Knights of the Crossing (SC 4-0) 1.0

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• 1.0

This is the deck I used to win the Game Shoppe store championship in Omaha, NE on 3/10/18. It’s just myself and one friend that play in our area so we’ve travelled to events at both Game Shoppes in Omaha and Bellvue on several occations. They are both really nice stores with great staff and the players we’ve met there are super cool.

It was inspired by AlexandertheBAMF’s Ladies Knight! deck which I made a few modifications to for personal preference. Not every change I made worked out great but there are a couple I thought worked especially well. The first was changing The Roseroad to Rose Garden. I felt that in a rush deck the Gardens would be more impactful since you can get their benefit on the same turn you marshal them. With the Roseroads, you don’t see any results until the following turn. There’s something to be said for having actual gold that you can save for later phases but I’m going to marshal a Tyrell card every turn so it felt right to me. The other was adding The Bounty of Highgarden. This gives you a 1 gold better economic boost than dropping and popping a Kingsroad and it’s great for getting out an extra character for that big Tourney round. It's hard for me to imagine any Tyrell deck not including it, really.

Most of the time my plots go Time of Plenty, Heads on Spikes, then A Tourney for the King. In testing I found that if I haven’t won by the end of turn three it honestly starts to get pretty hard for me to win because the likelihood of a reset goes up. It also takes a little careful maneuvering to not rush too early and trigger an early reset from your opponent because so much power goes on my characters. I’ve found it best to get a smaller board out, collect a little power, and then get as many knights out on your Tourney turn to cash in on all that reknown. Sometimes I change up that second plot depending on the situation.

With 12 players, we did four rounds of swiss with no cut. I didn’t take notes at the time, so I apologize to my opponents if any details are wrong.

Round 1 – Amber (Baratheon/Red Door) – This was probably the toughest game for me that day. Most of my characters cost 3 or 4 and she kept the majority of them knelt all game with two Stannis's Cavalry with the appropriate gold on them. I think on turn three I had maybe three power which is awful for a deck trying to go fast. Her board wasn’t much bigger though and I managed to make up some ground. When turn 8 came around I flipped Tourney again and got a couple of Hedge Knight and Ser Colen of Greenpools out to get the last renown power to win.

Round 2 - Marcus (Stark/Red Door) - Marcus was using Bear Island for his starting location which I’ve always wanted to try since I like to play a lot of Stark. He was using a direwolf package which looked really fun to play. He almost shut me down on turn 1 with a Sneak Attack/Winter is Coming military challenge that I managed to win. I swung back and gained 8 power that turn, half of it on a Knight of Summer thanks to renown and a Lady Sansa's Rose. I then made a colossal blunder when I attacked with him after Marcus had attached a Strangler to him. I thought I could keep the Knight out of Grey Wind's jaws with Renly's Pavilion but I didn’t realize that Strangler prevents all strength modifications so he wound up getting munched. Marge pulled Hodor into a couple of intrigue challenges that left power open for me to close it out on turn 3 or 4.

Round 3 – Tyler (Targaryen/Crossing) – I only got to 13 power by the end of turn 3. I figured Valar Morgulis was coming so I flipped Spikes to try to steal the win. I had used Wardens of the South on turn 2 to try and deal with all the strength penalties he had. Unfortunately, I whiffed and most of my power followed all my knights off the board. I believe the next turn he used The Withering Cold to try and control what I had built back up. He used Counting Coppers the following turn, hoping to draw Plaza of Pride or Waking the Dragon to stand his bloodriders. Unfortunately for him he didn’t see them and I was free to get several unopposed challenges in to win. Tyler was super nice and I enjoyed talking Thrones with him and his wife after the tournament.

Round 4 – Rob (Lannister/Crossing) – Rob was really nice and a snappy dresser to boot :) . He started off with Jamie and 7-cost Cersei and gained some power quickly on them. My last minute inclusion of Duel over A Clash of Kings paid off on turn 2. Jaime died, Cersei knelt, and he couldn’t put up much defense that round. I believe I finished it on turn 3 but it may have been 4.

MVPs were Green-Apple Knight who is phenomenal in Crossing decks and A Tourney for the King for getting that sweet renown.

I have no idea what I would change. I suppose I might try a different plot in place of Varys's Riddle because I am awful at predicting my opponents plots. As much fun as I’ve had with the deck, I think I’m going to try something new for a while. The rush is fun but I feel like I want something that can feel more in control if it goes longer. I feel like my longer games involved a lot more luck than I like. I think one of its strengths is that it doesn't depend on any one character and they are all reasonably priced and fairly expendable. Being able to rebuild quickly if you are reset is nice.