Game of Thrones - Swedish Nationals Report

Ours is the fury!

The weekend was spent in Linköping at the gaming convention LinCon, over the course of two days and consisted of a melee tournament (in which I finished 4th - last on the final table with my Greyjoy no agenda/Aeron Damphair deck) followed by the joust tournament the day after. The following report focuses on the joust tournament.

Ever since the news of John Bruno's success with a Baratheon The Long Voyage (TPoL) build in an early regionals tournament I felt that my goal for the upcoming Swedish nationals tournament was to continue to prove that Baratheon is yet again a strong house to rely on, much thanks to the additional draw due to TLV, recursion with Melisandre's Scheme (RotK) and power rushing with all the strong characters lead by Stannis Baratheon (VM).

After 4 weeks of play testing I felt pretty ready and knew exactly what my strengths were and what starting tactics to use based on my opponents deck type. Just a week before the tournament, Pirates of Lys arrived and with it Dale Seaworth (AToTT), which proved to be just the right piece to finish my deck building puzzle.

The evening before the tournament was spent doing some last minute tweaking and play testing. I played one and a half game against Mikael and got absolutely crushed. He was playing a Stark no agenda build which focused on nasty target kill effects like No Quarter (TBC), Die by the Sword (LoW), but also on getting Maege Mormont (AHM) out and pushing out location after location. I didn't stand a chance and gave up in the second game. This may, in the end, have forced me to do the last necessary deck changes to win me the tournament the following day. I switched out Wildfire Assault (Core) for Valar Morghulis (Core) and The Red Wedding (PotS) for The Art of Seduction (LotR).

So the day came where my deck building skills were put to the test. 18 people turned up and everyone was in a good mood.

First round: Johan Rosenströmer Greyjoy The Long Voyage 1-0

After playing Johan in several games during the melee tournament the day before i knew that he was a fairly new player but with a national win in World of Warcraft (TCG), I knew I couldn't underestimate him. Going into the tournament one of my biggest nightmares was playing a lot of Greyjoy, and especially those that were focusing on Winter and/or choke. Fortunately for me, Johan focused on none of the above, but instead went with characters with the holy crest.

I had a dream setup and managed to flood the board with 14-something cards (counting 4 characters with renown including Robert Baratheon (Core) and Stannis Baratheon (VM)) after the first marshalling phase, leaving my opponent with a dropped jaw and no choice but to show me Valar Morghulis (Core) the next plot phase. Playing The Power of Blood (Core) was not a hard choice for me and from there on it was game.

Second round: Amir G-man Martell No Agenda (Quentyn) 2-0

Amir is one of my friends from my meta and we had played twice during our local pre-nationals tournament two weeks before with the same decks. Both of those times the games had been at my command.

Amir didn't get a good start but managed to get both Quentyn Martell (VD) and The Viper's Bannermen (PotS) out pretty early. Unfortunately for him I saw his Red Vengeance (PotS) drawn due to TVB which made my challenge decisions easier during the course of the game. Amir did get Maester Kedry (FtC) out during round 3 but only had another 2 characters so it wasn't necessary for me to do a military challenge - especially not since I knew that he had red vengeance in hand.

In this game it took me 2 rounds to flood the board with characters and I ran to the finish line within 3 or 4 plots.

Third round: Adam Länsberg Lannister The Power Behind the Throne (LotR) 3-0

This was over quickly and must have been painful for Adam. He got a great setup with 4 characters and 2 locations, unfortunately for him, all of his characters cost 2 or less and I played The First Snow of Winter (ODG) and he played City of Lies (CoS). He ended up with no characters on the board in the challenge phase and I raced to 8 or 9 power. Next round I played The King's Law (KotStorm) and his 2 cards in Shadows were gone. And then it was over.

[float='right'][lightbox='1281901656/gallery_31_36133.jpg']1281901656/ffg_gallery_31_36133.jpg[/lightbox][/float]The game took about 10 minutes and we actually played another round just for fun. Ironically my setup that game resulted in only 1 card, Knight of Flowers (SaS), on the board.

Fourth round: Björn Jorner Martell TLV 3-1

Björn is a longtime archenemy of mine, and probably the player who knows my deck best. We played in the final of our pre-nationals tournament with the same decks and Björn managed to sneak out of that one with a win.

This game was really tough. Björn is a great player, not only because he doesn't overlook any possible outcome of a challenge, but because he never gives up. Even if he is down 0-14, he still has his stone face on.

I managed to rush up to 13 powers while Björn was sitting on 4 or 5, and if this would've been the first time I played Björn, I probably would've thought the win was securely in my grip. But no. He had Ghaston Grey (FtC) out and nicely waited out my Robert Baratheon (Core) to collect a fair amount of power for renown before bouncing up Arianne Martell (PotS) to lower my total power to 9.

And so the game went on, we rushed head to head up to 13-13 before it all came down to whom had the plot with the highest initiative to take the final 2 powers required. Björn came out with the initiative and managed to win a challenge and took the win.

Great, intense game, and always a blast to play Björn.

Fifth round: Mikael Petersson Stark No Agenda 4-1

This was, due to my practice games against Mikael the evening before, my nightmare matchup. Mikael is a very intense player and if he gets the advantage early on, he is very difficult to beat since he is very confident and if you're not too sure about your deck, you'll lose confidence in it.

But I decided to tell Mikael that I had tweaked my deck because of the way he crushed me the day before and that I was prepared for whatever he had against me. I think this made Mikael think about his decisions during this game a bit more and even though I knew from the start that I needed a lot of luck to win, I played all of my cards without hesitating a bit.

Mikael got a wonderful start with Maege Mormont (AHM), Maester Luwin (FtC) with a Rusted Sword (PotS) and Brienne of Tarth (PotS) out in the first round. I got a Stormlands Bastard (TIoR) and Stannis Baratheon (VM) out with a Loyal Guard (WotN), another duplicate, and Rh'llor's Blessing. I did a Power challenge with both my characters, stealth on Brienne hoping that Mikael would fall in the trap of putting both Maege and Luwin in there to trigger their effects after winning the challenge. He did and I played Heart of the Stag on the Bastard, winning the challenge. The following turn I played Valar to kill his key characters and after that he couldn't come back.

Top 8: Amir G-man WIN

I had confidence going into the top 8 knowing that I had beaten Amir in the group stages. Although this time he put up a real fight.

He got The Red Viper with a duplicate out early on and over the course of the game that turned out to be brutal. The pay-gold-to-stand effect was incredibly efficient and we raced head to head to 10 power each, with Amir having 7 power for renown on TRV.

The game ended 15-9 but it was closer than that. Amir put up a good fight even though my deck is a bad matchup for him.

Top 4: Johan Rosenströmer Greyjoy The Long Voyage WIN

Johan beat Mikael in the top 8 and since he knew how my deck worked after our first game in the tournament, I wasn't expecting an easy win.

The rush came early in this game as well and I saw the finish line until the point where Johan put out Victarion and two Priest of the Drowned God in combination with him managing to play Seductive Promises and stealing my Robert's Loyalists. The game became a bit more balanced but the amount of characters a managed to put out in the 4th round was too much for him to block. The most memorable part of playing Johan this tournament was his catchphrase "I attack you… in the eye".

Final: Martin Carlsson Greyjoy Black Sails WIN

This match was the most fun I had all day for two reasons: winning of course but actually mainly because Martin is such an awesome guy. Always professional, humble and a super smart player. A gentleman.

Martin saw the disadvantage of Black Sails in this game - getting 13 of 16 locations and nearly all the cancel cards in the Hold.

I got Knight of Flowers and Ser Eldon Estermont out in the first round and they rushed to 4 power each before Martin played Valar. After that it was difficult for him to come back since I got Melisandre out and in a couple of unopposed challenges I won the game.


Playing my regionals tournament was the most fun I've had playing Thrones. To spend two days with people 100% committed to this game was a blast! I want to thank everyone for a great tournament and especially Samuel who hosted the tournament.

See you in Stahleck people!