Hattiesburg, MS Regional Winner July 22 2017 - GJ WIldlings 1.0

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• 1.0

So since I did not really expect to do so well, and don't have much tournament experience, I am pretty unprepared for a recap. But I'll do my best to provide insight into the deck and games.

14 players showed for the tournament, which is just a stellar turn out for this area. Thanks are due to the Little Rock, AR crew who did the drive, which has to be 5-6 hours each way. Dedication!

I did no online testing and the few games I played with my local crew included a couple of losses to my friend Steven's brutal Targaryen Summer deck. Nonetheless, I had been experimenting with Greyjoy crossing for almost a year and I did think I had finally built something strong.

The hero cards in this deck are undoubtedly Crow Killers and Theon Greyjoy (TFoA). I sabotaged my reserve in plot selection for the former, and they were magnificent all day in getting me to 3 challenges. They also combo really well with Wildling Scout when you really need that stealth.

Worst card was definitely Support of the People, which I discarded to reserve twice. I pulled it and Great Kraken out afterwards for a third We Do Not Sow and Syrio Forel. Everything else seems to have its place.

I originally had Great Hall instead of Sea Tower (early versions of this deck had more neutrals), but I cut it for a couple of reasons. With a lot of 2 and 6 cost characters, the 0 gold locations were easier to set up. And Great Hall is only amazing if you plan to poop out a big dude every round. With Trading with the Pentoshi I actually usually play 2 at once, and none on other rounds. Plus, it is not rare for me to play no unique characters in a round at all.

For plots, I regretted not having Counting Coppers, and have since switched out Wildfire for it. The idea behind Wildfire was that I could leverage a small board, which I think is theoretically sound, but I only played it once all day. I struggled in deciding between Rise of the Kraken, Weapons at the Door, and A Clash of Kings. I was able to use Rise to apply huge pressure because of the high claim, and didn't necessarily need to save it as a closer unlike the other two. This was very effective, but obviously I faced no NW or Martell and thus was never locked down by attachments. Trading with the Pentoshi is a great choice in this deck, as I usually use it to set up a Valar.

Tournament Report

In the tourney itself, the deck romped, 7-0 (4 swiss and a top-8 cut). They actually got easier as the day went along (probably because the pilot improved, haha). I'm terrible with names and didn't write anything down until now a week later, so I apologize for the lack of names. I mean no disrespect to my awesome opponents.

Round 1 - Lannister Rains - don't remember much (but this might have been my toughest game, I recall it being very close)

Round 2 - Tyrell Crossing - I got off a good offensive Valar around turn 3 and ended it soon thereafter

Round 3 - Stark Fealty - He got some good saves out and hit Balon with Marriage Pact early. I eventually played Wildfire, thinking incorrectly that I was going to get him down to 2 characters. But even so, he wasn't able to stop me from winning unopposed challenges, popping Winterfell, and getting to the end first.

Round 4 - Ryan with Lanni Rains - Ryan is a really solid Lanni player and has stomped me before, so I was not surprised to match up with him here. We both took a mulligan into a single character setup (I believe I played Aeron instead of someone bigger, fearing Marched, and he had the Hound with Widow's Wail). I thought I was losing until I suddenly scored something like 8 power in a single challenge that he couldn't have blocked. Whoops!

Quarterfinal - Targ Rains - This was the coolest deck I played against for sure, using Plaza of Pride (which I was unfamiliar with) for various shenanigans. However, our start was very one-sided in my favor and he never really came close to closing the gap (biggest factor was his early Valar when I had two Risen from the Sea in hand for Vic and Euron). He pulled off some neat tricks (killing Euron with double Dracarys in a challenges phase he began with no characters, AND then stealing him with The White Shadows) but I won that turn anyway.

Semi-final - Steven with Targ Summer - This is the deck I had lost to several times in playtesting, but I did have the advantage of knowing his deck a little better than he knew mine. That didn't matter though, because I had an incredible start, winning a 2 claim intrigue challenge on the first round and stealing Plaza of Punishment with Euron, not to mention creating a dominant board. Denied cards, the few he drew couldn't save him.

Final - Rematch with Ryan's Lanni Rains. I seem to recall Victarion starred here, helping me keep his board under control. We exchanged swings, but I was doing more damage and eventually closed out a competitive but not super close game.