by Brian Min

Sauron's Tournament Report

I left Wednesday in the afternoon to make it to Germany in time to be able to play in Friday events. I arrived Thursday and met up with Mark and we did a bit of exploring, but to our dismay the town was closed.

Friday people started coming and I finally got to meet all the players who's names I've known but faces I did not.

The 1st tournament I played in, was the Hero 1 Deck Pairs. Mikko was my partner and he was 1/2 of the Championship team from last year, so I had my work cut out for me. We used a pair of decks Mark and I were going to use for pairs, but Mark decided he'd prefer to kill dragons instead.

This tournament went smoothly, with 4 teams playing we just did a round robin. The highlight of the tournament was when my opponents got both my wizards and I hadn't yet drawn await the advant of allies. I was using 20 GI and they hit me with a muster disperses, bye bye Rangers of the North. Next company moves and bam news of doom!!!! Now we're going to lose the only faction points we have and let them double. I go looking though my hand BAM!!!! I have 2 many turns and doublings I save our faction and we win. Our 3 games went 6-0, 4-2, 6-0. I had succesfully helped Mikko defending his title and I got one for myself.

Saturday was the 2 deck general. Nothing too notable, except I got 2nd. I was happy I got to play Manuel, I wanted to see what he had in store. He didn't disappoint he managed to call in 3 turns using his short rests. I had some luck and got to use the short rests too and my Lt of MM got into caves of ulond untapped!!!

Saturday night I played in the White Mithril tournament. This was the one I wanted to play in bad. Mark and I had been training for a month for this. We had 8 players and Timo had a wrench to throw at us. He decided to use Mark's suggested TP scoring system from over a year ago. I had to adapt. (Alot of White Mithril rules won't make sense unless you go look up the rules)

1st game I got an incredibly lucky draw. On the 2nd turn I managed to play Sac of Form on the Balrog of Moria AND play tower raided, rebuild the town, and houses of healing for 2 victory conditions in 1 turn!!! I easily won and got a 5-0 win. Mark also managed a 5-0 win and so we paired off.

Now we knew it would be a 50/50 chance because of how much we playtested, Mark said you want to flip for it and I said sure. But he chickened out. Looks like he should have done it. He managed to play Tower Raided, but I got lucky and played Rebuild the Town and Houses of Healing. He managed to kill Durin's Bane. He pissed me off by influencing Beorn away. So I decided to take Thorin and Strider. I won that game with a 3-2 victory.

Last game I'm doing my Moria squat while my opponent is going around collecting items. I'm not doing much not being hit by much, when all of a sudden Frenzy of Madness, Lecaruth!?!!? I try Vanishment he plays Prowess of Might or whatever which stops my canceler and I'm like CRAP!?!?! I tap 2 black arrows and old thrush and managed to kill it. 4th turn I manage to Sac of Form the Balrog of Moria and about 2-3 turns later get the tower raided, rebuild the town, and houses of healing. I end up with a 5-0 victory. Mark ends up with a 6-0 victory and we're tied. But since I beat him head to head, I win the tournament!!!

I had a great time at Lure and I hope to go back next year.

Brian Min