After a week of very hot temperatures (five days above 40 degrees Celsius), I was not exactly well-rested when it came to playing the A Game of Thrones Card Game. As a result, I was basically grumpy throughout the preceding week, and I had some major reservations playing in the Game Day event – especially as I had to run five hours of D&D immediately following it.

I tried testing my Greyjoy deck with Sarah on the Thursday previous, but we only got in a couple of games with little proper work done as we were both so horribly tired. I did realise that there were a couple of cards missing, and so adjusted the deck before the Saturday tournament, which ended up with 17 players. I still almost dropped out – it was at that number where we might have ended up with five rounds, which would have taken it into the time I needed to run D&D – but I ended up playing anyway.

The deck I was playing I’ll give the full list of later, but was a Greyjoy deck that took advantage of the new agenda, “The Old Way”, which quite transforms the way that the game plays. Where before a large part of the game was choosing to block challenges to deny power to the opponent, despite not being able to win the challenge, “The Old Way” makes that a good way of losing characters very fast. So, Greyjoy Raiders, with a number of power-boosters on the attack was the core of my deck, and we would see how well it played. My expectation? Not very well.

Round 1: vs Scott (Targaryean Heir to the Iron Throne)

This was a day to forget for Scott, as he made misplay after misplay. His opening hand (after a mulligan) yielded only one location and Dany (Dragons don’t kneel). Only one more character entered play on Scott’s side in the first turn, and this wasn’t good against my Raider and Training Vessel opening – his second character died in my Military challenge, and then he made his misplay of the match as he attacked with a lone Dany into my three standing characters – I defended, he lost the challenge, and Dany died to “The Old Way”.

After that, I controlled initiative, his dragons died to my attacks, and after a couple more turns of this, Scott conceded, not surprisingly.

Match score: 1-0

Round 2: vs Chris/Moose (Greyjoy Maesters)

This was a tense game, lasting seven turns. Moose’s deck turned the game to Winter in the second turn, and having used my high-gold cards in the first two turns, I struggled to play cards in the second half of the game, not aided by the lack of armies I could deploy using my Manning the Walls.

Moose had a lot of save effects, which worked against my agenda – especially with Maester Wendamyr saving characters, standing, and saving someone again!

So, an initial advantage on my part was quickly eroded, and a Valar left Moose in an excellent position, as I was only able to save one of my characters to Moose’s three (including a very tricked-out Wendamyr).

However, Moose got too tricky with the next turn, playing Marched to the Gates to remove my final character; however, I had played Valar, and my Captured Cog gave me the initiative. I made Valar resolve first, and at the end of it, Moose had to discard Wendamyr. No characters in play! (The card on top of Moose’s deck? The Iron Cliffs – saving power a turn too late!)

I was still in a dire situation and was unable to play enough characters to recover from this position. However, the most valuable card on Moose’s side ended up being the Naval Escort, which was able to increase the STR of his characters high enough to block the few I had available. In retrospect, it’s a card I definitely should have included in my own deck. If the game had gone one more turn, it is possible that the return of my high-gold plots (and Valar) might have allowed me to recover, but it is more likely not.

Match score: 1-1

Round 3 vs Alex (Stark Maester)

This game was the least flattering to my deck as two Northern Cavalry Flanks entered the game early, and started smashing me down; I just couldn’t draw anything against them, certainly not both Strength-boosters and Raiders; a Frozen Solid did for my one warship that could have saved me.

River plots knelt my characters, armies destroyed them, and the game was swiftly over. Non-kneeling, high-strength defenders are the bane of my deck. Naval Escorts? Yes, they seem good.

The best “misplay” of the game was a Nightmares played by Alex on my Victarion’s Reavers… attacking alone, the blanking of their text box actually allowed me to steal power from Alex rather than them discarding a location he didn’t need. Of course, he just stole the power back that turn for the win, but it was a nice moment. (People tend to be unfamiliar with a lot of the Greyjoy cards I play, for some reason!)

Match score: 1-2

Round 4 vs Jesse (Targaryean Hollow Hill)

This was my longest game, lasting 11 turns. The early game was entirely mine, with a very slow start from Jesse (not aided by the Knights of the Hollow Hill non-set-up) and his characters swift death to my military challenges.

However, slowly his burn came online (along with Valar) and the game began to turn in his favour. One burn card got Paper Shielded by me… only to have the Paper Shield cancelled by Jesse’s own Paper Shield. We shook hands.

Despite Jesse beginning to slay my characters, I was still gaining power, aided by my Captured Cogs, which kept me winning dominance. My other warships kept being destroyed (as he played and later replayed Fleeing to the Wall), as well as my gold-producers. It was hard to determine what to keep in play, but the Captured Cog was my most valuable card – allowing me to win dominance and keep ticking up the power.

I survived one turn as Jesse misplayed – he played a card to reduce my lone character’s STR, and then tried to activate Meereen Tourney Grounds to reduce it further, but the Tourney Grounds is a response to the character being declared as attacking or defending – it was too late for it to be used, but he didn’t make that mistake again, and when he got two unique characters in play, the Tourney Grounds plus his recursively-appearing Incinerates were looking like he might have the game; he eventually made it to 14 power… just short!

However, Valar cleared the table again, and I was then able to trick one of my big armies into play. Jesse had nothing that could deal with it, and I was on 13 power. The resulting power challenge gave me the game, 15-12.

And that was my tournament, where I went 2-2 and ended up as seventh of seventeen players; not too bad for an event where I really thought I’d do a lot worse. (And, to be fair, almost did).

The event overall was taken out by Justin Shearer (a not entirely surprising result) with a Baratheon Black Sails deck – he played a top-2 cut against Alex and won it handily, though I didn’t watch the game in much detail, as I needed a bit of rest and was also engaged in welcoming the D&D players to the store.

Thanks muchly to everyone who attended, and especially to Daniel for organising and running the event!

For those interested in seeing the make-up of my rather flawed deck, here it is:

House Greyjoy

Agenda (1)
The Old Way (FF) x1

Character (34)
Ambitious Oarsman (RoR) x3
Andrik the Unsmiling (TPoL) x1
Euron Crow’s Eye (ASoSilence) x1
Euron’s Enforcers (DB) x3
Iron Fleet Captain (CD) x3
Ironborn Marauder (TGF) x3
Qarl the Maid (AJE) x2
Victarion’s Reavers (CD) x1
Alannys Greyjoy (ODG) x2
Baelor Blacktyde (TIoR) x2
Bloodthirsty Crew (OSaS) x3
Dagmer Cleftjaw (KotS) x1
Fleet from Pyke (RotK) x2
Greydon Goodbrother (TK) x1
Moqorro (VD) x1
Maester Wendamyr (KotS) x1
Victarion Greyjoy (RotK) x1
Theon Greyjoy (WLL) x2
The Reader (TGF) x1

Location (21)
Longship Silence (ASoSilence) x1
Training Vessel (TIoR) x3
Freed Galley (THoBaW) x3
Scouting Vessel (KotS) x3
Gatehouse (KotS) x3
Captured Cog (AHM) x2
Longship Iron Victory (KotS) x1
Aeron’s Chambers (KotS) x1
The Roseroad (KotStorm) x1
The Searoad (KotStorm) x1
Street of Steel (Core) x1
Street of Sisters (Core) x1

Event (5)
Paper Shield (QoD) x2
Risen from the Sea (KotS) x3

Plot (7)
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
Manning the City Walls (CD) x1
Rise of the Kraken (KotS) x1
Muster the Realm! (QoD) x1
Victarion’s Scheme (TPoL) x1
A Song of Summer (ASoS) x1
Naval Superiority (TGF) x1

The deck has some major weaknesses; it’s curiously unfocused, trying to cram Raiders, Armies and Uniques all into the same deck – it definitely needs pruning and more raiders. Some of the supporting effects also need tinkering with, though I’m pleased with the overall plan. It may never be a Tier 1 deck, but if I can play it, do moderately well and enjoy playing it, I consider my job done.