Baratheon Steel at Stahleck (4-4) 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Before

When preparing for Stahleck, I tried to find my kind of Baratheon deck to play. I've been mainly Baratheon player since 2019 and still wanted to play my strongest faction, even though House Stark did call me too after The 8 Regents tournament. I tried Kings of Summer, Aloof and Apart was promising and others not so much. Then I saw Derry's list from last year, I had not thought about playing Valyrian Steel but the list looked fun and very much like my style of deck.

I did some changes to the original, I wanted to play OP Bara card and that's why I cut Exchange of Information and added Siege Preparations to make sure I had draw still in the plots if needed. Two test games with Johannes showed that this was my kind of deck: some control but still mostly focused on doing challenges. I added one Martial Law and cut one Alester Florent and also changes Vanguard Lancers to R'hllor Infiltrators.

At Stahleck

Joust day is intense but manageable. I had gone early to bed (was feeling bit sick, luckily it mostly passed) to be ready.

1st round: WIN vs bang, Martell Wars. We had good game, bang was playing Sand Snakes and had tricks for me. As a Martell player I knew what to avoid and mainly did challenges and defended his attempts. Bang was nice fellow and new to the game, I you the best with this game!

2nd round: LOSS vs Margus, Baratheon Fealty. Bara mirror was not something I was looking forward to. Margus found his pieces quickly, I found my first kneel piece around round 5 and it was over by then.

3rd round: LOSS vs Richard Walker, Greyjoy Rains. I had biggest smile on my face when I saw I was playing Richard. He is a good fellow and always a pleasure to play against. DG engine was good, he was drawing a lot, there was no stop to that. Best moment was when Richard used Lay Waste on Bodyguard, only allowing me to get Long May He Reign on Bobby B.

4th round: WIN vs Libor P., Targaryen FC. It is long tradition that me and Libor face each other in Stahleck. It always feels like we are not at the biggest tournament of the year but playing at the local pub, having fun together. His deck was mercenaries and game was pretty tight, we played until time was called and me having Valar'd round before, had power advantage. See you next year Libor!

5th round: WIN vs domse, NW Banner of the Wolf. Steal your characters deck and I had pretty slow start, which could have been a blessing in disguise. Almost no characters in hand and domse had two Recruiters out pretty soon. I played around them and Valar'd on third round to vipe his board. Slowly but surely I got the lead in power and finally got to 15 power when time was called. Selyse Baratheon was the MVP here.

6th round: LOSS vs Palpa, Targaryen SoB. Another familiar face! I played against Palpa last year at the team event, that was tight game but after that he has only crushed me at the online games. This game was no different, I got only chuds & locations to put against his Dothraki horde. It was over under 30minutes. I'll have my vengeance some day! ;)

7th round: WIN vs nijo2131, Greyjoy Crossing. Facing Greyjoy felt good after the slaughter by Dothraki. Nijo found his pieces quickly (Balon Greyjoy, Euron Crow's Eye, Silence) but I found my answers as well. Melisandre from the start and Selyse Baratheon couple of rounds later was enough for slowing them down and catch the win.

8th round: LOSS vs Tassos, Targaryen HRD. I played melee day before with Tassos so it was good to end the day with familiar face. Tassos played big dragons and Aegon the Conqueror. This game was as bad of a slaughter than my game with Palpa but close. Tassos knew exactly what to do that my board didn't have a chance after he found his dragons. Good learning experience to watch Khal Imrik himself play Targaryen.

Conclusion

That was my joust tournament. 4-4 is my best performance at Stahleck so far, I gone 2-6 and 3-5 many years so having 50-50 ratio feels good. Playing online did help and having Derry's deck as a base was also super helpful. So thanks to Schwaig&Philine for everything, all of my opponent and you for readind this far!

See ya next year!

Antti "mythicbluehill"/"Blue_Hill" K.