On Friday I played Hero Sealed tournament. I don't remember that much of it, besides that it was much fun. So let's start directly with the main event....
On Saturday we had Worlds semi-finals. We were 13 players, iirc, who took part in this tournament. According to the Council of Lorien tournament rules we had to play four rounds. I played an original Fallen Gandalf deck in Eriador that plays lots of Dunedain, makes wizardhavens and tries to reduce movement wherever possible. My starting company usually consists of Firiel, Súrion (Gandalf’s Friend), Glóin and Óin. My hazards against Heroes and Fallen are kind of a grab bag that focuses on stopping especially Eriador based decks and Fallen Wizard decks (3 Arthadan Rangers, 1 Blind/Ire straight in the deck etc.). Against Minions I used a Free-peoples/Maia strategy.
In my first game of the semi-finals I faced Wolfgang from Austria. He played his well-known “Dwarves on Speed”-deck, a Hero Short Rest deck in Eriador with Dwarves. Because he didn’t draw A Short Rest early in the game – actually he didn’t play any of his three Short Rests until the last turn – the game was slower than expected. This was quite good for me because my deck needs some turns to evolve. This is also one of the tricky parts about my deck because you always have a feeling that you are way behind in marshalling points. I think it was on my third turn when Gandalf was killed by an Assassin on his way to Old Forest. From now on my goal was to avoid a 6-0 loss. Even without Gandalf my deck performed not that bad. This combined with my hazards and some unlucky rolls by Wolfgang on his factions made that the game was quite close in the end. When Wolfgang’s Glóin bearing Dúrin’s Axe (his only item) finally failed his corruption check on 3 during the council I was sure that I had won this game. When we counted MPs I was really surprised that it was even enough for a 6-0 win for me.
In round two I played against Heiner from Germany who could call himself one and a half times world champion
. Heiner played his (in)famous Balrog deck with which he became world champion in Argentina. My hazard deck worked very well against him. I played My Precious before he could play Stinker. When he moved to the Under-leas on turn two with his Balrog I had Witch-king of Angmar ready to turn the site into a Dark-hold, thus Heiner played Aiglos only and discarded the Ancient Black Axe. Two The Way is Shut slowed him down even more during the game. Foolish Words stopped Orcs of Moria and even a chilled Elrond (Master of the House) showed up and wounded Bolg. Unfortunately for me, during his last turn my hazards couldn’t stop him from scoring many MPs. I think he made at least 11 MP during that last turn and reduced my MPs by one by revealing The Warg-king during the council. In the end we tied (3-3).
Third game vs. Eric from The Netherlands: He played a really interesting Minion deck with Dwar as his Ringwraith. His covert company (Gulla and Golodhros were among them) visits free-holds in Gondor and burns them down with Smoke on the Wind. Dwar usually grants them a bonus to prowess by using his special ability. I was a bit lucky to draw two or three Maia hazard creatures in the first two rounds. This didn’t stop him from playing anything but slowed him down a lot by tapping or wounding characters. I think I was in the lead for the most part of the game. During Eric’s last turn I made a wrong decision, though. His Nevido Smôd moved to Mount Doom in order to play an ally which he really needed in order to avoid doubling ally MPs on my side. I assumed that he would play War-wolf but was not really sure if he had Great Bats in hand instead. If I had been sure I would have definitely tapped Witch-king of Angmar to turn the volcano into a dark-hold, thus making war-wolf unplayable there. I decided, however, to attack him with Sellswords instead which he easily cancelled with Orc Quarrels. Of course he played War-wolf and not Great Bats. Thus the game ended wit a 5-1 win for me.
Before the last round of the semis I was in the lead with 14 MPs. Now I had to play against Mark from the USA who was second with 12 MPs. Mark gained four times the title of MECCG world champion already so I knew this would be a very hard game. Against my Fallen Gandalf he played a Lidless Eye-deck. I think it was (a variant? of)
this deck with which he won North American Nationals in 2005. He starts with two Lieutenants who move to Dragon-country and play lots of stuff there. Mark uses a very cool strategy to protect against Elf-lords. He plays Doors of Night and Morgul-night as half-resources in order to turn any wilderness into a shadow-land where elf-lords cannot be played while Doors are in play. Moreover he uses Morgul-night to tap opponents sites with Foul Fumes (this card has no effect on Minion players). Crept Along Cleverly, Down Down to Goblin-town, Eye Never Sleeping and The Great Eye cancel almost everything. If a Lieutenant gets wounded despite of that protection there is still a Foul-smelling Paste. When our starting companies were revealed Mark said in astonishment something like: “I never saw someone being in the lead that plays MIRUVOR!” Later on in the game he added “and Never Refuse”
. My deck didn’t work very well for the first time. This was probably also because I avoided moving to Old Forest (I had Tom in hand early) while Doors were in play because I feared Foul Fumes. I couldn’t harm Mark’s company with my hazards so he made points after points while I was gathering MPs very slow. Due to a good last turn it was “only” a 4-2 win for Mark.
The finalists after tie breaker (all five players had 16 TP): 1st Mark, 2nd Karsten, 3rd Heiner, 4th Patric, Pawel out unfortunately.
I played no games in the evening, just had some drinks (Bavarian from the hostel bar) and prepared my decks for the finals.
Part 2 of the report about the finals to follow...
[Edit 2018-12-01: Eric played with Dwar the Ringwraith, not with Ren of course]