Top 4 Greyjoy at Worlds Day 1A 3-3 1.0

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• 1.0

Inspired from @Blacknister's Stahleck Top 8 deck. With major differences to the plots to attempt to counter the current meta of Targ SoB & Shadows.

Main Plots Changes: -Winter Reserves x2 -Winter Festival x1

+Barring The Gates x1 +Rationing x1 +False Spring x1

My standard plot lines especially against any shadows decks I faced were Barring, Barring, Rationing/False Spring. Other times I just opened with False Spring or Rationing. I cut double Reserves as I had some advice from @jcwamma that setting up the choke with Reserves might be too slow against the current meta. This choice hurt my economy, but it meant I had some leverage against jumper decks like Targ & shadows as well.

Main Deck Changes: -Raiding Longship x1

+Maester Murenmure x1

Murenmure provided to be more useful especially in some games to lock down opponent's economy. Raiding Longship was not always useful for me as I did not always go first and it was a dead card in many instances. Further edit I would remove it in place of another character with Pillage like Tris or econ control like Shipwright. If Wintertime were legal then x3 of them and lesser ships.

Worlds Day 1A https://thejoustingpavilion.com/tournaments/7345

I can't remember most of the games, just bits and pieces, and the highlights, although I remembered my last game the most which costed me the Top64 cut, but I appreciated learning from the mistakes I made that game the most as well.

Round 1 (vs Ben Terpstra's Targ KotHH) WIN Double Barrings as my opening, having Risens in my hand & Baelor from Turn 1 helped control the burn from his Daenerys, and successful pillages of key events. I had enough renown guys like Euron & Balon out to seal the game. And focused on discarding his Mereenese Market via WDNS helped me keep burn events in his discard pile.

Round 2 (vs Geoff Bergh's The Free Folk) LOSS His opening was Vanquish, and I didn't had enough saves on my opening board and hand. It was a one-sided massacre from plot 1 with double claim 2 Mil; even having Kerwin didn't help, as I didn't have enough or rather ANY chuds on turn 1 to claim soak.

Round 3 (vs Brandon MacDougall's NW Kraken) WIN Both of us were playing choke, both had our Botley Crew x1 turn 1. The turning point was when I marshalled Murenmure, which locked out his White Tree & Kingsroads every turn. The MVPs were Murenmure & Vinces to protect my econ from Botley Crew.

Round 4 (vs Zack Price's Lanni Wolf) LOSS I didn't draw into a single econ throughout 3 plots and kept drawing my bigs, Asha, Euron & Balon every turn. Not being able to marshall any of them hurt and it was a one-sided game from the start and he rushed with his renown bigs to win.

Round 5 (vs Callum Gillespie's GJ Stag) WIN I opened with False Spring plot 1 and I remember cancelling his Euron's search for Silence with Vince as I didn't want Euron to stand multiple times. Having a big appear each turn helped me swing back and gain control of the board and winter + Botley Crew chocking his economy helped prevent his board from getting wider than mine.

Round 6 (vs Yotam Hechtlinger's Lanni KoS) LOSS This was my most memorable game as it was the game that determined who made the Top 64 cut on Day 2. I knew my first 2 plots were bound to be my double Barring to lock down the shadows, intrigue challenges to keep his hand small & Asha + draws to prep for shadows. Even though I had the Barring lock, my power gain was slow and I only reached 5-6 power at the end of my 2nd Barring turn. In the meantime, he was accumulating his shadows & econ. Plot 3 onwards things spiced up as he was bringing out cards from shadows to kill & repeat. I remember farming for Risens & Vinces with Asha prior to the third turn onwards to protect myself from shadow Varys & shadow kill effects. But soon those tools ran out. A chance pillage by Core Euron took his Bowels to my side, slowing his econ abit. But by plot 5-6, his shadow Knight of Flowers was ramping up 6-7 power on him. By the end of plot 6, we were called for time and I conceded. What I felt was a mistake on my part was not accounting that he had not played his reset, 7th plot Valar M & I had not played mine yet, so if I had played just a few minutes faster, we would have double valared his Knight of Flowers with only 1 dupe with loads of power on him and the game would have swung into mine instead as my faction card had way more power than his.

Yet, by some stroke of luck, I still made Top 4 Greyjoy on Day 1A! It has been a really blessed and amazing first & last Worlds experience. Thank you all my friends from USA & around the world for this experience! ❤ #ThronesCommunityUnite

What Is Dead May Never Die, HouseSotong aka Ervin aka BBE