Metaphysics - Rochester Regional Part II

Metaphysics: Rochester Regional

Or

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Play Renown

Part II:

Welcome to Metaphysics: Rochester Regional Edition Part II. As promised, I'm going to look at the other decks from the Top 4, highlighting some interesting card choices and talking a little bit about how the decks performed overall. For space reasons, I am not going to write out the entirety of the decklists here, just focus on some specific things that were interesting about each. The skeletons of the decks are familiar (KotHH Martell, KotR Stark, and Baratheon Rush), but a few of the card choices (and omissions) were interesting. In my case, I’ll offer some additional commentary on some of the changes I would make to the last minute Baratheon pile I ended up with.

2^nd Place: Josh Lombino/ Martell Knights of the Hollow Hill (MotM)

We’ll start with Josh Lombino’s 2^nd place Martell deck, a take on the ever-popular (and hated) Knights of the Hollow Hill control archetype. Josh took full advantage of the power of Ghaston Grey (FtC), playing three copies, plus a Building Season (Core), just in case. Even post-errata, this card still represents a significant amount of control, especially when paired with Flea Bottom (TGM). Striving for consistency, the deck also runs a full three copies of most of its events. Though most of the matches were slow, Martell tends to have the best come from behind potential of any House, and Knights of the Hollow Hill’s slow starts would eventually turn around to complete board control near the end. Congrats to Josh for playing seven close to time matches without his head exploding.

One interesting card was the single copy of Sun Stroke (QoD), which turned out to be a solid addition (it definitely killed Knight of Flowers (SaS) in our semi-final game). While Martell has loads of control, they have very little direct character kill, relying mostly on bounce effects to gain advantage. The one copy of Sun Stroke could deal with a problem character for good if it came to that.

Also of note is the lack of The Prince's Plans (TIoR). Rather than rely on having tons of influence producers outside of the standard Fiefdoms/Sea package, Josh chose to go for consistency, keeping enough Influence for Red Vengeance (PotS) and Favorable Ground (QoD) without going overboard to try and force Princes Plans as well. While it is a game-breaking card, it forces you to clog your deck with a few unnecessary influence producers to handle the load, and oftentimes, unless you have 6 Influence, you’ll face the terrible choice of playing Red Vengeance or Princes Plans and not both. As far as game-breaking cards that cost Influence, Favorable Ground (at a cost of 3) can provide an enormous swing against Location-heavy builds, leading to a crippling advantage that even Princes’ Plans can’t provide.

3^rd/4^th: Adam Proctor/ Stark Knights of the Realm (KotStorm)

Adam’s Stark deck is a deck that knows what it wants to do and goes straight for it. One of the traps of deckbuilding in AGoT is the temptation to throw the best cards in your deck, ignoring some of the synergy of how the deck functions. This deck wants to do two things: field as many Knights and War Crest characters as possible and utilize character and land kill effects to the fullest. All other concerns are secondary. He sacrificed some Stark mainstays (Bear Island (AE)) in favor of more a more tempo-oriented attack. With full suites of Die by the Sword (LoW), No Quarter (TBC), and The Price of War (KotS), the potential for blowout turns was always there. Using Fury as his Restricted card added to this potential as well. With that many War Crests running around,Frozen Outpost (LoW) also created awful situations for opponents to attack into.

One interesting card of note is Shadow Tower Knight (TftH), a completely overlooked character that happens to fit perfectly into this list as a 3 Str War Crested Knight. His ability also offers some protection against trait manipulation, particularly Copper Link (GotC).
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While Bear Island is obviously an incredibly powerful card, its absence here serves two purposes: 1) It allows for a more aggressive tempo, relying on immediate character pressure and destructive events than playing an expensive location and waiting to kill a character during Dominance. Spending 3 gold on Bear Island only to have it discarded to location hate before you reach Dominance is also a huge tempo loss. 2) It allows a little more consistency in you location package by allowing Street of Steel (Core), Ocean Road (WLL), and
River Row (QoD). This deck also threw in Randyl Tarly (KotS), who is quite a beast with the amount of War Crests running around.

3^rd/4^th: Jim Despaw/ Baratheon Rush Thing

My 2:00AM Baratheon Rush build ran many of the usual suspects, including Melisandre (RotO) and Knight of Flowers. Expecting more Knights of the Hollow Hill and Power Behind the Throne decks than Summer and Winter, I also decided to include two copies of King Robert's Hammer (TBoBB), and with it the Core Set version of Robert Baratheon (Core) (Fat Bob) for extra Renown goodness. This also freed up a slot in the plot deck where The King's Law (KotStorm) would have necessary if I was playing both Shadows Bob and The Knight of Flowers. I also figured I couldn’t go wrong with Val as my Restricted card alongside The Laughing Storm (GotC), only to be disappointed all day.

MVPs of the day were definitely Melisandre and Willas Tyrell (VM), who is really, really good for his cost. Having Renown (most of the time) on a two cost character alone is good, but Willas is capable of doing some really naughty things to Power Behind the Throne decks if he can remain standing. With multiple copies of Marya Seaworth (KotStorm) and King Robert’s Hammer behind him, he is a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, Ghaston Grey makes for a long day against Martell, as Myrcella can deal handily with the Willas problem.

On a whim, I also decided to try Focused Offense (QoD) as my last plot. I had never gotten to play with it and figured I’d give it a try to say that I did. The real problem with is the average initiative – going second with it out is what you might call “bad”. With two copies of Knights of the Storm (KotStorm) it does create a massive power swing that can easily push through a win before your opponent can attack. Would I play it again? Probably not, but it wasn’t as bad as I had feared, and it won me at least one game.

Having played six games without getting to use Val and The Laughing Storm together I really regretted my Restricted choice. While I will be the first to admit that the combo is incredibly powerful, it is HORRIBLY inconsistent, and while getting them both at set-up (something that never happened) is great, it is not something that I would like to count on without something like Summoning Season (Core). Add to this the fact that Val’s life expectancy against Targaryen and City of Soldiers (TBoBB) is about 2-3 minutes and I’d almost always rather have Narrow Escape (KotStorm) or the Fury. The real strength of this kind of deck is the fact that it can consistently provide enormous, consistent early pressure that can be too much to handle. This is something that Val does not help facilitate alone. The Laughing Storm is certainly good enough to play without her, and as much as pains me to say it, I would look elsewhere on the Restricted List in the future.

While my momentary lapse into the realm of rush decks was a nice change of pace, I’ll probably be sticking to the comfort of card draw in the future. Thanks again to everyone who came out; I had a great time playing against all of you and the event ran as smoothly as I could have hoped. As our Rochester League is now entering the Top 8 and finishing up, stay tuned for the final house standings and top decks from that event and more ….coming soon!