All Things Shagga- The Other Side

This week's All Things Shagga is brought to you by a man some of you may have heard of as the designer of Arrogant Contender. What? You mean you haven't? Ok. Coldhands then. Certainly you've heard of Coldhands. This installment brings you the other side of the MO Regional Draft from my good friend and erstwhile co-host of 2C1C, Brett Zeiler.
-Kennon


I assume I need no introduction.

Oh wait, I do? That doesn’t seem right, but if you insist I guess I will introduce myself. I’m Brett Zeiler, and you might remember me form such cards as Arrogant Contender and Coldhands. I was the 2010 Worlds Melee Champion and the 2011 World Joust Champion. I was also one of the founding members of the Two Champs and a Chump podcast and, up until this year, you probably saw me at most major events. Unfortunately life has caught up with me this year what with getting married, having my daughter start school, and buying a house so I, for the most part, have put AGoT on the sidelines for 2014. I’m not traveling for events, or even really going out of my way to participate in any tournaments. In fact, after Worlds 2013 I don’t think I even touched a Thrones card for 5 months. All in all I was fairly content to watch form the sidelines and play a game here or there whenever I get some free time to go out to our weekly league night.

But, the one thing that would get me out of the house and to a tournament, is a draft.

I absolutely love draft and have in all of the card games I’ve competitively played (Magic and World of Warcraft in addition to AGoT). So when I heard that there was going to be a draft tournament on the Sunday of the Missouri Regional tournament I knew I had to be there.

In my opinion draft is the best format. It rewards skilled players more than any other format does. Anyone can build up a decent deck and practice with it enough to do well in a tournament, but in draft you are building up a deck that you have never seen before from a finite number of cards that you chose yourself. Joust and melee don’t even come close to offering that level of skill required to succeed.

When it comes to drafting there are some rules that I generally follow that help me succeed. Some are basic; obviously you want to draft plenty of characters so that you can participate in challenges. Card advantage is still extremely important (arguably more so since there are generally few ways to generate it). And repeatable effects are much stronger than one-shot effects. But when it comes to actually picking your cards it is easy to get overwhelmed and forget what you’re looking for. When you’ve been looking at packs they can all tend to run together and it sometimes becomes difficult to keep a coherent strategy in mind. If you are a beginner at draft or are not seeing the success you want to see then there is something that I’ve picked up from other games (namely Magic) translates well to Thrones (as the core concepts of drafting are the same in almost all card games) that can definitely help you out. All you need to remember when it comes to making your picks is B.R.E.A.D.

B: Bombs
Bombs are the cards that define your draft deck. They’re the cards that make your opponent say “I can’t believe you opened that!” or are the cards that you find yourself hoping to draw into. Generally these are cards that see play in constructed events and are the type of cards that demand an answer as soon as you play them. Being able to spot bombs is important and generally quite easy.

R: Removal
Anything that kills or discards cards form play or can disable cards in play would fall under the category of removal. Cards like No Quarter, Flame-Kissed, Fishing Net, and A Game of Cyvasse are all different types of removal. Not all control will fall under this descriptor; cards like Enemy Informer, while strong and offering solid control options, keep the character in play. If your opponent can find a way to stand them they still have full use of that character. After all, there are many more ways to stand a character than there are to bring them back from the dead or put them back into play if they are bounced to hand.

Keep in mind that removal can apply to all card types, although generally speaking character removal is the most important. It is, however, a good idea to give yourself ways to control locations and attachments as well.

E: Efficient/Evasion
I have heard two different “E” words using in the B.R.E.A.D. acronym. One of which is looking for efficient cards. These are synergistic cards that can help you win the game. Look at cards like Flaming Pitch Tower and Drogon. Both cards are strong on their own (and, depending on your deck, could potentially fall into the “bomb” category) but together they are exceptional.

Additionally, the “E” could also stand for evasion. Evasion is keywords and abilities that help you push through challenges. The obvious examples of these are stealth and deadly. I personally value cards with evasion very highly as your success in challenges is much more likely if your opponent can’t (in the case of stealth) or doesn’t want to (in the case of deadly) defend.

A: Aggression
Aggressive cards tend towards the lower end of the cost curve. Being able to play out multiple cards per turn, even on turns where you may have low gold available is imperative to being able to maintain pressure on your opponent as well as being able to mitigate your opponent’s military claim with the characters you are playing.

This also leads into looking into your cost curve. Drafting a bunch of big unique four cost characters may make your deck look strong, but unless you have enough cheaper characters (0-2) you probably aren’t keeping up with your opponent and are slowly being whittled down.

D: Dregs
These are just bad cards. You shouldn’t take these unless you absolutely have to, and hopefully they aren’t making their way into your deck.

If you follow the B.R.E.A.D. acronym it will increase your likelihood of putting together a strong draft deck. Even if you aren’t familiar enough with the format to make plans and strategies before the draft even begins if you follow these guidelines you will most likely be able to finish the draft with a strong deck.

For our draft we unfortunately only had 6 players. Since the event was on a Sunday the majority of the out of town players had left, and the hard night of celebrating on Saturday keeping even more in bed we were lucky to get as many as we did.

Going into the draft I was intending to focus on drafting good “evasion” characters so that I could more easily dictate what was going to occur during challenges. In general I feel like Lannister is one of the better choices for houses in draft events and that is largely due to the fact that they have a ton of stealth and deadly. Because of this I was intending to favor Lannister and hopefully be able to pick up Targareyn. This was the combo I took to victory in the draft tournament at Worlds 2013 and I was hoping to recreate a deck of similar power level.

I went through and kept track of all of my picks during the draft portion of the event. Hopefully this gives some insight into looking at potential picks and helping create a strategy for your draft.

Pack 1 – Pick 1
House Messenger, Doubting Septa, Knight of the Tumblestone, Maester of War, Riverrun Messenger, Guilty!, Stinking Drunk, Longship Iron Victory, Knights of the Realm, Pyromancer’s Cache

Pack one has several good choices in it. Toping out the list are House Messenger, Longship Iron Victory, and Pyromancer’s Cache. Knights of the Realm isn’t a bad choice, but I’m unwilling to commit to an agenda that dictates my deck heavily this early. LIV and Cache are both repeatable card advantage which gives them a leg up on the Messenger, but Cache is more easily splashable which makes it the best pick of the pack. It has the added benefit of being a Lannister card which matches up with my draft strategy.

Pack 1 – Pick 2
Gutter Rat’s Cunning, Street of Sisters, Fiery Followers, Scurvy Cuththroat, Damphair’s Drowned, Melisandre, Knights of the Realm, Ser Jaime Lannister, Syrio Forel

Again we have several nice options. Jaime, Melisandre, and Syrio are all solid cards; Jaime is repeatable control, Melisandre is a dominance/holy crest recursion machine, and Syrio is great at dodging resets. Jaime does have deadly which is great and he’s in the same house as our great first pick, so he’s a solid card to grab.

Pack 1 – Pick 3
Court Advisor, Maester Cressen, The Power of Faith, Scurvy Cutthroat, Myrish Villa, Cersei’s Attendant, Damphair’s Drowned, Poisoned Wine

Here our options get a little weaker. There isn’t any stand out powerful cards, so it’s time to start looking for some aggressive low cost guys of which there are several. Scurvy Cuthroat gives a little bit of protection against attachments but has to be around when they are played which we can’t guarantee. Cersei’s Attendant gives some control but we don’t get to pick when to use it which gives our opponent options to avoid it. Damphair’s Drowned is a cheap potential tricon with decent or great cost/strength ratio depending on your location count, and has a holy crest which we could potentially pick up some synergy with. So we grab him with a smile and move on.

Pack 1 – Pick 4
Oldtown Scholar, Refurbished Hulk, Mad King’s Legacy, Dagmer Cleftjaw, Damphair’s Drowned, Killer of the Wounded, Blue-Lipped Warlock

I’m shocked to see a Dagmer still going around. His deadly is great and his ability is potentially relevant, especially if we see the Refurbished Hulk come back around. The only other thing I’d think of is another Damphair’s Drowned but I’d rather get the better body.

Pack 1 – Pick 5
Condemned, Scurvy Cutthroat, Bloodrider, House Dayne Knight, Oldtown Scholar, Smuggler’s Cove

Here we’re back to grabbing up a cheap aggressive guy. I probably made the wrong choice her when I took the Oldtown Scholar; I figured his two icons would make him a stronger choice in challenges. But I should have taken the Scurvy Cutthroat as the two houses I seem to be committed to have little in the way of attachment control. I definitely dropped the ball on this one.

Pack 1 – Pick 6
Old Red Priest, Naval Escort, Dagmer Cleftjaw, Court Advisor, Mad King’s Legacy

I came so close to taking the Naval Escort here I’m kind of ashamed of it; I just love that card in constructed so much. However the drawback is pretty severe if I am ever without a Greyjoy dude, which I can’t guarantee especially in draft where I will almost definitely end up with two houses using Treaty. But another copy of a solid deadly character that I already have is a better choice as it will increase my chance of seeing him as well as provide a potential dupe.

Pack 1 – Pick 7
Riverrun Messenger, Guilty!, Stinking Drunk, Knights of the Realm

I might as well grab a potential card advantage agenda in case I end up with a load of knights in later packs. The only other choice to even consider is Riverrun Messenger but since I have no interest in Stark at this point it’s not a great card.

Pack 1 – Pick 8
Gutter Rat’s Cunning, Fiery Followers, Scurvy Cutthroat

I’m actually more ok with skipping over this Scurvy Cutthroat as Gutter Rat’s Cunning will give an important character some protection from Targ burn effects as well as a relevant strength bump and keyword.

Pack 1 – Pick 9
Myrish Villa, Poisoned Wine

Villa could give us some econ if our draft takes a drastic turn towards Targ. It’s doubtful either pick would make our deck.

Pack 1 – Pick 10
Refurbished Hulk

It did come back around. Sometimes things just work out all right. As far as tenth picks go they don’t get much better.

Pack 2 – Pick 1
Advisor to the Crown, Seasick, Starfall Cavalry, Ser Brynden’s Guile, Vanguard Lancer, Poisoned Knife, Direct Assault, Stinking Drunk, Ride them Down, Dance With Dragons

Wow this is not a good pack. Starfall Cavalry is a decent choice with renown and Vanguard Lancer is an acceptable chump. The best options are Seasick for some cancel (which is rare in draft and will catch people off guard since influence is so rare) and Direct Assault for location control. I’ll grab the one that’s in my current houses.

Pack 2 – Pick 2
Darkstar, Fishing Net, Guilty!, Old Red Priest, Dragon Thief, Pyromancer’s Apprentice, Hired Swords, Westeros Bleeds, Bronn

Several good options here. Bombs like Darkstar and Westeros Bleeds are very strong but so far I don’t have any Martell or influence so we can write them off (also helps cement to the neighbors on our right that we aren’t in Martell by passing Darkstar which will hopefully have them sending cards in our houses our way in later packs). Our best choices are character control in Fishing Net or evasion and quasi-save in Bronn. While I would generally take control over deadly Bronn being a character with other use made him the choice I made, although it very well may not have been the correct one.

Pack 2 – Pick 3
Lannisport Moneylender, Knight of the Rainwood, Fishing Net, Jack of All Trades, Blue-Lipped Warlock, Eddard Stark, A Game of Cyvasse, House Dayne Reserves

We continue passing strong Martell cards hoping that the player on our right is in that house. Here we grab Fishing Net for some great control, although that Eddard is tempting.

Pack 2 – Pick 4
Pyromancer’s Apprentice, Heart of the Stag, Riverrun Messenger, Oldtown Scholar, Vanguard Lancer, Advisor to the Crown, Maester Myles

Not much to see here. Oldtown Scholar and Vanguard Lancer (in that order) are two OK picks, but Pyromancer’s Apprentice gives us some location control we haven’t seen yet.

Pack 2 – Pick 5
Ser Brynden’s Guile, Hellholt Engineer, House Tully Recruiter, Bloodrider, Eddard Stark, Guard at Riverrun

Eddard is absolutely the pick here with no competition. Even if we don’t end up in Stark I wouldn’t mind using him with Alliance. Deadly + power grab this late is solid.

Pack 2 – Pick 6
Fanatical Follower, Acolyte of Flame, Scurvy Cutthroat, The Citadel of Oldtown, Killer of the Wounded

Again a Scurvy Cutthroat passes us by. But the power of Fanatical Follower in draft is not to be understated as each player will almost certainly have multiple Sea/Rose Roads in play which makes him into a big body.

Pack 2 – Pick 7
Starfall Cavalry, Ser Brynden’s Guile, Dance With Dragons, Ride Them Down

And this pack rolls back around. There isn’t a good choice, but Starfall Cavalry is the least bad choice. We grab it up and are thankful we won’t see this pack again.

Pack 2 – Pick 8
Guilty!, Old Red Priest, Hired Swords

Old Red Priest and Hired Swords are pretty comparable in the long run as both are cheap aggressive dudes. The higher strength and warcrest win out over more icons, thought, especially with the chance that we may see a Die by the Sword in later packs.

Pack 2 – Pick 9
Eddard Stark, Blue-Lipped Warlock

Is this real life? How is an Eddard still making it around the table this late? Aside from A Game of Cyvasse I can’t think of much else from the pack we saw earlier I would take over Eddard. Doesn’t matter, we grab him and consider ourselves lucky.

Pack 2 – Pick 9
Heart of the Stag

Not all of them can be winners.

Pack 3 – Pick 1
I’m You Writ Small, Watcher of the Nightfire, Maester of War, Kingsmoot Hopeful, Poisoned Knife, Knight of the Tumblestone, Tyrion’s Enforcer, Maester of Lemonwood, Stinking Drunk, Littlefinger

Easy choice here. Littlefinger offers stealth and efficiency all on one package (that can even be reduced by any shadows card we pick up) that no other cards in the pack can compete with.

Pack 3 – Pick 2
Ill Tidings, Knights of the Realm, Rhaegal, Drowned Disciple, Lord Tyrion’s Host, Street of Sisters, Wars Are Won with Quills, Fanatical Follower, Jack of All Trades

Not a ton of lot of options in this pack. Rhaegal is a bomb but I’d rather keep shipping strong cards that aren’t in our house to keep signaling that we aren’t interested in Targ. Fanatical Follower and Jack of All Trades are solid cheap bodies, and Street of Sisters wouldn’t be a bad choice either. In the end a tricon that can give himself crests wins out.

Pack 3 – Pick 3
Hear Me Roar, Seat of Power, Schemes of the Scholar, Damphair’s Drowned, Starfall Cavalry, Fanatical Follower, I’m You Writ Small, Warrior’s Sons

We’ll pick up another cheap body, although Fanatical Follower would have been good as well. It hurts to pass up I’m You Writ Small and that may have been the best choice here. Hopefully either it or Hear Me Roar comes back around.

Pack 3 – Pick 4
Smuggler’s Cove, Blue-Lipped Warlock, Lannisport Moneylender, Hired Swords, Qartheen Fanatic, Enemy Informer, The Power of Blood

Big score in this pack. Enemy Informer is just as strong in draft as it is in constructed and we take him without hesitation.

Pack 3 – Pick 5
Viserys Targaryen, Dornish Hermitage, Northern Steel, Lannisport Moneylender, Guilty!, Misinformation

It hurts to pass that Misinformation but we haven’t picked up much extra econ yet (just that Refurbished Hulk back in pack 1) so the Moneylender is the stronger choice. Sadly we won’t get this pack back around again but we have to live with that.

Pack 3 – Pick 6
House Tully Recruiter, Tribleless Vagabond, Ser Brynden’s Guile, Die by the Sword, Khal Drogo

Passing Khal Drogo is physically painful but has to be done. The Vagabond’s stealth and potential ability for multiple icons beats out Die by the Sword since we are low on war crests to use with it.

Pack 3 – Pick 7
Poisoned Knife, Maester of Lemonwood, Stinking Drunk, Tyrion’s Enforcers

Not a lot of choices here as we move into the dregs of the pack. Tyrion’s Enforcers is at least in one of our houses and can potentially participate in multiple challenges so he’s not the worst pick in the world.

Pack 3 – Pick 8
Knights of the Realm, Lord Tyrion’s Host, Wars Are Won with Quills

Really this pick could have gone either way between the Host and Wars Are Won with Quills. I grabbed the dude over the trick but either would have been decent.

Pack 3 – Pick 9
Hear Me Roar, Schemes of the Scholar

Well the I’m You Writ Small isn’t here (shocking no one) but at least we got the plot. Five gold is great and means we can replace one of our 5 plots from the draft starter, and the potential strength reduction could come in handy.

Pack 3 – Pick 10
Qartheen Fanatic

About what you would expect from pick 10.

Pack 4 – Pick 1
Victarion Greyjoy, Tyrion Lannister, Direct Assault, The Power of Faith, Acolyte of Flame, Wars Are Won with Quills, Gutter Rat’s Cunning, Damphair’s Drowned, Much and More

Victarion and Tyrion are two obvious bombs here. We grab Tyrion as we don’t have many warships to power Victarion as well as the fact that Tyrion gives us stealth. It’s doubtful to see Victarion come back around but we should keep an eye out for Damphair’s Drowned and Much and More.

Pack 4 – Pick 2
Acolyte of Flame, Guilty!, I’m You Writ Small, Condemned, Killer of the Wounded, Guard at Riverrun, Arriane Martell, Brienne of Tarth, Lashing Out

Wow there are some strong cards here. Arriane is enormously powerful and comes with evasion so we grab her up. I know we’ve been passing some strong Martell cards earlier but the only comparable one was Darkstar and since he was House Martell only we can’t splash him. Arriane, on the other hand, is something I would absolutely use my Alliance for, or even pay 6 gold for her on other turns. Hopefully one of the other power cards in the pack come back around.

Pack 4 – Pick 3
Acolyte of Flame, Orphan of the Greenblood, Fiery Followers, Silent Sisters, Dayne Spearman, Eddard Stark, Renly Baratheon, Maester Myles

There’s no need for a third Eddard when we proably aren’t going to play the second so we write him off immediately. Orphan is strong but not having him cost 0 to help with setup hurts. We grab Silent Sisters to give us another shadows card to use with Tyrion as well as being a potentially large body.

Pack 4 – Pick 4
Oldtown Scholar, Fanatical Follower, Lightbringer, Theon Greyjoy, Edmure’s Host, Naval Escort, Dayne Spearman

Theon rules in draft. With his repeatable character and location control on top of stealth he’s just plain nuts. Naval Escort gets passed up again but Theon is just so much stronger.

Pack 4 – Pick 5
Guilty!, R’hollor’s Blessing, Hellholt Engineer, Blood of the Dragon, Above the Sorrows, Knight of the Tumblestone

We grab a claim two plot that lets us get rid of Feast or Famine from our draft starter (that plot is terrible and should pretty much always be replaced). It has the added benefit of being a river which means it will trigger our Shores of Ny Sar to give some more card advantage. The clear choice in this pack.

Pack 4 – Pick 6
Dayne Spearman, Fiery Followers, Acolyte of Flame, Ancient Mariner, Chella, Daughter of Cheyk

Windmill slam that Chella and don’t look back. Stealth with the added benefit of location control that works with the Vagabond we picked up last pack is huge.

Pack 4 – Pick 7
The Power of Faith, Direct Assault, Gutter Rat’s Cunning, Damphair’s Drowned

Well the Drowned came back around. He was on the short list the first time we saw this pack so we take him and move on.

Pack 4 – Pick 8
Guilty!, Lashing Out, I’m You Writ Small

We finally pick up an I’m You Writ Small. I’ve probably been undervaluing this card so far in the draft as it’s basically a removal card so I’m glad I finally got one. The Lashing Out has promise but is eclipsed in power by the surprise deadly.

Pack 4 – Pick 9
Lightbringer, Renly Baratheon, Acolyte of Flame

We had some technical difficulties in the draft here (counting is hard for some people ) so the last picks were thrown off. I have no interest in any of these cards so I grab Lightbringer to make sure I don’t run into repeatable attachment based saves since we have no attachment control so far.

Pack 4 – Pick 10
Renly Baratheon

The player to my left and I randomly chose one of the last two cards in that pack. I ended up with Renly which is what I probably would have taken to anyways. Still not a card we will play but he is useable in several challenges and has a strong immunity so I’d rather not have to see an opponent playing him.

Pack 5 – Pick 1
Vanguard Lancer, Myrish Villa, Edmure’s Host, The Iron Mines, Smuggler’s Cove, Watcher of the Nightfire, Maester Cressen, Red Vengeance, Court Advisor, Family, Duty Honor

Here we have another fairly week first pack. The Iron Mines is the only real choice and it is a strong one. Unfortunately we will be seeing his pack again and I can’t imagine anything I’d like to take on the next go around.

Pack 5 – Pick 2
Tribless Vagabond, Wars Are Won with Quills, Orphan of the Greenblood, Poisoned Knife, Heart of the Stag, Northern Steel, Ser Boros Blount, Daenerys Targaryen, Meraxes

Meraxes is easily the strongest card in the pack. Repeatable card draw packaged with helping guarantee an extra power each round from domiance is too god to pass up. Another card I would absolutely splash for, although it is getting near the point to be careful about splash picks as we only have Alliance once every 5 plots and otherwise we will likely only be playing our splashed out of house card during marshalling on the turn we play it.

Pack 5 – Pick 3
Maester of War, Blood of the Dragon, Condemned, Knight of the Tumblestone, Fishing Net, The Power of Arms, Aegon’s Blade, Maester Myles

Not much of a choice here when we can grab in-house character control.

Pack 5 – Pick 4
Street of Sisters, Gold Cloaks, Northern Steel, Knight of the Rainwood, Enemy Informer, Dorne, Tarle the Thrice-Drowned

Here’s another pick where I’m confident I made the wrong choice. My gut told me to grab another Informer and move on but looking at Tarle made me hesitate. He basically gives you the ability to ignore your opponent’s military claim for 3 rounds while collecting power. I couldn’t pass that up, but I probably should have. This is the one pick out of the entire draft that made me hesitate the most and I’m still not 100% sure what I should have chosen. But I did grab Tarle and regretted the choice, although I’m sure I would have felt the same way had I gone with the Informer.

Pack 5 – Pick 5
Flame-Kissed, Frozen Solid, Seductive Promise, Vanguard Lancer, Dornish Hermitage, Damphair’s Drowned

I have no idea how a Seductive Promise has been passed over this many times but I won’t make that mistake. Missing another Drowned hurts but the tempo swing offered by Seductive Promise is too good to pass up.

Pack 5 – Pick 6
House Tully Recruiter, Knight of the Rainwood, Gutter Rat’s Cunning, Advisor to the Crown, Starfall Cavalry

Might as well grab another positive attachment to give stealth to one of our (admittedly few) strong characters that don’t already have it. Hate drafting the Cavalry crossed my mind but wasn’t worth it in the end.

Pack 5 – Pick 7
Court Advisor, Smuggler’s Cove, Watcher of the Nightfire, Family, Duty, Honor

We pick up the best card in the pack. For some reason I didn’t work this into my deck but I totally should have. Being able to give out stealth is great as evasion wins games.

Pack 5 – Pick 8
Tribeless Vagabond, Wars Are Won with Quills, Heart of the Stag

We grab another stealth guy who also happens to be the best card in the pack and works with the Chella we picked up. Nothing else to see here.

Pack 5 – Pick 9
Blood of the Dragon, Condemned

Condemned at least offers the thought of character control and works nicely with the Meraxes we grabbed. It’s still probably not making the deck but has a better chance than Blood of the Dragon.

Pack 5 – Pick 10
Northern Steel

No picture of this one as we were ready to rush off and make our decks. Very much a tenth pick.

And here’s the deck we ended up with.

House:
Lannister

Agenda:
Treaty

Plots:
Shores of Ny Sar
Above the Sorrows
Wildfire Assault
Alliance
Hear Me Roar

Characters:
Damphair’s Drowned x3
Fanatical Follower x1
Oldtown Scholar x1
Tribeless Vagabond x2
Silent Sisters x1
Jack of All Trades x1
Dagmer Cleftjaw x2
Tyrion’s Enforcers x1
Lord Tyrion’s Host x1
Theon Greyjoy x1
Chella, Daughter of Cheyk x1
Enemy Informer x1
Pyromancer’s Apprentice x1
Bronn x1
Tyrion Lannister x1
Ser Jaime Lannister x1
Tarle the Thrice-Drowned x1
Littlefinger x1
Arriane Martell x1
Eddard Stark x1

Attachments:
Pyromancer’s Cache x1
Gutter Rat’s Cunning x1
Fishing Net x1

Events:
Seasick x1
I’m You Writ Small x1
Seductive Promise x1

Locations:
Searoad x3
Roseroad x3
Sunset Sea x1
Iron Mines x1
Meraxes x1

I was able to put together a pretty solid Lannister Treaty to Greyjoy deck. Sadly the Targaryen secondary plan didn’t work out in the long run, but Greyjoy made for a strong deck due to some of their control as well as bringing some very aggressive characters to the table.

Generally when I go into a Thrones draft I assume I am going to be playing the Treaty agenda and therefore am not too concerned about going after just one house. If you are able to draft a solid one-house deck then more power to you. However you are able to make stronger and more varied decks when using two houses. You just need to remember that to win you need 20 power instead of 15 so you are in for a longer game than usual.

Round 1 – Darryl Loyd Greyjoy No Agenda

Darryl was sitting directly across the table with me so he was also able to draft Greyjoy, although he did so more heavily and was able to put together a deck without needing the Treaty agenda. I kept a very questionable hand with a setup of Meraxes and an Oldtown Scholar. This turned out to be fine as the repeatable card draw was huge all game. Eventually Darryl was whittled down to only a few cards in hand and I was able to maintain a decent sized grip the entire game. Darryl’s deck was quite strong with several bomb characters like Balon Greyjoy and Robb Stark. He had both of them out early in the game, and I was able to reliably control Robb so that he couldn’t bring the kill online. It would have been an easier game if he hadn’t had a Scurvy Cutthroat out to negate the Fishing Net I had in my hand all game that I would have loved to play on Robb. The round that sealed the win was using Seasick to cancel his Longship Iron Vicotry that he was counting on to let him win a military challenge with Robb to off my Ser Jaime Lannister loaded up with Gutter Rat’s Cunning. Jaime did have a Condemned on him for most of the game, but between Meraxes and Dagmer Darryl was never able to win dominance. Eventually when my board position was strong and Darryl was low on cards he conceded the game.

Round 2 – Ben Terpstra Lannister Treaty to Targaryen
This was one of the most swingy games I’ve ever seen. Ben got off to a huge early lead with Robert Baratheon gaining a ton of power. Additionally, Ben had a Fiery Followers supported with Smuggler’s Cove; this was exceptional as it gave him (effectively) a 4 stregnth tricon with renown and stealth. Eventually I was able to take care of Robert with a well timed I’m You Writ Small and took control of the game for several rounds, eventually getting up to around 12 power. Eventually, though, I ended up having to Wildfire myself which took out my huge board which notably consisted of Theon Greyjoy, Jaime Lannister, Tyrion Lannister, Bronn, and Chella. After that I wasn’t able to keep up with his Fiery Followers and they were able to push him through to victory.

Also of note during this game I decked myself due to having Pyromancer’s Cache and Meraxes on the board beginning turn one. This definitely didn’t help as in the last few turns all I had to use was what was in my hand and on the board. Once Wildfire hit I knew I was doomed but kept going since I was fairly close to victory.

Round 3 – Will Lentz Baratheon Treaty to Martell

Will’s deck was super annoying. I hadn’t played against Dayne Spearman before and he had at least two of them that I saw. He also had a ton of other icon control like Orphan of the Greenblood and several influence effects that it seemed like no one else at the table was drafting. In hindsight this game was decided fairly early when, on the first turn, I was able to knock a copy of Westeros Bleeds out of his hand. This became apparent when he revealed that he had picked up Melisandre’s Scheme and would have been able to replay all of his characters that were discarded. It was still a hard fought game in which Will was pissed that I didn’t ever play a non-unique of cost 2 or less that he could use the Enslaved in his hand on. I was working with Arriane from turn one on, and Dagmer, Jaime, Tyrion, and Eddard shortly joined her. Eventually my huge amount of evasion was able to pay off and I was able to force through enough challenges to hit 20 power.

We ended the tournament with myself, Ben Terpstra, and Kylie Vancil all tied at 2-1. This led to us having to figure out who would when with standings using strength of schedule and in the end Ben took first, I took second, and Kylie took third. Hopefully you found this report helpful, or at the very least enjoyable! Hopefully once life calms down I’ll get back into the tournament routine, but until then I’ll always be happy to draft!