Malaysian Nationals Champion: Summertime Sadness, Summertime 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Took this deck to an 11-person Nationals tournament in Malaysia which was held in Penang. Travelling all the way from Singapore with two other of my meta mates. All 3 of us made it to Top 4. I went 3-1 with the deck in the Swiss. In all honesty, I wouldn't be in the finals as I lost in the Top-4 match to my meta-mate @Chaick, who then dropped out after that. He is our top seeded player and as expected, he has been playing very well the entire day despite nursing a head-ache. Still, he graciously bowed out at the end and due to the twist of fate, I had a golden opportunity to face off against my other meta mate, Jason, and in that final match, I played a game carefully and went all the way to clinch the title.

The idea for this deck evolved from a desire to play my games in a more relaxing manner. For a long time, Targaryen had been in a rut in Singapore meta, and I noticed I am stressed out in all my games. So when the Kings of Summer agenda was released, I took the chance to build a deck that has easy available economy and good draw cards. And the original version of this deck included 2 copies of Doreah and Shadowblack Lane. This resulted in a steady rhythm of cards in my hands most of the time, but I couldn't close games. It is a deck full of good stuff but no dedicated way to win the game at full power. Usually I end up playing a long game just to close it, or end up in modified wins, or sometimes just get overrun when the game drags on for too long.

Thanks to my fellow Targaryen meta-mate Khal Ben Soh @cowiee85 and Baratheon meta-mate Travis @iTrvis, we came up with some tweaks to this deck before I head out for the tournament. Superior Claim was added as a surprise and to help with closing.Doreah was dropped down to 1 copy and Funeral Pyre was added instead to draw into a huge number of cards. This is more in line with the tempo of wanting to win in fewer plots instead of longer games. Doreah is great with her insight, but it's still one-card per turn and assuming she wins challenges. I keep 1x of her just as a great cheap character on the board and also to distract the opponent from preventing her to win, thus allowing my other challenges to go through. I doubled-down on the Bloodrider theme and Blood of My Blood is my tool-box answers to situations I encounter. Finally Wildfire Assault was added and Varys's Riddle removed, so that my plot deck has more consistency and I have access to a reset, which I previously resisted as in long games, I ended up resetting myself... but in this new theme, I can keep Wildfire for the last plot and just focus on closing the game out before then. Or use it early when I have a poor start.

Here I try to recall as much as possible from my games. My report will be sketchy as it was quite a heady day.

Game 1. vs Night's Watch Summer

It's surprising to see Summer instead of Winter. Still, one cannot assume White Tree and A Meager Contribution is not in there. Choke may no longer be his main theme, but it can still be part of his strategy to grab money and fuel his higher-cost characters. Turn one, he saw The Wall out early, but he wasn't able to activate it. On the first turn he has no icons on the board except Benjen Stark. I had Khal Drogo out on first turn. On my second challenge, he killed Benjen to gain two powers on his house card, but leaving him with no icon to oppose my lone 1-STR lord Viserys Targaryen (Core) to steal them back. Claiming Benjen was a mistake, in my opinion. He had 2x Messenger Raven on the board, and he used them both for draw in the dominance phase, only to have to discard one card away for reserve later on. Claiming one of the birds would've been easier for his board next turn. On the second turn he was able to play out a few characters, and Milk of the Poppy on Khal Drogo just as I was happily attaching his favourite Drogo's Arakh on him, but I had top-decked into Devoted Bloodrider and Jhogo. Using stealth to get that Unopposed and kneel The Wall. Without Benjen, stealthing the Old Forest Hunter becomes such an easy thing. My instincts tell me on the third turn not to use Confiscation so quickly, and hold back, instead I played Calm Over Westeros and named , as I now have 4 power on my house card, and 1 on Khal Drogo, I wanted him to feel the time-bomb ticking. Experience tells me this will get him to make mistakes or take drastic moves. True enough, he drops Varys on the table. He has now exactly three characters on the board - Varys, Steward at the Wall and Old Forest Hunter. Meanwhile, I have Khal Drogo with milk and Arakh attached, Viserys Targaryen (Core), Jhogo, Devoted Bloodrider, a reducer chud, Rhaegal and a duped Viserion. Going into challenges phase, I have 2 gold to spare.... and surveying my hand, I have Funeral Pyre and a Dracarys! in hand, a Kingsroad and just one other character, which is an Unsullied. I don't like the situation of having my board cleared by Varys and not having a way to recover, even if I am ahead in power totals, things can turn very quickly.... so I did the unthinkable just to refill my hand... I declared Lord Viserys Targaryen, an attacker in my first challenge - - and then in that action window as my opponent says Unopposed, I knelt a dragon, paid a gold and DRACARYS! the hell out of that scumbag of a beggar king. I triggered his interrupt to discard the milk of the poppy on Khal Drogo (which really isn't my game plan, I just wanted to scare my opponent a little) and then as Viserys died, I played funeral pyre and drew back 3 cards - 2 characters (yay!) and ........ another Dracarys. I got a little naughty thought and wanted to test if he would make a mistake. I declared a challenge. All he has to do is give me two unopposed for both my challenges and his Varys would still be safe. But no.... he defended with his Old Forest Hunter... I played my second Dracarys on the old guy. Who promptly died, and now the steward has to be claimed for military. I declared my second and now Varys dies, clearing his board. I ended the turn with 11 power. He went to turn 4 playing Calm Over Westeros, naming . But at this point, I am only aiming to close the game with renown, a claim and dominance which I did.

1-0

Game 2. vs Greyjoy Stag (decklist)

@kennlau from Malaysia is a good friend, and I wasn't looking forward to this match at all. Kneel can be problematic despite my stand mechanics. During this game I have a great set up with Aggo, a dragon, a reducer and a location.

I cannot recall much of turn one, but I do remember that he did not have any economy on set up, so I did the unthinkable gamble and played Summer Harvest as the opening, because my guess is he will be playing an economy plot. If it's A Noble Cause it will give me a greater advantage, but secretly I was hoping he will play his own Summer Harvest. I have The Kingsroad in hand and Khal Drogo, and after a quick math calculation I am confident I can pull him out turn one even if it's a double-summer-harvest. So I flipped Summer Harvest and he flipped.... Summer Harvest as well. It hit him hard with his merger two gold , but he was still able to stay in the game. I remember having my dracarys in hand chucked away due to Seen In Flames! drats... but he couldn't do anything about the Dany I kept in hand. Turn two I flipped Summer Harvest again to gain the advantage as he flipped Noble Cause this time and I had Dany out from there. And pardon me for my hazy memory, but I remember being able to put out good characters such as Jhogo (either I drew into him or I brought him in via Blood of My Blood to bypass a stealth) and push for power after power and drawing cards with Dany. He was on the blackfoot after my first turn Summer-Choke (yes it's a thing now) and my second turn Summer-abundance. Turn four saw the arrival of Theon Greyjoy , only to see me toast him with a newly-drawn Dracarys. And things go downhill for from there when I pulled off a surprise Superior Claim, and inched my way very close to 15-power. One turn after I closed the game.

2-0

Game 3. vs Targaryen Lion

James is a good deck builder who has great ideas. And I know the power of this deck can be quite fearsome. Turn one I had Khal Drogo with Drogo's Arakh on, a couple of weenies and a dragon. All off to a good start. He has Ser Jaime Lannister (Core) out. I pushed hard on military and he has to lose one character and defend the other, and then he defended an challenge with Ser Jaime. Which I find puzzling. I suspect he must have dracarys in hand, but for now no dragons on the board to use. Turn two he had his own Khal Drogo out. Thus Smash bros is activated and now he has a dragon out. I managed to marshall Magister Illyrio and a dupe on him. That didn't last long as I made a mistake and the magister was promptly burnt by his Dracarys. But at least my Funeral Pyre was a consolation prize and I drew back a ton of cards. But he also made a mistake by having me go first, and I went with my two challenges which he didn't defend (because he wanted to leave his smash bros standing for the counter attack) we both did damage to each other's board. However, he has only 1 card left in hand after my challenge going through while I have 5 cards in hand. One of the cards in my hand is another copy of Drogo's Arakh, which I didn't put down as a dupe because I wanted to bait him to use his Confiscation, a lower-gold plot which I can take advantage of by playing my summer harvest to time it. Turn three he decided to go first, flipping Confiscation and discarding the arakh, only to be dejected (a psychological trick I was anticipating) when he saw me attach the same arakh back on again during marshalling. But this turn saw him top decking into no characters he can afford (thanks to confiscation) and he has only Ser Jaime and Khal Drogo left on the board, with Widow's Wail on his Drogo. Thanks to my funeral pyre move the previous turn I was able to refill my hand with treasures like Fire and Blood which brought back Drogon from the dead pile to die again and endure this double-military Jaime. I was holding onto three gold because Blood of My Blood is in my hands. And after his barrage, I had only Khal Drogo and a Devoted Bloodrider left on the board. He passes challenge to me with the Smash Bros standing. Which means he wants to aggressively defend and keep at least one half of his dynamic duo alive. Even with my Arakh-powered Khal Drogo, I can only win one military challenge ... but I pulled the rabbit out of the hat - Blood of My Blood to summon in Jhogo. Who then stealthed past his Jaime, forcing his higher STR Drogo to defend against my Jhogo+standing Drogo, losing the challenge and having to claim the Khal. My own Khal Drogo went in for the second military, which was defended by the lone Jaime, and he too died to military claim, leaving James with an empty board and losing a ton of power tokens. He conceded the game at this point.

3-0

Game 4. vs Lannister Sun (decklist)

I knew I was going to meet one of my meta-mates in this round. Turns out it was against Jason. He had a great set up and by turn 3 had The Mountain, Ser Jaime Lannister (Core), Tywin Lannister (Core) and Tyrion Lannister (Core) on the board. I, on the other hand, had an average set up but managed to pull out Khal Drogo and Daenerys Targaryen mid-way, only to see both of them died one turn or the other from being Put to the Sword. Strangely the Mountain did not hit anyone with his RNG ability, but he was the engine that powered the two PTTS. Losing the two big ones hurt but by no means game-losing, I played hard and gained power too but his renown count was accelerating and I have no way to catch up. I lose out eventually.

3-1

Top 4 vs Stark Fealty (decklist)

All 3 of us from Singapore made it to Top 4, along with Kenn who I vanquished earlier, but he did well enough in all the other matches to make top cut. In this match, I met @CK, our top-seeded player from Singapore. All I can say about this match is that Robb Stark (Core) and Arya Stark (Core) came out early. Followed a turn later by Fast Eddy . Turn three saw him use A Time For Wolves to bring in Grey Wind. CK is known to use Grey Wind to kill one of his chuds to stand all his characters midway through a winning challenge, then use Grey Wind again to murder one of my own chuds, and then use all his standing characters again for another challenge. The combo of these characters enabled him to keep re-using his renown guys twice and overwhelm me. I also made a mistake on turn one when I couldn't time my Nightmares right to keep his guys knelt after I did a military challenge. I missed the action window somehow thinking I could play Nightmares during the reaction window. A brain fart. CK won this match at 15 power. I did OK at 9 power. Considering my usual matches with him tend to be him a complete landslide with me at close to zero power.

I was ready to take a backseat and relaxed when CK sat me and Jason (who defeated Kenn in the other top 4 match) down and told us he wants to pull out from the finals. So in a twist of fate, I get to play the final game.

Top 2. Final game vs Lannister Sun (decklist)

In this rematch, Jason sets up a duped Tywin Lannister (Core) , a Widow's Wail attached and a reducer location. He knows I don't have Marched to the Wall in my plot deck, thus the bold move. But still I exclaimed loudly to him "A bold move sir! I like it, live dangerously, bold move!". I wanted to bait him to make bold moves next as in my hands are dracarys and dragons already set up on the board.

Turn one he played out Tyrion Lannister (Core), who was burnt to a crisp when he used Tyrion for a challenge. I made two chump challenges which he let go unopposed. Which in my point of view was an early mistake, as I was going second, there was no point for him to let me have those unopposed, and it's not power he can steal back the same turn.

Turn two I saw my Khal Drogo and Aggo out. I played out summer plots turn after turn, and used confiscation at one point to remove his attachment. Still, an Imprisoned was placed on Aggo that I could not shake off, but that's a minor annoyance. My two military challenges every turn claimed quite a few casualties, including The Hound . Turn three saw Dany out. Turn 4 I played A Song of Summer as I guessed correctly that he will be playing Wildfire Assault. Thus still putting me at an advantage due to the STR bump. I focused on racking up power as I am ahead in power and he is distracted by the task of refilling his board turn after turn. His hand is also slowly chipped away, not from my challenges but from a lack of draw, and him using Treachery and marshalling out stuff. At one point I recall using Superior Claim to jump ahead, but not yet closing. Just to pressure him. I know I need to close this game soon as my hand was almost emptied by his claims (he has Cersei on the board this turn)

Turn 5, I end at 14 power, but with an empty hand... I looked at my remaining two plots - Close Call and Wildfire Assault. I played Close Call for Turn 6 and drew into Milk of the Poppy, then normal draw I dug into Blood of My Blood and Jhogo. This marshalling phase, I have could have marshalled Jhogo, but instead I just dropped the milk on his Tywin, kept Blood of my Blood and Jhogo in hand, in preparation to dodge and recover from my own Wildfire. The Milk hit him hard as he saved up 7 gold and didn't use it, just to boost Tywin to ensure he can endure all my challenges. He passed challenges to me as he knew he couldn't risk me closing with an unopposed.... I played Blood of my Blood, brought in Jhogo, who now has stealth thanks to Aggo (who is still imprisoned on the board) and stealth his Tywin and used Khal Drogo together in a military challenge... I win.

Post-Tournament Thoughts

MVP of this entire tourney has to be Blood of My Bloodand Funeral Pyre. Even at only one copy each, whenever I see them I am happy and they provided me with life-saving answers. This deck is more of a toolbox deck and draw / tutoring / search is very important. Superior Claim is also a great inclusion as most people did not expect it.

I have to thank the support of the Singapore meta for their input on this deck, and also to thank the Kenn Lau and the organisers from RNG Games in Penang for hosting this tournament, without which this wouldn't have happened.

My post-tournament thoughts would be to try this same deck but change the agenda to Lord of the Crossing. The glut of gold is sometimes quite useful, but also at times quite a waste. Switching to LotC might speed the game up even more, but open up a vulnerability to Winter decks. Perhaps this might be a worthwhile risk to take as this deck is still slow to close even with the current tweaks. But the toolbox-nature of this deck makes it versatile and brings lots of tricks. My move of burning my own viserys to trigger funeral pyre while discarding milk of the poppy on drogo is my play of the game, and that trick, along with my Summer-Harvest choke opening in game 2, evolved from many hours of play with this deck. Overall I will miss this deck for the fun it brings and I don't think I can continue with this deck with the upcoming Lannister deluxe box. So I will retire this deck fondly and with gratitude.

Til then, play on!