This is the deck I used in two out of three games during Online Worlds 2024 finals. I’ve decided to write the whole thing in English so everyone can understand it, apologies to my fellow Spanish speaking friends, I’m sure they’ll understand 🙂
First of all I’d like to thank:
– The CoE Organized Play Committee for organizing.
– My dear friend Kodi for creating this beautiful online platform.
– Also Kodi, Jordi Matas and Agustín Lozano for helping me with the testing and deciding which deck to bring to the finals.
– My opponents who were all really nice and basically everyone who participated and therefore supports this wonderful community.
In this year’s edition, finalists were allowed to change decks for the final rounds, so while I tried to bring an overall balanced deck, it also has some peculiar decisions -especially in the hazard department- that I took while having in mind what I expected my opponents to play. The main idea was to have a deck that could stand a chance against Radagast FW (Patric Laxander) and also against Migue’s “Canicas” deck (a very solid deck revolving around hobbits playing palatiri in Dragon Country). However, I had no idea what deck Bruno could bring, and I also had in mind that both Patric and Migue could change their decks, so I decided not to focus completely on that and instead tried to come up with something solid, but always keeping an eye on those two matchups. I was also worried that some of my opponents could play a Hero One Ring deck with dwarves, so some decisions were taken in that direction too. In the end, I found that this decision-making process was the most important factor for the final outcome, as Patric ended up playing Radagast FW, Migue ended up playing something I wasn’t expecting (but I was prepared against nonetheless), and Bruno ended up playing the same deck from semis.
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Deck
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1 Bûrat (AS)
1 Tûma (AS)
1 Wûluag (AS)
1 Baduila (DM)
1 Assassin (TW)
1 Regiment of Black Crows [M] (AS)
3 Dark Tryst [M] (AS)
1 Eye Never Sleeping [M] (AS)
1 Great Army of the North [M] (BA)
1 Lobelia Sackville-Baggins (DM)
2 An Unexpected Outpost (DM)
1 Revealed to all Watchers (DM)
1 Lieutenant of Dol Guldur (LE)
1 The Mouth (LE)
3 Cave-drake (LE)
2 Sellswords Between Charters (LE)
1 Ice-drake (TD)
1 Peril Returned (TD)
2 Stormcrow (TD)
2 Foul Fumes (TW)
2 Morgul Night (TW)
1 Mouth of Sauron (TW)
3 Crept Along Cleverly [M] (WH)
3 The Tormented Earth [M] (AS)
1 Orcs of Dol Guldur [M] (AS)
1 Thong of Fire [M] (AS)
1 Thrórs Map [M] (AS)
1 Nameless Thing (DM)
3 Wild Trolls (LE)
3 Doors of Night (LE)
2 Heedless Revelry (LE)
3 Twilight (LE)
2 Down Down to Goblin-town [M] (LE)
3 The Lidless Eye [M] (LE)
2 Voices of Malice [M] (LE)
2 We Have Come to Kill [M] (LE)
2 Weigh All Things to a Nicety [M] (LE)
1 Grey Mountain Goblins [M] (LE)
1 Ice-orcs [M] (LE)
1 Orcs of Gundabad [M] (LE)
1 Black Mace [M] (LE)
1 High Helm [M] (LE)
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Pool
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1 Dâsakûn (DM)
1 Drór (DM)
1 Dorelas (LE)
1 The Grimburgoth (DM)
1 Jûoma (DM)
1 Wormtongue (DM)
1 Lieutenant of Morgul (LE)
1 Náin (LE)
1 Odoacer (LE)
1 Tros Hesnef (LE)
1 Open to the Summons [M] (WH)
1 Foul-smelling Paste [M] (LE)
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Sideboard
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1 Pilfer Anything Unwatched (AS)
1 Slip Treacherously (AS)
2 Eye Never Sleeping [M] (AS)
1 The Great Eye [M] (AS)
1 Sack Over the Head [M] (AS)
3 Long Grievous Siege [M] (BA)
2 In the Heart of his Realm (DM)
1 Seek without Success (DM)
2 Seized by Terror (DM)
1 Itangast (TD)
1 Searching Eye (TD)
1 Call of Home (TW)
1 Lost in Free-domains (TW)
1 Muster Disperses (TW)
1 Piercing All Shadows [M] (WH)
1 Durin’s Bane (DM)
1 River (LE)
1 Blackbole [M] (LE)
1 Sudden Call [M] (LE)
1 Threats [M] (LE)
1 Voices of Malice [M] (LE)
1 Weigh All Things to a Nicety [M] (LE)
1 Orcs of Mirkwood [M] (LE)
1 Scroll of Isildur [M] (LE)
1 The Arkenstone [M] (LE)
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Sideboard vs. fw
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2 Choking Shadows (TW)
1 Blind to the West (WH)
1 Cruel Claw Perceived (WH)
1 Fools Bane (WH)
2 Heart Grown Cold (WH)
1 Ire of the East (WH)
1 Heedless Revelry (LE)
1 Long Winter (LE)
The resource part of the deck is quite classic (and classy, if you like :P). It starts with Lieutenant of Morgul and Grimburgoth, and depending on the matchup, you can also start with Tros Hesnef and/or Odoacer, or maybe Dorelas if you want to have a sage squatting at DG for Voices of Malice. Against Migue I expected him to play Dwarves/Maias/Elf-lords so I started only with the two big guys, hoping to choke his draw at least at the beginning of the game (and it worked). It’s also a decent strategy against those hazards because if the HL is only 2, there’s not much they can do to hurt you if you are holding at least one attack canceller like The Tormented Earth, e.g. if they want to play a chilled elf-lord that makes 2 hazards, or if they want to play dwarves + maia that’s 2 hazards, etc. Those decks tend not to play rivers too, because all the half-creatures and the creature boosters take a lot of deck space so they usually don’t have room for them (Migue didn’t play a single one during my game) so I wasn’t especially worried about having a small company against him.
Against Patric it was a different story because I just needed not to lose 1-5, so I decided to have one big company that could score points more slowly but surely, and therefore I started Odoacer and Tros along with the two big guys. The plan worked fine because I managed to play some MP card most of the turns while my hazards slowed him down enough.
As I was saying, the deck follows a classic pattern, one that I’ve played and seen played many times during my MECCG career. In fact I believe the first minion deck I saw in my life (back in 1998…) had these two starting characters. It was from an old friend called Heraclio Sánchez, mostly known as Kabuto. Another good old friend that still plays this game -Agustín Lozano (Balin)- also used a very similar configuration to reach Worlds Finals in 2005, and after that I also built my own version of those decks, that I played for some years with some decent results:
https://meccg.com/deck/amenazas-y-regalos-facciones-de-dragon-manuel-cabezali/
In any case, the final idea of playing this type of deck actually came to me (after I discarded many other options; I have waaaay to many decks built, and in my mind many of them could qualify as competitive enough for a final) after watching Pawel from Poland play during Worlds 2024 in Hamburg, where he played a very cool minion deck with DoN that moved around the Eriador area. I had the impression that that deck was somehow tailored to destroy Radagast FW’s companies, and that’s what I saw him consistently doing during the tournament. That deck also had some resemblance to various Marcos’ decks, so between Pawel’s list (that he was kind enough to send me), some ideas that I took from Marcos’s decks, and some of my own criteria and previous experience with similar decks, I built this thing. I wouldn’t say it’s a very original deck, but it’s a cool one, it takes some risks and it’s not the typical Balrog/Faithless Stewards/Safe Underdeeps/Mordor Shuffle that you would expect to find in a MECCG final round.
The fact that the deck is 31/31 instead of the usual 30/30 is some kind of tribute to Pawel (his deck for worlds was 33/33). Until now I had always been super strict with 30/30, and it’s the first time in my life that I go above that. In the end it was some kind of superstition, although it started out because I didn’t know what to take out, and in the end I decided that those two extra cards would be compensated by the fact that my avatar was also a resource and not a character. Of course, I knew that technically the deck would be better without those 2 cards but I said to myself “fuck it, let’s play 31/31”.
The resource part is self-explanatory, I think. Normally you will have one relatively big company moving around the Withered Heath area. You have strong characters and can gather some big weapons (Lieteunant with Thong of Fire is really tough) but you have to administrate your cancellers wisely because the attacks in that area can be huge. That company will try to play one MP-resource per turn + the Regiment of Black Crowes, two if you manage to get the Thror’s Map combo.
With the Lt of Morgul controlling one or maybe two troll bros (because of a DI bonus from a trophy, or high helm) and Grimburgoth, you can form a second company with the Lieteunant of Dol Guldur/Mouth/Baduila/Dasakun and maybe a 3rd troll bro. Or maybe you want to have only one big company. Or you could even split in three companies, technically. Or if your opponent has weak characters you can just drop the troll bros in any Ruins and Lairs and attack them in CvCC. The deck has a flexible plan and I like it just like that.
Also it’s important to note that in a metagame where most minion players choose to play the above mentioned decks (Balrog/Safe Underdeeps/Faithless/Mordor shuffle) choosing to stick to the Withered Heath isn’t as crazy as it sounds.
In the end, the idea is to play some big items and gather the Great Army of the North (along with some Long Grievous Sieges) and a regiment of crows. That’s usually enough to call the Audience. If I had to make some changes to the deck now, I would probably add one more faction booster in the sb (maybe a 2nd threats, or the Dark Power)
Some peculiar card choices:
Down Down to the Goblin Town: This, along with the DoN hazards was my anti-elf lords card. I usually try to avoid double Wilderness, unless I have played this card. It’s not that difficult to stick to one wilderness, since you can play many of your MP cards in Withered Heath, and Elf Lords can’t be played at shadow-lands if DoN are in play. Of course, it also helps against other nasty stuff like Ice Drakes, Landroval, Cave Worms, etc.
The tormented earth: This is a very cool and flexible card. It’s usually played for cancelling a big creature attack, but the fact that you can also use it to reduce the prowess of the attack by -3 (even in CvCC) is what makes the difference to me. The CC is a bit nasty though, but sadly there’s not much you can do about that other than hope not to roll snake eyes, or support with any of the small characters if you can spare them.
Agents and extra characters: I wanted to have extra options for starting the game just in case, e.g. maybe there would be a situation in which I’d prefer to start with a sage at Dol Gudur, and that’s why Dorelas and Nain are there. And I also wanted to have a backup plan in case some of my big characters got eliminated. I also included some agents in the pool that I would later put into the deck depending on the starting company of my opponent, e.g. against Patric I left Juoma, Dror, and Dasakun in the deck because I knew they would cause trouble when played as agents. And of course, those are also characters that can replace dead characters if things were to go wrong. Again, this adds flexibility to the deck.
Sack over the head: This was my tech card against Hobbits and especially dwarves (I find the Dwarf Party One Ring deck to be very powerful). Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I didn’t meet any of those.
Hazards:
The hazards are a vital part of this deck because they don’t only hinder your opponent’s strategy, but also protect your own companies. By using of Doors of Night and Morgul Night you’re preventing Elf Lords and Veils Flung Away, which are two cards that can really hurt you.
Other than that, I wanted to have multiple creatures that could be played at Ruins and Lairs or double wilderness (anti Rada FW and anti Hobbits in Dragon Country, and also anti most Eriador decks) and also a decent access to the sideboard in the form of Unexpected Outpost + DoN. Also, DoN allows you to play very powerful card/combos like Choking Shadows, Foul Fumes + Morgul Night, etc.
In any case, I didn’t want to focus too much on the Foul Fumes + Morgul Night combo because 1) It won’t hurt Rada FW and 2) it is over as soon as my opponent has a ranger with Promptings of Wisdom. But it’s a nice combo anyway and in most of my testing games before the finals getting the combo working for one turn was enough to justify the presence of both cards in the play deck.
Some peculiar card choices:
Heedless Revelry: These work quite well against Radagast FW, and of course they slow down any deck with a big company trying to play many stuff out of a single site. I’m happy to pack two of these directly in the deck.
Stormcrow: This was there because I wanted to be prepared for my friend Migue who plays 3x Crept Along Carefully in his Canicas deck, reducing the HL to 2 for and completely shutting down almost any hazard strategy. He didn’t play that deck in the end, but in any case Stormcrow is a good card, especially if you play DoN.
No Nazguls or other half-creatures: At some point I decided I would just go without the typical Adunaphel/Uvatha/Daelomin. Of course they’re good, but since my resource part of the deck doesn’t have the ability to discard permanent events so easily (I have 2 Voices of Malice and usually no cheap sages to tap) I knew I would very often find myself in a situation where I would draw into any of these cards but my opponent would have them in play. Also, not having them in the deck opens up for other possibilities. And finally, the 12-creature minimum is actually filled mostly with creatures that can actually hurt your opponent. I liked the idea of having some big unexpected creatures like Nameless Thing or Ice Drake, since they also attack in areas where my opponent would be safe from Morgul Night/Foul Fumes.
Long Winter: I only had this in the sb vs FW but it turned out to be gold in my game vs Patric, when he teleported to Old Forest to play Tom.
Choking shadows: Again, anti Rada-FW meta. It can also make the two copies of Sellswords playable at Ruins and Lairs, which is quite cool 🙂
That should explain the deck quite well but if anyone has any questions feel free to ask!
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MP count:
Characters: 10-12
Factions: 11-13
Items: 7-10
Allies: 1-3
Misc: 3-5
Total: 32-43
PS: The name of the deck is inspired on a song that my 6-year old kid used to sing when he was a toddler, which goes:
Noche oscura…
En un camino…
Allá a lo lejos…
Se ve un castillo…
Se abre la puerta y ¡de repente!
Sale un vampiro…
Se mete la mano en el bolsillo y ¡de repente!
Saca un cuchillo…
Unta mermelada, con una tostada, y con mantequilla