okay, so the basics of this deck was to stall until I could pull off COMBO COMBO COMBO COMBO CONGO! and win in one turn. my teammate, Martin Miller (teh_unforgivable), played a super fast speed deck including Gates, Storehouse, Eleazar's Sword, Unified Kingdom, Son of God, New Jerusalem, and Guardian. we didn't realize until after our decks were checked that if I used his Eleazar's Sword or Unified Kingdom, it'd end up shuffling back into his deck.
first game was against Ben Michaelizyn (or however you spell that...) and Nick Archick. end score 3-5
we probably would have won this game, if not for a bad ruling and a mistake on my part. I had the combo ready, but a judge ruled that I am Healing wouldn't heal from Gates, not realizing that I am Healing's play-as/errata says the same thing as Brass Serpent. I didn't have time to discuss it, but I knew somebody else had used it at Nationals, and it was fine. so I had Martin play Brass Serpent (which the judge ruled would work). after the five minute ruling, I realized began a rescue, and I realized I had forgotten to activate Captured Ark, to get rid of their Hezzy's Sig Ring, which stopped Elishima from searching for ANB. it was too late to take back everything, so Martin made a quick Rescue and a SoG/NJ, and we let them have it. little did we know, had we not gates'd the deck, and taken a time out tie, it would have given us one point, which would have put us in third instead of them (granted, it probably would have thrown off pairings and things would have been entirely different).
second game was against Nic (Fyero) and Brent Marshall (bamnet). end score 2-2
their TGT was useless against the combo deck, since we don't rescue a soul until the game is over. they played Son of God and NJ a bit too early, and I was able to exchange for three 3Liners, and then I gates'd until I had a thorns soul, so they couldn't exchange back. I was able to stop almost everything they threw out, and the few times they broke through, I just gave them a tap. we timed out before I could draw the combo.
third game was against Ron Sias and Rob Mulye (robm). end score 2-0
we switched decks, since Martin was bored of sitting with a speed deck and not doing anything. Martin was able to pick off Ron's Son of God with High Priest's Plot, and then we simply defended until the end without drawing the combo.
fourth game was against Danika and Katie Anderson. end score 5-1
Martin was still playing COMBO COMBO COMBO COMBO ETHIOPIA!!!! (well, he said NIGERIA!!! instead of ETHIOPIA!!!). we stalled, they played Son of God and NJ too soon, we got the combo off. it would have been over, except Martin had a few too many evil characters out and didn't redraw Unified Kingdom. Danika drew a revealer lost soul and put Unified Kingdom to the bottom of Martin's deck. she rescued, but we tapped a 3 liner. I was able to get a soul with Angel of the Lord, and put my copy of Unified Kingdom in storehouse. even though Martin didn't redraw his Unified Kingdom, we were able to use mine to get another free soul with nothing they could do.
fifth game was against James Roepke (Hanno102) and John Earley (RedDragonThorn). end score 5-4
I was playing the deck this time. this was an extremely tough game. they were able to choose the blocker and got through our defenses pretty easily. we didn't have any defense in our hand, so I used Martin's Unified Kingdom to reset everything without using Gates they gave me half of a 3Liner. I was able to rescue another (different) half with Tribal Elder to King Jehoshaphat to Elishima. we were able to stop James somehow, and Martin played Son of God/NJ and walked in with an Angel of the Lord.
fourth place with a combo deck in T1. one point away from third.
