What: The Finnish Nationals 2010.
Where: In Tampere, (aka. the Turku of Finland).
When: Around the Finnish Day of Indepence, as customary.
We joined forces in the Tampere downtown, at "culture bar" Hertta. As far as I know, the term can be rather uniformly substituted with a word a "dump", and this place was no exception. They won my heart though, by giving a beer discount for financially disabled persons, like students.
Somewhat disappointingly, we had mustered only 6 persons, with some notable late drop outs. Nevertheless, the formed fellowship boasted several decades worth of MeCCG experince put together.
Round 1:
I was too lazy/busy to construct a new deck, so I played the same that Napsu had played in the last year nats with some success - a straightforward
Mordor pilluralli big points hero deck with some minor twists. The first turn amok towards south yielded dead bodies and one maimed vs. giants and rain drakes. This was a common theme all night, I think I lost every guy (some twice!) from my starting company during the first turn if I put all three games together.
My opponent Teemu played Strider + hobbits Mallorn(!) deck. My corruption hazards did nothing and he cruised. Juuso had forgotten some power cards home so Teemu had to use rather haphazard hazards. In the meanwhile I was still going slow because of the first turn meltdown. Everything was decided once Teemu's Radagast did the standard
fare with 4
Lure of Nature. I used the result (a corrupted Wizard) as my advantage and called while I was ahead. 4-2 for me.
Round 2:
Antti was playing a Fallen Alatar Great Hunt deck with a poise and he seemed to cycle his deck awfully fast event though he did not much else. The idea was of course to amass huge kill
at the end by Hunting. I managed to hinder his big company with Arthadan Rangers for a while, only to see them getting tracked down and decapitated by Alatar shortly afterwards. I was pretty optimistic about my chances however, since I did not have Nazgul or other big kill
stuff in my hazards. Then, everything was abruptly decided before the grande finale after Alatar, too, found the Lure of the Nature(TM) and paid the ultimate penalty. 6-0 for me, even after the last minute Scorba Roused.
Round 3:
After knocking my Uftak down from his Last Child of Ungoliant in the last year nats, it was time to extract revenge from Tomi during this deciding round take down. Tomi had elves with muscles going downstairs, while the Wizard collected the usual points (Elves of Lindon, Tom) upstairs. Tomi played his hazards well and I was sweating the whole game. His elves however, did much more poorly: I think I would have won the game without playing a single hazard, since they could never move forward from their initial Under-deeps site after failing the movement roll 3 times in a row. I had constantly showered his guys by corruption with little effect, but the hard work paid off at the judgment day: the Traitorous Celeborn staked Glorfindel with the Spear of Gil-Galad (21 prowess!) and run off to the tunnels. I doubled items and it was a clear 6-0.
Amusing facts:
- No one (including me) was absolutely sure if this was my first national championship title.
- I had promised the bring home the grand prize (Japanese Player's Guide), because my little sister wanted to read it. Mission accomplished.
- The decks were devoid of cheeze this year: Iron Hills Balrog, Hobbit Mallorn, Hero Mordor, Alatar Great Hunt, Sneaky Orcses, and Elves Under-deeps.
- Antti managed to get 23 kill in the last game. A new world record in competitive play?
- Bilbo initiated a against the Balrog player.
- We also played a three round Challenge Deck tournament on the day after, which I won after going 4-2, 4-2, 5-1 (we randomized new decks after each round). If I hadn't won the last game by at least 5-1 (which I just barely did, with a last turn surge towards the only item), both Teemu and Tomi would have placed higher than me, despite winning only 1 game (vs. my 3 wins)! The bye system certainly worked for their favor.
- They serve mead at Plevna! The high point of the weekend!
So 'twas fun had by all. Thank you Tomi for organizing this very fine event. Next up: MeCCG in the archipelago, late summer. Stay tuned.