Patrick Cochrane's Tournament Report

Well, Worlds is over, and I had a blast! 
Where should I start? I met a bunch of people, some of which I had met before, some of whom I only knew from the list. I know you have
read about how well run and enjoyable this event was (which I am in total agreement with), so I think I will point out how well behaved
everyone was. I tell you it make all the difference in the world when you show up at an event like this and everyone "acts like grown-ups!" I
think I was the most vocal person when it came to expressing my frustrations. Normally this is not even close to being the case. (BTW, if
anyone remembers, I exclaimed at bit too loudly "I hate that!!!" This was in response to my opponent losing his wizard to a Marvels Told
corruption check. Good news for me, but I hate to see crappy breaks like that happen to anyone.) 

I arrived in Montreal right after I went to a funeral in Michigan, so my preparations were not quite on schedule. I decided to play Hero decks
(I don't feel I have enough minion cards to be quite as effective as I would like) and have thought about my goals quite a bit. But I have only
tested out one of my two decks. I just hope for the best. 

Friday- World Open Qualifiers: 
First game is against Francois. He was playing a troll deck with Dwar and I was going with my "Elves/Dunadan Beatdown/Indy" deck. His
starting company was composed of Lt/Dol Guldor, Troll Chief and Old Troll, while I had Glorfindal, Beretar, Gildor, and Haldir (and a couple
of Elf-stones to free the G.I.) 
We duked it out two different times, both times initiated by Francois. On my third turn I put 2 Fellowships on my company (for a total of 3!),
played Star of High Hope and went to Carn Dum to play Orcrist on Gildor. Pretty Safe, eh? Both Haldir and Gildor had weapons (Haldir had a
Valiant Sword), so my whimpiest prowess at the time was Beretar, with a modified prowess of ONLY 9! Well, Francois thought that if he
didn't hurt me now that he would never be able to venture out of his Darkhavens for the rest of the game. So he bit the bullet and attacked
me. His Luitenant killed Beretar while I only wounded the chief and old troll. Blast! I need to get better at that dice rolling thing..... 
The game continued with Alatar showing up in Edhelleond and picking up the Men of Anafalas and Nenselde at Dol Amroth while the
trolls tried to pick up a faction (not successfully) and the High Helm. Points-wise, I was pulling ahead. 
On the last turn of the game (as it turns out) my "Beatdown" company went to Dol Guldur to tap 'Pass the Doors of Dol Guldur' with another
item and a Rescue Prisoners. Pulled that off with no problem. I was winning now and knew that I was going to get another visit from the
troll company. But I had 'Star' and GoM out again with 'Beater and Biter' in hand. That made the difference. This time I didn't lose anyone,
even with Dwar helping out personally, but Francois lost an Old Troll (he ran off). 
Overall, we both agreed it was a great game, even though I came out on top with a 4-2 win. My faction doubled, but 'Pass the Doors' but didn't
get stored. 

Game 2. I play another Minion, this time against Dave Stegman. I encounter the dreaded Malady deck. Having never played one or even seen
a copy of the card, I don't really know what to do about it. Chalk it up to experience. 
I run up to Carn Dum on the first turn and played Wormsbane after picking up a 'Nothing to Eat or Drink'. Humm. Elerena and Taladan
came and said 'HI!' with some spells, and by the end of the turn 1 Gildor and Beretar are dead. I am rather flumoxed by this turn of events
and decide to run back to Rivendell ('Yipe! Yipe! Yipe!). 'Alone and Stupid' gets played on Glorfindal with Wormsbane. You know what
happens....yeah, a lonely Haldir is the only one to make it back to Rivendell alive. 
The next several turns have Alatar pick up 'Orcrist' at the Stones, the 'Men of Anfalas' and 'Nenselde'. I try to make things interesting for
my opponent by slowing up his item and faction gathering with trolls (sometimes) and a Troll Purse at Mount Doom where Cyrahir got
captured (he looses his Blasting Fire). 
On the last turn of the game (I went first) I try to get another couple of points and send Haldir off by himself to the Barrow-downs to get a
Bow of the Galadrim while Alatar goes to Tolfalas to play the Scroll of Isildur. Amazingly, both do so. However, I get some more visits.
Elerena and Taladan corrupt Haldir with Malady and Akorahil whacks Alatar in CvCC, but he survives. 
In the end, its a 2-4 loss. I manage to keep from losing too badly only because Dave doesn't have too many MPs himself. He did have 4 kill
points though. :-( 

Game 3: I had decided a few days before that I wanted to play a One Ring deck vr. Heros and try for that big 7 point victory. Unfortunately, I
didn't have one made, and I had never really done one before. So, literally at the last minute I put one together and gave it a shot. I would
use Saruman with Bilbo, Theoden, Robin, Voteli and Annelenna. Annelenna had a Star-glass and Voteli an Elf-stone to control Annelenna,
while Theoden had Robin. No 'Alone and Stupid' or 'Call of Home' for me! I used Secret Passage and Elf-path to get me around safely, and if
that didn't stop all of the critters then I had some Riddling Talk and Secret News to get me out of any jams (and of course some
Concealments and Dark Quarrels). Theoden was good against Beornings and all those sages and Diplomats would make it a snap to play
Riddling Talk. 
Things got off to a less than satisfactory start. My opponent, Charles Jenkins, got the drop on Gollum first. He went to Goblin Gate and got
him on the first turn. However, Hama (who had to get Gollum because the other characters got tapped) met with an ill fate a couple of turns
later when a Cave Drake had him for breakfast. So, over the next couple of turns, I recovered the Scroll, Gollum and a couple of Precious
Gold Rings. I also had 3 fair gold rings in my deck to throw away in case "Rolled" showed up, but that didn't happen. 
Charles had a starting company that suggested a "King Under the Mountain" strategy, and my 'Secret News' confirmed it when I saw the 'Old
Thrush' and 'Returned Exiles' in his hand. I remembered that for later use. Additionally, to my relief, I never saw any corruption cards in his
hand or during play. What was I worried about? This would be easy! 
After I tested with a 'Wizards Test', I found that indeed I was in possession of the One Ring. Yeah! Off to Buhr Widue. Well, I leave most of
my company behind, taking just Saruman, Bilbo, Robin, and of course Gollum. As I thought I would only have to deal with hazard critters, I
thought to drop my hazard limit to 2 and be able to use Gollum to cancel one of them. So, with my hazard limit at 2 I 'Secret Passage' to Buhr
Widue. Well, suddenly 'Alone and Stupid' shows up on Bilbo. I have to make 4 checks at better than a 4. Drat, and I had just dumped my last
'Cock Crows' because I thought it better to keep a Concealment handy instead. I make it with the others tapping in support. Whew, dodged
that bullet. Next turn, I tap Bilbo to try and get rid of the 'AaS', and I blow it. Rats!!! When I move (I have to because time is running out and
this is my last turn) Charles puts 'Lure of the Senses' on Bilbo too!! Gaahh! 4 checks at 6! I am toast! He then plays 'Sellswords', which I am
happy to have some 'Riddling Talk' with. I name 'Old Thrush' and off that hazard goes with the rest of the hazard limit. Now the fun begins.
I tap Saruman to support the first corruption check and make it. Tap Robin and make it. Play 'Tookish Blood' and make it strait up. One
more......and I again roll better than a 6! Gollum takes the ring into oblivion and I win! Lady Luck was on my side, but for how long? 

Game 4. Playing against John(?) as a fallen Radagast. His Hobbits run into the underdeeps, while Kili runs off to Wellinghall. His deck works
pretty darn good, but it didn't matter much because I can't roll better than a 3 on my corruption checks. When the game ends, only Voteli
remains and she is wounded. I loose 5 characters to corruption checks, all of them "easy" rolls of better than 2 or 3. Talk about karma.
Obviously, I loose this one 0-6. 

After all this, I have 13 points. That qualifies me for the Semi Finals the next day! Pretty good for someone who hasn't been in a tournament
for 3 years! 

Friday night was the drinking game, a Sealed w/ Dragons boosters. Can't remember too specifics about what I drew except that it was the
Glorfindal/Radagast. I had an excellent play deck with lots of great characters, good MPs and excellent hazards. I remember I had an Uvatha
and a Smaug, and I used them to good effect. 
My first game was with a guy named Mark. He wasn't a MECCG fanatic but he had played before. I don't know if he just had a lack of good
cards or what, but he had a rough time with me. I was drinking because I was thirsty, and only because I had to. Mark, on the other hand was
having all his characters killed and was done with his beer by the time the game was over. 6-0 for me. 
The next game was with Chad. We both had the same fixed pack, and both of our hazards hurt each other, but by the end of the game, all his
characters were dead or corrupted, and I was still standing! Yeah, I win METDG!!! Ok, so I don't remember too much about it, but that's
Chad's fault! ;-P 

I was very fortunate to find a place to stay. I didn't want to drive back and forth from Ottawa every damn day. Impossible. So Chad, Dave and
Gene set me up at that excellent house/apartment they found. I even got a bedroom! (I would have taken a section of floor!) After we got back
to home base, we started talking deck construction. 
I was very fearful of more Malady decks, so I started casting about for a defense to it. River would not cut it, so what else? How about 'Lost in
Free Domains'? Yeah, that would work. But my current deck doesn't go anywhere near Free Domains....ok, so lets start building a new deck
from scratch. Never a good idea on limited amounts of sleep (not to mention alcohol) but I came up with a Gondor Deck. I still am going to
use Alatar as my principal wizard and play Nenselde, but now the twist would be to have 'Moon' and GoM expand the number of Free
domains! I also decided to play the same deck against both Hero and Minions, with some differences in the sideboard and hazards. 
On a semi related note, everyone I played against had at least some corruption, and two of them had quite a bit. Including the two minor
items I will start with, I'll have three 'Saplings' for a total of 5 corruption points in my whole deck! With 2 Sun Unveiled and 4 PHE zappers,
I thought I was pretty well protected. Ok, I thought, corrupt this! 

Saturday, Semi Finals- 
Still putting my deck together, I discover that I have a bye for the first round. Good for points (6) but bad for fun. Oh well. Now at least I can
make sure my deck actually includes the cards that I have recorded on the decklist sheet. 

Game 2. I am playing Alicia, and it is a really nice One Ring deck. I run around getting my things done, but I understand that this is all a moot
point if I don't stop her. I slow her up once with the LiFD but that's about it for my hazards. I have lots of Nazgul, but for some reason she
always plays them as a PHE about the same time as I draw the buggers. I have some corruption, but she brushed them off without breaking a
sweat. 
I should have lost, but just about the time she was about to cycle, she taps her wizard to put a card in her deck. "Uh....how many cards do you
have in your playdeck?" I ask. "4" she replies. No can do....and of course, that was the One Ring she was trying to sideboard. So for the
remainder of the game Alicia was trying to draw as many cards as possible in order to get the One Ring in her hand, but to no avail. The game
ends with the One Ring still buried in her playdeck. 6-0 for me. 

Well well...after two rounds I have 12 points! Boy, am I good or what! It take a lot of talent to finagle a bye on the first round and to
intimidate your opponent into making a fatal mistake. Of course, reality will dawn shortly.... 

Game 3. My next opponent was Brian. He had a funky "Schizo" deck that had both GoM and DoN. He Snowstormed me once and I think
used Lost in Free Domains to slow me up. I made things difficult for Brian's crew of Cirdan and some others (I forget who exactly) in the
beginning, but when he got Tom in play, I couldn't do anything to him at all. (As Spence put it "TOM IS THE MAN!") He racked up a TON of
MPs while Arwen got killed by an Assassin before I even drew one of my 3 hounds. If I remember correctly, this was the game where I was
refused by the Men of Anfalas THREE TIMES! ("Go way, you silly Dunadan Kanigit, or we will taunt you a second time!") 6-0 for him after
his 3 factions doubled for 16 MPs. 

Game 4. Playing John and his Fallen Radagast/hobbits in the underdeeps again. I do better this time around but not much. I don't remember
anything of this game but I think I lost 4-2 this time around. Just don't quote me on it. 

Well, it wasn't the most satisfying day, as I won only one game and it was due to my opponent making it possible for me to win. I still had a
lot of fun, but my "Whip a deck out of me arse at the last minute" deck just wasn't up to putting me in the finals. But I learned some
important lessons besides the obvious. 

Lesson 1- I hate the "Drop and Run" hazard strategy! They don't do squat most of the time and they are no fun too boot! So, that was the first
thing I was going to fix with my deck. I took every hazard out of my playdeck and started over. Someone was going to suffer..... I went back to
an old favorite of mine. Drakes, Fog, Two or Three Tribes Present, and Revealed to all Watchers with some Lure of Nature to help make
things interesting. Summons From Long Sleep helps to speed this up nicely, but I don't do that Dragon's Blood crap. Too cheesy! 

Lesson 2- A Short Rest works very well! I had one in my sideboard that I would put into play as soon as Alatar showed up, and it helped out
quite nicely. My new deck would capitalize even more on this card....as Gene would later see. 

Lesson 3- Lost in Free Domains slows ME up! As I didn't encounter a Minion at all, much less a Malady deck, I was not getting much mileage
out of LiFD. However, both Brian and John were able to slow me up some with LiFD. In keeping with Lesson 1, I pitched the Moons in my
deck and replaced them with Fogs. With this in play, I am not moving through Free Domains any more, but Borderlands. As for stopping
Maladies, I have other things worked out for that.....but as it turned out, I never faced a minion after Friday! 

Sunday, North American Nationals 

Ok, I am out for blood today with a deck I feel much more confident in. This is only a three game tournament, so I hope to make the most of
it. Who knows? I might get into the finals! 

Game 1- Playing Andrew Sitte and an 'Unexpected Party' troop of Dwarves. On the first turn Thorin discards his Cram and he moves all the
way to Rohan. Lots of wilderness to play drakes on, but I don't have a damn one in my hand. This would be the only chance to play any
critters against this company until the last turn of the game as he went down into the Southeastern portion of the map to play all those big
MP factions, picking up Wormsbane in the Dead Marshes enroute. However, Gandalf and Gimli were not aware of the situation when they
moved from Lorien to Edhelleond a couple of turns later. Fog was in play and the site path was quite packed with trees. So I start off with
Two or Three Tribes Present and start unloading the Drakes I have waiting for them. It took 4 drakes, but Gandalf and Gimli were drake
chow. 
As the game continued I manage to find a Sapling and Plant the White Tree, did the Return of the King and Choice of Luthien thingy, and
managed to rack up a good amount of MPs, but Andrew just was putting up Monster Points. I just could not keep up. On the last turn though
he got a bit too greedy.... Nenselde was keeping Fog in play but with all the Noble Hounds and Steeds that Andrew's characters had, he
figured that he could go to Dorwinion from Khand without too much trouble. Well, I had 7 drakes available between the Summons from
long sleep on the Board and ones I had been saving for just this chance. It was a tough fight, with Bofur and Bombur failing to complete the
trip (both needed two body check to kill them!), and Thorin losing Wormsbane to a Were-worm. Gloin managed to get the Men of
Dorwinion ok, but the trip was a net loss of 3 MPs for Andrew. Not quite enough for me to win, however. He still had 34 to my 33. A very
close game, and much more fun for me (than my previous couple of games). I love playing legions of drakes! 2-4. 

Game 2- I have a rematch with Charles Jenkins. I can't for the life of me remember much about this game, except that Charles was using Orcs,
and I managed to get 4 kill points by selectively killing the easy ones and avoiding the tough ones (2 strikes at 16? Nah, I think I'll Dark
Quarrels that one...). This was the deciding factor, as it turned out. After we counted out the MPs at the end of the game I thought Charles had
it by a score of 33 to 30. Then I remembered the 4 kill points! Doh! I squeaked by with a 34 to 33 win! 4-2. BTW, I think this is also the game
where Alatar w/ Beretar and Haldalam went to Dol Amroth and were greeted by 3 Assassins. Alatar's escorts canceled the first two attacks
from the first assassin, and a Dark Quarrels took care of the third, but the fun was just beginning. Somehow, Alatar managed to fight off
another 6 attacks by rolling 6 or better 6 times! No dought, he is a maia of Orome's folk! 

Charles, if you can recall any of the details of this game I would appreciate refreshing my memory. I do recall enjoying it very much. 

Game 3 - Gene Berry was my next opponent, and he was playing an infinent hazard strategy, though I didn't recognize it at the time. It was
quite interesting, and more then a tad disturbing. As I was watching all those Permanent Hazards building up off to the side, I wondering "Is
this some kinda sick Drop and Run thingy or what?" Well, no sense in freaking out over it, so I just went about my merry way getting my
objectives. 
His hazards were not hindering me at all, (at least not yet), but Galadriel kept cramming the hazards that I had in my hand back into my
playdeck via 'Reveal things Unbidden'. it wasn't the loss of the hazards that bothered me (Elrond had killed 2 Caveworms and I wasn't very
interested in giving him more MPs that way), it was the fact that it was slowing me down on drawing my resources and getting to the bottom
so I could cycle. It took a long time to get my Noble Hounds in play, but fortunately I did get the White tree soon after I found a sapling. As it
was, Gene got out the Sentinels of Numenor (late in the game) so that I couldn't play mine. But I did manage to keep playing 'A Short Rest',
and with Alatar moving either 1 or two regions and Aragorn and Co. doing the same (BTW, they were not moving for the sake of drawing
cards, but because they went to play resources), I was drawing 6 or 7 cards a turn while Gene would draw 1. He also suffered a failed CC with
Palando while playing a simple Marvels Told (that's where I practically yelled "I hate that!"). 
On my last turn, I had Arwen pluck the Men of Anorien from my discard pile (gotta love Choice of Luthien) and Target Boy tossed them into
my MP pile. They came very close to getting wiped out, but the White Tree saved me. Gene started to play a Nightmare combination that
would have had Nazgul Swarming my company at Minas Tirith (Alatar and Co. were safe in Edhelleond) by turning it into a Dark Hold and
boosting the Hazard Limit to 24! But The White Tree put a stop to that, even before it began. Thank The Powers! 
I had a stored sapling that Alatar had found at Tolfalas, but it got tossed by a Neither so Ancient or Potent. Gene's item doubled, but I had
allies and Gene didn't. Final Score, 40-19, and I have a 6-0 win! 

I have 12 points, and finished tied for 3rd with Dave Stegman and Andrew Sitte. Sadly, the tie breaker leaves me the low man on the totem
pole, so Dave and Andrew are on to the finals, while I catch up on my sleep (Perhaps this was a good thing!). 

My revised and improved "Gondor" deck was quite fun to play, and reliable. I scored over 30 points every game and never had anyone killed
or corrupted, not even Target Boy! It is a bit slow gathering MPs in the beginning, as I only have one faction in the playdeck at the start. And
the seemingly ever present "Foolish Words" always made getting factions more difficult...... 

The awards were fun and generous. Steve announce the results and everyone was glad to see "No Cheese" finally pull off the Worlds! I got
first for the drinking game and for this I was awarded a autographed minion version of 'Greed' along with the original sketch drawn up by
the artist. Very cool! For placing 5th overall at Nationals, I put was giving first crack at a stack of Rares and got 5 cards I didn't have before,
being Lt of Dol Guldor, Master of the House, The Balrog (minion ally), Knights of the Prince, and something else I don't recall at the
moment. 

I must say I agree with Dave Stegman, I think I enjoyed this weekend better then just about any other I can remember. My only regret is that I
didn't get to play any games with Spence. I was looking forward to extend my winning streak! 

BTW, I am moving to Europe this month and I am looking forward to getting involved in many more tournaments. Florida sucked for this
kinda activity, but my new location will be quite the improvement, me thinks! 

Hope everyone enjoyed my report. Better late then never, eh?