Weekend at Randy's-2 New Hampshire SCs, 1st/2nd Lanni/Rose 1.0

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• 1.0

This last weekend our local meta had two store championships up in New Hampshire. The only acceptable response? Road trip, and an entire weekend of competitive Thrones play!

Nothing special about the deck itself, there are only so many ways to run Lannister Rose. Notably, I love having 3x Seal of the Hand here. Not only do I want to see it every game given the sheer number of desirable targets, I want to see a duplicate every game since I do not run Milk of the Poppy. Most games go one of 3 ways: I disrupt the early game with target kill and intrigue and ramp to a quick win (ideal), I get a strong board position alongside my opponent and depend on my renown to carry me and events to swing things in my favor (stressful and math-ridden), or I'm unable establish/maintain a strong board presence, leaving me unable to utilize my target kill and slowly lose (screw you Varys/Dracarys, where's my Treachery/Hand's Judgement!).

BLACK MOON GAMES STORE CHAMPIONSHIP 2/20/16, Lebanon NH (20 Players, 5 rounds 8 cut)

Game 1 (Keith) - Stark Fealty: W

Keith had just started playing that day. I regret that his first Tournement experience involved Robb getting poisoned first turn. The Lannisters send their regards.

Game 2 (Joe) - Martell / Fealty: W

This match was slightly ridiculous. Joe has been dedicated to his Martell and it has payed off. I came out of the gates with a decent start, but with no target kill. His setup Doran received a dupe and was joined by Arianne, Edric, and The Red Viper. Meanwhile I loaded my side of the board with Sealed Tywin, Jaime, Randy, and Marge. This forced him into making single 20+ str challenges (holy crap) in order to get any Viper power (intriguing Dawn from his hand helped as well...no 30+ str Viper challenges please). With all of my standing effects and renown, I was able to keep my power higher at around 12-4 to finish with a mod win.

Game 3 (Jeremiah) - Targaryen / Fealty: Draw

Don't worry, I play against a banner deck eventually. This is the second time I've gone against Jeremiah's Targ deck, the first being at the Pandemonium Store Championship in Boston. In that first game I managed to forget all of Targ's tricks and he walked all over me and conintued into top 8. Sadly this is the game I remember least as it blurs together with the top 8 match I played against him later (Spoilers!!!). He maintains our tradition of Crowning my Tyrion, and we have an absolute slugging match between Dany and Sealed Tywin and their respective wrecking crews. We time out at 11 power apiece. Afterwards I realize that I forgot to stand Tywin with the Seal for a 3rd challenge, punch myself mentally, and decide to consider it a win. It was that close of a match. Twist? THREE out of the 5 top tables drew. It's anybody's game.

Game 4 (Evn) - Targaryen / Rose: W

Told you there was a banner! I was less than excited to jump into another Targ match after the Game of Mathrones I had just finished. He had an unlucky start... I was able to disrupt his early game with a Put to the Sword on Margaery, clearing the way for Jaime, and his Shadowblack Lane couldn't find a single event with 3 attempts. Then he Crowns the Kingslayer. His bet that I would be so worried about Dracarys that I would forget about his Plaza of Punishment proved right and my power-laden Jaime dies a pathetic death. In my flustered state I then send Cersei walking straight into dragon's fire. We have a game. I manage to recover by dropping Tywin and Randy to join Margaery and power ramp up to 14 before time runs out. Guess what? I forgot to activate Seal again for an additional challenge on the last turn. I think I have a problem. At this point I'm seriously worried that my unmodified wins could keep me out of top 8 if I lose the next match.

Game 5 (Than) - Lannister / Sun: L

Than was on FIRE this day as the only 4-0 left. I set up strong with Tywin/reducer/Roseroad... and then I see Nymeria across the board. I'm unable to marshal the intrigue icons necessary to defend against what you all know is coming. Tywin dies to tears first turn. But I am not shaken! I quickly recovered with a few choice characters that put me in control of the game with about 8 power to none. Then he dropped Varys. I wasn't having any of that and pushed him out a window with The Things I Do for Love. Then I proceed to forget that Varys is in his hand next turn and I empty my own hand... he controls the rest of the game and wins handily. I am now 3-1-1 with only a single full win. Much to my relief I squeak into top 8 at 6th.

Top 8 (Jeremiah) - Targ / Fealty: W

Here we go again. I setup with duped Tyrion and assorted chuds against his 2 Unsullied. Tyrion dies before he even sees a challenges phase thanks to yet another Golden Crowning. I drop Randy and let the (now 3!) Unsullied come in unopposed every turn. I do my best to play the long renown game, having Randy return with multiple challenges. We both fill up our boards, but Dany and Drogo join the party too late to stop my steady renown gain.

Top 4 (Brian) - Baratheon / Fealty: W

Confession: I had never faced Bara Fealty before this match. It fell out of favor very quickly in the Boston Meta for whatever reason. This was yet another long, drawn out renown/power grind game. He started quickly with a Red Keep, and I was way behind on card advantage all game. Luckily Brian never found King Bob, and I got Tywin, Marge, Loras, AND Randy all out. Downside? Stannis the Mannis and Melisandre. I do my very best to use Marge, Sealed Tywin, and Randy to slow his power game, but I make a horrible mistake of losing a challenge with the Hound, locking him down for most of the match. I manage to eventually put Mel to the sword, but I get cutesy sending in a small intrigue challenge to finally poison Stannis rather than sending in Tywin. As a result, he uses Ours is the Fury to get Stan in on the challenge, and my Tears is put off to the crucial penultimate turn. He drops a Sneak Attack against my mostly knelt board and shoots up to 14 power... the only reason he doesn't win is because I only had 1 power on my house card to steal. I send in Tywin to poison Stan himself this time. The following turn everyone stands and I have so much renown potential that there is no way that Brian can stop my win even though I started with 0 power on my house card.

Finals (Than) - Lanni / Martell: L

This match was much more about Than having an epic comeback from a horrendous start than about me. I mulligan into an average start with Jaime and a couple of chuds. He mulligans into Edric Dayne and Roseroad. Yes, I lose this match folks. I own it. My two crucial mistakes? Wasting Marched to the Wall on first turn to leave his board empty for starters (I was feeling confident with my starting Hand's Judgement backed Treachery for the possible Varys and wanted to pressure him). Then I proceed to waste my treachery on his King's Road, forcing him to use all of his resources on Tywin. Next turn he successfully Summons Varys, top decks a Tywin dupe, and before I know it I'm looking at a lone Tywin with no March in my plot deck. He marshals his own Jaime and quickly wins the game. Than was a beast all day, and finished 8-0... but don't worry, I'm already plotting my revenge...

RELENTLESS DRAGON STORE CHAMPIONSHIP 2/21/16, Nashua NH (15 players, 4 rounds 4 cut)

Much of the crowd from Black Moon Games attended this event as well. It would be a day of rematches, for better and worse. I see 5 Targ decks. I cry inwardly.

Game 1 (Revenge of the Joe) - Martell / Fealty: L

Not the start I was looking for. I got paired up for the rematch with Joe, and he brought the hurt. He setup with Nymeria vs my Jaime. I failed to draw anymore impact characters or target kill, and his Nymeria stymied Jaime and my hand until he had Doran, The Viper, and a Dawn-wielding Edric facing me down. By the time I could drop anymore big characters, Jaime had died to Tears and he dropped a Doran's Game backed up with Hand's Judgement and settled things with over 20 minutes left. Joe would later make it into top 4 cut. (Congrats!)

Game 2 (Bye) - Boredom / Shame: W

I take the bye on the chin and prepare for the next round. I know I'm going to need 2 full wins to have any hope of making top cut.

Game 3 (Allen) - Lannister / Rose: W

My first ever mirror match! He sets up with Twyin, I have the Hound and chuds. I sneak a Put to the Sword through first turn, and drop my own renown crew to control the rest of the game and get that precious full win.

Game 4 (Geoff) - Lannister / Rose: W

More mirror match! No, seriously, I was playing against a mirror. We both open with Tywin/Reducer/Roseroad. I drop Jaime. We both drop Randyll. He drops Marge and takes control of the board. I drop Loras and my own Marge. He drops Loras. WHO AM I?!? He is way ahead on power thanks to the multiple turns of Marge/Randy before I could get mine. The turning point of the game is weirdly when he Treacheries my Tickler's ability. It makes total sense; he has almost all of his uniques out without dupes. I cancel it with my Hand's Judgement because I seriously need a swing at this point (Randy is power ramping like crazy) as I hadn't found Marge yet. He cancels with his own Judgement in turn. This leaves me unable to save Loras from Tears of Lys in a later turn, but it also leaves him unable to save his Randyll from my own Tears, and I push through a Put to the Sword with a 30+ strength challenge (there were a lot of those both ways). I take firm control of the game, and we barely squeak in a final turn, where I get that full win I need.

Top 4 (Than) - Night's Watch / Greyjoy: W

Rematch! This time Than brought a Night's Watch tempo deck. I walked into one of these at the Pandemonium tourney a couple weeks prior and got totally blindsided. Thankfully that experience taught me how to moderate myself in this matchup. I setup Cersei with Seal of the Hand (how ironic) and a reducer against his Theon, reducer, and Messenger Raven. He opens with Marched to the Wall to put pressure on me and I open with Calm of Westeros (naming military) just in case he had chosen Naval Superiority. He plays Maester Aemon and I reinforce Cersei with a couple chuds. The Seal allows me to defend intrigue, get claim 2 in return, and kill Theon with Tears. Over the next couple turns he plays Aeron Damphair and Yoren (retrieving my reducer from turn 1), and I am careful to leave a reserve of cheap characters in hand in case he can cancel my treachery if he eventually drops Varys. I push Aeron out a window to make sure Theon doesn't come back into play and keep the pressure on with Cersei, who is getting her claim 2 every turn. She manages to intrigue away his raven, Aeron, and a Hand's Judgement that would have proved huge. He eventually gets Varys into play, but I have Treachery ready and Cersei discards his backup Varys during challenges. From there she and Loras carry it home.

Final (Mark) - Baratheon / Lanni: W

This was an epic game. Mark was the only undefeated player left. Following in the same fashion as my other games, this was another long, drawn out renown grind. Mark mulliganed into King Bob and and reducer while I setup the Hound and some chuds. We both filled up our boards with some wee folk and a Brothel Madame apiece. He was happy to deny my payment, instead happy to provide Bob with an intrigue via Selyse in order to protect him from potential Tears and to put some serious pressure on my Hand. The only other big character I drop is Loras, and it soon looks like this is going to be one of those games where my lack of characters and removal will have me slowly but surely lose. We both have Tyrion at this point, and the pressure is mounting. Bob is doing an excellent job of tying up my board while steadily gaining renown, and when I finally summon Tywin, he answers in kind by summoning his Melisandre. Tywin stays knelt thanks to her and Filthy Accusations for a few painful turns and it looks like I am going to be finished. In a last ditch effort to find an answer for Bob, I choose Counting Coppers for my plot and find The Things I Do for Love (on the 3rd card!). I keep 6 gold going into challenges thanks to Tywin and 2 Roseroads, and when he leads with an intrigue challenge I gain 2 gold off of Tyrion and push Bob out a window. Tywin then comes in with his own intrigue and with a 25% chance catches Bob. Within 2 turns I take control and Mark can't recover. The game ends on plot 8.

All in all I finished 10-3-1 (if you count the bye).

It was a fantastic weekend, and I look forward to seeing all of these lovely people come regionals...