For those of you that couldn’t have guessed I was piloting a Lannister deck with no agenda in order to capitalize on AHoTh Tywin Lannister. It’s a build that I’ve been tweaking since last year’s ChiCon, but this time around I thought I had a few more tweaks that people wouldn’t be ready for. I’ll post a decklist and more thoughts on the deck later.
Round 1:
Andy Anderson- Baratheon/ No Agenda
This was a game that had me wary at first. He went out to a strong start with Old Bear Mormont (whose repeatable standing is a worry for my deck) and two Sister of Fire, a card that the local Baratheon player has made me utterly hate. I didn’t have Tywin in my opening hand, even after a mulligan, but I did draw him on the 1st draw. Andy fought valiantly against my growing Tywin lock, but his last chance to take Tywin out, via a surprise Make Him Fly, was foiled by a Paper Shield and by the 5th turn I had seven uniques in play to take advantage of my Prove One’s Worth. Win to me. 1-0
Props: Prove One’s Worth. I knew with the large number of great Lannister uniques I could run, this plot would be money.
Slops: None that I can think of.
Round 2:
Jonathan “Longclaw16″ Benton- Lannister/Treaty Martell
This was a tight, grueling match that lasted to time and a draw. He ended with 18 power to my 7 or 8. Two turns before that, I had been at 14 power and had a You Killed the Wrong Dwarf in my hand that could have given me the last power I needed to win, but Tywin was my only standing character, so I was unable to play it on him and Jonathan knelt Tywin with a Joffrey Lannister that he played in his marshalling before I could drop another character for the win. With Tywin out of the way, he was able to sneak in for an unopposed challenge with the ITE Red Viper and assassinate Tywin. From here, I dropped back to play a defensive game and plot a new strategy, but time arrived before I felt the true crush of defeat. Draw. 1-0-1
Props: Longclaw’s draw. He had obscene amounts and it made me envious.
Slops: Realizing afterwards that I might have been able to play You Killed the Wrong Dwarf on one of my already kneeling characters. What’s the current ruling on that these days? Am I going to be feeling like a total moron?
Round 3:
Jesse “Complord”- Baratheon/No Treaty
Jesse is always an incredibly fun guy to converse and play with, so I was looking forward to this game. Unfortunately, I started it with a fairly boneheaded move by attempting to defend one of his challenges with a personal guard that he had put In the Name of the King on. Three power to him. I really need to carefully read cards and not just assume that they don’t trigger off of defense. Fortunately for me, Jesse also made a similar move the next turn as I attempted to use Bounty of the Realm to dig into my deck for Tywin. Jesse flipped The Gathering Storm…. and let me have initiative! Grinning, I triggered my plot to discard and put five into my hand (netting Tywin in the process) and then triggered his plot to swap into Conventions of War. Needless to say, I dropped most of my brand new hand, then traded it all in again next turn on a “second” Bounty of the Realm. The game was tricky as Jesse stymied some of my important challenges with a Vale Ward. The tide finally turned as I neared 15 power and an important two claim intrigue challenge discarded both a Seductive Promise and the Vale Ward that would have given him the strength to change the course of the game with that event. Win. 2-0-1
Props: Bounty of the Realm. By now most everyone knows what a great plot it is, but random occurrences like this really reinforce that for me.
Slops: I really have to learn to read cards properly. Unfortunately, so does Complord.
Round 4:
John “Mathlete” Bruno- Lannister/No Agenda
Now, to really set this up, let me say that prior to this, I’m fairly certain that I’ve been stuck playing against John in every event we’ve both been playing in. And I’ve lost every time. I was nervous going into this as our last game at GenCon had been tight, but I figured this would probably be a defeat for me. Now comes the glorious part.
I flopped several reducers, Jacelyn Bywater and a weenie. First plot, I revealed Take Them By Surprise and chose John to go first. He played out several characters, and was done. By this point, I had an interesting hand- Tywin Lannister, The Queen of Thorns, Tywin’s Protege, and 3! Azor Ahai Born Again. I dropped Tywin, the QoT and slapped the Protege on Tywin. John made no challenges, probably looking to see what sort of moves I would make. I fired off the first AABA, which he had no cancel for and charged right in with Tywin, who met a Lannister Pays His Debts. for half a second, I almost picked Tywin up, thinking that I had been too bold and had just tanked the game. Then I realized that I’m an idiot and had the QoT in play, so I canceled his event, letting Tywin continue to rule the Challenge phase. Luckily, I also realized something else unique- that if I had the Protege on Bywater, I could actually play each of the remaining AABA as Tywin and Bywater would each by at 5 strength. I returned the attachment to my hand, and we quickly moved to the next round where I won initiative and chose to go first. I dropped the Protege on Bywater and little else. John played his Marshalling, and when Challenges rolled around, each of my AABAs went off without a hitch, netting me a 2nd turn victory with a Lannister control deck where Bruno never even made a challenge! Wow, I was riding high. Win. 3-0-1
Props: Azor Ahai Born Again and Tywin’s Protege. AABA is such an amazingly powerful card, and I give credit to Staton for suggesting it to me before GenCon this past year. It’s potential knows few bounds. Also, I’m so very grateful that I decided at the last minute to run two copies of Tywin’s Protege for the strength boosting almost more than the attachment control.
Slops: Me for gloating so much about my victory. Sorry John, but it was pretty gratifying after years now of beatdowns from you.
Round 5:
Jim “Beardo Deluxe” Sweeney- Lannister/ No Agenda
Well, this seemed to be a bit of a mirror match as we saw many of the same cards. The Red Cloaks worked out extremely well for him, and it made me a bit sad that they had been cut from my build. At first, I thought the game might go well as we each only had three strength characters as the highest in play and I started with two AABA in my hand. Unfortunately my three strength character was Stafford Lannister. *grumble grumble* Suffice it to say that those events stayed in my hand. He managed to get Tywin out against me, and I languished without one until the 5th turn. Sadly, I waited too long to use Bounty of the Realm in order to dig for Tywin and he correctly played Outfox. Jim also used Forgotten Plans to blank my Prove One’s Worth. He pretty much dismantled me this game. Loss. 4-1-1
Props: Castamere. Even though I forgot all day to use my when I had it in play, Jonathan and Jim showed me just how amazing it is when it’s in play.
Slops: My huge deck. if I’d been able to cut it down even to 65 cards, it would have really cut the time it took to find Tywin, and then I could have utilized those AABAs in my hand.
Round 6:
Nick “The Nickler/ FFG Nick” Agranoff- Targaryen/ The True Queen
Right off the bat, Nick worried me because I had never played against this type of deck before. I knew that I could literally be facing every single problem card from every other house… and that was a terrifying prospect. In fact, Nick opened with one of my least favorite characters, though it was in house for him- Pyat Pree. Luckily, he was just waiting to recieve the Seal of the Hand before he could be a problem. I managed to pull of Tywin and AABA on the 5th turn, as well as having 5KE Cersei in play as a CBK wight and Amory’s Poachers. Nick ‘Winged in Ser Arys Oakheart to knock out my Poachers and slow me down, as well as stopping my Bounty of the Realm with Outfox, thus keeping my hand pretty small all of that game. Also, Nick effectively stopped my military challenges via the WE Red Viper who was gaining power like a madman. The turn I finally took the game, I think we had each started with 10 power, so it was fairly tight all the way through. In the end, I triumphed though. Win. 4-1-1
Props: Seal of the Hand. That attachment is just so versatile in a deck like this either defensively or offensively.
Slops: Ser Stafford Lannister. I had him in my hand literally the entire game and just refused to play him because of his immunity. How often does something like that happen? This just isn’t the deck for him.
Well, it turned out that a 4-1-1 record was good enough to let me into the top eight again this year, this time at the seventh seed pitting me against Madkasel. We decided to play our game quickly in the hopes that whoever was knocked out could get into the amazing Super Draft.
Quarterfinals:
Drew “Madkasel: Kasel- Baratheon/ Brothers at War
As Madk mentioned earlier, this game was a fight for the ages. Drew started with a fantastic 6 card flop and put the pressure on quickly. Thankfully, I was able to drop Tywin into play early, and though I lost several standing character to his First Snow of Winter, so did he. The Iron Throne took out some of his influence in the form of the Vale, and I preceded to bleed power from him as I won dominance. It appeared that I had the Tywin lock screws on pretty tight as he played what appeared to be his last hope, Robert’s Wine Cellar, the same turn that I drew and played both a Frozen Solid and an Expendable Ally. Unfortunately for me, he also soon managed to drop Chosen by R’hllor on 5KE Robert Baratheon which limited my options greatly. Drew then really brought the pressure back to me by playing a Burdonsome Official, who I knew would be targetted straight for Tywin if he could win a power challenge. Sadly, I had never been able to bait Drew into using and locking down his Tarth before, so he was able to win and lock Tywin himself down. From here the game stabilized for him quickly as I drew the needed Tywin’s Protege to bounce the Burdensome Official, but I wasn’t paying attending and played it on the Lord of Bones rather than Amory’s Poachers which could have won the intrigue. In the end, Drew’s renown onslaught from there proved too much. Loss.
Props: Frozen Solid. Even at three gold, it’s just too good not to run for a house that needs location/attachment control like Lannister does. And it doesn’t hurt to draw it on the perfect turn either.
Slops: Myself for not having or using the cancel. Either I had killed my Expendable Ally for claim or simply forgot to use it. I don’t remember which now, but either way, I should have remembered to have it there for something like the Official.
Filed under: A Game of Thrones
