A King and his Crown - Battles of Summerhall 2 Winner 1.0

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• 1.0

TLDR

7-1 at Battles for Summerhall. Big thanks to Martin Lewis for organising another great event, and Matt Eddleman for the core list that I built upon.

https://thejoustingpavilion.com/tournaments/5045

Background

As everyone knows (and often hates), Tyrell Rains is a very powerful deck. It has an ability to create a wall of characters that your opponent can't comfortably fight, while still being able to rush pretty quickly. The deluxe box did a lot for that with Highgarden Courtier and Wardens of the South, but I had not played it in a tournament since Stahleck, as I had decided that VD killed the deck off and I’d try other things out.

About a month ago, my fellow Bannerman Matt Eddleman was working on a new version of his list for store champs, which eventually caught my eye. I hadn't seen many other people play the rains build in a while, so I had not realised just how well The King in the North fits into the deck.

Matt's a big fan of Seized by the Guard for location control, but I didn't think it combo'd too well with Nothing Burns Like The Cold. So I had the idea to try out Put to the Torch to try and get a double hit on locations after seeing it work so well in Targ HRD. When Tyrell is attacking you, people tend to give up defending by x str after a certain point, and will often have a focus on the power and intrigue challenges. With 1g having plenty of options for events, I felt that it wouldn't be hard for me to sneak a military through first, while they assume I’m just digging for some extra renown.

One thing people may question is the lack of a reset. It used to be a good tool for tyrell to Valar from a position of power, then use econ and Margaery Tyrell to just press a new advantage. But no one can fight tyrell well enough in a pure challenge game with the amount of renown and pumps they have access too. As long as I played smartly and didn't lose myself too much to opponents VMor VD (2 5+ cost is what I considered acceptable on either plot), they would either be playing around their own reset, or worrying I had one and not go much wider themselves while I focused on just gaining power. Unfortunately, this strategy can struggle if your opponent catches on and is building a better board than you, or has the dupes to vm you in a better spot.

The Tournament

R1) Win vs Targ HRD (Kris Grabys)

Kris was down with a friend and doesn't play too much, so was learning what a lot of the cards did as we went. He was playing the typical Punishment build, so I knew mostly what to expect but still had to be cautious. I got a duped Renly out early, and backed him up with a Crownand a courtier. I may have missed the memo, but I did not realise how big a win con that is versus targ. As long as you don't leave yourself open to anything silly on the return, you can just go in twice with renly each turn, draw as many cards as you are discarding with him, and he's untouchable. Throw in a "Lord Renly's Ride" and he's giving your opponent little options on what to do. It went pretty quickly from this point.

R2) Win vs Targ Rains (Rebecca Gillard)

I was hoping to avoid a second targ match, as I thought I'd got my luck in the first. But unfortunately for Rebecca, Renly and his courtier appeared turn 1 again. Her board was pretty threatening with Grey Worm and a full location suite of Punishment, Pride and Flea Bottom, so I was on defense for the first two turns. Crown was cancelling out grey worm, and there wasn't enough burn that could be put out to get through a kill.

The two biggest moments in the game were me having to play a growing strong to keep a chud out of punishment range so Renly couldn't be marched, then getting a PttT on punishment the turn after. Having removed the threat to my chuds and getting myself in a strong enough position, I started to build out my board and she couldn't win any more challenges.

R3) Concession Win vs Tyrell Summer (Isian Hasmuja)

You know what to expect with tyrell summer, so when I drew into a Mace in my setup hand, I felt I had to make a bold play to keep up so set him up on his own with a great hall. Isian had The Arbor and Redwyne Straits turn 1, so his econ was insane the whole game alongside The Hightower. I was having to put out unduped renown to keep up, working on the basis that he didnt have VM. My econ was not being as kind, so I had marg, crowned randyl and mace to his much bigger board around the end of turn 4, and he was up 13-9. I thought it was all over, But I had yet to use my The King in the North, and he had lost two copies of his crown earlier in the game. This gave me a big window, where he couldnt just close out in marshalling, while I could still generate power. It was 13-11 going into challenges after gaining some power on my mace. Got myself to 12 with a military he couldn't fully defend, then had my opening to go for the big power challenge. Bad news, Isian had a cancel in hand to stop one of my required strength boosts so got enough renown on defense. Good news, he knew he couldn't stay for the whole tournament so conceded the game at that point.

R4) Loss vs Bara HRD (Daniel Mulchrone)

I find HRD Dragonstone Castle to be a pretty frustrating deck to play against, it becomes extra tough with opponents like Dan who like to play things a little differently in plots/events. I was working on an assumption he had VM, and my only protected card was mace who was gaining most of my power. Unfortunately it wasn't fast enough. I was only able to try and get one challenge through a turn as the Randyll I eventually got out started getting locked down with Dragonstone Castle in challenges, plus events like In the Name of Your King! and Ours is the Fury meant I could never break past his Robert. He also had a full dom package which he wouldn't let me torch, so any power I gained was lost pretty quickly. It was a pretty big loss that might've gone very differently if I'd seen Renly or Marg for intrigue challenges.

R5) Win vs Stark Lion (Callum Gillespie)

I knew to expect an aggressive deck where I had to avoid letting anything get hit by Marched to the Wall and Ramsay Snow. I had a 'poor' setup of a Begging Brother and Redwyne Straits, versus an Ser Ilyn Payne on his side so I had to pick every card I played carefully while he was making me go first. I managed to eventually get a board out versus his Robb Stark (Core) and Harrenhal (FFH), and he was keeping a lead on me most of the game. Turning point was where he went for an aggressive Roose Bolton Harrenhal play, that I managed to block with strength buffs, meaning he was killed at the end of turn. From there, I managed to just hold off a newly played Eddard at 14 power, get initiative and swing through enough the following turn to win.

T8) Win vs NW Rains (Hadleigh Moon)

Hadleigh's opener was 3x Bowen Marsh and a Longclaw, which was a pretty solid bet versus Tyrell. He was duping up well, and had Small Paul with a dagger and Satin doing a lot of work. It all went wrong for him unfortunately in that he didn't know Nothing Burns hit both and attachment and location, and thought he got to pick. So he played out a duped wall with no other protection. the next turn he went to confiscate a milked Bowen, while I nothing burned, resulting in me clearing off all his attachments and locations in one go, and only losing a milk myself. From there, he had pretty much lost his win con, and I just had to smartly play through the resets and close out.

T4) Win vs Lanni Greensight (Dave Bamford)

I was pretty worried going into this, as I'd been hearing about how it was playing out from other games and it sounded very strong. I wont go into full details, but check out Banter behind the throne where I believe Dave will be talking about it on the next episode. He had a 3x Tyrion and a Gregor early, while i was drawing lots of 3 costs. Elinor on setup with a Redwyne straits followed by rose garden arbor set me up on econ, while a Begging Brother saved me from an early hit of Gregor pillaging a 3 cost and me losing any presence. I played it out slowly, putting out renown but not too much as i wasn't sure what reset he was on. On his typical closing turn, he had not got the cards he would've hoped for, and it ended up working better for me, and I closed out the game through a big renown swing.

Final) Win vs Targ Rains (Dan Williams)

Dan had been to the final of the last two aldershot events and won both, and is a very good player who had beat me the previous weekend as well. So when I set up a Great Hall and Highgarden Courtier I thought it was all over. I drew into a renly and crown, much like my other targ games, but I wasn't seeing the dupe or bodyguard. I had two PttT in hand, which I used to blow up a Plaza of Pride and Tourney Grounds, while desperately digging for a dupe of Renly before he got valar'd. I ended up throwing out a Randyll as well, to keep moving and force a reset, but Dan was having a worse time than I realised, only drawing burn that couldn't reach Renly and no Qotho. I drew the dupe of Renly on insight, and expected a valar, but it never came. As soon as I put the dupe down, we both knew it was over as he had missed his window to hit me, and I had just blew up his unprotected Astapor with nothing burns and played out another copy of crown.

If you have any questions about the list, leave a comment and I'll aim to respond asap!