Q'hllor: How to beat GJ Prince - German Grand Champ (8-1) 1.0

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So I really managed to win the German Grand Championship (https://thejoustingpavilion.com/tournaments/6927) with Baratheon!

How? This deck is a metacall:

• It's good against Kingdom of Shadows with that plotline: King plot, Barring, then Political Disaster.
• It is apparently great against Prince, I beat 6(!) different(!) Prince Balons during the tournament.
• The matchup against Drowned God should also be good with Milks, King plot and Barring, although this was my only loss.
• It is doing well against control because your Azor Ahai doesn't mind Craven, Secret Pact, kneel, icon control, and if his name is Stannis Baratheon (as it should be), even Nightmares and Milks are no problem, the latter because both Stannis's renown and intimidate come from attachments.
• Mind you, the deck is weak against aggro and attrition. Beric Dondarrion sometimes helps, though.
• There is few attachment control around, so your Qohor tricks usually stick around.

Q'hllor

Qohor has always been my favorite agenda, because it's a great mix of rush and control. Naturally, the Fury of the Storm cards I was most excited about were Selyse and Azor Ahai. Those 2 cards are the centerpieces of this deck, with Selyse being the undisputed MVP. I also wanted to play a deck with the one true king, and he is nothing without dual-wielding Lightbringer and a Warhammer, so Qohor is his best home.

Plots

• You have At the Gates as a backup, but I almost always open Vanquish the Unbelievers. Keep in mind Red God's Blessing gives the R'hllor trait. There's also the most thematic play of letting Shireen burn at the stake and kneel their big guy to get your claim 2 challenges through.
• The King plot is great even without Bob or Stannis. You got few triggers, Qohor, Selyse and Anguy still work.
• Barring was a metacall because of Shadows, but it was a good plot before.
• There isn't much draw in the deck, so You Win Or You Die is an auto-include, especially in a rush deck that wants to go first and intimidate.
• Political Disaster is my favorite plot, and great against a wide range of decks: Warships, Shadows, Control... There are only 11 locations in the deck, and you got additional synergy with Ser Imry Florent and the King's Gates.
• As I said this deck is weaker against aggro/attrition, so I like to have Close Call as a backup. 5 characters are 3x. It's also one of the only 6 card draw effects in the deck. :)
• This is a rush deck, so I don't bother having a reset (as I often do).

Characters

• Step 1 is having Selyse in play and spamming R'hllor attachments you can qohor.
• Step 2 is getting Azor Ahai Reborn on one of your 2 Kings and be unstoppable!
• To support Azor and Blessing, there are 23 R'hllor characters! I prefer the 2-costers over the traditional 3-cost R'hllor because gold is tight and you want a big board. That's also the reason for 3 Anguy the Archer. Without reducers (they suck with Vanquish), you need some claim soak.
• I was originally playing Fury Melisandre to have another character with intimidate from Warhammer, but in the end I chose Core Mel. Triggering her every round is a given with 32 R'hllor cards in the deck. :D

Attachments

• Pay 0 for Red God's Blessing, get +4 STR, win a challenge and qohor Hunting Accident on Euron looks like a good deal to me.
• The Qohor timing with Warhammer and Lightbringer is perfect, such good support for Stannis.
• Another cool trick is to use Qohor to get Light of the Lord on a R'hllor Infiltrator, then gain 2 sneaky power during dominance to win the game.

German Grand Championship

Win vs. Prince Balon No. 1

This was actually the toughest Prince game of all 6. He could defend all 3 challenges on my Vanquish opener. Then he had Nothing Burns Like The Cold and I couldn't stop his 2 We Do Not Sow. Discarding a bodyguard on Selyse meant she had to die during his First Snow of Winter. Azor Bob survived and even though I couldn't stop his power gain, he couldn't stop Bobby. One R'hllor character was enough for Bob's 3 challenges, because I exchanged Azor for Lightbringer for the final challenge. 15-13

Win vs. Princess Dany

Yep, this deck also beats non- Prince decks, even when piloted by Reinhard. Round 1 a Red Priest picked Drogon, but he had lots of those strong small characters to stop claim 2. He let me win one challenge, which probably decided the game, because Dany had a Hunting Accident. Round 2 I had Azor Bob. He played defensively, but Win or Die was enough to win with Stannis joining his older brother. 15-1

Win vs. Prince Balon No. 2

He got a big board of weenies and only one big character with a Hunting Accident, I had a very small board, so I just blocked unopposed (and We Do Not Sow) for 3-4 rounds. Surprisingly, he played Dohaeris, and I could finally get on top. 15-4

Loss vs. Drowned God Sun

I had a horrible start despite Selyse in setup, usually 3 extra gold from Trading with the Pentoshi on my Vanquish turn should be awesome. But I only had Cressen, Bill Bone, Imry and Shireen and no Blessing. I even chose the Lady trait instead of R'hllor... His start was nuts, Tarle, 2 Disciples, Vince, Acolyte. Round 2 the milk on Tarle was confiscated, he won the same round with 12 power on Tarle :p

Win vs. Prince Balon No. 3

He had a 3 ship setup after a mulligan, and Vanquish plus Disaster crushed him easily.

Win vs. Prince Balon No. 4

He had to set up Euron because of 3 We Do Not Sow in his hand after mulligan. I had a slow start as well and lost several attachments. His Dohaeris hurt me (is that a thing now? GJ playing Dohaeris for the mirrormatch?) On my win or die I drew Selyse and even though I was second player I could swing back hard enough to win.

So after Swiss, Stannis had crushed 5 pretender Princes that were Promised, but the Drowned God prevailed over the Lord of Light. During the top cut, decklists were exchanged.

Top 8 vs. Prince Balon No. 5

My start was good with Mel, Selyse and Anguy. But then I made a mistake forgetting that Great Kraken gave his Balon stealth, so my STR 6 Anguy couldn't defend...I should have put a Hunting Accident on Balon when I had the chance. So his Prince wreaked havoc and we finished the round 0-11. Round 2 I played Disaster to destroy his econ because his board was small due to claim 2 round 1. Mel's trigger didn't get canceled this time and Balon got his Accident. Round 3 Red Priest picked a Risen, so Euron died for military claim (or rather the fanatic did after killing Euron). I was gaining 4-5 power per round without any renown. I was really lucky he didn't draw any small characters, so I could grind out a victory without Azor or a King.

Top 4 vs. Prince Balon No. 6

This Balon ran out of luck the game before. His draw was very bad, so Melisandre and Hunting Accidents controlled his small board of triple-duped Euron and duped Alannys. Very similar to Top 8, only without a good round 1 for GJ.

Final vs. Knights of the Hollow Hill

Carsten was playing a cool burn deck, well as cool as burn can be ;)(https://thronesdb.com/decklist/view/13180/nobody-expects-the-dragon-inquisition-2nd-place-german-gc-1.0) Burn/attrition/aggro is a really bad matchup for me. But my deck does counter his first round attrition: Unexpected Delay! I had Selyse with a bodyguard in setup, then Azor on Anguy and an Acolyte with a Hunting Accident. :D Anguy got burned, but Selyse got her burn protection Red God's Blessing. Round 2 even without a king, I played The King in the North to stop his tricks, and boy, that was a good decision. He played Win or Die and would have crushed me with Drogon, Qotho etc. So he just played Pyro Dany and Viserion. I had no military icon sadly because I had to marshal Cressen to protect duped Selyse from being marched next round. I didn't attack with the small guys rightly so because of Dracarys. He marched milked Dany and a chud and then threatened my Selyse with Drogon. I countered with Stannis. Selyse got marched the round after that, but I got the perfect answer to aggro: Beric Dondarrion! He had to discard both Nightmares for Win or Die earlier. With Beric down to 5 tokens I expected Blood of the Dragon to burn him. So I went first with Win or Die and won the game with Stannis+Lightbringer+Warhammer, only time I had that combo during the tournament and an awesome way to end it. :)

Thanks for reading and feel free to ask questions!