Prague Regionals 2016 Winner - 58 people

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
Martell/Lion Undefeated ETX Tacoma Regional Winner (36) 42 30 25 1.0
Inspiration for
4th Reg - Sun Sets Over Casterly 1 1 0 1.0
Martel/Lanni Nationals 2016 1 1 0 1.0

taijibear 213

39% of credit goes to my coaches: Kostas Adamopoulos, Caitlin Woods, and Jakob Hultman.

30% of the credit goes to dockellis, whose deck served as a foundation for this one.

1% of the credit goes to Andre Sestak for having the alt arts for the tournament all be from this deck, forcing me into playing it.

Some of the credit I will have to claim myself, in my battle against jantelagen that some of my very close associates are afflicted with (please donate at least one Hells Yeah! locally to help fight against the condition).

Changes from the original are as follows:

Trading vs Close Call: I prefer creating problems to searching for solutions. Dropping two significant characters on the same turn can create a problem your opponent cannot readily address, an alarming number of characters in the deck cannot be natively played off any other plots, and having higher initiative than Noble Cause, Summons, Building Orders is material for a deck that is so keen on controlling initiative.

Viper's Eyes vs Imprisoned: Cannot lie about part of the reason being that I still forget to play the Eyes sometimes, but fundamentally in a deck that seeks control of military claim flow I sincerely believe Imprisoned is a stronger card and helps against some major issues like Fast Eddie attacking twice, The Mountain, Jaime/Drogo, etc.

Third Arianne vs Jaime: Jaime is awesome, and Arianne has limited targets that you wouldn't just want to have out anyway.

4-1-1 in swiss, only loss to Targaryen Crossing who managed to get Drogo with his Arakh at an inopportune time, and then ID in the final round to make the cut.

23 comments

dockellis 901

Well done, Congrats. Credit to you, Ser, for winning!

YEEZUS 53

nice deck and great finish! congrats. would you consider any changes going forward? did any of your games go to the time limit with only jamie for renown? I really want to play this deck I have for a few weeks (since dock posted his original), but I am a slow player and don;t want to run out of time.

taijibear 213

To be honest, everything in the deck was useful on the day. I'd love to try to put in some (more) draw, but can't easily see a way of making space. You could try replacing Trading with Summons/Building orders, as dockellis was able to run without it, but I am somewhat sceptical. The Hand's Judgement slot is also more of a meta call. If you have good reason to expect more Stark/Baratheon than Targ/Lannister, it may be better as Nightmares, but I would be cautious about such a switch. If you find First Snow sufficient in your meta you can try swapping out Wildfire maybe, but it's combo with Quentyn can be quite devastating.

The only game that would have gone to time was the final, which was untimed (and went to Plot 10), I generally don't really go to time with any deck though, so it hasn't been a consideration. With this deck particularly there is normally a bit of a struggle for position, but once the killing balance tips over in your favour, closing is quick enough.

Eukalyptus 7

How come you don't run Obara Sand? What played into this decision? Also, no Maester Caleotte.

taijibear 213

Obara Sand is vulnerable to First Snow, Ilyn Payne, and Ward, as well as not materially furthering the deck's strategy. Caleotte shares the same vulnerabilities but is very powerful in the deck's goal. The main reasons he isn't in is that he was not in the original, so I was curious to try it that way, and he does not fit particularly well with setups for the deck. I think it may be worth trying replacing a House Dayne Knight with him.

Eukalyptus 7

Cool, thanks. I'm still in the process of learning Martell and any insight is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Buzz 554

You consult with Jakob but not me? Now I'm sad :'(

Good work winning without Condemned, you must be very gosu :)

taijibear 213

You told me he was the joust beard, plus he was able to coach me on Martelling. Add to that your repeated declarations that you are more lucky than good, and he seemed the logical choice for my Swedish coach position.

As far as Condemned, I think it's part of people around these parts having a shortage of Martell practice perhaps. There were only 3 at the tournament I believe and people mostly didn't call me bluff hitting all out with a power rush. There is a bunch of characters with power icons who can scant afford to defend it, and it's possible this wasn't taken advantage of enough.

However both of the other two attachments directly help control board position, while Condemned does not, so I am not convinced this is the deck for it.

dockellis 901

I like using the attainted in conjunction with tears, and tyene so that the confiscation in their plot line is essential a dead plot. Plus the popularity of Syrio as a 1 or 2 of in every deck makes me like imprisoned less and less. Btw, try syrio over the raiders, it's pretty sweet.

gabsnow18 70

Do you play against bara or stark?In my experience those 2 factions are my worst mu

taijibear 213

Played against Stark in Top 8, and Baratheon in Top 4.

I think overall the Stark match is in their favour if they play both Core Cat and Winterfell, so there it's key to push them early on military, before they get many 4+ guys set up, make good use of the First Snow turn, and limit their ability for Eddie to do multiple challenges for the power to go too quickly, giving you time to find enough threats that they can't Winterfell them all.

Baratheon is a cool match, in that ye are both quite vulnerable to what the other does. Selyse can be a pain, but overall their over-reliance on three key characters can be punished severely once you kill even just the first one.

gabsnow18 70

Thanks,and how about ilyn payne?It is worth six golds? How he worked during your tournament?

DavidDAVE 2

Dont you fear naval superiority?

taijibear 213

All careful players fear Naval. I have 3/7 plots that are unaffected by it, 7 characters that can ambushed with Tyrion gold, and often times the plot order is Long Plan - > First Snow - > Marched. First two are unaffected, and if the second is hitting home, opponent choosing to have 2 gold on that turn is a massive win for me anyway. So it is possible I will be hit by it, but the opponent will have to be very careful with his choice, and potentially look to not have his turn also erased with a follow-up First Snow.

taijibear 213

Sorry, on Ilyn, I think he is well worth the price. His biggest impact was in the final, where he completely sealed the card advantage, by rendering so many of the opponent's draws dead.

In other games he helped pushing the claim count, forcing the opponent to keep the bodies flowing or rapidly get into trouble.

Reading a bunch of recent content on the deck, I there may be an argument for a Sunspear as a 61st card.

DavidDAVE 2

Im just reading your report. I was really amazed that you decided not to use your by, and thought "we got a brave here". Then I got to your round 6, and read about the intentional draw. 0 respect from me. Hopefully I will never have to play with you.

taijibear 213

I can completely understand where you're coming from. I don't agree that the IDs are a necessary part of the tournament system, and will be happy to see the day they are gone. However while they are here, I am going to play tournaments by the rules we have, and that's where recognition is required of tournaments as a separate beast. For things like using Championship byes, picking the deck to play, etc. the considerations are not the same in a tournament as a general game.

I chose not to use the bye because I was of the opinion that I can get better value on it at a regionals where the structure gets me more for it. For a tournament I choose decks not only for the power of them, but for how they fit into what I expect the meta for that tournament to be (Buzz had a good segment on that in the latest Second Sons), and for whether I can consistently make the decisions the deck requires of me without burnout over a long day of play (and people vibe with different decks in different ways). In the same way with the ID, based on the structure as we have it (and my disagreement with it isn't just something I say here to you, but something I put up more publically in the report itself) I had by then won enough games against good enough players where I didn't need to shuffle up, and go fresher into the cut.

That's something you need to judge for yourself also: sometimes the break can disrupt one's focus and I have seen people get completely brushed aside by somebody who never left the zone, playing through the last rounds, so you got to know yourself, and part of the reason I put up the report is to give people who may find it helpful a look at that decision process.

So I understand where you're coming from, but I believe part of being a fan of the game is playing it is as it is, warts and all, and seeing for ourselves if it's still fun. For example Steven Cantrell has recently expressed an opinion that the game would be better if Kingsroad did not exist. Are you likely to not see Kingsroad in his decks?

But you certainly never have to play with me. If we paired together you can always choose not to. Would you leave a tournament based purely on your belief that I should not be in it?

DavidDAVE 2

Blablablabla. Despicable.

By the way, I dont believe you shouldnt be on the tournament, you have all your right to be on it, despite your choices. Didnt pretend to stand the contrary. And, if we are paired together I will choose to play with you, obviously, but I wont smile, wish your gl&hf, or be extremely friendly, as Im used to :).

Nestalim 1

@DavidDAVE

Does it still there people who complains about ID ? Really ?

I want to bash you, hardly for your rant sir. I deserve to be beated hardly on a game for that.

ID is a part of the game, and any GOOD Card game player should know how to use it, calculate it and abuse of it. That is all, but maybe you're just not good, just another Ned player or whatever last table guy who rant about anything because they can't top 8.

Really, I hope I won't see you on a table, even if I know that it won't happen. It's a bit sad still, as I couldn't simply destroy you.

DavidDAVE 2

@Nestalimreally polite, thanks for your words. By the way, you can always be lucky and see me on a table, round 1. Or round 2, if it happens to be an odd numbers tournament and I get the bye :). Then you will be able to simply destroy me!

Daigelmir 1

A late congrates on your win xD The card choices are really good, I like it! Any new additions from accross the seven kingdoms pack?

MagnusLothar 86

How did you fare in the Stark catch-up? You're running one winter plot and no Nightmares. Just curious, as I find Winterfell and Cat shut down pretty much everything I want to do: Tyene, Tears, Vengeance... I currently run Nightmares x2 with one winter plot. Even one turn without Winterfell interference has made the difference between winning and losing for me.

Anyway, congrats on the win. Taking my own version of Martell-Lion to a regional soon.

taijibear 213

@Daigelmir Thanks! Had a look at the new pack, and I am not massively sold on anything in there. I think the changes I would make would be more meta calls than taking advantage of new cards.

@RedViper I was lucky enough to dodge much Stark, but you have to keep in mind that they can use their protective tricks against Tears, or Ghaston, or Vengeance, but gets hard protecting against all. That being said the more recent build swaps one of the House Dayne Knights for a Tickler, to create some tension with all their uniques, and as Targaryen is barely seen at all now swap Hand's Judgement for Nightmares, as you say. Stark also have tremendous value in their cheap characters, where Ilyn can be of great help, and part of the reason why he relegated Jaime to a 1x.