Rochester Regionals winner (37 players) 1.0

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• 1.0

This description got long, so here's the short version: shout out to Millennium Games for being an awesome venue, shout out to all the players for generally being awesome people and making this a fun as hell weekend!

Rd 1: Store Champs superbye

The deck I used to win my bye was very similar to this one, except there was no Great Hall so the curve had to be a little lower. The final for that one was recorded and can be viewed on Rob St John's channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xW1AY7hGyc.

Rd 2: vs Charles Ligato, Targ Watch (WIN)

Charles got off to a pretty solid start, outnumbering me in characters - a couple of kills through plots and events got us closer, and a few well-placed Treacheries on various Plaza triggers eventually got me far enough so I could temporarily win through an unopposed challenge.

I say "temporarily" because at the end, Charles thought I was on 13 power, and would have won with unopposed and claim. However I was actually on 12 power, and THOUGHT I was winning on unopposed, claim, and dominance (though I had missed one of his standing characters). So we SHOULD have been going to plots with me at 14 power, but we didn't notice until someone pointed it out, at which point I had already shuffled together my hand, discard, and dead piles.

Technically Charles had conceded at that point, but we agreed that would be a stupid way to end the game so we did the best we could to rebuild the game state. I was able to actually get to fifteen the next turn.

Rd 3: vs Rob St John, Tyrell Lion (LOSS)

Rob opened with just Jaime and Lancel, and maybe a Roseroad. I don't recall my opening, except I got Ilyn Payne down turn one and thought to myself "I'll wait a couple actions into Rob's marshalling, in case there's a better target for Ilyn than Lancel. After all, if Rob plays another Lord or Lady I won't have to care too much about Lancel."

Rob's first action was to play Tinder Marge. So that was dumb. I also realized later that Lancel doesn't care about non-Lanni lords and ladies, so he stayed at five strength for a good long while.

We struggled back and forth for a while, playing extremely defensively due to the amount of renown on the table, which made chump challenges generally a bad idea. Time was called when Rob was at about 12 power after his challenges, and I was at 8 or 9 going into mine.

I counted it out and saw that best case scenario I could get ahead by one power, worst case we'd tie and count decks. However, Rob was able to Nightmares away my renown, and Treachery away Cersei's reaction to maintain the lead by one power. Extremely well-managed by Rob - sucked for me because he hadn't played a single copy of either of those cards up to that point and I wasn't counting on him having both. I gave Rob the full win instead of timed and on we went.

Rd 4: vs Simon Reid, Tyrell Fealty (WIN)

Simon got the Knight of Flowers out pretty early, and within a few turns added Brienne and Randyll. I found my Mountain and had a whole bunch of chuds, so I was outnumbering him in quantity but not in quality. For some reason I had a real hell of a time finding any dupes or saves, so the entire first half of the game I was living in fear of a Valar, and trying to keep some cheap guys in hand to rebuild from.

The Mountain hit Tinder Marge off the top of the deck, which was great until Simon played Ghosts of Harrenhal to bring her back into play (along with my Burned Men). Another mil from the Mountain allowed a Put to the Sword on her, and a Treachery cancelled the Bodyguard save he'd added. Mountain also allowed me to put his Arbor to the torch the very turn he played it, giving me a huge tempo boost.

Around this point I had been able to get seven or eight characters out while still holding a few in hand, and Simon played Wildfire Assault - pretty much assuring me that I didn't have to worry about a Valar from him. I dumped out pretty much all of my characters, finally backing up Gregor with a Jaime and a Chella. Chella got enough ear tokens on the last turn to intimidate Simon's only intrigue icon, and unopposed gave me the game.

Jim, the TO, informed me I had also won a raffle that round! So I've now become the proud owner of one of those learn-to-play playmats with the core set artwork.

Rd 5: vs Matt Ross, Greyjoy Winter (WIN)

After the first turn, Matt had an Iron Mines, the 2-cost Greyjoy econ location, a couple of chuds, and a Victarion. I believe I had flopped Cersei, a reducer, and a Roseroad.

Essentially, this game came down to my getting some high-strength characters that could each single-handedly block Matt's challenges, and he didn't find any stealth to help him with that problem. He couldn't get much power on Vic and was forced to Valar turn three, using his mines to keep him alive. Having played Noble Cause turn one, and Valar turn three, his Winter choke was stalling out at this point. I closed with Retaliation, winning the game on a two claim Power challenge.

So I ended day one at 4-1, putting me at fourth or fifth overall (and earning me a prize for being top Lanni player - excellent prize support at Millennium Games!). We had one drop from the top eight, slightly changing the pairings for the next day, which let me know I'd be playing against Targ Fealty, a matchup I had plenty of experience with and was confident I had a chance of beating. Those two Ilyns are there almost purely for dragon-whacking, after all.

So my buddy Paul and I head over to our hotel after grabbing some Pizza Hut (which is strangely familiar and yet wholly different from our canuck Huts). Paul hadn't been able to play Thrones for a while due to his work and studies, and was kind of disappointed with his 2-3 performance that day (ask him about the turn he Valar'd himself sometime, I'm sure he'll appreciate it). So it was time for him to build a melee deck.

I gave him some very general melee advice and he decided on a Lanni Kraken build, using Boy King and 6-cost Aeron. It performed really well for him, and in his second game he was able to Treachery Brad Eier's House of the Undying one turn, and then Sea Bitch the next copy later on. This deck also inspired the line "Boy King is really good at turning Victarion on."

So Paul went undefeated at the melee! And then lost on tiebreakers to another undefeated player, because that's a thing that can happen. LOL melee.

Top 8: vs Vinnie Paolotto, Targ Fealty

I had a pretty good opening, with Tyrion bodyguarded, a chud and a resource. Vinnie flopped Dany, a chud, and a resource, and first turn he dropped Crown of Gold on Tyrion, burning right through the save. Me being a hardcore first edition elitist, I forgot that the bodyguard was supposed to go back to my hand (though I don't think this made much of a difference, as I was over my reserve a turn or so later).

I dropped Jaime on my marshal, hoping to take advantage of Vinnie's choice to play Crown over something to help his board - he had duped Dany so my hope was to end up marching her later on. However, playing Jaime meant not playing the Ilyn in my hand - which, out of eight cards total, was expertly plucked out by Vinnie's intrigue challenge.

At this point, I assume I am 100% boned. I go on damage control for a while, able to keep Jaime winning MIL challenges with a Widow's Wail given to him earlier. I finally found a good turn to play Valar, killing Vinnie's Khal Drogo and two dragons, and burning Dany's dupe. My Jaime stays alive and I'm able to give him another bodyguard soon after.

On turn six, Vinnie has yet to play a reset plot and I am fairly confident that he has a Valar in reserve that he desperately does not want to play. He gets out Mirri and Jorah to back up his Dany, I get out Hound and two chuds. If I'm right and Vinnie does have a Valar left, I know his plan is to win with Mirri, triggering her to kill Jaime and use up his bodyguard. As such, I over-commit on the military with Hound and Jaime, allowing me to put Mirri to the sword. Hound goes back to hand, and Vinnie's Valar wipes his board, leaving me with Jaime (and saving the roughly six power in renown that had been accumulating over the last several rounds).

Vinnie's only able to get Littlefinger out on his Valar turn, allowing me to win on unopposed.

Top 4: vs Roy Rogers, NW Summer

Can't say much about this match, as I understand Roy borrowed the build for his deck from someone trying to keep it quiet for now (it's definitely something I hadn't come across before) - however it was recorded, and Rob will be posting it to his youtube channel once he can. Subscribe!

Long story made vague, I was able to keep the pressure on by pushing through power challenges and killing his guys with Ilyn, so even though I couldn't stop the Wall triggering, I was able to keep ahead and slowly ramp to fifteen.

Finals: vs Phillipe Paquin, NW Rains

Phillipe opened with a Roseroad, Benjen with a Practice Blade, and Satin. I had Tyrion, Roseroad, reducer, and a Burned Men. First marshalling he added Craster with a Noble Lineage and Castle Black, and I duped Tyrion and played Tywin. I think Tywin was also Craven'd.

I intrigue'd with Tyrion, stealthing past Craster. Phillipe blocked with Satin to prevent unopposed. I ambushed in Widow's Wail, so I could win by five - Phillipe triggered Castle Black, but I had a Treachery in hand to cancel. Rains got me Wardens, which combined with claim would empty Phillipe's hand, putting him firmly in Topdeck Mode. I also had a Tears to hit Benjen.

From this point on, I stopped Phillipe's intrigue challenges as priority number one, which prevented him triggering Rains or getting any cards off of Bowen Marsh's insight. After doing so I'd steal whatever power I could with other challenges. If memory serves I got Ilyn Payne out the same turn that Phillipe grabbed Aemon with Here to Serve - I forced him to kneel to save himself once or twice but quickly realized that it was better to keep Ilyn's icons around.

In the end, without 7-cost Jon to provide stealth and stand, Phillippe couldn't get past the wall of intrigue icons I'd managed to get early, and that was that.

If I were to make any changes to this deck, I'd probably swap out Retaliation or Marched for a Summons. Despite the large number of high-impact characters, I frequently was struggling to find any of them, occasionally going several turns drawing only chuds or events. Even using Summons to grab a dupe would have been pretty big, and I don't recall any times where Marched or Retaliation had a particularly huge impact. This deck has more success going high-defense early on, and slowly building up power - it doesn't really need to go heavily aggressive with its plot selection.

Chella also has been unimpressive for me, despite the possibilities with Wildfire. Not sure there's currently a better option but she's first on the block if something new and shiny comes along.

Megaprops to anyone who managed to read this far! The top eight matches should be going up on Rob's channel in the next few weeks or months, so check 'em out. Let me know if you have any questions.