Ah Edmonton, the strange cluster bomb of talent when in comes to gaming. We have wicked talent but very few venues to apply this at. Vancouver and the States are pretty far and anything else requires a plane to reach which cost the green. So when the word came in that a Black Rider was coming to our sleepy hollow we jumped on the chance to kick a little Decipher ass.

I then found out that Sean Smallman was running not one but three Rider tournaments in our city. Two Bounty tournaments and one special Death Race 2003 tournament (more on that later) this was going to be a sweet weekend. The Team had to get to work.

So first up on the list was a bounty tournament at Wizards. We got to meet Mr. Smallman and did some trading. He’s a pretty cool guy, but we are still going to have to crush him. So the draft started up.

I open my draft pack a get a No Retreat (whooooo), and a hodge podge of dwarf/ elf/ rohan stuff, things weren’t looking up. So we open our Towers pack and in it is a Beyond all Hope and that’s not useful and no weapons or stealths - I end up taking a horse. The rest of the draft kind of went like that, I ended up with hordes of companions but no Frodo protection, unlike my buddy Ken who got tons of possessions. Lucky bastard.

Round one

I play against this newb. My fierce minions (trackers and dunhill) show their ugly heads and kill his entire fellowship (minus Frodo) at site 3, needless to say he didn’t make it to site 5.

Round two

I play against this freaky little kid named Adam Munreo, the kid is like 13 but plays Rings better than most 30 year olds. Don’t underestimate him. So the game starts up and I bid 3 to go first, play a couple of companions and he smashes me with a couple of easterlings. Sigh. So while I’m waiting for Faramir to show up Adam is using every trick in his deck to kick my fierce minion asses, it was sick. On the plus side I was keeping ahead of Adam so by the time I reached site 6 I had 8 burdens. Damn I really needed to pull a Sam this tournament. Instead I finally get Faramir out. Better than nothing. I drop a burden and double to site 8. Adam stops at site 7. I move to site 9 with seven companions and Adam proceeds to drop 8 minions on me which pretty much seals my fate in ever playing against Smallman.

So the third round is called and fellow Five Iron teammate Ken Stasiuk is called to challenge Smallman. Go Ken!

Round three

I play against another newb. He does the dreaded “I’m going to double move to site 5 while there are still minions on the table” maneuver. So with that in mind I smoke him at the Parapet. I rush over to see how Ken is doing. Not so good. Smallman drafted like a madman this tournament. He had a Rohan/’Gondor deck equipped with rare Eomer, possessions, 2 copies of Left none Alive (which pretty much let Sean run unhindered against Ken’s Dunhill) and a slew of Gondor support cards. So Ken was outgunned at the get go and couldn’t put up enough resistance at site 9 to put Smallman down. Bummer. Well there is always tomorrow.

Death Race 2003

This was a very interesting format in where in a massive multiplayer game (+15 people) everyone gets one turn to make it as far as possible along the site path as possible. It was a interesting challenge. So in the spirit of crazy Star Trek jank decks we constructed the ultimate moving machine.

The decks mainly consisted of using Toss it in the Fire to draw your entire deck in the maneuver phase, then using knocked on the head to get a Hobbit back in the regroup phase so then you can play 4 Deft in their Movements and quite literally choke the entire site path so you can waltz into site 9. It was pretty sweet.

Martin Redmond played Ranger tricks using Pursuit just Behind, Mind your own Affairs and other such cards to take care of any minions that cross his path.

Kennith Stasiuk played Rohan smash, after drawing his entire deck he would use Eowyn, Glamling and Theodin to strap them up in the maneuver/ skirmish phase and kick a little ass.

Olav Rokne played hobbit beef, plenty of companions and hobbit tricks like Paths and Cliffs that ensured his survival.

I was playing Gandalf beef with nasty Ents that become dmg +2 which ensure nothing survives

We were going to smoke them all.

We get to Thunderground and find out that there is 21 people signed up to this tournament and only 2 hours to run it. Things are going to get a little rushed. The tournament starts and things begins to come together like clockwork. Martin bids 9 as planned and placed himself at the 7th spot, I’m 8th, Ken 10th and Olav is playing clean up at 14th place. So this is when everything goes to shit, because Gary Munreo starts with the worst site one ever, Eastemnet Downs (discard 2 cards every time you play a companion). The store erupts in boo’s, Gary laughs and says “Work with that”. Smallman tells everyone but Team Five Iron to sit down. We were calm as Hindu cows.

So the game starts and Gary gets to site 5 before he dies and then it goes to the second player. Now with Gary and later his son Adam getting first crack at the twilight they would use it all up to stop anyone from doing anything. So with player number 6 up to bat now things were looking grim for Martin, but Ken had it covered. On site 5 Gary left 2 twilight in the pool and it is at this point where Ken stood up and said leave it. He pointed to one of the guys playing Moria, he dropped a Goblin Runner, Ken then pointed to another Moria player with 4 Goblin Armories out and he dropped a Scavenger and got a Scimitar, Ken the leaned over to the kid next to him whispered something and that kid played a couple of Moria Scouts for free and played a Goblin Runner. 5 twilight. It seems that Ken had stocked regular Nelya’s in his deck for some sweet site changing, all he needed was the 5 twilight. Nelya comes crashing down and the store erupts in cheers. The other patrons in the store must have thought we were nuts. Ken changes the Downs and Golden Hall to Riddermark and Throne Room. Martin sighs in relief and player number six makes it to site 7.

Martin’s turn and it goes something like this.

Martin, though he might make big mistakes, also has occasions where he plays like a machine. This was one of those times.

Started with Sam SOH, Merry FoS & Pippin HOSI. Played Cliff of Emyn Muil, Arwen DOE, Boromir LOG, went and got Wingfoot, exerted Sam three times went to 5 burdens, Then he moved removing 2 more burdens. In the maneuver phase Martin “went off” and everyone saw what his deck was capable of . With over a dozen events in his hand Martin had no trouble making it to site 8 and setting a new record for furthest along the site path. Then I went and got to site 7 before I died. Then time was called so only 40% of the players got their chance to move, but all in all it was pretty interesting. So prizes were handed out and Martin getting top slot and earned himself the Black Rider cap and bunch of other swag.

So Martin was right that his Ranger tricks would take him the distance.

So Ken, disappointed that he didn’t get a chance to test out his deck, was determined to kick a little ass at.....

Bounty Tournament- Mission Fun & Games

I don’t know what it is with me and draft but I get the crappiest draws. Oh well. I whip open my draft pack and I get Supplies from the Mark. That’s not a good sign. It is then announced that to get rid of excess stock we will be drafting with Battle of Helm Deep only. Well with that out of the way we all get paired in our groups. Well I didn’t get any power rares (grima, linderroot) but I got solid uncommons. Smeagol and Sam. The bad thing is that I ended up with very few support cards - in fact I drafted 1 4 companions. The only support card that was any good was the rare card a No Use that Way, which turned out pretty good. What I really liked was my shadow, it was this Sauron/ Uruk Site control monstrosity. It was fun.

Martin, the crazy bastard that he is, got insane good draws. Lindenroot, Easterling Captain, and a starting fellowship of ranger of ithilien, Forest Guardian and Rare smeagol. Not to mention every burden adding easterling he could find. “slobber”

So the first round went off and the last Black Rider tournament had begun.

Earl vs. Gary Munreo

So I bid 4 and got it on. I started with a common Eomer, Household guard and common Smeagol. Not bad but could have used some Rohan pump or more Rohan possessions. Drop a few more companions and then double to site 3. Gary follows. I move to site 4, Gary (playing trackers) forces me to stop because momma always said never double to site 5. Gary moves and I’m able to take control of my first site. Sweet. I get my Rohirram Bow on Eomer (which is huge 8 str) drop a Forest Guardian (another 8 str), move to site 5. I deal with most of the trackers and then use Gollum to smoke the rest and double to 6 which I survive intact. Pretty sweet. Gary moves to 5 and I make sure that he doesn’t do the same so I drop the bomb diggity on his ass. While it stopped him I didn’t do any real damage because he had 4 pumps in his hand and on the table. Did get 3 more sites though. I heal up, play Faramir and single to seven. Gary moves and I drop 5 Uruks on him (3 were those -1 for every site controlled). Nice no double moves. I single to 8. Gary moves I play the rest of my Uruks, then reshuffled my deck. Then time is called. Gary say damn and shows me the eight minions that were waiting for me. I kept my No Use that Way to myself.

Both Ken and Martin won their first match as well. I get paired down second round to Tom’s little bro Alex. Martin and Ken end up facing each other.

Sparky vs Alex

So the game went the same as Gary’s but with a few differences, Alex was playing swarm and would like me get a free move every second time while he rebuilt his shadow hand. Alex wasn’t so lucky against my shadow. I got a site early on, so my Uruks were nasty, so I was pounding his Elven fellowship. I got to site 8 and stopped, Alex dropped his “bomb” on me in where I did a dumb ass mistake: I put a 9 strength tracker against Sam and 9 is triple of 3, so Sam died needlessly. It really sucked, oh and I added 3 burdens when I used No Use that Way to save Smeagol. ARRRGG! So I stopped Alex moved to 8 and I dropped a few guys he couldn’t kill and tried baiting him into moving again. But alas, it didn’t work. So I move to site 9 where using the Palanthir Chamber he is able to drop 9 guys to my 8. Ouch. I was toast. Except one of the nine was an Uruk Plains Runner. Exert Eomer in the archery phase and chuck the bow to deal one wound. BOO-YA! That’s it.

I look over to the Martin/Ken match and as I expected it, it was a bloodbath. It all came down to one wound. If Sam had one wound less he would not have to put on the Ring and corrupt himself. It was very close.

So with myself, and Kennith 2-0 one of us would play Smallman (if we didn’t play each other) and it turns out Ken would get another crack at the Black Rider. I got paired down again!

The Man vs. some scrub.

So the game was over at site 5 when he doubled and got the bomb diggity dropped on him. Now on the more important match.

Kennith (not so much a man. But a goblin God) vs. The Rider

So Ken knows how Sean likes to play fast and loose. He bids 4, goes first, flips Smeagol and goes up to 5 burdens. Ken smiles, his work is half done. Sean moves Ken drops a Easterling Guard on him, Sean sighs and puts it on Eomer which adds another burden. By site 5 Ken has Smallman on the ropes with 8 burdens. But on site 5 Smallman discards Merry and sits and wonders whether or not to move again to 6 with an Army of Haradrim still on the table. He goes for it and Ken drops 3 more guys at site 6 which kills everyone but Frodo and Gorn. Ken moves to site 5 and takes his scrapes. Smallman has a comeback when he drops his last two companions, Gimli and the White Wizard . Ken reshuffles his deck and awaits his Easterlings. The did come but a timely Defend It and Hope saves the day. Man that Smallman is lucky. Ken moves to 6 and stops. Sean moves to site 8 and loses Gimli and Aragorn. Ouch. Ken moves to 7 and Smallman drops Chief Councilor on him. Man, Smallman had insane pulls. He uses the extra twilight to make Ken move again. Time is called. The turn plays out and Ken survives so that means the game goes to Ken 8 burdens to 4.

So Ken beats the Black Rider and gets himself a box of Ents. Plus all the props for kicking Decipher ass. Way to go Ken!!!.

Well that was a good weekend.

Props & Slops

Props

To Team Five Iron for making it out.
Olav for coming up from Calgary.
Martin for winning the Death Race
Ken for beating the Rider
And Sean Smallman for coming to our sleepy hollow

Slops

Death Race, next time we need more than 2 hours.
Thomas (Cosmo) Solway for dropping out of the Rider because you weren’t winning. For shame.

So that’s it. Team Five Iron did rather well this weekend.

PS Go see Kill Bill, it rocks.

Peace

Earl S Prusak
Team Five Iron