Second Place Finish - Thunder Bay Meta Holiday Tournament Report

Thunder Bay Meta Holiday Tournament

Our meta’s holiday tournament this year was going to be an exciting one for me, since I had been out of town for the last few months I had no idea of what the meta looked like. I don't get to play much during the school year, so I really look forward to it. The prize was a Stark themed playmat, so I was either running Stark or Greyjoy. Since before Days and Stahleck I have wanted to try Greyjoy Winter. It is something I have never done before and from my estimation of the larger meta was one of the best decks out there at the moment. But with the more attention brought to it, you know, people might prepare for it.

I have seen GJ Winter decks working a few different ways, but the nuts and bolts of it are pretty consistent; Ice Fisherman, Wintertime Marauders, Burned and Pillaged, the works. You stop them from marshalling quality cards while eating through their non-uniques to win the game. Some people load up on Price of War and/or Die By The Sword, I went a slightly different route.


The List (64 Cards)
House: Greyjoy
Agenda: Kings of Winter
Plots:
Blockade
Fear of Winter
Retaliation!
A Time for Ravens
Search and Detain
Snowed Under
Valar Morghulis

Characters (36):
Wintertime Marauders x3
Asha Greyjoy x1
Theon Greyjoy (Rvs) x1
Baelor Blacktyde x1
Pyromancer’s Apprentice x1
Alannys Greyjoy x3
Maester Murenmure x2
Kingsmoot Hopeful x2
Mercenaries from Pyke x2
Wex Pyke x1
Cragorn x1
Maester Wendamyr x1
Bandit of Winter x1
Ice Fisherman x3
Samwell Tarly x3
Carrion Bird x3
Distinguished Boatswain x2
Fishwhiskers x1
Island Refugee x2
Vale Refugee x2

Locations (19):
The Iron Mines x3
Sunset Sea x3
Gatehouse x2
River Blockade x2
The Inn of the Kneeling Man x2
Street of Steel x1
Street of Sisters x1
River Row x1
Longship Foamdrinker x1
Longship Black Wind x1
Longship Iron Victory x1
Scouring Vessel x1

Events (4):
Support of the Kingdom x3
Distinct Mastery x1
Attachments (5):
Burned and Pillaged x3
White Raven x2

I wasn’t really concerned with Martell Summer, since my setups were usually around 5 cards I figured I could pull into my White Raven (and hold it until they play their Black Raven if I had to). Now, I think the build I made would be a pretty solid matchup against a wide variety of decks, but with no characters other than the Mercenaries from Pyke above strength three, I know going into this that burn will chew me up and spit me out. I had thought about adding Raiding Fleet and Euron for some high strength characters, but with another Greyjoy Winter deck bound to show up I was worried about not being able to play characters in the mirror match. Off to the tournament.

[SPOILER ALERT]: Burn had at me. It was not consensual.

The field was made up of two Greyjoy decks (both with Kings of Winter), two Targ decks (both with Maesters Path), two Bara decks (one with City of Shadows and one with Knights of the Realm), a Martell Maester deck and a Lannister Kneel deck. We had eight players, doing three rounds of swiss followed by a cut to top four.

Round 1: Bara Knights (Dustin)
This was the best game I played all day. His Summer’s Champion on setup didn’t help him much, but the game went back and forth a bit. On turn one, I tried my super secret tech and it failed miserably (See below). He got out Arena Knight, Knight of Flowers, and a few other characters but I managed to get the choke in around turn 5 and win on turn 7. The most interesting turn was early in the game when I was sitting with an Iron Mines, Alannys, Wendamyr, a few income locations, and a Mercenaries. I had reduced him to Knight of Flowers and Arena Knight, so I flipped a Valar. And he flipped Burning Bridges – preventing me from my two saves. I was impressed. The game dragged on a little longer but I had the win. 1-0.

Round 2: Bara Shadows (Kayla)
This was the worst game I played all day (part one). Not because of the matchup, but because it was so one sided. I knew the meat and potatoes of her deck inside and out from building a version of it myself last year. The deck I was playing against needed a few rounds to get going and was particularly tight on gold with things like Venomous Blades and Alchemist Guild Hall. When she did bring a location out, I had River Blockade. When she tried to use Pyromancer’s Apprentice, I had an extra gold. By the time my opponent had the cards in shadows that she needed, her income was either one or two gold and between claim two challenges and stealthy weenies the game was done. My opponent didn’t even get to make a challenge against me. 2-0.

Round 3: Targ Maesters (Joey)
Round three of swiss, either way I am first or second seed coming out of the swiss. I dropped a six card setup, with Maester Wyndamer and five locations. He dropped four characters and two locations. So I did a turn 1 Valar, since I had a pretty decent income and redrew into a Marauders and a White Raven. Then he played a Narrow Escape. The game went pretty much downhill from there, when he won off dominance on round five. I didn’t keep characters on the board between overwhelming me with intrigue challenges and burning through the first six or seven characters I put on the board.

Top Four: Bara Shadows (Kayla)
I ended up playing against the same Bara Shadows deck in the top four. The game was the same as the first time we played, and really goes to show that if your opponent is having a miserable time it isn’t very much fun for you either.

Finals: Targ Maesters (Joey)
I was really hoping that the Targ Maester/burn deck would have lost to Lanni kneel (the 4^th seed) so that I wouldn’t have to play him again. We’ve been playing games against each other for the better part of a decade now so I knew he wasn’t making any play mistakes. And in a matchup that is 10:1 I figured I would just do my best. I had a decent setup, hitting him with Fear of Winter turn 1 and Blockade turn 2. We were at a relative stalemate around turn three and I almost turned it around, until he got Hatchlings Feast to eat my board and then hit me with three claim 2 challenges off his Retaliation. Over the first four turns I didn’t make it winter (there was no winter tech in my hand) but I reached six power. In rounds three, four, and five the only character I drew was Samwell Tarly, so he just racked up off unopposed and won it in round six. In the end it was just a slower version of the third swiss round and I was opened up like a taco.

Some Thoughts
After that, this deck is going away for a while. I think I will be putting in Raiding Fleet, Euron, and another Mercenary. There are matchups where you are equal (50/50), there are matches where your running an uphill battle (60/40) and in these you can really capitalize on your opponent’s mistakes or openings. Then there are matchups where Flame Kissed can hit all but a few characters in your deck, and Threat From the North with The Dragonpit pretty much gut you like a deer and that final felt like one of them. At the end of the day I think Greyjoy Winter is a powerful build and could have handled every deck there except for the Targ Maesters I ran up against twice (the other one was a dragon focused deck that I beat in casual play later on). Aemon (Core) turn 1 really soaked up my claim, and the claim two challenges took a hit from Loyalty Money Can Buy (I think he was running that) or a weenie.

The Big Mistake:
I had super secret tech, something I love showing up with. Super secret tech is great, it appeals to my Shagga side and even if you don’t win your opponent can sit back and say “nice.” Today mine was Alannys Greyjoy. I had only seen The Inn of the Kneeling Man get used by one player ever, and he never knelt it. Just used it every phase. Of every round. Of every game. So when I put it in my deck, I didn’t even read the card. I knew what it did. It just stood a kneeling character strength two or less when they knelt (if it was Summer or Winter) and that was awesome. It had a limit of once per phase. So I was thinking of using Alannys once a phase, every phase, to eat through their hand. But I am an idiot, and didn’t follow the cardinal rule of all card games as spoken by my friend Chichka: “Read the card, do what it says.” So when I used the Inn in that first game I just stood Alannys and my opponent looked at me and said “aren’t you going to kneel that?” and I was like “Pfft! No! Why would I do that?” and he just looked at the card, and back at me, so I looked at the card, and back at him, and back at the card, and read it, and wondered why it ate up three extra slots in my deck between the Queen and the extra Inn. So there that was.