The Rains of Stahleck. 5th Place Joust, Best Lannister 1.0

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Hey everyone. This is gonna be a full deck report and tournament report on what I decided to play at Stahleck and how my games went. Should be a long but interesting read. Hope you Enjoy

I also want to say a big thank you to Jim Hansen, Peter Shuck, Tom MacKenzie, Jordan Davis and Martin Naze who all helped me tweak this deck to my liking and made sure I don't drive myself mad in the couple of days prior to Stahleck, which I always doubt my decks before an event.

Quick info on the deck before I delve into the cards I picked and why. To me, this deck is the ultimate tool box deck that can answer any situation while also applying the pressure it wants in the type that it wants (Power rush, Aggro, Control). I never felt like I didn't have a winning line, I just had to find and navigate the game sometimes to get there. I also feel like this deck might seem simple, but there's a lot of the strength of the deck that depends on the pilot finding these perfect openings to win games.

Plots:

Economy: I went with Late Summer Feast to burst early games if needed, or if my board/hand allowed me to go At the Gates, I would set myself up for the game.

Utility: Bran the Builder, Close Call, Marched to the Wall we all amazing in their own way. Bran the Builder allowed me to play 1x cards for locations that I wanted to squeeze in the list. It's also a fairly decent econ card with great reserve. Marched to the Wall was used to clean the board whenever I couldn't full claim or kill the board. Close Call was my safety net to players who love to early Valar Morghulisone of my main characters, which also usually allows me to draw. Once again, this plot has high gold if needed too.

Reset: I think The First Snow of Winter is mandatory in this deck. Most of the characters it hit can get back onto the board though Ambush, or can be reused for a second time like Bronn (HMW), Old Bill Bone or Varys (TTS). Valar Dohaeris was my pick because I don't really need to use Valar Morghulis to help myself, since I usually control the board and can kill a lot of characters. The Mad King's Command was strongly considered, especially when I heard that NW Wolf would be super popular, but any deck that favors Jumpers would just cause me trouble. I also really love to use Valar Dohaeris as a defensive reset if I sense a VM incoming.

Rains Plots:

A Game of Thrones was never used during Stahleck, but it's addition was to allow me to control the game for a turn against factions who are weak on the Intrigue challenge but could really hurt me during the other challenges early game.

Power Behind the Throne is just really good stuff. Mostly used to gain more power, have more stealth, discard more cards. Whatever the situation calls for, this plot can make it worth it.

The Pointy End had a few purposes for me. It can demolish a voltron fairly quickly. It can also remove multiple negative attachments on my side if ever I couldn't find Sweetsleep. Lastly, the way I used it the most was to remove dupes and add massive pressure on my opponents with additional claim through A Lannister's Honor and Castamere.

The Spider's Web is to me the best plot of this deck. Making me have up to 4 Intrigue challenges, 3 of them claim 2, can be game over right from the start. The combination of this plus Castamere for 2 claim Military can also be very devastating.

Wildfire Assault is just another card that goes perfectly with Castamere and A Lannister's Honor. The combination of all 3 was usually a board wipe, unless they had dupes, which meant incoming Marched to the Wall

Characters:

The deck really has no flaw in the characters it has. At the high cost curve, you have the core 5 of Cersei Lannister (LoCR), Ser Daven Lannister, Ser Jaime Lannister (Core), Tyrion Lannister (Core) and Tywin Lannister (Core). These 5 characters all impact the game in a very different way, but they all put pressure on your opponents to answer them.

On the low cost side, every character added either plays very well with the bigs (Gunthor Son of Gurn and Myrcella Baratheon (ATT) with Cersei, Ambush characters with Tyrion Lannister (Core)) which always once again allowed me to put pressure on my opponent to answer even the smallest threat.

Attachments:

Sweetsleep to answer both negative attachments or Voltrons. Ser Pounce just loves to be on any of the 3 cost or lower characters. Added bonus for Ambush for surprises.

Locations:

Like mentioned above, Bran the Builder allowed me to play a lower count of some locations to make room for other locations. The Red Keep (R) was a late addition for this reason, as I was able to remove a Gold Mine for it. Castamere stayed at 3x because I wanted to see this card as often as possible. Casterly Rock (Core) is also essential to the gameplan, and allows me to be more flexible in my attacks, or once again, have more pressure on my opponents. The reason I went to 2x of it is once again Bran the Builder. As for the economy splits, it boils down to preference.

Events:

A Lannister's Honor is the reason I circled back to Lannister in the first place. When I was looking for spots and asked what could be removed, I was very firm on having 3x of this card and never changing it. Like Castamere, I wanted to see this card as early and often as possible. Just one of the turn 1 is immense pressure. Add the combination of both together, and sometimes the games were over quickly.

As for Treachery, Nightmares and Lay Waste, these are all great control cards who can answer what is needed on my opponents side. I sometimes wish I had a second Lay Waste just to be sure to see it every game.

Tournament Report

Before I start, I just want to say that I don't fully remember every game, but have a rough idea of the important moments in the game. Hope you enjoy.

Round 1: Bye W 1-0 (From US Nationals)

Round 2: Lirania (Germany) Night's Watch Summer W 2-0 I couldn't ask for a better start to the event. I set up duped Tywin, reducer and location. Dream start, which fast turned into a struggle. A turn 1 Owen the Oaf allowed my opponent to control my intrigue challenges along with Castle Black (Core). He also had The Wall (Core) turn 1 which gave him a quick early lead. Fortunately, I had Lay Waste and was able to remove that threat, which then became Sentinel Stand for his army of Monocon. Turning moment in the game is when my opponent decided to bring out Blackbird before using Castle black on defense, which then allowed me to flip into Wilfdire Assault with A Lannisters Honor. Owen the Oaf had a Practice Blade on him, which removed his Sentinal Stand strength buff and forced him to be claimed by A Lannister's Honor. This gave me the breathing room needed to slowly claw my way to victory on time.

Round 3: Derbo (Germany) Greyjoy Winter W 3-0 I Mulliganed a bad hand into a bad hand, where I could only set up one big character with a Kingsroad. I picked Tywin thinking most winters don't play Marched to the Wall and it would allow me to get good econ if they didn't play it. My opponent had Ralf Kenning and Botley Crew on set up which choked me a bit, and my hand was basically trash. I had to open At the gates to get some econ on the board for the rest of the game, was able to control turn 1 fairly well and forced my opponent down to just a couple of cards. It forced him to play Valar Morghulis turn 2, and luckily I was able to always clear my opponents board while controlling his Euron Crow's Eye (Core) with Nightmares and Treachery at the right time.

Round 4: Nikolaus Mölders (Germany) Lannister Rains of Castamere W 4-0 This always can be scary and a battle of who draws better. I don't fully remember my set up, but I know my opponent had The Hound (TtB) with Ser Pounce and Varys (TTS). I remember thinking that if I could allow myself to open The First Snow of Winter, I would pull the trigger on it. Duped Gunthor Son of Gurn and A Lannister's Honor in hand, with my own Ser Pounce gave me everything I needed to do it. My opponent was able to play a big with Gunthor duped as well, but me going first allowed me to put the pressure needed, allowing me to marched the remaining big character on the other side. The game was pretty much locked from there.

Round 5: SerCarter (Catalonia) Night's Watch Uniting the Realm W 5-0 Before this game started, I wasn't aware what my opponent was trying to do with this deck prior to the match. A Harrenhal (GoH) on set up showed me enough to know what was coming up, but sadly for my opponent, The Red Keep (R) on my set up pretty much controlled that part of the game. Turn 1, my opponent kills my reducer and The Hound on his marshalling with Ser Ilyn Payneand Plaza of Pride, but a strong economy start allowed me to play both Cersei and Tyrion. Luckily for me, my opponent forgot to trigger Harrenhal on Tyrion when I had no gold left, so a mistake on both our side here. I was able to wipe the board with a A Lannister's Honor and Burned Men, and Marched to the Wall the remaining Ilyn Payne. An Intrigue claim turn 1 also picked out Yoren (R) and the game was pretty much sealed from that point on.

Round 6: Francesco Folladori (Italy) Night's Watch Aloof L 5-1 This game can be remembered for one thing on my side. 2 Milk of the Poppy and 3 Craven on turn 2 made it impossible for me to try and put any sort of board pressure on my opponent. I tried really hard to get any sense of opening, but my opponent played the game very well to made sure I could never hit back. A well timed Treachery on his attacking Jon Snow (WotW) allowed me some opening to trigger "The Rains of Castamere" for a juicy Wildfire Assault with Castamere, but my opponent had dupes on dupes on dupes for his characters. I simply couldn't get through those dupes and my opponent was able to clean the game up on Plot 6 or 7.

Round 7: SGE (Germany) Night's Wolf W 6-1 I wasn't too thrilled to see this, but I knew I had a lot of control cards to squeeze the game in my favor. A set up of only Recruiter for the Watch against my set up of weenies including Myrcella Baratheon (ATT) made me open Marched to the Wall. From that point, I was able to completely control the game. A few plots went by, but there really wasn't any opening as I was attacking the hand every turn, leaving my opponent in top deck mode.

Round 8: Anselme (France) Baratheon Assault W 7-1 Like the previous game, this game boiled down to me controlling the early game very fast and never letting go of said control. I was able to make sure my opponent couldn't draw cards with The Red Keep (Core), and a turn 1 of Military claim for his reducer, plus A Lannister's Honor forcing him to claim the other reducer, left his duped Ser Eldon Estermont riped for a Marched to the Wall.

Top 32: Bye

Top 16: Rightwaydown (USA) Tyrell Assault W Henry and I are good buddies, and we have faced each other quite a bit recently. Played twice at US Nats, him beating me in swiss and I in the cut, and then playing before Stahleck for CoW, with him notching a win. Took my sweet revenge as I was able to slowly control what I knew I had to control. A big mistake by me during turn 1 or 2 where I forgot to Ambush The Hound (TtB) to defend an UO challenge against The Queen's Retinue (R), allowing him to Poisoned Coin my dupe off Tywin Lannister (Core) to set up a VM the following turn. The writing was on the wall for me, so I Marched to counter VM, and was able to save Tywin from death. From there I played a stone wall and grabbed power as I could, while making sure I can kill his Sparrows to stop him from removing my power. Eventually I was able to close post all of his resets, and always keeping at least 1 counter for my opponent's Varys (Core).

Top 8: Raius (Czech) Night's Watch Fealty L I set up The Hound (TtB) and Myrcella Baratheon (ATT) with The Kingsroad and a reducer. Raius is bold and opens VM into my AtG, which allows me to fetch for Great Hall (R), and I had another Kingsroad in hand. I was able to marshal duped Cersei Lannister (LoCR) with Grand Maester Pycelle (Core), leaving me with 1 gold. Raius has 1 gold only, no board. I easily win intrigue, but decide not to trigger "The Rains of Castamere" into The Spider's Web because my opponent has 7 cards in hand with a reserve of 5. Big mistake, as he is able to use Forest Patrol to have 1 character during dominance phase, and then uses Mutiny At Craster's Keep to remove Pycelle and then Marches Cersei. The game was over from that moment, thus eliminating me from the tournament. After the game, people remind me that I could have used Treachery to cancel Forest Patrol, but I guess fatigue got the best of me there. Well played my friend.

I want to end by thanks every single one of my opponents who I had the chance to talk either during the rest of the event, or after our games, since some of them were over pretty quickly. I am lucky enough to be able to exchange with every single one of them about the game that we all love. This was a great first Stahleck for me, and I will be back for more next year.