Fried Calamari, Top 8 NJ Regional

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Fried Calamari 3 2 2 1.0
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Vaccaro 440

Top 8 at NJ Regional in Boonton, NJ on May 21, 2016 - 48 players.

3rd seed after Swiss, 5-1 record.

Notes:

  • I play 9 copies of the Dragons, which may surprise a lot of people. It's a personal preference of mine because 1) duped dragons help survive an opposing First Snow of Winter, and 2) having a dragon on the board with 1 gold left in the challenge phase really makes your opponent overthink certain situations. Even if I don't have Dracarys in hand, the opponent must respect that standing dragon, so I want to get them on the board ASAP. If I needed room, cutting 1 copy of Drogon would be my first move.

  • Fishing Nets are underplayed and have performed amazingly. It's crucial against Lannister decks to stop Tywin from playing defense and hoarding Renown. In this tournament, it shined against Stark allowing me to avoid Robb/Ned renown gain from defending. Best part about the nets is that they don't clash with Raiding Longship, unlike Milk of the Poppy. Getting away from MotP is a tough call, but I do not regret my decision.

  • x2 Calling the Banners is for Econ and high initiative. Even if my opponent only has a board of 2 characters, 5/6/1 is still a solid stat line, and if it would be 4/6/1, then I'm 99% playing Marched to the Wall anyway.

  • Summons was my utility "Confiscation" to search for Viserys if I needed to remove an item. Or, it was used to search for a heavy hitter if I somehow drew nothing. In hindsight, I probably would have dropped Calm Over Westeros for Confiscation.

  • The deck now needs 1 Winter Plot against Stark because of Winterfell. My deck did pretty well against Starks (2-1) because of the Intrigue icons, but adding The Long Winter for 2 claim and a Winterfell-Proof turn would help tremendously. Also... don't drop Jorah or Theon against Stark unless you have to. I considered cutting Theon down to 1, but wanted to see how 2 performed. In games against Stark where I drew Theon or Jorah, I never NEEDED to play them, so I was able to hold off until the moment was right (going 2nd late game/last turn).

  • My worst matchup was against Baratheon because I was not playing as many Standing effects as typical in Targaryen. Luckily, there weren't too many in the field, but I did get paired up against one (who beat me). If you're expecting a lot of Bara, add a second Illyrio and drop a Drogon.

  • Funeral Pyre was on the bubble for me, but I decided against it; I was happy with the Events I had. The Jury is still out on that card for me.

  • The deck will consistently setup at least 4 cards. Sometimes, I keep 3 cards if it's a Dany/Mirrk, Reducer and Roseroad.

Results: Round 1: Bye (Store Championship) Round 2: Nights Watch Fealty (Win) Round 3: Baratheon, Bot Lion (Loss) Round 4: Lannister, Bot Dragon (Win) Round 5: Stark Fealty (Win) Round 6: Stark Fealty (Win) Top 8: Stark Fealty (Loss)

Any question, feel free to ask!

7 comments

jm2215 796

Fried calamari is the best deck name I've seen in a while man. Gratz on the spicy list.

dibat 1

The Illyrios Estate only being at 2x is messing with me. What math did you perform to decide against running that card at 3x?

Vaccaro 440

@dibatMy plots are all high gold so there's no dire need for Limited locations. If I get 1 all game, that's really all I need, and with a high setup avg, I'll get that Limited more times than not. Those locations are the last thing I want to be drawing on turn 3/4.

linkingverbs 197

yo dude grats on top 8. Was there ever a point in the day you wish you had a copy of The Hand's Judgment?

And about Funeral Pyre, at the Regional they got yanked out of my hand in every game except for my last game of Swiss against a GJ Fealty. And I must admit, it felt pretty good to draw 3 cards after hitting Balon with a Dracarys. Give it a shot.

Vaccaro 440

@jm2215Thanks, bud!

@linkingverbs Thanks, dude! There was never a time where I desperately needed it. Sure, it woulda have been good to cancel a Even Hand of Justice in round 3, but there was never a time where I absolutely had to cancel an event. Most of the scary events are Kill cards, and Iron Mines take care of that for me. With slots being tight, HJ is usually the first thing to go.

As for Funeral Pyre, killing Balon alone feels pretty damn good lol, but I still worry about the need for Pyre. In that situation, you spent 2 cards and a gold to draw 3 cards. That's a pretty good deal, but it's not great IMO. Dany's Insight is usually enough card draw to give me the advantage in this deck. Because I thought everything else in my deck was more impactful for the matchups I was expecting, cutting Funeral Pyre seemed like the right move... Especially when HJ cancels it for free, and a lot of people like to run it.

sacrelicious2 1

Curious about the 3x Iron Islands Fishmonger. Is the reduction really all that worthwhile when you only have 3 greyjoy characters?

Vaccaro 440

@sacrelicious2You can probably drop down to 2 Fishmonger. I had 3 in there purely to maximize setups, otherwise they really are just used as Mil claim soak. I never got flooded with them.