The DC Meta delivered a total beat down to team Baltimore in yesterdays tournament. Excluding casual play and Baltimore on Baltimore games, our score stood at an embarrassing 1 win and 11 losses. This was a surprise considering HOBO's team captain placed 2nd against similar match ups in last month's tourney. Here's the breakdown:
The Prophit - 1 bye 1 win (vs Robot Martini) 3 losses - Lannister KotHH
Robot Martini - 1 bye 3 losses - Stark Siege
Ayon - 1 bye 4 losses - Martell KotHH
So was it bust or beat down? While any deck can deliver a fail sandwich on setup, and thus face an uphill battle against strong competition, 5 straight losses (up to 10 setup hands with mulligans) points to issues with the deck's construction and/or pilot error. I can't speak for the other's but I would rate my own experience 40/60, with the greater going to beat down.
In Game 1, I failed to draw a producer/reducer after a mulligan nor anything better than a sea for the rest of the game and spent the lion's share of my time slowly losing to Dan's No Agenda Martell. My biggest error was ignoring the consequences of Dan's game of thrones plot, which made my feint pointless as it knelt no characters, reduced my defender count AND gave Dan's Red Viper an extra power for renown. I also missed the chance to blank Ser Drinkwater with my Frozen Moat, netting Dan a power for renown and an unopposed challenge I could have otherwise blocked. I'm confident I could have taken this game with a better set up.
Game 2 was a bye.
Game 3 against Steven's GJ Maesters repeated my setup fail, though this time I did eventually draw 2 gold producers, at the same time, after a Valar. (complete fail) I remember much less about this game, outside steven slowly grabbing his chains but not being able to use them or his locations most of the game due to my plot choices. However, I'm pretty sure I wasted a Meera Reed to kill a Conclave with 5 chains and 2 power on it, because I knew I couldn't get her back out of play and a Valar was coming. Regardless, the most interesting backfire was in round 2, where Steven's Forgotten Plans blanked my Assault on Kings Landing, which allowed him to protect quite a lot of his board position. In all, Steven plays very fast and, intentional or not, will push past your response windows and resolution steps if you don't rein him in and I was much more comfortable doing that this tournament than last time.
Game 4 reversed my setup woes, almost too much in the opposite direction. After a mulligan my hand was still clogged with locations and events and after a few kills and controls I conceded to The Prophit and Lannister Hollow Hill deck in disgust.
Later, I defeated Ayon and managed two narrower losses against Eric's Targ KotHH jumping burn deck in casual play.
What's my take away? Not drawing cost support in 5/6 of my setup hands, nor for 2 rounds after is statistically unlikely for a deck with 13/61 production cards in it. So, while it was very annoying, I don't see my curve as the core problem. While it never got off the ground, I encountered a reasonable number of the 10 draw/search effects in the deck - so adding cards in that category also seems unnecessary.
My plots remain very effective and, more importantly, surprising/unpredictable for my opponent. However, grudgingly, I will retire Wildfire Assault in favor of Valar. While I still hate Valar's stats (especially it's gold curve) and I find it near useless against Greyjoy, there were too many scenarios where my opponent had too few characters and/or crucial targets I could otherwise not reach.
Lastly, I will also retire some or all of my epic phases. Epic phases OWN when they work - easily netting extra power and board position or forcing the opponent to Valar prematurely. Unfortunately, well built hard control decks can shut these cards down and heavier agro decks (namely Clanni and Dothtarg) can out muscle my more balanced approach to Stark. In tourney play, they either backfire, do nothing or close games I've already won. I will probably replace them with targeted location control or, possibly, some cancels. (paper shield, probably)
Star character in the deck goes to Bouncing Cat this time. She saved my ass many a time :)
No comments:
Post a Comment