King's Landing fun with Smugglers - Top 16 at Stahleck 2025 1.0

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Hi folks. Here is the deck I played in the 2025 Stahleck tournament. :)

After the last RL was published, my initial thoughts were to play Bara Qohor, but testing for that one didn't go so well. Summer, on the other hand, looked pretty promising, even without Ser Imry Florent. It was just a question of what exact version to play... To give you some history, I have played Bara Summer in six major tournaments now, four times in the Online Worlds and twice at Stahleck. The starting point was the 2022 version I built just after Storm's End (BtB) and King's Landing (BtB) came out. The RL was pretty lenient at the time, so the deck was free to play Exchange of Information and Traitor to the Crown together, and even Red Priest. After that, concessions have had to be made. For a long time I continued to play Traitor as my restricted card, because I wanted to focus on Storm's End and Grand Melee.

Then, the first major change came at this year's Online Worlds, when I decided to play it with Smugglers instead of R'hllor characters. I liked the additional location control that gave me, and it was a little bit better against jumpers since Khorane Sathmantes can trigger in challenges, while Melisandre (Core) will mostly only trigger in marshaling. I played it with Valar Morghulis as the reset, because one of the decks I used as inspiration was Marquina's Bara Free Companies deck from last year's Stahleck. To be fair, playing a surprise Morghulis did win me a few games, so it was a legitimate choice. But I didn't have such a great synergy with the Prince of the Narrow Sea attachment, because I wasn't going to play only plots that concede initiative by default. And of course the plan to get some power on Salladhor Saan (FotS) is limited by Delena Florent as well. So I initially cut down to only 1 copy of the attachment, then decided to drop it altogether and go back to Valar Dohaeris.

The other major change was of course dropping Traitor in favour of Exchange. Even with the R'hllor version, I tested Exchange quite a few times, and I even built a sort of a hybrid version which had Exchange as the restricted card, but still played Storm's End and 2x Grand Melee. The results were always pretty close, but I still stuck with Traitor as my restricted card for seven major tournaments in a row. This time though, my priority was to just go for as much draw as I could fit in, and the natural spread of cardtypes was almost begging for Exchange. In the weeks leading up to Stahleck, several people asked me whether I thought Smugglers were stronger than R'hllor, and I couldn't really commit either way. In the end, both versions were represented in the cut, so I guess it's still inconclusive. I wanted to play this version though, because I feel like it's more unique at this point, and I suspected everyone else playing Bara Summer at Stahleck would play the more conventional one. Seen In Flames is the one card I really miss, but I guess you can't have everything. :)

I don't think there's much else I need to explain, but I guess a few words about some of the card choices wouldn't hurt...

The plot deck is pretty obvious. We have At the Gates as the opening plot, always fetching Gates of the Moon, which sets up our economy for the rest of the game. In combination with the Kings of Summer agenda, that gives us a minimum of 6 gold on Exchange of Information, which I usually play in Round 2 and then again later in the game. I will delay the second one if I suspect The Mad King's Command will be played, otherwise it doesn't really matter when the second Exchange is played. Valar Dohaeris is the reset, usually delayed for as long as possible, although sometimes I will also just get it out of the way if I want to play Robert Baratheon (FotS) with one of the big Smugglers and I don't think I will need it that desperately. Trade Routes is the only econ plot, and it will take a few rounds for it to be really worth it. But sometimes you just have to play it early for a moderate amount of gold, to avoid a really slow start. Close Call is there when something dies, and it also lets you play the unique characters without dupes and not worry too much about resets. If multiple characters die, I will usually wait until I draw one of them again, and then I will Close Call. And finally, Grand Melee, the old staple. :) Only one copy this time because we don't have that much additional support for it, but still very useful if you can play it into dangerous plots like The First Snow of Winter or MKC. You need way less control to make a round fizzle if Grand Melee is revealed. Notably missing is another econ plot here... I tested some versions with Late Summer Feast, since it's nice to have a plot that can just play out King's Landing or Robert, but it kept being the unplayed plot that I was always stuck with in the late game. I dismissed it pretty confidently. I would sooner play Time of Plenty actually, but with NW Kraken gone I didn't feel like there would be that much econ choke. I'm pretty sure Greyjoy Winter is a very favourable matchup for me if I have Time of Plenty, but I gambled there wouldn't be so many of them at Stahleck. And honestly, even the tests without Time of Plenty were going well against that particular deck. In the end I was quite happy with my plot deck and never regretted not having an additional econ plot.

With 2x Exchange in the plot deck, I needed to have at least 5 attachments and events, although having 6 of both would have probably given me 4 cards more reliably. But there just wasn't enough space. :) For attachments, the priority was to play Sweetsleep here, for two reasons. One was to protect Robert against Milk and Pinch, and the other was to play it on the character with Grey Wind (FtR), to avoid a really tough matchup against Stark. Then we also have 2x Milk of the Poppy, which is always useful. The last one is The Laughing Storm, which is an amazing card once it's in play, but it's always quite a tempo hit, and this particular deck has surprisingly few locations that can even take it, and none of them can be duped to keep the Tapestry safe. I don't have the stats for this, but I suspect I ended up putting it on Wraith more often than on any other location, simply because 2 copies mean I see Wraith the most, and it's the easiest location to just put into play without any tempo hit. If there was another attachment I could have squeezed in, I think a copy of Seized by the Guard would have been nice. There is a lot of location control here for the locations that kneel, but just controlling something like The Iron Bank, Bowels of Casterly Rock or Oldtown Undercity could be useful sometimes.

For the events, Set Down Our Deeds is additional draw if you need it, but it's not as important here as it was in the previous versions of the deck. I normally draw really well, so the situations where I discard 3 power to draw 6 cards are much rarer. 2 for 4 still happens though, especially in the early game. Privileged Position turned out to be really good at Stahleck, saving so many situations. Could have been Nightmares instead, since they do a similar job, but I never regretted it. And you don't get the "cancel window" in person like you do online, so the element of surprise is still there (unless the opponent gave it to you for Exchange). And finally, a copy of Saving the Kingdom, which was also pretty amazing in the tournament. I even considered putting in an additional copy, but it's one of those events that is a little wasted once you get two of them, because you probably won't be able to pay for both. Having one in rotation is really good though.

The location plan was a little bit different this time. By far the most dominant location in this deck is King's Landing (BtB), which snowballs the entire deck once you manage to get it into play. I even had multiple situations where it was revealed for Exchange, and the opponent underestimated its value and thought it would be too big of a tempo hit for me. Well, it definitely is a tempo hit, but it does return 2 gold immediately if you really need it, and of course any econ card you draw after it just replaces itself. But the main reason I wasn't going to move away from King's Landing in this version is the synergy with Salladhor Saan (FotS). Sometimes there is a location on the opponent's side that you really need to kneel, but if not, you can kneel your own King's Landing and get 5 gold from it. The rest of the econ then pretty much has to be King's Gate and City Gates, which are both 1-cost locations that don't return your gold immediately, but I think it's still well worth it.

Since we are playing Smugglers, we of course need a decent number of Warships as well. This is where the deck has improved the most from the previous version, because Narrow Sea Dromond fits in this deck perfectly. It first kneels something by itself, and then it's freely available for Khorane, since it doesn't need to kneel for anything else. I've been quite dismissive about the 1 STR it contributes to dominance, but even that proved useful on quite a few occasions. We also have 2 copies of Wraith, which is the only free one, and drawing a dupe is not so bad because you can just use the ability for something and then play the other copy. And as I mentioned earlier, it can also take the Tapestry in a pinch. And finally 2 copies of Lyseni Galley. Used to have all 3, but had to cut one due to deck space. If you don't kneel them for Khorane, they can be quite useful for the stealth, to potentially get some unopposed. Or they can affect challenge math a bit. Sometimes the opponent will commit just enough to win the challenge by 1 STR, but that doesn't work out if there is a Galley standing. With this much draw in the deck, I found 7 Warships to be enough to usually have one for Khorane when you need it, and most likely two as well if you have a stand for Khorane. But of course The Mad King's Command is your enemy here. Having a Dromond in shadows can really help in that situation though, because you get a kneel in a 3 on 3 situation, and you immediately get another usable Warship for Khorane, after your other ones presumably went to the bottom of the deck. A card that didn't make it in the end was The Moon Door, which was nice in testing sometimes, fizzling challenges, killing annoying chuds like Tyene Sand (WK), or even winning initiative or dominance, but it probably wasn't worth it in the end.

The other unique locations are all one copy, which is a different strategy than in the past. It's slightly weaker to Political Disaster if you can't dupe anything, but King's Landing helps with that, since it itself is dupable and it will usually provide 2 gold even after PD. You also have less chance of seeing any individual card, so in some games you will get some of the locations, and in other games you will get other ones. But again, you do get through most of your deck in a normal game. The advantage of having 1 copy of everything is of course that you don't really get any dead draws. We have The Iron Throne (Core) and Chamber of the Painted Table, as usual. Dragonstone Castle is quite nice in combination with Robert, to keep almost everything knelt whatever option you choose. I rarely use it outside of the standing phase, but sometimes using it in challenges can save a game as well if Delena is not in play. The Red Keep (Core) is some additional draw, and it has nice synergy with Grand Melee, allowing you to win with a single attacker. Occasionally I also just kneel it for King's Landing, if it's very obvious that I will not be able to "defend" it. The final addition to the deck was a copy of The Black Cells. Since the Dromonds are shadow triggers, I didn't need to add much else to make Black Cells viable. Getting a better matchup against decks that play First Snow was one of the main goals anyway, so adding some shadow characters for that and for MKC was absolutely crucial. I feel like one of the main weaknesses the deck had in the past has been solved to a large extent with that.

Let's conclude with the characters. There are 4 key uniques, all mentioned already. Robert Baratheon (FotS) is one of the most dominant control cards in the game, and some decks don't have a great answer for him. Usually I tend to keep the chuds knelt with his ability, then use other targeted kneel to take care of the bigs. But each game is different, so just choose whatever does the most damage. Even locations can be an option sometimes. Khorane Sathmantes is the other big kneel card. The cost of his ability is pretty big, but if you can afford to pay it he kneels the most impactful character and location on the opponent's side. And you have Sellsails to be able to stand him for an additional kneel in some rounds. Just make sure you do it in marshaling if Delena is in play, because she will block it in challenges. I found this combination to be particularly useful for the two plots I keep mentioning, First Snow and MKC, because you can double kneel with Khorane, and First Snow even sends Sellsails back to hand so that it can come back with gold again next round. Timing-wise, you sometimes want to use Khorane in taxation as well, especially if he is unprotected and there is a possibility of a reset. Just kneel the biggest duped character and the most valuable econ location the opponent has, and that will usually make their reset pretty impotent. Other times you of course want to wait with Khorane to see what the situation is after marshaling. And there is one other use for Sellsails I should probably mention at this point, and that is standing Lyseni Galley for an additional trigger. It's not the main thing you want to do with it, but it's also something the opponent will not always take into account, so you can potentially win some crucial challenge with that. Then we have Salladhor Saan (FotS). Not a source of renown without his attachment, but definitely a source of econ, especially with King's Landing in play, and he of course serves as additional location control. To do that consistently he needs a few additional Smuggler characters in the deck, and Wily Smuggler is the cheapest one you can get. Not a bad character in its own right. Two icons, the potential to get stealth, and an ability that can save your best card in hand from getting discarded. I sometimes still overlook his ability, but I've learned to trigger it most of the time now. You do still get rounds where you don't have a trigger for Salladhor, but the only other Smugger that could still squeeze in is Ser Davos Seaworth (Core). I actually liked him as another body that survives First Snow, but in the end he had to make room for a few shadow characters. The last key unique here is Delena Florent, for obvious reasons. With her, an additional bonus is if her search can always find something, so you need a few Bastard characters in the deck. In the past my choices were always Edric Storm (LoCR) and The Bastard of Nightsong, but not on this occasion. I cut Edric towards the end of the testing period, after I had to admit to myself that his ability wasn't doing as much as I had hoped. He mainly helps in the mirror match, but outside of that he isn't that useful and usually just gets claimed immediately. I did consider including The Bastard of Nightsong again just before Stahleck, because he is a pretty big power swing and sometimes there is more gold than I can spend, but I couldn't find the space. I think Bastard of Robert is actually the best target for Delena to find. With Robert in play, it's a free chud that draws another card, and it's not rare to have multiple copies in hand at the same time, so you can generate a lot of board (and claim soak in particular) for not that much gold. The choice of Bastards is another thing I never regretted in the tournament. And all of this is pretty favourable for Dohaeris. Robert can survive it with Delena. Salladhor and Khorane can survive it together. Or you have Salladhor/Khorane, Delena and a chud.

Finally, we have some characters that solve specific problems. The 2 copies of Begging Brother can be absolutely invaluable. Difficult to play them out early in the game, but once the econ is set up I like to load them as much as I can. Won me a couple of games for sure. Then we have Shadow Priestess, which I initially didn't consider after I switched to Smugglers, but it's a card that works perfectly on its own without much support. And Black Cells being in play is just a bonus. I was tempted to go down to 2 copies after testing, because it was staying in shadows sometimes without coming out, mainly due its fairly high cost. The Dromond is just so much cheaper. But in the tournament itself, 3 copies proved to be the right call. It's the main reason why First Snow and MKC are no longer such a strong counter. In fact, the opponent playing MKC against me actually backfired almost every single time, with additional characters and/or locations coming into play on my side, and most things being knelt on the opponent's. Apart from the reducers, the only character I haven't mentioned yet is Old Bill Bone. I added him when I was testing Black Cells. Since I ended up going down to a single copy of Black Cellls in the end, cheap shadow triggers weren't so important anymore, but he proved to be quite useful. Even though I knew this was the 62nd card that I would cut first if I wanted to go down to 61, I didn't regret having him either. Comes into play for just 1 gold, is a reasonable body with two icons that can also be claimed without too much regret, and sometimes he ruins things in a major way by kneeling the faction card in the middle of a challenge.

I think that just about covers everything... I'd like to thank my practice partner Sara, who had to suffer through quite a few long and grindy games against me. :) I'd also like to thank Alex (France) for some useful chats and tips about the various options. He even gave me the blessing to play 62 cards. ;) Wasn't too bothered about that on this occasion, because I genuinely had games online where I got dangerously close to milling myself. I knew that I would draw most of my deck in most of the games, and so it proved. And the time limit usually stops you milling yourself, because you can't realistically play more than 7 rounds in person, or maybe 8 at the most. I was also happy we were able to organise a few in-person games just before traveling to Stahleck this time, because there are some things you have to get used to when you play in person. TheIronThrone isn't there to save you. For instance, I had a game where I completely failed to trigger Black Cells after bringing a card out of shadows, even though that was the whole point of what I was trying to do. :) But once you start thinking about what the Dromond or Shadow Priestess are supposed to kneel, your mind forgets about other things. Glad I got those mistakes out of the way before the actual tournament. One thing I did forget was to take Saving the Kingdom back to hand in one of the early games, because it gets buried under other cards that are discarded or pillaged, so it's not so easy to remember it. But that's another thing I was glad to get out of the way early, because missing that one trigger helped me to be really careful about it for the rest of the event. I honestly don't think I misplayed much. Maybe a missed Wily Smuggler opportunity here and there, and I think one missed Laughing Storm trigger that could have given me 1 more power for unopposed, but apart from that I think I played quite sharpy on this occasion.

It's been three weeks now, so I won't remember the details in all the games, but I think a short tournament report is still in order.

Round 1 vs BYE:

Glad I got an extra hour of sleep and a relaxed breakfast this time. Didn't feel tired at any point in the day. :) Win

Round 2 vs AlexFdez07 ( - Sea of Blood):

I was really happy to see only two Lanni SoB decks in the tournament when I was walking down the stairs during Round 1, but of course I had to face one immediately. :) Maybe I should adjust my expectations though, because these games don't seem to go as horribly as I imagine them going in my head. I think I was able to control things early on, including actually defending challenges, or at least stopping the win by 5. Not sure whether it was on the First Snow turn or not, but Alex had one window where he could try to kill off most of my board and then March the rest. I had Privileged Position to cancel A Lannister's Honor, but then Trial by Combat was played with 2-claim. I think I just had one dupe too many to get my board destroyed by that, so I was able to repopulate afterwards and control the rest of the game. Win

Round 3 vs Alexander Schulte ( - Trading With Braavos):

Played this matchup online a week or two before the tournament, so I knew my chances were pretty decent. The Bastard of Driftmark (LotW) is a nice new addition to this type of deck, and the Bastard trait is really annoying against Delena. :) But in the actual game, Euron Crow's Eye (Core) was my biggest obstacle. I controlled him a little bit, but eventually I lost an unopposed challenge, got We Do Not Sow on Black Cells, and Euron could have taken that. With the agenda providing some cheap cards in shadows, that could have backfired pretty badly on me. But in the end the game was fairly easy for me, because Alexander never really had much of a hand, and he was never going to have enough board to keep things going after Dohaeris. Small boards are fairly easy to control for me, fortunately. Win

Round 4 vs David Tegtmeyer ( - Fealty):

The closest and most dramatic game of the tournament for me. David had a really explosive start with Throne and Chamber in play immediately, followed shortly by Gendry (NMG), a successful A Feast for Crows for 3 power, and then Storm's End (AMAF) as well. I was conceding power so quickly... On my side, there was Robert in play from the start, so I think every character on David's side was permanently knelt from the round they entered play. And he was mostly topdecking after the first couple of rounds. I was staying in the game just by doing some challenges. I also played a Privileged Position on one Storm's End trigger, which turned it into a -1 power instead of +1, since discarding 1 power is the cost of the ability. I kept David on 14 with the help of two Begging Brother triggers, one for Gendry and one for Ser Andrew Estermont. Couldn't cancel anything else because Imry was in play for a few rounds, and I couldn't let that happen. I was waiting for Breaking Ties to get rid of my Begging Brother, but all the loyal characters were permanently knelt, and I had a Shadow Priestess to kneel Bastard of Robert immediately after it entered play, so the plot fizzled completely. In the final round, David was first player and was sure to close in dominance, so I had to somehow win before that. I think I was on 12 power, and he might have been on 13 or 14. If he won a challenge, it was over for sure. I had enough defence, but spending my characters would have meant I couldn't do enough challenges back to close. Alternatively, I think just passing and opposing everything was also an option for David. But he did something in the middle, a relatively weak challenge which I was able to defend and then trigger The Laughing Storm to kneel the last standing character. This was just about enough for me to close. I thought at the time the game was lost, but now that I'm trying to remember the board state again, I might have had the win regardless. Not sure. And in any case, neither of us was playing with perfect information. One Nightmares would have changed the round completely. Win

Round 5 vs Lannister ( - Kings of Summer):

I did not particularly want to play a mirror game, especially since Seen In Flames can get rid of any cards I am trying to hold back, and there is not really a lot I can do about it. But I wasn't really sure how the game would go. Sellsails is one of my advantages to counter kneel, and Khorane can potentially kneel more than Melisandre can. And I think I have more draw to find everything. Lannister had the Throne early on, so he was winning dominance, but of course the Chamber was always knelt. On the other hand, I had way more board control and I just got a lot of unopposed. It snowballed quite convincingly in my favour. Plus, Lannister revealed Ser Andrew Estermont for Exchange, and I was delighted to give it to him. Of course he did nothing all game. :) Still undefeated against Andrew. ;) Win

Round 6 vs Víctor marquina ( - Free Companies):

I am not sure how good this matchup is in general, but this was not much of a game. Marquina had Salladhor Saan and Vargo Hoat in play from the start, and then Khorane as well. Such a good start that he even forgot to resolve his Summons, because there was nothing urgent to find. :) I knew the Free Companies deck can be slowed down if there is no The Iron Bank from the start, but I started way too slowly to fizzle Bran the Builder the way I needed to. And without the explosive econ start for my opponent, I really couldn't play out my own King's Landing, because Marquina would just use it as econ with his own Salladhor Saan. Unless I went first, which of course I didn't want to do. And I think I also went through both Exchanges without finding a Sweetsleep, which meant milking Khorane would be completely useless with Prince of the Narrow Sea in play. In the end I was just hoping for Marquina to play out most of his hand and fail to close, so that Dohaeris would at least do something, but there was enough renown to win before I could even reveal Dohaeris. Loss

Round 7 vs Martozar ( - Alliance):

I was getting nervous now, because I really didn't want to lose out on the cut after a 5-0 start. The Alliance deck was Dragon and Free Companies, if I remember correctly. There were the usual Targ Mercenaries with a lot of renown and stand. Fortunately I found my pieces in this game and my kneel worked very well. I think I even got to 15 power in the end, after time expired. That meant I was in the cut even before the last round, which was a first for me. Previously I always had to play the stressful game at 5-2 to make it. :) Win

Round 8 vs marti.farrera ( - Free Companies):

Marti was the only undefeated player after 7 rounds, so he was playing to become King of Swiss here. I don't think I was, because some players on 7-1 would have probably had a better SoS than I. Was still nice to play the last round on Table 1 though. :) I played this matchup a few times in testing, so I knew it would probably be close, but winnable for me. I have to say Marti played this one really well though. Usually Targ FC will play out some renown, like Daario Naharis and Golden Company, but then you can play Dohaeris to remove some of the power, and then control the smaller board in the end game. But this only really works when you have card advantage and the opponent doesn't have a huge hand to repopulate the board with a loaded Iron Bank. Marti made absolutely sure to maximise all the insight though. He had Septa Lemore in play from the start, so he drew a few cards with Aegon Targaryen (TSC), one or two with Lysono Maar, and he always made sure Vargo Hoat got insight as well. Never really gave me a chance to come back into the game in the second half. :) Loss

Top 32 vs Joe Zimmer ( - The Prince that was Promised):

Finished 9th after Swiss, so I was the first player who didn't have a BYE in the top 32. This one was as close as it gets... I had Salladhor Saan to mostly deal with Womb of the World, but that was just about it. No Khorane and no Robert for 6 rounds. And that's after 2x Exchange, all the topdecks, and a bunch of King's Landing triggers. Every draw was another dagger, getting some Lyseni Galley or something like that. It meant that I had to play defensively and just try to survive. I did have the chuds to oppose most things, so I didn't concede that much power, and I wasn't out of the game after Dohaeris. I think I might have had Throne and Chamber as well. I was also lucky that Khal Drogo (DotE) was only briefly in play. I think I had Old Bill Bone one time when the win by 5 was on to find him again. Then, in Round 6, I got myself to 5 power so that I could trigger two King's Gates. There was about a minute left on the clock, so I didn't even check the 4 cards I drew, I was just trying to get to another round. I have to thank Joe again for his fair play there, because it wouldn't have been too difficult to waste another 30 seconds somewhere, but we went through the phases pretty quickly after challenges were done. Turns out the cards I drew were Robert and Khorane, and I think I also had Sellsails for additional kneel. And Trade Routes as my last plot, with about 17 gold collected. I think Joe had Dohaeris, so there was not much he could do at that point. Everything knelt, so I would have won a couple of challenges, plus dominance with Chamber in play. Wouldn't have been 15, but I would be ahead for sure, so Joe conceded. Win

Top 16 vs Raius ( - Kingdom of Shadows):

In the past this wasn't a completely horrible matchup for me, because Lanni Shadows can be a bit weak on the icons, so Throne and Chamber with a few Traitors in play could win it. But without Traitor I wasn't feeling that optimistic. Got a few Nighttime Marauders against me, but I have so much draw that I didn't really mind. And I had The Laughing Storm to block Cersei Lannister (DitD). That part went well. But unfortunately Raius saw multiple copies of Clever Feint and The Iron Bank Will Have Its Due early on to repeat some triggers, and to stop anything I was trying to do, plus Alchemists' Guildhall from the start to cancel Salladhor and Khorane. That's the one location that I can struggle with, because it escapes play when it triggers and just comes back standing again. And there was Bowels of Casterly Rock from the start as well, to draw and pay for everything. In the end the power total wasn't completely one sided, but I don't think I ever had much chance. I was a few power behind when time expired, and it was only going to get worse from there. Loss

So there we are. Congratulations again to Raius for a well deserved victory. :) I feel like I was pretty competitive, which was my goal going in. If there was another Stahleck tomorrow, I don't think I would change much. There was no card that was disappointing, and nothing I really missed. I think it was probably my best effort since the 2022 Online Worlds.

I played this deck in the Team Event on Sunday as well, and I managed to win all four games. I don't think anyone cares about the details, but just briefly...

First one was against Greyjoy Fealty, where I had Robert and Delena from the start, and found a dupe for Robert in Round 1 as well, to survive the inevitable early Morghulis that had to clear Delena away. Then Victarion Greyjoy (R) was free to do his thing, but I think I actually used Robert to keep all the Warships knelt at one point, and he ran out of them. I was able to control the rest of the game with my usual strong draw.

Second game was against Martell Free Companies, with lots of icon control. That's usually a good matchup for Bara, and I dominated this one too. But it could and maybe should have gone against me in the end, because there was one big Doran's Game trigger that I canceled with Privileged Position, even though Libor had the resources to win a against me before playing it. If there was another Doran's Game in the final round, it would have been super close.

Third game was against Targ Sea of Blood, played by Francis. Not sure how I won that one... Got so much stuff killed early on, and there was a Consuming Flames played on Salladhor as well. But for some reason the rest of the game just fizzled for Francis. I was able to win some challenges, and I probably had Chamber in play too. I think there was First Snow in the last round, possibly into Grand Melee, and I had enough kneel to just fizzle it completely.

Last game was a rematch against Marti, playing Targ Free Companies. This time it went better for me. The Iron Bank was there, but the draw not so much, especially since I could kneel Meereen before the marshaling phase in some rounds. The pressure was kind of off, because I could see both of my teammates were really up against it in their games. I thought I would lose too, but the fairly relaxed nature of the game helped me in this one, because I think time expired maybe a round earlier than it would have if we played it a bit quicker. Last round was MKC into my Exchange, but I just about had the gold to fizzle everything. I had a double kneel with Khorane for characters that were likely to stay in play, and Khorane knelt Plaza of Pride and Flea Bottom in the process as well. Then there was a Privileged Position for Meereen, and a loaded Begging Brother for the Aegon Targaryen (TSC) and Tyrion Lannister (JS) triggers. And I might have had an extra Shadow Priestess and/or Saving the Kingdom as well, plus the locations I saved for MKC included Throne and Chamber. So I just did my challenges and ended up ahead by 1 or 2 power. Not sure how it would have played out with an extra round. Usually it doesn't matter that much, because when I'm coming back from behind any additional rounds just snowball even more in my favour, but here it wasn't so obvious.

Anyway, just wanted to share this in case someone wants to play a slightly less conventional Bara Summer deck. I thought I might milk it for a few more weeks, especially since it I'm still undefeated in the current Champions of Westeros event, but I figured playing this would get hard countered anyway, so I may as well publish it. And everyone knows all the tricks at this point anyway. :)

Thanks for reading if you made it this far. :) That's all I have on the deck itself. As for the whole Stahleck 2025 experience, I'll post some thoughts about that on discord as soon as I have some free time. :)