Greyjoy Stag "Khorane Pain Train" finalist Blackwater ‘19

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Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Khorane Pain Chain - UK Thrones WAR Top 32 6 5 0 1.0
GJ Stag - Top 32 Worlds! 7 1 4 1.0

TIGERSTYLE 112

This is the Greyjoy Banner of the Stag deck I took to an 8-2 record to the final of Battle of Blackwater Bay 2019 in London.

A huge thanks goes out to Callum Gillespie, when I conveniently forgot my deck at Battles of Summerhall earlier this year, I had the option to play the pre-banned list Greyjoy Sea Of Blood, or experience the beauty of Khorane Sathmantes!

At that tournament I made the cut, losing to eventual winner and the undisputed king of summer(hall) Joe Zimmer in an onslaught which saw me rue the day I ever saw Martell again.

I put Khorane away at that point, went back to my beloved Tyrell Qohor and thought nothing of it for a while... But I stayed awake at night, yearning for the lank black hair and red and green tunic of the sweet sweet smuggler.

With Blackwater Bay closing in, I in passing turned to Callum The Wise and floated the idea of bringing the Khorane Pain Train to London. He agreed, we thought it was a good meta call, it had some bad match ups in the original draft which we tried to mitigate (mainly adding Milk of the Poppy for Rob Stark and an opponents Victarion Greyjoy (MoD))

I took the previous version of this deck to one of the game night kit tournaments we run in Northampton, our meta is massively competitive and full of some of the best (and sometimes under appreciated) players in the country.

The train ran out of steam that day to meta mate, friend and all round top guy Daisy when Balon Greyjoy (Core) had two Corsair's Dirk, Queensguard and Red Rain on him and I was outta luck! But wins over Ian and absolute gent who is one of those under appreciated players I mentioned, who gives such good insight an advice Stefan Fotheringham gave me confidence in the deck to take it to t’bay.

A few points on the deck that changed, and this really is down to the advise of Richard Walker, if you don’t know him you’re living under a Thrones rock, he’s basically the best player not called Wamma.

I really wanted Red Priest in there, but Richard pointed out, my two resets really don’t work with them, they’re in an awkward cost slot and the spaces could be used better elsewhere, then the addition of Nothing Burns Like The Cold and Return to the Fields instead of ‘safe plots’ Close Call and Late Summer Feast. I struggled for a second or third plot if my opponent had no military icons and these two plots gave me more choice.

The other point which I think was huge was, Vince Fear, I tended to save my Iron Mines until really needed so my opponent thought that Drowned God Fanatic was my restricted card, it worked a lot. I also had no unopposed tech, but people fear it like the world is ending, it’s important to save one gold as a Greyjoy player.

So... On to Blackwater!

GAME 1 vs Joe Clarke (Martell Sea Of Blood) LOSS I thought this was how my day was going to play out, Martell somehow were the most represented faction in the tournament, I had already been dismantled by them in Aldershot and I had no chance in this game.

Joe setup a stealth Military character, the only economy I found in five turns was with my At the Gates. It was just one sided.

GAME 2 vs Sasa Milovic (Martell Banner Lion) WIN I know this deck, I made this deck, and I know it’s very inconsistent.

Much like the previous game, it was quite one sided but the other way, it took Sasa a long time to find The Shadow City and by then the damage was done (and I Nothing Burns it), Victarion had about 5 power on him, I needed to win dominance to end the game, Sasa pulled Varys (DitD) from shadows, I had the Risen from the Sea in hand and it was GG.

GAME 3 vs Wex (Greyjoy Sea Of Blood) WIN This was my favourite game of the day, when you think GJ SOB, you think of degenerate monsters, now Wex on the other hand had a Saltcliffe Sailor Unbridled Generosity deck which was super fun!

Luckily for me, this is the kind of game big daddy Khorane excels at, I had to play a very cagey game because one wrong move and it was all over, I leveraged my first snow to leave him with two characters and then valar’d to leave him with none to my three, Khorane was just able to constantly keep control of the board and by the time Balon, Victarion and Asha turned up it was a handshake. But it was such a good game.

GAME 4 vs Stefan Fotheringham (Martell Prince That Was Promised) WIN I knew this deck a little as it is Richard Walkers and I’ve played it a few tones, Stefan knows mine too having played it a fair bit so we’re somewhat even.

I knew all I needed was to control Arianne Martell (JtO) when she dropped, and that’s what’s i did. I waited the game out winning power and intrigue challenges (as to not get Quentyned, making Stefan first every turn, then as soon as Arianne hit the board, I locked her in with a milk.

That turn I Balon’d a Ghaston Grey to return Quentyn to hand, popped Valar, killed Arianne and Doran while being left with a strong board and it was pretty much done at that point.

GAME 5 vs Flor Vanclyusun (Martell Knights Of the Hollow Hill) WIN Flor is an absolute gent, we had a nice chat on the break and I think i told him a fair bit about my deck.

Luckily I got Vic online really early. He was racking up power and all Flor really had in play was Dorne drawing cards. I reached a point where I knew I was on a clock to not get Varys’d.

Prior to his Valar turn, he took a risen from my hand, I played We Take Westeros that turn, triggered Alysane, top decked a Risen, got my Iron Mines cancelled by He Calls It Thinking, dropped the risen and won on Dom that turn, the turn he drew the Varys/Giants. Phew!

GAME 6 vs John Taggart (Greyjoy Lords of the Crossing) WIN Hey, at this point I’ve got the four wins and made the cut! Sweet! So has John, so we’re just happy to be here.

First turn comes and I drop Euron, so does he, the difference is I setup Khorane Sathmantes and the train ran all over him.

A milk for his Balon3 in to first now left him with two worthless characters against my 5 4+ costers and we’re at 5-1 in the cut!

A nice break follows while there’s the win and in, I had a burger, chatted to some people, expected to play the top sixteen game and win or lose, probably be dropped from the tournament as I couldn’t make Sunday...

TOP 16 vs Vojta Kubicina (Stark Faith Militant) WIN Ahhh so there is other factions than Martell and Greyjoy here?

Vojta was playing a bit of an off the wall Stark Faith Militant deck and I didn’t know what to expect. The game is mostly hazy for me but I do remember him having kill Arya out for the whole game and ice’ing my duped Euron, which wasn’t that bad as it meant I could then play Victarion with little worry, first snow in to Valar protected my board at that point we’d gone seven plots and realised Vojta had no hard reset, Victarion ran riot and it was done.

This is where I got to last year, before the tournament went to day 2, I had to drop and Ollie who I beat in the top 16 went on to make the final! But this time we’re still going...

TOP 8 vs Martin Lewis (Martell Wars To Come) WIN The thing with Wars To Come is, you know what you’re getting.

I think Martin was wildly unlucky here, the only power icons he had was from bringing in Desert Raiders, thusly giving me power and then still not being able to win power challenges, it was 13-0, I was going to get a renown on Victarion and win dom so Martin called it.

TOP 4 vs John Taggart (Greyjoy Lords of the Crossing) WIN John looked dejected when he saw it was me in the top 4, I think he said his game against me was the most one sided game he had in the Swiss, this game, I setup 6 cards and have a milk in hand.

First turn I’m on +4 gold and a Great Hall, John opens with a duped Balon3 who is milked straight away, I get out Euron and proceed to win the game quite easily. My favourite moment of this game and the day him playing Forced March in to my We Take Westeros. I took whatever boat either of us had in the discard pile to put two Eager Deckhand in to play and his Forced March was worthless, at that point I think he knew it was over.

FINAL vs Sam Pigden (Builders) LOSS I’m not making excuses but I was agitated all the way through this game, I was supposed to get a train at 12.15 and this game started at 11.10, that’s the problem with Martell and Builders going all the way in tournaments, every single round went to time with at least a 15 minute overrun per round, it isn’t healthy for a long day, but neither Sam or I could realistically come to day 2 so we had to play it.

I know Builders well, Sam has updated it with some interesting cards - The Crow is a Tricksy Bird and Mutiny At Craster's Keep - so it’s still evolving which is cool.

Everyone was saying I have a positive match up, which I do, I think Sam triggered the wall once but won dominance every turn and every power challenge.

The game went to time on plot 8/9, we played a standard 55 minutes. At that point, Sam only had 12 cards in deck and 3 characters alive (throughout deck and discard). I conceded at time as it was about 10-6 on power, next turn I would’ve first snowed and killed the game off if we played a 2 hour tournament final, but unfortunately we had time constraints we placed on ourselves, and Sam played a great game.

——-

All in all, I did not expect to make the final of this tournament, I was exposed in two games against Martell and with such a huge field of it I thought I had no chance but luckily, the train went straight through those stations.

It was a great day, I love these kind of events where you get to see so many of your thrones family and Vince and Dave run a blinder of a show.

I have to give a huge thanks to Daisy, he motivated me through the whole day and when we missed our last train and I had a hissy fit, he calmed me down and sorted it out. Everyone should get themselves a Daisy!

10 comments

callumgie 120

Congrats again mate. Glad that I have converted you over to Khorane!! How did you find the Salladhor, I was thinking about swapping him for a Renly especially with first snow.

ChannelDelibird 1067

Great deck, great player, great result. Well done!

hagarrr 829

You said you were going to win it and you pretty much did <3

DaisyG1313 1

Congrats dude! Know I didn’t say it on our blitz across and out of London! Super proud of the result in a tough field of top players and nasty decks!

Like Rich says you pretty much did win it! <3

suhuaiyu 1

Thanks for such a detailed sharing:) one little question: Did the "Nothing burns"conflicts with your own attachments? you have 2 milks and 2 warhammers.

TIGERSTYLE 112

@suhuaiyuthe only time I lost an attachment with Nothing Burns Like The Cold was a Risen from the Sea. It worked out pretty well!

Thank you to all the rest of you for your kind words!

Patrick 1

This looks like a super fun deck, `@TIGERSTYLE! Congrats!

Did you consider Bodyguard over the Iron Mines so that you could still play Vince as your restricted card, as well as limiting the possibility of Stark using Frozen Solid on it? Thanks for sharing the deck!

TIGERSTYLE 112

@Patrick you can’t save Khorane Sathmantes with bodyguard or risen, I never once missed Vince that day, it’s a good card, but in a banner deck which has a key character, not a chance vs the classic Iron Mines

Patrick 1

@TIGERSTYLE Fair enough! Thanks for the response!

Kakita_Rinsei 23

Have you considered running Healing Expertise to get vince back in your deck? You are running a couple of Maesters and it is a free cost save to replace your 1 cost mines. Just a thought and congrats on piloting your deck to the finals :)