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Syd

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Posts posted by Syd

  4. Posted

    I think it's an important point when factoring in Andromeda's value to consider the second runner turn. Andromeda allows you to spend all your clicks for two turns for proactive effects and runs rather than drawing cards. I cant speak for every player, but generally a click or two is spent in the first couple turns to draw cards. With some draw built in to extend Andromeda's card advantage, I have played games where I never used the standard Click to Draw action once, which amounted to a lot more effective click use throughout the course of the game. 

  5. Posted

    Bronson, I can't wait either! Hard to believe it is coming up so soon. Very little time to build something Kubla-worthy! Here are some more details on the tournament for those keeping score at home.

     

    The Top 8 after 5 rounds of Swiss were:

    1. John Bruno
    2. John Kraus
    3. David Strong
    4. Brandon Griffin
    5. Michael Hackman
    6. David Hopper
    7. Brooks Mitchell
    8. Angela Steele

    Top 4

    2. John Kraus
    5. Michael Hackman
    6. David Hopper
    8. Angela Steele

    Finals

    5. Michael Hackman
    6. David Hopper

    Champion

    6. David Hopper

    As you can see the finals was an all-Targ slugfest, Maesters Vs. Dragons. Four out of top 8 were Targaryen and three out of top four were Targaryen. Blood and Fire.

     

  6. Posted

     

    We had a very successful tournament yesterday, attended by Regional Winners past and present and the current World Champion. Here is the breakdown of House/Agenda/Rest. Cards and placement.
     
    May 11 regional stats
     
    27 Total Players
     
    House/Agenda Breakdown
    Stark - 6 
    Siege of Winterfell x2 ; Fury of the Wolf/Fear of Winter
    House of Dreams; Meera Reed
    Brotherhood without Banners; No Quarter
    The Long Voyage; Search and Detain
    Knights of the Hollow Hill; Meera Reed
     
    Lannister - 6
    Power Behind the Throne x2; Pyromancer's Cache/Castellan
    The Long Voyage; Mountain Refugee
    City of Shadows; Pyromancer's Cache
    House of Dreams; Pentoshi Manor
    No Agenda; Castellan
     
    Baratheon - 1
    The Long Voyage; Search and Detain
     
    Targaryen - 7
    Long Voyage x3; Long Lances x3
    Maester's Path x3
    Knights of the Hollow Hill; Hatchlings Feast
     
    Greyjoy - 3
    Long Voyage x2; Search and Detain/Fear of Winter
    Black Sails; Fury of the Kraken
     
    Martell - 4
    Knights of the Hollow Hill x3; Burning/Burning/None
    Alliance; Burning
     
    Top 8 after 5 rounds of Swiss
     
    1. Lannister; PBtT; Pyromancers
    2. Stark; Long Voyage; S&D
    3. Targaryen; Long Voyage; Long Lances
    4. Lannister; City of Shadows; Pyromancers
    5. Targaryen; Maesters Path
    6. Targaryen; Long Voyage; Long Lances
    7. Martell; KotHH; Burning
    8. Targaryen; Maesters Path
     
    #8 def. #1
    #2 def. #7
    #6 def. #3
    #5 def. #4
     
    Round of 4
     
    #6 def. #2
    #5 def. #8
     
    Finals
     
    #6 def. #5
    Targaryen; Long Voyage; Long Lances
     
    As you can see Targ is still a force to be reckoned with, comprising 50% of the top 8 finishers. I will post the decklist for the winning deck after the tournament winner has the chance to post their own tournament report. 
     

  7. Posted

    This Saturday at Black Diamond Games in Concord there will be an Official Regional A Game of Thrones Tournament. First round begins at 11am, so plan to show a few minutes early to register and fill out a decklist if you don't already have one printed. Cost is $10, which gets you guaranteed prizes and 4-5 rounds of swiss pairing. We will cut to the top 8 and award additional prizes before three more rounds of single-elimination play. Things should wrap up between 7-8pm. 

    Compete with some of the best players from all over California. Winner gets a Trophy from FFG, Free Pass to the FFG World Championship Weekend and a First Round Bye at the World Championships and a Stone House Card (plus the prizes for making top 8).

    Current FAQ and Tournament Rules are in effect.

    Here is the venue info:

    Black Diamond Games
    1950 Market Street, Suite E
    Concord, CA 94520
    925-681-0600

    Hope to see you there.

     

  8. Posted

    Hey Bay Area Star Wars players,

    I just wanted to take a moment to invite everyone to come play in the Star Wars Regional Tournament next month. It will be at the KublaCon gaming convention in Burlingame on May 24th. I will be running the Regional, which is free if you have a Kublacon badge. The badge actually gives you free-to-play admission to all the Tournaments at Kublacon, so if you play A Game of Thrones or Netrunner (both of which also have Regionals scheduled for Kubla) its a great deal. May 24th, 4pm. We will likely have 4-6 rounds of swiss followed by a cut to the top 8 for single elimination. We have game night kits and the regional kit as prize support, so everyone leaves with something.

    You can contact me if you have any questions, but if not, hopefully we'll see some of you there.

    Syd

  10. Posted

     

    This will be a brief report of my experience winning the San Francisco A Game of Thrones Regional that took place yesterday. I will be writing a more detailed discussion of the deck and its performance, including a complete deck list for an article to be tentatively published on cardgamedb. 
     
    The deck: Stark House of Dreams, and every game I used The Dreadfort as my HoD pull. 
     
    You read that right, I played a dedicated House Bolton deck. I also played with 5 City plots in my plot deck, and Meera Reed as my restricted card. The decks basic approach was get out cheap Boltons with a couple Stark traditional characters as support. I know that playing Boltons can be scary, but they also represent Stark's best chance at controlling intrigue challenges. Dreadfort gave me reliable, consistent draw, and the low cost of Bolton characters allowed me to run City plots with their relatively low gold yield, giving me solid, powerful character/location control. 
     
    The Rounds:
     
    round 1 - Mike B, running Targ Maesters Path with 7-8 chains attached.
     
    Mike got off to a great start. He had two beefy Maesters with a lot of chains on them, and was able to win dominance every round until I valared. After the second round I began saving cards in hand for the Valar. I was worried about him playing Outwit, but when I valared he flipped something else. With his two big Maesters gone I was able to spill out quite a few Boltons and slowly but surely crept back. We went right up to time, but I pulled out the win in the final round. 1-0
     
    Round 2 - I received a Bye. This was strange, and I questioned the TO since it is not typical to give a winning player the Bye after the first round. The TO for this regional was a staff member of the store, and despite players informing him on a few points from the Tourney Rules, he ran it his way no questions. Later he admitted that he didn't really know the game or the rules…so there you go. In the end it worked out (obviously, but there was a bit of low grumbling throughout the tournament). 2-0
     
    Round 3 - Garrett, running Lannister Knights of the Realm
     
    Garrett ran a very strong deck and his top four finish is a testament to that. He was running Beric in triplicate, flaming sword in triplicate, other strong Brotherhood characters, kneel; basically a lot of good stuff. Unfortunately he had to Summoning Season first plot to get Beric, so naturally I grab Meera Reed to counter it. Knowing I have Meera, he holds off and marshals other, non-Beric stuff. Knowing I might have a chance to get Garrett to Valar early for fear of Meera's blanking, I play Meera and leave her out there going into plot two. Sure enough he Valars, but I was holding back quite a bit and I flood the board with Boltons, control most of his characters with key events. We went all the way to six plots, but with no reset left for Garrett the flood of Boltons was just too much to overcome. 3-0
     
    Round 4 - Michael, running Lannister HoD Tunnels. 
     
    I got out to a huge jump in this one and Michael had a fairly poor setup. He had a lot of cards in shadows but was unable to get more than a character or two on his side at a time. My Boltons came out swarming, and after the reset they swarmed again. It went quickly, in just a few plots.
     
    CUT TO TOP FOUR
     
    Me vs. Jeff L. running Targ Maesters
     
    Garrett vs. Michael
     
    Semis 
     
    Jeff's deck had a lot of similar pieces that Mike Bs deck had, so I felt good about what I had to do to beat it. This game really went my way. I was able to get The Bastard's Boys out early and really destroy his board position and his hand. Jeff was running Wildfire as his reset so I was able to maintain the pressure with the Bastards boys a gain a fairly quick victory.
     
    Michael def. Garrett in the other semi match.
     
    Finals, Me vs. Michael in a round four rematch. 
     
    Michael got off to a much better start and I got off to a very weak start (1 card flop) he claimed 3-4 power very early and grabbed some brutal cards from intrigue challenges. He was even able to steal a few Boltons and his board was looking huge. I spent two turns gathering resources and cards in hand (I had the luxury of him running a slow deck) and then timed the Valar just right. I was able to drop 3 characters and by the next turn I had Meera out and was able to lean on him, slowly reducing his options and countering his kneel. It went to the 7th plot, and I was able to kill his non-kneeling Littlefinger in the plot phase. After that it was inevitable. A great match and a great opponent. Well done Michael on your second place finish.
     
    Well that's it for now. I feel blessed to have won the SF Regional two years in a row. I look forward to seeing folks at our metas Regional in Concord on May 11th, and again at Kublacon over Memorial Day weekend.

  12. Posted

    When you use Test Run to install femme fatal, and subsequently choose a piece of ice to be bypassed through her ability, does that condition on the chosen piece of ice remain constant, even when Femme Fatale leaves play at the end of the turn? Im not sure, because the ability does not have standard paid ability formatting.

    Practically speaking, can I bypass the ice after Femme Fatale goes away? Or how about this: I install a Femme Fatale, choose the ice to bypass per her ability as normal. A few turns later I install another Femme Fatale but have to trash the original to make MU space. I choose another piece of ice per her ability, but does the previous piece of ice "lose" its memory of being chosen earlier? It seems like it can get complicated with multiple Test Runs, Personal Workshops, with multiple Femme Fatales…

    Not sure how it works…

  13. Posted

    There will certainly be a new FAQ for all the LCGs before the Regional season begins. Somewhere in there it should specify what packs are legal for the season. This is sometimes updated during the season as well, so some packs may become legal at the tail end of the season.

    Also, when I have run regionals and/or attended regionals, $10 is fairly standard if the organizers are expecting enough participants to cover the cost of the kit. That can rise as high as $20 if attendence is expected to be low, but rarely have I seen $20 entry fees.

  14. Posted

    I agree with some posters that the huge amount of Regionals (especially the concentrated pockets in certain areas) does give the impression of a diluted/false sense of "Regionalism." I think the real problem is that Regionals are the only widespread form of organized competetive play in the LCG format. Sure you can hold local tournies and pass out Kit prizes, but winning them has no impact on your standing within the perception of the larger national scene. If people want clearly demarked lines for Regions, a single Regional per Region then we first need a tier of organized tournaments below. And "do-it-yourself" kits won't work, because that just creates inconsistency within the OP program. The kits themselves are great, but a more standardized tournament system would be better to pair with them (with a way to report results to FFG towards building a player ranking system with its own unique rewards). Then that lower tier could do the job the Regionals are currently doing, and the Regionals can become more in line with what some seem to expect they should be - Regional in nature.

  16. Posted

    I can't quite contain my excitement. Not sure what it it, but I have serious expectations for this year and Organized Play. If last year is an indication, the Regional Program has been expanded, giving more opportunities to win and more importantly for me, to gather with the larger region-based communities. I have high hopes for California this year…I am biased of course, but our community of players is great (most recent World Champ!) and I am looking forward to the new breed of LCGs entering into their first Regional Season. I plan on playing in multiple regionals on the West Coast.

    The Kits are far and away better than in the past, which is a testament to FFGs promise to increase support/structure for OP. If the larger-than-expected demand for Game Night Kits tells us anything regarding Regionals, it could be that we see a marked increase in their number this year. Tomorrow can't come soon enough!

     

  17. Posted

    I enjoyed the profile on the Chinese Championship, and was intrigued by their "city teams" format. Would people be interested if at Worlds FFG employed something similar? No sure if you would split it up by meta, by region, or just let people form teams, but I think the idea is great. You would not even need to have an extra event. Simply go by average win % of the team. Saaaaaay, 5 memebers to a team minimum. I cannot speak for everyone else, but I would certainly be interested in this, especially if there is a trophy designated to the dominant meta at worlds for any given year. It would help build some friendly rivalries methinks.

  19. Posted

    Moneylender said:

    Syd said:

     

    There seems to be a big pool, but so much of it is populated with redundancies. I mean, how many legal Robert Baratheon's are there? 4? I would rather see, maybe two versions of major unique characters be the standard, and open up room for exploring many other characters that have never seen cardboard (in the LCG era or otherwise).

     

     

    Thats a dangerous path, because most uniques end up being slightly more cost efficient or have a better ability than nonuniques in the same costbraket,

    and often become autoincludes: for example Penny or Missandei

    Without any rotation this will probably lead to decks of the same house having even more similar cards. Just my 0.02$

     

     

    I think that perspecive is limited in our current system of an ever-expanding cardpool, but I see your point. In an ideal design space, both uniques and non-uniques would all be very viable pieces in a variety of competetive builds. If this was the design philosophy, then given enough time (as the frequency of competetively playable cards increases the time would decrease) players would be forced to make very difficult and deck-defining decisions. If a stereotypical competetive deck has somewhere between 28-32 Characters, with a large cardpool of playable, competetive characters (both in-house and neutral/Unique and non-unique) some very playable/competetive cards will not be in that deck, due to basic slot availability.

    I think the key is recognizing what our pool landscape is made up, and designing cards to augment and extend it is meaningful ways.

    For instance, I think the thematic idea behind the River plots is cool. BUT, from a design perspective it fails. In comparison to the existing pool of available plots, I can see little to no reason to run a cycle of River plots in a competetive deck. So what we are left with are cards that are wasting away on the shelf. Now, how to fix it? I think River plots can be viable, if other cards are created to play off of them and are augmented by having a River traited plot revealed. It is possible these things are in the works, but even if they are, they are too late in coming. They should have been in the cycle that introduced the River plots, injecting new competetive avenues for the metas.

  20. Posted

    You may be right Ignithis, that the card pool is currently too small for the cycling of chapter pack legality. But what about in one more year, or two more years, after 3-5 more cycles have been released?

    After thinking on this issue, I have come to the conclusion that the reason some of us see the card pool as a bit stale may be because the card pool is stale independent of its size. I mean, really great cards seem to come out very rarely. Too many chapter packs are opened with a lackluster sense of excitment. There seems to be a big pool, but so much of it is populated with redundancies. I mean, how many legal Robert Baratheon's are there? 4? I would rather see, maybe two versions of major unique characters be the standard, and open up room for exploring many other characters that have never seen cardboard (in the LCG era or otherwise).

    Things I would like to see the designers explore…

    ie; Dance of the Dragons, Robert's Rebellion, Aegon's Conquest, The Age of Heroes, The Long Night, Children of the Forest vs. Others, even a set exploring the different Faiths and Gods of the World. Hell, Dunk and Egg! We need more creativity around the sets, along with exciting card design to back up the themes.

    Who says AGoT the game has to fit into a certain timespan? The rules of the game allow for such blatant (but still fun!) thematic inconsistencies, I don't think you can argue anymore that it would not be a fitting representation of Martin's saga. Once we got Balerion, I thought the flood gates would open on characters from the early history of Westeros and beyond. Sadly, we seem to be getting a lot of uninspiring characters/cards, or re-hashes of the same character. All card games, CCG or LCG, must thrive on the new.

  21. Posted

    Thanks Dennis, for bringing the tone back to the OP I made. I also think FFG will take steps to strengthen the community, in fact, I think they are doing it right now with the new OP program. I personally would have liked to see a bigger overhaul announcement from Worlds, but I am excited for the new kits. Even more, I am excited for the ranking system. However it plays out, I think it will inject real interest in running local, regularly scheduled tournaments. And THAT is how you build a thriving meta. You cant just have a great game…you need the competetive pieces in place. A good ranking system would create upsets, underdogs, grudge matches, meta mvps and other distinctions that are good for competition. Couple in coveted prize support, and you have yourself a winning combination.

    Set restriction/rotation would just be a part of it, but I think it's a part FFG is looking at. All of the above's impact will be lessened if the card pool is perceived to be static.

  22. Posted

    Thanks for the support guys, I thought maybe I was delusional…but, maybe there's something to the idea. Kennon, you should bring it up on the show. complice

    I think I agree with you Danigral, so what if instead of a blanket illegalization of a block during a season, certain blocks went restricted during the season, so you could only pull a single card from those blocks during that season? It would allow you to pull that one card you need to cinch your deck up tight, but would still leave the block on the shelf for the most part that season.

  24. Posted

    I think a lot of the current doom and gloom around the thrones meta has to do with the natural lull we are experiencing in the games OP cycle. This is even more emphasized by the delay in the new Game Kits. But, I also think FFG needs to take notice here and do something, sooner rather than later, to inject excitement into their best LCG game, by leaps and bounds. 

    What if FFG instituted a revolving legal pool of cards to coincide with their new OP Season Schedule. For instance, OP is now broken up into 3 Seasons. I like to think of them as The Regular Season (Jan-Mar.), Regional Season (Apr.-Jul) and Championship Season (Aug-Nov.) SO, suppose FFG institutes only certain blocks of CPs legal in official tournaments for each of their three seasons? This would create three major meta shifting periods of time each year, and that's independent of new cards releasing (which would create more micro-meta shifts throughout the entire year).

    I would make Core set and Martell/Greyjoy Expansions always legal, but let everything else fall in and out of rotation in different combinations. It would allow new players to buy only the cards they need for each season (spreading out the cost to be competetive) and it would also allow FFG to plan for very interesting tournament seasons and chapter pack releases.

    Some people here on the boards and elsewhere want to see a vastly expanded restricted list, but that (and rotations for that matter) seems detrimental to the ideology of LCGs. A Living Card Game should have few Dead cards. But, with cards rotating in and out for "official" play, you get those forced meta shakeups that the old rotation system in the CCG days accomplished. 

    Now, for this to work I think FFG HAS to follow through in a big way on their recent announcement regarding OP. The world ranking system they are devising would be a major incentive for people to run "official" league play and tournaments, following the revolving rotation schedule. 

    I am like others that believe the card pool is getting out of hand, but with this system you could really tune the OP program into the driving force of the game, which I think is necessary for its long term survival.  

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