Crimson and Gold - Tournament Report

Here's a link to my decklist, and after you check that out we'll jump right into the action!

Rd. 1 vs Chris H. playing Martell KotHH

I held a small lead, just 3 power to 0 after three rounds, but Chris managed to trigger Flea Bottom Scavenger several times and establish board control. He brought out PotS Red Viper to win challenges, and meanwhile stopped my advances with annoying plots and events such as First Snow, Bungled Orders, Rally Cry, King’s Law, Shadows and Spiders, Favorable Ground, Westeros Bleeds, Burning on the Sand, Red Vengeance, and Nightmares. Chris of course recycled those events with Prince’s Plans, and revived a dead Viper with Blessed by the Maiden. My Alchemist’s Guild Hall prolonged the inevitable for a while, but eventually he won with Southron Mercenaries and the Viper, going from 6 power to 15 in a single turn.

0-1

Round 2 vs. A Guy Who Dropped

1-1

Round 3 vs Jeff R. playing Lanni HoD Casterly Rock

Jeff opened the game with a 6 card setup consisting of Gilly, Doubting Septa, Isle of Faces, two resources, and Casterly Rock. I countered with five cards of my own: Gregor’s dog, Kingdom of Shadows, Sunset Sea, Varys in shadows, and of course the Tunnels. In round one we both Harried the Riverlands, but I was still able to win a 2-claim military challenge. On the next round he Harried again to ease the pain from my Twist of Fate. On round 3 Jeff Valar’d, and then on turn 4 I was able to take control of the game with Cersei’s Scheme. On turn 5 I had a much larger hand, so I Valar'd to clear the board and used the Iron Throne to cancel Joffrey’s duplicate save. Jeff countered with Power of Blood to save his Tywin, but it didn’t matter. My Jaime came out from the shadows and racked up renown. Kingdom of Shadows stood Varys and Jaime several times throughout the game, and Tunnels also helped push through challenges.

2-1

Round 4 vs. Tom S. playing Lanni Power Behind the Throne

I setup GTM and Kingdom of Shadows, then Harried his characters pre-plot in case Tom planned to flip Fear of Winter. Instead he chose Twist of Fate against my Loyalty Money Can Buy. I won a single challenge and made it intrigue claim to widen the disparity between our hand sizes. On Round 2 I made a fairly obvious move, Valar’ing his board, and Tom played Fear of Winter. My one card was Guild Hall, his was Littlefinger… advantage me. On round 3 I won initiative with Twist of Fate, and won an intrigue challenge, pulling Widow’s Wail… which went straight onto my Arys Oakheart thanks to Tom’s Breaking and Entering plot. One the next turn I chose On My Oath to bring back Preston for easy triggering of the Guild Hall, and the turn after I shut down his Cersei’s Scheme turn with Shadows and Spiders, stopping all challenges. I won on the turn after that despite having never remembered to trigger his PBtT agenda (this occurred to me after the game’s conclusion). I’m not sure if that makes my victory more impressive, or just makes me an idiot. Also, we both had the Iron Throne out the entire game so that was interesting.

3-1

Round 5 vs Robby Stark playing Stark No Agenda

On turn one he opened with Fury of the Wolf, which punishes Lannister, but I managed to avoid losing a military challenge. Round 2 he grabbed Luwin with At the Gates while my Cersei’s Scheme helped kneel most of his board, but I couldn’t stop Maege Mormont from putting Harrenhal into play. Turn 3 my Shadows and Spiders stopped Robby from winning any military challenges again. Turn 4 I guessed correctly that he would reveal Outwit, so I played Twist of Fate instead of Valar. At this point I felt alright, but then Robby managed to push through a Price of War because I forgot his Greatjon’s Melee keyword and instead took away Robb’s renown with Pentoshi. So that bone-headed move cost me two locations... On turn 5 my Valar cleared the board. Robby countered with Minstrel’s Muse to try and close the game, but my beefed up Silent Sisters came out during the dominance phase to delay his victory. On turn 6 Robby brought out the Bastard’s Boys, and my Cersei can’t target Armies, so that engagement didn’t end well. Finally on turn 7 my only hope was for Robby to Valar his own board, but instead his final plot was Rule by Decree, which ended my hopes. Cat o’ the Canals and Northland Keep were extremely annoying throughout the match.

3-2

Round 6 vs Manuel R. playing Targ KotHH with Long Lances

I opened with Twist of Fate against his Forgotten Plans and won a 2-claim intrigue challenge, discarding the Red Keep for claim and discarding his Great Pyramid of Meereen with CbtC. So that worked out great. However, my Kingdom of Shadows spent a couple of turns standing Young Griff while Khal Drogo and Long Lances bounced around. On round 2, his First Snow slowed things down, then round 3 I decided to Valar because I had a couple cards waiting in shadows, but his King’s Law put an end to that plan. I wasn’t drawing any extra cards and things looked bleak. On turn 4 he Rally Cried away a Pentoshi instead of Tunnels. On turn 5 he Bungled into Valar. Turn 6 his Marched to the Wall took out his duped Rhaegal, but he had no other choice. My Varys discarded his Pyat Pree and won multiple 2-claim challenges thanks to Kingdom of Shadows. On turn 7, On My Oath brought back my Hound, who won an important challenge. Finally, on turn 8 Ser Jaime showed up in a big way, drawing 3 cards, but more importantly closing out the game with his renown.

4-2

Round 7 vs Tim W. playing Martell KotHH with Burning

Tim triggered Flea Bottom Scavenger on each of the first two rounds and the rout was on. Red Vengeance during a 2-claim intrigue discarded 2 Pentoshi Manors from my hand. On the next round he brought out Arianne, flipped into a surprise Valar, and then poured salt on the wound with Favorable Ground in dominance to discard 2x GTM and 1x Kingdom of Shadows. At that point my board was empty other than Tunnels. On turn 3 he brought out the Viper. Turn 4 he brought back Arianne with Judged by the Father and used her to flip into To the Spears! Tim’s Ser Arys discarded my Castellan too. When I tried to blank the renown on Arys with Nightmares, a Paper Sheild stopped that and Tim reached 15 power.

Final record:
4-3, missing the cut to top 32 by about 7 spots

Parting Thoughts

If I could do the tournament over again, I’d probably pack Rule by Decree over Loyalty to handle the Martell control decks, and I’d start with the Iron Throne instead of Tunnels in certain matchups. I’m also rethinking Castellan as the restricted card because he conflicts with Guild Hall, and I need the Guild Hall to slow down the Red Viper. The Hand’s Judgement stops Favorable Ground and friends, but it’s not efficient in other matchups, so I’m still torn over adding them.

Thanks to dcdennis for organizing the tournament (and the league too!), and thanks to all of my opponents, who were graceful in both victory and defeat.