Worlds 2008 report

[Fangorn]

Hello,

Here is my report of Worlds 2008.

First thanks to organizers and referees.

It was the first time I attended a worldwide event of MECCG.

This week-end was very friendly.
Even during main tournament, players hade a very nice behaviour.
For example, when a card was played and not yet resolved, players allowed to take it back.

Additionally, it was nice – at least for me – to speak german with austrian and german players.


Friday

I attended Minion Sealed.
I never played a sealed tournament before and it’s interesting to play cards not often used.
Fortunately I understand german so I wasn’t hampered to build my deck (it may have been the case because I’m not familiar with minion cards).

Each game was very tight with at most 3 MPs difference.
I won the 3 first rounds 4-2 (against Hervé Duval, Thomas Schrei and Bruno da Lucia), allowing me to play the final against Kris van Beurden.
The loyalty of Grey Mountains Goblins being to deep toward Kris, I lose this last round 4-2.

I ended thus with 14 TPs and I think the 4th place.
I was very happy of this unexpected result.


Saturday

I played  with my favorite deck, 'Entmoot under Arien’s transit' (see http://www.meccg.net/dforum/viewtopic.php?t=2854).
My low-level goal was to finish not least.
My high-level goal was to finish with 10 TPs, based on 5 defeats 4-2.

1st round

I played against Wolfgang Penetsdorfer, who played a hero dwarves / Eriador deck.

First part of the game was undoubtfully at my disadvantage, with Thranduil being killed on 2nd turn.
Second part of the game was undoubtfully at my advantage, because my hazard part worked well against a wizardless opponent.

Finally I won this very tight game 4-2 TPs, thanks to Wolfgang who in fact forgot to add his wizards in his deck !

2nd round

I played against Wannes Vansina, who played a fallen Radagast deck.
When Wannes announced his wizard, I thougt I was sticked with my Ent-allies deck.

I started this game with a bad feeling, which disappeared quickly because I played an Ent-ally first, and I played Bane of the Ithil-stone during his 2nd turn, which disallowed him to play non-unique allies from his discard pile.
I took a little and definitive advantage when I succedeed a Call of Home on a lone Haldalam at tapped Wellinghall, preventing him to play Ent allies.

Finally I won this game 4-2 TPs (total 8 TPs), and was very happy to finish this game with 3 Ent-allies (to none for him) against a fallen Radagast !

3th round

I played against Heraclio Sanchez who played a Balrog deck.
It was the first time I played against a Balrog deck and I discovered the effectiveness of this avatar : being allowed to bring into play 2 characters per turn, moreover from sideboard, is indeed incredibly powerful.

During his first turn he moved to Isengard and Ost-in-Edhil, and I discarded a Troll leader with an attack from Landroval.
During my first turn I sideboarded Bow of the Galadhrim, which unfortunately I didn't draw.
If I had drawn it before my last turn, I would have moved from Wellinghall to Isengard with Alatar controlling Treebeard and Thranduil controlling Skinbark. The goal would have been to play Bow of the Galadhrim on Thranduil and engage an attack of company vs. company to attempt to discard wolf allies and hopefully kill minions. 4 characters/allies with prowess/body 10/9, 8/9, 7/8 and 6/9 is indeed a very strong company for hero alignment.

Finally I lost this game 5-1 TPs (total 9 TPs).

4th round

I played against Michel Schelfhout, who played a fallen Saruman deck.

I was surprised that he played Ent-allies too ! Or more precisely I played Ent-allies before he attempted to influence them …
My deck worked better than his deck during all the game.
During my last turn, Beorn carrying Red Arrow followed by Gwaihir moved from Eagle’s Eyrie to Edoras to rouse Riders of Rohan. But unfortunately he was corrupted by magnificence of Lorien : he failed the single corruption check of the Lure of Nature, although helped by A Friend or Three (it’s fun to play this card on him !).
So instead of + 3 automatic MPs, result was – 6 MPs, which cost me the victory.

Finally, for only 1 MP, I lost this game 4-2 TPs (total 11 TPs).

5th round

I played against Dominic Kempf, who played a hero Rhovanion deck.

We had some common resources in deck (Thranduil, Gwaihir, Beornings, Orcrist) and he played all before me (except Orcrist but Beorn was corrupted).
At the end of his last turn status was a 5-1 loss for me.
During my last turn I had the opportunity to reduce scores for a 4-2 loss, but Alatar failed at influencing Beornings, and at Goblin-gate the lone Voteli carrying Glamdring (my only item) was attacked by Baduila who was unrevealed, and Voteli died !

Finally I lost this game 6-0 TPs (total 11 TPs).


I ended tournament with 11 TPs, 22th about 32 (and 2nd french about 5 !).
I’m very happy of this result which is great for me, because I reached my low-level and high-level goals.


Sunday

I had only time to make first round of Nation Cup.
I formed France team with Dominique Bergeret and we played against USA-Spain team.

I played against Mark Alfano, who played a Balrog deck.
He played a wolf allies deck but didn’t go to Isengard.
My deck worked well because he had only vs minion hazards (Chilled Elf-lord and Ahunt Dragons).
At the end of his 3rd turn, he announced me he had exhausted ; for a few seconds I haven’t understood, because I looked at my play area, and my draw pile had the same height as my discard pile !

Finally I lost this game 4-2 (26 MPs against 20 MPs), which is for me a very good result against a world champion !



To conclude, I had overall perfect results during the week-end !

With this wonderful week-end, I must now seriously think about attending Lure.

[i gwanunig]

Hello,
....
With this wonderful week-end, I must now seriously think about attending Lure.

You definitly have to come - image all the german speaking players.

LG i,g,

[Kabuto]

Nice report and congrats on your performance. I'd like to add though that I wasn't your opponent on game three on Saturday. You probably played Antonio Flores or Marc Roca, two other Spaniard fellows who also played Balrog (I played Oscar Corominas in game 3). Maybe next time we'll have the chance to play each other!

Heraclio Sanchez