Subject: Tournament Report METD Boosterdraft

There was no way I'd miss the first ever Middle Earth boosterdraft tournament in the Czech Republic. The Dragons is my favorite expansion, as was the format of this tourney. There was not as high attendance as I've been expecting. I guess lot of players were afraid of the new format or just did not have the time or money for it :-)

Anyway, after getting our 5 boosters we've gathered around the table and started lookin' through our first packs. One guy sitting across the table has suddenly smiled and informed us: "...ummm, guys, I think I've just won the tournament..." He got Thrain II as his first pick. Lucky bastard. Unfortunatelly, there were no other big spoiler cards opened (which was strange - getting only Thrain and some mediocre rares from one whole box - no Emerald, King Under the Mountain, Exiles, or Fram). I've managed to draft pretty good resources - a lot of cancelling, items, and two all-abusive combos: Star of High Hope & Echo of all Joy; and Bounty of the Hoard & Dwarven Hoard. Another cool combination was the use of Bow of the Dragon Horn with short event Wielded Twice.

As I'm lookin through my hazards, I think I should stop whinning about how bad cards I got. Scatcha, Earcaraxe, and Scorba Ahunts, Daelomin and Smaug at Home, and limited to use, but very funny Morgul-Rats. Nevertheless, my best hazards were commons - four Dire Wolves and three Wolf Riders played with the help of Daelomin during one turn were deadly.

Here is my deck:

Characters Draft:

10 fixed non Rare non Beorn personalities with combined MPs not higher than 5 -

and then what I've got from the boosterdraft -

Wizards - Gandalf and Alatar

Starting Minor Items (fixed) - Elven Cloak and Shield of Iron - Bound Ash

Resources:

fixed cards first -

drafted cards -

Hazards:

fixed -

drafted -

Eventually, I used some cards from the sideboard as well -

1st round against Tomas Davidovic

Tomas has drafted very strong MPs base including both factions, Wizard's Staff, Magical Harph, Map to Mithril, and Galdor, but unfortunatelly he did not get any swords or items that boost character's prowess. Aside of the fixed Concealment, his only anti-hazard creature cards were 1x Many Turns and Doublings, Fast Asleep, and More Sense Than You, so played right, multiple creatures in one turn spelled doom to his company.

He had a fast start, playing one item or faction every turn, getting his wizard early as well. I've managed to counter with Scatcha Ahunt, tapping his characters, and Daelomin - Dire Wolves - Wolf Riders x2 Combo. Was he doomed? Not exactly, the only one doomed was his Nori who bravely Fought all my Foes and died horribly. That's what I call Noble Sacrifice :-) Many Foes is damn good card against my deck. Tomas did not play Doors of Night in his deck, so my Star of High Hoped characters were smiling joyfully. Tomas made a mistake playing some Light Drakes and Lesser Spiders on my company shortly after, giving me much needed marshalling points. Playing all my MP resources already and exhousting my deck, I've called the COUNCIL. We've both had about 21 points, so I was very sceptical about wining this game, as he had one more turn to gather points, which was no problem with his deck filled with them. However, there was no problem for me to play some nasty hazards. Two ahunts and several Wolves with Raiders later, his companies were two characters and 7 Mps shorter:-) He did manage to untap some characters and play 2 more things during his site phase, but that was it. The end, konec, finito, schlus, ende. I've won 21/18

2nd round against Vojta Sobek

This guy had 9! dragon manifestations in his deck and several more true whatever drakes as well. Not knowing that, I'm heading South to visit Earcaraxe, whom I cancel with Flatter a Foe. This time I'm off to a fast start, getting 20 points needed for council quickly, but unfortunately am unable to exhaust the deck soon enough(even with my characters splited into 3 companies). I do make one stupid move, waiting at Moria with Dwarven Hoard in hand for Bounty of the Hoard to play Bow of Dragon Horn and Hauberg of Bright Mail in one turn, quite possibly sealing my victory. Of cource he plays the Bow first:-) Not being this bad enough I discard the bow about two turns before the council ! I mean what the _f_ was I smoking? Vojta actually managed to gather one more point than I did and exhausting his deck called Council. So I draw 4 to 5 cards with each of my 3 companies trying to get the Dragon Bow back to level the field. I'm like in half of my deck and bow is nowhere in sigh. I mean what the hell else can I do, taping the sage, Marvel my own Daelomin, play Friend or Three, untap sage with And Forth He Hastened ending the Site Phase with 4 cards in my hand. So I draw 4 more - guess what - the last card drawn was the Bow:-) I smile victoriously and show him the bow. We are even with the points! Off course I have to roll two ones on Hama with Sword of Gondolin during the corruption check before the council . Oh well, it was a good game, good opponent, I'm playing for fun, not for the wins, right!? :-))) I go and buy new dice.

Third Round against Jan Vejsada

He is the guy with Thrain II, who is along with Glorfindel II in his starting company. He has lots of MPs in his deck, eventually playing one each single turn of this game. Most importantly, he had drafted 3! Valiant Swords so his II.'s were after while quite unwoundable. Playing Hazards against him was basically giving him free marschalling points. Anyway, I've been able to get really fast items, having sword of Gondolin and Habergon of Silver (played with help of Dwarven Hoerd at Moria after facing (and cancelling) two Cave Worms of his) at the end of the second turn. As we were both traveling along the coastal seas avoiding most of the hazards, especially ahunts (Earcaraxe and Rain Drake were the only hazards we had to worry about), it was a matter of five or six turns to call council. Of course we have both exhausted decks, me having three less points than opponent. Not having any other marschalling point sources than Armory left to play, I've stored both my starting minor items there and Adamant Helmet from my hand to gain additional MP. The only way for me to win was to influence something from Jan's company or to get some kill MPs. As his company was too far away, I had to settle for a little trick. I have sent my company to The Stones to play that "Magical Harph I had in hand" to possibly win this game. What happened next was just unbelievably cool. My Brand with Bow of Dragon Horn and Steed has been attacked by Slayer (in order to have Jan's MPs for allies doubled if Brand w/ Noble Steed dies, as the slayer cannot attack steed directly because ally is not a character - more about this later) whom I killed b'cause of my lucky roll, tapping all my characters in support, getting 2 MPs, and got just wounded by some Rain and Marsch or something Drakes after that. Another tie. Unfortunately for Jan, it was his turn to roll 3 on his Thrain with When I Know Anything and sword. Thrain has been "just" discarded and I've won.

Of course we've played that Slayer thing completely wrong. Note for all the newbies out there - an ally CAN be attacked by Slayer :-) Jan has pointed that out after some conversation with fellow players and quick check in the rulebook. I've been generous enough to give him the win as if the Slayer was played correctly I wouldn't be able to kill him (with Steed) and therefore tie the game. We are no idiots (read: Magic players) who try to screw opponents over any minor rules discrepancy when the game doesn't go well for them :-) Jan has deserved the win so he got it.

Fourth round against Karel Trnobransky

Karel is a bald (not sure about the spelling here) headed fellow of mine against whom I usually play at least once a week. He has played insane hazard strategy built around ahunts and other drakes ( nineteen drakes(-ons) at all ), and Dragon's Curses & Sicknesses as well. Too bad my companies traveled only along the coastal seas. He has managed to play only 4 drakes against me during the whole game. On the other hand, most of the time I've found my hand clogged with useless creature cancellers. Having Concealment, Escape, Flatter a Foe and other cancellers in my hand I felt like an One Ring player :-)

After the game Karel told me that he had altogether only 21 Mps in his deck, too few to be able to get them all out quickly enough. He has lost one of his 1 MP characters and failed to bring his faction into play. That was enough for me to peacefully gather my resources and items to win the MP race. He was unable to cycle quickly through his deck as he was mostly unable to play any hazards against me as most of his non-creature hazards were to be used only with the drake hazards which were just a no - no in the coastal seas. As he said, all of the packs he opened had just crapy non-mp cards inside. Advice to all boosterdraft players - always take Mp cards ( even though they are crappy ones ) over other good support cards and hazards you have in your pack.

I had 2 wins and 2 loses after this round - because of the boosterdraft format, we did not use the council of lorien points system. Before the last game of the tourney, I still had some chance to end up in the final 4. Off course, I'd have to win the last game. That wouldn't be so hard if my opponent wasn't Michal Drahokoupil, very clever and determined player, with good knowledge of rules and obsessive urge to influence everything away from his opponent. He was somehow able to draft Wizard's Staff, giving his Wiz additional 2 DI, which was, if played early in the game, especially before the other player was able to free his GI by playing wizard, well, at least devastating. Together with well chosen hazards he was very tough to beat. Anyway, moving my company to the coastal seas regions on the first turn, I've prohibited him from playing most of his creature hazards. Everything I had to face was his Earcaraxe ahunt and several drakes in Harondor. I knew Michal had Earcaraxe at home in his deck as well, which I was prepared to deal with by sideboarding Scabbard of Chalcedony and additional Fast Asleep. I was really determined to kill that bastard, but Tidings of Bold Spies somehow changed my mind :-) To make short story shorter, the only notable thing that happened this game was that Boromir left ranks of my army as he choosed to follow the glitter of opponent's wizard's stick. At the end, I've stored most of my items in the Heaven, being able to withstand several turns of corruption tests in the case of tie during the Free Council. But I had once again underestimated my opponent. The game was really going to be tied if he wouldn't reveal Brand from his hand and win the game by one point because of that. Another close game. Because of his win, Michal ended up second, and I fell down to the fifth place which wasn't that bad, but still....

I'd like to thank all the players for attending this tourney, beeing able to see that ME is not dead. Props to the Warlord hobby shop for letting us use their game room, pissing off all the magic players who had to wait outside :-) Hopefully, I'll see all of you during the next tournament or at least, those who reached this page by mistake, attending our demos:-)