House Stark, Fealty (Czestochowa winner, 37 players) 1.0

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Hi, this is my deck from a Polish League Tournament in Czestochowa (37 players). Wuher organized a wonderful event with a great swag (there were custom made playmats, custom promos, custom power tokens...if you think about something "custom", it has probably been there) and a great name (R'hllor's Indulgence). Here are some notes about the deck and a short tournament report if someone is interested (sorry for a lack of memory and mistakes - that's how I remembered it, not exactly how it really was).

Deck notes:

House Stark was my faourite one since CCG, when I started playing the only game that matters. My fovourite AGoT 1.0 deck was No Agenda Stark with Meera Reed. We don't have Meera (yet) in 2.0, but when the other favourite card came out: The Nightmares, I decided that it's the time I can make a nice Stark controll deck. And that "control" part of the deck is the one giving the most fun:

3x Bran Stark 3x Catelyn Stark 3x Milk of the Poppy 2x Winterfell 3x Nightmares 1x Filthy Accusations

I wouldn't change any of those. I love core set Cat. It helps you when you are screwed, when you defend and don't want to loose characters from Tears of Lys. But she is also great in offense or when you want to be sure that nobody cancels your Jon Snow/Robb abbility. She is my MVP, for sure.

The Nightmares are the second best. It's like a part of Meera in some sens. You pay one gold for a blank, sound fair for me :) Nightmares can deal with the strongest cards each house have (and these are only some examples): Robert Baratheon, Balon Greyjoy, Ghaston Grey, Tyrion Lannister, Robb Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, Randyll Tarly or even Brandon's Gift itself (but you probably have to go first then).

You have to be aware that the Winter is Coming. So have in mind that there is The First Snow of Winter up there. So you want a 3 card setup (Goldroad, Robb Stark and Bran the most :)) and you have to play something big each turn, with some dupes too. It's not that hard :) And when you know that it is THAT turn, you are flipping Filthy Accusations to stop an opponent's aggression. And it's good to have Nightmares then too to blank The Kingsroad or Tywin when opponent plans to plays something big in the First Snow round.

All in all, it's a Stark Fealty and at the end you win with Robb Stark ;)

PS: It's also interesting, that people expect Put to the Sword more than Tears of Lys when playing against Stark. To be honest, I'm not sure why ;)

Czestochowa "R'hllor's Indulgence tournament report:

We played six rounds of Swiss followed by the top 8 single elimination.

Round 1 Win vs Wuher (Martell, Banner of the Lion)

Wuher is a first edition, very good player (he made a top in Stahleck 2015 melee and "almost" made a top in Joust). You probably know him, if you play on OCTGN :) But Catelyn Stark sitting in Winterfell from the first turn just proved to be better.

Round 2 Win vs Sandy (Martell, Fealty)

The game was very similar to the first one. Again, Catelyn was there from the beginning, which helped me not to allow any Tyene Sand/Tears of Lys resets. Sandy played well, but she couldn't get rid of Mrs Stark (and Winterfell too, a few turns later).

Round 3 Loss vs Sokles (Martell, Banner of the Lion)

Very good game. I opened with a four card setup (Maester Luwin, Septa Mordane, The Roseroad and Shaggydog). My opponent had a The Kingsroad along with Nymeria Sand and some low-cost character. As I was afraid, my opponent started with the The First Snow of Winter. I was chosen as the first player and throw in Eddard Stark with dupe. I also blanked his Kingsroad with Nightmares and blanked Nymeria Sand with Milk of the Poppy. Sokles didn't play anything big this turn, so he lost Nymeria in miliary challenge, and I lost my Eddard next turn after he (surprise surprise) (Marched to the Wall). So we start from zero in the second round. But since then, my opponent was gaining advantage thanks to the icon-removing attachments and some killing events. I lost in the 8th round.

Round 4 Win vs Zuza (Tagaryen, Fealty)

Zuza always plays Targ Fealty on tournaments and she is a very gifted player (and the youngest in our meta). I had more characters in the dead pile after this game than in all other games total that day (I finished with 10 Starks in the crypt). Catelyn was crowned early, but she managed to come back with a lucky Close Call turn (I moved Cat from the dead pile to the discard pile and guess what was my draw from the Close Call "then" effect ;)). I think it won me the game (I won in dominance, 15-14 with only one character on board - Robb Stark with about 8 powers on him). Great game, and respect to Zuza.

Round 5 Win vs Marcin (Baratheon, Banner of the Lion)

I don't really remember that game well. I think it was then, when I started to feel that there is a 36 Celsius degrees outside (and like two times that inside the building). I remember the Nightmares and that Robert Baratheon didn't like them at all (my favourite "against Bara" card).

Round 6 Loss vs Arteusz (Lannister, Banner of the Kraken) I lost it hardly, I think I had not much to say. Good setup from my side, but it was not enough. Opponent played well and controlled my board with some kill effects. I don't remember the details, but I think I just didn't want to remember them :)

I finished with 4-2 and was 7th after the Swiss rounds. We cut to top8, so that was a time to take some good old Game of Thrones revenge...

Top 8 round Win vs Sokles

This time I had a bit better top-deck draw quality. Both of us had to rely on what we drew in regular draw step. My deck provided me some good characters along with the economy this time, and that let me won the game. Sokles, as in the game before, played well, and it was the second longest game that day. I think the game was won, as usually, by the blanking effects of Milks/Nightmares. It was a very close one, I didn't fell like I'm winning it for the first few turns.

Top 4 round

Win vs Arteusz (Lannister, Banner of the Kraken) Another revenge here. Everything worked well for me. I had a Robb Stark from the begining, I also managed to draw some extra cards this game. I think I survived my opponents First Snow in better shape and that was the key.

Final game Win vs Olo (Stark, Fealty)

Olo is one of the best players in Poland, a veteran from CCG era. We in Poland have a special tier for his decks. We call it Tier Olo (or Olo's decks). Those decks, in most cases, are the ones no one plays (and no one can drive them). Except Olo (hands up, who remembers Olo's Jaquen 1.0 deck?). This time Olo decided to play with something less original, but very strong - a Stark Fealty which won him one regionals already and gave him a top 4 in another big (50+) tournament this season. Everything was good for both for us - we both had Robb from the beginning of the game. But my deck gave me everything this time. I had a setup Robb followed by the first turn Jon Snow. I also played Milk of the Poppy on Olo's Robb and reinforce my board with my own Luwin, which let me to draw 2 extra card each turn easily. Olo is a great player, so he was trying to control the board with Ice, but he was unable to push the military challenge through my ready-to-stand-Starks. He played his Fat-Cat, but she get only one power during the game (I didn't want to kill Olo's Starks after Milk of the Poppy was moved to Winterfell Kennel Master as an Arya's Gift). I won the game with a final power challenge with Robb Stark, The Blackfish, Eddard Stark and renown Sansa Stark attacking with a Catelyn Stark support.

And that was it. I defended the Czestochowa championship from last year, but I wasn't expecting it since It was very hard to me to make that step from 1.0 to 2.0 edition (it was my first "top" performance" in the second edition joust). Thanks for Wuher for the event and all the players who traveled to Czestochowa, often from far far away (biggest respect for Simon from Szczecin and Kharn from Elblag). Winning the event made me very happy. Almost as happy as when I saw all of you there.

PS: Special thanks for Ondrej Sestak for sending me the Czech card. I knew they will bring me luck ;)