Greyjoy Old Stuff (Runner Up Regional Dresden) 2.0

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• 2.0

First of all, I want to say thanks to Alex and the other guys from Dresden for running this wonderful tournament. It was a pleasure to meet you! In my very first non-online tournament attendance I managed to reach the final. I was not expecting this and it makes me feel a little proud, but unfortunately I messed it up in the final doing a big crucial mistake. Could have been even more successful. I learned the hard way.
Second I want to say thanks to Hanno for sharing his deck ideas with me. Without his suggested changes, it would not have been that competitive.

Greyjoy Old Stuff

The main idea of this deck is simple: Win your challenges unopposed, get different benefits and rush to 15 . The agenda works perfectly with . It is not only the extra for winning the third challenge, it is mainly about Theon and Balon giving you pretty sure unopposed challenges.

General game plan

Theon always goes in for the first challenge. He is hardly to defend with STR 1 and ensures a very likely trigger for the Seastone Chair. Balon does the third challenge (possibly supported by Asha) and, with now STR 7, he also gives you a pretty sure unopposed challenge; even more likely with an Iron Fleet Scout or/ and a Great Kraken on board. Winning this third challenge (which is mostly) by 5 or more STR let you trigger Support by the People and Superior Claim.
The priests, the Reader and, of course, the incredible Euron do the challenges. If you don’t find Theon or Balon in early game, Asha is a very good substitute for both of them. Her standing ability fits perfectly in the game plan of this deck.

• Time of Plenty is a stable opener. This deck has not much drawing (only Reader and Kraken) so the extra card feels good. Running two times in a Summer Harvest was hard, but I still like this card as first plot.
• I often played Trade Routes as second plot. It helps to fill the board with all your needed stuff.
• Rise of the Kraken and You Win Or You Die are both finishing plots. Both plots have very good initiative values. With a Scout on board and a Kraken's Grasp in hand, you normally go first. But with Asha on board (without Theon or Balon) it is sometimes worthy to go second. Keep some gold in hand to let your opponent fear We Do Not Sow. And let the opponent think twice about each character to kneel for an attack. He or she pretty sure does not want to give you an open board for the ability of Asha. Gulltown helps a lot in such situations.
  With the right cards on board, Rise of the Kraken let you win the game from very less power (double benefit for unopposed, 2 claim, Superior Claim, Crossing, Great Kraken, Renown). Great Plot!
• Not much to say about Valar Morghulis. Many dupes and saves in the deck, so valar can be played offensively. And with the Seastone Chair you still can get a kill for challenges.
• If you can’t get your own game plan on table and your opponent is able to play his game, Besieged and Weapons at the Door are good plots to slow your opponent down. Qohor players naturally don’t like having no attachments to sacrifice. Some Marauders coming out of the shadows, make sure, that the attachments do not stay in hand. Very good synergy. Besieged fits perfectly to the ability of Theon and Balon as to the Kraken's Grasp. But don’t play it, when you expect your opponent play a high initiative plot (e.g. Wildfire Assault, Marched to the Wall or You Win Or You Die). Going second in your own Besieged turn is crucial.

• The MVPs of the deck are clearly Theon, Balon and Asha. The intimidate of Victarion and the ability of Euron help to annoy your opponent and give you two more renown on the board.
• The Marauders and Tris Botley are great to control your opponents hand and discard pile.
• Hagen’s Daughter is an awesome card. Use her for opposing a challenge and instantly bring her back to oppose another challenge or count for dominance.
• As said above, the priests, the Reader and Wex have to do the challenges. And the Reader gives you at least one card draw.
• Wendamyr has stealth to support challenges (or any challenges with Gulltown), Aeron gives you a good feeling, that you maybe see some dead character again and the Begging Brothers, the Acolytes and the Fishmonger do what they are supposed to do. Nothing more and nothing less.

Iron Fleet Scout, Great Kraken and the Seastone Chair are awesome locations for this deck. Support by the People helps you to find them more likely. Nothing to say about the other locations.

It might be surprising to see that high costing Seal in this deck. But all big guys (I count small Theon as big guy here as well) are worthy targets. With this agenda you definitely want to do three challenges, and the Seal provides you doing this. And two intimidates from Vic or two new locations from Euron are not that bad…

• The Kraken’s Grasp is one of the Core events, which fell a bit into oblivion. But in this deck it is one of the most important cards. Most opponents do not expect it and when they realize, that you play it, they tend to overpower their defending challenges. Only the existence of this card in your deck change the way of playing. And of course it is so strong to help Theon to get rid of an opponent’s STR 1 military guy or to help Asha to stand up again.
• Another very valuable card in this deck is "Off To Gulltown". Thanks again to Hanno for showing me the real strength of this card. It helps in so many thinkable ways. Asha is surely the main target for the card. The surprising factor is not to be underestimated. I managed to trigger the Seastone Chair with Maester Wendamyr in two different games, when the opponents got a bit careless seeing no guy standing on my side.
• The other events are good stuff cards. We Do Not Sow is still a hell of a card.

Dresden Regional
Round 1 Win vs. Alliance (Qohor, Banner of the Rose)
Werner played pretty much the Horny Knights Deck by Hanno. I played against Hanno and his deck in preliminary to this tournament in our online Berlin League. I got beaten badly and that was the main reason to add Weapons at the Door to this deck. And what can I say? It worked! Werner saw 3 or 4 attachments round 1 and (good for me) used Trading With Qohor to put one of them into discard. I marshalled Nighttime Marauders into shadows round 1 and flipped Weapons at the Door round 2. I went first and (even better for me) Werner forgot to clean his discard pile with his Isle of Ravens. So I could use the Marauders without hoping for right claim and emptied his hand. He saw another attachment round 3, but only got to 14 , so I sealed the deal going first again round 4.

Round 2 Win vs. The Wars To Come
I like Fabians Deck very much. It has many very mean killing effects, but unfortunately for him, I saw many saves and got more or less unharmed through it. From round 1 he had Ser Robert Strong waiting menacingly in shadows, but was not able to trigger him in a worthwhile way. The Seastone Chair helped to clean the board and I was able to do play my game.

Round 3 Win vs. Qohor
We both flipped Time of Plenty round 1 and I randomly won the initiative. I managed to discard his only attachment with We Do Not Sow to make his agenda useless this turn and got a solid board presence this round. Nick flipped another Time of Plenty round 2, which brought me the initiative with Trade Routes. I got many of my big guys on table and one or two Iron Mines to not be scared of Valar. I flipped Rise of the Kraken round 3, grabbed the missing power and the win.

Round 4 Loss vs. The Wars To Come
It was the match for the King of Swiss. We were the only both undefeated players so far. I enjoyed this match very much. Johannes played the good stuff and managed to get some of his key characters on board, but I had a very strong board presence as well. His The King in the North turn slowed my down, but nevertheless I had a chance to win round 4. But his well-timed Nightmares (on Balon, if I remember right) prevent the unopposed power and the Great Kraken trigger. I only got to 13 power and he played it to a very much earned win.

Top 8 Win vs. The Wars To Come
In my opinion most mirror matches depend mainly on two things: Who gets a well-protected Euron out first? And who gets the right saves at right time? Rene saw Euron early in game, but I was able to prevent his trigger. I saw my Euron round 2 and with no saves on his side on the board and only 4 cards in his hand, I played Valar round 3. Vic (with 2 power left on him), Asha and Euron survived on my side. No Risen from the Sea in his hand. With an empty board and me luckily drawing Theon and a dupe (while having The Seastone Chair) made it an easy win for me.

Top 4 Win vs. Fealty
This was a very curious match. I was expecting Paul to play all the big guys and was thinking how to find my way around them. I thought, it would be a clash between two fast power gaining and very strong character-based sides of the board. But it came differently than thought. I saw Theon, the Seastone, a Roseroad and a Priest of the Drowned God in Setup and was able to play Balon round 1. He had a rather moderate setup and I was able to kill one of his big guys round by round. I quickly saw Victarion and Asha and without a reset in his plot cards, I got a safe victory.

Final Loss vs. Banner of the Dragon This match gave me a restless night :-( Both of us had a stable setup. He got Randyll with two dupes on board. I had Asha, Wendamyr and Victarion from round 1 on board. We both managed playing our game until the game changed to his way. I got first player during his Wardens of the South turn. After an intrigue challenge with a priest, I declared a power challenge with Asha and Wendamyr (both stealth, so it was unopposed) and put Victarion along their side to intimidate Randyll. I won the challenge, played Superior Claim for two extra power, played Support of the People to get the Great Kraken on board, triggered the Great Kraken for an extra power, applied claim AND then forgot BOTH keywords of Victarion. I still can hardly believe this. After I declared my third challenge, I realized, that his Randyll was standing. But then it was too late. Although I managed to kill his Margaery Tyrell (AMAF) with the Seastone Chair (Asha stealthed Randyll and The Kraken's Grasp on hand), that big mistake settled the game. If I remember right, I would have been at 14 with a standing Asha and a Acolyte of the Waves. I would have won dominance while giving him a unopposed challenge to stay at 14. With the Acolyte on board I was safe from Valar, but would not have played it myself knowing he had The King in the North in his plot deck.
However he made 5 with Randyll and won the dominance. He played Valar next turn to clean my board (not a single safe on my side). I had little hope again finding Balon Greyjoy (Core). But he had Growing Strong on hand to counter my stealth (Kraken) challenge and sealed the deal.

I like his deck very much, it combines good synergies from and and Lord Puky truly deserves his victory. So congratulations, Puky! Good job!