Hear me Coming! (1st place Arnhem regional 28/05/2016) 1.0

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Went with a team of Belgians - the proud Lions of Leuven (LoL) - to the Arnhem regionals.

4 rounds of Swiss;

Lost game one to my team mate, Sam, who played Lannister Lord of the Crossing. We both had Tywin Lannister out rather quickly, but he had Ser Gregor Clegane out as wel. I drew no cancels, and he eventually put my Tywin to the sword. It all went downhill from there; I could not break through his Tywin + Mountain wall. The other 3 games are quite blurry (it was a long day), but I won against a Martel fealty, a Lannister Fealty and a Greyjoy Fealty.

7th place after the cut.

Quarter final versus Targaryen banner of the Lion

The game was really tense. Round 1 my Tyrion Lannister got a Crown of Gold, so that was harsh. But with Tywin Lannister and Ser Jaime Lannister out I gathered quite a bit of renown. I got to 15 right before he had his Syrio Forel + Mirri Maz Duur combo out (which, honestly, would have wrecked me at that point).

Half final versus Baratheon fealty:

This was over quite quickly. He only got about 2 kneels off with Melisandre and Seen In Flames (he discarded Put to the Sword), but he couldn't keep up drawing/playing characters. Eventually, a Put to the Sword sent Melisandre to the dead pile and spelled the end. He never even saw Stannis Baratheonor Robert Baratheon.

Final versus Stark fealty:

He quickly had a Eddard Stark and duped Robb Stark out (both with Bodyguard). I had Tywin Lannister, Tyrion Lannister and Cersei Lannister. He got Winterfell out on my The First Snow of Winter turn, and could only keep Fast Eddy and Robb. Of course I followed by a very painful Marched to the Wall. The game didn't last long after that.

Overal, Cersei Lannister and Ser Ilyn Payne did quite a bit of work in some games. I was never really happy to draw Ward though, so in the future I will switch it for an extra Milk of the Poppy. The second Ward I might replace with an extra Widow's Wail. I really expected Ward to have a bigger impact (I did not have a lot of time to test it out), but I guess I overrated the card. I'm also unsure about Brothel Madame. An extra The Hand's Judgment might be better. Unless my board state was significantly better than my opponent's, I played defensively, opting to win challenges on defense and gaining renown. Seeing as though I built this deck to be more defensive, I didn't initiate a lot of challenges. Sneak Attack further helped this strategy.

Special thanks go to (in no particular order) Sam for keeping my feet firmly on the ground, to Catherine for her awesome moral support (and driving skills), and to Jonas, the self proclaimed Louis van Gaal of the team.