LotR Pre-Release

I know I just got finished saying that the LotR set didn't hold much interest for me, but a buddy was going to a pre-release and hey, hanging out with friends is cool! 

Here's how things went.

Match 1 vs Zachary

Game 1: I was able to grind out the ground game, as he didn’t get his tempo cards.

Game 2: He used War of the Last Alliance to get Faramir, Prince of Ithilien. I couldn’t remove it, and that was that.

Game 3: Whil he didn’t draw his tempo cards, he did get Faramir again. This helped stall the ground game, and I misplayed my Nimble Hobbit's abilities and forgot to pay mana to tap a blocker. This meant we went to time, and that was that.


Match 2 vs Lance.

Lance played like he was hungover. Don’t go to prereleases hungover folks. Trust me.

Game 1: He was able to play two Fog on the Barrow-Downs, shutting down my threats, and that was that.

Game 2: This time I had the pressure needed to win.

Game 3: I drew lands. He drew spells. You might imagine how it went.

Match 3 vs Max

Game 1: His deck rolled through me, with two Erebor Flamesmiths on the table and more than enough reasons to cast Sam's Desperate Rescue in multiples. .

Game 2: I had to mulligan to five, and unfortunately my first play came on turn 4 with a Bag End Porter. 

Boy that sucked. Not just the losing, but the fact that I just felt like the games were...dull slogs. I didn't get to make interesting choices, the Ringbearing mechanic didn't increase my interactivity and instead put a tremendous pressure on me to have removal-something notoriously slim in Limited formats. I found myself getting pinged by tiny creatures with the Ring, allowing a huge upside of looting, and even extra damage, for my opponents.

This is the first pre-release I can think of in forever where the games just were not fun. On top of that, a small group went to the pub to play more games with our decks and the 'grindy unfun slog' just continued for me. I won a few games, but I didn't enjoy the experience. 

Part of the issue might've been my deck; I thought the curve was pretty good, and for the most part I didn't have to mulligan often or have trouble finding my colors. But I just didn't have anything useful to DO, more often than not. It was really easy for my opponents to run away with games. 

However, Black had only one creature, Red didn't offer any removal and Blue... well I don't exactly get Blue in Limited. 

Anyway, here's the deck:

Old Man Willow
Arwen, Mortal Queen
Shelob, Child of Ungoliant

Shire Terrace
Great Hall of the Citadel
7 Forest
6 Plains
1 Swamp

2 Westfold Rider
2 Hobbit's Sting
Gandalf the White
Eowyn, Lady of Rohanb
Nimble Hobbit
Bill the Pony
For on the Barrow-Downs
Dunedain Blade
Escape from Orthanc

Many Partings
Shower of Arrows
Galadhrinm Guide
Chance-Met Elves
Meriadoc Brandybuck
Ent's Fury
Delighted Halfling
Bag End Porter
Entish Restoration
Pippin's Bravery
Enraged Huorn
Mirrormere Guardian