The Kraken Remembers - 6-1 at the Dallas 2017 Regional, 15 p 1.0

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First and foremost, George Ankers must be commended for his article on In Search of Jank: The North Remembers. The moment he said "Sea Bitch + The North Remembers", I knew what I had to do.

This deck was largely a meta call and an attempt to be a meta killer. I fully expected a lot of Targ, Lanni Rains, and Night's Watch - all of which this deck is meant to handle in some fashion. Since I ended up facing NW Lion, Targ Fealty, Targ Kraken, and NW Rains prior to the cut, I think that was probably the right call.

A lot of this deck is standard Stark control and attrition. Winter is Coming and Grey Wind help clear out chuds for a Marched to the Wall turn, and Valar should be able to be used aggressively with the 6 built in saves, Victarion, and 2x Jory Cassel.

The real trick here is Sea Bitch and The North Remembers. The North Remembers is useful mainly for clearing out economy because rarely does the opponent want to get rid of a character on the board against this deck. However, if you can Sea Bitch a location (say, the Wall or Harrenhal or a fully loaded Astapor), and then you play The North Remembers, goodbye duped Walls and Astapor. Top that off with them losing an economy card or, if they haven't gotten any, a character, and you're sitting pretty.

Over the course of the Dallas regional tournament I was only really able to pull that off once in my second game against Graham Moyer playing Targ Fealty. His Astapor got Sea Bitched and sacrificed with the North Remembers, but that game was already fairly sealed before that. I'll explain below in a hazy tournament report that I hope is mostly accurate.

The top 8 matches I walked through every turn here since I streamed video for those on the Facebook AGoT group, so if you'd rather watch you can check them out there.

This is a full tournament report and is unnecessarily long. I apologize in advance. Read further at your own peril.

Game 1: Night's Watch/Lions played by Zack Price

Zack and I have a little bit of rivalry due to his beating me twice at the Tulsa regional. He beat me pre-cut and knocked me out of the top 8 (11 power on round 2 with Tyrell LotC, my God!), so I was a bit concerned by this being my first match of the day. Zack was playing a full jumper suite and had the Wall out on the setup. He got some more locations (but no Harrenhal) and no characters and I had a Sea Bitch for the first challenge phase. Steal the Wall, do some challenges, get some UO power, and the Wall power put me in an early lead. Round 2 gave him his Harrenhal and gave me another Sea Bitch, so I proceeded to steal the Harrenhal to prevent shenanigans and knock the wall down after some jumping business on his end. Round 3 found me my third Sea Bitch and I was able to snag his Harrenhal yet again since he still had no characters on the board. That plus all of the renown sealed this game.

I won't deny that those Sea Bitches won me that game, but I really wish they'd been paired with at least one North Remembers.

Game 2: Targ Fealty played by Graham Moyer.

Poor Graham didn't have a great initial hand, but his mulligan was even worse. 3 Dracarys! (nice!), 1 Astapor (sure, that'll be great on round 1), and...Jorah and 2 Second Sons. He set up Jorah and the Second Sons, and I had a solid setup of key characters (can't remember exactly) and Iron Mines. I Sea Bitched the Astapor he set up turn 1 and then hit it with North Remembers, forcing him to sacrifice a character as well. I thought he'd sacrifice a Second Son, but he sacrificed his chud reducer instead which surprised me. Marched his Jorah on turn 2 and his board was completely clear. That pretty much sealed it.

Game 3: Targ Kraken played by Chris Pottrof.

I'd been testing Targ Kraken as well for quite awhile so I knew how potent this deck could be. Unfortunately, I set up King Robb, a reducer, and a roseroad (IIRC) and followed it up in setup with Winterfell, Greywind, and Bran. Chris made a serious play mistake and tried to Nightmares my Grey Wind and hit it with Crown before I could say anything about Bran, and then he realized his mistake that Grey Wind would still live because of Winterfell. Instead, he played Nightmares on my Winterfell and put the Crown on King Robb, who still lived with 1 strength. Chris didn't put out chuds, likely because of Grey Wind, and Winter Is Coming gave me solid military claim the first two turns. He tried to turn the game around later with a Valar, but King Robb survived (I removed the Crown on plot 3 IIRC), and Fast Eddy came out on his Valar turn to seal the game.

Game 4: NW Rains played by Alex Parrish.

Alex and I enjoy playing each other, and we see each other at almost every tournament in the area since I'm in Houston and he's in Austin. Parrish set up Castle Black Mason, Craster, and the Dragonglass Dagger, and I had Fast Eddy duped, a reducer chud, and a Roseroad with Winterfell still in hand. I was first player first turn and dropped King Robb and Winterfell, and he was able to Craven Fast Eddy and milk King Robb and drop a Castle Black. Not much to do on turn 1, so turn 2 saw me Marched to the Wall his Mason. He brought out big boy Jon Snow IIRC, but Winterfell did its work and I won the game on renown between Fast Eddy, Blackfish, and Victarion at some point.

Parrish said to just sum this game up as "Winterfell beats Rains", and I tend to agree.

After the first four rounds we cut to top 8. There were some issues with TOME (big surprise) and Zack Price ended up being 8th place. I was going to have to face Night's Watch/Lion jumpers again.

Top 8: Night's Watch/Lions played by Zack Price.

There was no way in hell I was getting 3 Sea Bitch again. He had a underground vault, duped Wall, and Haunted forest on setup while I had Catelyn, bodyguard, Bran, and a Great Hall IIRC. I don't remember exactly how things went down turn 1 - I knocked down the Wall and got out Blackfish and Fast Eddy, I think - and turn 2 he tried to hunt for Harrenhal with a building orders to no avail and I knocked the wall down some more.

Turn 3 he had to hunt for it again and got Tower of the Hand but drew into Harrenhal while I dropped Arya, Winterfell, and an Iron Mines. This is where the game really began since it takes Zack's deck awhile to get rolling and find his locations. Winterfell did some work in getting his Haunted Forest down on power challenges so that I could try and get unopposed intrigue with Catelyn if he was using Dolorous Edd, but (rightly) he used Harrenhal turn 3 after the power challenge for Shae to stop the upcoming intrigue challenge. I went in with military with Fast Eddy and the Blackfish, he brings in Gold Cloaks, and I manage to Winter is Coming to claim both the Gold Cloaks and Shae. The wall goes down again with my Catelyn intrigue since there's no one left on his side of the board. At this point I've got 9 power to his 0.

Turn 4 he hits me with a Valar, but I've got Arya's dupe, Iron Mines for Blackfish, and bodyguard for Catelyn. I'm sitting on 8 power now since Fast Eddy died. I have him go first, he takes his 3 gold with Underground Vault, and doesn't marshal a character (which he never really needs to do due to Ambush and Harrenhal). He cravens my Blackfish though - damn. I counting coppers'd and get a reducer location and 2 reducer chud, and with my two great halls put out Victarion. As is usual for his deck, Zack doesn't do any challenges. I go in with a chud and arya for a power challenge and react with Winterfell to stop any Harrenhal shenanigans, and this knocks down his Haunted Forest. He then Harrenhal's in Kevan in between challenges, and Victarion comes in for a military challenge. Gold Cloaks ambush in and I don't have a winter is coming for Kevan's claim as well, so the intrigue gets opposed and Zack finally gets to keep his wall standing. I win dominance, and the power at the end of turn 2 is 10-2.

Turn 5 he plays First Snow and I confiscate the craven on Blackfish. I'm first player and drop a dupe on Blackfish and get out Jory Cassel and a Sea Bitch (finally - there it is!). Zack knows he's in trouble and takes quite awhile in marshalling with his 4 gold, eventually playing the Hound...but that gets tossed back into his hand with First Snow. I think he saw the Sea Bitch across the table and knew the game was done, forgot First Snow, and he scooped.

Top 4: Tyrell LotC played by Matt Phillips.

Zack Price's Tyrell deck traumatized me in Tulsa, so I was staring this deck down like "Oh hell." I'd just seen its power knocking Alex Parrish out of the top 8, and I figured Valar would be my best friend here since I guessed Matt wouldn't be running it. I set up Catelyn, Bran, Iron Mines, Sea Bitch, and a Roseroad to his Standy Randy and reducer chud.

Turn 1 he played Time of Plenty to my Late Summer Feast and I went first. Out came a reducer location, dupe on Catelyn, duped King Robb, a dupe for Bran, Hodor, and a bodyguard on King Robb. Matt dropped Pleasure Barge for some more cards, Great Hall, bodyguard on Randy, Butterbumps, an Arbor Knight, and Milk on Catelyn. I came in for military with King Robb and hit him with Winter is Coming for 2 claim, and he killed off his reducer chud and Butterbumps. He swang back with the Arbor Knight (0 str, but he had a gold) and I blocked with Catelyn. He hit for a military and I claimed my bodyguard. End of turn 1: 2 power for me, 1 for him. He played The Bear and the Maiden Fair in the standing phase to make his top card whatever he wanted.

Turn 2 Matt made a huge mistake. He meant to play Summoned to Court and instead played Ghosts of Harrenhal, bringing his chud reducer back in. I felt for the guy. That was a really, really rough misplay. I went first with my Time of Plenty and put in a duped Blackfish, bodyguard, Roseroad, and Rickon Stark. He had just enough economy to get out a duped Tinder Marge because of that reducer chud, reducer location, and 2 great halls, which meant he was at least still somewhat in the game despite the misplay. I came in for military with Hodor and the Blackfish (thanks Bran!) and he claimed his bodyguard, which I was pretty surprised about - even with Tinder Marge in play. Bran got opposed by Marge and Randy on power, and he didn't do challenge back with the Arbor night.

Turn 3 I Valared - no save for anything on his board but Marge, and I could save King Robb, Catelyn, Bran, the Blackfish, and an Iron Mines for Hodor or Rickon. I nominate Rickon for MVP of the day, because using my Iron Mines for him to stop Marge's search from Randy's death sealed the day. His Pentoshi this turn made me think he might be able to swing the game back around - it was 6 power to his 1 on Marge at this point - but his Renly and Brienne wasn't enough to stop me. I passed challenges and opposed Marge with Cat, opposed Renly and Brienne's power challenge with with Robb, Blackfish, and Bran. My dominance put us at 6 power for me, 5 power for him.

Turn 4 was Marched to the Wall for me and A Song of Summer for him. Bran and Brienne go away, and he marshalled Robar and Alerie. I brought out Fast Eddy and an Iron Mines. I gave him the unopposed intrigue with Alerie - nothing important in my hand, just a Great Hall - opposed the military with King Robb to win it, and gave him the unopposed power challenge to trigger his LotC, putting him at 10 power. I wanted to come back with the Blackfish and Fast Eddy for their renown and unopposed, as well as Cat's unopposed. He claimed Alerie and the end of the round was 11 power for me (he Nightmares'd Fast Eddy), 10 power for him.

Turn 5 was counting coppers for me and Time of Plenty for him. I put down Victarion, reducer chud, and a bodyguard for Fast Eddy, and he put down a milk on Vic, a dupe for Marge, duped Knight of Flowers and an Arbor Knight. He didn't have any gold so I wasn't worried about a nightmares, and the power challenge with Blackfish, King Robb, Fast Eddy, and Victarion was enough to win the game.

Top 2: Targ Fealty played by Graham Moyer.

So Graham went into this game assuming he'd lose, and I felt like my deck was well suited to beat his. Unfortunately he had a great setup - duped Khal Drogo and duped Viserion with a Roseroad - and I had to mulligan from a bad setup to one just not suited to deal with his. I had Grey Wind, a reducer chud, 2 iron mines, and a reducer location. Not bad, but I drew into nothing phenomenal - no key characters - and knew I needed to March his Dragon turn 1. Certainly he wouldn't have his third Viserion in hand after he drew back up.

Turn 1: Marched took my reducer chud and his duped Viserion, and he played Heads on Spikes. He hit my Summer (ouch), giving him an early lead. I made him first player, figuring that I could come back strong with hopefully a decent draw. He set up a Plaza of Pride, Viserion, and Viserys - shit. I got a reducer location and put down a lordsport shipwright and duped Winterfell, the best I could do with my disappointing hand, and knelt his plaza of pride. I defended Viserion with Grey Wind, used Iron Mines on my shipwright (assuming he had Marched) when he came across with Khal Drogo, and he took dom. 5 power for him, 0 for me.

Turn 2: He Marched, which I had figured on, taking out my shipwright and his Viserys, while I played Late Summer Feast. He put out a reducer location and put down Danny as first player and I dropped King Robb, Hodor, and my third Iron Mines. I ate his Viserion - om nom nom - and defended Khal Drogo with King Robb. He was able to stand Drogo again and come back across and I defended with Hodor, claiming him and using an Iron Mines. This may have been questionable, but I wanted to keep characters on the board at the time to try and stop his relentless march onwards. End of the round: 8 power for him, 2 power for me.

Turn 3: He played Counting Coppers to my Counting Coppers and I went first, hoping to get a Greywind intimidate off. His Plaza of Pride made that somewhat moot, but at least I could probably stop one challenge somewhere. I dropped Great Hall, Shaggy Dog, and Nymeria, while he was able to dupe Danny (so both Danny and Drogo are duped) and Quaithe. I ate Quaithe with Grey Wind, came in for mil with King Robb and his Drogo opposed, which I made stand to knock down his Danny. He claimed a Drogo dupe and my challenges were done.

Fire and Blood brought him his Viserion back again, leading to his Drogo getting blocked and an unopposed power challenge with Viserion. He could stand Danny by getting rid of Mirri from hand, came across for intrigue unopposed, and the end of the phase saw us sitting at 12 power for him, 3 power for me.

Turn 4 was his 2nd Counting Coppers and my Time of Plenty with him going first. He pulled out another Danny and Drogo, so he saw all three Drogos, Dannys, and Viserions by this point. He also dropped Jorah for good measure and a Braided Warrior. I got a King Robb dupe down, a Roseroad, the Blackfish, and Catelyn. I ate Viserion for the 2nd time, but he played Fire and Blood because Viserion is actually Greyjoy and what is dead may never die. Jorah was opposed by Cat, bringing him to 13 power, military with Viserion opposed by Hodor, and power with Drogo and Danny sealed the game for him.

Final Thoughts

While I ended up losing the final match, it was generally agreed uopn that draw was the deciding factor in that game. I didn't get key characters early enough to combat him getting his best ones off the bat, and a lack of Sea Bitch to pair with the North Remembers (I had 2 in hand most of the game but no good reason to play them) made his Plaza of Pride seriously useful. I had hoped that my early Marched to the Wall could keep up pressure on his board, especially if I drew into a Winter is Coming with Grey Wind out there for chuds, but unfortunately his third Viserion, Fire and Bloods, and other chuds kept his big characters from being in danger.

All in all, the tournament was an absolute blast and I really felt this deck performed incredibly well. It's got a lot of control and a lot of quick power, as well as the ability to use Valar aggressively if they don't manage to draw lots of dupes.