"Shadow control" - TOP 32 Stahleck 1.0

• Versiones
• 1.0

Hi guys!

Yeah gotta admit it, I love playing this shit. And I had a blast piloting this deck at Stahleck and facing at TOP32 a great player like Andreas Aldrin. It was a very unfortunate game where I never got any draw/locations or had a chance from round 1, which with this deck very rarely happens.

This is a control version of my previous more aggro/attrition deck from Barna Dohaeris. Sparrows and the Iron Throne are a ridiculous advantage. Felt comfortable playing against Sea of Blood or other very intense decks, being cool at getting behind even 7-0 at the 3rd round but knowing I was gonna find my way anyway and win in the end. So many ways to delay and drain your opponent, and get ahead fairly quick with passive power later.

If I had to make any changes I definitely would remove the two milks and go back to 3x Poisoned Coin for a nice and steady 60 cards deck. I was pretty afraid of the Bara Qohor matchup and specifically of an utterly protected Fast Bob, but in the end, I could control the most of the games nicely and they felt like a burden. Also not synergetic with Shadow Priestess which felt a bit dumb.

https://thejoustingpavilion.com/tournaments/7174

MVP cards:

1. Without hesitation Nighttime Marauders Destroyed my opponents. Go for the 1s go for the 2s, and in some cases for the 6s or 7s depending on the game. Also the combo with The Iron Throne (LMHR) is nuts.
2. Shrewd Diplomat. These guys gave me a lot of unopposed challenges, saved me from voltron attacks, helped pushing poisoned coins and their combo standing The Queen of Thorns is marvellous.
3. Sparrows. While I was trying to control every game, I was also keeping an eye on having enough Sparrows in hand and at least one Gate of the Gods set to balance the power quickly as soon as my opponent was starting to slow down in exhaustion. Recursive with Guile was a hammer. Also very good against other control decks.
4. The Iron Throne (LMHR) was a no brainier considering the NW and SOB meta. But it also helped me keeping in line potential threats like Fast Bob or others. Potentially brutal too against Doran's Game, shadows mirror or 1 win condition decks.

Why am I not highlighting the Unexpected Guile? Well obviously was an MVP the most of the times, but to be honest some of the games I even felt lazy on placing it into shadows, as it wasn't even necessary. But yeah, it is rock and roll for so many reasons as you may know :)

THE SWISS

1. NW Valyrian Steel - malawicichlid: Well definitely a sign of the times. I don't remember the details, but he had the Wall duped on setup, vault and chud on board. Very early game he bounded Ser Robert Strong for the Wall and ended up having him posing next to a collection of tricon shadow tower masons, Hobb and some other nice chuds. First snowed him on second round clearing the board and used his previous played Bound for the Wall on the discard pile to get rid of so many precious cards from his hand with Marauders. After that don't remember this game giving me many more issues. WIN 1-0

2. Baratheon Wolf - Cristoph Mad Turtle: I foresaw Eddard Stark or Fast Bob with Azor Ahai giving me trouble and those were my opponent's intentions. This game was fairly easy. I had all the economy I needed and Varys in shadows ready. He had Stannis, Melissandre and Bran Stark on board plus economy. Lightbringer on Stannis made him a target for Varys, so was an easy kill. Later on valared Meli, Bran and others and avoided Fast Bob to join the game with the Iron Throne after emptying his hand of cost 1 events and attachments with Marauders. And after that I pretty much used Guile on marauders several times until the game had no more reason to be. WIN 2-0

3. NW Wolf - Purchy: Good game. He had a fierce start with Last Hearth Scouts on board and econ and the "steal your guys The Wall" on the first marshalling phase, which was annoying because I had The Iron Throne in hand after the Draw Phase. I noticed how he was having issues to discard any relevant chars from my hand or draw deck so I never let him marshall Queenscrown with the Throne. Tried to give him always my Bolton Flayers for his requests so he ended up killing his own chuds all game. My strong economy, draw, passive power, sparrows and his lack of power icons made the rest. WIN 3-0

4. Targaryen Sea of Blood - MartellDePoitiers: Couldn't be happier. I very rarely lost a single game against SOB with KOSH, so I was very optimistic but oh boy, this guy was good and nothing went as expected. He opened with Aggo, a 2 coster and a reducer (no locations). I had Arbor, and two shadows and a good hand. So decided to Valar morhulis as an opener, which felt it was game but, with only his at the gates plot, he set a ridiculous board with Qotho, Missandei the 4 cost shadow guy, and then I was the one in disadvantage and suffering to protect the Arbor. Found the dupe and kept pushing but somehow never got in control of the game. Several claim 2 and the board advantage put me too way behind. He ended up 3rd. I'd love to play against him this matchup again... LOSS 3-1

5. NW Alliance - Kostas Adamopoulos: Top notch player. Told him I kinda remembered his deck: "Yeah, Jon Snow + Randyll Tarly right?" and his face changed instantly. He ran so much, was very lucky and got to have a bunch of renowns on Jon Snow with Lord Commander. I had all ready to kill with Varys when he actually took exactly that pull from my hand with 8 cards and that was a hard psychological hit. After First Snow he ended up with Jon Snow alone on the board and I could see the struggle in his eyes giving for granted I was carrying Marched to the Wall. But no, I wasn't... And Randyll came up, duped of course, and game ended up fairly quick. At this point I felt my journey at Stahleck was almost over. LOSS 3-2

6. Stark Wars to Come - Ektor Angelomatis: Straight forward game. He had an interesting setup with Fat Cat, reducer and Heart Tree Grove. But I went very aggro on him, cleared his board, emptied his hand of no surprises and others several times, killed a lot with coins and flayers, so he shaked my hand and kinda upset told me I was very lucky because I got all I needed. To be honest I missed some basic pieces, so not sure if I was lucky or his deck lacked a clear counter for this meta call. WIN 4-2

7. NW Sea of Blood - Mofe: Very confident guy and powerful deck. As mentioned before this is a very good pairing for Tyrell KOSh and it was once again. I remember him having Lyn Corbray and some cost 2 rangers around. But different stoppers such as Shadow Priestess and Shrewd Diplomats made him suffer in order to trigger the agenda. And he did but game was under control all the time. Read his double Return to the fields so I only valared once there was no possible salvation. Discarded so many cost 2 cards and when Robert Strong made appearance there was no more game. Only some scraps for the Sparrows to collect. WIN 5-2

8. Free Folk - Eric Oliva: Cruel destiny. My good friend and roommate on a decisive match for the top cut. And well, went as expected for this pairing... Had a lot of economy and draw. Old Bill Bone bought me time on the first round for his Vanquish plot. Kneeled his characters and never felt the thread as I was drawing more than he was discarding and he never had anything to kill on the board. I remember some game highlights like when I removed a copy from his Varamyr Sixkins with Catspaw and killed him straight after with Robert Strong. Passed the cut! Let's walk up to the Castle for more!!! WIN 6-2

THE EXTENDED CUT (TOP 64)

9. Targaryen Sea of Blood - Andrei Potop: After losing at the Swiss against another Targa SOB I couldn't be as overconfident this time, and even less when my opponent is such a great player as Andrei is. He beat me hard on our last encounter at Euros. One of those defeats that you take time to swallow. But this time I had the chance to turn the page. The key of this game was Marauders again. He played very well but discarding so early all the put to the torch events and some other delicatessens from his hand at once really hurt him, as definitely his plan was to burst my economy. Some jogo bonito kneeling and removing from challenges and again discarding all his cost 6 chars from hand, Khal and 2 copies from Drogon, made the game too hard for him. He was really far with power but I never felt I lost the control of the game. His YWOYD turn was totally underwhelming because of my actions and he never could come back from that. A great player, hope we can meet to play some games online soon.

TOP 32

10. NW Valyrian Steel - Andreas Aldrin: My game against the king of the Swiss was very sad. Very bad luck drawing left me with only characters and never got any chance to draw a single card which for this deck is really unconventional. So I went early to top deck for getting copies of the same characters every time. He had a strong Jon Snow on board duped and with Lord Commander renowning quickly. He used Crow is a tricksy bird to force my morghulis and have me one round not producing anything. And when Craster came up I knew I was in serious trouble. But I had to kill that Jon no matter what. So I decided to use the Throne at the Draw phase of a Morghulis round to name "Jon Snow". Guy was like WTF! And used Varys to kill him. He decided to sacrifice Craster to bring him back but... OH WAIT xD He couldn't! The judges told him he could keep Craster in the end, and that guy became the new Lord Commander and my lack of everything set me way behind. Congrats for the tournament mate :)

And that's all folks. Thanks to everyone who made this tournament possible. An unforgettable experience.

Feel free to ask me and I will reply shortly! :)

Thanks to my friend Johannes for his support and knowledge sharing!

Cheers!!!