Running Tournament Report(s)

[zarathustra]

Mikko's Decks:
SMELLY MORDOR WINTER FUN

[NetMECCG v1.4 Deck]

[starting]
Lieutenant of Morgul
Shagrat
Ugluk
Strange Rations
Strange Rations
Doeth (Durthak)
Orc Captain
Orc Tracker
Euog (Ulzog)
Dror
Elerina
Carambor

[sideboard]
Call of Home*
Sudden Call
Orc Captain
The Balance of Things
The Great Eye
The Great Eye
Threats
Diminish and Depart
Voices of Malice
Lost in Free-domains*
Lost in Free-domains*
Pilfer Anything Unwatched
Pilfer Anything Unwatched
The Roving Eye
Muster Disperses
Muster Disperses
Tribute Garnered 2x
Rolled down to the Sea
Alone and Unadvised 2x
Lost at Sea
Orcs of Udun
Eye Never Sleeping 3x
Orc Tracker
Mordor in Arms
Seized by Terror
Seized by Terror

[anti-FW]
Cruel Claw Perceived
Doubled Vigilance
Doubled Vigilance
Bane of the Ithil-Stone
Heart Grown Cold 2x
Blind to the West
Blind to the West
Ire of the East
Nameless Thing

[characters]
Ill-favoured Fellow
Ill-favoured Fellow
Ill-favoured Fellow
Baduila
Golodhros

[resources]
Dark Tryst
Dark Tryst
Dark Tryst
Great Army of the North
Weigh All Things to a Nicety
Weigh All Things to a Nicety
We Have Come to Kill
We Have Come to Kill
Vile Fumes
Vile Fumes
Vile Fumes
Blasting Fire
Blasting Fire
Blasting Fire
Liquid Fire
Liquid Fire
Liquid Fire
War-wolf
Great Bats
Great Bats
The Great Eye
Threats
Snaga-hai
Snaga-hai
The Lidless Eye
The Lidless Eye
The Lidless Eye
In the Name of Mordor

[hazards]
An Unexpected Outpost
An Unexpected Outpost
Twilight*
Twilight*
Twilight*
Peril Returned
Peril Returned
Doors of Night*
Doors of Night*
Doors of Night*
Revealed to all Watchers
Lobelia Sackville-Baggins
Mouth of Sauron
Adunaphel
Uvatha the Horseman
Snowstorm
Snowstorm
Pukel-men
Cave-drake*
Cave-drake*
Daelomin At Home
My Precious
Assassin
Assassin
Rain-drake
Sellswords Between Charters
Doubled Vigilance
Earcaraxe Ahunt
Itangast Ahunt
Bane of the Ithil-Stone
Scorba Ahunt
Indur Dawndeath


ORCISH MINES

[NetMECCG v1.4 Deck]

[starting]
Whip
Strange Rations
Dorelas
Dunlending Spy
Ostisen
Shagrat
Nevido Smod
Uchel
Orc Captain
Orc Chieftain
Doeth (Durthak)
Grishnakh

[sideboard]
Morgul-orcs
Sudden Call
Alone and Unadvised
Doubled Vigilance
Seized by Terror
Seized by Terror
The Balance of Things
The Roving Eye
Lost in Free-domains
Arthadan Rangers 3x
Orcs of Udun
Covetous Thoughts
Gifts as Given of Old
Hoarmurath the Ringwraith
Tribute Garnered
Tribute Garnered
Heedless Revelry
Troll-Purse
Nameless Thing
Nameless Thing
Creature of an Older World
Vile Fumes
Vile Fumes
Muster Disperses
Muster Disperses
Unhappy Blows
Orc Chieftain
Waiting Shadow

[anti-FW]

[characters]
Ren the Ringwraith
Ren the Ringwraith
Ren the Ringwraith
Ill-favoured Fellow
Ill-favoured Fellow
Ill-favoured Fellow
Baduila
Golodhros

[resources]
Aiglos
Dragon-helm
Cave Troll
Cave Troll
Cave Troll
Liquid Fire
Liquid Fire
Liquid Fire
Blasting Fire
Blasting Fire
Blasting Fire
Dark Tryst
Dark Tryst
Dark Tryst
Helm of Fear
Voices of Malice
Voices of Malice
Great Army of the North
Orc Quarrels
Crack in the Wall
Crack in the Wall
Orcs of Gorgoroth
Strange Rations
Piercing All Shadows
A Nice Place to Hide
Where There's a Whip
Where There's a Whip
Vile Fumes
Weigh All Things to a Nicety
Weigh All Things to a Nicety

[hazards]
Mouth of Sauron
Adunaphel
Uvatha the Horseman
Daelomin At Home
Lord of the Carrock
My Precious
Sellswords Between Charters
Sellswords Between Charters
Itangast Ahunt
Revealed to all Watchers
Witch-king of Angmar
Khamul the Easterling
Unabated in Malice
Indur Dawndeath
Saruman the Wise
Cave-drake*
Cave-drake*
Heedless Revelry
Heedless Revelry
River*
River*
River*
Foolish Words*
Smaug Ahunt
Pukel-men
An Unexpected Outpost
An Unexpected Outpost
Cave Worm
Twilight*
Twilight*

[Jambo]

Any reports on the VC tournament? Success, failure, highlights? Did you print the cards out?

[Pallando]

Mikko's Decks:
SMELLY MORDOR WINTER FUN

[NetMECCG v1.4 Deck]

[starting]
Lieutenant of Morgul
Shagrat
Ugluk
Strange Rations
Strange Rations
Doeth (Durthak)
Orc Captain
Orc Tracker
Euog (Ulzog)
Dror
Elerina
Carambor

[sideboard]
Call of Home*
Sudden Call
Orc Captain
The Balance of Things
The Great Eye
The Great Eye
Threats
Diminish and Depart
Voices of Malice
Lost in Free-domains*
Lost in Free-domains*
Pilfer Anything Unwatched
Pilfer Anything Unwatched
The Roving Eye
Muster Disperses
Muster Disperses
Tribute Garnered 2x
Rolled down to the Sea
Alone and Unadvised 2x
Lost at Sea
Orcs of Udun
Eye Never Sleeping 3x
Orc Tracker
Mordor in Arms
Seized by Terror
Seized by Terror

[anti-FW]
Cruel Claw Perceived
Doubled Vigilance
Doubled Vigilance
Bane of the Ithil-Stone
Heart Grown Cold 2x
Blind to the West
Blind to the West
Ire of the East
Nameless Thing

[characters]
Ill-favoured Fellow
Ill-favoured Fellow
Ill-favoured Fellow
Baduila
Golodhros

[resources]
Dark Tryst
Dark Tryst
Dark Tryst
Great Army of the North
Weigh All Things to a Nicety
Weigh All Things to a Nicety
We Have Come to Kill
We Have Come to Kill
Vile Fumes
Vile Fumes
Vile Fumes
Blasting Fire
Blasting Fire
Blasting Fire
Liquid Fire
Liquid Fire
Liquid Fire
War-wolf
Great Bats
Great Bats
The Great Eye
Threats
Snaga-hai
Snaga-hai
The Lidless Eye
The Lidless Eye
The Lidless Eye
In the Name of Mordor

[hazards]
An Unexpected Outpost
An Unexpected Outpost
Twilight*
Twilight*
Twilight*
Peril Returned
Peril Returned
Doors of Night*
Doors of Night*
Doors of Night*
Revealed to all Watchers
Lobelia Sackville-Baggins
Mouth of Sauron
Adunaphel
Uvatha the Horseman
Snowstorm
Snowstorm
Pukel-men
Cave-drake*
Cave-drake*
Daelomin At Home
My Precious
Assassin
Assassin
Rain-drake
Sellswords Between Charters
Doubled Vigilance
Earcaraxe Ahunt
Itangast Ahunt
Bane of the Ithil-Stone
Scorba Ahunt
Indur Dawndeath

Thanks Mark for posting. I think that in this deck You have to put two twiglights from hazards to resources because hazrads are 32 cards and resources only 28.

[Balin]

Hey guys, I hope it's not too late for my Worlds' report.

Thanks everybody for this great tournament, specially thanks Mark for helping me and my family at the airport and, of course, for organizing Worlds. It was a big time in the big apple, cos I had time enough to visit the city and to win Worlds! (though I can’t believe I won yet

A few things about my Fallen Alatar deck: it is based on Eriador shuffle strategy (several moving companies using A short rest), but I tried to improve it playing FW instead of Hero. I chose Alatar cos he has 7 prowess, he has any ruins and lairs as home site, and he has 10 direct influence (so he can control two 5 mind characters).

Now, let me report my games at the finals:

First round versus Mikko. He is one of the best players I know, so I’m ready for a hard game. He plays a Mordor shuffle deck, a deck I know quite well. I manage to play Golodhros face up in his first turn, lucky me. I also play An unexpected outpost to sb Stench of Mordor, the card I need to stop him. It’s my first turn and he plays DoN and Snowstorm, but I play Twilight, just in time. Second turn, I draw and play Stench of Mordor (lucky me again) and sb another Stench playing my second outpost, but Mikko has his own Twilights, of course, and he discards Stench of Mordor during his site phase. Next turns both of us manage to play our resources, though Mikko is scoring less points because of my second Stench and a few Sellswords and Pukel-men. In my second last turn, I make a big mistake: Mikko plays Alone and unadvised on Gulla, who is controlling Tom Bombadil. I decide to tap Tom to cancel Alone and unadvised instead of playing Marvels told (really big mistake, but I didn’t expect his next move). He has an agent face down, which is Elerina, so he plays Pilfer on Gulla and I lose 4 points. In spite of that I’m scoring more MPs than Mikko, specially when, during his last turn, he fails his attempt to play a faction. But my last turn is nearly a loss: Mikko plays The balance of things, Alone and unadvised and Roving eye on Fram controlling Orcrist, I discard The balance but I fail the roll, so Fram is discarded and I lose 6 points. My other main company faces Earcaraxe ahunt, I play Crept along cleverly but Mikko discard it playing Ire of the East. I have my second Crept in hand, so I can avoid the dragon attack finally, it was close. At the end of the game Mikko has 2 more MPs than me, but he has too many characters points, so it’s a draw.

In the other game, Heiner scored 6-0 against Charles. I was afraid my next opponent could be Heiner, since he is a tough guy, really hard to beat, and I was still worried about my stupid mistake playing Tom. I wasn’t ready to play a hard game versus Heiner, so I prayed for avoiding him until the last match. Luck was on my side again, and I faced Charles instead of my German buddy.

Second round versus Charles Jenkins. He is playing the same Balrog deck he played on Saturday, when we faced each other and I won 4-2. He knows that my deck is hard to stop, so he decides to hit my only big weakness: the Wizard. First, when Alatar is alone (but not unadvised) in Ost-in-Edil, Charles plays a Rain-drake which is Crepted along cleverly. Later, he tries to CVCC Alatar’s company twice. In his first attempt, poor Ulkaur rolls snake eyes when entering Barrow-downs and is discarded. His still strong company wounds Fram and a wolf, but they are not killed. During his last turn he tries again, but now Alatar is ready to play Vanishment. 6-0 win for my guys. Meanwhile, Heiner have beaten Mikko 4-2, which means that our final game will be THE final game.

Third round versus Heiner. He had predicted on Saturday that we would face each other in the last game, and he was right. He is playing a FW Radagast deck staying at Weathertop, based on a deck designed by his friend Patric, as far as I know. My hazards can’t barely hit his company, cos he plays Hiding each turn. I need to play faster than him in order to win, specially if I manage to play resources I know we both have (like Warg-king or Tom Bombadil) before him. Heiner is playing a hazard deck versus minion (Dwarven travellers, Elf-lords, Arthadan rangers…) that really hits my companies. At least they attack as detainment, but since Alatar is my wizard, if I get more than 7 stage points I’m gonna be in big trouble… My characters get tapped easily but, since I have 3-4 different companies and I can use Crams and We have come to kill, I manage to play enough points anyway. Time is over and it’s my last turn: I must play Orome warderers to get full MPs (in that way I’d have more than 7 stage points and his creatures will attack as non detainment) or I must join my characters in a single company to get full MPs through Join the hunt, which is already in play. Finally I choose not to play Orome warderers and join companies at Weathertop. In that way I could play some MPs and support Gulla’s final corruption check, the dwarf has 3 points because he is bearing Durin’s axe. Alatar plays Wild hounds, my only faction, but there is an on-guard Heedless revelry that taps my entire company. I play And forth he fastened on Alatar to untap him, but I’m not sure if it’s better to play one more wolf or to keep him untapped til corruption checks. I play the wolf cos I guess Heiner has unique cards in hand that I have in play and, who knows, our game could be a draw and Heiner could win the tournament. At the end of the game I have 2 or 3 more MPs than him, but I need to pass a cc of 3 with no supporting characters. So I roll, and here comes the most exciting moment of the game: my first damned dice hits the table showing 1, the other one is rolling away for a few seconds. Everybody is looking and holding his breathing, I am about to die in a heart attack. Finally, the second dice shows 6, so I become World champ

A few minutes later Mark is distributing prizes and I get The One Ring, yesss, my preciousss, it’sss mine! Then it’s time to say goodbye, it’s the end of our newyorker Fellowship. I hope to see you soon guys, thanks everybody for keeping this great game alive!

Off the record: Did anybody take pictures of Worlds? Is it possible to show them in this forum or something like that?

[thorondor]

Third round versus Heiner. He had predicted on Saturday that we would face each other in the last game, and he was right. He is playing a FW Radagast deck staying at Weathertop, based on a deck designed by his friend Patric, as far as I know.

how heiner will love to read this!!
you know, it´s the other way round: heiner originally designed this sort of deck, and patric changed just a few cards and won several tourneys with it.

[zarathustra]

Birk took pictures. I believe he sent/will send them to the worlds webmaster, so you should be able to view them there soon.

[Alter Tuk]

how heiner will love to read this!!
you know, it´s the other way round: heiner originally designed this sort of deck, and patric changed just a few cards and won several tourneys with it.

Hehehe, i guess i know which deck they are going to play at german nats.

Thanks for this exciting reports! Cheers Agus!

[Smaug]

Hi guys,

just wanted to clarify.
Cheers Wolfgang , but I am as well not the (original) inventer of the Fallen Radagast at weathertop, at least not of the ressource part!!!
I am pretty sure it was color=red]Wanja[/color][/size] from germany (the last years he retired a little bit, after beeing world, european and german champion at the same time!!! but he is still one of the strongest players widewide i would bet ).

I just modified (like patrik) his ressource deck. Main change was the playing with the gloove as a starting stage card. This changes the deck idea quite a bit (putting 5 allies from the sideboard to the discard pile ...) and enables you nearly in every game to play the girdle (sometimes even without the wolfes played at the weathertop !!!)
The maya hazard deck I think is really "invented" by me I think. At least I play it now for at least 10 years and in the first years you very seldom see other Maya hazard decks at tournaments. It was and is always a pleasure to crush burner decks with it . The rising success of the hazard decks made it more and more popluar and today it is may be one of the most played hazard strategies against Minions.
As well it works quite well against most Fallen decks, because lots of it creatures are playable in arthedain and rhuadaur (mostly detainmant, but anyway better than nothing)

Finallly Patrick´s modifications of my "glove deck" made it that strong that is now is (Strong it was before, e.g. I won the germans in 200? with it and after that patrick started playing Fallen radagast as well .
His main change was throwing in two "Hall of fire" that optimal support the glove strategy.
Of course - fortunately like all decks it has still its weak points, e.g. playing against an other Fallen Radagast is a mess, playing against Fallen Gandalf is as well nasty (you could imagine why???), from the hazard side agents could be nasty as well as anti ruins and lairs hazard strategy combined with searching eye !!!. May maya hazard deck as well works quiet well in slowing it down.
Anyway, all in all it is one of the strongest decks I know!
Key is to keep your opponent low at points in order to win 6-0 because it gathers very save but not tons of marshalling points (approx. 35). So the supporting hazard strategy is as well very important !!!

See hopefully a lot of you at the europeans 2007 in madrid (9 - 11 of nov i have heard)

Heiner