Here is the deck that most of our team played at US Nationals, although each person had a few cards different for individual flare.

We went with a midrange version of Tyrell Crossing because we felt that it was more stable than the complete rush version. The extra dupes on all your important people really shine in the heavy Valar environment. Crossing allows you to still be a faster deck than most of the ones in the environment. Also the ability to play Valar yourself due to all the dupes was something that Patrick had really found valuable in his testing since he had been the one playing the deck the most. Often it would catch opponents off guard.

Matchups

Before getting into the deck itself just a brief word on some of the important matchups (and a comment or two on the less common matchups). One thing that applies to any matchup where they might have Valar is that you really need to be conservative with your own Valar. You don’t want to lose your renown characters to double Valar or back to back Valar’s so make sure you have some characters with double protection before you throw it down.

Targ – This one is tricky since your people without Bodyguard can get completely burned out with Drac/Dragon is no Slave, even if they are in a Crossing challenge so you really have to play defensive in some situations if they have a lot of gold. Throw away your plentiful amount of chuds in the first challenge. Your 5 str people are mostly safe in challenge 2 unless Blood of the Dragon is out or Dany. Mostly just try and save your renown characters for your Crossing challenge to keep them safe.

Lanni Rains – All your dupes make you resistant to a lot of the kill they pack so this is a game where you will just need to outlast them. Renly is important in this matchup as he will make them struggle to get their Rains trigger off unless they have stealth. Lanni is traditionally slow to gain a lot of power though so you should be able to outpace them easily.

Stark – A great matchup for this deck. You don’t have a ton of triggers that get wrecked by Winterfell/Cat and you have way more renown than them to easily outpace them.

NW (Wall decks) – Another deck you can outpace with your renown and Crossing. Your first two challenges are not important, just put all your renown into a power challenge last. The builder deck that was at nationals was not something we were prepared for however as it has more strength than you. Your only hope there is an early Valar and win before they are set up, or double milk on Craster and Valar them late game. Against the Stark version that won nationals, between Valar, Confiscate, and 2x Rattleshirts you should have a decent matchup.

Mirror – Against other Crossing decks Valar should give you the edge to blow them out, it will come down to who draws more dupes.

Bara – Randyll is key here with the Pavillion or Marge, dig for them on setup.

Greyjoy – They have as many saves as you do so your Valar will be less valuable. It will be a race between your Renown/Crossing vs their unopposed challenge bonuses. Syrio is important for you here so if you see him on setup keep it. Arbor and Pavilion are less valuable due to We Do Not Sow. If you are low on dupes and relying on Bodyguards to save you might have to play defensive so they don’t blow you out with a Sow followed by Valar.

Martell – There isn’t a lot of top tier Martell decks right now. Their best deck is weenie with heavy resets. Varys can be a problem for you if they get more than one off so try to go really fast and hope you have Nightmares for Ghaston. Be wary of a Vengeance on your power challenge if they are showing 2 gold.

Plots:

The only big drawback of the plot deck is the lack of initiative. We found that overall though Tyrell Crossing doesn’t mind being first which was often what opponents would make you play.

Late Summer Feast – This was our big gold plot and to be honest probably the biggest mistake in the plot deck. It should have been Trading with the Pentoshi. Giving your opponent gold and the chance to overextend is much much better than giving your opponent’s cards for a deck that runs Valar. Switch it to Pentoshi, and use it to establish a strong board presence.

Time of Plenty – Another good econ plot with draw to allow you to dig for your dupes and allow you to Valar or protect you from an opponent’s Valar.

Close Call – This plot does two things in the deck, draws a card allowing you to dig for more dupes (see a pattern here?), but also give you the opportunity to have less dead draws since we are running so many characters in triplicate there is a decent chance one could die and need to be brought back so you can replay them.

Valar Morghulis – Tyrell has more saves than anyone aside from Greyjoy, this is a no-brainer. It will probably win you 2 games by itself in 7 rounds of Swiss. Be careful for a counter Valar on the same turn or Varys Riddle.

Confiscation – There are so many crippling attachments out there right now. You have to have this, no way around it.

Pulling the Strings – This isn’t a plot you will play often but when you do it is always amazing. You can use it as a Summons/Building Orders/Counting Coppers/Marched to the Wall/Confiscation which are all great.

Heads on Spikes – Probably the plot that most people will take issue with due to its high variance. To be honest, we think of this plot like the Mountain. Is it a good card without its effect? If yes then play it and if you happen to get the effect then it is just gravy. This card is a free intrigue claim in a heavy Valar meta where cards are a premium. It also has 6 initiative which can be great for winning initiative early. If it only did those two things we would probably play it, but as a bonus sometimes it will pull their best character and possibly win you the game. It can also be used as a hail mary for 2 power in those games where you get close but the opponent is about to turn the board on you and flip the game.

Characters:

Not going to say much about the characters other than the count. I think everyone in our group was running between 37-40 characters. This was part of Randy’s philosophy that while events are great and can swing games, in a heavy Valar meta you will never be upset to draw into characters, while in some situations drawing into events/attachments will end your day. Characters are especially important in a Crossing deck where you want to make all three challenges, and hopefully have some people to oppose a few challenges. As much as I would love to bring that count up a few, I don’t think I could responsibly cut anything else from the deck.

Left/Right – Why run them, and why run them at 2 of. Yes the 2x a unique makes them possibly dead draws but close call can help with that. The fact is when you get these two out together they are absolutely dominant and the 2 of helps with that. The potential extra dupes also help with Valar. In testing we felt that the potential risk of having a couple dead draws (even though it goes against the greater philosophy of always being able to draw warm bodies) was worth the potential payoff when you had them out.

Jaqen H’ghar – This deck isn’t as bursty as a traditional Tyrell Rush and it doesn’t really have a lot of plays that can cripple your opponent other than Valar. Jaqen provides you with some teeth that can really swing certain board states and he is crazy good if you can combine him with Crossing, Marge, or the Pavilion.

Maester Lomys – This was one of my personal choices and I was pleased with how he worked out all day. At worst he is a deterrent from the opponent intriguing you since a win on defense will cost them a card. At best he steals you cards when your opponent’s what he does. Since no one plays him, you marshall him, they pick him up, read him, then a turn later make an intrigue for 2 and are surprised when you defend with him and strip a card. This happened twice during the event. Obviously I wouldn’t expect this to happen during the cut, but he still is a good deterrent, especially against other Crossing decks.

Paxter Redwyne – Econ is always good and so Paxter is a respectable body. He loses some value since there are only two events in the deck and he probably should have been a second Rattleshirt’s Raiders. Randy was running two in his deck and was crushing our version of the Stark/NW Wall deck in testing because of it. If I could go back this would be the only other change I would make aside from going to Trading.

Other Stuff:

The Arbor – Some of the team went with Kingsroads in this slot. I can see an argument for both. The Arbor is fantastic on setup and we have lots of 2’s to go with it. It also gives you a good midgame play when you are setting up for Valar and don’t want to overextend. Kingsroads get you the better burst econ and some initiative which the deck is lacking on.

Events – Because of our high character philosophy this leaves little to no room for events. Nightmares Is the most important because it is always useful. Would have been nice to have a third. For those of you that like 61 card decks that might be my choice.

If you want to read a complete tournament report you can see it on the facebook group be searching GoT Nationals Report