Lanni/Wolf Pittsburg Regional Top 4 (1st after Swiss) 1.0

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I played this deck at the 2016 Regional in Pittsburg, PA at Mr. Nice Guy Games. It was the only Regional tournament I was able to attend this season. Overall, the deck went 5-1 (plus a 1st Round bye and ID in Round 6) on the day, losing in the Top 4 to the eventual winner, Rob St. John.

Quick Report:

Round 1: Store Championship Bye

Round 2: vs. Martell/Wolf. I setup Tyrion Lannister, 2 Winterfell Steward,1 Lannisport Merchant and a The Roseroad against my opponent's weaker start. With a quick Tywin Lannister drop and a Put to the Sword against Fast Ned I was able to gain board control and the game was over early. My opponent played well but his deck betrayed him.

Round 3: Here begins the Targaryen. Round 3 saw me up against Targ Fealty, and Targaryen would represent the banner or main house of every game forward. This game was all about board control as well, getting rid of Mirri Maz Duur as soon as she hit the board and using Bran Stark and The Hand's Judgment to prevent Dracarys! blowouts.

Round 4: vs. Targ/Lion. The first game I played that will show up on Rob St. John's Youtube Channel. This game my opponent had Mirri Maz Duur out early, and I wasn't able to remove her. However, I was able to control her every turn of the game with Milk of the Poppy and Treachery until the very last turn, where I had all of my renown power duped. It as a close game, but control saw me through it.

Round 5: vs Targ/Lion. I owe this game to dumb luck and Ser Gregor Clegane. By turn 2 my opponent had Ser Jaime Lannister and Khal Drogo, and I was bleeding characters, even after putting Mirri Maz Duur to the sword. However, I lucked into a Khal Drogo pillage, buying me back the board and eventual control of the game.

Round 6: vs N/A. I was 5-0, and my opponent was 4-0-1. We were both guaranteed a Top spot on an ID so we took it. After the dust settled, I was first seed going into the top 8.

Top 8: vs Targ Fealty. Another game where Ser Gregor Clegane did more than his fair share of work, pillaging a Magister Illyrio to kill Aggo. After a few turns the board was empty other than Daenerys Targaryen, and renown carried me through. This game was also recorded.

Top 4: vs Lanni/Dragon. This was one of the worst openings I've ever had. I mulliganed a 1 card setup into a weak 3 card setup with no economy locations. I failed to draw any economy locations until the last turn of the game, and my opponent was able to get rid of Tywin and totally choke me out. He did an excellent job exploiting the difficulty I was having and ending the game.

Overall, I wouldn't make too many changes to the deck. I never played Ward but I feel like it's still a reasonable choice if I have to deal with Stark or Greyjoy, which have reasonable targets. I'd probably trade a Lannisport for Littlefinger, as I was having trouble with consistent intrigue control and could have used the more consistent draw power. The First Snow of Winter was never flipped, but I still like having it in the plot deck. I also never played Fast Ned, but that's because I never drew him until the last game where I was choked out.

Overall, fun event, great store, worth the 4 hour drive each way. I'd say the choice of Banner of the Wolf worked out mostly because of the amount of Targ I played, which was a reason to pick it. I look forward to testing the deck more leading up to GenCon. I've been playing Lanni/Wolf off and on since before the WotN release and I still feel like it's in a good place.