Stormy Seas

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Greyjoy Rains 0 0 0 1.0

Thantastic 161

Those who know me from 1.0 know I play Greyjoy almost constantly. My devotion has been less absolute for 2.0, but for the championship at my home store I wanted to show my fealty, and so Greyjoy it was going to be. I'd been toying with a slightly unorthodox list anyway - 3x of all the major characters, heavy saves, not running Valar myself - and running two wildfires and sometimes even First Snow on top of that - to keep boards tight and push tempo advantage by having characters that were damn hard to remove once they hit the board. The few times I'd taken it out to SCs this season I'd run fealty, and although it gave me a decent toolbox, I felt it was too on rails and too easy for opponents to play around because I was often locked into focusing on Mil challenges to cull the board, power challenges to stay stable, but Intrigue was a non-threat from me, and often a weakness given the amount of hand destruction from Lanni, Tyrell, and Martell, so even if I was getting board advantage early, I had no hand by turn 3 or so, and would sometimes run out of gas. I enjoyed good success in Swiss, but nothing spectacular after the cut. The day before the tourney, I decided to tweak the list to let it run Rains, and double down on solid intrigue characters. Since I already had several very strong uniques adding in Appointed was easy, and gave me a great core of the Greyjoy family to work around. The potential for Rains triggers gave me some unexpected tricks, and now I could present more threats, and threaten opponents with a lot more tricks. I was worried about the curve, but with a whopping two test games before the tournament (Thanks Joe!) that went far better than I expected, I decided to take the plunge.

Round 1 vs. Sean Miller, Tyrell Kings of Winter

 In the first of several bouts with Tyrells, I was sitting down with some apprehension. Sean is a good player, Tyrell has plenty of Intrigue and Str. pumps, so even bluffing Rains triggers might be hard. I knew it was going to come down in no small way to whoever got their foot on the gas first. Sean had [The Arbor](/card/02064) out on setup, and I believe I had [Asha Greyjoy](/card/01067) and [Victarion Greyjoy](/card/05027), a reducer, and a [The Kingsroad](/card/01039). Sean flipped [Building Orders](/card/01006), grabbed a [The Frostfangs](/card/04098), and played that, [Paxter Redwyne](/card/01182), an [Arbor Knight](/card/02005) and a [Garden Caretaker](/card/01188) if I recall. I dropped some more economy, got out the other of either Asha or Victarion, got an [Appointed](/card/05043) on Asha, a [Lordsport Shipwright](/card/01075), and two [Iron Fleet Scout](/card/01079). Unfortunately for Sean, he was never really able to get into the game after that: he had a poor icon spread and didn't see any heavy hitters, whereas every turn after the first I dropped another one of my key big characters, and a dupe or a save. That he was on his back foot prevented him from dropping pressure from his winter plots, and his one attempt to swing tempo from First snow ended up hurting him more than me because I was able to drop [Euron Crow's Eye](/card/01069) that turn. Between Asha and Victarion I was able to grab 8 unopposed power across three turns, and renown on Euron, Victarion, [Balon Greyjoy (Core)](/card/01068), and claim filled out the rest. I got off Rains on turn 2 and 3 for a Filthy and a Power Behind the Throne, but in both cases that just made things faster for me, and didn't really impact the game much.

Round 2 vs. Winston Wan, Targ Rains

  Winston and I had a 10 plot knockdown, drag-out at the Diversions SC a few weeks back when he was running Martell Rains, and he used the plots masterfully, so I was a bit concerned going in. Unfortunately I'm a bit fuzzy on the details for this one. We both had decent setups; Winston had committed to military icons in setup and t1 marshalling, so my dupes and saves meant that I could eat military challenges without it actually changing my board state, which that really slowed him down as he could only really afford to make one challenge on his side each turn, otherwise it would guarantee me at least two unopposed. I had more intrigue than he did throughout the game, so even when he eventually got out [Magister Illyrio](/card/01163), there wasn't too much he could do on that front. he did have [Ser Barristan Selmy (LoCR)](/card/05035) out from t1, which proved to be a big pain for me, but one I could ultimately work around. When I milked him turn 2, Winston chose him for military claim (over [Rakharo](/card/02033), [Jhogo](/card/02113), and [Magister Illyrio](/card/01163), which made me happy. When he played [Ghosts of Harrenhal](/card/04100) the following turn to get Barristan back free of his opioid addiction and I got a Lordsport shipwright I was a bit non-plussed. Put simply, I got out my good characters once each turn, only lost dupes or inconsequential chuds, and even though Winston had good characters and used some bloodrider jumping shenanigans, Illyrio's stand, Barristan, and his plots to keep his board fairly stable and robust, I was still forcing through at least one unopposed each turn (often 2), got off one Rains trigger for a key kneel with Filthy, and ground him out with Renown.

Round 3 vs. Alan Sarkisian, Tyrell Banner of the Wolf

 This game was won and lost in marshalling turn 1 by a risky play from both of us that went entirely in my favor. Alan is a strong player, but circumstances didn't leave him much to work with. He set up [Harrenhal (GoH)](/card/04082), [Highgarden](/card/01192), and an econ location. I set up a duped Asha, a shipwright or a wildling scout (don't remember, doesn't matter), and economy. That's interesting as it's some control pressure for Alan, but I have a more flexible board state for how I want to play out turn 1. The important bit is that I also had Euron in hand. We start things off, I bring out Euron, he pops Harrenhal, and I drop a [Risen from the Sea](/card/01081) on Euron. I pop Highgarden with We Do Not Sow thanks to Asha, and Alan didn't really have a chance after that. I've got tons of beef on the board, he doesn't have characters that can stand up to it, I grab Harrenhal from his discard pile via Euron, and there's not really anything he can do from turn 2 onwards. After he flips [Valar Morghulis](/card/04080) turn 3, his board is clear, I'm sitting on Asha and Victarion, with Harrenhal, Great Kraken, and economy out. It was just swabbing the blood off the decks after that.

Round 4 vs. Doug Hirt, Lanni "Rains"

 Based on standings and our back-of-the-envelope SoS, Doug and I are 99% sure we're both in the cut as long as we don't end up with a mod win, so we were both in a great mood. I think this is the only time I've actually gotten to play Doug, and he's done pretty well at other tourneys, and I knew Lanni Rains was probably one of my hardest matchups, so I wasn't quite as chill as I'd like. As things get rolling he had Tywin out turn one, [Lannisport](/card/01098) for card draw off his intrigue, and just started building more big characters. [Chella Daughter of Cheyk](/card/05007), [Ser Gregor's Marauders](/card/05008), [Cersei Lannister (LoCR)](/card/05001), [Tyrion Lannister (Core)](/card/01089), and [Ser Ilyn Payne](/card/02109) all made an appearance. Thankfully, even with such fearsome foes, I was able to steadily bring out my own all-stars, as [Asha Greyjoy](/card/01067), [The Reader](/card/02031), [Euron Crow's Eye](/card/01069), [Balon Greyjoy (Core)](/card/01068), and [Aeron Damphair (TIMC)](/card/04071) all came sailing in. I got enough econ locations to keep up the money game, even with Tywin out, and thanks to Asha's and Victarion's timely appointment to the small council I was able to defend challenges and hold off Rains triggers. Doug made two or three sub-optimal plays in the first turn or two that gave me a little more room to operate, but it was far from a certain thing. I was holding him off, ending turn 3 at 9 or 10 power (several of which came from unopposed thanks to Asha and Balon, and two from Great Kraken). Round 4 was a slugfest, I went first, got off one sneaky power challenge to bring me to 12, and made a big error. I was trying to push a very big Intrigue challenge that Doug would have to keel out everyone but Cersei to defend, sparing me military claim and some power for the turn, and if he let it through I would have gotten to pull a Kingsroad at least thanks to Euron, and may well have been able to trigger my own Rains for some additional shenanigans. Unfortunately, I made a mistake in my math (slops to myself for misreading Chella's current STR), so he blocked with two, characters, was open to run all three challenges, plus get off his own rains trigger into Wardens of the West during his challenges, netting even more power for Cersei, additional unopposed, and -gallingly - dominance as well. We ended the round at 10 power each. Plot 5 I flipped Rise, won initiative, and took the game with a 7 power challenge thanks to Balon, unopposed, Rise, Claim, Great Kraken, and renown. Even with a carefully conserved treachery, Doug couldn't stop me as there were too many triggers for bonus power.

 That left me king of swiss, and with a very happy result of beating Lanni Rains with my uncouth ironborn. I also knew that I had successfully paid the iron price to win the Night's King playmats and power tokens we had made up for the event, so I was very happy with the day, and pretty relaxed going into the cut.

Semi-final vs. Owen Barron, Tyrell Banner of the Sun

 So, the prospect of the Arbor fueling a wide board and icon stripping to limit my options, plus strength pumps let me concerned. I knew I was going to have to come out of the gate fast to pull it off. With that in mind, I took a pretty aggressive mulligan, tossing away a hand full of single copies of wonderful expensive characters that I didn't have any saves or chuds to backstop. The drowned god was kind to me, as I was able to get out Asha, a wildling scout, and iron mines. Owen dropped the [The Knight of Flowers](/card/01185) and [Margaery Tyrell](/card/01181). I had the advantage on setup, but no other economy in hand, a milk, a We Do Not Sow, Theon, The Reader, a lordsport shipwright, and Victarion, and Aeron Damphair. I flipped Noble, he went with Building and was able to grab the Arbor. I had to keep money and prioritize stealth to make sure I could throw We Do Not Sow if possible, so I played out Theon and the shipwright, sitting on one gold. Owen played it safe, and didn't drop the Arbor, instead playing out an Arbor knight so he could take claim, and hit Asha with an Imprisoned. I was a little bummed about the tempo hit, but even after I won my unopposed Mil with Theon, I opted not to use the We Do Not Sow, as I was holding it back for the Arbor. Owen hit back with [His Viper Eyes](/card/03032), wisely choosing to get rid of WDNS. Round two he played out the Arbor, but only had enough gold to marshall another chud to eat the military challenge. I played out the Reader. He opted to let me get one unopposed he didn't need to so he could keep the Knight of Flowers standing to hit back at me with Mil and try to keep my board as small as possible. That, I think, was the mistake. he did so in the first round, but since I had already established character dominance, I think he would have been much better off to switch focus on power just to slow me down. As it was, Theon was triggering each round, Asha was likewise guaranteeing an unopposed power challenge each round (which I was happy to keep feeding to him by not worrying about trying to stop his Mil), and thanks to her standing she was winning me dominance. Turn 3 sealed his fate. I flipped Heads on spikes since his hand was moderately sized and I assumed that he was likely holding on to expensive characters I wouldn't want on the board, and I hoped to get initiative to keep up the pressure. Owen flipped Calling, which let him win initiative, but for some reason he made me first. I got extremely lucky on two points: I hit Nymeria with Heads {presumably he wanted to go second so that way she wouldn't get milked}, and I drew my lone copy of [Nightmares](/card/02099). This meant that I was able to Nightmares the Arbor, limiting him to only a total of 6 Gold. The two together crippled him, as he wasn't able to do anything to slow my offense. I was able to hit 15 in dom, and so didn't have to contend to losing much of my board to his impending Valar. During that round, Owen commented that he should have valared the turn before, as he underestimated how much power Theon was racking up, and how both he and Asha out were guaranteeing too much speed from unopposed. 

Final match vs. Devin Bell, Tyrell Banner of the Wolf

 Devin started playing Thrones last year, but has been a championship level player in L5R for years, and took to the only game that matters with gusto. He already has two SC victories this season, so I knew I this could be a very hard match. I was guaranteed the regional bye regardless, but it was my home store, and my preferred faction, so I really wanted to come out swinging as I tried to sail further up the Mander and get the full win.

 When Devin took his initial hand, looked at it for approximately 5 seconds, and dropped two cards, I was not thrilled. My unease deepened when I only had a moderate hand after my mulligan. My worst fears were confirmed when he did indeed set up the Arbor and Harrenhal. I had a duped Asha and a lordsport shipwright, and a fistful of unique cards with no saves. I opened with Noble, hoping to lure out the Harrenhal and still have enough money to play out another chump, counting on [Close Call](/card/02120) to drag whoever I needed back from the dead next turn, and hopefully use the extra draw to give me some options. Then, the tide came in bearing gifts from the depths of my deck: a Kingsroad and an Iron Mines. I played out the iron mines, the kingsroad, and dropped Euron with a smile. Devin was playing next to us earlier in the day, and saw how quickly things got sewn up with Alan, and I had even talked with him about Euron and Harrenhal being something magical I never thought I'd get to experience again...so he decided not to pop Harrenhal. I dropped another chud as well to pad my board. Devin marshalled a few lackluster characters - [Ser Colen of Greenpools](/card/04004), an arbor knight, and a garden caretaker if I recall. All the beef was on my side of the table, and I proceeded to knock him around for the first two turns, racking up unopposed, renown, and fishing Kingsroads out of his discard with Euron. Turn 3 if all fell apart for him, and came together for me. I hit Eddard with Heads on spikes. He popped Harrenhal on Aeron Damphair, but I still had the iron mines out to save against it. It was just too little, too late. Eddard had been the only strong character in his hand. I had massive board advantage in every challenge, most of the Greyjoy family - including intimidating Victarion, and had already been racking up power thanks to renown and unopposed. He conceded, and congratulated me on the win. We talked a bit afterwards, and he said that he was too cautious, and should have valared on turn 3, as I would have been left with Asha (duped), and Euron (since I only used the Iron Mines during marshalling that turn), since he didn't have much of a board to lose anyway. I still think I would have had the game, but it probably would have been two more turns since I couldn't have run the board. 

So that left me undefeated at the end of Winds of Winter, a title that I've been trying to hit since we first got the Boston meta started up a few years back.

Props to Pandemonium and Jamie, the TO, for hosting the event and supporting the Thrones meta in Boston, everyone who came out who made the event as big and as fun as ever, all the determined jousters who stuck around for draft after the cut, and to all of my opponents throughout the day for being as genial and friendly as ever, even in the one or two instances where a bit of bad luck on their draws let me run away with a game. Special props to Carolyn, Molly, and Sean for diving in to the event even though they're new to Thrones tourneys, and to Joe Card for making the awesome custom tokens that were given out to the top 4.

Slops only to me, for my previous faithlessness. I was lapse and inconstant in my devotion to the Drowned God, but I will resume my former devotion to the Old Way with renewed fervor, for what is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger.

6 comments

captainslow 1265

Congrats! And well said at the end, there.

Kakita_Shiro 984

Dat cost curve tho.

theon greyjoy 1

hallo nice deck !!! if opponent has big board i dont see you have a swiper like first snow or valar. so how you manage to this?

Thantastic 161

It really comes down to decisions in marshaling. You can't just drop whatever good character you have in hand, because you usually have 2 or 3, so it comes down to decoding what challenges you're going to make. By marshaling turn 2 at the latest you should have muktiple sources of either stealth (Asha, Theon, Pyke and Balon with Great Kraken, kneeling people out with Vic) or Renown/Unopposed (Euron, Balon, Pyke, Victarion, Great Kraken), so even if you only make a single offensive challenge you should be able to grab 2 or 3 power. If your opponent had a huge board, push for initiative and have them go first, take their challenges on the chin or defend them and get renown. You usually only need 1 or 2 characters standing for your own challenges to make your own.

When all else fails, Rains into Wildfire.

Thantastic 161

Also, general comments on changes: -I'd probably drop Aeron to 1x, add instead another Priest of the Drowned God, and a second Rattleshirts or a NML -Cut 1x Milk and add 1x Nightmares

Song of Summer never really mattered too much, so if you want to try the deck and are worried about the curve you could go with Summer Harvest.

Slight improvement to curve and setup, and more flexibility in dealing with problem cards.

OldShrimpEyes 426

No love for the House Maester? Those guys do heavy lifting in my version of this and cant imagine leaving home without them.