There will be a Race Against the Shadow Tournament at the Fantasy Flight Event Center on Sunday, January 26th at 2:00pm. Please arrive by 1:30pm.

The tournament will begin promptly at 2pm, and there will be a pairing process for those who do not arrive with a teammate.

There is no strict requirement that you bring a decklist with you, but decks must conform to the rules as stated in the latest Core Rules and FAQ, which can be found on the FFG support page for the game.

That said, please do bring a decklist. If people do this, then I will be able to run some statistical analyses on the data and post a bunch of interesting numbers for all to see after the event.

Also, the Race Against the Shadow format does require the use of a timer, such as a chess clock. There are plenty of mobile apps for this, and some phones do this anyway. That is something to be mindful of.

I'm out on the West Coast so I won't make it, but if I were local and had nothing to do I'd go. But here's the big problem which FFG is aware of: the game is designed as a cooperative effort - and it succeeds well at that. As it stands the game doesn't support enough archetypes for a pseudo vs game to work. I would put Dwarves at tier 1 and Outlands slightly behind. (But I'm only going on word of mouth for Outlands since I'm not interested in that play style.). Elves is a full tier down right now and attachments might be on the same level, but I'm not sure.

A long as the scoring system doesn't penalize for dead allies one play style will reign supreme. Truth.

The Race Against the Shadow tournament will happen on Sunday, January 26th at the FFG Event Center. Time of day TBD. I will update this thread when I find out.

sounds very interesting. please update us.

Awesome! I wish I could go but live in CA.

Let us know how it turns out. I haven't used the format yet.

One thing I was wondering about: Does it specify how many people need to be playing or can you do any number?

Also should be some restricted list other wise ever one will play dwarfs decks…..

.... or Outland decks. I'd be curious to see which type (dwarf vs. outlands) would be better in the tournament format.

Updated the first post with more details.

The rules for the format say that the pool of possible scenarios is announced slightly in advance, and then people, in teams of 2 (in this case), build what they judge to be the best decks, given the possible pool of scenarios. It will be really interesting to see what people bring.

I am encouraging everyone to bring decklists, so that I can do some statistical analyses and generate an interesting report for everyone on the various fora.

Bumping this thread so that it stays visible.

Bumping this thread because the event is drawing near. As always, please email or message me with any questions!

.... or Outland decks. I'd be curious to see which type (dwarf vs. outlands) would be better in the tournament format.

Dwarves, obviously, with that broken combo found by some player not so long ago.

Yes without some restricted or banned list tournament will be full of dwarves or outlands decks

I'm going to show up with my Seafarers of South Gondor deck and win it all!

Now, if only I had the Ship Captain's actual ship... I guess I'll have to hold out and hope for an attachment.

Great initiative !

I am totally confident everyone will be having a great time regardless of what is going to be played.
Sorry divinityofnumber, I live thousands miles from Minneapolis, otherwise I would have gladly joined
the party !

Yes without some restricted or banned list tournament will be full of dwarves or outlands decks

The tournament will adhere to the latest FAQ and rules documents. So, that means that all bans, errata, etc., will be enforced.

If I do tournaments I will banned Dain, Herluim and Will of the west. Also U coueage limit 1 per deck. That for sure.... and maybe some other cards too.....

Bumping this thread because the tournament is getting close!

Next Sunday!

We had ten brave souls show up to play in the Race Against the Shadow tournament yesterday. The weather here in Minnesota was fierce and brutal, but 10 of us were present for an afternoon of LoTR. I will post a detailed report later, but wanted to bump the thread and say that it was a lot of fun.

The approaches people took to the scenario were similar and also quite different. The main goal is, of course, speed. So, all of the decks had an element of urgency to them, trimming down on cards that are meant for the long game in favor of cards that simply attempt to sprint to the finish line, leaving many allies and even some heroes dead or bloody.

What was the quest and what archetype was most represented? Outlands? Dwarves?

The Quest was Journey Along the Anduin. The decks seemed to have a lot of variety. Dwarves and Hobbits made an appearance, but I did not see a thoroughly Outlands deck. The most popular heroes seemed to be Glorfindel (Spirit) and Beregond. I love that there is a nasty shadow effect in this scenario that blanks a defender's defense ability; the Hill Trolls did kill some Beregonds over the course of the afternoon.

From what I saw, most rounds were over in about 4-5 turns, sometimes it took 6 or more, if the encounter deck was particularly nasty on that last quest card.

I am going to write up a detailed report and get it posted very soon.

No nightmare? ?? Then is boring. ..

No nightmare? ?? Then is boring. ..

I too enjoy difficult scenarios. In a way, the Race Against the Shadow format turns an ordinary scenario into a Nightmare Scenario, because winning is no longer equal to winning. The goal becomes trying to win in a very specific way, which is a fun task to undertake from deck-building and gameplay perspectives.

No nightmare? ?? Then is boring. ..

I too enjoy difficult scenarios. In a way, the Race Against the Shadow format turns an ordinary scenario into a Nightmare Scenario, because winning is no longer equal to winning. The goal becomes trying to win in a very specific way, which is a fun task to undertake from deck-building and gameplay perspectives.

Really true these words. I agree totally

No nightmare? ?? Then is boring. ..

I too enjoy difficult scenarios. In a way, the Race Against the Shadow format turns an ordinary scenario into a Nightmare Scenario, because winning is no longer equal to winning. The goal becomes trying to win in a very specific way, which is a fun task to undertake from deck-building and gameplay perspectives.

Really true these words. I agree totally

I never try it (Mean TRAS format) so looks like i miss something here……..