OCTGN Tourney Report - Milling Raiders, a labour of love

I'm going to start off with a disclaimer saying that I did NOT make the cut. I started off pretty strong, but got obliterated in the later rounds. That said, I wrote a very detailed report after each round, sometimes thrilling, sometimes funny, and sometimes sad . I also included a screenshot of the final board state at the end of each match. I hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed playing the matches and typing it up.

Here is the deck I used in the tournament

Total Cards (95)

House (1)
House Greyjoy (Core) x1

Agenda (1)
The Long Voyage (TPoL) x1

Plot (7)
Loyalty Money Can Buy (QoD) x1
Rains of Autumn (Core) x1
Rise of the Kraken (KotS) x1
Fury of the Kraken (AE) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
Negotiations at the Great Sept (TPoL) x1
Forgotten Plans (KotStorm) x1

Character (46)
Euron Crow's Eye (TGM) x3
Ambitious Oarsman (RoR) x3
Bloodthirsty Crew (OSaS) x3
Motley Crewman (IG) x3
Euron's Enforcers (DB) x3
Iron Fleet Captain (CD) x3
Newly Made Lord (TftH) x2
Baelor Blacktyde (TIoR) x1
Dagmer Cleftjaw (KotS) x1
Asha Greyjoy (WLL) x2
Maester Wendamyr (KotS) x2
Alannys Greyjoy (ODG) x3
Distinguished Boatswain (TftRK) x2
Fishwhiskers (CtB) x2
Victarion Greyjoy (RotK) x2
Tarle the Thrice-Drowned (RotO) x1
The Reader (TGF) x2
Iron Fleet Raiders (MotA) x2
Moqorro (VD) x1
Ironborn Marauder (TGF) x2
Maester Murenmure (CbtC) x1
Qarl the Maid (AJE) x2

Location (32)
Corpse Lake (TBC) x2
Training Vessel (TIoR) x2
Captured Cog (AHM) x3
Naval Escort (ASitD) x3
Longship Grief (CD) x2
Fishmonger's Square (TftRK) x1
Bloody Keep (KotS) x3
The Iron Cliffs (HtS) x3
Gatehouse (KotS) x3
The Iron Mines (KotS) x3
River Row (QoD) x1
Street of Silk (LotR) x1
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
Street of Steel (LoW) x1
Longship Iron Victory (KotS) x2
River Blockade (RoR) x1

Attachment (6)
Support of Saltcliffe (GotC) x3
Kraken Tattoo (CoS) x3

Event (11)
We Take Westeros! (DB) x3
Raiding the Reach (TGM) x2
Finger Dance (WLL) x3
To Be a Kraken (SB) x3


Round 1 – Mathias Fricot (Baratheon Wildlings x 3) WIN (1-0)

I got a great starting hand here, with an Iron Cliffs and 2 copies Wendamyr, along with a Captured Cog, Naval Escort, Training Vessel and Street of Silk, so I dropped Wendy, the Street, and 3 warships and redrew into a Fishwhiskers, Murenmure, Ambitious Oarsman, To Be a Kraken and a Newly Made Lord. He opened with The First Snow of Winter, so of course I couldn’t drop any more of my cheap characters (I opened with Fury to turn on my TBK), and I drew into several more cheap guys... I dropped NML to discard his Massey’s Hook right away, and dropped Wendy’s duplicate. He spent all his gold on what would prove to be his biggest piece in the rounds to come, the dreaded Wildling Horde. I used Wendamyr on intrigue, as he had none, and discarded his dupe to keep him in play. With the two war crests he already had on the table, I was expecting 3 x Die By the Sword to be in his deck, and, sure enough, I pulled one out of his hand with my intrigue challenge. We each did a few more unopposed challenges (I used one save off my iron cliffs) and moved on. My dominance thanks to the Cog (as would be the case every single round, especially after I drew a second one in round 2). In the following rounds, I continued to do small strength intrigue challenges, miraculously pulling kill effects every time (he was running 3 Die By the Sword and 3 Terminal Schemes and only got to actually play one of each as the rest were discarded either from his hand on intrigue or from his deck through mill effects) and threw away small characters and soaked kills with Wendamyr.

I wanted to use Negotiations round 3, but he got off a 2 claim intrigue challenge in round 2 and emptied my hand, so I used Loyalty Money Can Buy and held onto 2 cards. We actually both used Negotiations on turn 4, and I used my own to draw into 2 Eurons (TGM) and a Qarl, as well as a Support of Saltcliffe that I regretted not playing (I could have knelt a warship with the Oarsman to reduce Euron by 1 more so I could drop it). By the end of round 4, I had 9 power and he had 10, and I had three saves on the board, so a Valar was in the back of both our minds, as he had played himself very thin. He only had 10 power out of 21 (and I knew he was expecting the Valar), so I used Forgotten Plans instead and he used Twist of Fate. He was quite happy with this until I pointed out that Twist of Fate cannot be blanked. I dropped a Bloodthirsty Crew and Victarion (RotK) and put Kraken Tattoo on Euron. I opened with an unopposed intrigue with Bloodthirsty, navaled in Qarl and pumped him with Training Vessel, for a total discard of 5 cards (and 5 strength added to Euron thanks to his menacing, new tattoo) and changed it to power claim with Twist of Fate. Then I pumped Euron twice more with Naval Escort and did an unopposed power challenge with him and Victarion for the win. Very intense game, and could have turned out very differently if not for my lucky discarding.




Round 2 – Angelo D’Elia (Greyjoy TLV - mirror match) WIN (2-0)

I didn’t get a great setup here, but I drew a Longship Iron Victory, a Training Vessel, an Iron Cliffs, a Motley Crewman, and a Bloodthirsty crew, so I kept it anyway (hard to pass up 4 cards drawn per turn from the get go, and the discard and save were a nice bonus). He was going to make this difficult for me, as he was running the high claim unopposed variant and dropped three 2 claim plots in a row. He had dropped 2 Iron Mines on turn 1, to my 1 iron mine and 2 iron cliffs, so I had the advantage in that department, but Orell the Eagle was a star for him all match. He was suffering from my lack of power, as his 2 claim power challenges were wasted on the single power on my house. For the first two turns, my saves turned him off of doing military challenges altogether (a mistake in my opinion). Being first player, I threw a challenge or two his way and let his go unopposed, and he got 4 power each round through unopposed challenges and dominance. His Fear of Winter on turn 2 assured me that a third turn Valar would be in my favour, as he didn’t drop an additional Iron location as his one card. I saved my whole board and he kept his Orell and a Bloodthirsty Crew.

I was ecstatic to see a Corpse Lake turn 3, as I had already dropped my Euron (TGM) as my single card on turn 2, as well as Motley Crewman, Training Vessel and Bloodthirsty Crew, so I was sure to be getting my 3 power off of it once I played it. Also, with Euron and Longship Iron Victory working over time, I draw capped turns 2, 3 and 4, which was nice. He unfortunately got no economy, which meant that he was only playing 1 or 2 characters each round. The first 2 rounds were him accumulating power and me discarding his deck (which quickly turned on the Alannys I drew into in round 3), and he reached 8 power and I only had my 1 renown on Euron (I was clearly playing the long game here). Round 3 was definitely where I turned it around, my Valar to his Rise of the Kraken meant he only had the two guys he saved to attack with as he had so little gold. He dropped a Scouting Vessel this turn, so I defended his military challenge with 2 guys, to make sure I’d win it, and let his power go unopposed, as I had no power for him to claim. He got up to 10 and I threw two no claim challenges at him for the unopposed, getting me up to a whopping 2 on my house and 2 renown.

Turn 4, I dropped the Corpse Lake, and he dropped a Drumbeater, a Captain of the Iron Fleet and a Naval Escort, making things slightly more complicated if I wanted to keep stalling him. His plot was Victarion’s Scheme and mine was Loyalty Money Can Buy, so claim was a fun game as well. In order to keep him from winning, I had to leave the military and intrigue unopposed, so I could oppose the power and keep him from setting off his Captain and getting power claim on top of it. The power was his third challenge, and he used the Captain alone. He stealthed Euron, I chump blocked with Motley and he tried to blank my strength, which I cancelled with my newly dropped Alannys. He bumped the strength to five with his remaining two warships and I bumped Motley by 1 to keep the margin small enough to prevent the Drumbeater. As such, he had no claim and netted no power off the challenge. I had picked up 3 power with Corpse Lake just from responding to his attacks with Euron, so it was 12 to 7, and I hit him with an unopposed (thanks to intimidate) military challenge to get rid of the Drumbeater (I knew he couldn’t afford to lose the others) and keep dominance a tie. Euron’s renown on my unopposed power challenge meant a total of 11 power for each of us at the end of round 4, and my heart skipped a beat when I drew Euron’s Enforcers with my Longship Iron Victory.

Round 5, I was expecting a Valar, so I was already planning my saves, but he dropped a Naval Superiority (Valar wouldn’t have helped anyway, but this certainly made things simpler). I dropped Rise of the Kraken and only played the Enforcers, he played Tarle and Moqorro – great cards, but they weren’t going to do anything for him at this point. I hit him with a 12 strength Intimidate power challenge (talk about overkill, eh?) for the win, the bonus unopposed power, 2 claim, and renown on Euron sealing the deal. All in all, it was a very fun match.



Round 3 – Alberto Garcia (Targaryen Dragons no agenda - Griff) LOSS (2-1)

Not much to say here, I lost, bad. I drew no economy and I misplayed in round 1 and never recovered. My starting hand was awful and my mulligan was no better. I dropped only Asha and a Motley Crewman; he dropped economy, a Meereenese Fighting Pit and a Qartheen Fanatic, then ambushed in a Dragon Thief and flipped Fear of Winter. My biggest mistake was worrying about his two claim and dropping a chump to kill instead of dropping my Euron’s Enforcers to take advantage of my Fury of the Kraken. His one card was Viserion (a perfect target for Fury...) and he slapped my guys around and never let up. Round 2, he flipped RBD to my Forgotten Plans (I was hoping he would use First Snow and flip RBD on the following round, so I made another unfortunate misplay) and I had to discard a bunch of good cards that I couldn’t afford to play anyway with my utter lack of economy. He Danced with Drogon (A Dance with Dragons) and then dropped dupes for both dragons. I still had no economy, so I dropped an Iron Mines for Viserion to discard and a Newly Made Lord to get rid of the Fighting Pit.

Round three, he got aggressive and dropped the 2 claim Men of Duty to my Loyalty Money Can Buy and danced with Rhaegal (the “pay a gold to find a dupe” one, interestingly, and even more interestingly didn’t spend the gold to find a dupe or two). I dropped Alannys and her dupe as my only cards, and he dropped a couple more dudes. He used Drogon to kill my Asha, which I cancelled with Alannys, and then he dropped Incinerate to burn away Alannys (killer move, kudos for that one). He killed Asha with his military challenge and forced me to Valar on Round 4 (again, surprised he didn’t grab a dupe for Rhaegal, as it meant that Rhaegal and his chump Qartheen Fanatics died). He flipped negotiations, so I used it in hopes of finding some economy, sadly shuffling two copies of a king Euron that I couldn’t afford to play back into my deck.

With his two claim plot and Viserion and Drogon staring me in the face, I couldn’t really play anything, so I just dropped the Longship Iron Victory I had just drawn and called it a day. He moved up to 10 power with the unopposed challenges and dominance, and we moved onto round 5. I finally drew a bit of economy, but it was far too late and he won it easily in two more rounds. That’s the story of TLV’s drawback... We played another one for fun afterwards and the results were vastly different, with me flopping 6 cards, milling his entire deck in 4 rounds, and him conceding. I forgot to snap a picture of the official match as I was too distraught, lol, but I did take one of the second game for board state comparison. The funniest part of all that is that he had actually suggested playing best 2 of 3, and I declined. Excellent match against an excellent opponent (he was eliminated in the top 16) and a deck that he touted as a TLV killer.



Round 4 – Brian “The Prophit (sic)” Finkenbinder (GJ Black Sails) WIN (3-1)

We both got a fantastic start here. By the end of Round 1 marshalling, I had a duped Euron, Fishwhiskers, 2 Ambitious Oarsmen (or should that be “Oarsmans”, as it’s a title?), a Motley Crewman, Longships Grief and Iron Victory, Street of Silk and a Bloody Keep. He had 2 Iron Cliffs, 2 Sunset Seas, The Reader and a bevy of other Naval characters to trigger his hold with ease, and a couple other cards that I can’t recall. Suffice it to say, we were both quite pleased with our draw... then I disconnected in the middle of my first challenge... After we started back up, we both mulliganed and I dropped a measly 3 cards (a Motley Crewman, an Iron Fleet Captain, and a Gatehouse), and he dropped an even worse 2 cards (River Blockade and Victarion). None of these are bad cards by any means, but they certainly made for very poor setups. I flipped Fury of the Kraken as per usual – I already had a To Be a Kraken in my hand that I was itching to use – and he flipped Naval Reinforcements and grabbed Wendamyr.

I had to choose between playing my Corpse Lake and playing my Iron Cliffs, as I planned on dropping Euron right away, but had no economy. Staring down his River Blockade, I went with Corpse Lake so I would have an easy soak for it and dropped the big guy. He also had no economy, so he dropped The Reader with a dupe, an Iron Mines, and an Iron Islands Brigand. I did a military challenge with Motley alone to either use up a save or get Victarion knelt and avoid his claim raising ability. He let it go unopposed and used a save. I played Raiding the Reach so I could discard a character immediately and trigger Corpse Lake, and reordered the top of his deck to be able to draw a card and trigger Corpse Lake again with Euron’s response when he attacked me. I still needed to keep my strength high enough to prevent a 2 claim military challenge coming through, so I passed challenges to him. I left his intrigue unopposed after drawing my card and claiming my power thanks to Euron and Motley Crewman doing work, defended the military he poked for with his Brigand alone, committing both my guys, as I knew he’d jump Vicky in via naval otherwise, and left his power unopposed for 2 claim.

Expecting a Naval Superiority round 2, I flipped Forgotten Plans. He used Twist of Fate instead, saying my guess would have been correct if he had had any economy going whatsoever. He was extremely pleased with the plot matchup for a second until I happily pointed out that his plot couldn’t be blanked (seems a humorously common occurrence for me, eh?). I played River Row, Asha, and the Iron Cliffs that fortunately hadn’t been intrigued out of my hand (helped no doubt by the fact that Euron draw capped me and provided it with a little buffer of extra cards). He spent most of his gold on Fleet from Pyke and then dropped his own Iron Cliffs. I hit him with my three challenges, choosing military claim on each and claiming a couple power each for Iron Fleet Captain and Asha. Both of his location saves were now used up (one having been cancelled by my TBK, which stood my Captain for his second power grab), as well as his dupe on The Reader. Obviously thinking it was more important to slow down my power gain than kill my guys, he used Victarion and the Fleet in a power challenge to take 3 from me. Round 3, he hit my Iron Cliffs with Nightmares, telegraphing his plot choice, though I had already expected it (he needed to break up the milling combo that was netting me crazy power gain and card advantage and nuke my efficient characters) and couldn’t really do anything about it.

I flipped Negotiations for the claim and the gold, as my other 2 claim was the 1 gold Rise of the Kraken. Euron alone survived the board wipe, I didn’t use the Negotiations because I was holding Victarion, but he did because he was desperate for economy. After I dropped Vicky, he was staring at 3 claim, so he spent his 2 gold on 2 more Iron Cliffs that I’m sure he would have loved to see pre-Valar to save his guys. After the Valar hit and cleared away my power laden characters, it had been his 8 power to my 5, but by the end of that round, it was my 11 to his 5. Round 4, I flipped Rise of the Kraken to put an end to it, and he flipped Rule by Decree, evidently not having any other plot that would do anything for him. The RBD hit nobody and I took the start and emptied out my hand. Doing the math, he knew that an unopposed power challenge would win it for me, and he didn’t have a single power icon in his hand, so he conceded. It was a fun game, but a crying shame that we didn’t get to play out the one before the disconnect.




Round 5 – Matthew Gehman (Stark Aggro TLV) LOSS (3-2)

This was an absolute s*** show, excuse my language. I actually thought I had a great start here, setting up a Distinguished Boatswain, an Ambitious Oarsman, a Street of Silk, and 2 Naval Escorts and drawing into Dagmer Cleftjaw, 2 copies of Euron, a Longship Iron Victory and another Boatswain. My opponent setup Robb Stark (KotS) and 2 economy locations; I was psyched that I already had king Euron in hand to shut Robb off before he got out of hand. I flipped Fury of the Kraken as usual, obviously hoping to get the extra use out of it against my Stark opponent, and he flipped First Snow of Winter to hit my two little weenies and dissuade any more from joining the fray (sorry, second boatswain). Before I played Euron, he used Robb, which was obviously a good move. I wanted to get maximum strength on the board, as well as someone to lose to military claim if it came to that, so I knelt my two Naval Escorts as reducers, and played Euron with his duplicate, Longship Iron Victory and Dagmer Cleftjaw. He played the Fleet from Wolf’s Den for free and then dropped Brienne of Tarth (PotS)... No Greyjoy player is happy to see her and I was thoroughly unimpressed.

I figured I’d force him to kneel out his people to avoid a counterattack, so I went all out military with Euron buffed by Longship Iron Victory and Dagmer. He defended with his 10 strength, as I figured he would. Then my heart sank when he dropped a Die by the Sword and chose duped Euron. Only now, as I write this, do I realize that the Stark Fleet isn’t the one with deadly, which is what I had thought its keyword was at the time, and that either the Fleet or Brienne should have died to Dagmer. I doubt that would have dramatically changed the match, though it definitely would have had an effect; I guess that’s life (with censored cards when you don’t bother to double check the text, lol). I won dominance thanks to Dagmer, then I Valared him out of pure necessity to get rid of “no saves or cancels” Brienne and Robb “once again the only King in play” Stark. This meant that I lost my Naval Escorts – a rare occurrence, to be sure, but a sad one – as I didn’t have a save available for Dagmer.

He flipped Minstrel’s Muse, and it seemed pretty likely that he would be getting the 3 power from it, as I only had 2 gold to spend. He dropped Northern Cavalry Flank (utterly ensuring his dominance; seriously, why isn’t this guy restricted in joust yet?) and Catelyn Stark with Nymeria. I used my Street of Silk and played Moqorro, so I wouldn’t lose anyone to claim, and then replayed my Boatswain. Off of his power challenge, which I left unopposed due to the deadly, non-kneeling Flank (I mean seriously...), he played Seductive Promise and took my Boatswain. Off his military, with the deadly, war-crested, non-kneeling Flank (...smh), he played Die by the Sword on Moqorro, which I cancelled with To Be a Kraken by standing my freshly knelt only character, and then he nuked my only two locations with Price of War. I’m pretty confident that he got the perfect draw.

From there on, it was a steady climb to 15 power, as he had sufficiently destroyed my board presence. He used Negotiations to refill his hand, played Reek and took Moqorro with him, and played Grey Wind (LoW) to kill the two Ambitious Oarsmen that I had recently played alongside another Boatswain and Iron Fleet Captain. On top of that, he had apparently decided to draw into pure efficiency now that he was done clearing my board and dropped Ser Jorah Mormont (PotS) and The Hound (PotS). It was all over but the crying; he reached 14 power in Round 4 and then picked up one more easily enough in the following round.



Round 6 – Greg Filip (Stark Siege) LOSS (3-3)

I set up Longship Grief, Bloody Keep, Iron Mines and an Ambitious Oarsman. My opponent got a Hungry Mob, Lucas Blackwood, 2 Fanatical Followers, a Carrion Bird, and a Roseroad. I flipped Fury of the Kraken and he flipped Storm of Swords, as he planned on going all out to win in 1 turn as Siege is wont to do. He dropped two Epic Battles; a Battle of the Whispering Wood and a Battle for the Shield Islands. I marshalled Maester Wendamyr with a dupe and then a Euron’s Enforcers in the hopes of getting a military challenge through and discarding NCF or Syrio if he played either one, and sure enough, he marshalled a card into shadows (guess who) and also played a Narrow Sea, which he used to play Ser Jorah Mormont, and a Feuding Clanswoman (which I now realize was too much gold, as he spent 5 gold to play 6 gold worth of characters, oops).

I decided against hitting him with military right away, as I preferred not to give him a third military challenge in the challenges phase, though I totally forgot I could have done one without kneeling my Enforcers thanks to Longship Grief (COLOSSAL misplay – as I could have discarded Jorah with Fury to make the bird and clanswoman useless for anything but stealth. This would have meant he still only got two military challenges through, as he only had two other possible attackers to use with the stealth guys. Then he wouldn’t have anyone for the epic battles, as I could still discard Syrio if he brought him out by winning another military challenge, and he would have only hit 6 power, but I digress). He got his two unopposed challenges through; I soaked them with Wendamyr and the Iron Mines. In the Epic Phase, he brought Syrio out, which is exactly what I was hoping for. I swung for military, he killed a chump Carrion Bird, I discarded Syrio with Fury, and killed Lucas with The Battle of The Whispering Wood, which he had forgotten about. He swung back for another unopposed military, and I killed the Oarsman, knowing full well that he would target Wendy with the epic battle, which I saved him from with his dupe. On his Shield Islands military challenge, he took my Longship Grief along with 3 more power. At this point, he had 12 power and I had 1, good start...

Round 2, I flipped Valar, as he only had 3 cards in hand and I could save my Enforcers. He flipped Fear of Winter, evidently not expecting the Valar. He went first and played Ghost as his only card, I played Fishwhiskers, as he could only stealth one person and I didn’t want him winning the military challenge. He still attacked me, stealthing the Enforcers, so I blocked with Fishwhiskers and buffed him with Longship Iron Victory for the win. I attacked back for the unopposed, and claimed dominance as well as I hadn’t spent my gold. Round 3, I flipped Rains of Autumn and he flipped Attack from the Sea, so we were both without our economy. I went first and marshalled an Iron Cliffs and Bloodthirsty Crew, and he marshalled Robb Stark (KotS) – kneeling him to play Northern Cavalry Flank (insert rant about NCF here) – and another Hungry Mob. I got a military through with the Enforcers and he killed his Hungry Mob, then I did power and he brought Catelyn in, which I cancelled to get my Enforcers back up. He brought her back in, but let me win, then he swung for military and I opposed it. He did a power challenge, which I left unopposed, so he got his 1 for claim and reached 14. Finally, in round 4, he flipped Dry Season to my Loyalty Money Can Buy. He marshalled The Hound (PotS) and I marshalled Tarle Thrice Drowned knowing full well it was over. He attacked for military and won the game. I’m still kicking myself over that initial misplay, no excuses.

I was hoping that Greg would win his final round and make the cut, so I could say that everyone that together knocked me out of the running was in the top 16, unfortunately he didn't play it and ended up with a draw, .



Round 7 – Iiro Jalonen (Lannister TMP) LOSS (3-4)

Despite the loss, this was probably the most fun match I had all tourney (maybe that’s just because nothing was riding on the outcome, lol), it really came down to the wire and was a great final game for my retired TLV deck. He threw the usual suspects on his agenda (a total of 7 links) and we got to it. I setup an Ambitious Oarsman, Qarl the Maid, and a Bloody Keep and redrew into Euron and a Kraken Tattoo, sadly the closest I came to my combo as I was never able to find a Support of Saltcliffe, and he setup a card in shadows, Queen Cersei’s Chambers, Tommen, and an Oldtwon Scholar. Round 1 he used At the Gates to put Creylen into play, while I predictably started with Fury of the Kraken and went first. He started off by using Tommen for the only time, as King Euron was about to make his grand entrance. I played River Blockade (Which did double duty as a reducer thanks to the Oarsman) and played Maester Murenmure first, fearing A House Divided, then played Euron and put the Kraken Tattoo on him. He duped his Creylen and made him a noble with Rich Lands and a Keep, and played some economy in the form of a Goldroad and two gold weenies.

I poked for intrigue with Murenmure, and he tried to discard my attachment with Ill Tidings, which I cancelled with Qarl and a Finger Dance. He defended the intrigue and I passed, as I didn’t want to lose anyone to a military challenge. During dominance, he brought the Pyromancer’s Apprentice out of shadows to discard my River Blockade. Round 2, I flipped Rains of Autumn to negate all of his troublesome Lannister gold producers, and he used Cersei’s Scheme and won initiative. He only had 3 gold, so he put a Gilded Plate on Creylen and played The Iron Throne. I played a Captured Cog to replace my discarded River Blockade, then played Euron’s Enforcers and Iron Fleet Raiders. He was able to kneel out all my people with during his challenges, during which he picked up a couple more power, and I won dominance.

Round 3, he played Power of Blood and I played Forgotten Plans. I played another Iron Fleet Raiders, a Naval Escort and Fishwhiskers, and he played Ser Jaime (LotR) and The Citadel of Oldtown. I had big plans for this turn, thinking I could get discard effects on my power and intrigue challenges to pump Euron up and get a big military challenge through, but he was having none of it. I started with the power challenge with the Enforcers, thinking the 9 strength intimidate was unbeatable and that I’d get to use my We Take Westeros, and he dropped The Only Game that Matters to ruin my day. Next, I poked for intrigue with Murenmure, planning on jumping Qarl in to discard some cards and intimidate any weenies he threw in my way, but he defended with his 9 strength Creylen and ruined that plan too. I added Qarl in any way to get some cards milled and pump Euron a bit, but he cancelled Qarl’s response with the Iron Throne and won the challenge... I finished with my mil challenge, which he actually left unopposed anyway, killing the now useless Tommen. He just did an unopposed intrigue for the renown and Creylen’s power grab and let me have dominance again.

Round 4, he used Wildfire Assault to get the board back to a manageable state and I used Rise of the Kraken and took first player. I kept my three intimidators on the board in the hopes of doing some damage with my plot. I played another Oarsman, a Newly Made Lord to get rid of the Iron Throne, and Asha Greyjoy (WLL). He dropped another Oldtown Scholar and two Kingsguard Squires, much to my chagrin. I swung with power first again, and he didn’t have another copy of his event, so I discarded 8 cards off the top of his deck and pumped Euron by the same amount. Then I went for intrigue with Asha, again hoping to jump Qarl in, but he blocked with Creylen, then made him Kingsguard and stood him back up with the Squire as I knew he would. I used Euron for the uo military challenge and reached 13 power – so close and, yet, so far.

At this point, he was only at 6 power, so I figured I would simply oppose everything and keep him down, but he had super Creylen and Sitting the Iron Throne, so he did the intrigue again for some power gain and then made sure he’d win dominance and have plenty of gold for the event. He managed to hit 12 power by the end of the phase. Final round, I only had a 2 and a 3 initiative plot, with the Cog on the board, so I prayed that 4 initiative would be enough to give me initiative and used Negotiations to refill my hand, looking for an answer to Creylen (To Be a Kraken, Support of Saltcliffe, I needed something). I didn’t get the answer I was looking for and he won initiative with Attack from the Sea (so I wouldn’t have gotten it either way in a tie at 13 power to his 12). He went first and I knew that if it got to dominance, the game was his. I hoped I’d have enough to prevent him winning during challenges, so I could swing for one big challenge and close it out. It wasn’t meant to be, though, as he had refilled his hand as well and dropped two renown characters, Tywin (LotR) and Aerys. I dropped a second Enforcers to stop anything but intrigue from going through; unfortunately, all he needed was the one intrigue challenge, with Jaime, Tywin and Creylen, to seal the deal. In hindsight, I should have been skipping the intrigue challenges against him, as I was simply giving Creylen power with them (and I also probably shouldn’t have let him refill his hand), but hindsight is 20-20, as they say. It was a very fun match and the biggest nail biter of the tournament for me.



All in all, this tournament was a blast to play – even if I couldn’t make milling Raiders a thing – and I want to thank Dennis for all of his tireless efforts in organizing and running it. I look forward to the next one!