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DECIPHER.com > The Lord of
the Rings > Fierce Black Rider Tour
The  Black
Rider Tour – Marcus Sheppard
Tour 1 – Final Report
Day One: 10th April 2003
12pm – 2pm: Kathie's Comics, Bristol.
My first Black Rider tour kicked off in my old stomping ground of the
south-west of England: at Kathie's Comics, in the centrally-located Galleries
shopping centre. Kathie's is a new addition to the collecting scene since
I lived in Bristol, and it provided a good opportunity for me to talk about
the TCG to some genre fans who weren't necessarily followers of any TCG
(yet). I give away two dozen Black Rider foils to fans and dedicated players
alike.
Local Rider Steven Geall called in on his lunch-break, helping to hook
up new players and add some collectors to his local player base. Several
well-known players from the Bristol stable also stopped by, mainly to taunt
and tease me about that evening's bounty tournament at my second tour stop...
6pm – 10pm: Area 51, Bristol.
Another two dozen players were waiting for me at the regular Thursday
night games session in this store on the Gloucester Road. Car-loads had
come from South Wales and Oxford to meet me, and Rider Paul Heald travelled
sixty miles himself just to run the tournament.
I drafted one of my favourite Fellowships in my Tower Draft pack (the
Unbound Hobbits). Bristol has produced some top-level Decipher gamers
over the years, and two former World Championship finalists and the number-one-ranked
UK sealed deck player were just itching to claim the bounty on my head.
But my booster draft format playing skills weren't quite up to scratch by
this stage of the tour and the result of my first game ensured I wouldn't
be meeting any of the world-class players in my Swiss pairings! I lost all
three games, including to one Product Champion and the store owner, Iain
MacDonald, so the bounty was split three ways.
Congratulations to tournament winner Gary Carman who took home the Fierce.
t-shirt. The Fierce. hat and pin were donated to the crowd from Oxford,
who will play their own kind of bounty tournament back home to decide which
player gets to keep them.
Thanks to both stores for having me along for the day. I think I've given
"old stomping ground" a whole new meaning with my performance on this tour...
Day Two: 11th April 2003
12pm – 2pm: Sub City, Dublin.
I flew in to Ireland with plenty of time to spare, so I showed up at the
shop early to meet some of the famous faces of the local gaming scene. Store
manager Richard was a gracious host: we chewed The Lord Of The Rings-flavoured
fat, showed off the amazing flexibility of the Race To Mount Doom League
Kit, and gave away plenty of Black Rider cards during my short visit to
Sub City. Product Champion Alan Bell had driven south from Belfast to join
in the festivities.
2.30pm – 6.30pm: Third Place, Dublin.
Literally just around the corner, another brief visit to a store that
actually had some gaming space. European players will know that with shop
space in high demand, short supply, and appropriately crippling rates this
is no mean feat at all! We hung out here for a while, inventing our own
game text for a theoretical league night, before moving on to the day's tournament
venue, a hotel function room right between the two shops I'd visited this
day.
My appreciation to Product Champion Emmett Murphy and avid gamer Gavin
Cassells for their help setting up the day and running the tournament. I
fared better today with an Aragorn/Rohan Fellowship and Isengard for the
Shadow side. I made it to the top table undefeated only to be overwhelmed
by Alan Bell, who won the tournament. That box of boosters should help cover
the cost of your petrol, Alan!
Special mention also goes to Ryan Gately from Galway and Eric Byrne, who
extended his vacation from Australia to meet a Black Rider. They took home
the Fierce. hat and pin for their dedication to the game.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to include Ireland in a promotional
tour before now, so I'm sure the players and shop-owners of Dublin appreciated
being included this time around. To quote one of the players, "We've all
taken the day off work to be here. That's just because it's Decipher and
Lord Of The Rings. We wouldn't take a day off for any other game".
Day Three: 12th April 2003
12pm – 4pm: Static Games, Glasgow.
Not content with waking up in England then working in Ireland the previous
day, I'd flown to Scotland that evening to prepare for today's visit. (A
three-country day... cool!) In a market just off the main Argyle Street
row of shops were over 20 players, all waiting to get their hands on my
bounty.
After an initial chat and card give-away session amongst crowded tables
of Saturday morning gamers, we decamped to the tournament location (as mentioned
above, booking separate tournament venues is common practice here). However
the booked venue was locked with no explanation, so a bar was found at ten
minutes' notice and the day snatched from the jaws of defeat! I scored
my first full win of the tour here, then got overwhelmed, then scored another
timed win. This was Sam DeSmith's first The Lord Of The Rings TCG
tournament, and he won! Add a Fierce. t-shirt to your collection
of Star Trek CCG shirts, Sam.
Thanks to Kenneth Burns, a long-time supporter of Decipher's promotions
and organised play events, for hosting my visit amidst some adverse conditions.
Rider Stuart Lauder earned today's Fierce. pin for coping admirably
with everything fate threw at him!
Day Four: 13th April 2003
11am – 3pm: Travelling Man, Leeds.
Sunday train services, Sunday car rental opening times, and a general
ignorance of the distance from Glasgow to Leeds on my part all converged
and conspired to make me very late for this visit. Apologies to all involved
from this "Slack Rider", and kudos for coping and putting on a successful
day for the public regardless of my presence!
Rider John Martin had decided not to keep his public waiting and pressed
on with the tournament, which was located on the bottom floor of the beautiful
Corn Exchange shopping centre. The floors above it are effectively balconies,
so anyone could look down at any time and see the games in progress. Several
potential players were attracted to the game in this way, and hopefully
they'll take it up now that they own a Black Rider card and have seen how
much fun it is to play!
The Fierce. hat was given to a father-daughter team who had previously
collected the TCG but only learned how to play it that morning! Daughter
Corinne, aged 11 years, won all her games and made it on to the top table,
only to lose the final game to Kristian Aspinall. (Kristian won the tournament
and took home the coveted Black Rider shirt.)
I decided to stay on and offer the Black Rider bounty in some pick-up
games, to make up for my late arrival. I bested my opponent from Hull in
the first game, but in the second, the Black Rider was slain by a halfling
– Corinne took my deck to pieces. That young lady certainly had a good
day, and taking home 36 booster packs of The Two Towers must have been the
icing on the cake!
Day Five: 14th April 2003
11am – 1pm: Nostalgia & Comics, Birmingham.
I planned this quick visit in the Midlands to let players who couldn't
come to this afternoon's tournament get a Black Rider card on their lunch-breaks.
Store manager Dave Hopkins set me up with some counter space at the front
of the store, which was a good focal point to showcase our cards and hold
a "rolling demo" (it lasted over an hour, with new people joining in and
plenty of backing up on my part to explain aspects of the game they'd missed).
I met a good representation of collectors, players and total newbies at
this stop.
I was also happy to see players from the north, the south and from Wales
show up here on their way to the day's main event in Coventry...
2pm – 6pm: Bishop Games, Coventry
What an excellent end to my tour! Rider Neil Palframan amassed 28 players
in the upstairs playing area of this shop. That's right: in-store gaming
space and the best tournament attendance of the week! Actually, over 40
people were there in total, counting the collectors who turned out just
for the preview card.
I was able to draft a good amount of possessions and "power-up" cards
to help the Ring-bound Rangers and Rohan companions from my draft pack, but
stupid mistakes like forgetting to heal and forgetting to use Gollum's ability
in the regroup phase didn't help much. I was getting used to the mid-table
obscurity by now, so it came as no surprise to lose two out of my three
games.
Thanks to Alan Rimmel for letting me win one game and for getting me to
Coventry on time. The walls of Bishop Games indicate that the Race To Mount
Doom (and plenty of other gaming besides) is in full effect at this shop,
so thanks to Jeff Hawker for providing me with an excellent tour stop.
But what about my mysterious 6th tour stop? Wasn't I camped out at Gen
Con Europe for a full four days over Easter? Was I able to redeem my Booster
Draft performance even slightly? Find the answers to these questions and
many more in my Gen Con Europe wrap-up report, coming soon...
Ride on!
Ang-Marcus Sheppard
European Marketing Co-ordinator
marcus.sheppard@decipher.com
May 5, 2003
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