Dragons at the Beach: 1st Place, Southington, CT SC 1.0

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I took this deck to victory at the SC in Southington, CT on 2/27. Targaryen was my favorite house in first edition, and has remained my favorite in second, so I decided to return to my roots after experimenting with other houses to mixed success earlier in the SC season. I added the Martell for the additional control elements.

Summary of rounds below, followed by some comments on card choices:

Round 1: James (?), Lannister Rose, W: I may have my opponent’s name wrong, since I neglected to write it down, so if that’s the case, I apologize. He said it was only his fourth or fifth game of Thrones, and I ran into a very good start. Set up Nymeria and a couple of chuds. Turn 1 challenges involved taking Jaime’s INT icon, Dracarys! on Cersei, Tears on Jaime, and a Plaza use on a chud. I followed that up with a turn 2 Summons that got Dany, and that was basically that.

Round 2: Devin, Tyrell Lord of the Crossing, W: This might have been the best game of second edition Thrones I’ve played in. Devin got off to a great start early, jumping out to something like a 10-0 power lead (helped by an early Queen of Thorns dropping in a Randyll). He got to 14 power two or three times, but I managed to find enough kill and icon manipulation to keep myself in the game. (I played Crown of Gold twice – once to kill Paxter, and once to buy myself a turn in which the Knight of Flowers couldn’t attack, since I had Dany out.) The game turned when Devin had to pin his Wildfire on plot 7 – I was able to flood the board after that without fear of reprisal, and I got to 15 power via renown on Jorah during plot 9 or 10, when time had been called.

Round 3: Evn, Targaryen Rose, L: Evn is a meta mate, and I knew he’s been playing Targ Rose for most of the SC season, so I know this will be tough. I set up Nymeria and a couple chuds, while he sets up Littlefinger and a couple chuds of his own. I made an early mistake by taking Littlefinger’s power icon away, which gets Nymeria Tears-ed after he cancels my Hand’s Judgment with one of his own. After that, my deck provided me with basically nothing, meaning that I needed Evn to make a major mistake to get back into the game. Turns out he didn’t even make a minor mistake, let alone a major one. I drew Dany eventually, but it was far too late at that point to matter.

Round 4: Roy, Stark Fealty, W: Roy is a friend from NYC, who I somehow have never actually played against in a tournament setting. I set up Nymeria and a couple of chuds (again), and he set up Catelyn, Sansa and a location. Turn 1 I made some headway by Tears-ing Catelyn after taking her intrigue icon, but Roy stabilized a couple turns later by getting Robb with Ice and Lady into a military challenge via the Kennel Master (after I’d taken his MIL icon) and killing Nymeria. I squeaked out a win on a turn in which Roy might well have been able to win had I not been going first.

I am 3-1 going into the cut, and I am the second seed. The cut is Targ Rose, me, Stark Lord of the Crossing, and Tyrell Lord of the Crossing.

Semifinals: Alex B, Stark Lord of the Crossing, W: Alex is a former meta mate who moved back to CT after completing his schooling in Boston, so we’ve played a number of games together. Unfortunately for him, he did not draw into any economy, while I drew into a ton of kill effects. I was able to apply a ton of pressure to his board early and never really let up.

Finals: Evn, Targaryen Rose, W: Rematch from Swiss, and it was close to the exact opposite of the Swiss game. I was able to Wildfire early when I had a much deeper hand than Evn, which allowed me to establish a strong board advantage. After that, he didn’t draw into much. I think the play of the game for me, though, was seeing that he had his board knelt out and no way showing to stand Dany, with three cards in hand. I knew that the only thing that could kill me would be if he could kneel Dany to play Dracarys and then have a Waking the Dragon, so I decided to not make challenges with Dany and leverage my board state advantage. A pull of Waking the Dragon on the next turn with Intrigue claim and a Dracarys! showed that was the right decision for this game. From there, I just steadily ground out my board advantage until I got the win.

MVP of the day was the Dornish Paramour. It wasn't even pulling people into challenges to burn them - it was a combination of the threat of burning them and the challenge manipulation. There were a number of times during the day that I was able to effectively control the Challenges phase by pulling a key character in, even if I lost that particular challenge.

I don't generally like running Wildfire Assault, but Targaryen is one of the places I think it fits the best, and with the possibility of Knights weenie rush looming, I thought it was important to have in the deck. Didn't regret it at all during the day.

Feel free to ask if anyone has questions about any other card choices.