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The Black Rider Tour

The Nine have left Minas Morgul. They travel in search of The One Ring. They are tireless – they will never stop searching until they find it... They are coming...

...to a store near you!

Nine Decipherians will be traveling the globe (well, actually in North America and Europe) in 2003. They will visit the very best of the gaming clubhouses in support of The Lord of the Rings™ Trading Card Game. They will conduct demos for interested new players, run tournaments for their participating retailers, participate in bounty tournaments* with the local community, and hand out LotR TCG goodies for everyone in attendance at each shop.

* Bounty Tournament – An event you don't want to miss when the Black Rider comes to your town! Play in a booster draft bounty tournament during the Fierce. Tour, and you may be able to win extra prizes!

One of the following Black Riders will be visiting a store near you beginning in March 2003:

Joe Alread
Joe is a part of the Trading Card Game Studio at Decipher. He is a key designer for The Lord of the Rings TCG. Joe has a long history with Decipher as a championship-caliber player of the Star Wars™ CCG and as a Product Champion in the late 90s. You'll have to bring your A-game if you plan on taking a bounty from Joe!

Dan Bojanowski
Our very own Coordinator of the DGMA, Dan is no stranger to tournaments. Lucky for you, his lofty position in the world of tournaments won't help a bit when he has a bounty on his head! Lucky for Decipher, Dan is an icy-cold gunslinger. You might be less ashamed if you simply conceded your tournament game to him before it starts...

Kyle Heuer
Kyle is the Promotions Coordinator for Decipher's Marketing Group. You are currently seeing his handiwork if you are subscribed to the Battle of Helm's Deep mailing list! If you're not subscribed, then believe me, you're missing out! Kyle is also a veteran of the "bounty tournament" format. If you don't believe it, ask him about So Cal! By the way, this whole bounty idea is Kyle's brainchild...make him pay for it!

Joeri Hoste
Joeri is one of the European Marketing Coordinators for Decipher. If you live in Europe and play Decipher's games, then you have probably had contact with him. Joeri's multi-lingual skills have brought Decipher closer than ever to its European playing community! That means you shouldn't expect your country's international editions of The Lord of the Rings TCG to faze him a bit when trying to collect a bounty on him!

Kevin Reitzel
Kevin is a longtime friend of Decipher, being that he was one of our early Product Champions for the Star Trek™ CCG, way back in 1997! It is no surprise that he heads up the entire Product Champion program for Decipher. Bring a beat-down for Kevin, or bring a Product Champion application, but don't bring both!

Mike Reynolds
Mike is truly a veteran of The Lord of the Rings property. Decipher was lucky enough to acquire him as a designer for The Lord of the Rings TCG. His previous experience is on the old LotR game – Middle-earth: The Wizards. Mike has been integral on the development of the booster draft format for The Lord of the Rings TCG. Word is that Mike's pretty good at the game too. You'd better be honing your booster draft skills if you want to collect a bounty on Mike!

Marcus Sheppard
Marcus is the other part of our two-headed marketing monster in Europe. He works with Joeri Hoste to make sure that all of the parts of the marketing machine are working smoothly in the United Kingdom and on the European continent. If you're a Product Champion who is slacking off on your duties, expect a call from Marcus. If you're a Product Champion who is doing his job well, expect a call from Marcus. If you're planning on winning a bounty game against Marcus, expect to make other plans!

Sean Smallman
Way back in the day, Sean developed and maintained our tournament reporting system. Sean even goes back so far that he was a playtester for the Star Wars CCG before its launch in December 1995! Sean now heads up our International Distributor Marketing programs, and manages the Star Trek™ brand. There is documented proof that Sean is a lunch-time-playin', pick-up-game-winnin' The Lord of the Rings TCG player. There's no doubt that Sean is going to be a tough bounty to capture!

Kendrick Summers
Decipher's Marketing Manager and Brand Manager for The Lord of the Rings, Kendrick might be best known for his role as Decipher's very own Gold Leader. Rumor has it that he used to fly around the world in first class, just trying to play Decipher's games in the most exotic of locations! You can be sure that on this tour, Kendrick will be flying in prop-commuters and driving ultra sub-compact rental cars to get to your neck of the woods! It's been said that he has a killer Lightfootedness deck with an Uruk Shaman shadow strategy that is out of this world! Look out!
Actually, Kendrick expects to be giving away LOTS of bounty display boxes on his leg of the Fierce. tour, so break your plans for that week and show up at his tournaments!

Each Black Rider on this tour will visit stores within his tour routes to Bring the Bounty:

When a Black Rider plays in a bounty tournament, you will have the opportunity to win big prizes by beating him during that tournament. Also provided for the winner of each tournament will be cool Fierce. T-shirts with the Black Rider card on the back! Booster Draft "Bounty" tournaments will be organized in advance with participating retailers and posted on decipher.com. Plus, the Black Riders will be giving away thousands of exclusive promotional cards: an alternate image, foil version of a year-four preview card – Black Rider. While this card will not be tournament legal until its actual release, it is sure to see plenty of activity in casual-play and non-sanctioned tournament decks!

The focus of our Fierce. Black Rider Tour will be on major metropolitan cities within North America and Europe. We are already taking requests from retailers for visits all over the globe for the first leg of the Fierce. Black Rider Tour this spring. Of course, we will not be able to visit every retail location, but our focus on major cities will help us to go where the populations are the heaviest. Look for the list of tour sites to hit decipher.com in early February.

If you think a gaming clubhouse in your town is ready to host a Black Rider:

• Have your retailer contact us directly – kendrick.summers@decipher.com – to request a store visit.
• Keep watching this area of decipher.com for further updates about tour locations in the US, Canada, and Europe.
• For locations outside of North America and Europe, stay tuned for additional opportunities to obtain the Black Rider card.

We'll see you all on the road...

Get ready for the Black Riders! Get ready to booster draft! Get ready for Fierce.

February 5, 2003