Claimmister

I built this deck for 8 Regents Team . I'm not a Lanni player by trade, but I admired how Jakob Wahlman completely dismantled my Qohor deck at online worlds with Lanni Sea of Blood, so I decided that this agenda would be my bread and butter deck for the tournament. I liked it so much I decided to take it to US Nats!

Game Plan

Put simply, we want to attack our opponent's board through high and multiple claim, tutor jumping events, and overwhelm our opponent with a wall of big military bodies that we cheat into play.

Why Redesigned Sea of Blood?

The downside of Sea of Blood is the inability to run really strong counter events like Nightmares and HJ. However, this is partially overcome in , which has access to Treachery. Treachery on demand, along with The Red Keep (R), gives options for counterplay when full aggro doesn't do the job. I prefer this to the Clansmen Many-Faced God decks which lean harder into aggro.

Plot Selection

The typical plot sequence is to open The Maiden and flip At the Gates round 2. This gives you initiative and an econ baseline. A similar sequence is run out of Reinhard's now famous Targ Brotherhood deck. For the reset, we run Valar Dohaeris since a lot of our biggest characters are bouncing in and out of play, so we end up coming ahead of beefy character decks, which this deck can struggle against. The rest of the plots are aggro to be flipped when the situation calls for. Speaking of aggro...

Aggro

Since this is a deck, we're of course going to naturally aggro our opponents. However, there are really 3 cards that allow us to up the board pressure through . Cersei Lannister (Core) with both Trial by Combat and Castamere. On a 2 claim plot, we can deal 2 and 3 claims in one round (this is better than doing something crazy like 5 claim at once with Raiding Khalasars in Dothraki since the double claims can chew through dupes). Castamere has to be addressed while on the board (and frankly, some factions have no answers for it), while Trial by Combat is often a nasty surprise.

Tempo

The way the tempo advantage functions in this deck is to get big Knight and Army characters into our discard pile and then pop them into play with Burning Bright. The most obvious route is to pitch these characters with Gold Mine, but you remember you can get characters into discard through the following ways:

• Resolution of I Never Bet Against My Family
• Resolution of Hear Me Roar!
• Marched to the Wall (A cheeky play is to set up a solo big character on setup if you have Burning Bright in hand to bait an opponent's Marched)
• Dupes discarded due to VD.

While on the topic of Never Bet. Despite it being a Faction card kneel, this event has incredible value. Tutor it the turn before you flip Valar Dohaeris, send that Jaime or Gregor to the bottom of the deck, and then pop them back out again. It's wild.

US Nats Rundown

It's been a week, so apologies in advance if I misremember something.

Round 1 vs Austin Kings of Summer (Win)

This can be a tougher matchup than meets the eye since Bara can overwhelm Lanni's cancels with Mel, Red Priest, Laughing Storm, and Chef Bob to control the board. Austin had a poor setup that set him back most of the game, but it was still tight. He stopped my jump with Privileged Position twice, and halted a key challenge with In the Name of Your King!. Fortunately, I was able to keep destroying his hand through and I eventually won a war of attrition at the 7th plot. 1-0

Round 2 vs Tom Trading with Qohor (Win)

This was similar to the deck that Jim Hansen and I built for Worlds. I knew I had the edge since it's vulnerable to aggro early. Tom wasn't helped by a poor setup that was just Freedmen, econ, and 2 cards in shadows. Barristan and Daario managed to hit the board, but Daario was killed via Trial by Combat on a The First Snow of Winter turn, and voltron Barristan was neutered by a Sweetsleep. 2-0

Round 3 vs carson Free Companies (Win)

I had Castamere out on setup for this game, so carson was forced to use his Euron almost exclusively for defense to prevent the trigger. carson's deck benefits from Moon Door shenanigans, but since I was playing and jumping in characters with STR 5 and higher, he never ended up playing it. VD took care of a board that was made up of Big Vic and Euron and he couldn't keep up with the tempo that Burning Bright kept providing me. 3-0

Round 4 vs Rightwaydown Assault (Loss)

This of course is Henry on the deck that took him all the way to the Online Worlds final this year. We knew each other's decks well since we were team mates this year for 8 Regents. I liked my chances for this match after round 1. I had duped Cersei with Sweetsleep (to protect against pinch) ripping apart his hand, and The Red Keep (R) to guard against his Varys triggers... but Lay Waste on my Keep turned the tide. Once I burned through my two Treacheries, Varys hit the board, reset everything, and Henry took control of the game. 3-1

Round 5 vs Rupert Banner Stag (Win)

Another matchup against an 8 Regents team mate - this time the Warden of the West himself! Rupert and I built this deck together so I knew the gyst - get a Warhammer on Cersei Lannister (LoCR) or Ser Jaime Lannister (Core) and control the board through intimidate while simultaneously rushing. He set up a Kingsroad so I couldn't afford to lose initiative early, so I opened with The First Snow of Winter so he could only play his bigs, followed by VD to isolate his Cersei. I played my other 8 initiative plots to continue going first until his board was dead and I could control the game. 4-1

Quarterfinals vs Tom Trading with Qohor (Win)

A rematch from the Swiss. Tom had a better setup this time and was in good position after an unlucky Gregor pillage on my part put Missandei into play for claim soak and prevented me from Marching a voltron Barristan. Later, I was very lucky that he forgot to trigger QG before claim was applied during a critical round (so the character would be standing, he could fetch skull and gain renown/intimidate and get to 15 after one more challenge with said character), but I was able to hang on, go first the next round and squeak out a close win. 5-1

Semifinals vs Martin Prince (Win)

Martin ran Prince Balon, and setup a ton of Warships. Round 2 he had Balon and Vic on the board and got a lot of power before I played VD. However, since I opened Maiden, my 8 initiative plots were able to beat even his We Take Westeros! (R), and I was able to control Balon through going first and intimidate on The Halfman's Horde. 6-1

Finals vs Francis Aloof (Loss)

Francis and I built decks together so we both knew what was coming - and I knew this was not a good matchup for me. Beefy characters and burn, which I have no HJ to counter. I didn't have a chance - Round 1 Francis wiped my board via Put to the Sword and Khal Drogo. Daenerys Targaryen (Core) - was on the board which also put all of my characters except for Tywin and Gregor into Dracarys! range, and he wisely held a Dany dupe in hand to repopulate after my VD. I repopulated with Daven and Horde, but Horde perished to Dragonfire and Daven could not defeat the Khal. Well played and well deserved by the 2019 World Champ. 6-2