Worlds 2024 Top 4 - Death by Goat 1.0

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• 1.0

Wow, what a great world championship! Thank you to everyone on the GOT team and the tournament organizers for pulling everything together and running a smooth ship. Congratulations to Superduck for becoming the new Online World Champion! I pass my crown to you, good sir!

This deck came together three days before the championship. I felt like Qohor was well positioned and I liked the interaction with Beggar King and Ser Rolly Duckfield to be able to save any character, so that was the premise with Khal Drogo (Core), Daario Naharis, and Ser Barristan Selmy (FtR), and Mirri Maz Duur as the main targets. I thought about others like Dany, Jaqen, Littlefinger, but I wanted to limit the targets to (1) characters that can kill or add pressure and (2) Targ characters (requirement for many attachments). I sent it to Peter Shuck and he made many great changes to the deck. After two days of testing and tweaking we decided to both go all in. Peter made it to the top 32 and I made it to top 4. Pretty good for only two days of testing!

Qohor is just ridiculously versatile and allows you to adapt to any situation. Oftentimes, just one trigger can open up the entire challenges phase and swing a game. And pretty much any character can become a monster once you give them Queensguard, Dragon Egg, and Dragon Skull.

Let's walk through some of the fun interactions:

• Khal Drogo (Core) and Ser Barristan Selmy (FtR) can kill a lot of things. Pretty straightforward.
• Trigger Queensguard after you know you're going to win the challenge. Then Qohor it for Dragon Skull. This gives you renown and intimidate for the first challenge, which then makes it easy to win the second challenge.
• Daario Naharis can stand anyone or steal someone's character if you get a Mercenary Contract out. He can also stand Ser Rolly Duckfield, so you can give Rolly the Dragon Skull and Daario Naharis the QG and get a lot of renown and intimidate.
• Mirri Maz Duur has many ways to trigger and can often trigger twice with QG. Tokar and Breaker of Chains can give her extra strength. Intimidate and Strangler can clear the path for her to win a challenge alone.
• Lysono Maar with Mirri Maz Duur is hilarious. It usually forces them to overcommit on the first challenge, which opens up the path for the second challenge.
• Septa Lemore triggers before characters leave play, so she can return Black Market Merchant to shadows for huge value.
• Fetch a Beggar King at the end of challenges to get a gold bonus in plots and protect any character from VM via Ser Rolly Duckfield.
• Shadow of the East can really surprise people mid-challenge and open up all sorts of shenanigans.

Tournament Recap:

Round 1 vs Martell Kings of Summer: This one went perfectly for me. I got Khal Drogo loaded up with QG, Dragon Egg, and Tokar pretty early and was able to win on turn 2 with 7 power on Drogo. Rolly was there to save him in case it went to turn 3. Win, 1-0.

Round 2 vs Stark Crossing: This one started very similarly to round 1. Khal got loaded up and I was up 12-6 after two rounds. However, his Heads on Spikes hit a character (for the second time) and won initiative and he was able to get 7 power on the power challenge to win. I milked Greatjon Umber during marshalling and planned it out that he would fall short at 14 power, but I forgot that Sansa gets renown from Septa Mordane. I think I could have won if I didn't make that mistake, but it's hard to say. If I had milked Arya Stark (Core), then I think I could have stopped the renown with Tokar and held on. Loss, 1-1.

Round 3 vs Lanni Rains: This is a scary matchup for me because I don't have a lot of draw, Rains can run The Pointy End, and Ser Rolly Duckfield can't save against A Pinch of Powder or "Hands of Gold". However, Mirri Maz Duur took over, killing Tyrion Lannister (Core) on turn 1 and then Tywin Lannister (Core) on turn 2 (set up by a Strangler). I was lucky that he didn't see Treachery until it was too late. Between Mirri and Daario, I had enough intrigue strength to prevent Rains from triggering and closed out the win. Win, 2-1.

Round 4 vs Lanni Many-Faced God: Also another scary matchup for me, but I had enough location control to keep his Harrenhal (FFH) and Castamere from being a big threat. Khal Drogo was the main voltron target this time and he picked up a lot of renown. My opponent finally broke through on the You Win Or You Die turn, claiming 6 military. But by that point I had 4 dupes and a save from Ser Rolly Duckfield, so I was able to survive and win on the swing back. Win, 3-1.

Round 5 vs Baratheon Banner Watch: This was a weird defense deck that was quite annoying. He hit Drogo with Craven right away and I was never able to find Viserys Targaryen (Core) or Shadow of the East to free him. He played both Parley at Storm's End and The King's Peace to slow me down (and even had Old Bill Bone to kneel my faction card on the King's Peace turn). Dolorous Edd probably defended 3 challenges by himself, and Gendry (NMG) gained 2 power from dominance, getting him up to something like 12 power. I was able to reset the board with The Mad King's Command and then get 4 claim on the City Besieged turn, but it was by the skin of my teeth with some clutch intimidates from Dragon Skull. Win, 4-1.

Round 6 vs Targ Prince (Khal Drogo (DotE)): As expected, he was jumping Dothraki in left and right. But I was able to fetch a Milk of the Poppy for Drogo to prevent the tempo of keeping the Dothraki in play. He found a Sweetsleep, but I discarded it with Shadow of the East. Two Meereenese Market were critical for keeping Dothraki out of his discard pile to prevent Overwhelming Numbers from wrecking me. I wasn't able to keep much of a board for the first two turns, but eventually stabilized with Daario Naharis as he ran out of gas, and then kept taking his Drogo with Mercenary Contract. Win, 5-1.

Top 32 vs Martell Rains: This was a big guy deck running all the lords and ladies with strength pumps, but it had a lot of crazy tricks. He opened At Prince Doran's Behest in Naval Superiority, so things started slow. I was in pretty bad shape for a while as his Anders Yronwood knelt my board with To The Spears!. I found a milk for Anders, but then he used A Mission in Essos (R) to fetch Dagos Manwoody instead. Eventually I got Daario Naharis loaded up with some attachments and he started doing good work, intimidating characters to let me win power challenges and stay in the game. On the final turn, he got Arianne Martell (JtO) out, which would have completely ruined me if she was able to bounce Daario Naharis. Thankfully he didn't see any other STR pumps and I was able to push through a challenge to steal Dagos Manwoody and his 3 renown to close the game. Very close game on a knife's edge! Win.

Top 16 vs Bara Wars to Come: He set up a duped Delena Florent with Sweetsleep, which completely neutered my deck for the entire game. Melisandre (Core) and Alester Florent kept my key characters knelt for most of the game, so I just tried to hang on with the cheap characters. He thankfully wasn't able to get Robert Baratheon (LMHR) out to close things quickly, so I had time to set up my locations and shadows area. The Mad King's Command into A City Besieged finally gave me the chance to regain my footing. A Milk on Khal and a The Hand's Judgment for my Shadow of the East prevented me from wiping the board, but the momentum had swung and I was able to close it. Another very close game! Win.

Top 8 vs Lanni Qohor/Kraken: This was a really cool deck (and king of Swiss) that uses the cats with efficient cheap characters like Erik Anvil-Breaker to have them go crazy. I felt pretty well positioned with First Snow and my attachment removal, but it turned into quite a game! My Milk on Erik Anvil-Breaker turn 1 prevented him from completely ruining my board, but his Treachery on Mirri kept his Ser Jaime Lannister (Core) alive. I made a misplay by not standing Mirri with QG first (and then swapping to Dragon Skull), otherwise I could have gotten a second Mirri trigger to kill Jaime. I was ready to wipe the board on my The First Snow of Winter turn, but he wisely played King Plot (after The Withering Cold, so my characters were knelt and I couldn't even stand them with QG). This allowed him to keep Jaime and Cersei Lannister (LoCR) on the board and stabilize things. Two turns later with him at 13 power, I played A City Besieged on his You Win Or You Die turn to win initiative. I had a loaded Mirri, Daario, and Lysono Maar. Mirri won the intrigue, killing Jaime and his 3 power and intimidating the board. Then Daario stole Cersei with Mercenary Contract, making it so he couldn't win any challenges. The turn after, Cersei got a Strangler and I was able to defend all challenges and win on the swing back. Win.

Top 4 vs Tyrell Assault from the Shadows: This was also a really cool deck that uses Sparrows and The Starry Sept to do a lot of shenanigans. Sadly, this game was essentially over turn 1. I didn't see any econ locations in my initial draw or mulligan, and he set up Redwyne Straits, The Hightower, and a card in shadows. He was able to cheat Varys (Core) into play via The Queen of Thorns (TMoW) and wipe my board. My deck is pretty expensive, so without econ (or any dupes) I wasn't able to recover. I'm frustrated that my deck whiffed at such a key moment, but it was very well played by my opponent nonetheless! Loss.

Final Thoughts

I was very pleased with how the deck performed. It gives a lot of options and decision points, which are critical for big tournaments like Worlds. It's able to leverage both The Mad King's Command and The First Snow of Winter very effectively, and then take control of the small boards. Thanks again to Peter Shuck for tuning it with me in the days before the tournament!

I don't think I would make a lot of changes. You could certainly make an argument for Gifts for the Widow (R) or Blood Magic Ritual, like most Targ Qohor decks use, but I think I'd leave them out. You could also make an argument for Gates of the Moon to help give more consistent econ (that can't be cancelled by Treachery or kneels).

Lastly, thanks again to all of the tournament organizers and players committee! Congrats to Superduck for the championship, to Rightwaydown for finishing second and knocking me out, and to all of my opponents in the cut that played tight, amazing games. I can't wait to try again next year!