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The Black Rider Tour – Sean Smallman

Tour 2 – Final Report

Take off, to the Great White North, eh. That's what I did. Cold weather, good hockey, poutine (God's gift to fast food freaks like myself), and most importantly – Tim Horton's coffee and donuts. (Mmmm... Canadian Maple.) Throw in a detour south of Lake Ontario to play against some of New York's finest and the tour becomes a dream trip. Get paid to play The Lord of the Rings TCG every day against the best players in the region, and you'd think you had died and gone to heaven. Well, almost.

The tour actually got off to a late start. My flight out of Norfolk got cancelled due to weather and I had to take a later flight, leading to a missed connection in Pittsburgh and a late arrival into Southwestern Ontario. As a result, the first stop got postponed by two days, and the second one saw me arrive just in time to play with a deck that had been drafted by the TD. Too bad he didn't know what sites I had picked, because the deck didn't fit any of them! Oh well, I managed to pull off a single win at that tournament and still had a great time at The Comic Connection. My luggage (with all my Black Rider cards and the bounty prize) had been lost by the airline (what a day!), so the owner Ted Krieg helped cover the bounty prize, and we took names of all who showed up to get them their promo cards the next day. 20 players and a bunch of extra visitors helped keep the mood bright, and the Hamilton crew was a blast to hang out with. (See the Bounty winners and the Fierce winners list below for more details.) Highlight of the tournament was the final game, where I had killed off just about all of Walter Ritz's companions on his last turn. I knew time was about to be called, and so I tried to rush through my turn, knowing all I had to do was survive and make him move to the next site for a sure win. After I moved, time was called, and so all I could do was tie him at the site, leaving the win up to lowest burdens, and that wasn't me. Victory was so close I could taste it, but the clock wouldn't let me win!

I met with a lot of retailers, distributors, and author Michael Stackpole on Saturday, and then visited the Great Canadian Baycon on Sunday. Sunday night, I crossed the border into New York and began a gallop across the state, along the thruway. I noticed a number of other steeds alongside mine, as several players joined me at each of the locations I stopped at: two in Buffalo, one in Rochester, and two in Syracuse. For three tournaments straight, I had to play against some of the best players in the state, including Team 'Cuse and a pair of FIERCE winners from the Buffalo area. My Morgul blade was tested and proved to be made of a tougher metal than they expected, as I went totally undefeated at each site. With their black breath hot on my neck, I raced for the Canadian border and crossed the river in time to escape their blade tips, but not a cool souvenir: a Black Rider card for me, signed by each of the members of Team 'Cuse. My thanks go out to Jay and crew, who "overwhelmed" me with their gift. Oh, and if you ever make it to Rochester, be sure to stop in at Nick Tahoe's for dinner. Their Garbage Plate is an experience that proves the point, "what don't kill you only makes you stronger."

Ottawa was next on my list, and with the Senators losing their first game in the play-offs for the Stanley Cup just the night before, the hockey fans turned their attention on beating me. They had heard of my NY winning streak and set their minds on ending it. Product champions Pascal and Andrew tried to distract me with a plate of poutine just before hitting the stores of the area. I got to visit distinct groups of players in the Ottawa/Hull region and knew that I was in for a tough challenge that night. However, I once again managed to hold onto my bounty and kept my FIERCE reputation intact. The record was now up to 14 wins and only 2 losses. On top of that, I got to award the FIERCE cap to Kris "with a K" Bourgon. I met this guy on my first tour of Ottawa during the early days of Young Jedi, and he was still keeping the Decipher games going strong among his friends. He certainly deserved it. The storeowner, Darcy, offered him $50 on the spot for the hat, to which his only reply was, "No, it's my trophy." Way to go!

The next morning I headed out on a long journey out of Ontario and across nearly all of Quebec to reach the oldest city still standing on the continent: Quebec City. This is the home of the World Champion, Mathieu Brochù, so I knew that this would be one of my toughest challenges yet. Alas, I never got to play him in a game. He went on to win the tournament undefeated, and I lost two games, placing me in the lower half of the bunch. OK, let me beg an excuse here. My draft pack had only three companions, and I only got a chance to draft two additional companions, leaving me only six counting Frodo. While I put up a good fight, I just couldn't out-run my opponents both times, facing a chance of being overwhelmed on nearly every site. Ouch!

My last two days of the tour were in a city I knew fairly well – Montreal. Everybody knows that this is the place where many champions and top-level players come from. I knew it would probably be my toughest challenge. I didn't see Raphael Asselin, but I did see Yannick LaPointe and the Malboeuf brothers, along with Patrick Sullivan. This is a city where swarm decks have been fine-tuned to a degree beyond any I have encountered. The booster draft format is practically made for swarm, so these guys knew instinctively what to draft for and how to play it. They must have played "Release the Angry Flood" on me, because I was swept away during the first tournament on Friday night. I couldn't win a single game. Everybody bid high enough to go first, and stayed just ahead of me, forcing me to attempt a double move if I wanted to win, and ready to pounce should I be foolish enough to try it.

Saturday's event was a little better for me. I had gotten used to the local play environment by then and only lost one game, my final one, against what both my opponent (Jean-Luc Simard) and I agreed was one of the best draft decks we had ever seen. My starting fellowship was Legolas and Gimli, which was nice as well, but not this one time. In my opening hand I had pulled five Gondor support cards but not a single one of my five Gondor companions, so I call mulligan. Of my six cards, I drew four Gondor support cards, but no companions. So, I played the Citadel of the Stars just to get it out of my hand and I moved. Only five or six twilight in the pool and he couldn't play anything, so I moved again, knowing that my three companions could handle it. He got out a Band of Wild Men for five (Strength 11), and then played Grima, Chief Counselor against me! Goodbye Legolas. With that as my start, I could only crawl for the next couple of turns, never drawing a Gondor man and getting overwhelmed at site 5. Had I not had to re-play Legolas, I would have pulled Aragorn in time to avoid it. What a game! That was not to be the most memorable one however. The game previous to that one was the ultimate one for me. I was playing Patrick Malboeuf, and knew that he was one of the big swarm masters, so when I gave him plenty of pool at site 2 and he didn't play anything. He mentioned something about not getting the minions he needed, rapped his deck for good luck, and drew a card. I stopped, not willing to lose on my first turn to a possible swarm, should he be bluffing. I stopped him at site 2 as well, with my minions, so was in the lead at site three. I had no wounds. He has several. If I moved on to site 4, I would gain an incredible advantage, as he would have to stop at site 3. I calculated the chances. I had five companions and he would only have 13 twilight at the most. Chance of swarming Frodo was nearly impossible, so I moved. He got out 6 minions! One was strength 5 but the rest were all higher. Frodo was about to be overwhelmed. I stared at my hand, devoid of stealth cards. The only pump cards would not help Frodo. (Remember, Gimli and Legolas only help Unbound companions.) I had nothing that could make someone defender +1, and no direct damage to kill any minions. I knew I had lost. He asked me, "Can you do anything?" I said, "I can't see anything..." So, he reaches across the table to wish me "good game", and as I reach forward, I suddenly remember that my Rohan ally could fight at site 4! I quickly pull my hand back and say, "...but I'm going to let you take one archery." That ally was my salvation. I lost nobody, and was barely able to stay ahead of Patrick until the end of the game. It was a very intense game, and every mistake would cost a lot, so it was one of the few timed wins I got. After it was over, we looked at what would have happened had the game continued and fortunately I still would have won, so I didn't feel bad for winning due to number of dead companions in the dead pile. Ah, the tricky (and strict) Montreal players. Patrick knew I didn't see the ally at site four and tried to rush me into ceding the game to him. I was about a second from shaking hands, when it hit me. How close is that?!

All in all, I ended up with three timed wins, two timed losses, 14 full wins and 6 full losses. A 17-8 record is not bad. I had wanted to beat my 24-6 record from tour #1, but the Quebecois said, "Ici, no." (Not here!) I thought that I was Fierce. I found out that there are many Fierce players out there. As I prepare for my third tour (hitting central and western Canada in September), I will keep that in mind.

Bounty Winners:
Jason Kokoski
Walter Ritz
Nicolas Mortel
Samuel Pouliot
Pierre-Francois Chatigny
Francis Gagné
Jean Paquette
Jean-Luc Simard

FIERCE. Winners:
Miles Wallace
Scott Watson
Jon Gallo
Jay Moynihan
Kris Bourgon
Rock Mercier
Nicolas Mortel
Jacques-Philippe Fort
Chip Limeburner

Tournament Winners (Other than me!):
Jason Kokoski
Steven Sy
Mathieu Brochù
Jonathan Marchi
Jean-Luc Simard

Fiercefully yours,

Sean Smallman
Black Rider

June 10, 2003