Martell Wipe - Stahleck 2022 ( 5-3; 3-1) 1.0

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• 1.0

Another amazing Stahleck has come to an end. It was a great warm feeling to meet all old friends and make some new ones, meet new people live that I've only played on theironthrone before. Stahleck cannot be described in words, but I think Remko said it the best - "Stahleck is not a tournament anymore. It is a family reunion."

As a house Martell die-hard fan, I've never considered other houses for the event. As I wanted to bring a competitive deck, the only options I saw as viable were A Mummer's Farce and Knights of the Hollow Hill as agendas. I chose the KOTHH option as I (like many others) just recently got back in the game and have more experience with KOTHH and didn't have the time to build and test Fools properly. (Seeing how well Melle and David performed, I might have made a wrong call :D )

I've tested the version of this deck with 2 or 3 copies of 2 claim plots for a long time but then had a chat with Alex(France) and decided to give a shot to this plot line. It felt more consistent because of the extra card draw, though a little bit slower, and that was my only concern in getting the deck to Stahleck however, I decided to go for it and rely on faster plays on my end.

Most of the games with this deck go the same way - your opponent gets to 10-13 power while you stay at 0 power; by that time, you've exhausted them enough of resources and board to get to the victory easily, so time is of the essence here. You can also expect to draw most of your deck and start plot 8 with 14-16 cards in hand if managed properly. All my games went according to expectations (except the ones I lost ofc).

The deck suffers mainly against Bara with Chamber of the Painted Table if you don't find the answers fast enough, other slow decks with many dupes and stark (Catelyn Stark (Core), Winterfell, Bran Stark (Core)...)

Unfortunately, most of my games during the Joust were against relatively hard matchups, but I was lucky enough to win most.

Joust

Round 1: Lost vs Greyjoy Drowned Gods (Thomas Trojan) He got his main characters for the Drowned Gods synergy on turn 1, then by turn 4 he had all the pieces needed and secured the victory with just 1 or 2 challenges thrown at me. Overall it was a nice game but I don't think it is a good matchup for this Martell deck.

Round 2: Win vs Martell Crossing (PitchBlecc) I managed to get my icon removal tricks early on, which stopped his agenda triggers and made the game relatively easy on my end while patiently waiting for Varys (Core) and skipping all mil and pow challenges to save my hand from His Viper Eyes

Round 3: Win vs Stark Fealty (Tomáš Hrnčiar) Bad matchup for me, but Tomas was unfortunate to see no economy nor Cate for the first couple of rounds which amplified the effect of the resets, and then it was a bit too late for him to get back into the game.

Round 4: Lost vs Baratheon Summer (Miha Vrbanec top16) With the 2 strongholds on the board and Chamber of the Painted Table on turn 1, it was already an uphill battle for me. My Lay Waste were on the bottom of my deck and although I did my best and we got into time, I think it was a well-deserved victory for Miha, who later made it to top 16.

Round 5: Win vs NW AAA (James Parsons) James is a great man, and we had a lovely game, but I was lucky enough with the intrigue claims and multiple resets and with only 10 cards left in the deck by the end of the game. We finished after the time was called, and James made it to 14 power, but that left him defenseless to my attacks, and with 2 UO and dominance, yet another timed victory was mine.

Round 6: Win vs Stark Fealty (Kairi Kilgi) Although this was the 4th time Kairi attended Stahleck, it was the first time I met her, which only means that there are always new people to meet and befriend at the event. Kairi passed 10 power easily, but then I got one too many resets for her to handle, and with a weak economy, eventually, I grabbed the victory.

Round 7: Lost vs NW AAA (Libor top16) This time I was not so lucky and the dupes came easily for Libor and Varys (Core) was drawn on turn 6 when it was already too late. Although we got into time, Libor performed exceptionally well and was left with only a few cards in his deck, but that was enough for him to secure the win. This was the only game the whole day where I had no chance to get back into the game. Well deserved top 16 for Libor later that day and arrivederci to my ambitions for the top cut.

Round 8: Win vs Greyjoy Fealty (Ketal) I think this was the only matchup for the day, which was favorable for my deck. I don't remember much of the game (sorry Ketal) as I was already too tired and the game didn't matter to any of us as we missed the cut.

The next day during the team event, I made 3-1.

Overall I am happy with how the deck performed, and it is extremely unpleasant to play against. Once again I want to thank Alex for sharing his list and hope to see you all next year :)

p.s. will be happy to share card interactions if anyone is interested.