The song of ice and fire (updated version with afterthoughts 2.0

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Based on a Theory - looking to see if a choke deck is viable for Targ

took this to the siege of meeren in Thailand and got up to the top 8 4-2 in the Swiss rounds I'll post a round by round break down later lost in the finals to Lannister kings of winter

great games were had and this tournament

-Round 1 W1 L0 Super Bye – received one during the singapore leg of the tournament (Thank you Jeanette Lee , tournament winner & Joey Kang Second place for handing the bye to me though I was only in the top 4)

-Round 2 (I cant remember the full game so I’ll just post the results) W1 – L1 Opponent CK Chai (Stark Fealty) Faced my teammate and friend CK during our first round – we played often during testing so we both knew the deck very well. Safe to say consistently setup dupes into play with arya and finding summer to bring back arya and cast her again to increase the board state and prevent me from getting a significant board advantage. A mistake in the timing for my dracarys allowed him to lose 1 less character during a military challenge I made. Could not recover once he survived my flurry of 2 claim plots. No Khal drogo was seen this game. Final result 11 Power to 15 Power winner CK (Stark Fealty)

-Round 3 Ling Hong (Bara Fealty) W1-L2 Setup My board - Mirri Maz dur, targ Loyalist, Illyrio Estate, green dreams on mirri Her board – City guard (5 cost 6 str military / power) , Selyse Baratheon and a kingsroad I think Her military out classed mine from beginning to end while I did manage to prevent her from placing additional characters on the board. – once Robert Baratheon was on the board and a timely first plot milk of the poppy on mirri prevented me from executing the plan I wanted on turn 1. This allowed her to safely marshal a few more characters and reduced the effectiveness of my 2 claim plots even after I set up for a flurry of turns. Shireen and fiery followers – plus a few well placed seen in flames ensured I could not place additional characters on the board while the board states stalled (she targetd rakahro and syrio forel in the next 2 turns) With a lack of military icons and an ineffective mirri the low gold on my plots created a difficult match. Mad props to her for picking the right cards to stop my hand.

-Round 4 Kenn Lau (GreyJoy banner of the dragon) W2-2 Can’t remember much about this match but I believe a lack of military icons on his end created and a wide board on mine created a situation where he could not make unopposed challenges. Even though he had seastone chair and the location that grants stealth to a character in play. When Khal drogo was on board for me – even though he was given a net it allowed me to maximise the 2 claim military plots which made it very difficult for him. Eventually while drogo did die – his board was left with lone characters and with little cards in hand he was unable to recover from the onslaught.

-Round 5 Chase Tan (NW Fealty) W3-2 One of the few NW loyal players in the community I was prepared to face a lot of unknown cards and strategies and a lot of choke on my already low economy. Luck was on my side as the Chase had low amount of characters – low wall but 2 rangers. I had khal drogo and a wideboard of braided warriors – including syrio foriel and a lack of effective follow up draws from the nw player I secured the game by clearing his board with 2 claim military challenges.

-Round 6 Alex Quak (Grey Joy kings of winter) W4-2 Final rounds of swiss I faced fellow teammate alex and his KOW greyjoy deck which looks to maximise fishwhiskers and asha to close the power game quickly and effectively in 2-3 plots Unfortunately for him I had opening hand with crown of gold and a milk of the poppy. He marshalled 2 reducers, fish whiskers with dupe and had asha and 1 reducer on setup. Crowned fish whisker and milking asha I stopped his power rush plan very early in the game. This allowed me to build my board on the first plot with snowed under. The second plot saw me throw down a few more military based characters and I over ran his board 2 plots later with 3 2 claim plots in a row. With this I was done with the swiss and had to wait for the final standings

-Top 8 – Rematch VS Ling Hong (Bara Fealty) I snuck in at 7th and faced ling hong in the quarter finals. I had an extremely perfect setup with syrio forel and a duped khal drogo followed with the marshalling turn. This opened up the board and I over ran her over costed board.

-Top 4 – Match against Liz Kon (Targ KOS) There is a play by play of the match on the facebook comments by chewy quah – thanks to him I still can remember and refer to the match –I’ll find a link for you guys (I tend to forget what transpires in a match very easily) Summer directly counters the winter choke but with Syrio forel anda khal drogo I was in very dominating board position – my board grew very wide and I was able to gain the dominant position on military challenges. Her dupe dany and lack of low costed claim soaks did not allow her to recover from the military challenges. Once jorah and drogon died all her board was left with was dany and rakharo. A dracarys on rakharo and a lack of characters later I closed the game.

-Finals – Match against Tan Chun Yong (Lannister KOW) The final match and much of the reason I smiled after the entire competition (I have a very intense face when playing the game) One word – Mountain With very little gold for both of us to work with his first plot marshalling of the mountain stopped my military challenges although I built a very strong board Its on film but the setup went like this (I think I’ll have to check the comments later to verify if my memory is correct) Lannister - Rattle shirt, location reducer & gold cloaks Targ – Merchant prince, Green dreams , beggar king or loyalist , a location reducer, unsullied First plot – Lannsiter noble causes into mountain Targ – Rangers cache marshalling drogon – duping 3 times End of turn drogon dupe discarded from military challenge and viserion died to mountains ability – missed a green dreams trigger

Plot 2 Lannister – first snow Targ – famine Expecting a first snow – I opted to go for famine to save gold for playing key characters after this. Unfortunately I drew no key characters 2 plots in a row and when cersi was marshalled in plot 3 I knew I could not delay the game or recover as my hand had dropped to 2 cards as a result of famine and two KOW reserve reduction. Plot 3 – I concede after marshalling

After thoughts

< I will strive to make an actual note of my games so I don’t just ramble from memory and I might have gotten many of the actual game flow wrong. That being said I’ve made a few changes to the core of the deck as a result of the tournament playing 2 additional copies of syrio while removing mirri and danaerys The simple guide to this deck would be to focus on maximising the 2 claim plots to whittle down your opponents choices and put them on the defensive – key famine turns can make or break an opponent’s game. Should they choose to keep their higher costed characters you can wreck their plans and create situations where they are unable to prevent the military challenges. Due to the high amount of low costed characters the deck is very susceptible to first snow and I recommend playing an additional dupe of jorah while removing a braided warrior in order to maintain a dominant board position. Overall it’s a balance of setting up 2 plots ahead to ensure that you can prevent an opponent from marshalling and clearing their board with Famine,famine, long winter, winds of winter. Rangers cache and snowed under allows you to havea certain amount of economy plots to reduce the impact of bad setups or high costed characters. Learn to play around first snow and you can effectively control their board before they can control yours. Hope this lets others know never to count out the dragons in any match up