Australian National Championship Report (9/12/12)

Firstly a bit of background information:

This was to be my first 'real' AGoT LCG tournament, outside of biweekly gamesnight style tournaments. I have been playing the game since just after the Australian regionals earlier this year, and in my 6 months or so playing the game I certainly have played my fair share and then some.

I was so excited leading up to the event that I got very little sleep, and generally acted like a giddy awestruck schoolgirl for most of the weekend, but I think people expected that from me.

The field was somewhat smaller than expected for both events (12 for melee, 14 for joust), and more or less included the greater melbourne area meta, plus 2 lovely chaps from Ballarat that I had the pleasure of playing with. This was probably largely due to the infancy of the AGOT meta in general nationally, and some timing conflicts with the CoC nationals going down in Sydney on the same day.

I won't get into too much detail on the melee tournament, which took place on the saturday, but I played a version of cardgamedb's own WWDrakey's Targaryen KOTR deck that he expertly piloted to second place at Stahleck.

I really had only played 5 or 6 melee games EVER, so I just showed up and tried to have a bit of fun. That dream was quickly quashed when I realized how competitive melee was played. I did manage a second, a third, and a second place at my tables for the 3 rounds that were played.

After a long day in the 37 degree heat I decided to head to my mate Justin's place for some last minute joust testing, which ultimately proved invaluable, and I made a 1 card change to my deck that made all the difference throughout the day.

I ultimately chose to play a Targaryen Maester's Path burn monstrosity that I had been playtesting and modifying frequently since before the World Championships in november. The deck has gone through about 9 versions but here is the list I played yesterday:


62 Cards
House Targaryen (Core)
The Maester's Path (GotC)

Plots:

At the Gates (GotC)
Outwit (TIoR)
Threat from the North (PotS)
City of Soldiers (TBoBB)
A City Besieged (CD)
City of Sin (AToT)
City of Spiders (TftRK)

Characters (28):
1x Archmaester Marwyn (CD)
3x Linked Advisor (TIoR)
1x Maester Aemon (Core)
1x Advisor to the Crown (QoD)
1x Khal Drogo (Core)
3x Refugee of the Plains (RoW)
1x Brown Ben Plumm (Core)
1x Jhogo (OSaS)
1x Black Hatchling (DB)
3x Long Lances (THoBaW)
3x Dragon Thief (AE)
1x Viserys Targaryen (Core)
1x Varys (SaS)
1x Ser Jorah Mormont (WLL)
1x Viserion (QoD)
1x Young Griff (VD)
1x Syrio Forel (TftRK)
1x Strong Belwas (VD)
1x Green Hatchling (TWH)
1x Magister Illyrio (VM)

Locations (15):
2x The Red Keep (TftRK)
3x Eastern Fiefdoms (QoD)
3x Summer Sea (PotS)
1x Great Pyramid of Meereen (AHM)
1x Meraxes (TBC)
1x Khal Drogo's Tent (QoD)
2x Meereen Tourney Grounds (ODG)
1x Flea Bottom (TGM)
1x Street of Sisters (Core)

Attachments (10):
2x Flame-Kissed (Core)
2x Hrakkar Pelt (RotO)
1x Bronze Link (FtC)
1x Copper Link (GotC)
1x Tin Link (CbtC)
1x Valyrian Steel Link (HtS)
1x Lead Link (CbtC)
1x Apprentice Collar (GotC)

Events (9):
3x The Hatchlings' Feast (ASitD)
2x Incinerate (VM)
2x Paper Shield (QoD)
2x Dissension (QoD)

The general strategy of the deck involves abusing the kneeling effects of the chains (Valyrian Steel Link/Lead Link) with all of the great tools Targaryen have to stand their maesters (Long Lances/Young Griff/Hrakkar Pelt), coupled with burn and other character control. If I was able to pick up 3 chains turn one, which often happened, almost always I would take the valyrian steel link and begin to drawcap myself as much and as often as possible.

One of the things that Targaryen burn decks have always struggled with is variance. The variance in your opening draws can really screw you, especially with the dual-resource curve that Targaryen burn must manage (influence + gold) some games you'll get all burn and no influence, some games you'll get characters and influence and no burn, and anything in between. Drawing boatloads of cards early helps round out the deck. Additionally, At the Gates was most frequently my opening plot; At the Gates is an exceptional card in a lot of decks, especially so in Maester's Path decks, but even more so in Targaryen Maesters. A 2 or 3 card setup can actually play excellently when At the Gates is factored in.

The pool of maesters to choose from and the diversity within them made At the Gates even more valuable. If I needed influence I would pull the Advisor to the Crown, if I needed saves against a Stark murder deck I would frequently pull Aemon. If I was playing Martell, Linked Advisor was the maester of choice to avoid A Game of Cyvasse, but most of the time I would search for Archmaester Marwyn. Being unique he cannot be stolen by Seductive promise, he can be saved by Strong Belwas, and he has a useful dominance ability that will nearly always trigger if he has a Hrakkar pelt attached. The maesters of the deck are all immune to The First Snow of Winter, except Aemon, and 4 of them have that learned crest to pay for the Outwit plot.

The first 2 turns are absolutely critical with this deck. Without Valar Morghulis as a reset it really pays to get ahead early. The best use of The Hatchlings' Feast I found wasn't always to use it to reset the board on a Threat From the North turn, but often was to ensure that I win those 3 challenges on turn one, get my chains, and prevent my opponents from playing murder events by stopping their military challenge. Paper Shield was an MVP of the deck and stopped so many bad situations that after the tournament I would consider adding another. Most good players will valar as soon as they see a maester with 3 chains (including valyrian link), and I definitely relied on that line of thinking. Outwit was commonly my second turn plot. Throughout the day I had opponents nuking their own board to kill one or two of my characters including that crucial maester.

The City plots chain proved to be incredibly effective. City of Spiders makes all of the other plots that much better, because You can repeat whatever effect you needed at the right time. A common theme of this deck was divsersity of control; Although the deck was jampacked with burn, I didn't want to rely just on one aspect of character control, but to invest in other methods of control. For instance; City of Sin was absolutely amazing for nullifying that one big character you can't seem to burn down (Northern Cavalry Flank anyone?), Dissension and Ser Jorah coupled with the Copper link provided another control element. I even used Lead Link + City of Soldiers to murderize a 7 strength Red Queen's Faithful. I had tried other versions of the plot deck, using First Snow/RBD and valar and even using Waste Their Time / To Be a Dragon ala Twn2dn's winning maester deck but found all to be inferior to the City Plots for my deck in testing.

Anyway if that wall of text isn't enough to turn you off reading any further, I'll go through briefly each of my games...

First Round: Chris Horner piloting a Martell Quentyn deck
Chris is an excellent player, with a very good knowledge of the game and mechanics. He really enjoys playing quirky and interesting decks, and often times plays one or two cards that I actually have to read because I have never seen them before.
I was incredibly nervous before the game but Chris is a great guy and we just played like there was nothing on the line. My memory is a bit hazy but essentially Chris was never able to get into the game. He mulliganed into a 3 card setup, and I had a fantastic start. Beginning turn 2 I managed to discard a triple-duped viper with a lead link + Threat from the North. He didn't see his potent events and I was able to control most of his characters. Even after his valar he didn't have the steam to claw his way back into the game as I had 2 turns of being draw-capped, and I quickly climbed to 15 power. (1-0)

Round 2: Tomas Daniel playing GJ KoS
Tom is a real life friend of mine that plays and has played a lot of competitive card games and knew my deck fairly well. He was playing a weird Greyjoy Kings of Summer deck that turned out to be a great meta decision, as there was only 1 winter deck in the field, and it happened to be very burn resistant. Loads of cancels, Song of Summer, card draw and all of the strength buffs and weenies made my life hard. Baelor Blacktyde was Tom's MVP without a doubt when he intrigued out one of my Hatchlings and I didn't draw a flame-kissed until way too late. He timed his Valar perfectly on turn 2, nuked 3 of his own uniques but got my chained up maester. I was expecting him to wait, knowing that I played outwit so I thought I would be safe. From there I couldn't get another maester for far too long and in the end I still had 2 chains on my agenda when Tom won the game. (1-1)

Round 3: Make it or Break it vs Matt playing Baratheon KoS
I hadn't met Matt before the weekend, and he had played a Targaryen Alliance Tully deck in the melee so I knew he was going to be playing a funky deck. He managed to drop RQF turn one with Manning the City Walls, and played first to my At the Gates. He also had the murdering Melisandre, in combination with RQF was incredibly powerful and something I hadn't seen before. Turn two he was able to kill my Archmaester Marwyn with Melisandre's ability after I played Outwit to his Power of Faith. Bad play on my part. Things weren't looking so great but I began to claw my way back into the game with a well timed threat from the north + Hatchlings and a city of sin to kneel his army. Eventually The control set in and I kept killing his key characters en-route to a 7 plot victory. Tough game and a great opponent. (2-1)

Round 4: Baratheon Wildlings played by Andrew Glouftis.
Andrew is always a laugh and a really great guy and good player. I hadn't tested at all against Wildlings but I suspected it would be a tough matchup because of the +1 Strength agenda. I was dead wrong. After the first two turns it became apparent that my deck was definitely a natural predator of the lings, killing his draw engine in Val and controlling his tougher characters with other card effects. When I hit his valar with my Outwit on turn two Andrew's fate was sealed. (3-1)

Cut to top 8: We decided to cut to top 8, which was unsusual in a 14 player field, but I didn't mind getting an extra game in. I was 3-1 and managed to finish 2nd in swiss behind Jason Ryan playing a MEAN Targaryen KOTHH burn deck who was undefeated. (Just want to mention here that it was not a Bruno copy as seems to be the common assumption nowadays when the two are mentioned together)

Top 8 game: Unfortunately for Andrew we were paired again as he finished 7th. This game didn't go too much better for him despite me blowing outwit on turn two and him having the restraint to hold onto his valar. Essentially I'm not too fussed if outwit doesn't work, since I had board position and the Valyrian Link I still get one more turn of abusing it, and preparing for the reset by filling my hand and shadows with characters. I felt bad after such a disheartening game the round before to have to do it again to Glouftis.

I saw that Jason fell to Chris's Martell Quentyn deck in a 12-9 modified game that went to time. I felt bad for him after doing so well in Swiss and going down in a game to time, but the selfish part of my psyche was pleased because I dodged that Targ burn bullet.

Top 4 game: Tom's GJ Kings of Summer deck AGAIN. I was worried I would fall victim once again. This game was not anything like our first meeting. Tom didn't draw his location control and stealing cards, nor his buffing warships and I was able to discard his Black Raven turn one this time. I had Influence out to my ears and the burn to fling at his key characters. He timed his Song of Summer well with my Threat from the North, but I had enough burn to make quick work of the strong parts of his board and was able to climb to 15 power. I don't remember too much from this game, I was getting a bit delirious; the AC had broken and I had way too much caffeine and not enough sleep.

Finals vs Justin Shearer playing Martell KOTHH. Justin is a very astute guy and an expert player. He won all 3 victorian regionals earlier in the year and frequently wins our biweekly and monthly events. He admitted to me that he hadn't played in a couple months and had decided on his deck the night before, and that he expected me to beat him. He was not going down without a fight though, and he had a deck that was one of the bad matchups for me. The build he was running was very reset heavy, Westeros Bleeds, Valar, Red Vengeance, Game of Cyvasse and Princes plans made for a nasty combination to turn my maesters into dust and prevent me getting my chains off and abusing my links. I was very nervous and knew if I lost it would be to the right guy on the day.

Turn one I had a 3 card setup (Maybe 4 can't remember) that included a Flea bottom, a jhogo and some other weenie. Justin groaned at his setup and I suspected he didn't get what he desired right off the bat. My general strategy was to protect my maesters, put out just enough characters to have favourable board position, but keep enough in shadows and maesters in hand for the inevitible apocalypse. I started with At the Gates, and he played Retaliation! and I went and picked up my Linked Advisor, whom I favoured vs martell. Turn one I got my influence going a fair bit, and managed to flea bottom in a Long Lances. A combination that made Justin wince a more than a few times in this game. I put Syrio into shadows and did some other nifty things and passed to him. He started dumping weenies and had 1 influence location. He played flea bottom scavanger and lost spearman and a house messenger and we went to challenge. I was incredibly conscious of the Cyvasse and aimed to avoid it at all costs. I won 3 challenges and was knelt out bar my maester. He red Vengenced my mil challenge, and then hit me back with 2 claim military and intrigue. I left both unopposed and was left with my solitary maester, and lost a hatchlings feast and something else to intrigue which didn't feel good. We passed and I drew 2 cards with the link in dom. Turn two he had 3 weenies and I had my chained up maester so I played outwit, and he did end up playing the valar. Thankfully I drew into another long lances and was able to stand him again in marshalling. He got his 4th influence and I was worried about the westeros bleeds, which made for a weird challenges phase. He went first and passed, and I won my mil and got a chain and then decided to use my valyrian link. My logic was that if he had the Westeros bleeds he would have first action in dom and discard my maester before I could draw anyway, but if I knelt now I'd get 2 cards and run the risk of him playing Cyvasse. I gambled and he did play the Cyvasse, but I was happy with my choice, knowing the possibly alternative outcome. By this point he had played 2 red vengeances. Turn 3 I played a city besieged to nuke his influence, so he no longer had 4 which ended up being a great choice because he never saw the 4th. He played forgotten plans. I got a lot of tempo in this turn with another maester and got the rest of my chains off. Here is where I get a bit hazy, but Justin tried to make a play to win back some board position by playing VIper, arianne and asha with some weenies and I was able to wipe his board, bar the viper with Threat + Hatchlings (I had already lost 2 hatchlings in intrigue challenges, and luckily found the third). The following turn I blew up his viper with lead link and City of Soldiers and won the following turn with my 2 claim city of spiders. It was a very intriguing game that I felt was decided by my early turns, and was played to a very high standard by Justin. He never got his influence/reset/recycle engine going. I really enjoy our games.

And that was that, a long, hot, solid day of gaming that was one of the most enjoyable experiences in my recent memory. I know people in the great AGOT community harp on about how fantastic it is, but I really felt that throughout our nationals weekend. I really enjoy the company of all the guys, even outside of playing cards. We have a very solid and competitive meta here that continues to grow and I am very fortunate to be a part of it.

Can't wait to see what next year brings

Props:
-Tiny Grimes for his immense help playtesting with me over OCTGN (He claims to be my yoda)
-Tom Daniel for Shouting us all dinner after the event. Class act and a good friend
-Justin Shearer for an intense an fun final game
-Good Games and especially Edmund for running the event
-Jamie and Mini for being very new players and doing better than I expected. Well done boys.
-Ballarat guys for making the trip
-FFG for making a great game and for the great prize support
-The Melbourne AGOT community
-Steve for playing Lannister

Slops:
-The Air Conditioner at good games for not working
-Justin Shearer for trying to get me to eat meat... despite being vegetarian. Which wouldn't have been that bad except he was getting me to try to eat Glouftis' meat.