A Time For Boltons - Top 16 & Best Stark Stahleck 2024 1.0

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Hey there, I want to share with you the deck which got me into top 16 in Stahleck 2024 tournament. I also gained the best Stark title, mainly thanks to my 8 regents team, where I learnt a lot about this faction. I originaly created it against Targ Qohor in CoW, then throughout the year I made some changes to make it more resilient against different types of decks. Because there aren't many recordings of this years Stahleck, I will at least summarize my games bellow.

The cards in this deck are quite simple. The most important and difficult part is the plot game, especially when to use Valar Morghulis so it doesn't backfire you. I use the great Mormonts here to draw cards for cheap price and put them in for free with She-Bear. The strenght of this deck is to repopulate the board easily and draw huge amount of cards. Now lets jump into the games.

Round 1 - Hidasuka/Martell The Rains of Castamere (W)

My first opponent was quite new to the game, but he put up a strong fight and later finished with 4 wins. I marched his Desert Raider in first round, then for next few plots i managed to keep the board small, sadly even on my side. Turnaround came when i marshaled Harrenhal and in challenges killed his Ricasso with new Roose Bolton. I won after that board wipe.

Round 2 - Aljosha/Targaryen The House With the Red Door (W)

Big dragons are one of the best matchups for my deck. I managed to get rid of Missandei with Beggar King in first round. Opponent opened with Exchange of Information, but lacked eco due to the agenda downside. I added Khal Drogo to hand and shuffled four 1costers. I was controling the game from begining, Aljosha lacked eco and chuds, so when one big dragon came, he was killed. I won here, thanks to the opponents luck (unluck)

Round 3 - Even Sorgjerd/Baratheon The Prince that was Promised (W)

I wanted to take revenge for Thursday's draft, where Even defeated me and won the tournament (congrats!). His deck was prince Khorane Sathmantes. I really suffered first few rounds, because of the Wraith and King's Landing combo, which kept kneeling my The Kingsroad. Then, I think in my The Mad King's Command round I managed to kill his only big chars with Ice. I am glad he didn't get The Moon Door, because my deck can't stand this card. The game ended with my win and we could head for lunch.

Round 4 - Hansen/Lannister Banner of the Wolf (W)

Seeing that new pairing made me worry a bit. I expected Shadows and Boltons and I was right. My start was great, with duped Catelyn Stark and some chuds. My opponent didn't find or play Ward, so I could safely do challenges and slowly won.

Round 5 - Víctor Marquina/Baratheon Free Companies (L)

This deck was just amazing. My opponent did great job with making smugglers work like that. Sadly he found his ONLY ONE The Moon Door in round one. Thanks to his The Iron Bank, he could always repopulate the board. I didn't have any dupes to keep doing military challenge succesfuly. Víctor then won king of swiss title, but the curse got him in top 16, still very impressive run.

Round 6 - Kim/Stark Fealty (W)

This was probably my most stressful game from Stahleck. I knew how solid Stark Fealty is and even more in hands of Kim. So I took my chance in round 2, when my opponent had Maege Mormont with Wyman Manderly on board with 2 cards in hand, just a little eco and no Old Gate so I played Valar Morghulis with Arya Stark. With no draw on opponents side I began to control the game. I remember that at some point my opponent Valared, then I took his Eddard Stark with Reek. This ended the game with my win.

Round 7 - Zuzana K/Targaryen Aloof and Apart (W)

I felt pretty confident against big dragons, even more after first round. My opponent marshaled Drogo, 2 chuds and no eco. At that point i opened with Valar Morghulis and Zuzana opened with Summer Harvest. This was the game over. She at least killed my board with Drogon, but it was no problem for me to repopulate the table and win.

Round 8 - Albert Lorenzo/Targaryen Sea of Blood (L)

Another guy from Catalonia, it was nice to spend the time with them at the first few tables. We were both in cut at that moment, so the game was more relaxed. My opponent hit Womb of the World EVERY round, so it was imposibble for me to kill his entire board, jumping back to hand at the end of the phase. I didn't find Last Hearth Scouts in the entire game, so I had small to no chances for win.

Top 32 - BYE

Thanks to the small amount of players with 6 wins this year, I managed to get a BYE from 6th place.

Top 16 - SGE/Nights Watch Banner of the Wolf (L)

I sadly got into the worst part of bracket I could. My first opponent is winner of the NW/wolf mirror match and if I somehow win that, I face SerCarter with that wonderful NW/UtR deck. SGE got big Wall from round one and I knew the game is probably lost right there. I was basically killing my own characters the whole game.

And this is how I ended my most succesful Stahleck journey so far. I gained the best Stark title from 11th place and two very beatiful playmats. Thanks to Schwaig and Philine, GOT, DT, artists and all Stahleck players, especially those who travelled across the whole world to get here. Farewell dear readers and this lovely deck.