Elven Sword takes me down at the TOC

My comeback came to an abrupt halt this weekend as I went a lousy 2-2 at the TOC (with one win a BYE in the first round!). I played my Unheeded/Forest Nazgul deck.

My first real match was against Steve, a guy that has played cards with me for quite some time. We knew each others' styles well so it was a fun matchup. He was playing Archery Elves with Evil Men Archery. I was able to fend off the Evil Men archery thanks to Pippin and Merry bouncing back to my hand, but I made a few key mistakes (Farmer Maggot only has 3 viatlity!) that resulted in me having to stop at Site 7, and my opponent was able to out-run me to Site 9. (1-1)

My next match was against Jonathan, a relatively inexperienced player playing Gondor Wraiths Fellowship and a Sauron Shadow. The Gondor Wraiths were quickly overwhelmed by my RingWraiths. (2-1)

My last match was against Andrew, the only undefeated player, whom I feared for numerous reasons, first and foremost: he had helped me build my deck! Andrew was playing Elven Telepathy with Besiegers. I knew it was going to be a tough match, so I played very cautiously and made very few mistakes. The match came down to the wire as we were both at Site 7. I moved to Site 8 when the Tournament Director told us there was only 3 minutes left in the round. I knew that if I took my time I would have a shot at making it to Site 9, but it would be risky. I chose to hurry through my turn and take a shot at Andrew's weakened Fellowship with my Nazgul.

I was able to destroy Andrew's Fellowship, and had Ulaire Nelya on Andrew's ring-bearer, Galadriel, for the win, when I realized why Andrew had put in this card:



With 7 cards in hand, Andrew was able to discard cards to make Nelya strength 7. With the sword, Galadirel was strength 4, and I only dealt 1 wound instead of the overwhelm. I was crushed, but it was a great match to a worthy opponent. (2-2)

Andrew went on to win the final confrontation, and the TOC. Congrats Andrew!

Unheeded Rocks

So I played in a mini-tournament Sunday. Due to my lack of practice, I went a miserable 1 Win/2 Loss, but the experience was great for getting ready for this Saturday's TOC.

The key takeaway I had was that this card is phenomenal:



Look how angry Merry is!

As usual, at first glance this card isn't so special, it's pretty hard to stock these cards and depend on a minion exerting. But what if you can make the minion exert? Suddenly cards like Smeagol, Always Helps which exert a minion to exhaustion become huge powerhouses. For the cost of 2 threats and one exertion, you can kill almost any minion (besides the uenxertable, unwoundable Balrog when he's underground).

Add on cards like Birthday Present to grab the Unheededs back from the discard pile, and your opponent will be the one that's unheeded as you walk to site 9!

Back to the Basics - Online and Championships

It's been almost two months of silence as I plummeted towards that limbo where bloggers let their blogs die. But I have crawled back from the nothingness, bringing updates!

I have actually been out of the Lord of the Rings TCG for quite some time now, but with the Territorial Open Championships fast approaching, I wanted to get back in and see how I could do.

The first step on my comeback journey was signing up for The Lord of the Rings TCG Online. This is a great program that allows you to play Rings anytime you want, with a real opponent, via the wonders of the Internet. If you choose to sign-up, tell 'em Psyjedi sent you! Not only does the program work just like the game, but the beautiful pictures are still there and they even have tournaments online. I highly recommend that anybody wanting to try out the game sign up, you can start for as little as $9.99.

After having refreshed my memory on how to play the game and good strategies, my next step was to pick up some packs to build a competitive deck with. I went to my favorite online store Potomac Distribution and was able to pick up 5 boxes of the latest sets for only $100.

The third step is waiting for the cards to be shipped here via UPS. Once they get here I plan to go to some local league nights to get some experience playing face to face with an opponent, figure out what the current Meta is, and figure out how to beat it.

While I figure out how to make my comeback victorious, ponder this card with me:



Along with Enduring wraiths like Ulaire Enquea, Thrall of the One I could make my comeback quite burdensome for my opponents!