Martell Lion: Glasgow Regionals (4th Place Overall & 4th in Swiss)

Scottish Regionals 30th July 2016 Tron Theatre Glasgow

36 players

Quick breakdown of my progress on the day:

Swiss
Round 1: Stark Fealty 1-0
Round 2: Lannister Kraken 2-0
Round 3: Baratheon Fealty 3-0
Round 4: Stark Fealty 4-0
Round 5: Stark Fealty 4-1

Top 8
Stark Fealty 5-1

Top 4
Baratheon Kraken 5-2

I was expecting Stark to be everywhere, and so they were. With 2x Nightmares, 2x Milk of the Poppy, 2x Ser Ilyn Payne and 2 winter plots, I felt prepared; and I wasn't troubled by Stark until the fifth round of Swiss where I didn't see Milks or Nightmares until it was too late to turn the game around. Payne is a great way of keeping the Stark board in check, and as he has a marshalling action he isn't shut down by Winterfell/Cat shenanigans. Nightmares is absolutely essential in a Martell deck while Stark are dominant in the meta.

The deck itself is essentially about board control. Wildfire, Marched and First Snow are effective in achieving this if timed right, and The Long Winter just adds pressure even working as a good alternative to Marched after First Snow. Other control elements include Ghaston, Nymeria, Attainted, Hotah.

Targeted kill is present in several forms: Tears, PttS, Ser Ilyn, Quentyn, Tyene. All had a part to play in my matches. Notable kills include Quentyn on Melisandra on a Wildfire turn in my 3rd Swiss match and several poisonings of the Blackfish, Fast Eddie and Robert Baratheon. Vengeance for Elia was devastating, especially in my top 8 match: Sneak Attack turn two, military two-claim. Ser Gregor is there, yes. I had a hard time finding other Martell-Lion decks which ran him. I had no problem including him as a 2x and he won me games, particularly Swiss round 3 where he pillaged Stannis. He and Jaime together are extremely intimidating.

Two notable matches. Lanni-Kraken round 2 was tough, with me edging it 15-14 with The Long Winter turn 6. Bara Fealty in round 3 saw me coming back against a 0-9 power deficit thanks to Gregor pillaging Stannis, Tyene poisoning Robert and Quentyn despatching Mel on the Wildfire turn.

Many congratulations to Kostas Adamopoulos for claiming the Scottish regionals title after defeating the Bara-Kraken deck which defeated me in the semis.