A Game of Thrones CCG Regional, Columbia, Missouri - Part Two

"I love it when we do this." - Uttered by Dave, in response to my order at Starbuck's the next morning. Previously, BMT had expressed delight at my "formula" for picking the number of sauce packets I needed at Taco Bell. In this case, he was referring to the multiple instructions that accompany my order at Starbuck's, a concoction refined over months of having the aformentioned establishment right on the way to work, with me too lazy to get going the extra ten or fifteen minutes early that it would take me to regularly patronize one of the other, non-evil empire coffee establishments. For the curious, it's the largest size (I refuse to say "venti," or whatever it is) cafe mocha, made with soy milk, iced, with an extra shot (which makes it a quad), and four pumps of chocolate syrup instead of six (it's too sweet otherwise). I'm getting ahead of myself a little, though.

So, we woke up Saturday morning, not so ready to go. I wasn't sure about my deck, and Jerod had a headache. We grabbed a bit to eat - the hotel had free waffles and danishes, but it was totally crowded down there so I just ate the cherry pop tarts I'd purchased at a gas station the night before. I was totally out of it and needed some caffeine, so we ran over to the B&N in the mall for some Starbucks. While we were getting fueled up, I made a list of the popular deck archetypes, and we tried to guess how many of each type would show up. We thought there would be 18-20 players, and that the majority would play Stark or Baratheon. We were discussing how fast Baratheon could be, and the cards you could use to slow it down, and Jerod and I both thought we needed to be playing 2-3 copies of Bastard. I think we actually guessed a little low on Stark and a little high on Bara, and we thought there might be 0-1 Martell and there ended up being two or three, I think. I was looking at this, and thinking about how my deck might do, and for some reason I just wasn't happy. I started thinking about alternatives. I had previously played Stark a lot, but was unhappy with that and wanted something different, something that would get me out of the way I commonly play.

I had brought some decklists from the net with me. Among them was the list for the Greyjoy deck that Mathlete played in one of the regional events in California. Dave was running a pretty much exact copy of this deck, that our friend Jeremiah had assembled (Jeremiah couldn't come due to other commitments). I decided to start putting together a variant of this, to see if I liked it better. I was also curious about what I would learn from playing a deck designed by someoen else. We took off for the tournament site, with me making a mental catalogue of cards I'd like to have. Looking at the decklist, the deck had two Bastards and two King's Landing Harlot, both good against Bara. It also sported 3 Ten Towers Battlements, excellent against Stark (especially with the 2 copies of Student of Coin).

Upon arriving at the store, we had about an hour and a half. I started putting the deck together. First off, it was 66 cards, and I wanted to cut it down to 60. I rushed to cull it to what I wanted, while Luke found the four cards I needed to borrow from him. I felt a little bad about that, as he was also busy trying to compile a deck for Dobbler, who hadn't brought any cards and had decided he didn't like the deck Luke had stayed up until 2 in the morning the night before to make him. Here's the link to the original post from Mathlete on the AGOT discussion boards, that contains his decklist: http://www.agameofthrones.com/brds/viewtopic.php?t=2011&start=0.

Here's the deck I ended up with:

House: Greyjoy

Agenda: Threat From the East

Plots:
Blockade
Wraiths in the Midst
The Gathering Storm
Whose Name May Not Be Spoken
Benjen's Cache
Winter Has Come
Trading With the Pentoshi

Locations (15)
Kingsroad Farmstead X3
River Rox X3
Island Transport X3
Ten Towers Battlements X3
The Broken Ground X2
Flea Bottom X1

Characters (36)
Vanguard Axeman X3
Sea God's Disciple X3
Deadly Axeman X2
Euron's Servant X2
Skirling Berserker X3
Wildling Emissary X3 (added 1)
Wildling Messenger X3
King's Landing Harlot X2
Band of Free Folk X2
Student of Coin X2
Young Spearwife X2
Frey Lordling X2
Littlefinger
Wildling Scout (added)
Conn Son of Corrat
Fallen Brother (subtracted 1)
Mance Rayder
Samwell Tarly (added)
Roving Pillagers (added)

Events (7)
King Balon's Command X3
Cracks in the Wall X2 (subtracted one)
Massing at Twilight X2

Attachments (2)
Bastard X2

Other than the noted stuff, I dropped Styg, Andryk, 4 locations, and maybe one or two other characters. You can compare Mathlete's decklist through the link.

Round One - Sam (Icyewolf) with Baratheon.

I finished my deck and signed up for the tournament at the last minute. I just managed to finish up and turn in my decklist in time to sit down for the first match. This was a silly game, and perhaps my punishment for ragging on the speed of Bara for the last few weeks. Sam and I both mulliganed, and flopped four. I blockaded, and couldn't really play anything. I did mess up, though. I haven't played Blockade before, and wasn't sure I still got the gold from my Kingsroad Farmstead. It probably didn't matter, but who knows? Sam had some reducers, including the free Asshai guy. He also had the Storms End TG, and an Old Red Priest. Sam played another ORP to soak claim, and put Born to Be King and Chosen By R'hllor on the ORP. My challenges went, and I claimed a power on something. He proceeded to play Baratheon's Charm and wreck me in three challenges, claiming fat power along the way. He played a Blood and Glory, but didn't need it, as he hit 15 after his third challenge. At the rate he was going, he could have claimed 21 power that turn, I think. Sam seemed a nice guy, and it's a pity we didn't have more of a game. After losing on the first turn, I was really in no mood to talk afterwards. So, first round, and I'm out on the first turn. Hm. Not so good. This was an inauspicious start to the day, but I remembered the tournament in Madison when I lost quickly to Emre's Baratheon in the first round, and then fought back to the finals, where, of course, I promptly lost to Emre again...

Second Round - Alex

There I was, facing another Baratheon deck, figuring my day was over. I got a decent start, though, and Alex wasn't going to fast. He got Chosen by R'hllor down on a Lord's Assassin and a Band of Free Folk. I bastarded the Free Folk and attacked. He blanked my Free Folk so he could kill his, keeping the LA. He didn't draw much power rush stuff, or any real control stuff, and I got control of the board through military challenges. I got down double ten towers and double broken ground, and it was just over. I got up feeling a bit better about the day, and also thinking that I was learning to play the deck a bit better.

Round three - Troy

It turns out Troy is from Florida, and flew out her to play because he couldn't make it to the regionals near him. I think he may have had business in the area as well. Troy was playing Stark Armies, and this was not a good matchup for him. He flopped an army, the one cost guy that reduces armies, and a free reducer, I think. I had skirling berserker and some other stuff. I blockaded, and he couldn't play anything. He played the plot that gave him +1 str, and got through the turn still having his army. He played Eddard and a Toll Collector. I killed Eddard with Ten Towers/Broken Ground, the TC with SB, and The army with claim. At that point, he didn't really have anything, and couldn't get back in the game with my location combo. I rolled in 4-5 power a turn and it was over. Troy seemed like a good fellow, and I hope he had a fun trip and learned a lot. He mentioned that we build decks and play a little differently than the people in Florida.

Roud Four - Dan (ccdano)

Dan was playing Greyjoy Night's Watch, which I figured was a pretty bad matchup for me. I was looking at having my Bands of Free Folk be useless, and getting my Wildlings discarded. Both of the above were true. Dan got a low resource draw. He had three locations pretty early, but they were all Minor Fiefdoms, and I got rid of them over time with Euron's Servant. Unfortunately, it wasn't before he could use a Tidal Wave on my TTB. We went back and forth on this one, and it was the best game I'd had to that point for the weekend. Both of us used Fallen Brother to good effect, and I managed to get an advantage with the two claim on Gathering Storm. I think we almost got all the way through plots with this one, but I kept him lite on resources with Cracks in the Wall, etc. and ended up coming out on top. Dan is a good guy, and a credit to the game, and I'm happy he ended up making top 8 in the end.

Round 5 - Kevin (Balon)

Kevin parked his Stark Wot5K across the table from me, and I figured I was in for a test. Thankfully, I had a good draw on Sea God's Disciple, and characters in general, to soak claim. Dan got out a lot of guys, and was winning military challenges. He got out Conn, and had the military locked down, until I drew some stealth. The only problem he had was that he couldn't draw any other icons. He just had a big army of little monocon Stark beaters. I was building up power, too, with uncontested power and intrigue. He got up to ten while I was at 8, but then I hit for power and I don't think he got over 9 again. I wiped the board with Winter Has Come, while he had no cards in hand and no locations on the table, and I had locations, including Broken Ground, four cards in hand, and Disciples in my dead pile. From that point, He couldn't get caught up in time to stop me. I was happy to win and be guaranteed top 8. I'm glad Kevin made it too. Their effort driving to Iowa for our Regional was a big influence on me deciding to come down there.

Top 8

Quarterfinals - vs. Sam (again!)

Well, I thought, maybe we'll have more of a game this time. Sam pointed out that he had alternated win/loss the whole tournament, and that he was due a loss. He told me he hoped I won the tournament, so that he could say he beat the champ. I said, why not hope that you win, and say that you're the champ. He apparently didn't think that would happen. On the flop, he had three reducers (including Frey Lordling I think), Samwell, and Salidor San. I only had 1 reducer, the GJ one that's the worst resource in the deck, and inferior characters. I decided I couldn't Blockade while he had such an advantage, so I played Wraths, hoping to get to Winter Has Come range quickly. However, he did the Blockading for me, freezing up my development. He played a tourney ground and a Servant of R'hllor on Salidor, and won a challenge. I won a couple challenges and said go. Second turn, he used Benjen's Cache. Then, he Massinged. I could have cancelled it with an Axeman, but decided not to, thinking back to the last game when I was hammered by a single Baratheon's Charm. However, I should have done it - he got great cards. Between the Cache, his draw, and the Massing, he ended up putting all three tourney grounds into play that turn, as well as a Chosen by R'hllor on Salidor. This was not looking good. I wrecked a tourney ground with a Pillager and played a TTB. However, with the Chosen on Salidor, I couldn't make him smaller than my guys, so I couldn't win a joust. He came in and played I Am King Here, which I cancelled. Then, he came in three more times (Blood and Glory) with two more I Am King Here's to rack up enough power to win the game before dominance. So, out in a turn the first round, out in a turn and a half in the quarterfinals. I wished Sam luck the rest of the tournament, and went to grab some prize so that we could hit the road. Dave was disappointed to go 2-3, and Jerod was also feeling down at 2-2-1. They decided not to play in the draft due to the high price and the high chance that I would be done quickly and we could get on our way home. For my troubles, I was awarded a few packs of Song of Night, I think four, as well as an old promo Wildling deck. It's always nice to walk away from the tournament with something.

As a side note, I picked up a small game down there to try to make up a little for them not getting enough entries to cover the price of the tournament package. I bought Lupus in Tabula, a Werewolf varient by Mayfair. This is a version by Italian designer Stefano Di Fazi, with Illustration by Gianpaolo Derossi. I chose it over Werewolves of Miller's Crossing and Are You a Werewolf? because the box looked sturdier, the production value looked higher, and it contained some variant cards for different roles that you can add in to spice up the game with more players. Hopefully I'll be able to bust it out the next time I have nine gamers sitting around...

We jumped in Dave's car and got on the road. The way home was uneventful, save a few moments of inspired hilarity and a brief period of bugs hitting our windshield like rain. We talked over the speed of Baratheon, and came to the conclusion that the problem card was Chosen By R'hllor. Without the free standing, it isn't possible to win so many jousts with the same buffed character in one turn. There was also general talk about our decks, gaming, the Iowa City community, etc.

All in all, a fun, whirlwind trip to a nice little tournament. I have to thank the people at VG for being friendly, gracious hosts, and Sam and Dan for doing a lot of the work of running the tournament. I actually wish I could have stayed on Saturday and maybe gone out with some of the guys. I regret not getting to talk to some of the attendees at all. I also was a little sad to make Luke ride home alone, and have to thank him for the ride down, good company, and card loans. I hope that everyone had a good time and got home safely. I like the deck, and think it is decent against the field. I'm glad Mathlete took the time to post it. If I could change anything about the deck, I don't know, I might have tried to add another Bastard. I'd like to play it again, but I'm not sure I'll have a chance. This was very likely my last big tournament, as I'm probably not going to GenCon, and I'm moving to North Carolina this summer, where I don't anticipate continuing to play much.

GG, GL