Winter crown tourney report

I have copied my posts over from cardgamedb and put my decklist and report in one post:

It was a Stark Knights of the Realm deck. Massively fun deck to play - it's a Stark control deck with lots of draw! I've been working on it for a few weeks, so was quite disappointed to see someone do so well with a quite similar deck at stahleck as I thought it would steal some of the surprise of the deck (and no one wants others to think they've copied someone else)


Agenda (1)
Knights of the Realm (KotStorm) x1

Plot (7)
A City Besieged (CD) x1
City of Lies (CoS) x1
City of Sin (AToT) x1
City of Soldiers (TBoBB) x1
City of Spiders (TftRK) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
On My Oath (TK) x1

Character (30)
Hedge Knight (KotStorm) x1
Knight of Harrenhal (TBC) x1
Hungry Mob (CoS) x3
Carrion Bird (TWoW) x1
Ser Jorah Mormont (PotS) x1
The Blackfish (LoW) x1
Maester Luwin (FtC) x1
Old Nan (BoRF) x1
Catelyn Stark (LoW) x1
Ser Kyle Condon (APS) x1
Brienne of Tarth (PotS) x1
Hodor (Core) x1
Arya Stark (CoS) x1
Meera Reed (TftH) x1
Varys (SaS) x1
Syrio Forel (TftRK) x1
Ser Arys Oakheart (TK) x1
Ser Barristan Selmy (TK) x1
Ser Boros Blount (TK) x1
Ser Jaime Lannister (TK) x2
Ser Mandon Moore (TK) x1
Ser Preston Greenfield (TK) x2
Littlefinger (SaS) x1
Osha (AKitN) x1
Yoren (THtW) x1
Cold Hands (THtW) x1

Location (17)
Frozen Moat (BtW) x3
Great Keep (LoW) x3
Twilight Market (AToT) x2
Street of Silk (LotR) x1
Street of Steel (LoW) x1
River Row (QoD) x1
Lord Eddard's Chambers (LoW) x1
The Kingsroad 23 (FaI) x1
Kingdom of Shadows (KotS) x2
King's Landing (SaS) x1
Moat Cailin (TK) x1

Event (13)
Much and More (AHM) x3
Paper Shield (QoD) x3
Nightmares (LoW) x3
No Quarter (TBC) x3
Muster (Core) x1

Attachment (2)
Frozen Solid (LoW) x2

OK, so here's my tourney report. I shall try to keep it relatively brief as I can waffle a bit sometimes. Firstly I would like to give many thanks (props) to Ryan, Caitlin and Ama who travelled with me and made the whole trip so much fun. Also extra thanks to Ryan for lending me a couple of cards (I have not been playing long enough to own everything) and for some last minute testing, which would prove doubly useful later in the day...

Round 1
Bye
Easiest victory of the day and a chance to watch a few games before my playing started for real
1-0

Round 2
Chelly - Baratheon No Agenda
This was against a rush deck which is not something I feared too much due to the large amount of control I had. I got quite a slow start though and there are an awful lot of knights in Bara meaning I was drawing just one card in a lot of the early draw phases. This was almost always Kyle Condon who died about 4 or 5 times in the game. Fortunately frozen moat and nightmares removed a lot of renown and triggers to give my targeted kill and valar time to do their job. After the reset He'd just about run out of big hitters and had plenty of power on his house to steal to help speed up my own victory. MVP - Kyle Condon for assuring I had something to oppose him every turn and never going away
2-0

Round 3
Sean - Lannister House of Dreams Tunnels
This was a very tight game against a very nice guy, with both of us playing city plots and shadows cards. I was hit by an enslaved and a Dissention on turn one, but fortunately had a paper shield to at least cancel one and stop a complete nightmare. We spent a lot of the game adding or removing kingdom of shadows as it helped one of us more than the other at various times. I was probably slightly fortunate that Sean never got more than 2 or 3 cards in shadows at any one time and other than the new Hound and Silent sisters his cards weren't overly strong. This combined with an early dupe on Tunnels meant I was better targeting other locations with city besieged. A frozen solid in hand when he played pentoshi was also very handy. When Moat Cailin finally came out I knew I had a good chance as with both of us having cards in shadows my defence was very strong. In the end Jaime made the difference as I was able to out draw and out control the Lannister player. which is a remarkable good feeling as a Stark player. MVP - Jaime for all that card advantage.
3-0

Round 4
Ryan - Stark 3x Wildling Agenda
The inevitable happened - I got drawn against Ryan playing the deck I'd tested against the most so we knew each others decks very well. My opening hand probably sealed my win. It was my worst flop of the day at 3 cards, but I knew it had most of the cards I needed to ruin Ryan's day. Coldhands to counter Ygritte, paper shield for his kill events, frozen moat to strip the wildling trait when he attacked, and meera for everything. Turn one was pivotal. Ryan won initiative (which wasn't a surprise as we knew what plot the other would play) and made me go first therefore allowing his ygritte to steal my selmy with out the chance of a coldhands reply this turn. I had a no quarter in hand, but knew I couldn't attack to win a mil challenge or he'd kill selmy. Fortunately when he attacked me, he didn't commit enough to the challenge and meera coming out of shadows was enough of a swing to win on defense and use no quarter to get my selmy back. Unfortunately for Ryan, it was quite a quick win from there. Meera returning to shadows everytime I killed one of his stark characters made things even easier. MVP - frozen moat reducing strength and removing stealth everytime it removed the wildling trait meant it was much harder than it should have been for Ryan to get challenges through
4-0

Round 5
At this point my ability to remember names completely failed so I shall just say it was a very happy Greyjoy choke Song of Ice player
The final round of swiss and the remaining two unbeaten players. I was happy in the knowledge that I would most likely make the cut win, lose or draw, but that didn't mean I relished playing a choke deck. It was a fairly miserable experience, which I managed to drag out to turn 8. I was able to stay in it due to just about being able to have a character or two in play at all times and jumping Cat being brilliant against choke. most annoying moment was playing valar and no-one dying due to a power of blood! and the inevitable grey joy saves. y fate was sealed when he pulled cat from my hand after winning a mil challenge and triggering kingsroad 23, but it only sped up the inevitable. MVP - Cat for costing nothing and never dying
4-1

So I was seeded 2nd after swiss which was nice as I knew I wouldn't draw the greyjoy guy straight away. Ryan managed to pilot his Stark Wildlings to 7th seed which was a great achievement, but meant we had to play each other again!

Top 8
Ryan
Having lost to my deck a reasonable number of times, Ryan had decided to play this game more defensively to try to make a difference. This lead to quite a slow and close game. the lack of frozen moats this game was also problematic. It really all boiled down to one moment. I knew valaring would wipe Ryan out, but I also knew he ran narrow escape as his restricted. So I spent turn 4 or 5 setting up for a valar - keeping back characters, keeping guys in shadows, attempting to gain card advantage. I had paper shields in hand to deal with potential narrow escapes, but had had to use one the previous turn to save Jaime and did it again this turn as I really didn't want him to be missing post valar. Ryan had a small hand though so I felt his chances of having a narrow escape were slim. that was until he won a challenge with Luwin and pulled a narrow escape. I looked at my hand full of useful cards and realised I was too commited to valar now and would have to throw it away and hope my cards in shadows plus draw would get me ahead. So it happens - I choose valar, Ryan choose twist of fate as he knows it's coming. narrow escape drops and I discard all my lovely cards. only for him to play a second narrow escape! with no hand to discard I knew it was game over now. only for someone to point out that narrow escape is errata'd and is now limit once per phase. We were asked to take back our actions to that point. seeing his own board position and unable to draw characters, Ryan conceded. MVP - Ser Boros Blout - when you know you're safe from a reset for a while, using Preston to send Blout in and out of shadows every turn gives a massive, repeatable strength boost.

Top 4
Carl - Stark No Agenda Direwolves
Another game I won with some early game good fortune. Facing duped Luwin and Bran, there was no better knight to draw than Ser Mandon Moore. I was able to stop this deck ever getting going thanks to No quartering Bran with a wolf at the start and frozen soliding one of the replacement wolves when Robb came out. When Mandon Moore was killed, I was able to revive him with On My Oath (which helped all day with it's flexibility to bring back what I needed most) and give no respite to deck reliant on saves. MVP - Ser Mandon Moore

Final
Greyjoy choke (I again apologise for forgetting your name)
At this point I was so happy just to have made the final. I didn't think I could win as in my previous game against the choke I had not drawn badly or really made any mistakes. I prayed for bad opening draw from my opponent to give me a chance, but this did not happen and he flopped 6 evil cards as choke decks always seem to do. I did get the boost of two early frozen moats though and this turned out to be decisive. We also both had some decent knowledge of what we were facing due to out previous match up that had gone to turn 8. This meant he wasn't scared or a RBD when I preplotted much and more turn one (It was to find a second shadows card to fully utilise city of lies). I didn't draw into Cat at all this game which was a problem, but I think the threat of it helped. What made a massive difference was being able to shut down his wintertime marauders with frozen moats and nightmares until I was able to finally eat through his saves and kill them all. knowing power of blood was coming allowed me to time valar to better effect, and using city of spiders to put two cards into shadows was massive in a game I regularly faced marshalling with zero gold. It was turn seven when I finally played valar and he was forced to play marched to the wall, finally killing off the previously double duped Sparr. He seemed pleased to have my valar pinned, but I wasn't too worried as with cards in shadows I finally had board advantage. turn eight I returned boros blout to shadows with on my oath (s0 guys helped sooo much in this game) and decided that I needed to just eke the game out as was starting to accumulate power. I chose to send boros into to shadows at the end of the turn and preston back in pre plot. I didn't think a valar would come as I didn't have much out, but felt an extra turn with a guarantee of two guys was important. when my opponent played valar I was over the moon. as it timed well with my shadows movements and meant a turn with no claim. I drew into littlefinger and the game was won as I was able to kneel river row to use up river blockade and the street of silk plus my three cards in shadows meant I could afford a five cost character against a choke deck! Non kneeling and stealth, plus my eleven power and not being able to draw a character meant he conceded and I somehow defeated a very evil deck. MVP - frozen moat - nullified wintertime marauders and also useful for removing stealth from the carrion birds which is a bigger deal when there are so few guys to defend

Over the moon, though a little shocked to win. It was a great tournament and a great day. excellent hosting from GTG. I hope to return in the new year to play more there. The cards that won it for me and were most useful all day were Preston and Frozen Moat