Greece: Joust Tournament Report

Hello CardgameDB fans from rainy Greece. It has been a while hearing from us but as you know Summer in Greece lasts until the end of September and our new Official AGoT season started 2 weeks ago.

I was thinking what could be the best way to report here our 2^nd Official Joust of the year and I asked myself “what is better than a tournament report”. The answer was… a double tournament report! So I asked one of the other players, that we write articles together to a local blog about AGoT here in Greece, to compile his report about the tournament (4^th place) so that we can have a double report for you guys. Hope you enjoy it!

The event was held in one of the stores that support AGoT here in Greece simultaneously with a Star Wars – X Wing celebration as you will see from the photos.




I captured 1^st place in the tournament with skill but a good measure of luck too. 21 people came to the event. I saw the report about Gen Con and the Lannister winter deck that did amazing there. As I read the player didn’t want to share his list, so I took the opportunity to compile a Lannister winter deck of my own. I will write the decklist further down and it would be great for the winner of Gen Con if he reads this to stop by and give some comments about how different or not our lists are



Decklist 1st Place - 61 cards

House Lannister (Core)

Kings of Winter (TWoW)

Plots

A Time for Ravens (ACoS)
Manning the City Walls (CD)
A City Besieged (CD)
Winter Festival (WotN)
The Winds of Winter (TWoW)
Rule by Decree (Core)
Valar Morghulis (Core)

Characters: 36

Enemy Informer (Core) x3
Samwell Tarly (TRS) x3
Janos Slynt (TWoW)
Castellan of the Rock (BoRF) x3
Painted Dogs (IG) x3
Qyburn (SaS)
Cersei Lannister (LotR)
King Joffrey's Guard (TWot5K)
Penny (VD)
Timett Son of Timett (MotM) x2
Carrion Bird (ASoS) x3
Lannisport Steward (Core)
The Burned Men (MotM) x2
Tyrion Lannister (LotR) x2
Varys (SaS)
Tommen Baratheon (SA)
Ser Arys Oakheart (PotS)
Ser Jaime Lannister (LotR)
Mountain Refugee (RoW) x3
Chella, Daughter of Cheyk (Core)
Ser Ilyn Payne (Core)

Locations: 20

Shadowblack Lane (Core)
Sunset Sea (Core) x3
Volantis Inn (AHM)
The Goldroad (Core) x3
Street of Steel (Core)
Golden Tooth Mines (Core) x2
Lannisport Brothel (Core)
Coin Mint (LotR) x3
River Row (QoD)
Flea Bottom (TGM)
The Inn of the Kneeling Man (FtC)
The Iron Throne (LotR)
Lannisport Tourney Grounds (ODG)

Events: 3

You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf! (Core) x3

Attachments: 2

White Raven (TWoW) x2


Standings
1. Karab, Gio (Lannister, Kings of Winter)
2. Patellis, Grigoris (Lannister, The Power Behind the Throne)
3. Dimitropoulos, John (Baratheon, No Agenda)
4. Tyrionas, Thanassis (Martell, The Maester’s Path)
5. Papatheodorou, George (Targaryen, The Maester’s Path)
6. Marinopoulos, Assimakis (Stark, Kings of Winter)
7. Xenakis, John (Targaryen, Knights of the Hollow Hill)
8. Ntargaras, Antreas (Stark, Kings of Winter)
9. Goumas, Kostas (Lannister, Kings of Winter)
10. Mpokas, Makis (Stark, The Kindly Man)
11. Louziotis, Ilias (Martell, Knights of the Hollow Hill)
12. Ntemiris, Panagiotis (Greyjoy, Kings of Winter)
13. Kasdovasilis, Dimitris (Martell, Kings of Summer)
14. Remoundos, Andreas (Martell, No Agenda)
15. Dimas, Ilias (Targaryen, Knights of the Hollow Hill)
16. Voudouris, George (Stark, No Agenda)
17. Apostolidis, Giannis (Stark, Knights of the Realm)
18. Karimalis, Dimitris (Martell, Kings of Summer)
19. Chatzigiannis, Michalis (Stark, kings of Winter)
20. Potiriadi, Eliza (Targaryen, Knights of the Hollow Hill)
21. Ouranis, Kostas (Lannister, No Agenda)


House Breakdown
Stark – 6
Martell – 5
Lannister – 4
Targaryen – 4
Greyjoy – 1
Baratheon – 1

Agenda Breakdown
Kings of Winter – 6
Knights of the Hollow Hill – 4
No Agenda – 4
Kings of Summer – 2
The Maester’s Path – 2
The Power Behind the Throne – 1
Knights of the Realm – 1
The Kindly Man - 1


Round 1 – Vs Chatzigiannis Michalis (Stark Winter) 1-0
Michalis is a new player here in Greece and is trying really hard to be one of the best. His mistake though came early on. I started the game with a Samwell Tarly and 2 other characters and a few locations and Michalis started with locations only. I played Rule by Decree (Core) as I always do vs other decks that run seasons so I can leave them with 4 cards in hand as I don’t care all that much about winter. He played Valar Morghulis (Core).

The game was lost there. I always think that valar first plot is a bad idea and in that game I was right. I exploded all my characters in turns 1, 2 and 3 and eventually overwhelmed his characters as I had the kneeling part that he hasn’t.


Round 2 – Vs Dimitropoulos John (Baratheon No Agenda) 2-0
John is playing Baratheon a whole year now and he has tuned his deck to be one of the best rush decks out there. Unfortunately for him I had 2 choices early on in the game and I took the right decision. As the game was at its first turn I had to deal with a Stannis Baratheon (VM) with a duplicate, a Robert Baratheon (Core), The Bastard of Nightsong (VM), a Watcher of the Nightfire (AHM) and a Highgarden Refugee (RoW). As I looked my hand I had 2 choices as I said above. The first choice was to go with Tyrion, Timett and some other clansmen and Valar at the first opportunity I get. The second choice was Castellan and informers as I had 2 in hand. I went with the kneeling plan. I reminded myself that John plays at least 1 maybe 2 The Power of Blood (Core) plots in his deck. So a Valar would only at best bring some balance to the table as we both would have characters down too. I chose correctly as Castellan, the informers and the Brothel kept Robert and all the other characters knelt long enough for me to grab the 15 power first.


Round 3 – Vs Louziotis Ilias (Martel KotHH) 3-0
Ilias is a new player too in our community but already a good one in my books.
I almost lost 2 games in the tournament and this was one of them. I remember having a great setup with The Iron Throne in it that is huge against Martell. I Remember having at 1^st turn 3 coin mints, so I could play anything I like. Then all become blur and I only remember The Red Viper (PotS) with a duplicate, a Taste for Blood (PotS) and a Rusted Sword (PotS) on him making him STR 6 and with fewer characters than me on the board… I manage to Valar as my opponent sits at 13 power already and almost kissed the Iron Throne that stopped his duplicate from saving him! I won the game at that point as I had Tyrion down at that moment with other clansmen that could save him. Lucky me he didn’t have just one He calls it thinking that he needed badly.

Round 4 – Vs Xenakis John (Targaryen Burn KotHH) 4-0
John is a close friend of mine but that doesn’t mean we take our games lightly. To the contrary tension is high and we both play our best. Unfortunately for him I had the perfect hand for Targaryen Burn. I played the Iron Throne that is huge against Targaryen too. I made it Winter and played Janos Slynt, and then with Manning the city walls plot I played King Joffrey’s Guard. The end. Perfect combo against Targaryen Burn. He Valar early to kill Janos and the army as I protect them with my Iron Throne from burn. But early Valar means I have a full hand to rise again to power.

Round 5 – Vs Patellis Grigoris (Lannister Rush PBtT) 5-0
Grigoris is one of the oldest players here in Greece and he plays Lannister from the beginning too. His deck is a Cersei Lannister (LotR) oriented deck. I knew I had the advantage of kneel against him. This was the second game that I almost lost and won by a mistake from my opponent. I had an excellent hand to start with but I messed up…I opened with The Winds of Winter (TWoW) plot as I had both Tarly and a White raven in hand and he opened with a Retaliation! (ASoSilence).
I made it Winter and I drew cards with Tarly I played penny and a refugee and I kept the coin mint for the end to play the big guns. Grigoris correctly let me play whatever I wanted and when the time was right he played a Nightmares (LoW) at my coin mint… Ok… that was bad… Cersei went down with a duplicate from him and some other characters and I was sitting with 4 cards in hand and no way to stop his 2 intrigue attacks from landing… I lost all 4 cards from my hand included a Ser Arys oakheart, Timett, Tyrion and Burned men. I was about to pay for my mistake… I was with 0 cards in hand and far behind in this game…Miracles do happen though if you stay focused in a game. And this time they happened.
I played the fetch the raven plot so that I can draw more cards. I drew 3 as I had a golden tooth mines down. Grigoris had a second nightmares and he played it correctly again on Tarly. Damn… Fortunately I had Ser Ilyn Payne in hand that killed his Myrcella, an informer that knelt his Cersei and The Burned Men to play at the next plot. Although I saw light at the end of the tunnel he was at 14 power at the end of the second turn.
I played Manning the city wals and dropped the Burned Men. That’s where he made a grave mistake. He wanted to bring 2 cards out of shadow this turn so at the start of marshalling he announced that he will bring Syrio Forel (TftRK)
out. He forgot about Ser Ilyn Payne. I killed Syrio fast because he could pass a military attack with stealth and end the game for him right there. He realized his mistake too late. The Burned men with the 2 claim plot killed Cersei and I could breathe again. Next turn a Qyburn brought Cercei form his dead pile for me and the game was mine from that point on.


I was happy for the first place in this tournament! Before I leave you to the second report I wanted to say something about takebacks in a game. Takeback as we call it is letting your opponent take back a move he did and do something else. I offer takebacks in official tournaments only to inexperienced players and only if we are at the same phase. Even if I lose to an inexperienced player from a takeback I don’t care. I want to help them love the game not hate it. I tell them though that they must be careful not to do that again. I don’t let experienced players take back anything! I am not a bad person but I had a terrible experience with takebacks back at the old days. I went as a member of the 3 best players here in Greece for the first time to a Team World Championship for the Lord of the rings TCG. Here in Greece we are almost all friends so we played with takebacks all the time. But when we went to the World Championship that wasn’t the case. We lost badly because we played knowing we could take back a move. Our opponent’s didn’t let us and rightfully so.
If we want to be good players we have to learn from our mistakes and when we do something that costs us we should carry on and learn from it. That is my point of view of course.

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2nd REPORT Tyrionas 4th Place Martell - The Maester's Path

It was the second official AGOT tournament of the season and it was combined with an X-wing release event which ment that Darth Vader, Boba fett, a storm trooper and a lot of food and drinks were there.



My deck choice: I havent played any games for more than 20 days so i decided to used my old deck, a Martell - Maesters Path which i copied from card game db and i amended to the local meta game parameters. It is obvious that after MP agenda has become x-listed (decent decision IMO) Narrow Escape (KotStorm)had to be replaced which had a huge impact on the deck's efficiency. Yet once more i have played more than enough games with that deck which made it the safest choice for the tournament.

21 players signed in for the Tournament. Among them was Panagiotis Demiris the winner of the previous tournament who wanted to prove that his success was a result of hard work and improvement and not based on beginners luck.

Unfortunatelly i couldnt pay attention to the other players progress so my report will be on my games plus all the talk that happened during the breaks.

Game 01 Win 1-0

Dimitris Karimalis | Martell - Kings of Summer

Thats an easy match up for my deck. Especially after i found out that his restricted card was venomous blade and not burning on the sands. My opponent made it summer since plot 1 which really boosted my "Maester of the sun" ability who kept everybody alive and kicking. Venomous Blades could not hurt my "Maesters of war" and on plot 4 i opened "To the Spears" and i had enough renown characters to reach 15 power.

At the same time Demiris' reign ended with a loss which came from one of his fellow men. But after all this is the Game of thrones.

Game 02 Loss 1-1

Giorgos Papatheodorou | Taragaryen - Maesters Path

Since narrow escape is not part of my deck burn strategy is a big trouble. I knew that my only chance to win the game was with an early rush. I made all the necessary preparations and all i needed was another character with renown. Unfortunately i run into 6 locations in a row out of the 12 i play in my deck (2x valyrian steel link at dominance phase / 2x valyrian steel link at plot phase, 2x draw phase) i couldnt make it to 15 and the game turned towards my opponent who has reached his 2nd official win against me for the season.

Game 03 Win 2-1

Dimitris Kasdovasilis | Martell - Kings of Summer / Hybrid

I was frustrated from my early defeat which meant that i couldnt compete for the first place since it was a swiss tournament. On the 3rd game i faced Dimitris, an old friend who is member of the promising team of Norvos along with Demiris, Dimitropoulos and Goumas who struggle to set their mark in this tournament season. Dimitrs is still experimenting with various decks and hasnt decided on his strategy yet. On top of that he did not have valar in his plots which meant that he could not stop my renown characters from reaching 15 power.

Game 04 Win 3-1

Ilias Louziotis | Martell - Knights of the hollow hill

I met Ilias for the first time and as he told me even though he plays a lot with his friends it was the 2nd tournament that he ever participated. Yet he has experience with card games as he was a MTG player. He had a Martell KOTHH with a bunch load of events and cancels. The good thing was that i got my cancels as well so after i countered his events by site 4 I had 5 renown characters (2 conclaves) that he couldnt stop. He also had the disadvantage that he wasnt aware of my the maesters rush deck so he became outplot easily.

Game 05 Win 4-1

Asimakis Marinopoulos | Stark - Kings of Winter

I couldnt expect a better challenge for game 5. At different times a game of Tyrionas Vs Asimakis could only be a final but many years have passed through both of us and our skill is not that sharp anymore. We both opened well and by site 2 we had 6+ characters each on the board. I also had 1 conclave + 2 more renown in my hand. At the same point i had a a conclave and Darkstar on the board. On plot 3 i decided to play "Art of seduction" in order to either prepare the field for "to the spears" or stack my opponent with a 0 claim 2 gold morghulis for 2 plots before i geta my chance to rebuild by board. Asimakis istead of Valar opened a plot where we could only play one card per round which made my life quite easy. I played a conclave on the first round + another renown character on the second and I made it to 15 power.

Once again we had a great time in another Agot tournament.

1. Gratz to Gio Karab for winning the tour with his Lannister Winter deck
2. Gratz to Gregory Patelis for finishing in the 2nd place with his Lanni kneel intrigue rush deck
3. I have already made all the need changes to my deck in order to claim the 1st place at the next tour.

Until the next time

Tyrionas