Hello people!

Second part is here

Antonio C.

2004 MECCG Qualifiers (Friday)

Well, after the TW Only event I immediately started thinking about what
decks to play for Friday’s qualifiers. I only took 6 decks to Atlanta and
nothing more, I had the TW Only deck, two hero decks, two minion RW decks
and a Balrog deck. I decided to use my hero decks, after all, we were about
to play qualifiers. I had two t-shirts with the Lidless Eye on the back and
I thought “I don’t deserve to wear them until I make it to Semi-finals”,
with that in mind I wore my flashy “East Coast Death Metal” t-shirt by
Pyrexia ;)

My hero decks were:

The Sailing deck vs minion, the classic coastal deck, gathering factions and
items from the Isles and the regions aside (Pelargir, The Stones, Southron
Oasis). The resources use a combo (Fair Sailing, Belegaer, Great Ship and
Secret Entrance) that if used with Cirdan in a large company (you have to
have at least 5 characters in company) makes your company untouchable! This
deck had a roadblock hazard deck aiming to stand vs a Malady deck.

The Three Missions deck vs hero/FW, this deck starts with two companies,
Thranduil and two hobbits (Fatty and Sam) in one company and Adrazar with
Halbarad sitting at Rivendell. The hobbit company is sent to dragon country
and gathers greater items, while Adrazar influenced factions from Rivendell
using Hour of Need. Once your Wizard hits the table, he sideboarded some
cards while waiting for a couple of followers and then he moves to get
allies (Tom or some hounds). The hazard part of this deck has a hybrid
creature deck and some Power Built by Waiting in case my opponent is playing
some small companies.

Qualifiers at the War Room

Ok, we were at the War Room ready for some MECCG fun and after the random
pairing I got some News of Doom, my first opponent is one of the Fearsome
ones, Mark Alfano gulp! I have to confess that at that moment I’ve never
beat Mark in my life! So, I felt pretty much beaten already. He told me he
will play minion so I set my Sailing deck and said a prayer. The Sailing
deck has one little thing, you have to invest the first turn (unless you are
lucky enough to draw the Elves of Lindon in your first hand) without mps to
move to Grey Haven and set the ship for some beach entertainment. Mark had
some minion company at Dol Guldur, not sure who were them since his RW will
steal the show later and no memories of the other company will stick in my
mind. Not knowing Mark’s intentions yet, I sent my company to Dol Amroth to
get the Knights without a problem and after I was done with my turn, BAM!!
Akhorahil showed up and ran directly to Dol Amroth! I knew what was coming
upon my characters... Akhorahil tried two maladies failing the first one vs
Cirdan and getting Celeborn the fool under his nasty spell. After the
maladies, Akhorahil declared he wanted some fist fight and he got Cirdan
wounded but not killed :) Only 2 mps for Mark after all, good for him and
for me too. After his turn, I sent my company to one of the Isles and they
will never touch land until last turn :) Mark’s deck relied on mps from
maladies and he got stuck at 17-19 mps with nothing to play, while my
company was moving from Isle to Isle getting some Scrolls and major items.
Last turn, Mark stuck at 19 mps and it was my last turn (meaning no maladies
since there is no more turns for Mark), I sent my company to Southron Oasis
hoping to get the Southron faction and some hounds, but no luck when I drew
my cards and I got only one or two hounds. I was in disbelief, I won 4-2!!!
I think the final mps were 23-19 or something like that. Uffhh! I made it
for the first time! I have to say that my rolls were high during the whole
day and my opponents were rolling low at the right time for me, so, I told
everybody that I won because I was lucky.

I was so happy about my first game that I don’t remember anything about my
second round :( I think I played against Gene Berry or Charles Jenkins, I’m
not sure, but it was a 6-0 for my opponent, I think the opponent was playing
a Fallen Gandalf deck, so I was stopped at 4 TP’s

My third round was against Chad Martin and another Fallen Gandalf deck. Chad
did what he was supposed to do, but he got bad luck when his 3 stage cards
were buried on the bottom of his playdeck and he was unable to get the high
mps given by some stage cards. I won 4-2.

My last round against Spencer Carney and his Porno-Faramir. Spencer didn’t
play the porno version of Faramir against me, but I heard about his nasty
card :) I won again 4-2, I think.

Well, after I heard that only 3 players will be out of Semi-finals, I felt
just fine, knowing that I wasn’t any of those three. I was sad when I found
that the players not making it to semis were Chad, Kees and Josh H. Sorry!!
Maybe next time.

After the prizes were given (not sure which place I got, I think 8th place)
Will Kenyon took all the players to a nice restaurant. Many of us got
Buffalo for dinner (Bison steaks) and some good beer for the spirit.

We finished our day fixing decks for next day and hoping to get a better
performance than this Friday. Semi-finals report coming soon :)

Antonio C.

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