Nostalgia: The Trees are Strong! + São Paulo TOC 2004 Report

Inaugurando a tag Nostalgia que planejei para este blog, reproduzo aqui o deck e o tournament report do Territorial de Lord of the Rings CCG de 2004, disputado na Devir em São Paulo.

Meu chapa Alessandro me chamou de profissional umas mil vezes quando nos encontramos há uns 15 dias, e isso em fez pensar muito. Não sei se concordo com ele, mas se ele por acaso estiver certo, então é fato que tudo começou aqui, neste evento que está abaixo descrito, e com este deck (horroroso e cheio de defeitos que hoje eu enxergo) que está abaixo detalhado. Tudo num post só, para que eu não tenha que ir caçar no google nunca mais.

Era abril de 2004, e até aqui minha "carreira" como "jogador profissional" era um desastre. Vale lembrar também que naquele tempo a última coleção válida era Return of the King, Siege of Gondor estava sendo lançada, e NINGUÉM, repito, NINGUÉM achava que Ents prestavam pra alguma coisa.

Relendo esse report me bateu saudade de muita gente. Se um dia algum de vcs que foi citado aqui ler esse post, fique sabendo que eu guardo ótimas lembranças de todos, dos fatos que estão aqui descritos e também dos que não foram registrados em letras, mas em memórias.

Peço perdão por estar tudo em inglês, mas eu simplesmente recortei de onde foi originalmente postado e colei aqui, para que não se perca. Futuramente, foi seguir com o tema e com a tag Nostalgia e reportarei outros eventos memoráveis, ao menos pra mim...

Último aviso: este post é grande.

Ready... set... go!





The Trees Are Strong: São Paulo/Brasil TOC 2nd place

Description: trees and polearms doing great moves and kills. didn´t win because of a stupid thing.
Submitted April 20, 2004

Cards starting (3):
frodo, old bilbo´s heir
the one ring, answer to all the riddles
gandalf, leader of men
merry, sworthain
pippin, wearer of black and silver

adventure path:
isengard ruined
rohirrim camp
hall of the kings
osgiliath fallen
pellenor flat
minas tirith fifth circle
ruined capitol
cross roads
slag mounds

free peoples (32+3):
lindenroot, elder shepherd
treebeard, guardian of the forest
skinbark, fladrif
ent horde
aragorn ranger of the north
sam, son of hamfast

bounder x2
barliman butterbur
albert dreary

sting, bane of the ight legs
glamdring
gandalf´s staff, focus of power
narya

a wizard is never late x4
servant of the secret fire x4
have patience x2
terrible and evil x3
deep in though

there and back again
ent moot x3

shadow (35)
easterling axeman x4
easterling footman x2
easterling captain x4
easterling regiment x2
easterling army x4
ulaire enquea, lieutenant of morgul

easterling polearm x4
raider bow x3
ships of great draught (MONEY!)
red wrath x3 (FUN!)
bold men and grim (TECH!)
small hope x4
surging up x2

Strategy

*** EDIT ***

please, keep in mind that this deck was built without the fear of Corsaires or even Beasterlings, now it surely will run two Roll of Thunder, since these guys are clearly the moment's meta shift around here...

*** EDIT ***

so, i posted here a month ago a deck based on ents and rohan, with four simbels and four A Wizard Is Never Late. after a lot of helpful reviews and d-mails (thanks to all of you!!!), i came into this deck. last friday, me and Leão tried it, and it did quite well. the fellow could hold even the nazguls until i killed my opponent. on saturday, i lost to aldo´s stupid swarm, and to the nazgul, so i got home by midnight to fix the deck for the Territorial to be held on sunday. made a few changes and now it´s right like this.

i´ll be soon posting a report so you can all se how it did, i could win the final match, but somehow i was struggled by my mind and made at least one huge mistake per site, but i´m happy i could reach the continental with a deck that´s different from what people are using around there.

anyway, the idea is not so difficult to understand. bid 0-2, no problem if the guy overbids you (remember you need two burdens). i usually let the opponent go first, since that helps clean some shadow cards for a good free peoples hand, and also he´s getting your site path. early game you may not be able to double, but when you get your trees and some protection you can double move easily.

i think you already know the shadow. the ships of great draught is money, as i said on my preview deck, so i kept it. it win games!!! (and when i forgot to use it on the final i horribly lost!). the only totally new thing is bold men and grim, it won me two of my five victories.

some card choices:

merry: well, i guess pippin is pretty much obvious, but not merry. you must choose between the sworthain, friend to sam, or horticulturalist. i started with the ally puller, but i felt he was too weak. then the strenght adder, but that occupied three slots (escap + hobbit sword + farmer maggot), so i just switched to the bouncing one, assumed the lack of a emergency strenght, but added both the have patience so i could hold things up some more sites.

terrible and evil: guess a late enquea should hurt a lot... three because of getting away a key minion, and my leader of men is not supposed to skirmish a lot (you can see it for his staff, one extra strenght just in case of emergencies)

skinbark: not unhasty, and good to protect the bouncing hobits from wounding. birchseed could be better for cycling when gandalf dies, though, and i problably will change it.

deep in though: difficultly i won´t have four twilight, and it also helps against greed (when it is in my hand, obviously, not like the time the guy played gree by site four! that hurted)

sting BotEL: good for doubles, and i have a strong ring-bearer of seven to be tripled, not to mention Servants...

ships of great draught: the key to victory late game, i lost on the final because i forgot it at site seven's regroup. but i could´ve won beacause of this tech card.

bold men and grim: discarding a key companion win games, as the easterlings seem to never get to frodo (thanks Aldo, you´re Tech!)

now, some cards that almost got into:

boomed and trumpeted: good for dealing nazguls, and for the double, but only applies to ents. for dealing nazguls i´ll take the terribles, and for skirmish power i´ll stay with servants and ent moots.

roll of thunder: guess i´ll play at least one, but don´t know. i handled dunlands nice, and the only possession i fear is pale blade. (SEE EDIT NOTE, hehe)

crack into rumble: i tried to add one to have a different way to discard conditions (sometimes the guy just don´t give you a maneuver chance). but i don´t really know what to get out.

match-ups:

stupid swarms: you can win, and your shadow can also handle samli-choke, so kill him before site seven, or save your servants, because you´ll need it. albert protects you from snows. glamdring also helps, as well as aragorn (HUGE).

wounding: not difficult, the hobbits are money here, and you have lots of vitality.

threat nazguls: you can deal with them, but i found it to be the worst match-up.

dunland: beware of constantly threatening and over the isen, if he can get both of these and a site, you´re almost dead. otherwise, easy macth-up.

easterlings: never played against another one, but i think it´s the same thing as nazguls. with the difference that the Captain could be two times stronger then the WKing early game (keep in mind: you´re giving too much twilight)

moria: middle game deep in though and they are gone, just move and let the bounder and the servants keep frodo alive.

i won´t talk too much of the shadow, because i think you guys already know it. people call it beasterlings, and the idea is to get two burdens to kill everyone. if you don't kill, you'll surely do great stops to your opponent fellowship...

well, that´s it, i was surprised with my second place and the chance of winning with this deck, since it´s something that´s not been played so much. if you think it´s not good, try it. hope you can help make it even better, but i´m pretty much happy with this. if you liked, be sure to read my report, i´ll be posting when i get the time for it.

for now, enjoy and remember that the THE TREES ARE STRONG, MY LORD!!!!

greetings from brasil,
Winston "Cléston" Oyadomari




São Paulo, Brasil TOC Report 04/18/2004
Rating: 5.00
Submitted: April 22, 2004

hi there!
this is the report of São Paulo TOC, second TOC held in Brasil (the first was in Rio, on Saturday, third is Brasilia, next sunday). I had some troubles with my PC, so i´m finishing it only now, some days after it, sorry if I lost some info, but I still think it’s quite huge…

I could manage to go second, although i made serious stupid mistakes on the final confrontation, which mean the first place was in my hands during the regroup of site seven...

but let´s start with friday.....
on friday, me and Leão were testing a deck i brought, with ents and easterlings (if you want to read the deck, search for "The Trees are Strong", i posted it today). the deck was doing quite well, won several times against different decks. the problem was that it was getting destroyed by threat nazguls. i was in serious doubts about playing that deck on sunday, since nazguls are very popular nowadays (not to mention effective).

on saturday, me, Leão and Aldo continued the playtesting, and the deck died horribly to Aldo´s stupid swarms (man, if you´ve readed the deck you may say this is impossible, but believe me). that drove me nuts the whole saturday, i still couldn´t believe how weak the fellow seemed to be on both our playtesting days...
before i left to go home, sleep and try to make a few key changes, this conversation took place:

Aldo: i guess beasterlings are not a killing shadow, they seem to never get to frodo, and one faramir son of denethor ruins all for you.
Me: so what should i do?
Aldo: if you plan playing this deck, why don´t you use... (he searches for a card in his bin) Bold Men and Grim?

i look at the card for the first time… if you, as myself, never heard about it, here is it´s text:

"To play, spot two [Raider] Men and add a Threat.
If a companion is about to be killed, remove a threat to discard a companion. Discard this condition at the start of the regroup phase"

Me: ....... you think?
Aldo: do it, cléston, trust me, add a fourth wizard is never late to complete it.

I borrow his bold men and grim, (as well as other five cards from Leão) and go home, thinking about the bad choice I´ve made for such an important tournament. At home, I changed the deck a bit and think “well, let´s at least have some fun…”

I met my girlfriend at the subway, we then met Leão and Aldo (who spent the night playing, I guess) and we headed to the local store. More than 60 players on a territorial, guess it´s one of the biggest of the year, if not the biggest one, not bad, huh?

Game 1- Mayra (Merry´s Sword/ Dunland Site Control)
Mayra is my girlfriend………. How bad is that? More than 60 players and I play against my girlfriend…. Not to mention that Leão and Aldo also got paired first round….. guess it was not very randomly done, what do you guys think? Anyway, on to the game…
We both bid 2, she gets the tiebraker and goes first. Starts Merry S. and Théoden Tall and Proud, plays Éomer, a horse, a thundering, and I guess a simbel and another possession, runs into site 2, i play some minions, hurt her, but she moves, to three and no one dies during it (last night I added a second Rohirrim Helm to her deck, that holded me a lot! Thanks Leão for making my day more difficult!!!! Against my girlfriend!!!! Shame….). I play some Wizards are never late, get the trees ready and move into site 2, she plays some minions, pump them with burn every village, I answer with servants, and no site controlled until three. She plays merry again, a fifth companion, Éowyn Lady of Rohan, she moves into four and I play some minions, she beats them, then double into five pretty easily, discarded her hand to keep herself with two burdens, I play an equipped captain, she holds it with Éomer, I play red wrath and Éowyn ruins my day… (I told you not to play the Dernhelm, Love, see why?). Merry goes back to her hand to make the helms cancel my captain. I play my eighth companion, move into four, she plays some Hides, a saruman and a Hillman Tribe, treebeard with the ent moot and a servant beats him, the hides keep it alive, I double into five, she plays three more minions, the trees beat three of them, the other wounds Gandalf to discard his glamdring. No site for her, (phew…. That was close). She plays Hretel, moves into six, I play a big captain again, she´s afraid of assigning to éomer, kill her theoden and gets the Elite Rider from deck. Fierce goes on hretel, who gets overwhelmed. I reconcile into a orange hand (orange = Gandalf, not yellow = raider, mind you, hehe), she looks at me, smiles and moves (man, she knows me, she´s my girlfriend), I play an axeman and a small hope, but manage to exaust Éomer with another wrath then she was afraid and cancelled the skirmish bouncing merry and playing the helm. I play Ranger of the North, move into six, she plays some wild men of dunland and a saruman, beats Lindenroot and plays wulf from hand, getting her first site, wulf fierce double wound Gandalf (three wounds). She reconciles, and I´m completely sure I must double, even if that costs me some two companions. I move, fully healing Gandalf, she plays some more minions and fortunately no Over the Isen nor a Constantly Threatening (phew, that was very close too). She plays five dunland minions, I bounder one on Frodo, and the trees beat some other three (the fifth one stole my sting with war club, I think). So we´re both at site seven, she has maybe four companions, i have nine, and our shadows are being rocked down, the fellows runned rampant... She plays the ranger of the north, Sam son of hamfast, removes two burdens, (Leão watches our table this moment and looks at me with a jocking face, Aldo gladly does the same). She moves into site eight, I play a captain equipped, and Army and Bold Men and Grim. She double exerts the captain, while the army gets me two burdens back, assigns captain to eomer, I heal him with surging up, she plays thundering host, heals eomer, but I play my red wrath, killing him (at last!), and then DISCARDING A FULLY HEALED ARAGORN RANGER OF THE NORTH BY SITE EIGHT!!!! (Aldo is Tech!). People who saw this made a funny scary face… she blocks army on elite rider, fierce kills eowyn I think. She has now something around five companions. I have nine, and she has one site. The clock is almost done… She moves, I play a Regiment, and that´s three fierce minions against five companions. Elite rider dies, as well as merry and sam, fierce kills Frodo. I beat my girlfriend for the first time on a tournament, I mean, Aldo beated her…

FW – Shadow Kill 9 (3/3)
Good: beating my girlfriend for the first time.
Bad: playing against Mayra is never a good way to make myself happy. I´m furious with the judges for not shuffling our names properly.

Game 2: Daniel Ramos (Dauntless and Threat Unbound Hobbits/ Uruk site control)
So i´m playing Daniel again, and for the second time in that day it was someone who I never beated. We both bid two, I win the tiebraker and he goes first (thanks cléston!). He starts Dauntless, Merry and Pippin commons from RotK. He plays a sword on pippin, moves giving me almost nothing. I play 2 Small Hopes for six twilights (Ouch! You´ll crash me!!!) he doubles into three, I play nothing. I play a wizard is never late, get lindenroot (he ALWAYS and ALL WAYS plays Uruks!), move and he plays an AonHD. double and he plays two uruks, one gets wounded by lindenroot, the other by Pippin WoBaS. He moves into four with some more stuff for the hobbits, I play a captain with polearm (phew….. that hurts man!) I manage to kill merry (I think). He stops. I play pippin again, search for Treebeard with AWiNL, going into six companions. He plays Greed (OH NO!!!!), kills Gandalf, Treebeard beats the uruk, so no site for him yet, but a clogged hand with Servants and Terrible and Evil. He moves into five, I play an Army and another Small Hope, and I kill both merry and legolas (lonely Frodo, two burdens). He stops. I play albert dreary from hand (you must spot Gandalf, Cléston, hehe, too bad), play two bounders, I mean, and move with five companions (three hobbits and two trees), he plays four uruks. i kill one with treebeard, another with lindenroot, bounder one on Frodo and Merry “takes one for the team”. He controls a site, and lindenroot is simply not enough to cycle my orange clogged hand. he plays Aragorn Driven By Need (in time, huh?), his bow and moves giving me ten twilight. I play Easterling Regiment with bow and polearm and an East. Axeman. He uses there and back again, double shoots axeman, assigns regiment to Aragorn and…… RED WRATH!!!! (OH NO!!! Hate you Cléston) Fierce 13 regiment goes on Frodo, he´s 7, I use a small hope, he wears the ring, 9 strenght, not a overwhelm, but four burdens…. An Army should be game………. I play pippin again (I can´t leave him on table all the time because of Treebeard and threats from when Merry died), play ranger of the north (come on!!), I move, he plays some six uruks and pillage of rohan. I assign one that could be stacked on lindenroot, one to treebeard and the rest on Aragorn, who “takes four for the team” (what a companion), lindenroot wounds the stacker one, We Are the Fighting Uruk-Hai kills Treebeard, and he controls some three more sites, stacking a minion. I stop and reconcile. He plays Boromir son of denethor (You´re Hard to die!) another bounder and moves into seven, I play an axeman and one bow and a footmen, maybe one or two small hopes and a surging up. He assigns the one without the bow to Frodo (the other is yours), I place him on Boromir and get no Ambush…..;-( I kill boromir with pumps, fierce wounds frodo. He stops and i´m afraid i´m dying horribly this turn. Fortunately, I buy skinbark and AWiNL gets the ent horde from deck, It´s now or never, hehe. Five companions, he plays three minions and one from the site, I deal them all, no big deal happened there. I reconcile into an East. Army, a Polearm and a Surging Up. He plays another there and back again, moves and I play easterling army with polearm. He has four burdens, discards there and back again, so Frodo is 7. wears the ring – 5 burdens – gets wounded -6 burdens- and on fierce army 15 exerts, 18, exerts, 21, heals with surging up and exert again, 24, and again, 27………. Guess it´s an overwhelm, but man, I destroyed his deck at four to kill him just at eight!!! Very nice match…

FW – Shadow Kill 8 (3/6)
Good: beating Daniel Ramos for the first time in an incredible macth (one death per site each side, wow), surely the most fun for the whole day…
Bad: Gandalf diyng site four clogged me seriously. Guess I should´ve played another unhasty, like birchseed instead of skinbark, just in case the leader of men dies.

Game 3 – Thiago Cardozo (Elven Gondor/ Dunland site control)
He bids zero to my two as he knew I played easterlings… I let him start, since I knew his fellowship was the Vegas Winner one, so I though it was threat nazgul… he plays Aragorn ranger of the north and anduril FotW, Gwemegil, Elrond, and exerts Elrond twice to make my possessions and conditions +4 (hate you…). I play a Regiment with bow and a Surging Up. Regiment takes a wound, goes on Aragorn, adds five twilight, then beat him, fierce goes on Aragorn again and I play Red Wrath (stupid me, he´s got andúril!!!!), so aragorn gets exausted by site two. he stops, I play a bounder, I think, narya, treebeard and move, he plays nothing and I stop very scared of a swarm at site three. He moves into three and I play two small hopes. He stops. I move into three, he plays Saruman RR (another dunland? I hoped I could beat this one too), a hilman tribe and a looter, I guess. Terrible and Evil exaust saruman, and treebeard and a Servant on Gandalf kills the two boring dunlands. I stop, he plays the son of hamfast, don´t remove the burdens, move to four, I play captain and polearm, and army. He Secret Sentinels my Small Hope, and Secret Sentinels my Small Hope again… he assigns Captain to Frodo and Army already one wounded to arwen, not so much twilight remain. Kills Frodo, toss green ring to sam, zero burdens, and kill army with arwen. Fierce captain wounds arwen. He stops. I play almost all my companions by site three and move giving as many twilight as he needed. He plays saruman and some four dunlands (still no Hides). I Terrible and Evil Wulf, and beat others with servants and Ent Moots (in fact, I lose a single skirmish, no big deal), he reconciles and I stop. He plays Vilya and moves into five, burdens or hand, I play a captain fully equipped, he dumps his hand with a faramir son of denethor (there are more where this one came from), captain gets gondor bowmed and he stops. I play ent horde for five twilight and move into site five. He plays nothing, reconciling a burn every village. As a dunland player, i´m pretty sure he´s got a constantly threatening in hand. Anyway, I try to count the pool and feel like facing seven minions. I double to six, he does exactly what I expect, constantly threatening, and 5-7 minions. The Trees are Strong, so they can hold almost all of them, but one of those who goes on allies kills one of my bounders, discarding my glamdring. By this site, a burn every village beats skinbark and get a site with wulf, I think (first site). Anyway, it was a safer move than it could be, if he had an over the isen, fierce wulf would have killed a hobbit. He plays faramir son of denethor with gondorian sword and last alliance, an alliance on Aragorn, gil galad on legolas, and moves into six. I play everything I can, since at this time, and because of faramir + Elrond, I decide to go for the fellowship win for the first game that day. He handles pretty easily my minions, and stops. I play Merry back, sting, bane of the eight, gandalf´s staff, and move. He plays first hides of the game (site 7, bad for him…) and some two arsonist, I exert the treebeard twice to make my ents damage +1, so he wastes twilight and single Hides to keep minions alive. He reconciles and I stop. He heals and moves to seven, I play small hopes, a regiment with polearm leaving some twilight. Two burdens in maneuver, wound faramir twice, he heals faramir twice and stops. I play Ranger of the North, move into eight, he plays some minions, I hold them, then I double for six minions, four on Aragorn, one on merry, merry dies and the threat goes on Aragorn, so he don´t get a site. The Trees are surely Strong, as i´m starting to get used to yell!

FW – Fellowship site 9 (3/9)
Good: beating last year Continental Winner, and beating him with my Ents! Boooohahommmm
Bad: Over the Isen would make Game almost impossible to win…

Game 4 – André Pinto (slaked rainbow / sauron threats orcs)
We both bid two, he wins the tiebraker and goes first. Starts Frodo RH, Sméagol (3rd burden), Gimli FA and Legolas, FM. He plays preparations, loyalty unshaken (stack slaked), Aragorn KiE and moves giving me lots of twilight. I play a Captain, a polearm, a bow, and an Axeman with a polearm, as well as a surging up. He assigns Captain to Sméagol and Axeman to Aragorn, five twilight. Aragorn gets wounded, then the captain makes Sméagol add 2 more burdens not to be overwhelmed. Fierce Axeman gets Aragorn Red Wrathed and dead, and Sméagol is overwhelmed by captain. He´s now down to gimli, legolas and Frodo 5 burdened. I play some two trees and narya, move into site two. He plays fat one wants it, captured by the ring, and Gollum, adding two threats (Oh no, threat nazguls? I´m now very scared). I assign him to treebeard, he is wounded, I stop. He plays nothing and moves, I play some conditions, I think, and he stops. I move and he plays the Sauron Condition that make orcs -1 home site for each threat. He plays captured, add a third threat, I block Gollum on Treebeard, and stop. He moves into four, I play some two minions, but his slakeds and quick as may be´s cleaned the table, as I wouldn´t buy a polearm. He stops. I heal, play some more trees and move, he plays nothing. I start being curious about his shadow…. So used to be hurted by nazguls, and this guy´s playing some kind of Gollum threat deck? What is that? If only I had a Glamdring… We keep on singling, all I saw of his deck were three conditions and gollums, orc insurgent and two strong orcs into site five, when he removed three threats to make himself 17… Anyway, as my shadow wasn´t doing well, and my hand is clogged with maneuver and skirmish orange events, I double into site seven… he plays some seven 3 cost orcs, all with 9 strenght and 3 vitality, all from RotK. There was an orc who exerts three orcs during skirmish to add three threats, the one who removes 3 to make a orc +8, the one who could be assigned to Frodo if someone gets overwhelmed…. And he exerts two orcs to buy 2 cards, play more orcs, do it again, play more, do again…. Plays a Morannon, dump gondor cards to buy more minions…. I had nine companions, and I guess he played something like 10 minions with gollum. Terrible and Evil takes the one who removed 3 to make someone +8 (guess you did wrong) I don´t listen to it, and make Aragorn def+3, and I guess ent horde also hold two orcs. I assign both the ones who can go on Frodo to both lindenroot and treebeard, so I exert treebeard twice to kill them both (they already got a wound from the site), so I can get my overwhelms safely (I can still save ent horde with servant), The bouncing hobbits go dead, both (hurted a lot! And I forgot to kill useless treebeard!!!). I stop, he moves into six with seven burdens (two from site five), I play a single minion with bow just for ciclying, since I really need one bounder, or a servant, or a ships of great draught, but no more than I needed a polearm!!! I move into eight with no threats and 6 companions, most exausted. He plays six minions, Gollum and five orcs, on skirmish he gets lots of threats, make orcs lots of strength, and I die horribly…

FL – Fellowship site 8 (1/10)
Good: nothing good, what a bad luck not to buy a polearm, it would make me win in one site…
Bad: not buying polearms, neither ships of great draught. Not to mention the stupid double move to site seven sauron bomb…

Game 5 - ???? Mendes (Old School Rainbow/ Moria Swarms)

Sorry, forgot your first name... anyway, I bid 2 to his one, I guess, and he starts. He starts gimli son of glóin and greenleaf, plays both aragorn and the friend of the shirefolk, galadriel lady of the golden wood and moves, giving so much twilight. I play some minions, but nothing really strong, hurt him a bit and he stops. I play some trees and move, he plays two moria weak archers, I wound my hobbits and kill them, stopping at two (was afraid of walking too much after the stupid double last game). He moves to three were nothing special happens, I think (in fact, I don´t really remember site by site what happened this game, so let´s get to the point, ok?). Around site four I doubled and he starts playing his moria conditions (armory, TAC, swarms). When he moved to four I killed both Gandalf and Gimli, so he didn´t double move a single time after that. I used Deep in Though at site six, discarding some five moria conditions, and double to seven, where albert dreary discards another condition. He moves to six, stops and I double to nine with nine companions, including ranger of the north. Easy match for da trees!

FW – Fellowship site 9 (3/13)

Good: The trees are strong, and Deep in Though middle game is auto-win against moria.
Bad: not remembering so much about this game… (forgive me, it’s already Thursday!)

Game 6 – Regis ??? (Elven Gondor/ Uruk Trackers)

Sorry, don´t remember your last name… Two chairs to my right, André Pinto plays against Marcos Ortolan, both the 5-0 of the day, so I hope I can do my part of the job, and hope André can win so I get more points... By this time, the judge walks around the tables to ask if people would like to play the final match, since the store was almost closing. “Do what you want, but I wanna play!”, I tell him, and start my last attempt for a bye on the Continental. I guess we both bid two, and I start. Play Treebeard and move, he plays Enquea (wow, too early!). Pippin kills it with treebeard and I move, nothing happens. He starts Greenleaf and Fair Elf Maiden, plays Boromir Lord of Gondor and moves, I play some conditions, he doubles and I have nothing worth playing. I move to four with six companions, he plays Úgluk and another two boring Trackers (they´re for sure very boring). Treebeard kills one, Gandalf holds one and pippin kill another. I stop, since site five should hurt and I have five companions and some pool remaining. He moves to four with equipped Arwen, a fifth companion and tale of gil-galad on legolas, I play two easterlings with polearm and bold men and grim. He assigns captain to boromir and regiment to arwen, some twilight left and three small hopes mean OVERWHELMED LORD OF GONDOR… bold men and grim discards Arwen equipped (Aldo is TECH! For the second time that day!), fierce kills both his companions, left frodo alone, I guess. I move into five with my six companions as before, he plays saruman, weary on gandalf and some three boring cheap trackers (I fear for my hobbits, only one bounder and no servant in hand). i don´t even use albert dreary, since gandalf was not equipped and had already one wound, which meant he was dead against one tracker. That´s what happens, he exert saruman three times and kills gandalf at site five (second time that day!). I deal the other weak trackers and stop. He plays Aragorn, guess, and faramir son of denethor (why do you people use it? curse you!!!!), he moves and nothing special happens (guess when gandalf dies my whole shadow stop working…) I move to six with another ent, maybe the Horde, he plays some more boring trackers (can’t remember which was, but I can tell ya they were boring!!!) deal them all and stop, since doubling wouldn’t help anything. He moves and I kill Aragorn with Red Wrath, me thinks. I move to seven with healed trees and skinbark, he plays Úgluk and some other stinky minions (have I told you I hate Isen trackers?), I kill two trackers to make ugluk a big nothing and discard it with the bane of the eight legs, move again to eight and he plays just a uruk hunter (phew, lucky well-done double), which double wound skinbark (wanted to save the bigger ones and the hobbits for later). He moves to seven, and I play everything I can, which is was not much, just to buy some more free peoples cards. He fires them all and stops, I move into site nine and he shows his hands (guess only three trackers wouldn’t hurt you…). And I did my part of the job, at last…

FW – Fellowship site 9 (3/16)

Good: The Trees are Strong, even without Gandalf, not to mention the Early Enquea!!!
Bad: Need some more card flow…. Maybe Birchseed will do.

So I got 5-1, losing only to André, who goes 6-0 (yes! I still have my chances!). The problem was that me, Ortolan and Marcel Scarpato (Winner of Rio TOC with threat nazguls and slaked) were 5-1 and had lost only to Andre…… I start running round the store, hunting people who played me to know their scores, which was something like this:
Mayra goes 2-4 (she played against three Moria with Cave Trolls, she hates moria, and another threat nazgul) so I cut her out….
Daniel goes 4-2, losing to me and Thiago Cardozo (14 points)
Thiago goes 5-1, losing only to me (16 points)
André goes 6-0 (18 points)
Mendes goes 3-3 (12 points)
Regis goes 4-2 (14 points)
After that speculation, I got myself with a 74 score… Leão says that was huge, and starts yelling “Cléston at the Final! Cléston at the Final!”. I can feel my blood boiling when the judge announces….

“FINAL CONFRONTATION!!! ANDRÉ PINTO AND…
…could that be?
… WINSTON OYAMODORI!!!!”
d@mn, it was the seventh time he said my name and the seventh time he said it wrong!!!!! Anyway, this time I didn’t complaint, I done it! I got the BYE!!!!! YAHOOO, the trees are strong!

After some congrats from everyone, two hugs and one big kiss, I head to the second table front the store, sit front to André, we shake hands and say good luck. People start gathering around us……

Final Match – André, the guy of the slaked/curious sauron threat orcs…

Before match, I ask the judge for a non-timed match (remember the store was about to close? Well, he accepts it after some pressure). We both bid two and he wins the dice roll, goes first starting the very same thing (even with sméagol, 3rd burden). He plays aragorn, preparations and loyalty unshaken, stack two slaked thirsts, play Citadel of the Stars and moves with lots of pool. I play captain and army with two polearms and a small hope. He slakes both, so two twilight remain, I think. He assigns the captain to aragorn and the army to sméagol. Starts Aragorn, citadel the Captain to death. Sméagol add 3 burdens (six burdens) to make himself 9 strenght and takes no wound. Fierce Army kills Sméagol. I reconcile into ent moots and servants and he stops. Walk to two with four companions and a bounder, maybe, he plays Fat One Wants it, captured by the ring adding two threats and the site reducing condition. I block gollum with Gandalf and stop when look at his six burdens, thought that would be just like the other match, but this time I wouldn’t make stupid doubles… anyway, my hand starts shaking, and I look back and ask Mayra for a bottle of water (thanks). He moves playing almost nothing, the same as me, and stops. By that time I got the Son of Hamfast in hand and no other companion than an Ent Horde… (why can’t people just stop looking at me?????) anyway, I decide to interact with people not to run mad. I show the judge my hand (what do ya tell me about that, huh? He smiles and keeps quiet). I play Glamdring and Staff, look at his hand for a big surprise, which I show to everyone the same time: seven orcs with 9 strenght and 3 costed…. (I can hear some WOWs…. He’s got that hand already?) I move giving seven twilight, he plays gollum with captured, adding a fourth threat and a sauron orc (not roaming). I decide to try to trick him, assigning Gollum Vile Creature to Frodo so he removes the threats for a try on an overwhelm. I use my bounder and a servant, so the trick was quite well done, gollum fifteen to frodo five, tripled and –3 means 12. The orc is blocked and I stop. He plays one more dwarven condition, I guess, and moves to site five, I still have no polearm again, so I play some stupid minions and some conditions just to make him get the hard maneuver choice fo site five. He adds two more burdens (that is 8 already, four more to go on his Frodo RH), he slakes and fire them all, so no skirmish for my surging ups and red wraths again, he stack slakeds back with preparations, I reconcile, he doubles and I still play some more minions just because I thought I would have got killed at next site. He fire them all and stops, I reconcile and the last card is… AWINL!!! I yell a bad name when buy it, and even forget to heal my bounder… play it, search for treebeard, play skinbark from hand and ent horde, look at his hand, remove seven twilight, do it again, remove almost every pool, and move giving enough twilight for him to play five of his seven orcs to my eight companions. He reconciles his single free peoples card (I forgot I made him spend his threats, so he was roaming one more turn!)
****Note: from this time on, I just made huge mistakes, and that costed me the victory, End Note***
I think for some two minutes (I swear!), my mind started getting unable of a simple thought about the pool, I see people’s face almost as nervous as I am, I mean, they were obviously not as nervous as I was, since I never felt like that before. Hands shaking and very wet, I search inside for a huge strength and psychic resistance to say a single wrong word that ruined me part of the game: “I stop”. I reconcile into a ships of great draught, and a captain, plus some three raider cards. He moves to seven giving away lots of pool. I play the ships, remove the three threats he added in site three, discard all my yellow cards except Captain, adding six tokens to the ships. I see some people’s face getting better…. Anyway, I look at his face and simply FORGET ABOUT THE REGROUP PHASE!!!! I FORGOT USING THE SHIPS OF GREAT DRAUGHT!!!!!! If I had used it, one army and two polearms should mean shadow kill by site eight, since I still had some conditions and he got eight burdens… anyway, maybe realizing that the game was almost won for him after that huge stupid reconcile I made, he moves to eight, giving so many pool as you can’t imagine. I play some more conditions, two expensive minions to dump hand, he slakes and kills all, and then I decide to look at my ships……… man, I totally forgot about that… my shaking hands were as fast as never they were, and I reconcile into a nine cards hand, since some of them were glued because of wet… I look at known faces looking me…. Think for two minutes and decide to keep the choices for the ships, two polearms and an Army go top deck, I discard albert dreary and buy some two more cards that I didn’t know what were. I move into site six, giving away twelve twilight, he plays four minions, two of those that discarded a card from hand to make someone –3 (smart, so he could cycle two more minions from his eight minions hand). I don’t think too much, as I can’t reach him, so I just assign them anyway, cycles with lindenroot, spend servants, and get hit lots of times by those bad orcses. I reconcile into nothing very good, he plays sam son of hamfast (this time I remembered discarding bold men and grim for cycling, stupid me!) and another citadel of the stars (how many have you got? I use three…. Oh, well, guess I didn’t note them other game since aragorn got dead site 2) when I saw that card, I totally knew I was going to lose. He moves, I play captain and army and two polearms, he slakes both, kills captain with aragorn, kills legolas with army (nine burdens), fierce kills frodo and toss ring to sam…

FL Shadow site 9
Good: ……need to tell you?
Bad: ……… don’t need either, you’ve read it…

I get a nice hug from Mayra, who was back me, and stand up, legs still shaking I guess…. I can’t tell you exactly how bad I felt, but I hope you could felt by the report that it wasn’t a very nice experience. It was the most bored play of the day, not because I lost, but because we knew each other decks and tried to counter them. After site four, I made one huge mistake per site, but no one worst than forgetting the ships on site seven regroup phase. That costed me the title, but today, five days later, I guess it was better like this. Better doing this kind of mistake on a territorial than at the continental (worlds, maybe? Who knows?) I end being second, Aldo (5-1 losing only to Leão) is 6th and Leão (4-2) is 14th. André won, undefeated 7-0.

Now some nice thing, my five boosters are somehow just brilliant: Grond, Gothmog, Garrison of Gondor, Reckless We Rode, Winged Mount foil, Beyond all Darkness foil, Pippin Premium FOIL!!!!!!…. And the Black Captain!!!!! Nice prize, at least!!

So I go home, get a huge headache that lasted until yesterday, my PC was shut down by a storm and I could only finish this report today…. Man, I got nine pages at Word….. hope you enjoyed it as much as me.

To end, some huge thanks:
To everyone who played the territorial, was very nice
To people who always goes to STB tourney, the knowledge and experience gathered there surely helped make this possible
To Aldo for being such a nice friend and such a TECH player
To Leão for being always a nice friend and for showing me how horribly I could lose to threat nazgul… luck you say? Maybe, but I played against none!!!
To Mayra, for being the best girlfriend in world. Love you.

Greetings from Brasil at last,
Winston “Cléston” Oyadomari.