Targ LotC - World Championships 12th after Swiss 1.0

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• 1.0

So, after Called to Arms was released I wanted to try Targ again. The first draft of the deck was Targ-Lion with The Boy King but after a few iterations I landed on Targ-LotC with Beggar King as one of the central cards. At Worlds I went 6-2 during the Swiss rounds and then sadly lost my first game in the cut. It seems that I met a lot less Lannisters than I should have, looking at the field. Before I give a rundown of my matchups, I will talk a little bit about the plot choices I made:

Summer Harvest: Awesome economy plot especially when you have Beggar King out. Better ini than A Noble Cause and this deck has some high cost characters like Mirri Maz Duur that are not Lords or Ladies. I don't like Trading with the Pentoshi at all so my options for economy plots were fairly limited.

Calling the Banners: Another economy plot that will often trigger Beggar King.

Varys's Riddle: This is kind of a flex spot and there are some other possible plots for this spot. I needed a decent turn 1 plot other than Summer Harvest because good players will anticipate the Summer Harvest when they see the Beggar King out. It becomes a little bit of a mind game what you expect your opponent to open with. Especially against Kings of Summer decks it gets really interesting, because you know they might want to open with Summer Harvest but they also know that you know that ...

But besides first turn, Varys's Riddle actually has a few really nice plots it can trigger off. It's a lot of times really obvious when Confiscation is going to hit the table, Counting Coppers is a another nice one. And most of the plots Bara is running have nice when revealed effects. All in all I was pretty happy with running Varys' here.

Famine: This plot is really really good once you have a little bit of an edge over your opponent. Works best with Khal Drogo out and you even might get decent gold with Beggar King. The +1 gold for marshalling adds up really fast for your opponent when they are trying to get out some military claim. This plot was actually run by quite a few decks in the top 16, I at least saw it in another Targ LotC and in all of the Lanni-Winter decks.

Marched to the Wall: A lot of the time a win-more plot but one you just need to seal the game sometimes. I tried running the deck without it and missed it in quite a few games.

Forgotten Plans: This was a last minute addition to the deck after seeing the swarm of Lanni-Decks in the Laughing Tree tournament on the day before worlds. It's supposed to stop The First Snow of Winter. I never used it for that in the actual tournament because I didn't get to play against Lanni-Decks with First Snow. Before the switch it was a Power Behind the Throne which is really good in a lot of matchups for Dany, Mirri or even Jhogo.

On to my actual tournament games (I'm sorry, I can't remember the names of all the great people I played against)

1. Round: Win against Lanni-Sun, Score: 1-0 My opponent was fairly inexperienced and didn't know a lot of the Targ cards. In round 2 or 3 I managed to Dracarys! his Nymeria Sand, killing his Tywin Lannister (Core) with my Mirri Maz Duur, he claims his only reducer for military claim. After that his duped Ser Jaime Lannister (Core) gets marched to the wall and the game was over.

2. Round: Win against Night's Watch-Wolf, Score: 2-0 He doesn't get any economy or The Wall, I manage to get out Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo on the first turn and am able to finish the game on turn 3 with Famine.

3. Round: Win against Bara-Kings of Summer, Score: 3-0 I'm fairly confident with this the matchup because of all the ready tech in my deck, but that confidence drops considerably after setting up a Rattleshirt's Raiders plus Kingsroad after my mulligan. I don't want the double Summer Harvest to happen with such a bad board and open with Varys's Riddle, while he flops Summons which finds me Jhogo. I marshal Jhogo and fetch my Aggo with Blood of My Blood. Aggo keeps me in the game because there's always a summer plot revealed between two of us. He never plays Melisandre, so I Crown of Gold his Gendry with 3 Power in turn 4 and am able to finish the game with a stealthy Daenerys Targaryen against the Robert Baratheon he finally was able to play in turn 6.

4. Round: Win against Sean (I think from Australia?) with Lanni-Rose, Score: 4-0 I get the most ridiculous draw I have ever seen with this deck: Daenerys Targaryen, Rhaegal and Viserion out by turn 1 and all 3 Dracarys! by turn 2. After I play my second Dracarys! to kill a Brothel Madame or something like that, he attacks with his Tyrion Lannister (Core), who eats the third Dracarys from Dany herself. After that the game is over pretty quickly.

5. Round: Win against Targaryen-Kraken, Score: 5-0 Both of us marshal Khal Drogo first turn and have a lot small guys. I try to play defensive for first two turns but the abundance of military challenges and a Dracarys! on each side still means that both of our boards actually get smaller. I get lucky and discard his Daenerys Targaryen with my intrigue during the first turn. He Crown of Gold my Magister Illyrio but I have a Funeral Pyre ready for him and the better economy. After a Wildfire Assault from him and Marched to the Wall from me I'm able to close out the game.

6. Round: Loss against Tupaq with Bara-Summer, Score: 5-1 I "finally" meet one of the other european guys I'm hanging out with during the round breaks. He gets out Melisandre, Chamber of the Painted Table and Shadowblack Lane by turn 1. I commit too much during my challenges and gift him the dominance and I think a Shadowblack Lane trigger. I get to marshal Magister Illyrio but he has two Nightmares and a Milk of the Poppy to blank the fat man and closes out the game with Robert Baratheon + Lightbringer.

7. Round: Win against Night's Watch I think, Score: 6-1 I somehow forgot to take notes for this round, so I don't know what actually happened here.

8. Round: Loss against Henri with Lanni-Crossing, Score: 6-2 He gets out Tywin Lannister (Core) and Ser Gregor Clegane by turn 2, I marshal Mirri Maz Duur turn 3 but he is able to block her with his Tywin + Widow's Wail. Next turn he again is able to block Mirri Maz Duur with a Nightmares on my Daenerys Targaryen. So at the beginning of turn 5 he is sitting at 14 power, while I am at 11. I manage to go first but against Tywin, Mountain and Bronn I only manage to get one power challenge through and he just wins during his challenges.

Top 16 Cut, First Round: Loss against Ryan with Lanni-Bara I manage to get a 7 card setup with 3x Targaryen Loyalist, Viserys Targaryen (Core), Doreah, Beggar King, Illyrio's Estate. During turn 1 I decide to marshal Jhogo and something else instead of Mirri Maz Duur. He gets out a Asshai Priestess and plays Seen In Flames to discard my Mirri, which was the only character left in my hand at that time. Over the next two turns I am not able to draw into any characters, getting 7 of my limited locations by turn 3. I slow him down a little bit by bluffing a Dracarys! but he collects power with Chamber of the Painted Table + The Iron Throne and finally wins by turn 6 I think. I think I had 4+ gold left because I didn't see any expensive characters.

But I get a fancy Disney-Style Targ House Card from Ryan out of it. Thanks again for that! :)