Tournament Reports

Patric Laxander

Hello all togehter,

here's my tournament report from the Worlds 2005. I only write about the tournament and the games I made and not about all the other things that has happened. ;-) And please ignore wrong grammar and other mistakes :)

Ok here we go:

We (Heiner Viefhues and me) arrived at Friday night (01.00), because we're watching the World Championships in Helsinki at Friday. I decided to play my Fallen Radagast deck that I have played for one year with great succsess (Frist place German Nationals, First Place European Championships and now First Place World Championships)! I optimized this deck after each event, even if it worked well. For example I exchanged my two Dark Tryst with two We have come to Kill who m ade my deck a lot faster and more efficient! Becasue I don't really need Dark Tryst because I have so many cards that are playable in the organization phase and if I played Dark Tryst in the Site phase to draw some wolfs than I always got cards I couldn't use. Still one of the best cards in this deck is Hall of Fire, becaseu you can tap Radagast in your org. phase to get rid of LURE cards or to sideboard. And if you have Radagast and Hall of Fire in the same turn you can start to play a 1 mind ally from sideboard in the same turn with Glove of Radagast!

Okay but now lets go on to my games:

Saturday

Round 1 vs Bernd Brunner from Austria who played a Balrog deck that is mainly bruning all the Free holds in the east of Middle earth to avoid the Elf-Lords! :(

I played a Dwarven Travellers Maia and Elf-Lord hazard Deck against minions but I didn't draw an Elf-Lord in the first Round an that was my only chance to play it becasue all the other time he avoid the double wilderness or the shadowland. But in his Second turn I could play an Maia on him and his Leader just rolled snake eyes when he needed only a four or somethign like that. To bad for him that I rolled a 10 for the body check and his Leader was gone with I'll Report you. So he couldn't set up his company and my Maias killed one character after the other and the game ended 6-0 for me, because his hazards didn't hurt me and I made between 35 and 40 points I guess. So he was really unlucky at the beginning of his game and I made my best rolls in the whole tournament (nearly every body check was a succsess).

Round two vs Tommi Ronkainen (the creator of GCCG himself). He played a Fallen Alatar deck but I haven't seen anything from his deck, besides Isengard and his Havens...His big problem was that I play my vs minions hazard Deck also against Fallen Wizards! And he played with an overt company so on his first move to Isengard I played Chill Them (which he canceled with Marvels Told), Dwarven Travellers which he defeated, and one Maia and an Elf-Lord...So he couldn't enter the side and a lot of his company was dead of wounded. At his second round I just played another Dwarven Travellers and another Maia and after that he just wanted to give up, because he couldn't do anything against my hazard deck. But I convinced him to continue playing...So the rest of the game he tried to enter Isengard and I played all my Hazards against him to prevent that and cycled very fast to my deck to call the council. That was really an easy 6-0 because of my anti-hazard deck against his Fallen Alatar company.

Round three vs Ilkka "the Ringdunker" Launonen who played a Dwarven Ring-dunker with great succsess!!! He startet the game and at his FIRST round he played Pallando, Unexpected Party and two or three Dwarves...wow that quite a nice start! He moved to Lorien with his company and I couldn't play much. I knew that I must cycle very fast through my deck to call the council as fast as possible, because I don't have had some good hazards against him expect the Rolled Down from my Sideboard. And I played a heavy corruption hazard Deck against heroes and I hoped to get The Ballance of Things out and all the other good cards to prevent an too easy dunk. I also halved the Hazard limit every turn to get some extra cards like Mordor in Arms, Dror and Pilfer. I played in my first tunr a character at Rhosgobel and sent him on his way to the Easterling Camp for 4 cards. The only problem with this strategy is that you opponent also draws a lot of cards...He played some Nazguls as Permanent event. On his Second turn he split his party into the Pallando, Thrain and two other Dwarves (too bad I couldn't play Alone and Stupid) and the rest of his Dwarves where still sitting in Lorien to get a Leaf Broach. So the company with Pallando moved to the Gladden Fields where he canceled an Cave Drake with concealment and played easily a Gold Ring. And he also made a thirs company with a three mind Dwarve who moved also to the Easterling camp...so we're both sitting most of the time there and where thinking which cards we want to discard and witch ones not. He was also sideboarding very much the same as I did. And he also thought very long about what cards he should discard or which cards he want to sideboard that I was really surprised, becasue normally you want as many turns as you can get as a ringdunker?! But of course I didn't forced him to play faster... ;-) At his third tunr he moved his Wizard company back to Lorien to join the other company and play one more Leaf Broach. I just drew Rolled Down and wanted to play them on his company before he could join with the other one becasue than he could discard easily a Leaf Broach. But he has had a Ring on his hand so my Rolled Down was not very succsessful. In my third turn I have had only 15 cars left in my deck because of the big using of the Easterling Camp and he decided not to use his Khamul to discard my hand because than I might call the Council in Round three...So he went on his fourth turn to Cirith Ungol, there he played the Scroll of Isildur. And my Mordor in Arms was really useless becasue he didn't moved through Nurn. So my fourth turn began and Mikko called time so I have had a last turn and Ilkka not becasue he started the game. I just played some more points (Girdle...) and won the game at this point. It would be really interesting if he could make it with one more turn, becasue I have had My Precious (ok he had Withdrawn as he showed me later) and a lot of Corruption points and one Rolled Down with Mouth of Sauron...but ok it was a strange game...both of us cycled through our deck and only played four rounds. If Ilkka had played more faster maybe he might have one more turn. So I won of course 6-0.

Round 4 vs Miika Karmitsa who played a Balrog Deck also located in the east of Middle earth, so I could discard all my Elf-Lords again... :( Sorry but I can't really remember what has happened in this game, I only know, that he played his deck well, without any mistakes and I won the game 4-2 (with 37-28 points or something like that) because I just made more marshalling points.

Round 5 vs Wim Heemskerk who played a Hero Deck with Sam, Fatty and Cirdan. At this point it was clear that I was in the finals but if I defeat Wim 5-1 he could be 5th. So he asked me with a big smile (and not really seriously) if I can give him a win but I told him that I don't want to do that...but lets come to this point in my final game vs Wim...;-) At the beginning normally any hero Deck has more points than a Fallen Wizard, becasue you need stage cards like Great Patron and so on. So it was the same in this game but I managed to draw Great Patron early and my deck worked quite well, so I knew I was not so much behind in the third turn. So he asked me at the of his turn: "Are I'm still ahead even a little bit?" And I said: "Sure!". Than he played The White Council (it gives 1 mp if you're ahead as a hero). Than I said wait...let first count the points...and the result was that I was 5 points ahead! ;-) The bad thing was that I couldn't hurt him so much with my corruption becasue of his Hobbits and he played Orcrist on Sam and he also played some faction I think in Rohan and two NOBLE STEEDS...I collected all my Assassins because he could cancel one really easily. Than in his forth turn I played one Assassin on a Steed and becasue of his Forewarned is Forearmed I thought it couldn't cancel this Attack, but he tapped his Steed and told me to cancel the Strike...wow nice job Patric. Okay lets try another Assassin on the same "now tapped" Steed and he played No Waiting Wonder and the Steed just killed my Assassin... But ok now I have one Assassin left and he has no Forewarned this time, so I played my thrird Assassin on the untapped last untapped character - Sam -. He made the first srike because he had Orcrist and good dices but he missed the two other strikes but I couldn't kill him. And at my last turn I have had two corruption cards on my Fallen Radagst an he played The Balance of things and tapped Ren for a cc. I survived him becasue I tapped some characters in support but the funny thing was that his Wizard missed the cc becaseu I have had Itangast at home out and he also have had a LURE so he was at 8 cp and he missed the check and his Traitor attacked Elrond and wounded him but I couldn't kill him. At this point it seemed that he lost the game 6-0 instead of 4-2 because he lost his wiard with his own hazards...that was quite funny. Even Elrond has had an Alone and Stupid but so far he survived this check...Than at the council there was still this Bane left and first he failed his cc against 9 with Elrond and he was also dead with -3 mp. So it looked like an 6-0 win for me...but my Radagast get corrupted, too (even if I only had to roll a 4 or 5). Than all my points go away (Girdle...) and the game ended with a 17 to 14 (4-2) win for me. Before that last round we had both nearly 40 points...it was unbelievable.

So I get second after Ilkka the Ringdunker who managed to dunk 4 times!!! It was great to see that also Heiner was qualified after a 0-6 / 2-4 start!!!!!!!!!

At the evening we played the Drinking game where I drew Gwaihir but than I realized to my surprise that we can't take one site of our choice and so I have had no ally! :( We only could play two round because it was really late so I ended with a 6-0 and a 4-2 win with a second place (at the worlds 2003 it was different, I became Worlds Drinking Game Champion and second at the real Worlds... ;-)))

So we went in bed a three o'clock an it was great that we only start late at 13.00 at Sunday, because I haven't had time to change my deck. I stand up early at 08.00 to change my deck or to decide which one I wanted to play. I have had a Dwarven Ring-dunk Lucky Search deck (not that good if everyone is prepared to play against a Ringdunker, because it was really clear that Ilkka would play Ringdunk again), a Balrog burner deck and a very fast Hero deck (which I haven't had time to test it before). Becasue I knwo that Heiner also plays a Elf-Lord Maja Hazard deck and becasue the deck is too slow to compete a Ringdunker I decided to play my Fallend Radagast again, with some small changes. Maybe I have had played the hero deck if I could make some playtesting...who knows. Heiner told me that he wants to play a Balrog Burner deck against me, to attack my Weathertop company. So I have to keep my Elf-Lord Maja deck to protect my company at Weathertop beacause that are nearly the only hazards that can hurt this kind of deck and I changed my deck against minions like this: I exchanged the two Sellswords with two Arthedain Rangers and I removed I think Adunaphel for a third Elf-lord. And I removed one Hiding for a Diversion. I also took the Withdrawn to Mordor in the Sideboard and put one Awaiting the Call in, because at the end of the game they often Sideboarded Muster Disperses or Call of Home in. I expected that Wim playes again Hero adn becasue of the Hobbit deck I have seen the day before I took Lobelia from my SB straight into the deck. I also put 3 Great Secrets are Buried there and Rolled Down in my hazard deck against the Ringdunker. And I exchanged also one Hiding with a Scroll of Isildur! ;-)

Sunday

Round 1 I faced Heiner who hasn't changed his deck from Saturday and played a Balrog squatter deck. And he played a Dwarven Traveller Maia deck against me and also with one Bane of the Ithil Stone. In his first round he missed to move to the Underleas because he rolled snake eyes when he only needed a four...bad luck at the beginning for him. My only problem was that I have had nothing against his companys except 3 Heedless...but I draw them quite good and cycled them as often as possible. the whole game a was 5 to 10 points ahead and I was also faster than his deck. I played my Majas as Permanent event so that he couldn't play them on my company. He played My Precious in my first M/H phase and I knew how strong it can be with Chill them...so I took two Withdrawn to Mordor with my first Longbottom Leaf in the deck...to my luck I drew one in round three so that I only couldn't do nothing in round two, because there was a chilled My Precious waiting at the Weathertop. I couldn't play so much against him, even a Nameless Thing doesn't hurt him. the day before I told him that the only card that hurts me is Unabated in Malice, becasue it cancels the Farmer Maggot effect and he haven't thought of that before. So he borrowed a Unabated and I also expected to face it at my last round. So I split my company, one where sitting at Weathertop (to use Farmer if he don't play unabated) and the other one moved direct to the Old Forrest. He played on the Weathertop company Unabated as I expected and he tapped the other company out with Dwarven Travellers and Majas. But I played another Character in the site phase with We Have Come to Kill to get Tom and Mitschief. So I called the council at round 5 and won the game with 4-2 (37 to 27). It was a close game, because he is a very good player an he has had a good Hazard deck against me with three Heedless, Bane and all the Dwarven Travellers and Maias.

Round 2 vs Ilkka "the Ringdunker" Launonen who played his deck again. He played much faster int his game than in our first one! The bad thing was that he gets first again...I drafted Balin first because that was the first character he drafted in our first game and I was hoping to bounce him... ;-) But he drafted to my surprise Kili. My second one was now Gloin and now he also drafted him. Than I drafted my last hero dwarf Oin who also bounced what I expected and that was really good for me, becasue I don't need the hero dwarf they are not that good than the minions ones. So he only started with Thrain, Kili and some 2 and one minder! He played Pallando and Unexpected Party again in round one and moved them to Lorien. I played an Unexpected Outpost for a Stormcrow against his Unexpected Party. And a Cave Drake but he played concealment. I also played one Great Secrets are Burried there but I haven't found a Gold Ring or the Scroll. On my resource side I wanted to get the Wizard River Horses from SB becasue he plays so many permanent events as a hazard. And I chose not to move to the Easterling Camp for the extra cards. In his second move he stayed at Lorien to play a Leaf Broach and he just send a three midn character to Bhru Whidu as nearly the whole game. I played Stormcrow at his company and he mus discard his Party cards which means every tunr only 1 new character and he couldn't controll Thrain anymore. In his third move he split his company and one moved with Great Road to the Gladden Fields, so I knew that he wants to play a Gold Ring there and played my Rolled Down with great succsess! He discarded his Gold Ring and couldn't do anything at the Gladden Fields. He just played one Leaf Broach with the other comany at Lorien. And a 3 mind Dwarf moved this time to Buhr Widu to get three cards instead of Easterling Camp, because he was afrait of my Assassins. :( Than in my third turn I drew the Scroll of Isildur and moved with my Weathertop company to the Stones...it was a hard decicion because I have had also two or three wolves in my hand. As I expected I haven't faced too much hazards and played the Scroll easily. Now he was really surprised to see that I have the Scroll in my deck that was a wonderful moment! ;-) In his fourth turn he moved again with Great Road to the Gladden Fields and I played Rolle down again with Mouth of Sauron and again he lost a Gold Ring from hand! I also played another Great Secrets are Burried there and revealed another Gold Ring which one he now have to play in the underdeeps. So it went quite well for me so far! Finally at his fifth turn he moved the whole company to the Brown lands and got a Gold Ring. he has had one Cram left so he could make it to mount doom in a sixt round but time was called and so I have had one more last round and I stopped him dunking again. If he moved to the mount doom in his last turn I would have had another Rolled Down (Uvatha, Mouth) and some corruption cards. But it is more safer if he can't make the rolls even if it is one or two rolls at 10. ;-)

I have had 10 points after two round but I need a final 4-2 win, because Ilkka and Heiner was facing each other in the last round and one will get 6 points and the other one 7 so I have to win at least 4-2 to become World Champion.

Round 3 vs Wim who played a Beorn, Cirdan and Elrohir whatever mp Deck. At this point he has had zero points so I asked him if he would mind to give me a 4-2 win (more for fun than seriously)...and he smiled and said that I haven't give him a win in the Qualifications, too... ;-) So I just have to win 4-2 on my own! I can remember that I played Hiding in my first turn even if I had only one Wolf to paly but perhaps I would draw some more cards I can use...So I only played this one wolf and ended my turn. He played some Wormsbane and I played Great Secrets on him and I saw Orcrist who he now have to play at an underdeep site. My second turn was really horrible!!! It was some kind of a Nightmare because I haven't had a Hiding and he played The Moon is Dead and a Chill Douser which I responded with a Marvels Told but he played again another Moon is Dead. So 4 strikes at 9 and no Farmer Maggot to cancel. After that chill Douser he played a Stirring Bones who now was 4 at 11. and He played that card where you are taken prisoner if you fail. So I ended up with one tapped Gloin, one prisoner Threlin who was assassinated in the next round (-2 mp points) and one wounded Gulla. I havent had a sage or a scout anymore...at that point I really thought I will lose the game 6-0 and again fail to become World Chamion!!! I just started discarding a lot of my resource cards because I haven't had the characters to play them and went for my hazards!!! Because that was my only chance. And I was right, I played a lot of Lures and also Itangast and Scorba at Home, so I corrupted Elrohir with Dragon Sickness and Beorn with an Alone and Stupid if I remeber it right. So he had only his wizard and I guess Elrond left. For my surprise, too I recovered really fast because of two We have come to Kill and at the end I finally won the game with 25 to 23. It was the hardest game at the whole event and it is nice to see that you can also win with this deck if you are nearly dead! :)

I promised several people to change my deck for further events, because it might be fun to play for me but not for my opponents! ;-) So I think I want to play some other good deck and I know there are a lot of good decks to built. Of course I will play it at GCCG against people who wants to play against this deck.

I have to say many thanks to Mikko and all the other peoples who helped at the organization!!! I really was surprised that there are so many finnish people still playing this game. I have had a great time at Finnland and I hope to see you all at the Lure of MECCG or every other big Event!

I hope it was not too booring for you to read my report and I would like to read some other reports, too!!!

Greetings,

Patric

Heiner Viefhues

Hi guys,

On my journey through northern europe i'm at the moment in ventspils/latvia and just thought this lazy monday evening is just the right time to write a short report about the worlds. First of all one time more many thanks to Mikko for the great organisation, the superp atmosphere and last but not least his amazing kind helpfulness. I have very much enjoyed the days in turku. But coming to the tournament. I played - i think a quite new - balrog squatter (spelling right?) deck. Umagaur with a wip and three 3 mind characters move in the first round with the he of gangways to mount gundabad and play there some blasting whatever, war wolfs or great bats (15 1-point cards plus few recruits). Second turn the go to sarn gorwing leaving one 3 mind character behind. he is joined hopefully joined with the help of we have come to kill by a ork captian. An other ork captian and three mind combo pops up in the underdeeps side of mount gram and goes there. So 3 quite good combos that could play nearly 2/3 ouf my resource card and only have to fear detainment attacks and heedless. The rest is done by the balrog fetching the orks of moria, stinker and the axe. AS Hazard deck against heros i played pure corruption, against minion chilled dwarfs with maya and elve lords. So far the theory but lets see how was reality.

1. Round against Wim

Up front I get a very strong opponent, knowing it from former tournament. He played hero with beorn and the big elves gathering items in the balrog hills. He started and runs with beorn direct to moria (!) the other company I think went to mount gram. On my turn the balrog showed up together with a hill troll and injured beorn in cXc (this was the start of a great beating cxc battle in which I made no and wim almost every body check, o.k. hill trolls boby is a little bit weaker than that of the big eleves. The game went on all like this, both gathering little points but my ork captian and three mind combo at mount gram (?)gathered quite a lot of items and allies and so I was a little bit in the lead. But than the fatal compo of wim pops up. Butrakaur as hazard followed by lot of trolls that not any longer attack as detainment and does not count against the hazard limit (!!!). I think alone for this idea (I never saw before) he earned final victory. He smashed my complete company and I get behind. After that a lot of unusual but amazing game play happened, however it would take sheets to write it down. Anyway it was a great game that was quiet to the end unclear even it ended 6-0 for wim.

2. Round against Bernd

So after just 1 round i was under great pressure if i want to reach the final, i thought i have to win every game now. Bernd played like me balrog so it is one key to victory to get the balrog out. I started and do not get him. What I oversee (my biggest mistake in the tournament) that I had a dark tryst in my hand. My be it was from the very intensive 1 round against wim (we finished as last) or the disapointment to loose a quiet tide game 6-0, who knows. The first card that i then draw one my turn was the balrog :-(. Anyway for me deck it is not so importent to have the balrog, gathering points normally very quickly and finishing the deck somewhat about the 5 round. But as wim he was aperfect hazard deck against me. Undead strategy + sell swords + heedless, all playable against shadowholds. On the other hand he plays a burner balrog, against mormally my hazard deck is perfect. I won quiet a lot of this kind of games 6-0 only by just crushing his company. However, I draw only resources that i could not really play because he tapped me out and as i draw them his comany was to strong and avoiding cleverly double wildernesses and shadowlands (chilled elflords!!!). Finally Bernd took a quiet save 4-2 victory, he was in front whole game, i never managed really to catch to him.

So after 2 rounds the worlds were nearly over for me, playing against hazards that are optimised against shadow/darkholdsquatter, little bit unlucky dices and last but not least a big mistake (dark tryst). As a result during lunchtime i take to my pizza 2 big bier, thinking that it does not matter anyway.

3. Round against Birk

O.K. at least an opponnet that i know from former games, but normally hard to beat high when he plays his very save balrog ring haven deck (as I know from the germans in 2004 where i take a close 4-2 win with even having the balrog out by myself). Fortunatelly he played a ren scatter mordor deck, what is -i think- a lot slower than my balrog squatter and gathers less points. So Birk does not get his resources out at the right time and could not really hit me whis his hazards. I managed to finish quiet earlly (round 4 or 5?)for a 6-0 victory.

4. Round against IIja

IIja played fallen Gandalf in the regions around Minas Tirith. Normally corruption does not hurt him a lot and my 3 assasins are not a real problem, but he had quiet bad dices,. On the other hand i was again very quick because of missing hazards and so i took a clear 6-0 win.

After 4 rounds my situation changed complettly. I was with 14 points on 5 places and the 4 place (Miika) plays against Ilkka the ring dunker. So I (only) need to win my last game and I would reach the final if Ilkka dunks again. Amazing turn-around of the desaster situation at lunch time ;-). Same was the truth for my opponent, somewhat a final for the 4 place (if Miika looses)

5. Round against Antti

Antti plays Fallen Pallando with tom, and the sappling and of course some factions. Before he wins three times 4-2 and looses one time 2-4. I know that that would be a close game esspecially my corruption hazard strategy would not really hit him. The game was from both sides a slow gathering of points, in which Antti slows me more down than i managed to slow him. I think i round 3 or 4 he played the sappling having no other items or at least legacy on the table. On ther other hand he played wizards trove very early in the game. So i sideboared neither so acient nor... from my sideboard and played as much possible corruption cards on the sappling bearer, hoping to corrupt him or make him store the item. He finally stored it and meanwhile i drew neither so.... I played it and he has now time left to play the sapling again. This was the key to victory otherwise i would quiet sure have lost 4-2, but know doubling my item points it was a clear 4-2 victory.

Short after that it was clear that Ilkka dunked (one time more thanks to Ilkka for that fair play in a game suomi against suomi) and i am in the final four. I would not bet a nickel on that after round 2, quiet a miracle.

Report of the final four follows....

After finishing the semifinals there was a clear need to change my deck in order to win against the 2 hero decks (Ilkka's ring dunker deck and wim’s big elf deck with this nasty hazard deck (umagaur/buthracaur and after that whatever non detainment troll/ork attacks). Only second priority was to change my deck against patric’s wethertop radagast deck. I though to play my semifinal maya hazard deck (with little changes) against him had a good change to slow him down enough to win the game 4:2 (this was quite a mistake). There were to big problems to redesign my decks. First time, because I played the drinking game and so only the next morning I had time for deck building. Second cards, because I only had few other cards with me, due to my 4 weeks trip though Scandinavia. Fortunately I bring at least a basic balrog burner resource deck with me, in cause I would reach the finals. I put the burning cards in the sideboard and add instead the arkenstone and the scroll to have something good against the dunker on the resource sight. To fight wim’s big eleves (I hoped he would play it again against me because of his 6-0 semifinal win) I make the burner even a bit more deadly with poison as starting item, some more power enhancers and umagaur/buthracaur as starting characters to make his troll hazard combination an illusion. The hazard deck was a trade off between stopping the dunker on the one hand and still having enough to stop wim’s eleves on the other hand. I decided me for a classic hazard deck with rivers, cave drakes, great secrets buried there (good against both) and men as basic hazard strategy. For the dunker I added 2 storm crows and rolled down to the sea. My problem was that most of this cards I hadn’t with me. It took a long time to lent them from quite a lot of different guys (many thanks to them again). Finally, after finishing the deck and writing the deck list I had only about 15 minutes to optimize the maya hazard deck against patric. So the only thing I made was to add 2 bains of the ithilstone. What a big mistake :-(, I could have easily added 2 searching eyes, 2 cave drakes and 2 blind to the west (very nice card against withdrawn!) or even ire to the east for the useless shadowhold hazards, foolish words or the eleve lords. All this this card I had (either in the sideboard or in the hazard deck against heros). I didn’t, perhaps having the unrealistic fear that one of the finalists would change to minion/balrog deck. On the resource side I made no change to my semifinal deck at all.

First round against Patric.

Patric had the better start, because of me missing my dice roll to the undergates (you need a four ;-). That doesn’t sound so important, but against patrics proven very fast and strong radagast deck it is a serious problem because your deck cycling becomes bad from the first round on. The whole game patric had the lead by 5 to 10 points and finally won 4:2. Some interesting stations of the game that could have been with a bit of luck turning points: I draw stinker in the 2 round and just moved him to the weathertops (it is possible, because of his special ability!). This is devasting for the radagast weathertop deck (I played it on my own for years) with chill them on the table. It is essential to draw withdrawn hoping the opponent hasn’t blind to the west until then in his hand. Patric did so on his next turn and I, who has to sideboard for the blind to the west, didn’t get it until then(follow on problem of the bad deck building!). After that patric plays stinker for his own (otherwise my stinker would have been there again next turn!) and one big problem for him was solved. The problem with sideboarding and getting hazards like searching eye, blind to the west and ire to the east I had all game long, who nice it would have been having them in the deck ;-(. On his final turn patric manages to go to the old forest with a part of his company (I hindered him to beam there with the help of farmer margot by a card tip he gave me when we go to turku and talk about our decks). They were all tapped, but patric played with we have come to kill (again no ire in my hand :-( ) one one point character, tom (3 p.) and miefshiefs (2 p.). After that he had a12 point lead and i had only 8 points in my hand. So the game was lost. Wouldn’t he been have able to play tom with the character it was 8 points and there was still a chance to win, because I had 8 points in my hand and his faction point wouldn’t been have doubled. Anyway I missed the influence roll (need a 5) and only made 1 one point card point because of a revealed heedless. So finally a high sounding 4:2 by 11 points victory for patric. I am nearly 100 % sure that I would have won the game at least 4:2 if made the described deck changes before. On the other hand at the end I was quiet happy not winning 4:2, because I still would have been third and had only managed to successfully hinder patric becoming new world champion.

Secound round against Wim

I had something to put right, having the 0-6 semi final defeat still in mind. If wim would play the same deck my chances were very good to be successful. He did and additionally he had a cruel start, I killed Beorn with the help of some poison in CvCC and before two enhanced sellswords killed glorfindel and his wizard in the first round. I really don’t know much more of this game, I had all game long a 6-0 lead and so it ended.

Last round against Ilkka the ringdunker

Before the final round three persons could still become world champion. Best chances had patric who “only” needed to win his game (but that against wim, who is known for his strong hazard decks, especially if his knows what deck his opponent is playing, and the radagast weathertop is more than known). If patric looses his game, the winner of the other game (Ilkka- me) becomes world champion. I can tell you, this final round was more than existing, because wim really smashed patric at the weathertop with the help of undeads and so during the game patric was 6-0 or at least 5:1 behind (More about it you can read in patric’s report).

To the game illka against me itself is not so much to say. On the resource side I draw very good cards, getting out the scroll (makes it by its own at least a 40 % chance to win the game) and the arkenstone (pretty against his dwarf dunker deck) very early. So a long time it looks like I could win the game. On the hazard side it was unfortunately very different. I draw rolled down much to late, couldn’t hinder my opponent in the first to play with a quite poor company a ring at the gladden fields and my storm crow against unexpected party wasn’t as successful as I though. My Great secrets buried were 100% unsuccessful, hazard creatures could not kill the wizard and so he manages to come to mount doom with his wizard, one ring and two leave brooches in its hand in round 4. This means 6 ring tests against a 10 (assuming he has 3 wizards tests) giving Ilkka a 60 % chance of winning. He made the 10 in the third attempt and win. Good dunking in only 4 rounds against a special build hazard deck, congratulations Ilkka.