Worlds 2009 - My report of the final four on sunday

MECCG World Championship discussion forum.
Post Reply
Smaug
Posts: 279
Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2007 10:30 am
Location: Germany

Hi Guys,

below my tournament report of the Final Four on Sunday.

On Sunday the day starts quite stressing, because when Patric and me wanted to leave from Barcelona to Llinars his backpack got stolen by a pickpocket with all his credit cards, money, flight tickets and passport. Fortunately it was found later in a parking place, so Patric lost only his money. When I arrived one hour late at Llinars it was not a bigger problem, because Marc Alvano had a very hard night (I must have been a terrible drinking game with self made licor made by David). But finally he arrived and was ready to play. I played more or less my semi final deck (only exchanged some hazards based on my guessing, what my opponents would play).

First round against Marc (hero)

To start against Marc, the only one winning the worlds for two times , was not what I liked most. Anyway I had to do my best and as mentioned marc was not 100% fit. As I guessed he played his Arthedian short rest deck with strider that be played last year in semi finals against me (he won that game 4-2 but missed the final 4) . That was the main reason why I removed all my undead hazards from semi finals against rain drakes rivers and some other cards against arthedian decks (forgot which). It was a tough game, I was lucky to call home strider in round 3 (4?), otherwise Marc would have got 25 points and would have been able to call to win almost for sure 4-2 or even higher. But so I got one extra turn. Marc called with about 30 points (?), but this was not enough, I got something like 35. He could have waited with his call for one more round (time enough) but that would have been for sure a disaster for him because I had news of doom in my hand and he had 3 factions and no GI free!!! So I think his decision was right even it was quite obvious he would loose 2-4 when calling.

Second round against Jordi (Fallen Alatar)

Jordi semi final record with 29 out of 30 possible points was quite impressive even I wondered how this was possible with a fallen alatar deck. Of course it is very fast but tends to get not much more than 30 points, what means most of his opponents got not more than 15 points (?!) when they lost 6 – 0.
Jordi won the first game 5-1 against kikee, so our game has something of the final battle .
There where no big surprises in his deck (more or less the normal fallen alatar arthedian short rest deck). It is strong and fast deck but it is as well a bit risky because of normally bringing alatar in at the stones (corsairs) and travelling sometimes 3 wildernesses (raindrakes) and through cardolan (corsairs!). I played it myself in quite a lot online games so I knew the risks quite well.
Jordi started and managed to be in the lead for more or less the entire game. He had some very good dice rolls with alatar (killing a rain drake and the corsairs when I remembered right even without a risky blow!). Even worse was that faramir managed to survived an other rain drake (even killing it with a 12!) and then was able to store his sapling of tree end of turn for 6 points  (with the permanent hero event, that was nice play of jordi and the biggest enhancement to the normal Fallen alatar I know. So jordi called with round about a 12 point lead. So in my last turn I needed to get at least 12 points. Even sounding high this was very possible.. Buthratkaur made an other 2 with a item, company 2 plays makers map for another 2, so 8 left, then one whtc at woodman town with tapped doeth, ill favoured played blackbole there for another 3 points, so only 5 points left. Unfortunately I made then my only but terrible mistake in this game. I played voices on Ren because I was afraid of buthrakaur who was running around with quite a lot of corruption. I forgot that jordi had as well corruption problems at least with balin, which would have made it not to wise to tap ren. So my more or less to 100% calculated 7 points for the axe and iglos got stuck by the way is shut. That was more or less the only way to stop me because I had two darkness wield (double canceler card) in my hand and balrog is not tapped by headless after playing the first item at the underleas. So I went in the council with 5 points behind instead of a 1 point lead . But there luck changed and jordi made his only bad dice role of the game, a rolled a 3 for balin who was discarded with durins axe for 6 points. So I thought that I would have won by 1 point but jordi had the warg king in hand what makes it finally a tie (27 – 27). Very good and tough game of both sides with a deserved tie for both of us.

So before the final round jordi had 8 points followed by marc and me with 7 points. It was not kikees day who had only 2 points. This means 3 out of 4 of us had still a good chance to become champion.

Last round against Kikee

Kikee played a elrond deck fighter deck with his 2 sons and eowyn. He won Spanish nationals once with this deck he told me after the game. Primary plan is to gather greater items in dark and shadow holds I guess (therefore eowyn against nazguls) and to attack minion companies if possible. The game started more or less normal, both sides gathering mps on a more or less equal level (may be I was in the lead with some points, do not know exactly). Kikees company got quite strong with one of his sons (elladan?) getting orkcrist the turn before so he attack me at sarn gorwing. I managed to tap elladan, so he was out of race for fighting. So cvcc started: Tapped Bolg with binding ring and I´ll report you against tapped elrohir (8 v 5) Tapped Buthrakaur (+1 power of trophies) + I´ll report you against untapped Elrond +1 extra strike of elladan (9 v 8) and tapped hill troll against untapped eowyn (5 v 2). So battle started with the less important fight hill troll and eowyn tied. Next was Bolg against elrohir (to give the binding ring to buthrakaur in case he dies). Kikee plays risky blow (so 8 to 8) and rolled an 8 I think. I rolled less and he made a 10 as body check . Not nices !!! Last battle was Burthrakaur (now with binding ring but without I´ll report you, it was on bolg ;-)) versus Elrond (still 9 – 8) . Kikee only rolled a 5 and me a 8 I think. So the most important bc of the game. I threw my dice cup rotating in the air, and snapped it and crushed it on the table. Then I revealed an 11 :-). Means 9 points difference, yeah. So in total I made a plus of 5 points of the combat and I had very good chances to win 5-1 or even 6-0 ;-). Greed came to my eyes, getting the first guy ever who is going to defend his title! Jordi v Marc looked most likely like a 4-2 for jordi at that time. So a 5-1 for me would mean DICE ROLING with Jordi for the title. Funny enough, we were then equal on every existing tie breaker and that means really dices roling for the title, unbelievable! 6-0 means me getting WC again 4-2 means title for jordi. But things changed very quickly. 10 minutes later Marc missed some easy rolls on factions (?) and lost 6-0 instead of loosing 4-2 or even winning 4-2 (of course I did not see it, that is what I heard from the spectators!). So everybody was clapping his/her hands for the new WC Jordi, congrats! Kikees and my game got worthless. I would be second in any case except loosing 6-0 what was impossible. So we joylessly finished our game, me a bit disappointed and playing as well like that (no more risks taking for winning 5-1 or 6-0). For the statistics: I won finally 4-2
For Kikee it was a bad final but I am sure his next final would be better, you have to get practice with finals, I know what I am talking about.
For Marc it was a disappointing final as well I guess, in my eyes he was the favourite for the title. May be he would have got it if he skipped the drinking game the night before, who knows :-).
For Jordi it was the perfect tournament with the little bit of luck in the finals that you need to become champion (like me in the last WC), he won 7 of his 8 game 5-1 or higher, only playing one draw. So he was the man of the tournament and doubtlessly the 100% earned new CHAMPION OF THE WORLD.
For me it was a very good tournament as well with loosing only one game during the entire tournament and finally becoming 2nd. Furthermore I managed for the 5th time in a row to reach the final four. Of course it would have been a perfect tournament if I managed to defend my title, no question :-).

Finally many thanks to Marc Rocca for organising the tournament, giving me an overnight stay and a nice evening in his apartment!

It is always a pleasure to come to spain and meet the Spanish palyers. Next time I am hopefully able to speak more and better Spanish :-) (I say this for years, I know!)

My Deck List will follow soon.

Cheers

Heiner
Balin
Ex Council Member
Posts: 178
Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2007 5:01 pm
Location: Madrid
Contact:

Nice report, Heiner!

:)
__

Let them come! There is one dwarf yet in Moria that still draws breath!
marcos
Council Member
Posts: 2032
Joined: Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:41 pm
Location: Córdoba, Argentina

its always nice to see what the strong players are thinking during the most stressing games :D

very good report!
congrats for your results
Post Reply

Return to “Worlds”