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Redemption® Collectible Trading Card Game HQ => Playgroup and Tournament Central => Redemption® Official Tournaments => Topic started by: The Guardian on August 10, 2014, 07:25:33 PM
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Hey everyone, doing a tournament report for T2 2P from this past weekend. Such a great time--lots of fun and laughter and many intense games. I also played T2 MP and TEAMS but those are a bit harder to remember details with 4 players involved so I'm just going to do T2 2P this time.
Round 1 vs Ron Sias
Ron is a legend in T2, and I look forward to every time I get to see him. We had not played a 2P game in years (I think maybe 2005?) so it was great to get a chance to see what kind of deck he was using. The game started out very well for me. I had an AutO to go with first turn as well as Samuel in hand so I would be able to keep AutO for next turn as well. Samuel picked up #1 and it was Ron's turn. He didn't have much yet so he passed and I drew. I drew Urim and Thummim but didn't have a High Priest yet so instead of going AutO/Jair for maximum drawing, I decided to fetch Eli the Priest even though I had no enhancements for him. This was only a battle challenge and I hoped Ron would just let it go otherwise I would lose Eli and my chance for early U&T abuse. He declined and I was relieved. The key moment in this game came when Ron attacked with Samuel while I had a Magician with Charms in territory. Samuel was the only Hero Ron had and I preferred to save Charms for a double capture so I decided to use Vain and see what he had. As it turned out he had both SoG and AotL. I decided that letting him keep SoG and targeting AotL would be better for me in the long run so I went with that option and captured Samuel--one of the hardest Heroes for me to beat since he negates the 2K Horses my Assyrians love so much. That decision paid off as Ron had no way to get through my growing defense. He made some nice blocks and ended up drawing NJ, but eventually I was walking in for free LS and won 7-2.
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Round 2 vs Jordan Alstad
Jordan had beaten me in a close game (6-5 timeout) at East Central Regionals and I assumed he would be using the same deck at Nationals so I made some adjustments to give myself a better chance against his defense. Unfortunately it didn't matter much because he had all the right counters early to shut down my initial attacks and I just seemed to draw defense in the mid-game. One of the early key moments was when my first two Lost Souls that I drew were Female Only. However, Jordan drew FBTN LS on his turn and attacked. I stalled him once and then drew SoG to go with NJ. I debated for a moment if I should use them early to grab the FBTN LS so that my Females Onlys would not be negated, but in that moment of hesitation, he played Vain, underdecked SoG and things went downhill fast. I stalled blocked a couple times, but I couldn't put any pressure on his hand or defense. Eventually I pulled off the trick I had planned to destroy his defense, but it cost me two dominants to accomplish and it was too little too late as I had wasted too many resources earlier to take advantage of his ravaged defense in the late game. This was the worst loss my deck has ever had, and it left me wondering why I didn't include more counters to Jordan's deck. Final score 7-0 as I couldn't even draw back SoG.
Round 3 vs Matt Sinclair
Last year when I won T2 2P at Nationals, Matt's deck was the only one to beat me as I had an awful draw and he didn't make any mistakes that might have let me sneak back in the game. This time though things went very different. The key moment came early when after he drew an early Nebuchanezzar (who I knew could cause me lots of problems), I drew my Angel with the Secret Name and exchanged for Jephthah. I discarded Nebby and Astrologers and the only other EC Matt drew had an Angel of the Lord waiting for him. All Matt could draw was offense, and he made several nice attacks to get 3 LS, but in the end I was walking in for freebies with Moses. Final score of 7-3.
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Round 4 vs Dayne Maust
Dayne and I had an extremely close championship game at Nationals last year, so I knew this would be another tough match. It started out very slow for both of us as neither of our decks produced much early offense. I didn't have the greatest draw ever, but because Dayne's offense didn't show early, I was able to be patient with my attacks. Eventually my deck started rolling, and once it did, I was able to put a lot of pressure on his hand and defense. He grabbed two with SoG/NJ and for a moment the game looked as if it could turn, but I managed to stay one step ahead thanks to some timely draws and would eventually walk in for the 7-4 win. It was somewhat concerning however, that for the third straight game, I had not played SoG/NJ--only drawing it in the game against Jordan where it got underdecked. I wondered if that continued if it would cost me at some point...
Round 5 vs Noah Wagenknecht
Noah's brother Jonathan had beaten me at North Central Regionals so again I expected a very tough match. It was a very well played match as he carefully avoided my defense with some nice choose the blocker plays. Meanwhile, his defense seemed to do more damage to me on his turns than on my turns, which really limited my options when it was my turn and I wanted to attack. Both of us were playing some elements of hand control, and there were many occasions where neither of us had more than 3 or 4 cards in hand. Unfortunately for me, I could not draw my Wall of Protection and he was able to use my defense against me on several occasions, which caused me to become very selective of when I attacked. In the end it came down to me not drawing SoG (would have been in next draw) and him having one final block to stop me on my last turn for a 5-5 tie.
Round 6 vs John Michaliszyn
I had not gotten the opportunity to play John at last year's Nationals, but I knew he is one of the winningest tournament players of all time. As we began shuffling, he began to lament that he had spent months working on a deck, only to doubt himself after playing MP on Thursday night and built an entirely new deck with a concept he had only thought about trying previously without actually attempting it. Unfortunately it had not worked as well as he had hoped leading to a 2-3 record going into the final round. I got off to a quick start with my Judges drawing and over the first few turns built a sizeable card advantage. A few turns in, I decided to use Mayhem after he drew to knock his hand down even further. He ended up passing as his offense wasn't showing up much at all. The key moment for this game came next as he no defense showing on the table, (which made me think I should definitely attack), but fortunately I had drawn an early Urim and Thummim plus a High Priest to check his hand. I took a look and he had drawn 6 evil cards off Mayhem, including a character who could band to my well-set up defense. I realized that with such a big card advantage already there was no point in letting him use my defense to catch up on drawing and I elected to simply use I am Holy for several turns to try and get the evil out of his hand. My patience paid off as eventually his hand went from all evil to all good as he drew offense and I continued the pressure with I am Holy. I walked in for several freebie LS until drawing into SoG during a rescue attempt for a 7-1 win.
Final record: 4-1-1, ironically the same record as last year, but this time I would have to settle for second place as Jordan only had one time out loss and took the title.
I will post my deck in the tournament winners section if you wish to see how it evolved from last year.