All-Expansion Sealed Collection Tournament on Cardnum, Summer 2022

Events taking place on online platforms
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Theo
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Also, for those new to cardnum, be aware that the deck builder does not show the errata versions of cards, even if you have Use ICE Errata turned on in Settings (which you should do). The card search and in-game will follow your settings.
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Theo
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The random Round 1 pairings follow. Both players should report final Tournament Points to me no later than June 20. Please share availability with your opponent promptly, as vacations and things may cause only early portions of a round to be available.

@maxocub#8834 (maxocub [H]) vs. @Sulimo#9458 (Sulimo [H])
@langloude#6760 (langloude [H]) vs. @sfakattack#6048 (Bilbo [H])
@Shapeshifter#1052 (Shapeshifter [H]) vs. @DamienX207#1975 (DamienX207 [H])
@Trotter#5509 (Trotter [H]) vs. @Nimrandir#2235 (Nimrandir [H])
@Saurn118#7338 (Saurn [H]) vs. @sarma72#4696 (sarma72 [H])
@Moriquendi#8992 (Moriquendi [H]) vs. @Adamj#1382 (Adamj [H])
@kepler_euler#0548 (baretico123 [H]) vs. @Theo#4594 (Theo2 [H])
@Gaereth Barethson#4167 (GaerethBarethson [M]) vs. @Bergil#8496 (Bergil [M])
@Theo#4594 (Theo2 [M]) vs. @Celith#0866 (Celith [M])

Games should be played under Casual format in cardnum. That is, you do NOT get to load a separate deck if your opponent is playing a Fallen Wizard. Remember that any opponent can opt to play a Fallen deck, so stock your FW sideboard ahead of time. Standard practice on cardnum is for Hero decks to put additional wizard characters in the FW sideboard (not counting against the 10 max) in case they need to swap. These still need to come from your collection.

For what it’s worth, standings will be public for this event to increase the chances of catching any pairing mistakes early. The event will be 5 rounds. Normal CoL tournament ranking will be used to tiebreak overall tournament ranking after the achievement ranking mentioned in the event rules.
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Theo
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Some clarifications:

This one is important for all players:
I would like both players to report game TPs to me to help catch any possible misunderstandings before round results are publicized with pairings for the next round. TPs (tournament points) are described about 3/4 of the way down CoL Tournament Policy, viewable from cardnum’s Rules tab. CoE has also since discontinued the Weakest Link method; an MP tie is a tie for TP (CoE Digest #16). Let me know if you have any questions.


These are more minutiae:
CoL Tournament Policy stipulates that a player that drops out of a game should be dropped from the tournament. This is more reasonable for 1.5 hour time limit games. With the longer (or absent) time limit rules of this event, I want to be sensitive to prolonged misery and suffering. For this event, a player that concedes from in-game devastation is not treated as dropping out, but as having stalled the game from ending naturally. That is, they still receive 0 TP for that game, but are not automatically dropped from the event. I still generally encourage natural endings for sportsmanship. On the other hand, it seems particularly reasonable to concede when a player approaches losing too many characters to ever take meaningful action in the game, or would otherwise struggle to obtain even 13 MP (to not be point-doubled) before exhausting twice.
_
Even more minutiae:
When an opponent drops or stalls, CoL Tournament Policy 3 can award TP points as winning with The One Ring at coordinator discretion. "The tournament coordinator must determine that the deck contains the cards necessary to make winning with The One Ring the deck's primary goal." Since I’m participating, I am sharing my baseline of two alternative qualifications so that players can evaluate their own decks without revealing deck information to me. [If you have a deck that doesn't meet either qualification but you think is intended to win through The One Ring, you can also ask me to evaluate individually, but then I'll need deck info.]
  • The deck has at least a 50% chance of being able to win with The One Ring when considering a single draw of each resource in the deck. This chance is the product of the chance of playing The One Ring through gold ring tests or Black Rain rolls. along with the chance of the particular win mechanic---corruption check (Cracks of Doom) or automatic (Gollum’s Fate) for Hero, automatic for RW, succeeding before elimination for FW and Balrog. I don’t think mastering probabilities should be a requirement for deck building, so I give two threshold examples below. If you aren’t sure, I can try to give more examples, or ask someone you’ve already played (and so can’t be paired against again).
  • Alternatively, the deck’s primary goal will also be considered winning with The One Ring if the deck has any way to do so and is incapable of getting to 25 MP without The One Ring. MP sources that depend on non-guaranteed attributes of opponent do not count (e.g., Padding Feet), although The Hunt counts as 1 MP and The Great Hunt counts as 6 MP.
_
The most minimal examples I could think of for at least a 50% chance:
[H]: Precious Gold Ring + Fair Gold Ring + The One Ring + Gandalf + Cracks of Doom + Robin Smallburrow + 5 characters that can simultaneously be in a company with Gandalf and Robin = [1-(21/36)*(26/36)] or 0.58 chance of playing The One Ring at The Under-grottos and [33/36] or 0.92 chance of Robin passing the Cracks check with +6 tap support, for 0.53 chance overall.
[M]: Gold Ring that Sauron Fancies + The Least of Gold Rings + Scroll of Isildur + The One Ring + 2x Test of Fire + Layos = [1-(21/36)*(26/36)] or 0.58 chance of playing The One Ring at The Under-grottos, automatic win for RW when brought to Barad-dur.
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Theo
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Standings following Round 1:
TP align player
----------------
7 H Theo2
6 H langloude
6 H maxocub
4 H Adamj
4 H DamienX207
4 H Nimrandir
4 H sarma72
2 H Moriquendi
2 H Saurn
2 H Shapeshifter
2 H Trotter
0 H baretico123
0 H Bilbo
0 H Sulimo
- - - - - - - -
6 M Theo2
4 M Bergil
2 M GaerethBarethson
0 M Celith

Round 2 pairings:
(second round still guarantees same alignments)
@Theo (Theo2 [H]) vs. @langloude (langloude [H])
@maxocub (maxocub [H]) vs. @Nimrandir (Nimrandir [H])
@Adamj (Adamj [H]) vs. @sarma72 (sarma72 [H])
@DamienX207 (DamienX207 [H]) vs. @Moriquendi (Moriquendi [H])
@Saurn118 (Saurn [H]) vs. @Trotter ( GMT +0 ) ( GMT +0 ) (Trotter [H])
@Shapeshifter (Shapeshifter [H]) vs. @sfakattack (Bilbo [H])
@Sulimo#9458 (Sulimo [H]) vs. @kepler_euler (baretico123 [H])
@Theo (Theo2 [M]) vs. @Bergil (Bergil [M])
@Gaereth Barethson (GaerethBarethson [M]) vs. @Celith (Celith [M])

Please send me results no later than June 30th. Again, since I'm participating, please just send me just the Tournament Points of each player (save screenshots for your own records). With my iron will I've avoided looking at unnecessary image details so far, but I worry that even Frodo succumbed with enough corruption checks.

Also, all Minion players and top Hero players should be anticipating that Round 3 will forcibly pair across alignments, so should be considering preparing a version of a deck tuned to play across alignments by the 30th. In Round 4 and 5, any pairing can be across alignment, so all players might want to prepare by July 10th
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Theo
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Standings following Round 2:
TP align player
----------------
11 H Theo2
10 H DamienX207
10 H Nimrandir
8 H Adamj
8 H langloude
8 H Shapeshifter
6 H baretico123
6 H maxocub
6 H sarma72
6 H Saurn
4 H Trotter
2 H Moriquendi
0 H Bilbo
0 H Sulimo
- - - - - - - -
12 M Theo2
4 M Bergil
4 M Celith
4 M GaerethBarethson


Round 3 pairings:
(forced cross-alignment for top players, i.e., the first four pairings in this list)
@Theo (Theo2 [M]) vs. @DamienX207 (DamienX207 [H])
@Theo (Theo2 [H]) vs. @Celith (Celith [M])
@Nimrandir (Nimrandir [H]) vs. @Bergil (Bergil [M])
@Shapeshifter (Shapeshifter [H]) vs. @Gaereth Barethson (GaerethBarethson [M])
@langloude (langloude [H]) vs. @Adamj (Adamj [H])
@maxocub (maxocub [H]) vs. @sarma72 (sarma72 [H])
@kepler_euler (baretico123 [H]) vs. @Saurn118 (Saurn [H])
@Trotter ( GMT +0 ) ( GMT +0 ) (Trotter [H]) vs. @Moriquendi (Moriquendi [H])
@sfakattack (Bilbo [H]) vs. @Sulimo#9458 (Sulimo [H])

Please send me Tournament Points no later than July 10.

In future rounds, pairings are based purely on total TP, and any can be cross-alignment. Have a deck ready!
Last edited by Theo on Mon Jul 04, 2022 6:06 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Theo
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I want to be sensitive to the possibility of concern about potential conflicts of interest. If such concern is made explicit, we all can work on finding some other solution. Keep me posted if something seems like it needs changing.
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Theo
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Standings following Round 3:
TP align player
----------------
15 H Theo2
14 H Nimrandir
14 H Shapeshifter
12 H baretico123
12 H DamienX207
12 H langloude
10 H Adamj
9 H maxocub
9 H sarma72
7 H Moriquendi
6 H Saurn
5 H Bilbo
5 H Trotter
1 H Sulimo
- - - - - - - -
16 M Theo2
6 M Bergil
6 M Celith
4 M GaerethBarethson


(note that sarma72 and maxocub were previously paired)

Round 4 Pairings:
@Theo (Theo2 [M]) vs. @Shapeshifter (Shapeshifter [H])
@Theo (Theo2 [H]) vs. @Nimrandir (Nimrandir [H])
@DamienX207 (DamienX207 [H]) vs. @langloude (langloude [H])
@kepler_euler (baretico123 [H]) vs. @Adamj (Adamj [H])
@sarma72 (sarma72 [H]) vs. @Moriquendi (Moriquendi [H])
@maxocub (maxocub [H]) vs. @Saurn118 (Saurn [H])
@Celith (Celith [M]) vs. @Bergil (Bergil [M])
@sfakattack (Bilbo [H]) vs. @Trotter ( GMT +0 ) (Trotter [H])
@Gaereth Barethson (GaerethBarethson [M]) vs. @Sulimo#9458 (Sulimo [H])

Please send me Tournament Points no later than July 20.
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Theo
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Standings following Round 4:
TP align player
----------------
21 H Theo2
18 H DamienX207
18 H Shapeshifter
15 H Adamj
14 H Nimrandir
13 H baretico123
13 H maxocub
12 H langloude
11 H Moriquendi
11 H sarma72
10 H Trotter
8 H Saurn
6 H Bilbo
1 H Sulimo
- - - - - - - -
18 M Theo2
10 M Celith
10 M GaerethBarethson
8 M Bergil

(note that Theo2 [M] previously played DamienX207 and Shapeshifter)
(note that Sulimo requested a bye from vacation conflict, and Bilbo also then gets a bye, 3-point eligible)

Final Round Pairings:
(no rule changes)
@Theo (Theo2 [H]) vs. @DamienX207 (DamienX207 [H])
@Theo (Theo2 [M]) vs. @Adamj (Adamj [H])
@Shapeshifter (Shapeshifter [H]) vs. @Nimrandir (Nimrandir [H])
@kepler_euler (baretico123 [H]) vs. @maxocub (maxocub [H])
@langloude (langloude [H]) vs. @sarma72 (sarma72 [H])
@Moriquendi (Moriquendi [H]) vs. @Celith (Celith [M])
@Trotter ( GMT +0 ) (Trotter [H]) vs. @Gaereth Barethson (GaerethBarethson [M])
@Saurn118 (Saurn [H]) vs. @Bergil (Bergil [M])
@sfakattack (Bilbo [H]) 3-point bye
@Sulimo#9458 (Sulimo [H]) 3-point bye

Please send me Tournament Points no later than July 30
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Theo
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Spectating: You are permitted to live-spectate games 1) if you have already reported your game results to me, OR 2) if you are more than 7 TP away from both players being spectated (no chance of contention). Please keep game chat interference to a minimum.

This is in the spirit of simulating games being played simultaneously; just because a player was able to schedule their own game on the final day should not give them a strategic advantage of knowing exactly how many points they need to elevate in rank. Keep in mind that if you spectate under option (2), your own paired opponent could still be in contention and if so you should not discuss the game result with them until after your game.

Players are encouraged to announce the times when their games are scheduled.
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Theo
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I just realized that rezwits announced the server is planned to go down July 30. Get those games in! Another option if your game was scheduled for the 30th is to export your deck list and coordinate with your opponent to use OCTGN or gccg.
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Theo
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Thanks everyone for participating, I thought it was an awesome turnout with a mix of new and old names. It wouldn't be the same event without each of you! I hope everyone got some memorable games in. Adamj coming back from being point doubled to nearly point doubling me Round 5 has to be my biggest learning opportunity. :P Masterfully done, sir! I'll be uploading more stories, reflections, and videos when I get some time after recovering from COVID.

Standings following Round 5:
TP align player
----------------
27 H Theo2
20 H Adamj
20 H Shapeshifter
19 H maxocub
18 H Nimrandir
18 H DamienX207
18 H langloude
14 H Moriquendi
13 H baretico123
12 H Saurn
11 H sarma72
10 H Trotter
9 H Bilbo
4 H Sulimo
- - - - - - - -
19 M Theo2
16 M GaerethBarethson
13 M Celith
10 M Bergil

Tiebreakers (TP, fewest head-to-head losses, wins):
Adamj - 20, 0, 4
Shapeshifter - 20, 0, 3

Nimrandir - 18, 0, 4
DamienX207 - 18, 0, 3
langloude - 18, 1

Moriquendi - 14
Celith - 13

baretico123 is being dropped for not scheduling a Round 5 game and failing to submit a report as required in the event rules.

Overall Tournament Ranking:
1 Theo2
2 Adamj
3 Shapeshifter
4 maxocub
5 GaerethBarethson
6 Nimrandir
7 DamienX207
8 langloude
9 Moriquendi
10 Celith
11 Saurn
12 sarma72
13 Bergil
14 Trotter
15 Bilbo
16 Sulimo
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Theo
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I should say, these are provisional Tournament Rankings. I need to ask rezwits for a few random deck samples from the server to check for validity.
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Theo
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I wanted to mention as followup:
My balance analysis and deck tests were all with Balrog-full, but during the generator transition from python to javascript (with which I’m quite rusty) I inadvertently switched Balrog-full to be Balrog-only, which I didn't notice until after the packs were distributed and half of you told me very quickly you were only playing Hero. I have since added both options to the online generator, and you can switch the two packs to "MEBA" instead of "MEBA-only" to see what your collection was originally intended to be with my original balance point in mind. I'd be curious if anyone determines whether that might have made them pick minion when they hadn’t before.
https://theo-donly.github.io/MECCG/tool ... rator.html
Last edited by Theo on Mon May 15, 2023 6:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Theo
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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.

Code: Select all

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.

Code: Select all

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.

Code: Select all

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.

Code: Select all

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.

Code: Select all

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!
One [online community] with hammer and chisel might mar more than they make...
All players are welcome at Meduseld! https://theo-donly.github.io/MECCG/
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