Wildlings: Undefeated Swiss NC Regional, 30 players, drop 1.0

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• 1.0

Well Westeros, here I am again going 4-0-1 in Swiss, having the 2nd seed and dropping. I know maybe I could have had a chance at being more “famous” if I wanted to win more, and took a shot at winning back to back regionals. But I just really don’t care that much about winning. By the time Swiss got done, it was 5-ish-pm and I was ready to spend some time with my son. It sure would have been cool to see if I could have closed the deal, but in the end I decided that I went to the tournament to do what I set out to do: play a weird deck well and get the guy who let me stay the night at his house (who couldn’t go to his own regional) the Stark play mat as I got mine the week before. And I met a bunch of great people as 8-10 people traveled from out of state. Made some friends I know I’ll be in contact with and got my 1st edition card signed by a world champ, I’m content.

This is a deck I built probably about a month ago, but hadn’t really given it a good run as I was focused on Stark. When I went to Atlanta last week I got there on Friday night and some people were practicing for Saturday’s regional. I pulled this out for fun and then preceded to win all my games of like 7-8. After about 12-15 games I only lost once splitting 2 games with a GJ Crossing. I thought, huh, might be something here. I like to do things with decks that are different from the usual (my NW-Kraken was offensive/choke, and my Stark had only 2 Ice, no WiC, or any reset plots). I could have put Tears and PttS and Marched to follow First Snow, but my thinking was that if I can hold them down for like 3 plots (with Milk, Nightmares, and Treachery) I will probably have the game well in hand. This thought process proved to be spot on this day.

RD 1: vs Randall Targ/Sun- Boy was this a good game. Time ran out on us, but I was lucky enough to get the full win. My amazing setup was Littlefinger and the Burned Men. I was lucky enough to get all 3 Treacheries and used them on his Kingsroad, Nymeria, and Rheagal to stop Dany from standing. I also Nightmares Rheagal once to stop her from standing after she entered a challenge. I didn’t get Tywin until the last turn of the game, but better late than never. He was locking me down pretty good, but I etched out wins here and there and needed 4 power to close. I INT with brothel (because who cares), I Mil with the Hound. Then on the last challenge I send Tywin (using Scout to give him stealth) and Mance in a power not stealthing Dany so her minus str will go away if she comes in. One from claim, one from Crossing, and the 2 renowns. Randall made a couple of mistakes, but damn he played well, making it really hard to close out the game and shut down my 2 claim turn. W 15-10

RD 2: vs Chris Bara Fealty- Oddly I had the same exact setup as round 1. Not spectacular but at least a bit of economy. I Milked Mel turn 1 even though I had another in my hand hoping he would use his Confiscation, which he did turn 2 and I Milked her again. I have in the past double milked, but then he would have saved his Confiscation on my Seal. I used First Snow and Famine early to keep his board down and through renown and that 3rd challenge I was able to finish it on plot 6. His 2 Mil stopping event slowed down my renown on Jaime, but Mance and the Wildlings were too much in the end as I jumped in Scout last turn gave Jaime stealth and went by Rob twice (once with Tyrion) and closed it out. He didn’t trigger Mel once and Stannis hurt him more than me as I just jumped Wildlings. Bob made it in last turn but it was too late. W 15-6

RD 3: vs Brennan Bara/Lion- Really didn’t want this match. This is my very good friend and only his 3rd tournament and he has improved every one of them. With my experience I have usually gotten the better of the match-ups in most games (but we mostly play Melee). Finally got a good setup with Tywin in hand. Was able to get Tywin down turn 1. I had 2 Milks in hand and waited for Mel and/or Bob. He was able to keep the pressure on by doing big military challenges, which led me to believe he had PttS as he was over commiting. After blocking with just enough M str for 3 turns I finally intrigued it out of his hand. Tywin, Tyrion, and the Wildlings kept pushing through 3 challenges and then the renown took over when Mance showed up. He played Bob, I Milked him, he Confiscated next turn and I milked again on my First Snow turn. I then followed that with Famine which left him 1 gold short of playing Gregor. W 15-4

RD 4: vs Jack Lanni/Kraken- This game was probably over turn 1 (which is something I’ve never said before). The deck just got stronger (or I was learning it better) as the day went along. I finally got the Tywin setup and it was on. He marched turn one to try and put pressure on with his setup Syrio and Asha first turn. I milked Asha and used Treachery on the Iron Mines turn 1 when he tried to save her. Round 2 I played Nightmares on Syrio. Going into turn 3, maybe 4 he had 0 characters and no economy. I had Tywin (with a tripped SoH), LittleFinger, Horde, and Rattleshirts. He played Theon as his only character and I played Nightmares. It was the fastest game of the day for me, ending in under 20 minutes. W 15-0

RD 5: vs Tom Lanni/Kraken- ID

This deck preformed way better than I had imagined it would. Famine and Nightmares were big all day. I actually played Trading late (if at all) in most games as I used First Snow and Famine early to keep their board down. The deck ran well even with Tywin and sometimes Tyrion missing. Tyrion is the fuel that helps Mance generate his horde. The reduction on Winter plot turns is not to be overlooked as it works on your opponents Winter plots too. Paying 4 for the Horde, 3 for Rattleshirts, and 1 for the Scout, along with the Burned Men is so sweet. I didn’t really want to run Bronn and wanted to run 2 Gold Cloaks, but it just didn’t feel right. And Bronn helps improve your chances of a Tywin setup as my only one of the day was with Bronn.

I think 2 things made this a successful tournament season (4 SCs: 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 5th and 2 Regionals: undefeated, 2nd in Swiss, dropped) to this point (as I think I’m done, except Kits) is being able to adjust from game to game and tournament to tournament. My best example of this: is this Wildling Crossing deck. Sometimes I see people trying everything they can to get that 3rd challenge. But that is what can lead to you getting dead. In that Bara/Lion match-up today, I used the first 3 turns blocking and just collecting renown that way avoiding the Ptts until I could close. In the first match today vs Targ/Sun, I just had to take wins here and there until I could get in the 3rd challenge. Sometimes your deck can’t do what its built to do. This is where your building skill really can shine if your deck can overcome those moments and then get back on track. The 2nd thing is building decks and being willing to bring decks that people may not have seen. I remember playing the NW-Kraken and people making comments like, “oh the stealth will help you defend”, or “where’s the Wall”, or “nobody is crazy enough to play NW”. The problem is you have to be OK with falling completely on your face as they may fail BAD, and those decks need good testing against skilled opponents.

As usual, I look forward to all comments: good, critical, indifferent, etc…. lol

“I know Nothing”