Gencon Friday Tournament Report

by Adam Molnar

Pre-tourney: "I like you, but I don't like-like you."

As I woke up Friday morning at 3:30, for the 11,169th day of my life, that quote and loneliness weren't far from my mind. Wednesday morning I consoled a coworker whose boyfriend dumped her the night before. I lost a handkerchief I loaned her, because the busboy thought it was a napkin. Wednesday evening I heard the words above when I confessed my friend-crush, to someone I and several of my friends thought was signaling romantic interest. That was a bad night. Thursday, I gave my final exam for my summer statistics class, then went home to pack for the drive to Indianapolis. My book of choice was Pride and Prejudice, if I haven't made things clear. Plus, going to bed at 9:30 pm is weird.

To make things more lonely, I'm driving and rooming by myself this time. My potential roommates couldn't attend, or are travelling with others, or wanted to arrive Thursday for Day 1. I thought about attending just Saturday, for .hack Worlds, but then Decipher offered a free box of Bloodlines to LotR Day 2 qualifiers. I thought one had to play for the box, and the cards, plus fan dollars down to 32nd place, made it a reasonable value to throw something together. Playtesting is for .hack - I hadn't played any LotR since Comic-Con. Given my rustiness, and the expectation of eight rounds of pain, I wanted a couple cheap quick wins. The only viable option is New Orcs with Goblin Hordes, which plays underground sites and gives Dwarves some trouble. On the flip side, I decided to try to clobber Forest Nazgul with Elves, Gandalf, 4 Terrible and Evil, plus Nocked. Because Bloodlines changes the deck - Forced March is all kinds of crazy - the exact decklist isn't that important. I play 4 Skulking Goblin, though, unlike the builds I've seen. It lets me use Scurrying Goblins and Goblin Hordes more efficiently and can exert, for 2 twilight.

For Friday, although it didn't do well in Cali, I wore the Redemption shirt. Cactus Game Design, the makers of Redemption, the Christian CCG where you save lost souls, has a booth at Gencon. The drive is uneventful, given the utter flatness of Indiana, and I arrive in plenty of time to get my fan dollar Exhibitor badge and walk around to the TCG hall. I present my deck, "Yan, Returning to me Salvation." As always, I should explain the title. For the past year or so, I Yan is my closest friend at university, a year behind me in the Statistics PhD program. Originally from Hong Kong, she is evangelical Protestant. This makes an Evanescence quote somewhat appropriate. Why that line, from Tourniquet? It reminds me of 2003 Worlds, where I got through Day 1 and Day 2 to the Top 16. As we drove in for Saturday's match, Amy Lee was the voice of choice, and that was the final song. Also, as my closest friend, Yan is the one I turn to for consolation, and like a good friend, she tries to help me back to the right path.

LotR numbers are well down from last year, as the qualifiers had maybe half the player counts of 2004. This continues to Day 2, which has around 50 people total instead of 80. There are still two heats, each with 25 or so. My odds of winning something are pretty decent. But then, a change! The judges decide to reduce the qualifiers to five rounds; if a rationale was given, I didn't hear it. This is disappointing on several levels. First, I wanted the games - I don't have time to play very often. Second, I prepared for eight rounds. I chose a swarm deck hoping for one or two site 4 kills, giving me breaks. I slept decently the night before, brought healthy snacks, and had been drinking lots of water. Fatigue can lead to late losses, which were now denied me. Finally, it makes the tourney much more random. With eight rounds, one can take two losses safely, meaning a random bad draw can be shrugged off. With five rounds, only one loss is safe, making each shuffle more important. For a World Championship, I want to reduce randomness; well, as much as possible for a card game. The decision increases my melancholy, but I tend to play better when I'm moody, so it might help.

Round 1: Ben, Elf archery / Corsairs

Bid is 0-0, he wins the roll and goes first. I'm happy to see Elven Bow, because I have vitality. I get less happy when I see Castamir-Halberd at 2, which takes out Legolas and Arwen. I think I have him at 4, but Reckless He Rode (!) target-kills someone and Ben gets through. I know I can only get him at 9, and slow down, though I'm doing decently on the FP. I stop at 6, and he's at 7. At site 8, I play nothing. Ben says he fears Radagast (I'm not playing it, but he's right, I might), and doubles. I have a grip full of minions, but he's got 8 cards in hand. It takes me about 5 minutes to find the win. I count twilight, play Watch-tower of Cirith Ungol, use Hordes for two 3-vitality minions, start with Skulking Goblin to make my Scurrying Goblins add pool, and drop 10 minions with enough exertions to strip his hand. After archery, I get two minions on Galadriel, Water Ring, and Asfaloth, and I had 5 twilight for the Barrage the Isengard Underling picked up. Good job, me. Ben gives me the thumbs up.

Round 2: Joe, Dwarf / Dunland

Joe is from Iowa, part of team Dunland Corruption. He bids 2, adds one for Smeagol and goes first. I play nothing early to avoid an annoying site 3 Blood Runs Chill on my Hordes. At 5 I kill Smeagol and Pippin. There are no double moves in this game - he can't and I shouldn't. On his move to 7, I choose wrongly. If I play Cavern Entrance, I win if the only Honed he can get is from the Ring of Guile. If he has a Honed in hand, I should not switch the site. I choose wrongly - Cavern Entrance was right. Elves have a bad matchup with Dunland, and I lose to a site 8 Elder-bomb, though I would have won at 9. Later on, I realize I could have given Joe a corruption win by having Galadriel put on the water ring a few times, which would have been much cooler. Sorry, Joe.

Round 3: Scott, Noble Leaders / Morcs

Scott is from Champaign and qualified in Day 1. No burdens are bid, I "win" the random play and go first, which might be a mistake. But Morcs are one of my better matchups, and I build for a site 4 swarm. He doesn't get me at 4. At sanctuary, he Denethors for Narsil on Elendil (Boromir Ringbearer), letting me draw 2 cards. He had put out Window on the West. Here, things go bad for Scott. He doesn't know I now have 10 minions against his 5 people. Worse yet, my Orkish Worker hits a Witch-King for 8. letting me play all ten cards. He still feels OK until he sees my last card, Nelya. Things don't look so good at Cavern Entrance. This is the "oops, I win" I wanted, so I have 35 minutes to hit the booth, get my box of Bloodlines, and show my shirt to Rob, the Redemption designer. Rob does a double-take. As do I, as I'm 2-1, somehow.

Round 4: Phil, Noble Leaders / Morcs

Manu-fan on the boards, Phil is from California and has a British accent. He's also quite thin, but still tough, I bet. By the way, I forgot to ask: Is that shirt an England rugby shirt? I know the O2 sponsorship but not Vodafone. Or is that Arsenal? Again, with no burdens bid, I "win" and go first. This is a good matchup for me, and it's greatly helped by the fact that I have all 4 Terrible and Evil by site 6. This is important, as I see 7 minions versus my five companions, and no pumps. I have to use my last two Terrible and Evil, then pull the trick with Legolas and Nocked. Only Gandalf dies, and as Phil comments, "Well played". I get ahead, also helped by a site 4 Nelya to Shores, getting the stop, then switching again to an underground site. I turned his +2 move limit (Radagast plus Narsil) to -1. Late game, I double to 8, and he starts at 6 with 9 companions. He plays Drawing His Eye, but takes the -2 for 6 companion Orc, not my last Nelya. This is a mistake, as it lets me switch the site to Shores, drop 5 Orcs, and stop him for the second time this game. With 6 people and two Supporting Fire I'm through handily. He likely couldn't triple - I have Watchful Orc and two Hordes so I pick up lots of minions - but it's nice to do it via the sites. I'm 3-1 and playing an elimination game. Now what?

Round 5: Chris, Dwarves / Corsairs

Chris Tubman is from Michigan, a genuinely nice guy in LotR, and we've talked before. He also knows I play homebrews. At some point he mentioned he borrowed this build from Brian Fred. Sadly, this was after the bidding, because if it was before I could have bid 1 and made him go first. (I would not suspect Brian to play corruption.) Instead, he wins the die roll and makes me go first. This is the key point of the game. He also gets a very early Ships of Great Draught, and as he points out, I can't do much about Corsairs. I try everything - Gandalf's Ring pulls off 6 tokens. I Terrible and Evil Castamir. I switch site 6 to Watch-Tower and discard 2 Winds. This means he gets Anduin Banks down 3 times against my 6 or 7 people, but wounds don't matter that much. But Ships is too much, as he restocks all four Winds by site 8, and kills 4 of my 6 remaining people. My last hope is a big Orkish Worker on his move to 8. He's got just three dwarves, I have lots of minions including and Orkish Worker but not much pool. Chris has three cards left, but the top one is a zero. One of them was Fierce in Despair, which means I had an out but didn't catch it. That's card games, right? I die on my move to 9.

Results

There are lots of 3-2s, so I have to wait around and see what happens. I check with my opponents, but they haven't done so well. When my deck gets returned unsorted I know it's over. I have the lowest tiebreaks of the six or seven 3-2s, and finish 12th in the heat, 23rd overall. Of course, this is disappointing. The upshot is that I get 250 fan dollars, about two more boxes, and I know what I'm doing on Saturday. I want to thank all my opponents, who played with great class, and I hope I did the same.

I head out with Team Bison Bucks and others for a surprisingly decent chicken wrap at the bar across the street, then head off to my hotel about 7 miles away. I still haven't decided what to play for .hack. So where do I decide? In the hot tub, of course! Since I've lost 20 pounds this year, I feel more comfortable heading down there. (Females and Patrick Sullivan and those of alternate lifestyles can email me at adam_molnar@yahoo.com for a picture of me in my bathing suit, though I suspect this will be much less popular than Kimmy the belly dancer from San Diego.) For my decision, you'll need to read the Saturday report.