Lanni/Kraken - Top of Swiss (Loss TOP 8) - Laval (Regional) 1.0

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We had a great turn out 42 players (43 originally, 1 dropped early) for our yearly Thrones Celebration (Regional)! I met all sorts of people from Youtube/Podcast celebrities (Rob St-John, Darknoj & Thronerunner) to just cool down-to-earth normal Chaps who just enjoy this very special game!

This is the Deck I piloted to 1st place after 6 rounds of Swiss. Huge Thanks to my practice group (We like to call ourselves 'Kings In The North'strong text… Hey, it is Canada EH!?!) especially Guillaume Bouvrette (Billy Dooku on social media) with whom I had daily exchanges/disagreements on our deck lists and Meta Calls. Speaking of Meta, we expected lots of Lannisters (as we heard the Hamilton/TO Meta is packed with them!), Stark (since Stark does well at Policing Lanni & Martell) and some Martell (which seems to be the new hotness!). Boy we were wrong…lots of Lanni yes, some Stark & Martell (most didn’t place well) but there was a good amount of Targ (Mostly banner Lion, of course) and Bara. I don't have the best of memories for this Stuff, so I'll give a general idea of clutch moments during games!

Round 1 – Paul (Lanni/Kraken) We start the tournament and I get a mirror match! We both get a decent start; mine played a huge part into my decisions for this game as I had 2 Iron Mines early. This allowed me to aggressively let him do UO & challenges turn 2, do my challenges in return (mostly UO also), the key was save a chud (leaving me one left for Ptts or Tears), March it next turn(3) and play smart, then turn 4 follow with 4-2-2 (The Long Winter). The board pressure + claim was too much for him (and I got good return on netting UO + Claim + renown on Tywin). In order to do this I needed Summons (for Rattleshirt's Raiders)turn 2 to remove a Milk on Tywin. W 1-0

Round 2 – John (Martell/Lion (not sure?)) A good reason I like this deck is it has good answers to Martell. I believe I had the dream Tywin set-up (Tywin Lannister + Reducer + The Roseroad) and also pulled a Rattleshirt's Raiders when I refilled my hand. This was clutch as Tywin got Attainted turn 1, luckily he didn't have a Tears of Lys mind you this was the only challenge he won all game! I used PttS on Nymeria Sand, added Tyrion Lannister & Rattleshirt's to the board, FS turn 3, claim his Tyrion (I think, or a card just as good) and to add insult to injury when he played Ghaston Grey on turn 4 I had my Lordsport Shipwright keep it knelt to an easy win…Sorry buddy, seems I had all the answers when I needed. W 2-0

Round 3 – Stephane (Targ/Lion) A good buddy of mine plays this deck/build regularly,it can be a problem when it gets its legs as it can eat through my deck & its saves easily. So I played aggressively for board presence (we both did). It made for a tight game where neither of us really had a big board (Funny moment was turn 4, my board was Tywin Milked to his NO Characters). The game changer was Counting Coppers, because I managed to dig for cards, refill my board and he wasn’t able to come back! On the plus side, he had just beat my GF Round 2, so we joked around how that was just payback! W 3-0

Round 4 – Adam (Lanni/Kraken) Well here goes another mirror match, on top of it Adam is from the Ottawa Meta (which is nearby) and this is the 3rd time we play against each other…kinda starting a rivalry as we both won 1 of these games. We both get a good start to the game. I managed to get both Tywin Lannister & Ser Gregor Clegane and also pillaged & put in the Dead pile his Gregor. My Tywin gets Milked and I have to live with it for a while as no Rattleshirt's Raiders pop up in my Summons. He has more middle game and seems to be able to control/win the game…So I play 4-2-2 (The Long Winter) and manage (thanks to Syrio Forel) a PttS (while having avoided his for like 2 turns) and that was too much for his board/game. My 3 Treachery were also key/ All Stars this game combined with him not seeing Tywin really hurt his late game as I did end up getting the Milk off mine! Great Battle that was close all game, we almost went to time! W 4-0

Round 5 – Kyle (I believe) ( Bara/Fealty or Kraken?) My GF has been playing Bara a lot recently, so I know this Faction very well! I do well against it usually but Kneel is Kneel and there have been many games where it has overwhelmed me! I don’t remember if I had Tywin on set-up (but I had him early) and managed to play the mountain turn 1-2 (which ever followed my Tywin)…yeah, I know disgusting! He did see Stannis Baratheon & Melisandre early…I proceed to not only cancel his Even-Handed Justice but his Support of the People also. Turn 3 was the game changer as it was my The First Snow of Winter turn…he did manage to play Robert Baratheon that turn & I added Littlefinger to my Tywin & Mountain…I had a Burned Men in hand and a PttS . I chose to go 1st, started with a challenge with Tywin & Gregor (I have 2-3G in my pool), my opponent knew he couldn’t stop the PttS. I chose to PttS Robert (Melisandre can really hurt my deck but she is duped & Stannis is annoying but I’ll play around him). Then it happens, he claims The Red Lady’s dupe and I Pillage his 3rd copy of Melisandre (which I use to kill her on the board)…he has only Stannis left! Marched took care of that and the rest was a walk in the park. I understand my opponent being pissed at the situation and I don’t hold it against him…quite frankly, I would’ve preferred winning a good close game like my last but this is the game we play! Sorry buddy... W 5-0

Round 6 – John (Lanni/Wolf) Controversy!!!!! John and his opponent both chose to ID last round…so I thought that meant my chances to get an ID this round were gone…I could use the break as Top 8 could mean 3 more games! But John was assured to make the cut even with a 2nd ID so he was down! We had a chance to chat, this was the 1st time I met in person one of our Facebook Mods…and John is a great guy! Alright, so on to Top 8 as King of Swiss!!! Can I break the curse of Top of Swiss and win this thing?!!! T 5-0-1

TOP 8 – The Return of The Adam (Lanni/Kraken) Well Karma likes to toy with us… of course, my Top 8 match had to be against my new rival Adam. I won’t go into too much detail as this one is on camera and will find its way to YouTube…we both get a good Ser Jaime Lannister 3-4 card set-up. However when I refill my hand I don’t have any other Impactful characters and know how clutch Bomb characters were last game…so I opened with Summons trying to get Tywin or Gregor. These 2 options were not available so I went for Asha Greyjoy. After getting a few characters on the board, my hand still doesn’t make me feel I can pressure him (with kills/removal) nor do I believe I can withstand his pressure…so I First Snow early turn 2-3 (I believe) which didn’t work out…he came out of MY First Snow with a better board! He proceeded to beat me to the ground…his deck seemed to just vomit out character after character after character, as if it was a 60 card deck that plays the 9 econ locations + 51 Characters! Lol There is only so many 22Str challenges a guy can take before losing, he even pillaged my Mountain (with his). Let’s just say, I can’t wait to see this game on YouTube and see if I could’ve done anything different… L – So I’m out after Top 8

So that was the end of my tournament, with an unexpected ‘King of Swiss’ title, which I did work hard for the 2 months prior to this event! Gratz to the eventual winner John Gobeil, you are a gentleman & a great guy! To everybody I met at this event, you all were interesting & fun peeps! I really enjoyed meeting y’all!!! Especially Thronerunner & his GF, who graced us with their presence afterwards when we went for a bite and a WELL DESERVED (and awaited) BEER!!! HOPE TO SEE Y’ALL AT NATIONALS IN SEPTEMBER!!!