Two Tourney Wins on the Same Day...

Ok, Saturday was a good day for me in LOTR TCG:

In the morning, I traveled to Eindhoven and participated in an Expanded Middle Earth draft. I got the Ranger/Orc set, which I wasn't too thrilled about at first, but then I realized that Horror of Harad is a beast if played properly. Due to the lack of an included draft pack, we were using 2 Shadows packs in addition to 3 Bloodlines packs. So in the draft, I was focusing on getting cards to support these two cultures, if at all possible. I was focusing early on drafting usable companions and was fortunate to have a Shadows Theoden passed to me, which I kept. Then in my next pack, I got a (foil) Bloodlines Eomer! Very nice. Then I was able to accumulate 3 x Ride with Me, which is a very nice pump when used with Theoden. I also managed to pull a Sauron (WOW!) and a (foil) Porter Troll. Bloodlines copies of Faramir and Isildur were passed to me and I jumped on them, along with a Kingsfoil for Faramir's text. :-) I also managed to pull 2 orc culture pumps and a copy of the shadows orc that lets you pull events back. All this combined to allow me to assemble a pretty decent deck that really beat down fellowships while keeping my own alive and kicking. I won all three of my games in shadow kills, and was basically co-winner with another player, which was nice. The keys to my wins were basically due to the fact that I had four damage +1 and fierce minions in it, I think. After a fun day of drafting and playing, I headed home....

Safely at home, I joined the early constructed tourney online, and was able to win that in 3 rounds with a build of the Noble Leaders deck I built in the article below. :-)

Winner! Two Articles, Two 1st Places!

Wow, so I've written two articles and have won cobracards' contest twice! Not half bad. I've added links to my two winning articles over under my "links" section. The article I wrote for February was part one of a two part series, so I'll be posting that 2nd article in the next week or so.

In the meantime, I'm going to Gent this weekend to participate in the world's first Order of Istari offline tourney. It should be fun, and I'm looking forward to unveiling a new deck I've been working on. :-) Wish me luck!

Kings and Stewards ... My 2nd Article

I wrote my second article over at CobraCards.com. VOTE FOR IT! Check it out by following this LINK.

Here's the first couple of paragraphs to whet your appetite.

Kings and Stewards: A look at Pre and Post Hunters Noble Leader Deck:
Part 1

The release of the Hunters block will see the rotation of the Two Towers block, and that means key cards for several popular decks will be rotated. One popular deck that can maintain its effectiveness - and possibly even improve - with the release of the Hunters block is the Noble Leader deck. In this article, I’ll detail a version of a Noble Leader deck I use offline, and how that deck will change as Hunters comes. This is Part 1, which details a Noble Leader deck in the current standard format.

First, I want to take a look at the card from which the deck gets its name: Noble Leaders (NL). NL lets you transfer tokens into a str +1 and dmg +1 pump in a 1:1 ratio, and allows you to add a token to it for each of the following you can spot when you play it: Boromir, Aragorn, Faramir, and Denethor. Thanks to Boromir, Bearer of Council, a player can actually start with all 4 of these companions on the table, using Aragorn, Strider; Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith; and Faramir, Prince of Ithilien. Starting with these 4 companions allows you to get maximum use out of NL from the very start. Alternately, you could start with Faramir, Captain of Gondor; Aragorn, Strider; and Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith, which is probably a stronger initial fellowship, considering that most minions are roaming until at least site 4 (taking advantage of Faramir’s +2 strength against roaming minions).

When choosing which Faramir to use, Prince of Ithilien provides more protection against swarms (with a possession, he is defender +1), while Captain of Gondor is better for against beatdown decks. With the prevalence of lurker swarm decks and because of his improved resistance, I chose to go with Prince of Ithilien for this deck, but you can adjust your deck based on your meta. Let’s look at our other companions for a second: Aragorn is a great companion and his 1 twilight cost is phenomenal for a companion of his abilities. Denethor is the ultimate in filtering and pulling the cards you need at site 3 for an effective march to Mt Doom.

Check out the rest at CobraCards.com!

I wrote my first article...

My first LOTR article ever is up over at Cobracards.com. It's called "Introducing the Hunters Block - The Three Hunters" and it goes over a post-Two Towers rotation standard-legal deck featuring the new versions of Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn (the Hunters). Check it out and vote for it if you like it! You can go directly there by clicking here.

There's also a great contest going on over on the LOTR Online forums where you submit designed cards for a chance to have them used in the actual game. This is a dream card designers wish come true! Head over there, and while you're at it, check out the cards I designed:

Uruk
Orc
Evil Man
Gamling

Build a ME deck!

Ok, I've been seriously slacking with the contests, but I have decided to bring them back with the release of the "Expanded Middle Earth Draft Box" that will one day be rotated into standard.

I am issuing a challenge to build a standard-legal deck using any of the cards featured in the set. Send me your decklists, along with strategies for playing them, and I will pick the top 3, and post a poll on the Decipher and Online Boards asking people to judge the decks. At the end of the contest, the person whose deck got the most votes will win!

In order to qualify, your deck must contain at least 3 companions and 3 minions from the ME set. They DO NOT have to be from the same box set. Winner will get the online versions of the 3 companions & 3 minions they use! Contest details below.

Who: Anyone!
What: Middle Earth Draft Deck Building Contest
When: 11:59 pm EST Sunday, 21 August 2005
Where: My email address: grashopper2001 AT yahoo.com
Why: Cause contests are fun!

Ok, so it's been a while

Ok, I haven't been very good at keeping up with this, but there's a new set (or two) out, and it's exciting to play with it.

I have been having fun playing with the new draft boxes that have been released, and its looks like many others have as well.

I participated in my 2nd offline tourney yesterday, and did ok, I went 1-3, winning my first game and then losing the next three. They were all fairly close, with one loss coming to a traveled leader/caras galadhon at site 9 to prevent a site 9 swarm, and with another loss coming at site 9 when my opponent's frodo was able to keep from being overwhelmed. I played a Ring-Bound roaming and Uruk deck (which is about the only deck I have the offline cards for).

This is a screenshot of the winning entry for the recent Contest