Melee: House Stark, Fealty - German Nationals Winning Deck 1.0

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• 1.0

This is the deck i took to the German Nationals - Melee Tournament which had 14 players, four rounds of swiss and cut to top 4. The field was crowded with Tyrells with 9 players having Tyrell as their main faction and two players with Banner of the Rose, thus only three players without any Tyrell cards (Greyjoy Kings of Summer, Martell Kings of Summer and Stark Fealty).

Game Plan: Since Melee games are often closed in the third challlenge phase i wanted to gain timing advantage with abilities that give me power in the plot phase and marhalling phase: Catelyn Stark (WotN) together with Wildfire Assault, Fallen from Favor or Jon Snow (WotN). Riverrun pushes it even more. Sansa Stark (Core) with Jon Snow (WotN) , Seal of the Hand or Lady, Riverrun Minstrel can also close games without trouble. Otherwise just grab as much power with renown as possible (as everyone else does) and maybe try to turn on The Blackfish.

Plots: I always opened with A Noble Cause followed by Varys's Riddle (except for one game where i played Fallen from Favor). Varys's Riddle had always good targets and gave me sometimes initiative. Nevertheless it get's worse the more players are playing it, obviously.

Game 1 - Win 15 points: Three player table against Greyjoy Summer and Tyrell Banner of the Wolf. I had Catelyn Stark (WotN) and Riverrun out early and was able to give her 6 power in the first two rounds with Riverrun Minstrel, Riverrun, Fallen from Favor and claim. At the end of turn 2 I ended up with 12 power so i played Wildfire Assault and killed two starks without power - winning me the game with 9 power on Catelyn Stark (WotN).

Game 2 - Win 15 points: Three player table against Martell Summer and Tyrell Banner of the Wolf. Grabbed power with all my renown characters and closed the game with a Sneak Attack.

Game 3 - Tied Second 3 points: Four player table against Greyjoy KoS and two times Tyrell Banner of the Wolf. Pretty close game where i focused too much on stopping another player instead of winning myself.

Game 4 - Win 15 points: Four player table against Tyrell Fealty, Martell KoS and Tyrell Banner of the Wolf. Here we were all threatend by a Tyene Sand played during setup. Fortunately she killed an Attainted Varys. On turn two I managed to negotiate myself ouf of getting my Attainted Catelyn Stark (WotN) killed by Tyene Sand. After that i was able to close again with three power gained with Wildfire Assault and Catelyn Stark (WotN) and Riverrun.

Top 4 - Win: Four player table against two times Tyrell Banner of the Wolf and Targaryen Banner of the Rose. On turn one i misinterpretated the board state and my The Blackfish got killed by Dracarys!. After that my board was the weakest and i thought about flipping Wildfire Assault to even out the board state but i had no economy to play anything good with 4 gold. So i flipped Varys's Riddle luckily against Calling the Banners giving me 11 gold and initiative. At the end of turn two i sat their with 14 power but unfortunately with no Catelyn Stark (WotN) in game or Riverrun Minstrel in hand. So i tried my luck and flipped Heads on Spikes but missed a two in three chance on closing the game. My next "plan" was topdecking Riverrun Minstrel - which didn't happen. Then we got stuck in kind of a weird King making situation. I was second player and the first player flipped Sneak Attack. Winning a power challenge against any player would give him 5 power and the victory. Unfortunately for him the other two got enough strength in power challenges not only to block but win by themselves. So he decided to attack me. Then i opposed with Sansa Stark (Core) and sacrificed Jon Snow (WotN) to stand her - giving me my 15th power to close the game.

Conclusion: I think i would switch A Clash of Kings for Counting Coppers or Confiscation since i didn't play it all day and card draw and attachments can be a problem. For the deck i think i would like to include two times Nightmares and something to give me power to negotiate, e.g. Ice or something similar. But i have no idea yet what to exclude for those cards.

Finally: @Christian: thanks for the organisation. @the other players: thanks for playing, i had pretty much fun @FFG: Please start supporting Melee again!