Top 8 CT Regional Lannister Crossing 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This deck was 5-0-1 after 6 rounds of Swiss (including a first round SC bye and an intentional draw in the last round). I burned out in top 8 and lost because of some truly horrible play mistakes, so blame me, and not the deck.

I didn't want to play BAMF, so I went about making a deck that catered more to my play style. I played Lannister/Rose during the SC, and that deck is all about board state, renown grind, and pivotal events. I didn't like how BAMF eliminated 6 event slots and also required Shadowblack Lane. I opted for a standard spread of reliable events. I was hoping that Lannister would make a big showing and that my more reliable version of LoTC would have the advantage. The field turned out to be overwhelmingly red in my favor, and I was paired against Lannister main faction in all of my 5 Swiss rounds (absurd, I know). Also of note is that the only other Lannister/Crossing deck that made top 8 left out BAMF and Hear Me Roar as well.

My commentary on the prevalence of Lannister at this tournament: people have been quick to jump on Lannister's access to a bevy of good cards for the skewed showing. While this is a problem, the reason why Lannister and lion banner are so powerful right now is because of their inherent synergy with 2 current meta-defining cards: The Lord of the Crossing and The First Snow of Winter. LoTC allows Lannister to power rush faster than Lanni Rose ever did (my old deck would often go to time, this one never has), without sacrificing anything in the toolbox.

The First Snow of Winter improves this drastically. In the same way LoTC enables power rush without power-gaining cards that don't affect board state (LSR, Superior Claim), FSoW lets you create an aggro deck at the same time. Why is lion banner so popular? Burned Men are one of the most important cards in the game now. If you can't get claim soak out of a first snow turn you are in a bad spot. Even if you have duplicates, Lannister has an unmatched ability to March the following turn. Add this to easy-to-pull-off target removal and you get a formidable aggro deck that power rushes when you play aggressively.

Hopefully the Stark box will change things up, but I think we might have to wait a bit longer.

I will not be writing a battle report thanks to the fact that my 5 played games were against 4 Lannister decks and a banner to the lion and they all blur together. I'll leave that to people who played a more varied field. Here is the breakdown of my day though.

R1: Bye R2: Lannister/Sun (Jeremiah)- W R3: Lannister/Rose (Kikko)- W R4: Lannister/Crossing BAMF (sorry)- W R5: Lannister/Kraken (Keith)- W R6: Lannister/Crossing,nonBAMF (Brian)-ID Top8: Targaryen/Lion (Eric)- L (don't play into your own FS, kids)

Thanks to everyone for the great tournament experience! I'm so glad I picked this game up.