Dreadfort Horror Story (Winner, Spanish Nats 2020) 1.0

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• 1.0

I took my list from Stahleck 2019 and swapped a Dreadfort Maester for a single copy of Catelyn Stark (Core) because she is undeniably very efficient, cannot be burned easily, and stops a lot of shenanigans. Also removed the second copy of Ser Jason Mallister for a Frozen Solid to deal with some pesky locations and to avoid a dead card in case Ser Jason dies.

The tournament is recorded in TJP: Spanish Nats 2020.

A lot of games were streamed on https://www.twitch.tv/ubahob and https://www.twitch.tv/r480.

I'll briefly mention some game moments I can recall during the long day:

Game 1: Marti Foz, GJ KoW - He started strong with duped Alannys Greyjoy (CoS), Maester Kerwin, Maester Murenmure and some chuds. I was afraid that Kerwin and Murenmure will completely shut down my Harrenhals, so I made the decision to Valar Morghulis early. After that he played Balon Greyjoy (KotI) who kept putting my discarded characters into play to soak my military claim, but I eventually got rid of him. Unfortunately, he played Asha and Euron next turn. I managed to March one of them and then Ramsay the other, but he played the second Drowned God Fanatic for the game to cancel Ramsay at which point he started stealing my Harrenhal and rushed quickly to 15.

Game 2: Hidra, Baratheon Rose - Her deck had a lot of challenge removal and slowed me down significantly, but I didn't see any big characters all game and was able to clear the board at some point.

Game 3: Nacho Cueto, Tyrell Steel - I had my hopes high that this is a big characters deck and I managed to slow him down a lot with Marriages which forced him to pour out more characters, which at some point died from Valar. I was afraid that a lot of attachments will return back to hand, but I tried my best to make big intrigue challenges and boost my claim whenever possible.

Game 4: Ivan Ivanov, NW Wolf - I registered two players for this tournament - me and my wife Elena. However, she had to take care of the kid, so I told Vancho a day before the event, that he has to play in her place. I didn't expect that we will meet and wasn't particularly happy to play against another attrition deck, with a Wall and Queenscrown on setup on top of that. I was lucky to flood the board early and keep his board minimal, so I can close the game in 3 rounds, before the Wall can cheat enough of my characters into play to turn the game in his favor.

Game 5: Alejandro Gomez, Baratheon Rose - Another Baratheon Rose, which I thought I'd make a quick work of. Oh, I realized how wrong I am when he had Hollow Hill, Chamber, and Throne on round 1. I was running out of time and the result was something like 10:0 in his favor. I managed to sneak in three 2 claim power challenges before I could start crawling back into the game and together with the mostly unopposed challenges my opponent conceded.

Game 6: Dennis Luke, Stark Crossing - Dennis had a great board with some dupes on setup and round 1, but I kept my original hand because I saw Arya Stark (TFM) in there. I cleaned the board and then continued with the pressure. Dennis told me that he totally forgot Arya is a thing and overextended.

Top 16: George Papatheodorou, Targ Assault - I had a bad feeling about this one. Elena plays Targ Assault exclusively and after numerous Stark KotHH vs Targ Assault matches at home, at some point she found a way to beat me most of the time. Fortunately for me, I had some Harrenhals and some White Harbor Watchmans early on, which helped stop a lot of the characters from shadows. Combine that with me concentrating on intrigue claim and a Frozen Solid on Meereen and you get the picture.

Top 8: Kike Vazquez, Free Folk - Let me tell you how I decided to run this deck in Stahleck 2019. I was experimenting with different decks online, but I have never managed to take a win against Reinhard. The first win against him was me with Stark KotHH a month before Stahleck, while oddly enough Rein was piloting a Free Folk deck. The matchup is strong with Ward, Marriage Pact and Harrenhal (GoH) at my disposal. Even though I had to take 4 intrigue claim on round 1 I managed to equalize with a Harrenhal into round 2 Valar and take it from there.

Top 4: The Katakana Guy, Free Folk - Similar match, but this time he had Rattleshirt's Raiders round 1 among other wildlings, which shut down the Ward and Pact in my hand. So again I take claim 4 intrigue and bide my time, so I can turn this around after the Valar Morghulis turn.

Final: Alejandro Pantoja, Stark Crossing - I mulliganed my hand looking for Arya Stark (TFM) as I knew she'd be crucial in the matchup, but no luck. Round 1 I played some characters just to oppose his and keep him at bay, but he still managed to get to 5. Round 2 I flip Exchange hoping to hit Winter Festival but he plays Barring the Gates. This was when I drew into Arya and started making a plan how to keep her alive for the Valar next turn. After cleaning the board, Alejandro reflooded with 2x Bear Island Scout, duped Catelyn Stark (Core), Robb Stark (Core) and Dacey Mormont, and I started to cry a little. Fortunately I had Summer (Core) in hand to get my Arya (MVP) back and play a Pact on Catelyn to stop the third challenge. First part of the plan went smoothly. Second part of the plan failed miserably and he was at 11 power at this point. Good thing I had a Winter Is Coming on my You Win Or You Die plot, so he had to kill Catelyn (cannot be saved) and 2x Scouts for my military challenge with stealth and Last Hearth. Due to the insight I drew into Ramsay. I discarded my hand except for Ramsay and flipped Marched next turn to get rid of both Robb and Dacey before the challenges phase began. Here I chose Arya for my plot and then immediately drew into another one, which allowed me to keep the pressure going and eventually Alejandro conceded.

I want to thank the very welcoming, warm, and cheerful Spanish meta, all my opponents for being such great sports, and the organizers and streamers who put in a lot of effort for this event to happen smoothly.