We Do Not Have Time to Sow(Vancouver, WA 2016 Regionals 1st) 1.0

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Thanks to Dice Age Games in Vancouver, WA for hosting the AGoT Regionals on June 11, 2016. We got a bit of a late start but ended up with 39 players, 5 SC byes, and did 6 rounds of swiss, cut to top 8. Started playing around 2:30 and finished around midnight.

I'm a newer player that started with 2nd edition last November after being randomly exposed to the HBO version of the game. I was fortunate to have a good meta in Madison, WI led by Patrick Haynes, from whom I've learned a great deal, as well players in Wausau and Minnesota. I learned a ton about the game through listening to all of the podcasts and reading these types of tourney reports. However, I've never done a tournament report before, so I apologize for lack of details/errors.

I moved to Seattle about 2 weeks ago, and my introduction to the meta was Jimmy Jensen and Matt Eddleman on Wardens of the Northwest and Alex Black and Brendan Davis in person. This would be my 4th regional this year(Indy 12th w/GJ/LotC, FFG 14th Lanni/Mirri, Wausau 20-something, GJ/Mirri) and I didn't have a deck that I really wanted to play, but I knew I didn't want to play Lannister or a deck that would be common.

While testing at Card Kingdom, Alex took a break and started to build a GJ/LotC deck while Brendan and I played. "Euron Crow's Eye is too expensive." "No We Do Not Sow. Don't want to get bogged down with events." As a GJ player, playing against what I expected would be a lot of Martell and Stark not being able to We Do Not Sow Ghaston Grey and Ice seemed not great. And then he added 2 Superior Claim, and it just hit me that we were going to make a rushier version of GJ/LotC rush by forgoing everything that wasn't going to gain power immediately or be anti GJ tech(attachments on opponents). No Milk of the Poppy, no Put to the Sword, no The Seastone Chair. No targeted kill in a GJ deck at all. Essentially, the deck was designed to not care what the opponent is doing, or what deck they're playing, and win the game before they set up their win condition. Keep icons necessary for all 3 challenges on the board with dups, Iron Mines, and Risen from the Sea. Get to 10ish power turn 2, Rise of the Kraken turn 3 to win.

The original deck had +1 Newly-Made Lord(too expensive, not power gain), -1 Raiding Longship, +1 Great Kraken(replaced with 1 Support of the People last minute). Biggest change was to the plot deck, replacing A Clash of Kings and Filthy Accusations with Calling the Banners and Marched to the Wall, both intended to keep the deck viable if we went beyond 3-4 plots, or to recover from The First Snow of Winter, to which this deck certainly could be weak to with bad draw.

Tournament info here: http://thejoustingpavilion.com/tournaments/118 I was the only person playing main faction .

Round 1: Tyrell/Fealty - Andy R. I set up Theon Greyjoy, a 2 drop intrigue, Raiding Longship, The Roseroad, and an Iron Fleet Scout. He mulliganed into The Arbor and Margaery Tyrell duped. Marched Marge and my two drop. Played out Theon and an intrigue icon. He Summonsed and played The Queen of Thorns and Garden Caretaker. Unopposed military with Theon. He blocked my intrigue challenge with QoT, got raiding long shipped out, for unopposed intrigue, unopposed power with Asha, Superior Claim, LotC bonus. 6-0. Heads on Spikesed his Hobber, got Balon out, 3 unopposed, LotC bonus, Superior Claim, Balon/Theon renown. (14-0) Rise of the Kraken. (15-0) That's about as well the deck can do. (1-0)

Round 2: Lanni/Kraken - Joshua T. Joshua was off a SC bye with Lanni Kraken so I was a little nervous, especially with no targeted kill against Tywin and Jaime. Was excited to have Balon out with Great Kraken drawn off The Reader. It got intrigued out that phase. All day, I drew one card off the Great Kraken on a first turn, no power all day. Got out Balon, Theon, intrigue. Turn 2 played Weapons at the Door to get Milk off of Balon, intrigued it out. Balon third challenge with Theon to stealth Tywin if necessary, superior claim. Wildfire turn 3, Rise of the Kraken turn 4. (2-0)

Round 3: Lanni/Sun - Michael W. This was a much longer match and why I was glad to have Calling and Marched. I believe I Heads on Spiked Jaime early. He was playing heavy intrigue control with Cersei, Attainted, and Trial by Combat. Asha and Balon kept losing their military icons and I didn't have an intrigue icon on the board turns 3-5. Saved from 2x trial by combat and 2 military with 2 dups, 2 Iron Mines, 2 Risen. Turn 5 I figure I can get 2 unopposed to win so I play Rise of the Kraken and he plays A Game of Thrones. Ugh. Finished it out with some stealth, raiding longships, LotC bonus.

Round 4: Lanni/LotC - Lee D. I think we spent most of the game being afraid of whatever the other was saving gold for. I expected The Hound so many times and he never came. This was another drawn out game, and I used at least 9 saves over 6 rounds. At some point he had 3 gold and did a military attack as first player. I decided not to defend , expecting Put to the Sword on Balon Greyjoy, and Treachery for my Iron Mines, of which he had both. Then he intrigued out my Greak Kraken. I wanted that. I think I Heads on Spiked Jaime again here, and he ended up with no characters in hand and I won round 6. Point was Balon makes the deck faster, but Theon and/or Asha are usually sufficient for winning the third power challenge with their stealth.

Round 5: Lanni/Kraken - James J. ID, after a lot of math.

Round 6: Martell/Lion - Matt E. ID. Never played against this actually. Would have been interesting. Ate dinner together instead.

Overall, my GJ tech didn't really show up much in the cut, but saves and the ability to do 3 challenges did. Also, every interaction was so much more complicated and we were all tired and made mistakes, though I think most of them evened out and there wasn't one play that lost or won any game.

Top 8: Lanni/Dragon - Kyle J. This game was kind of a blur. Alex was watching it and apparently we both made some mistakes. I got ahead really fast on power but I was probably in my weakest board state with only 2 4 gold plus characters, I think. On turn 2/3 I Heads on Spiked into a Summons. He chose a reducer and ended up plucking it. I forgot to ask if he had a bad draw or if that was intentional to not risk a unique. He played First Snow the next turn, which was not great for me, but I was able to get up to 11/12 power and Rise of the Kraken last turn for the win.

Top 4: Stark/Fealty - Brett H. Duped Balon, House Maester, and Sea Tower vs DJ Ned, I think Bran, and a Roseroad. I Heads on Spiked Ice into his Noble Cause. I was so excited to finally have a Great Kraken and it was quickly Frozen Solid. Also got Theon out. He got out Cat, a reducer, Shaggydog. Early on Theon and Balon both got milked. He got Winterfell out with Building Orders 2nd turn, and I always forget the +1 strength part, which puts DJ Ned at 7 which is Balon with LotC 3rd challenge bonus. I think I lost two power challenge because of that. I also kneeled a Lordsport Shipwright and chose Winterfell, which would be a great play if it was legal. He eventually got out Robb Stark and was able to trigger DJ Ned to gain 3 renown on a 2 challenges, plus 2 with Hodor, but I kept his housecard power low. I think he was up to 13 at some point, and I was 14 and Rise of the Krakened to go first around plot 5. End of the game I played Maester Wendamyr and he didn't eat him with Grey Wind, so I stealthed past DJ Ned for the win. He was ahead on board state the whole game, but I got really lucky taking out his Ice and his Winter Is Coming with intrigue challenges.

Top 2: Lanni/Dragon - Michael H. Michael won the Sacremento regional recently(https://thronesdb.com/decklist/view/5134/june-4-sacramento-regional-winner-1.0), so I was a little nervous here, especially when we were talking about his use of Naval Superiority in the last deck. He started with Tywin/reducer/Western Fiefdom. I believe I started with Balon duped, 2 drop, Iron Fleet Scout. Either way, this was another close match. He had Tywin, duped, bodyguard, Tyrion duped, and Illyrio out after a few turns. I had Balon milked, Asha, Priest of the Drowned God, and I think Syrio with one raiding longship. Turn two or three I ended up Heads on Spiking into his Summons. I chose to be first player, he Summoned Mirri Maz Duur into his hand of already 7 cards, and then I got lucky and plucked her. That and being able to stealth around Tywin for most of the game plus a Raiding Longship, and 1, maybe 2 Superior Claim. It's always scary to see Tywin have standing ability, and I'm thankful Magister Illyrio can only be used once per round. I think we got to round 5 at 13-11, and Rise of the Kraken gave me initiative and he conceded.

Overall, it was unnerving to play without any kill or We Do Not Sow, but they were all cards that could slow down the power rush. Usually with decks I feel like my hand ends of being pretty small. I had cards in hand most of the day, because I'd only marshall 2 cards on an average turn, do my 3 challenges, often with 1-2 unopposed, and have a relative power gain compared to my opponent nearly every turn. I think there were 2 times the whole day were I went first but strategically passed challenges without doing anything, usually because I needed to prevent renown gain or knew that I could Marched or Wildfire the next turn. Or Weapons at the Door to get rid of all the Milks for a final push. Weapons>>>Confiscation for . Looking forward to Pyke to replace a raiding Longship. I hope this is helpful for someone. Thanks everyone for the games. Had a great time!