and Littlefinger and blanked Cersei with Nightmares to win.

2-1

After three rounds I dropped to catch a shuttle the airport with some NYC guys, only to learn that I had plenty of time for another round and could have potentially won prizes. Woops. So that was the end of my first World Championship weekend. I learned so much from watching other games and discussing the game with everyone. Next year I’ll definitely be back with loftier ambitions and hopefully a bigger beer allowance.

Props:

All of the champions for signing my copies of the cards they designed
Jimmy and Matt from Seattle for letting me crash in their hotel room
FFG for hosting an awesome event
The Minneapolis airport: NFL football on TV in the terminal, aww yeah
Literally everyone I played or chatted with

Future Restrictions:

If FFG keeps their hands off the restricted list I’ll be a happy camper. There are no blatantly busted decks right now, but if pressed to be objective I’d say that Lanni and Targ could use a slap on the wrist. I’d be fine with a restriction of The Iron Throne, Cersei’s Scheme or A City of Sin as long as it’s accompanied by Flame-Kissed, Incinerate or Rhaenys’s Hill.

Draft Packs :

FFG announced the draft format for the GoT LCG, and after having tried it twice, I’m hooked. My first deck ran Harrenhal, Longship Iron Victory, and Meraxes for some insane card advantage along with Holy crests and Power of Faith. The second time around I snagged some targeted kill like [GOT=Core]Robb Stark[/GOT] and Flaming Pitch Tower. Using sub-par cards from the Core Set might not sound like a good time, but without Valar Morghulis you’re forced to deckbuild and play differently, so it’s almost like using new cards for the first time. I’d highly recommend this format. You might even find unreleased cards from future chapter packs, like Lashing Out and Harry the Riverlands .

Conquest and Defiance :

FFG has announced the next cycle, Conquest and Defiance, which includes a new keyword called Prized. It’s not a new game mechanic – just a way to mitigate the inevitable power creep problem. I like the solution, at least in theory, and I’m excited to try the spoiled Lannister card, Wheels Within Wheels … but it’s in the fifth chapter pack, which is 7+ months away!

The New Player Thread :

I’d just like to remind ya’ll about this resource. Please share it with anyone remotely interested in playing Thrones competitively. I’m in the process of adding information about the draft format, and I’m open to any further suggestions for improvement. Thanks.

The Next Few Months:

There are a couple months of downtime before Store Championships and Regionals, so I’ll be exploring Tier 2 territory and trying things like Lanni KotHH, Clansmen, and City of Shadows. I’m also designing an entire cycle of cards just for kicks, and I’ll post updates occasionally in the forums. If you have any suggestions for articles feel free to comment or send me a message. Thanks for reading!