By Factor

This month's GCQ winner is longtime LOTRO player Orian "orian" Gissler. This is a hefty interview, so let's get right to it!

FACTOR: I believe you've won some major LOTRO events in the past. Can you tell me the last big event you won and how you've fared over the last few months before this win?

ORIAN: Hi, Steve. Before starting, I wanted to thank all the messages I got for rewarding me. Anyway, thank you, and Factor - nice review. I think nobody except me calls this deck "The Orian Deck." I used to call it "The Mellon Razzia," for an Italian word meaning "complete destruction." Although I have been roaming here for about two years now, I won only one "major" tournament, which was the St. Valentine's Day constructed tournament in February of this year. It was only twenty players or so, but almost two thirds were silver or gold, so I considered it a big event. I won with a different version of my deck - I always change some cards after a tournament. I had the idea for the deck in January, and in the past five months, I have changed it about 30 times. The deck has always been huge. In tournaments before the WCQ, I lost only twice (in about six tournaments) to two Uruk-hai decks, which are a real pain for mine. In casual I was about 90-6 (wins-losses), with many of the games being played inside my guild, The Shimmer Squad, against other top-tier decks (Refuge, Denethor Rangers, etc.) Other games were played offline with proxy cards. I also got substantial help from two of my best friends - French players Jeremy Tiano and Florian Prosper - mostly on ways to play Ents that I was not aware of (being an eternal Elf or Hobbit player). From those games, I had always known that it would do fairly well in the WCQ - top eight, if everything went fine, thanks to those casual games. Some people asked me if it was a metagame choice to play this month and not before. It was just a calendar choice, because in March and April, I had other duties. Since I'm an offline player of Vampire and The Lord of the Rings TCG in France, I had other tournaments that I gave priority to.

FACTOR: This deck is bizarre! Please explain how it wins, including bidding strategy and site selection. How many Free Peoples and Shadow wins were there?

ORIAN: The deck wins in many ways, which is always very important for me when I build a deck. The obvious way to win is to discard your opponent's deck using Mellon! and its sidekicks, The Palantir of Orthanc, Recovered Seeing Stone, Duality and No Safe Places. Then, you can make a "wizard run" from site six to site nine, or even from five to nine if set up correctly. Nevertheless, there are three alternative ways of winning. The first is to kill companions one-by-one by playing precise minions at each site. The second is to set up a long-term killing by exhausting everybody, putting out full threats, and waiting for the right moment to make the first kill. The third is to use Bill Ferny, Agent of Saruman and Gollum, Dark as Darkness to kill the opponent's Ring-bearer (works well with Gimli!). I would say the key to winning is to decide which route you will go through as early as possible, without closing the doors to other possibilities. That is certainly very difficult, but also very rewarding if you force your opponent into what you want him to do. Of course, those three ways are very general ideas. I remember winning with Whistling Death and Bill Ferny on an exhausted Ring-bearer once, and even swarming an Ent deck. The most critical element is to surprise as much as possible.

The bidding strategy is very simple - bid zero because you will add a burden with Smeagol, Hurried Guide, and you can't afford to start with two burdens without any fast burden-removal method. I always go first if I have the choice, and there are two reasons for this. Firstly, since my deck is a matter of time and running faster than my opponent without taking any risks, I would rather have him make the double-move to take the lead than start in front of me, because it will involve some risks on his part. An important part of my strategy is to ensure my opponent stays within my reach of action (one site in front, at most), because I obviously don't want to have to run like mad too early. It's easier to run when all of your opponent's deck is discarded. The second reason I like to go first is because my deck is a terrible pain-creator for my opponent. It's always good to put some more pressure on him by forcing him to choose sites and have to calculate points each time. The funny thing is that I won some games by timing my opponent out, not even willingly.

Concerning the sites, I generally choose Cavern Entrance at site one if I start. I'm not especially afraid of Ring-bound Hobbits if they stay behind me, and the site is essentially here for them, since I don't change it during the fellowship phases. When I go second, I try to use the little site manipulation part of the deck as much as possible, but staying in the limits of being reasonable. I generally change the site once at most in a turn, and maybe thrice in the game - only to do some basic tricks like Courtyard Parapet to Anduin Banks, or Neekerbreekers' Bog to Anduin Banks with Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders. I'll usually only do this if it is to kill my opponent or if I have There's Another Way to use. Basically, I made the mistake not to go with three 3-twilight-cost sites, and that put me in great trouble more than once. I have no real strategy on sites, just saving the good ones for when they will hurt the most, and apply a general strategy. I did make sure to play Crags of Emyn Muil at site four if I could, or at six if my opponent moved 4-5. This site is gold with this deck - you always win one turn of tranquility. More than once I managed to play it twice in a row, and that was just awesome!

Concerning the wins, two were what I call "over-win": I was dominating both in shadow and free peoples. In the two cases, I had discarded my opponent's deck and killed enough companions to be sure he wouldn't make it to site nine. In both cases he conceded. I made three shadow kills - two at site 5 and one at site nine. Two of them were on opponents' mistakes, I must admit. But I also should note that the deck is very good at provoking mistakes. And, finally, I only ran to site nine once. It was against Corsairs, and although it is generally an easy match-up, it was very difficult this time against Roy, as he played his minions really intelligently.

FACTOR: Did you ever have problems drawing a Saved from the Fire, with so much discarding?

ORIAN: It was a lot of concern for me not to draw Saved early on, but the fellowship handles quite well without Saved at the start. Of course, if I had nothing at all, I was in trouble - like against Zupa in the third game. I received Castamir of Umbar at site two and had two companions killed. Solo Gandalf survived and I managed to take the reins back.

If I had liked to be sure of how a game will look, I wouldn't have selected this deck. I don't care if I don't draw Saved, Mellon!, or Treebeard, Keeper of the Watchwood (a major character in the deck, of course - the key to play Mellon! again and again). I try to adapt and find the right solution. It's a complete pleasure to play like this!

On the other hand, since we're talking about Saved from the Fire, I have a major advantage on other Ent players: thanks to Duality, I can eventually learn what my opponent runs before playing my first Saved. When your opponent discards Unforgiving Depths, you know you'd better fetch Erland, Dale Counselor, Jarnsmid, Barding Emissary and Treebeard.

FACTOR: Why these minions?

ORIAN: The general lines of the fellowship were built a long time ago, but I had a lot of troubles finding a fifty-card shadow able to kill almost any weakened fellowship (being that I discard about ten fellowship cards per game with Mellon!). I also didn't want any problem discarding a complete shadow hand with Mellon!. My attempts with Nazgul, Evil Men and Orcs were not convincing at all, and finally I came up with Uruks. To fill holes in the fifty cards, I exchanged all conditions (which are too easily discarded) and possessions (too random) for more minions. After some games, I realized that I was almost not using the Uruk culture, except for some pumps, so I decided to switch the minions with some others. Gorbag, Filthy Rebel came first because I knew that his power was awesome in this deck, especially with Uruk Hunters. Then I added Black Gate Sentry and Southron Leader, which I consider the two most versatlie minions of the game. Evil Men came after, mainly because they were in one culture that was able to offer solutions against many troubles: possession removal, Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien, and No Visitors. Furthermore, I was finding the combo of Bill Ferny and any minion on Wold Battlefield totally overpowered. The last ones are real guests. Ulaire Lemenya, Eternally Threatening was included because adding threats is always good in the metagame, and he was totally pairing with Southron Leader. Sauron, Dark Lord of Mordor was for Ents (and because he's very impressive), Gollum was another solution against Ring-bound Hobbits and many Rings, and Nelya was for... well, for himself.

At the moment, I consider the goal of the shadow being able to exhaust any companion one the field at any time and make targeted kills if needed, without having any vital card.

FACTOR: Though you didn't lose a game, which was the toughest match-up? What happened?

ORIAN: Honestly, this deck has a lot of tough match-ups, simply because you give huge twilight amounts and have almost no defense. I was particularly afraid of Uruks, because the Damage+1 is killer, and I give far too much twilight in the first sites. However, I also wasn't expecting to see Uruks in the upper matches, because they don't match the best fellowships, so I knew that if my first pairings were against good match-ups I was standing a chance.

I played against Uruks in game one.

I lost two companions before reversing the balance of the game and killing my opponent at site five. In the next game, I could verify that one of the strengths of the deck is an automatic win against some of the best shadows in the game - against swarming orcs, the fact that I was discarding one to two minions at the beginning of each turn was a certain loss for my opponent.

I had a hard time against Zupa's Corsairs, and an even harder time against Roy's (the most complicated match for me because I was running first, gave huge amounts of twilight, and wasn't able to know exactly how many guys Roy still had left). Finally, the fifth match was the thoughest one, against Niesmaczny. He pulled his deck very quickly and I couldn't do anything before site seven, where I got a perfect shadow phase at the Bog - many fierce Hunters out, full threats for him, and no way to use more than one Ithilien Blade. Then, he managed to make it to site nine and played Legolas at the start of the turn. Three companions left, zero threats. I look at my hand to see two pumps, Mauhur, Relentless Hunter, Lemenya, Mūmak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings, and Gorbag. I chose to leave Gorbag - problem was, I completely focused on full threats, thinking "Hey, I stopped Aragorn's Bow." So I exhausted Legolas, but Niesmaczny had still three archery and Legolas's game text. He killed everyone, save for Mauhur, who got to the skirmish phase and happily killed Aragorn and everyone else, thanks to the threats. I must admit I should have lost this game because I made a horrible mistake, and if he had an Elven event, I was dead. Also, he made a threat-assignment mistake at site seven and shouldn't have been in such a bad situation at site nine, in my opinion.

The last game was the easiest one. Against site manipulation, There's Another Way wins the game by itself. It was no game at all, which was very good for me, because after six games with such a complex deck, you are very tired, and I knew I'd make mistakes.

FACTOR: How would someone go about beating this monstrosity?

ORIAN: As I said, I lost many to direct decks - the ones that don't think and play minions whenever they can. Unfortunately, those kind of decks are totally crushed by Rangers. To beat this deck, don't forget that it can still win without Mellon!. Also, don't forget that it can't afford to run from the start, but after your opponent has no cards in his deck, you need not worry on its capacity to reach site nine. Oh, and you have to understand what it does very early. I think that was the key of the WCQ for me.

Now that everybody knows the deck, I am not expecting it will be as easy as it was before the WCQ. It was really made to be a funny deck - for me, essentially. It wasn't meant to be a devastating tool, and I am still sure it is far weaker than Rangers/Čowyn. I will wait until next month for the confirmation.

FACTOR: Thanks, Orian!

Ring-bearer and One Ring
Frodo, Weary From the Journey
The One Ring, Such a Weight to Carry

Free Peoples (50)
1 Gandalf, Leader of Men
1 Huorn
1 Smeagol, Hurried Guide
4 Mellon!
3 Terrible and Evil
4 Saved From the Fire
1 Ent Draught
2 Out of the High Airs
3 Treebeard, Keeper of the Watchwood
1 Brooding on Tomorrow
1 Sent Back
1 Erland, Dale Counselor
1 Jarnsmid, Barding Emissary
4 The Flame of Anor
4 Look to My Coming
2 The Palantir of Orthanc, Recovered Seeing Stone
2 Pallando, Far-travelling One
1 Phial of Galadriel, The Light of Earendil
1 Gandalf, Leader of the Company
2 Radagast, The Brown
2 No Safe Places
4 Duality
3 There's Another Way
1 Glamdring, Foe-hammer

Shadow (50)
4 Violent Hurl
4 Ugluk, Ugly Fellow
4 Following Uruk
1 Lurtz, Now Perfected
3 Mauhur, Relentless Hunter
3 Gorbag, Filthy Rebel
3 Mūmak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings
3 Bill Ferny, Agent of Saruman
3 Chasing Uruk
3 Southron Leader
3 Black Gate Sentry
3 Ulaire Lemenya, Eternally Threatening
2 Furious Hillman
2 Whistling Death
2 Mumak Rider
1 Lurtz, Minion of the White Wizard
1 Sauron, Dark Lord of Mordor
3 Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
1 Gollum, Dark as Darkness
1 Captured by the Ring

Adventure Path (9)
1 Anduin Banks
1 Crags of Emyn Muil
1 Courtyard Parapet
1 Neekerbreekers' Bog
1 Cavern Entrance
1 City Gates
1 Wold Battlefield
1 Mount Doom
1 Pinnacle of Zirakzigil

-Factor