The Long Burn (4-2 in DC Regional, 12th of 42) 1.0

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• 1.0

I've been asked by a couple people to share the deck, so here it is. Targ, banner to the secondary win condition. The Long Burn, as I dubbed it when I conceptualized it about 16 hours before the tournament started, was a different version of a control deck, which is my preferred style of play. It controls the board through the threat of burn, the reality of burn, and a small kneel package to hold back what I could not incinerate. It lacked renown, but it could grind out wins with the table and chair while keeping boards small. With this deck, every play decision was critical, and wrong decisions would frequently come back to haunt you. Three of my 6 games on the day went to 9 plots or more. Only twice did I feel completely in control with no doubt...and I bet my opponents thought they were in better shape than they were at those times too as the boards looked better than they really were in those games due to knowledge of what I could play and what was coming.

Round 1 NW-Fealty: Win: Straight up wall deck. He had a wall and haunted forest out in setup. Duped Aemon came in the first plot. I never saw the painted table until the 9th plot. Hold on for dear life and stay close. Burned Aemon on the Blood of the Dragon turn with Dragon is no Slave. Fortunately for me, he also played Valar, so we cleared the board repeatedly. I did not mind this, as it let me use my stand effects and Astapor to use the small board states to kneel the wall a few times. Plot 7 rolls around and we have 10 minutes left. 13-10 Plot 8 he flips Winter Festival...but I flipped close call figuring that would be his play. I kill a unit on mil, win a power challenge to get him to 12, win int to empty his hand. Wall puts him at 14, but with dom I was at 12. I flip into valar against his For the Watch. Cleared his board and left me with Illyrio due to a Belwas save. Put out the Jorah Mormont I had held for 3 turns waiting for the right time to use his renown. He drew just a messenger raven for characters. Attack pow with Illyrio (no claim anyways so eat the plot effect on that challenge). Int with Jorah to eat the forest and gain renown 1. Stand Jorah with Illyrio, Mil with Jorah for renown and UO. Close it out and breathe for the first time in 10 minutes...time was called as I declared my last challenge. Well...that's one way to start a tournament.

Round 2 Targ Fealty: Loss: First of two games where I felt the deck needed more teching and testing. I drew no econ in 6 turns. My opponent not only drew econ, but he also drew 4 drac's due to Isle of Ravens. 15-0 loss. Ugly. Not sure I could have played it any differently with what I drew. He had the answers to what I wanted to do and I did not for him.

Round 3 Targ Fealty: Loss: No Econ to all Econ and no Characters. Literally drew all 8 limited locations in the first 4 plots. Clogged the hand up, messed up my tempo, and kept me from doing anything to slow my opponent down. I'd like to chalk these two losses up to variance, but it may also have been needing more work on the deck than 2 test runs pre tournament to find the right tools when I need them. Should I mention funeral pyre was used in both games and still didn't get the cards I wanted? I was demoralized and frustrated at this point and was rooting for my friend, a tournament rookie, who was 3-0 at the time with a Tyrell Crossing deck I built for him out of my play. I figured my day was done so root for him.

Round 4 Targ Fealty: Win: Really, 3 in a row for Targ Fealty? I obviously was not feeling good about this match after 2 bad rounds. This time I got out the table and chair early on in the game...which would pay dividends later. He got a 9-2 lead on me in power but attrition was starting to kick in. After my valar, his valar, my blood of the dragon with 2 Dragon is no Slaves, his where I recurred the events and used them again, and regular mil claim he was running out of unique characters. I used HJ on all 3 of his Fire and Bloods. I ran Close Call, he did not. This eventually let me have the ability to have things to play by plot 7-9 while he drew into dead character after dead character. Slowly, and bit by bit, the table and chair swung the game back to me. MVP of the game (while he lived) was Axell Florent. 3 gold on him, 2 attacks and a defense on that turn (Illyrio and Plaza), knelt out a superior board and was able to keep things delayed until he had to play his valar the next turn (I assumed right he had one). Long Burn lived up to its name.

Round 5 GJ/Wolf: Win: This was a fun game, at least for me. I finally drew dracs and Astapor. He got as much as 7 power on characters at one point between Fast Eddy, Vic, Asha, and Arya. Burned Vic on the Blood of the Dragon turn with 2 No Dragon is no Slaves, Drac'ed Asha, Arya got peeled by mil claim over 2 turns. I was way ahead on the board at this point. He flips valar. He has just Eddy left and a ton of power on him (I used HJ on the Risen he tried to play on the other character) I had Dany and Drogo. We each play and kill one unit so the next turn it is still those 2 on the board. I end up second. Neither drew into another character we could play, but he gets a bodyguard on Eddy. I got a Plaza of Pride. I choose to let Dany die when he wins on Mil going first. I attack with Drogo, stand him with the Plaza (using a dupe of Rheagal who was already dead) and attack again. Dead Eddy. A turn later I drew the chair to go with my table and he concedes between losing every power character he had and seeing a loss coming up due to the furniture I had sitting in the back corner.

Round 6: Bara/Kraken: Win: This game began with him having a heavily duped/guarded New Mel, He went wide with the rest of his board, though not protecting a hand full of unique characters including Bob and Edric. I had a few triple duped dragons, core mel, Jorah, and the chair (triple dupes made it hard to have a board or tricks since all the cards were tied up in just a few units of mid/low power without a drac). First turn I hit his hand with int but had no chance of winning dom with the lopsided board. He kills Drogo with Mel. I valar next turn to get rid of Bob and Edric as I see that will be a real problem long term. I had to sacrifice my mel and jorah to this move, but felt it was worth it in the long run. Then the slow death of every card of meaning for both players begins. I burned it, he valared or mil claimed it. By the time 8th turn rolled around I was at 14 power and both of us were struggling to find a character we could play to close it out. He plays newly made lord and smashes my chair...also finally drawing his own chair, I played characters of my own, and had a 4 gold Astapor, but could not get the last power as he had just enough blockers, I valar again in plot 9, can't draw anything playable and neither can he. He gets dom and chair. Plot 10 was the last. He plays Marya as the only character I play Mel (close call had brought her back a LONG time ago) I was able to win power claim, uo, and stand Mel to win dom with the stack of gold I had as well...14 to 13 win at time. He concedes to give me the full win but we both know neither of us were making the cut due to Strength of schedule anyways.

It was a fun and challenging day. I wish I didn't get variance screwed in those two early games or I may have been able to make the cut, or maybe its just the type of deck that feasts more on non-top end matches. It was intense to play and required thinking 2-3 turns ahead and sometimes letting things go early game to set up something later.
Thanks to all of my opponents, and if my memory is slightly off on plot numbers or exact sequences of key plays I apologize. Sandy Barnabas took us out drinking afterwards and I was sort of brain fried after those 6 games anyways. :)