Jean-Paul's report of the Dutch Nationals

A few days before nationals, Kees Schipstra asked me if I wanted to judge nationals, since he couldn't do the job himself because it turn out his rating was high enough to participate. After giving it some thought, I said I'd do it. On friday, the night before nats, Kees called again. It turned out, if one of the invited players didn't show up at nationals, I would be the next in line to be allowed to participate, so I'd better bring a deck, just in case. I was pretty surprised; my rating was only 501! Problem was, the only deck I had lying around was my highly experimental Helm of Her Secrecy deck, designed for casual play, certainly not for nationals. Luckily, I still had the deck listing of the resource part of my Isle of the Ulond squatter deck (only played it once or twice), so I rebuilt that one. I didn't have enough time to construct a hazard deck, so instead, I made a pile of hazards I use most often and built my hazard decks in the train, while travelling to Arnhem. Actually, I kind of hoped I wouldn't have to play, since I really thought my deck would have no chance of winning any game; it was nationals, after all... In Arnhem, however, Daniel Spronk didn't show up (as Kees had expected), so there were only 11 players. I had to play. Oh well, I thought, why not, I've got nothing to lose.

Round 1, vs. Rob van Gansewinkel. I'd met him before in Delft and Utrecht, but had never played him. Rob had a Coastal Seas/Gondor hero deck. We both drew Pallando in our starting hands, but I got to go first and played him, so Rob had to wait for his back-up wizard, Alatar, who didn't show up until very late in the game. On top of that, his Cirdan rolled snake eyes for his very first corruption check (Lure of Nature, I believe) and was discarded and Rob missed a couple of faction rolls. My deck didn't do great either (it turned out to be a bit slow and corruption was a bit of a problem), but because of Rob's bad luck, I still won. 4-2. Phew! At least I wouldn't have to go home with no points at all! Round 2, vs. Ard van Kessel, my former team mate (team challenge in Aachen, Germany). Ard played a hero deck with undead hazards. My first turn was perfect: I played Pallando, sent my company to the Isle of the Ulond, played a major item, played Here, There or Yonder, rolled high, played Quickbeam and untapped the site with Look More Closely Later. On my second turn, however, Ard played The Moon is Dead and 3 Chill Dousers in a row; ouch! Gimli and Oin got wounded, and this severly slowed down my deck. Later, Strider joined Pallando in the Grey Havens and the two of them went to Ye Olde Forest, to see if Tom was available. Assassin. Hah, but I was prepared; I played Forewarned is Forearmed and Risky Blow: 2 kill points. Another Assassin. Damn. Should've expected that. Oh, well. Strider cancelled one attack, Pallando survived the other two. Phew. Close one. But then, Ard discarded his Daelomin at Home to increase the hazard limit and played his third Assassin! Argh! Pallando had to do it all by himself this time. Luckily, he didn't even get wounded, but that little trip through the forest could've easily cost me my wizard. Meanwhile, Ard had a little less luck fighting off the ahunt dragons I threw his way; his company didn't get butchered or anything, but most of the time, everyone was either tapped or wounded by the time Ard reached his destination site. Eventually, after Ard's brave but unsuccesful last turn, I had a couple of mp's more than Ard did and won 4-2. Round 3, vs. Robert van Grieken. Robert played a Balrog deck (Great Army of the North and some Under-deeps stuff, with roadblock hazards). Snowstorms bounced my company back to Rivendell the first few turns, but after that, Gimli et al. reached the Isle and stayed there, so roadblock wasn't a problem for them anymore. Pallando and Strider had some more trouble; Long Winters tapped Bree and Ye Olde Forest, so I couldn't play the Rangers or Tom. Luckily, Long Winters don't tap Havens, so by playing the Elves of Lindon, I could still score a couple of faction points. Meanwhile, I tried to annoy Robert with Unabated in Malice and Tidings of Bold Spies (neat combo, btw), The Way is Shut, Foolish Words, Covetous Thoughts and Adunaphel. At the council, we both had 29 mp's, so we had to use the weakest link method. Oin, bearing Durin's Axe, turned out to be not completely trustworthy, so I lost 2.5-3.5.

Round 4, vs. Kees Schipstra. Kees played a hero deck with Glorfindel, Strider and a few low- minded characters. For his hazards, he relied on Long Dark Reach and a couple of unique Dragons. Strider got corrupted by a Lure of Nature on his first trip, but Glorfindel & Eowyn played Dragon-Helm and Wormsbane and the Iron-deeps on turn two. Meanwhile, my dwarves (and Arwen) were doing OK at the Isle of the Ulond; Kees didn't have any corruption cards in his deck, so they were pretty safe. Cirdan & Pallando went to The Old Forest but two Whole Villages Rouseds made sure it took me three turns to play Tom. On my last turn, I played the Rangers of the North (my only faction), Gwaihir (Here There or Yonder) and a Habergeon of Silver (with Bounty of the Hoard). Nice! I think the final score was 28-21. 4-2. My final score: 14.5 tournament points.

Maarten "Umagaur" won (got a binder with 10 promo's and a bunch of boosters, iirc), Arjan Schipstra got second place (several boosters, again irrc), and I, much to my own surprise, got third place (ltd. edition starter deck)!

I'd like to thank Kees for organizing the event, Wim, Simone and Arco for prize support and Rob, Ard, Robert and Kees (again) for being great opponents. I had a lot of fun playing you guys! And all the others for being patient with such a bad judge; I guess coordinating two tournaments (there was also a sealed deck side- event) and playing in nationals all at the same time is just a bit too much for one person to handle (I'm sorry for the chaos)

Yours sincerely,
Jean-Paul "The Sly Southerner"