Burns Night (Watch) - 1st place in 22 man tournament 1.0

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• 1.0

Won a 22 player event with this deck on Sunday, though I don't think it is fully optimal yet. I faced a lot of Night's Watch and it is possible they are a strong matchup. Stark I think would be a bad one.

The deck is aggro, kill opponents characters in mil or with burn with decent strength in power challenges too.

With so many characters with variants of "no attachments", Blood Magic Ritual is an event that proved very useful, used with Rangers Cache it can hep dodge a Valar. The Rangers generally are very efficient cards that do their thing well.

Apologies if I butcher spelling of opponents names, or forget/misremember things - I have probably spelt Isian's name wrong and don't know his surname for example...

Round 1 - Ben Hunt - Martell fealty - win

I put Craven on the Viper, then did the same again when he played Confiscation. Crowned Doran and he had a small board throughout which Qhorin and Barristan chewed through.

Round 2 - Alex O-Fee-Worth - Night's Watch fealty - win

With some rangers and Drogo I was able to keep his board very small from the off, and he didn't run Valar so couldn't stop me there. Jon Snow turned up with King Beyond the Wall and Sworn the the Watch (with Rykker in play that made him a tricon, and Grenn had also joined up) so I had to be careful on his 2 claim turn, but getting my own military through meant that Jon's buddies died to claim. I finished the game by killing Benjen with Valar.

Round 3 - Isian - Night's Watch winter - win

I faced off against White Tree and Queenscrown early on but his Queenscrown triggers were poor - for the first couple of turns the only character in my discard was Rykker. Drogo and rangers gave me early control of military (and indeed the board - his characters played were much weaker than mine) and I discarded attachments turn 1 when he had played Wraiths. He played Riddle against my Serve but wasn't running any maesters himself. Turn 3 he played Valar as I had a much bigger board than him with power on Drogo. However, when I refilled my board he had no answers. 'Arry was definitely his star player as she appeared and disappeared regularly for draw, but I got to the 15 before he found what he needed.

Round 4 - Dave Bamford - Baratheon Lion - loss

My reward for winning my game on the top table was to be paired down against a player who I have never beaten...

He saw Mel, Davos, Hound and Marya early against a few chuds plus Ranging Party. Sadly he had bodyguards on both key characters, and I only had a small window of opportunity to reset after using Drogo and Viserion to chew through these. I needed Dave to not draw dupes for 1 turn before I could use Valar, and he saw not only dupes but also a duped Bob, followed by Table and Chair. Dave consistently won initiative so my board was knelt out by the time I got to make challenges - Illyrio allowing me 1 in return which just was not enough.

Round 5 - Calvin Green - Night's Watch Summer - win

Although the agenda was different the game was simlar to my round against Isian. I faced Queenscrown and White Tree early, but nonetheless got off to a quick start using Trading for an early board flood (I';d rather play and lose the characters, baiting a reset, than have thenm discarded for reserve anyway) and gettting to a power lead over the first couple of plots. Varys appeared fairly early on to spoil my party, but after he triggered I used Time of Plenty to get a decent hand and board presense once more. My own Jorah was put into play with his Yoren, but this worked to my advantage as I played out a high strneght board including Stonesnake and Grenn to get so quick power gain of my own. Even facing Qhorin was not too big an issue as I had no real targets for him, I managed to close out reasonably promptly with something like 4-5 power on Stonesnake.

Semi-final - Matthew Slade - Targaryen Fealty - win

This wasn't really a game as Matthew's luck was terrible from his mulligan through to at least the end of plot 1. I set up Qhorin, reducer chud, reducer location, vs Daenerys with reducer location. I had Milk and Craven in hand for Daenerys so wasn't too disappointed about the fact I have no Marched. Matthew however had not faced my deck and thought I was running it (it certainly could fit). He gambled on a double Marched and as a result my Loyalist and his Daenerys were discarded. To compound this issue Mathew had just 1 character in hand, albeit a dragon.

Even with a combo of Waking and Dracarys! to kill Aemon I was able to just play out enough each round to make 3 challenges, and Matthew saw very little in return. I lost Qhorin to Valar but had plenty to refill with and had used Retaliation that round to keep the pressure on (if he had Valar he was using it that roud, Qohrin had some power on and I was winning 3 challenges easily). I took the game from there.

Final - Isian - Night's Watch Winter - win (eventually)

This one took 10 plots and was a comeback win as Isian owned the game for the first couple of plots. We both had Qhorin early game, I had Illyrio (duped) and chuds to his similar sized board. He killed Qhorin plot 1 using Last of the Giants into Jaqen, leaving his board much stronger than mine. I used Valar to level things, and Isian chose to play little that turn, then used his own Valar to kill my reset board (well, with little gold it was only a character or 2). I got a decent reset of my board from there and started to take some control, before seeing no characters in hand for 2 plots in a row, allowing Isian to creep back ahead in power, helped by his constent stealing of my Ranging Parties. Rangers Cache proved vital for the cards (until that game I had used it for money) and I got Drogon and a Lost Ranger on the board to support Jorah and Benjen. The Catapult killed off a Ranging Party on a Fire and Blood turn, and Blood Magic Ritualsaved Jorah (with 2 power on him) at a crucial time. After plot 7 we got to the point where my board just gradually took control. Isian managed to get Varys and Rattleshirt to level things out, and chose not to use Varys as I had far more cards in hand and economy (I had 2 Slaver's Bay Ports out). In plot 9, he had duped Varys, Rattleshirt (Milked), my Aemon, Ranging Party and maybe a chud or 2 out, facing my Jorah, Benjen (with bow), Drogon, Lost Ranger, and Barristan (with catapult). He had 13 power to my 12 and was going first (I had Retaliation revealed). Crucially I had a Crown of Gold for Varys to prevent uo on the intrigue. I made a bad mistake to counter Isian's own mistake - he made a military and I defended with Barry and Benjen rather than just Benjen (killing for claim). I defended his power challenge with a Fire and Blood used for Viserion, and stood with Plaza to get my own power through but couldn't win dom to finish the game. In the next plot I went first, and even with Old Bear played against me was able to win with a uo intrigue with Jorah and the Bow. I don't know how long the game took, and it wasn't flawless play on either side, but definitely a great final!

Suggestions to improve the deck that I agree with have included to remove Waymar for a 3rd Drogon, and swap the numbers on BMR and Dracarys! - both changes I think will work. Swapping Stonesnake for a 2nd Drogo is also something I wil look at, but more cautiuosly as I don't want the Ranger count too low (Lost Ranger). A 2nd Rykker could be an alternative. Removing a Grenn was suggested as well, I have found he is a card I want to see early (maybe not turn 1 though) even if he does die - with the stand in my deck he can often get a 2 power swing in challenges.

Something I was considering was losing Quaithe - tbh I have not used her ability once in all the games I played her, often just playing her as a blank 2 for 2 with intrigue. If I am killing things with burn the synergy with her ability is less important, that only leaves Fire and Blood turns for her to really shine. I certainly need to lose some cards as A Dragon is No Slave is surely going into the deck. And yes, 62 cards...

Would love to hear suggestions to tweak the deck.