Dornish Naval Retaliation 2-2 Dallas Regionals 1.0

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This is the deck that I took to Dallas Regionals last Saturday. I felt that Martell had the potential to do well by leveraging Dornish Fiefdom and high initiative plots. I also felt that Naval Superiority could really catch some people out and punish them for opening a big money plot or any of the other Kingdom plots like Building Orders, Here to Serve, or A Noble Cause that are common openers. Obviously Summer Harvest and Time of Plenty are exceptions to this but with a fiefdom on set up winning initiative helps mitigate the pain of missing a Kingdom or Edict plot.

My first round game was against a NW builders deck and despite a fast start once The Wall and all the other pieces were set up I couldn't keep up with the passive power gain. Round two saw my deck completely take apart a Lanni/Wolf deck. I opened Navel into his Late Summer Feast, killed Bran (the only character he had set up), Spiked Ser Gregor Clegane next turn, pulled a Cersei Lannister (LoCR) on an claim, Marched his Tyrion Lannister (Core), and then Imprisoned and killed off the Mountain when he came back. It was game over shortly after. Round three saw me play Graham, the eventual champion, who was playing Targ Fealty. I spent most of the game dancing around his Dracarys! and he was cautious of my shenanigans. The boards were small and I was hanging on until Khal Drogo made his return and I couldn't keep up with the attrition. My final game was against another Targ Fealty deck. I swear that between dupes and Fire and Blood that Drogon hit the board a least six times. This game I was able to leverage Ghaston Grey and The Prince's Pass to keep my opponent's challenges to a minimum. The game went to time with both of us tied at ten power and I won on deck count 31 to 30.

The Prince's Pass was a night before slot in and I was always glad to see it on the day. I had been considering running The Boneway instead but I figured with the negative attachments and Nymeria Sand that the Pass would help control challenges. I feel it was the right call at least for a Targ heavy meta. Going forward I'll be looking at switching out Naval and Duel (which was especially underwhelming on the day) with a Counting Coppers to help card draw and possibly upping the events and slotting in an The Annals of Castle Black. Secret Schemes will help make this deck a little more consistent so that will also probably find its way in too.

Overall, I know this deck is not a tier 1 deck but it is a blast to play and I was pleasantly surprised how well it fared even in the games I ended up losing.