Now I'm happy to share some reflections on my successes.
First of all, my collection seed: 4DE8B77C94
In my opinion, this seed was not particularly strong, and indeed its available MP was below expectation for both alignments. What it did have going for it was relatively conservative region and site movement requirements for MP for both alignments, as well as some complementary avoidance resources and a cohesive hazard set, including some key sideboards like Unhappy Blows and Neither so Ancient Nor so Potent, and a nice suite of influence stealing hazards against Fallen. It also had an arguably viable One Ring victory option for Fallen, and even Bad Company for Minion-aligned Fallen.
I definitely had some good luck, particularly with body checks in the early rounds of the tournament. To the extent that my own decisions were important to my overall performance, I think my deck-building ideas (more discussed below) were for the most part successful, although certainly make no claims of optimality. My Wizard and RW strategies were both tuned to control the threats of creature play against me, getting slower MP but hopefully more reliably and choking opponent hands by denying available Wildernesses. I was generally quite willing to give my opponents far more kill points than they gave me, but typically managed to eliminate or discard more characters as a consequence, as well as cycle faster. I also noticed that I tended to be a lot more aggressive about sideboarding than most of my opponents, for both resources and hazards; this likely complemented my slow-game hand-choking strategy (except against Shapeshifter’s Radagast).
On to the decks...
When I saw that I had not only minion The One Ring but also minion Scroll of Isildur, I felt compelled to look for any way possible to make a viable deck. However, I had no minion test cards and none of the better minion rings, so there was literally no way to do it with RW. For Fallen, I had gotten not one but two A New Ringlord and a Wizard’s Test, but again none of the better hero rings, and only 2 hero rings total. Even pulling Wizard’s Test back with Saruman, I could only get to about a 64% chance of The One Ring with a single pass, and I also didn’t like the idea of Saruman’s extra -1 to corruption checks. I instead opted for Gandalf to be able to test the minion rings, which could improve my odds to 77% with a single pass. The only (rather significant) downside was that I didn’t have a single Fallen Gandalf in my collection and would need to rely on the bonus avatar. I figured I was going to want to get all the rings out first anyway, so going through my whole deck to get Gandalf wouldn’t be too big of a deal... except I counted on him to sideboard in The One Ring, and I lived in abject fear of playing against another Fallen Gandalf.
All that said, I built this Hero-aligned Fallen deck. I thought I’d give it a couple games to try to get a win; as long as I could get 2-4 losses, a 7-0 win could make up for it. I included factions because I figured my opponents wouldn’t know that I had no way of getting full faction points, and with Gandalf’s extra potential faction stage card option, the threat of a post-call comeback might give opponents pause before they called. I stacked the deck with extra creatures to try to delay as much as possible, happy to feed an MP or two if it meant hand choking opponent. As it turned out, my hazard portion (and moreover luck) succeeded enough to remove several of my opponent’s key characters, including his wizard! With my Gandalf literally the last card in my deck, my opponent’s concession from company devastation saved us both a grueling second pass through my deck to get The One.
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POOL
Agent (1)
1 Dâsakûn
Minor Item (2)
1 Cram
1 Shield of Iron-bound Ash
Permanent-event (3)
1 Gandalf's Friend
1 Hidden Haven
1 Thrall of the Voice
character (9)
1 Asternak
1 Elladan
1 Gildor Inglorion
1 Merry
1 Mîonid
1 Perchen
1 Pon Opar
1 Robin Smallburrow
1 Tros Hesnef
CHARACTERS
Dúnadan (1)
1 Boromir II
Man (3)
1 Erkenbrand
1 Eun
1 Ostisen
Sinda Elf (1)
1 Nimloth
Wizard (1)
1 Gandalf
RESOURCES
Ally (8)
1 Bill the Pony
1 Mistress Lobelia
2 Noble Hound
1 Noble Steed
1 Quickbeam
1 War-warg
1 War-wolf
Faction (1)
1 Rangers of the North
Gold Ring Item (2)
1 Beautiful Gold Ring
1 Fair Gold Ring
Greater Item (1)
1 Scroll of Isildur
Major Item (1)
1 Broad-headed Spear
Permanent-event (3)
1 Blind to All Else
1 Gates of Morning
1 That Ain't No Secret
Short-event (14)
1 A Friend or Three
1 Block
1 Concealment
2 Crept Along Cleverly
2 Dark Quarrels
1 Diversion
1 Ford
1 Hey! come merry dol!
1 Hidden Ways
1 Secret Passage
1 Stealth
1 Twilight
HAZARDS
Creature (19)
2 Ambusher
1 Cave-drake
1 Dire Wolves
1 Dwarven Travelers
3 Giant
2 Giant Spiders
2 Marsh-drake
1 Orc-watch
1 Pirates
1 Rain-drake
1 Stirring Bones
1 Wargs
2 Wolves
Creature/Short-event (2)
1 Mouth of Sauron
1 Wolf-riders
Permanent-event (6)
1 Enchanted Stream
1 Lure of Expedience
2 Lure of the Senses
1 Power Built by Waiting
1 Redoubled Force
Short-event (3)
1 An Unexpected Outpost
1 Arouse Minions
1 Greed
SIDEBOARD
Hazard (13)
1 Call of Home
1 Corpse-candle
1 Good Sense Revolts
1 Greed
1 Long Winter
1 Lost in Free-domains
1 Muster Disperses
1 Nameless Thing
1 Neither so Ancient Nor so Potent
1 Sea Serpent
1 Shelob's Brood
1 Smaug Ahunt
1 Unhappy Blows
Resource (17)
2 A New Ringlord
1 Driven as by a Madness
1 Free to Choose
1 Magic Ring of Lies
1 Men of Anórien
1 Muster
1 Orc Quarrels
1 Pledge of Conduct
1 Secret Entrance
2 The Least of Gold Rings
1 The One Ring
1 Treebeard
1 Vanishment
1 Wizard's Laughter
1 Wizard's Test
FW-DC-SB
Character (1)
1 Nori
Hazard (8)
1 Blind to the West
1 Call of Home
1 Cruel Claw Perceived
1 Echoes of the Song
1 Foul Tooth Unsheathed
2 Ire of the East
1 Power Relinquished to Artifice
Resource (1)
1 Saw Further and Deeper
My One Ring option looked even better in minion, where I could have Orcs hold the 4 CP minion rings without fear of Lure of Nature, stall for more time with CvCC bolstered by my crazy ally count, and perhaps even have opponents not bothering to include much corruption or Call of Home hazards against presumed minion to grant a little more safety to my Ringlord and characters with stage permanent events and massive ally stacks. The only real downside was having to sacrifice a starting Gandalf’s Friend or 6-mind character for Bad Company.
However, unlike Hero, I felt quite good about my straight Minion deck option. Also, I was perhaps overly scared of showing my hero resources (fixed packs and Lobelia combos) to opponents that might then play against my Hero alignment. So I decided to save my Minion-aligned Fallen until it seemed like my RW deck wasn’t working as well as I thought, or there was no risk of revealing because my Hero side had fallen too far behind in points to be paired against the same opponents. Neither turned out to happen, so I played RW through Round 4, when it lost to Shapeshifter’s incredible deck draw.
I had gotten two copies of To Satisfy the Questioner, a Scroll of Isildur to play at Tolfalas, the two fixed packs with Southern factions, which also have strong covert men for those Southern Free-holds, and even some movement cards to theoretically avoid moving through any Wildernesses. All in all, a nearly ideal collection to demonstrate minion sealed avoidance, staying near Mordor to mitigate hazard creature play and choke opponent’s hand. The resource side was well complimented by, I think, a rather ridiculous vs. minion hazard set, where I could draw a lot of real blood against most of the fixed packs, particularly with Lord of the Carrock, 2x Marsh Drake, Sons of Kings, 2x Giant Spiders, and of course Mouth of Sauron.
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POOL
Leader (1)
1 Troll-chief
Minor Item (2)
2 Black-hide Shield
character (9)
1 Asternak
1 Ill-favoured Fellow
1 Jerrek
1 Mîonid
1 Ostisen
1 Perchen
1 Pon Opar
1 Sly Southerner
1 Tros Hesnef
CHARACTERS
Half-orc Orc (1)
1 Ill-favoured Fellow
Man (2)
1 Dâsakûn
1 Eun
Ringwraith (3)
1 Indûr the Ringwraith
2 Ûvatha the Ringwraith
RESOURCES
Ally (2)
1 Great Bats
1 War-wolf
Faction (2)
1 Southrons
1 Variags of Khand
Greater Item (1)
1 Scroll of Isildur
Major Item (2)
1 Black-mail Coat
1 Broad-headed Spear
Permanent-event (9)
1 Black Rider
1 By the Ringwraith's Word
1 Going Ever Under Dark
1 No News of Our Riding
1 That Ain't No Secret
1 The Names Among Them
2 To Satisfy the Questioner
1 Tokens to Show
Permanent-event/Short-event (1)
1 Great Army of the North
Short-event (11)
1 Ancient Secrets
2 Crept Along Cleverly
1 Diversion
1 Hidden Ways
1 News Must Get Through
1 Not Slay Needlessly
1 Orc Quarrels
2 The Undeeps of Anduin
1 Twilight
Special Item (2)
1 Blasting Fire
1 Liquid Fire
HAZARDS
Creature (19)
2 Ambusher
1 Brigands
1 Cave-drake
1 Dire Wolves
1 Dwarven Travelers
1 Elves upon Errantry
1 Giant
2 Giant Spiders
2 Marsh-drake
1 Orc-watch
1 Rain-drake
1 Sons of Kings
1 Stirring Bones
1 Wargs
2 Wolves
Creature/Permanent-event (1)
1 Lord of the Carrock
Creature/Short-event (2)
1 Mouth of Sauron
1 Wolf-riders
Long-event (1)
1 Smaug Ahunt
Permanent-event (5)
1 Doubled Vigilance
1 Enchanted Stream
1 Lure of Expedience
1 Power Built by Waiting
1 Redoubled Force
Short-event (2)
1 An Unexpected Outpost
1 Cruel Caradhras
SIDEBOARD
Character (1)
1 Troll-chief
Hazard (13)
1 Daelomin Ahunt
1 Doubled Vigilance
1 Giant
2 Greed
1 Long Winter
1 Lost in Free-domains
1 Nameless Thing
1 Neither so Ancient Nor so Potent
1 Pirates
1 Returned Beyond All Hope
1 Shelob's Brood
1 Unhappy Blows
Resource (16)
1 Agburanar Roused
1 Beautiful Gold Ring
1 Creature of an Older World
1 Driven as by a Madness
1 Gifts as Given of Old
1 Grey Mountain Goblins
1 Orcs of Dol Guldur
1 Orcs of Moria
1 Orcs of the Red Eye
1 Poisonous Despair
1 Stone Trolls
1 Sudden Call
1 The Ithil-stone
2 The Least of Gold Rings
1 War-warg
FW-DC-SB
Hazard (10)
1 Blind to the West
1 Call of Home
1 Cruel Claw Perceived
1 Echoes of the Song
1 Foul Tooth Unsheathed
1 Good Sense Revolts
2 Ire of the East
1 Power Relinquished to Artifice
1 Stormcrow
On the vs. Hero side, I was worried about my covert men getting jumped by CvCC when around Gondor. I was also less worried about counter-influence against my Orc and Troll factions. So did a few tweaks to try to dissuade encroachment, the most significant of which was to swap out Pon Opar for a Troll-chief with an extra prowess and who could pick up I’ll Report You. I’m not sure whether it actually dissuaded anything.
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POOL
Agent (1)
1 Nimloth
Leader (1)
1 Troll-chief
Minor Item (2)
1 Black-hide Shield
1 Orc-liquor
character (8)
1 Asternak
1 Ill-favoured Fellow
1 Jerrek
1 Mîonid
1 Ostisen
1 Pon Opar
1 Sly Southerner
1 Tros Hesnef
CHARACTERS
Half-orc Orc (1)
1 Ill-favoured Fellow
Man (2)
1 Dâsakûn
1 Eun
Ringwraith (3)
1 Indûr the Ringwraith
2 Ûvatha the Ringwraith
RESOURCES
Ally (2)
1 Great Bats
1 War-wolf
Faction (1)
1 Variags of Khand
Greater Item (1)
1 Scroll of Isildur
Major Item (1)
1 Broad-headed Spear
Permanent-event (11)
1 Black Rider
1 By the Ringwraith's Word
1 Going Ever Under Dark
1 I'll Report You
1 No Better Use
1 No News of Our Riding
1 That Ain't No Secret
1 The Names Among Them
2 To Satisfy the Questioner
1 Tokens to Show
Permanent-event/Short-event (1)
1 Great Army of the North
Short-event (11)
2 Above the Abyss
1 Ancient Secrets
2 Crept Along Cleverly
1 Diversion
1 News Must Get Through
1 Not Slay Needlessly
1 Orc Quarrels
1 The Undeeps of Anduin
1 Twilight
Special Item (2)
1 Blasting Fire
1 Liquid Fire
HAZARDS
Creature (18)
2 Ambusher
1 Cave-drake
1 Dire Wolves
1 Dwarven Travelers
3 Giant
2 Giant Spiders
2 Marsh-drake
1 Orc-watch
1 Rain-drake
1 Stirring Bones
1 Wargs
2 Wolves
Creature/Short-event (2)
1 Mouth of Sauron
1 Wolf-riders
Permanent-event (6)
1 Enchanted Stream
1 Lure of Expedience
2 Lure of the Senses
1 Power Built by Waiting
1 Power Relinquished to Artifice
Short-event (4)
1 An Unexpected Outpost
2 Greed
1 Lost in Free-domains
SIDEBOARD
Character (2)
1 Perchen
1 Troll-chief
Hazard (13)
1 Call of Home
1 Corpse-candle
1 Despair of the Heart
1 Good Sense Revolts
1 Long Winter
1 Lost in Free-domains
1 Muster Disperses
1 Neither so Ancient Nor so Potent
1 Pirates
1 Sea Serpent
1 Smaug Ahunt
1 Stormcrow
1 Unhappy Blows
Resource (15)
1 Agburanar Roused
1 Black-mail Coat
1 Creature of an Older World
1 Driven as by a Madness
1 Gifts as Given of Old
1 Grey Mountain Goblins
1 Hidden Ways
1 Orcs of Dol Guldur
1 Orcs of Moria
1 Orcs of the Red Eye
1 Southrons
1 Stone Trolls
1 Sudden Call
1 The Least of Gold Rings
1 War-warg
FW-DC-SB
Character (1)
1 Snaga
Hazard (9)
1 Blind to the West
1 Call of Home
1 Cruel Claw Perceived
1 Echoes of the Song
1 Foul Tooth Unsheathed
2 Ire of the East
1 Nameless Thing
1 Shelob's Brood
Having let the metaphorical cat out of the bag with the 7 TP win in Round 1 for Hero alignment, I immediately switched my deck to my standard MP non-Fallen deck. I didn’t think it was a great deck; it lacked speed and longevity. But like my RW deck, it offered a lot of movement risk mitigation. The real clincher seemed to be, surprisingly to me, Mistress Lobelia giving me a viable squatting company and multiple attempts with crummy Imrahil at the Rangers of the North. And I also hoped my below-average item density could be turned into an asset against players stacking corruption or otherwise adding mitigation against my demonstrated One Ring threat from Round 1. This turned out to be the deck I played the most (Rounds 2, 4, and 5, and essentially 3 as well). Note that in my Round 5 game against Damien, I didn’t change anything on the resource side except draft order, and on the hazard side I pushed my stuff targeting Shadow-lands and -holds to the sideboard to make room for Doors of Night, Doubled Vigilance, and Long Winter against his Tom Bombadil.
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POOL
Minor Item (2)
1 Cram
1 Healing Herbs
character (10)
1 Annalena
1 Aragorn II
1 Dori
1 Dwalin
1 Elladan
1 Gildor Inglorion
1 Imrahil
1 Kíli
1 Nori
1 Thranduil
CHARACTERS
Dúnadan (1)
1 Boromir II
Man (1)
1 Erkenbrand
Wizard (3)
1 Alatar
2 Pallando
RESOURCES
Ally (6)
1 Bill the Pony
1 Mistress Lobelia
2 Noble Hound
1 Noble Steed
1 Quickbeam
Faction (2)
1 Rangers of the North
1 Wood-elves
Major Item (1)
1 Great-shield of Rohan
Permanent-event (3)
2 Gates of Morning
1 Rescue Prisoners
Short-event (15)
1 A Friend or Three
1 Block
1 Concealment
2 Dark Quarrels
1 Fair Travels in Wilderness
1 Ford
1 Glamour of Surpassing Excellance
1 Hey! come merry dol!
2 Master of Wood, Water, or Hill
1 Muster
1 Secret Entrance
1 Stealth
1 Twilight
Special Item (3)
1 Blasting Fire
1 Book of Mazarbul
1 Liquid Fire
HAZARDS
Creature (17)
2 Ambusher
1 Cave-drake
1 Dwarven Travelers
3 Giant
2 Giant Spiders
2 Marsh-drake
1 Orc-watch
1 Rain-drake
1 Stirring Bones
1 Wargs
2 Wolves
Creature/Short-event (2)
1 Mouth of Sauron
1 Wolf-riders
Permanent-event (8)
1 Despair of the Heart
1 Enchanted Stream
1 Lure of Expedience
2 Lure of the Senses
1 Power Built by Waiting
1 Power Relinquished to Artifice
1 Redoubled Force
Short-event (3)
1 An Unexpected Outpost
2 Greed
SIDEBOARD
Character (3)
1 Dâsakûn
1 Eun
1 Nimloth
Hazard (16)
1 Call of Home
1 Corpse-candle
1 Despair of the Heart
1 Dire Wolves
1 Good Sense Revolts
1 Long Winter
2 Lost in Free-domains
1 Muster Disperses
1 Nameless Thing
1 Neither so Ancient Nor so Potent
1 Pirates
1 Sea Serpent
1 Searching Eye
1 Smaug Ahunt
1 Unhappy Blows
Resource (11)
1 Ents of Fangorn
1 Fair Gold Ring
1 Master of Esgaroth
1 Men of Anórien
1 Men of Dale
1 Return of the King
1 Scroll of Isildur
1 Treebeard
1 Vanishment
1 Wain-easterlings
1 Wizard's Laughter
FW-DC-SB
Character (2)
1 Gandalf
1 Saruman
Hazard (10)
1 Blind to the West
1 Call of Home
1 Cruel Claw Perceived
1 Echoes of the Song
1 Foul Tooth Unsheathed
2 Ire of the East
1 Shelob's Brood
2 Will You Not Come Down?
For my forced pairing vs. Minion against Celith, I had seen by that point that he favored Doors of Night and similarly used it against him, with a clutch Master of Wood, Water, or Hill keeping me out of his own Long Winter that would have denied my Mistress Lobellia.
The time for Minion Fallen One Ring only came in Round 5, with no additional pairings, after my RW deck had finally hit some unlucky dice and Shapeshifter’s insane deck tempo Round 4. The downside of such a delay was that I didn’t have the deck well situated in my memory, and missed my intended chance to get out a second leader (to help with corruption while freeing my Troll-chielf for pure CvCC) along with several “free” opportunities for Gandalf to sideboard, and these deficits and momentarilly forgetting a FW restriction undermined my late game, when Adamj came back from my earlier domination to assemble a nigh-invincible 5+ base prowess with double-Fellowship posse.
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POOL
Agent (3)
1 Dâsakûn
1 Eun
1 Nimloth
Leader (1)
1 Troll-chief
Minor Item (2)
1 Cram
1 Orc-liquor
Permanent-event (2)
1 Bad Company
1 Thrall of the Voice
character (6)
1 Asternak
1 Mîonid
1 Orc Tracker
1 Ostisen
1 Snaga
1 Tros Hesnef
CHARACTERS
Half-orc Orc (2)
2 Ill-favoured Fellow
Man (1)
1 Erkenbrand
Orc (2)
1 Orc Chieftain
1 Orc Veteran
Wizard (1)
1 Gandalf
RESOURCES
Ally (8)
1 Bill the Pony
1 Mistress Lobelia
2 Noble Hound
1 Noble Steed
1 Quickbeam
1 War-warg
1 War-wolf
Gold Ring Item (3)
1 Fair Gold Ring
2 The Least of Gold Rings
Greater Item (1)
1 Scroll of Isildur
Major Item (1)
1 Broad-headed Spear
Permanent-event (6)
1 Gandalf's Friend
1 Gates of Morning
1 Going Ever Under Dark
1 I'll Be At Your Heels
1 I'll Report You
1 No Better Use
Short-event (11)
2 Crept Along Cleverly
2 Dark Quarrels
1 Diversion
1 Hey! come merry dol!
1 Hidden Ways
1 Not Slay Needlessly
1 Orc Quarrels
1 Secret Passage
1 Twilight
HAZARDS
Creature (17)
2 Ambusher
1 Cave-drake
1 Dwarven Travelers
3 Giant
2 Giant Spiders
2 Marsh-drake
1 Orc-watch
1 Rain-drake
1 Stirring Bones
1 Wargs
2 Wolves
Creature/Short-event (2)
1 Mouth of Sauron
1 Wolf-riders
Permanent-event (8)
1 Despair of the Heart
1 Enchanted Stream
1 Lure of Expedience
2 Lure of the Senses
1 Power Built by Waiting
1 Power Relinquished to Artifice
1 Redoubled Force
Short-event (3)
1 An Unexpected Outpost
2 Greed
SIDEBOARD
Character (2)
1 Jerrek
1 Orc Veteran
Hazard (11)
1 Call of Home
1 Corpse-candle
1 Despair of the Heart
1 Good Sense Revolts
1 Long Winter
1 Lost in Free-domains
1 Muster Disperses
1 Neither so Ancient Nor so Potent
1 Sea Serpent
1 Smaug Ahunt
1 Unhappy Blows
Resource (17)
1 A Friend or Three
2 A New Ringlord
1 Beautiful Gold Ring
1 Blind to All Else
1 Concealment
1 Hidden Haven
1 Magic Ring of Lies
1 Men of Anórien
1 Muster
1 Pledge of Conduct
1 Rangers of the North
1 Secret Entrance
1 The One Ring
1 Vanishment
1 Wizard's Laughter
1 Wizard's Test
FW-DC-SB
Hazard (9)
1 Blind to the West
1 Call of Home
1 Cruel Claw Perceived
1 Echoes of the Song
1 Foul Tooth Unsheathed
2 Ire of the East
1 Nameless Thing
1 Shelob's Brood
Resource (1)
1 Saw Further and Deeper
I also assembled a Balrog version of my RW deck, which conceivably could be better at threatening CvCC and dropping more points faster and longer, but seemed not worth losing the better creature mitigation of RW. I lack much experienced with Balrog, though. I tried it in my post-tournament exhibition game against Moriquendi, and completely wrecked the last three turns of my resource strategy finale by having one site queuing where I forgot it would cause two leaders to conflict. One day maybe I'll keep that in mind consistently!