Greek Game of Thrones Nationals Report

"The night is dark and full of terrors..."

That's what I was thinking taking the stairs down to the great hall of Hotel Stratos Vassilikos leading me to the final table of the Regional held in Athens, Greece. Last year I was at the final table again but lost. This year was going to be different... But let's take this from the start.

Hello everybody welcome to a tournament report from Athens, Greece. At 11th of May the Regionals (Nationals for us here in Greece) of AGoT LCG were held at the Hotel Stratos Vassilikos in the centre of Athens.

35 men and women took up arms and hoped to seize the Throne for themselves. 34 of them were Greeks and 1 of them came from Spain.
In addition of the Regional kit prizes we threw in a Game Night Kit as well for the players as you can see in the next picture! (Epic art Daenerys)



For 2 whole weeks before the tournament with my girl and some friends we tested decks and tried to feel which one was going to take us to the top. The two decks that we focused on as time passed were a Targaryen Long Voyage Dragons deck and a Greyjoy Long Voyage Choke. I was confident though that the dragons were the better deck. But... when it comes to Dragons and women, well... there was nothing I could do. Huge thanks to my girl that wanted to play the Dragon deck like crazy so I gave it to her and instead I took the Ironborn to battle. 6 rounds of Swiss and then a cut to the Top 8. This was going to be a long day...

House Breakdown

Stark - 10 players
Greyjoy - 8 players
Targaryen - 6 players
Martell - 5 players
Lannister - 4 players
Baratheon - 2 players

Agenda Breakdown

Long Voyage - 9
House of Dreams - 9
The Maester's Path - 5
Knights of the Hollow Hill - 4
The Brotherhood Without Banners - 1
Knights of the Realm - 2
The Siege of Winterfell - 2
No Agenda - 2
Black Sails - 1




Let the games begin!

Round 1 Vs Teo Liapatis (Lannister Long Voyage) 1 - 0
The first match was an easy one. Although Teo is a great player (former National champion of Greece for Magic TCG) and a great guy, he was not prepared for this kind of matchup. I choked him early on with White Raven (TWoW) and The Sparr (APS). At a very crucial moment he tried to use Coin Mint (LotR) but a To Be a Kraken (SB) from me sealed the deal.

Round 2 Vs Tassos Moukas (Targaryen Knights of the Hollow Hill) 2 - 0
Another easy matchup for me. Not for the deck but for the player. Tassos is a new player and although he was playing a deck that won a Regional I think (I don't remember which one), he was making mistakes with his ambush characters and all of that stuff. It was an easy win but Tassos showed he can improve and be a good player. Near the end of the match disaster struck home. A banner fell on to our table and hit his coffee glasss. Unfortunately my cards were near... So instead of resting before the next game I was too busy changing sleeves to a Long Voyage deck (ouch!). Fortunately the cards survived and as Tassos said to me this was an omen of good luck for the rest of the tourney!

Round 3 Vs George Voudouris (Stark No Agenda / Kindly Man) 3 - 0
Now things were getting serious. George is playing for only a year or so but he is indisputably the best rookie player Greece has. We had played a friendly game 2 days ago with the same decks and i knew i had the advantage if I played good. His deck is focusing on destroying you from the very start with Icy Catapult (TWot5K) and repeating House Umber Berserkers (BoRF). I started with A Time for Ravens (ACoS) but surprise surprise he had The Weasel's Way (TIoR) so goodbye winter. I knew I had to win by brute force. Fortunately his Meera Reed (TftH) never showed up and Imanaged to pull off a difficult win. George went on and finished second behind me in the swiss rounds. Later on he got eliminated in the first round of the Top 8.

Round 4 Vs Grigoris Patellis (Stark Long Voyage) 4 - 0


Left upper corner (Me) - Right Upper Corner (Longhaired Grigoris)

Grigoris is a very experienced player. He was our Winter Champion here in Greece in a big tourney we had. The biggest mistake I made in the whole tournament was in this match. I started first making it winter and I remember having Wintertime Marauders (ACoS) and another character. He opened with Fury of the Wolf (AE) and he had a Northern Cavalry Flank (SA) and managed to play Robb Stark (LoW) too. Ok... I was in trouble... Quick math was telling me that if he uses the ability of Robb now that it was winter I was losing the militay challenge for 1 STR. So the staredown begun... I was staring at Robb... He was staring at my evil marauders.... I kept staring at Robb... He kept staring at my marauders... I attacked with all knowing I was doomed. He forgets that Robb gives + 2 STR in Winter and doesn't use the ability at all. I was relieved... Wow that was close... He kills Robb and he goes on for his challenges. He attacks with the Flank. Reality strikes home... I forgot to discard his flank with my marauders... Bad move spotted from both sides and we laugh talking about all our bad moves in plot 1. Fortunately for me the Red God was on my side in this tournament. His locations fail him and my choke starts to take its toll. I win. Grigoris made it to the top 8 but he lost in the first round.

Round 5 Vs Tyrionas Lannisteris (Greyjoy House of Dreams / Longship Iron Victory) 5 - 0
Ok Tyrionas Lannisteris is not his real name but that's what we call him Tyrionas was the same person I would eventually encounter at the final table. His deck was steamrolling everything up to this point with his 3 cost characters packed up with all their duplicates and a ton of saves. Tyrionas is one of the best players here in Greece and we both knew this was the game to win. He started with a 5 card setup for his HoD (wow!) and I managed to set up only 3 after a mulligan. Things weren't going well. I was always one step behind in saves, in characters and everything on the table. I knew I had to take a different approach in the game. I started to work slowly on my choke, meanwhile I chose to abandon every single challenge in my attacks except power challenges. That's what kept me in the game. Slowly the Long Voyage agenda showed it's strength. Inch by inch I climbed and when time was about to finish Asha Greyjoy (WLL) proud and unbowed gave me the marginal victory just in time with 15 power. The most difficult game up until now.

Round 6 Vs Panagiotis Demiris (Greyjoy No Agenda Choke) DRAW

Whatever the result here I knew I would be in the Top 8 and so did Panagiotis. We opted to rest and gather strength for the final matches ahead. But our swords were meant to meet again in the most exciting game of the whole tournament.

Final Standings after 6 rounds of Swiss

Included in the following leagues: Westeros 2013 (Joust), Kings Landing 2013, Winterfell 2013, Dorne 2013, White Harbour 2013

Player
1.Gio Karab
2.George Voudouris
3.Antreas Ntargaras
4.Grigoris Patelis
5.Panagiotis Ntemiris
6.Assimakis Marinopoulos
7.Tyrionas Lannisteris
8.Periklis Chatzistefanidis
9.Dimitris Kasdovasilis
10.Manuel Ramirez
11.Makis Mpokas
12.Nikos Kerazoglou
13.Dimitris Filippatos
14.Konstantinos Goumas
15.John Xenakis
16.Nikos Diasakos
17.Dimitris Karimalis
18.John Dimitropoulos
19.Giannis Apostolidis
20.Michalis kallinikos
21.Giorgos Lioulias
22.Eliza Potiriadi
23.Giannis Kampanos
24.Ilias Louziotis
25.Giannis Papanikolas
26.Dimitris Bouzoukis
27.Olga Haznatari
28.Michalis Chatzigiannis
29.Loukas Petroulakis
30.Giorgos Samaras
31.Makis Theodoratos
32.Panos Georgopoulos
33.Tassos Moukas
34.Teo Liapatis
35.George Xidis

Top 8 Vs Periklis Chatzistefanidis (Greyjoy The Maesters Path) WIN


Top 8 tables

As I had finished first in the swiss round I was playing with the player that finished 8th. Periklis is an old and experienced player. His deck is strange because he runs a Maester path Agenda but always starts aggressively and not by fetching a Maester. He either waits for a Maester to come early or tries to wipe out the opponents board and then caring for the chains. That being said I had the advantage of knowing his strategy. So I expected something like Twist of Fate (APS) for his first plot. I opted to play Fury of the Kraken (AE) just to get the iniative and choke him + making military every attack I had. The plan worked. He never got his game going.

Top 4 Vs Panagiotis Demiris (Greyjoy No Agenda Choke) WIN

So we meet again. this time there is no truce. This time there are no prisoners. This time... it's War! Let me start by saying Panagiotis is one of the friendlier guys I have ever met in the AGoT Community and although he started his career in AGoT as he is saying by "learning from the Great Ones" (That's us ), that is long gone. He is one of the best players here in Greece and the most difficult to beat from my point of view. He always thinks straight and he never makes silly mistakes. I would have to play my best game here and I knew it. Fortunately we have this game in video and I hope we can post it here sometime. The game was indeed the most difficult game I played in the whole tournament and as we call it here in Greece from now on, it was... "The Game of the 1 Gold piece". Choke Vs choke. Now some of you that have had this experience know what I mean... We didn't play to kill or take power or make intrigue challenges. We played a mind game over just 1 gold in every plot!
I started the game bad and he was all over me. Always had more characters and always had that one gold. I was losing this game bad. This is were you don't give up I said to myself. How many power he has? 3. You? 0. Ok keep it at 0 until you can make your attack. I was always defending. Trying to make him pay for every power he grabs. Never unopposed. Never claiming power for him to grab. He got to 10 power when I claimed my first. Bring a raven with stealth at your plot so that his Rise of the Kraken (KotS) wont hurt you. I played my best and my best never failed me. I remember at one time I had down an Ice Fisherman (TWoW) and Maester Murenmure (CbtC) and he had the same with even more characters. One sole gold was sitting at his marshalling. I thought " now i take his gold, then he cancels it with his Murenmure and then i cancel his Murenmure with mine and then he takes the gold with his fisherman and what about a seasick? He played one before. Does all that give me board superiority or not... Confused? I know I was... I Valar'ed early on and I was hoping for his Valar Morghulis (Core) to be his doom. And it was... His saves never came and at 7th plot he had to lose all of his characters except a Samwell Tarly (TRS). Victory was mine! Well played Sir though... Well played

Final Vs Tyrionas Lannisteris (Greyjoy House of Dreams / Longship Iron Victory)

This was the moment we were both waiting for. As I said earlier, last year I made it to the final and lost so I knew I had to make this right. Fortunately for me not only the Red God but all the Old Gods were with me. He had a sole The Sparr (APS) at setup with some locations and I had Samwell Tarly (TRS) and a Bloodthirsty Crew (OSaS) with some locations. I knew where I had to send both Tarly and Sparr Marched to the Wall (LoW). After that my choke really destroyed him. He lost without ever playing a single character in the whole game...
8 wins, 1 draw and 0 losses and the Throne was mine!


Left - Panagiotis Demiris 3rd Place
Center Left - Me 1st Place
Center right - Tyrionas Lannisteris 2nd Place
Right - Antreas Ntargaras 4th Place




Huge props to:
- You! Because you read the whole report!
- My girl for not letting me play the Dragon deck
- Fantasy Shop stores for hosting such a great event
- All of the 35 men and women that came and played
- Dimitris Vlahos from Fantasy shop stores because he worked his butt out throughout the whole tournament giving live news feed with photos until the end.
You can find all the photos of the event and his live feed here: https://www.facebook...2415688?fref=ts
You rock bro.
- To the player from Spain "Manuel Ramirez" ( I know that I spell the name wrong:P) that nearly got to the Top 8 and we had a great time having him with us.
- To Manuel Ramirez's girlfriend that stayed beside him at the whole tournament although she was not playing!

Left bottom - Manuel Ramirez from Spain

- My pink sleeves that I used last year too and knew that they will not fail me again
- CardgameDb for being an inspiration with every article.

See you all at Stahleck I hope!
Cheers