I started the day at dawn going to the airport to meet Oscar aka "the Chauffeur" and travel to Frankfurt by plane. When we arrived we met Antonio Temu, Álvaro Mordakai and David Neldoreth and drove to Bacharach. Of course we made the traditional stop at the usual Kebab. At night Pablo and César appeared with his son Lucas.
The previous days had been stressful because I didn't remember that it was World Cup and I had to prepare two more decks for the semis. Thanks to the help of Marcos and Manuel among others, I ended up defining the decks and the general strategy of the tournament that I will explain later.
The previous years I had suffered on tournament day from excitement, secondary tournaments, beer, and poor sleep. That is why I decided to feel physically and mentally well and be able to enjoy the tournament without stress. Basically avoid tournaments at night, sleep well, drink just enough and refresh the deck the day before.
On Friday afternoon I played a seal in place of the Heroes Only tournament because I didn't want to start the weekend competing. Then we had dinner and had a few beers, telling anecdotes and laughing. When we finished I went up to the room to remember the deck of Minions that I had not played for months and then I looked at a chapter of The Mandalorian.
Saturday. Semis
Vs Hero / Fallen: I decided to play minion because the deck against heroes and fallen is very competitive, original, fun and unexpected. You can see the deck at this link. In addition, I kept the surprise of playing Heroes if I reached the final.
Vs Minion: I played a variation of the classic Balrog Red Hills. I chose it because among the Balrog decks I have it is one of the few that can hold if I can’t play the Balrog. I'm not really comfortable with any minion vs minion decks yet.
Round 1. Heiner (Balrog for Rohan)
The draw was merciless and matched us in the first round. We both knew it was better to play in the first round and that way we got rid of it. Heiner played his classic World Champion deck Balrog for Rohan zone. I knew it quite well because I have played it before. I even came second in the previous Lure with him. My hazards were very successful against that deck.
I got the Balrog on the first turn. I moved the company to the Worthy Hills and they all arrived wounded because of Chill + Elf-lord. I played the Stinker too.
His second turn he went to Under-Leas and I played him Unabated and Troll-purse on guard. He enter site and played two characters with We Have Come to Kill, Black Axe and Aiglos. He was shocked when he saw the Troll-purse. He had no cancellers, so he made four hard rolls against 11 power. He success them all, even with a little prowess character with Aiglos. It was the most incredible thing I have seen against the Troll-purse.
The next turn I was moving the characters to their strategic places and trying to speed up the draw because my hand was not very good. I had no points in hand and We Have Come to Kill to regenerate the company at Worthy Hills. I sent Ufthak to draw to Himring but nothing came of it either. The craziest thing was that Shagrat killed Pallando alone and wounded in the Hills. A bit of poetic justice for the Troll-purse from before.
In short, I was playing a lot of characters and drawing a lot, but my deck got stuck and I didn't draw even half. I was only able to play 3 points in the whole game, which is very unusual because Heiner let me play a lot. Heiner didn't play much either, but he scored more points than I did.
Kodi 2 - Heiner 4
Round 2. Juju (Heroes by Eriador)
This game was more relaxed because I like the deck I was carrying more than Balrog's. I just have to play the cards that come out and try to stop the opponent. Juju couldn't play a lot of things because my hazards were tough against decks for Eriador. In addition, Juju did not know exactly what hazards to play me.
Kodi 6 - Juju 0
Round 3. Roland (Minions by Mordor)
Roland was playing a static deck in Mordor making mini points with Cloak of Shadows. I couldn't stop him long, but he's a slow deck that scores few points. I had time to play almost everything with the Red Hills because he did not stop me too much.
Kodi 5 - Roland 1
Round 4. Sebastian (Cheezagast)
Sebastian played the classic Cheezagast. He happened something similar to Juju. They didn't know my deck and they didn't know how to stop it. I played everything at my leisure. My agents bothered him quite a bit on Weather Top. I also quickly bring from sideboard the Heedless and Pilfer.
As an anecdote, Sebastian played a Hiding the last turn and wanting to use the Farmer Maggot, I had to explain that he couldn't use it because Hiding prevents you from moving and that the Farmer is considered movement.
Kodi 5 - Sebastian 1
Round 5. Patric (Cheezagast 2.0)
Laxander played his classic deck but without Hiding. In this version, his characters are not scouts and are dedicated to fighting the creatures. Luckily I was carrying quite a few things that stuck in the place in addition to the agents.
It was the same as other games. He did not know what to play me and I played at pleasure. As a highlight, he captured Luitprand with Blackboleon at Sarn Goriwing with a Spells of the Barrow-wights and left me with no allies.
The rest of the game he didn't let me play another ally and I didn't let him play factions. So we both duplicated in the respective categories.
In the end, I played him Inner Rot and he had to do 3 corruption checks of 7 that he passed.
Kodi 4 - Patric 2
Sunday. Final
The night before I was reviewing the deck I was going to play a bit because it had been a long time since I played it. So far the strategy had worked. I got to be first in the semis with Minion decks and now it was time to surprise with a new Hero deck.
I did not change any cards regarding what I had planned at home because I already said that the opponents in the Final could be Paweł, Karsten, Patric and Heiner. So my hazards were already thought out against their usual decks.
This time I played a new Hero deck that you can see at this link. The fact of playing a good Hero deck gave me a lot of advantage since in the hazards of the opponent there would be many spaces occupied with cards against fallen that did not serve them, and the ones that really annoy my deck, are the first to be removed when not there is room: Call of Home, Many Sorrows Befall, Bane of the Ithil-stone.
Round 1. Patric (Balrog burning Mordor)
When Patric saw that my alignment was Hero he blew his head off, haha.
They had no idea what he was going to play and I think he hadn't prepared anything against what was coming. Instead, I knew his deck perfectly because I had used it to win the 2019 Lure. A Balrog roadblock burns Mordor similar to this one.
My first turn I left the main company in Rivendell and Folco moved to the Grey Havens to see if he could improve his hand. When it was his turn, he was confuse because he didn't know what I was playing and he doubted whether to come and attack me. Ultimately, he decided to play at Mordor and Roadblock.
He soon began to get everything out of me and each new trick of the deck surprised Patric in such a way that he was pulling him out of the game. In addition, he had a lot of bad luck with some easy rolls and important characters were wounded.
His Roadblock didn't affect me at all with the Promptings of Wisdom on Sam and I was able to play all the characters, factions and Tom out of him.
In the end it was a bulky result that does not reflect what a good player Patric is.
Kodi 6 - Patric 0
Round 2. Paweł (Under-deeps Shuffle)
Paweł played a very cool deck that made a lot of safe points at under-deeps. He basically moves between the sites of the under-deeps of Dol Guldur, Barad-Dur and Cirith Gorgor making bridges with World Gnawed by the Nameless. He plays Ren as a ringwraith who stays in Barad-Dur making Creature from an Older World, Helm of Fear, and some faction. The other companies played Aiglos, Dragon Helm, one item points and some Cave Troll. I was able to stop him with Pukel-men, Waiting Shadow and Rivers. Paweł couldn't stop me much because he wasn't prepared against my deck and in the end I won because I was able to play almost everything.
Kodi 4 - Paweł 2
Round 3. Heiner (Balrog for Rohan)
Heiner again played the same deck for me as in the semis. His famous world champion from Balrog with the company of two Trolls making Maker's Map and allies around the Rohan area. This time, his hazards was corruption. In general, I was slowing him down quite well with hazards, but he was continuously playing points. I was able to play quite calmly as in the previous games because he was not very prepared against my deck. It should be noted that he did plays Bane of the Ithil-stone twice, which I removed with Marvels. He also played Many Sorrows Befall when it was too late to remove the Elf-song combo. I focused on controlling the companies to minimize points and protecting the Lady of the Golden Wood from recycling hazards.
There was a turn that he went with the Balrog to Mount Gundabad to play an item. The next turn of mine I went with all the characters: Elrond, Glorfindel, Pallando, Sam and Fatty to play Greater Item at Mount Gundabad and attack him. I arrived with the untapped ones I was interested in, so Elrond hit the Balrog with Vilya and wound him along with another character.
The last turn Heiner had to risk and he played it by taking the Axe in Under-leas with the possibility that there was a Troll-purse but in this game it was late. He also risked playing Orcs of Moria to sevens with Azog and the danger of Foolish Words. Without a doubt, the play went well and he took everything out, but my game was comfortable and I still had a lot to play on my turn.
My last turn I separated into four companies. Thranduil stayed in the Grey Havens to bring Elves of Lindon. Cirdan and Folco went from Rivendell to the Grey Havens. Pallando, Sam and Fatty played stealth and went to the Old Forest for Tom. Elrond and Glorfindel went to Bree to influence out the Rangers of the Nortg. They all did their job, but Glorfindel became corrupted. Elrond also played Strider with A Chance Meeting and he influenced the Rangers.
At the council, Heiner passed a check of four because of the Balance of Things and Cridan was discarded due to corruption. Even having lost two characters in the last turn due to bad rolls, I won the game 33-30 and won the tournament.
Kodi 4 - Heiner 2
Conclusions
That's it, I am very happy that I managed to reach the World Championship after work, dedication and love for this game. The last few years that I was competing I convinced myself that anyone can win or lose and that the good players also depend on luck.
I wanted to bet on a different style of playing and innovate in the tournament to encourage other players to build new and creative decks. Not everything is invented and with dedication you can do anything.
I have also learned that playing something unexpected is a great advantage.
I want to mention the community because I have been able to learn something from each of you. There are great players who have made me believe that any deck is possible. In every little decision in my games I have remembered someone who had taught it to me.
Long live to MeCCG
Links
Final Deck
Semis vs Heroe / Fallen Deck
Semis vs Minion Deck (Not Published)
Worlds 2021 Lure Tournament Report
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Khamul the Easterling
- Ex Council Member
- Posts: 345
- Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2007 9:16 pm
- Location: Cologne
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Congratulations, very nice report! Thanks!
Very cool story and deck. Thanks for sharing.
I have a similar but more thematic "Elven Preservation" deck relying on the Elf-song trick. But I mostly just wanted to play all of the high-mind elf lords together, collecting palantirs also. So, no Hobbits. The problem was that I kept being hamstrung by all of the organization phase restrictions.
This same "getting stuck" issue even happens with Elrond and Vilya because all company composition changes must happen at the same time. Meaning that it's not possible to remove Elrond's followers, play Vilya in between company composition changes, and then move different characters to become Elrond's followers. This also meant that Elrond couldn't be used to play new characters with A Chance Meeting since my original starting characters (Elladan and Elrohir) were stuck.
Basically, once I brought in more than 20 mind, I was forced to keep Elf-song going, which meant that everyone was stuck under someone's DI from that moment on. Because of the lack of GI and the restrictions on moving characters to/from DI to GI, I also found impractical to play A Chance Meeting since I never had enough DI due to the stuck characters. And the restriction on all company composition changes happening at the same time causes some trouble for multiple A Chance Meetings.
Also, since I was collecting weapons and palantirs, corruption checks got a little tricky because of the requirement that company composition changes happen at the same time. I couldn't play a new character or swap companies, tap in support of Elrond (or whoever), and then switch back to a different company (Wizard's) to move.
Maybe obvious, but Echo gets discarded when the deck exhausts. So you need to be careful there. But one tip is to save an Elf-song in hand and play it the turn before since there is no "cannot be duplicated" on Elf-song. This way, the Echo Elf-song gets discarded but your second Elf-song stays in play.
Anyway, just some tips for people looking into the Elf-song trick. I still had fun with this type of deck but there are just so many things to track that I normally didn't have to worry about at all, which made it difficult to figure out what to do in the organization phase.
I have a similar but more thematic "Elven Preservation" deck relying on the Elf-song trick. But I mostly just wanted to play all of the high-mind elf lords together, collecting palantirs also. So, no Hobbits. The problem was that I kept being hamstrung by all of the organization phase restrictions.
One problem I was running into was that after characters got wounded while out with the Wizard (Gandalf) or Elrond it was not possible to swap them for other characters back at Lorien due to the lack of general influence. It's not even possible to swap between Gandalf's DI and Elrond's DI all due to the lack of general influence because they would need to return to GI first. So the characters ended up getting "stuck" and I was wasting time.BRINGING CHARACTERS INTO PLAY
During your organization phase, you may perform one and only one of the following activities:
• You may play a character card.
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INFLUENCING (CONTROLLING) A CHARACTER
If you have enough unused general influence points, you may move a follower from direct influence to general influence (or vice versa) during your organization phase.
Clarification: During the organization phase, you can move characters from control by general influence to control by direct influence and vice versa so long as your total of mind attributes does not exceed your available influence at the end of the organization phase.
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CRF Organizing Companies -- Company composition changes that you choose to make, including bringing a character into play, must all be done at the same time during the organization phase. During this time no other actions may be taken.
CRF Playing Characters -- Rules Erratum: You may play a character if you do not have enough influence to control them. However, if there are any characters you do not have the influence to control at the end of your organization phase, the character you brought into play this turn must be returned to your hand.
This same "getting stuck" issue even happens with Elrond and Vilya because all company composition changes must happen at the same time. Meaning that it's not possible to remove Elrond's followers, play Vilya in between company composition changes, and then move different characters to become Elrond's followers. This also meant that Elrond couldn't be used to play new characters with A Chance Meeting since my original starting characters (Elladan and Elrohir) were stuck.
Basically, once I brought in more than 20 mind, I was forced to keep Elf-song going, which meant that everyone was stuck under someone's DI from that moment on. Because of the lack of GI and the restrictions on moving characters to/from DI to GI, I also found impractical to play A Chance Meeting since I never had enough DI due to the stuck characters. And the restriction on all company composition changes happening at the same time causes some trouble for multiple A Chance Meetings.
Also, since I was collecting weapons and palantirs, corruption checks got a little tricky because of the requirement that company composition changes happen at the same time. I couldn't play a new character or swap companies, tap in support of Elrond (or whoever), and then switch back to a different company (Wizard's) to move.
Maybe obvious, but Echo gets discarded when the deck exhausts. So you need to be careful there. But one tip is to save an Elf-song in hand and play it the turn before since there is no "cannot be duplicated" on Elf-song. This way, the Echo Elf-song gets discarded but your second Elf-song stays in play.
Anyway, just some tips for people looking into the Elf-song trick. I still had fun with this type of deck but there are just so many things to track that I normally didn't have to worry about at all, which made it difficult to figure out what to do in the organization phase.