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The Water Garden

2010 NC Regionals Tourney Report
Round 1: Jeremy Volk - Score - 5-3

Jeremy was playing a red/gray deck, it was a fairly straight forward game, I converted 3 characters, discarded his sabbath breaker with a gomer band, Angel'd another, and then nearly made a huge mistake going for soul 5 - had played my own sabbath breaker allowing him to block, luckily I had He is Risen and so the crisis was avoided

Round 2: Joshua Knitt - Score - 5-2

Rescued with a first round FSP, only to have him scoff and state that his deck was designed to crush TGT decks... He CM's FSP, as the game progresses he gets up 3-2 with a tapped 3-liner, he also used Stalks of Flax to steal my TGT ladies when they started rolling, however he never got to his Guardian, so a well timed falling away and Son of God on my shuffler ended it relatively quickly

Round 3: Kirkland ? - Score - 5-3
Kirk was playing an angel offence, which was annoying since it negated my first round Unholy Writ.... His babylonian defence quickly succumed to my massive conversion repitore, ending up with Nebuchadnezzer, Seven sons and Nebushasban all converted, near the end of the game I had only 4 cards left, finally managed to eliminate his remaining defenders with a well timed He Is Risen and procedded to walk in for two souls - The play that I remember is that he played the big two super early, allowing me to manipulate my two-liner multiple times.

Round 4: Joshua Brinkman - Score - 5-2
Josh's deck managed do deal me a defeat earlier in the year, so I was a bit leery heading into this one, however my draw was relatively good and a first turn Samaritan water jar took out 3 ec's and his RDJ so I was sailing fairly smooth throughout. His Habbakuk did annoy my Uzzah to no end for the first few turns until CM dealt with him.
Round 5: Alan Rice - Score - 5-4
Honestly, I still feel sick to my stomach about this game. You know that something went horribly wrong when you're down 4-0 after 4 turns of play, when his Son of God, and NJ are both set aside with SWJ... I had to give up souls like candy to Alan as I simply didn't draw any defence this game, however through a massive mistake of Alan's, and then a nice play by myself I was able to pull the rare 4-0 to 5-4 victory in a turn...

After alan was up 4-0 I managed to tap a 3-liner, at which point Alan proceeds to play Burial, so I point out that he has the anti-burial lost soul resuced
He says well shoot, and then is forced to discard one of mine, I bury my second and he can't get a soul that turn. He has Unholy Writ up, so I rescue with just the two white ladies hoping for Garrison to block and capture one, sure enough he does so, and then I play Words of Encouragement, Preaching the Truth, get another tap (we played a game of hide the exchanger earlier...) His turn, I CM block his Salome, He's down to 3 cards in his deck, I grab my top 3, finally getting NJ, play them both to grab the two-liner halfs. Then walk in with the final tgt rescue, since his defence was basically dehabilitated.

Round 6: Gabe Isbell - Score - 5-1
Playing Gabe is always a harrowing experience, We've played more than a hundred games this year against each other through playtesting, and then ROOT, we've probably split them about 60-40 in his favor. The game was fairly straightforward, after tying on soul draw I won the coin flip and went first, I did a first turn SWJ, hitting SoG/Burial/Falling Away, and pulling his hopper lost soul I used susanna first turn, grabbed Angel of the lord, which was promptly played on King of Tyrus. Gabe played down some females and then used his susanna to grab his guardian, I block Sabbath breaker to get some cards, then we actually stalemate. I susanna for 5 cards, get the big two, Gabe captures with Writ, so I drop the big two, grabbing my shuffler, and susanna. A few back and forth turns, think I got an uzzah block in there somewhere, then used AoC to get a tap, next turn buried gabes only other soul and used TGT to grab the second half.

What, no Transfiguration?

Hmm.  He worked pretty well in my deck, but you're right about Phillies being annoying

Nope. Why bother with a card that does nothing for me? I plan on being ahead, so Grapes doesn't do anything for me blocking, since lets face it I don't have enough EC's to hold out for long away, and I sacrifice my rescue if I use it offensively, which is also bad. There's not an EC out there that I can't get through without Grapes. Never did I say to myself in game, "Man, I wish I had Grapes for this situation"

Right, but then they can just waltz in with another guy. Sabbath Breaker, Gomer on her own, and TAS are never going to block, regardless of who rescues. Uzzah is a chump block, and KoT gets the occaisonal block. The chances of me even having Two EC's (one to shuffle your chain, one to block next rescue) is low, the chances that the second EC will be able to block are even worse.

What? Glory of the Lord?

Oh... you meant Mayhem.

I figured the deck was already pushing it with TGT, SWJ, and all the other nastiness. I didn't want to increase its awesome factor another 10 fold.

Hey John (see I can remember your name  ),
    Nice deck!  After we played on ROOT, I had to severely resist the urge to build a copy of it and start taking it to tournaments as my 2nd or 3rd deck.  I was that impressed (because I copy no one)!  In addition to the impressive style, I like the creative name you give it too.  Personally, I don't name my decks but I appreciate those who do.

Hey,

Thanks Jon, I actually did tinker with your Green/Teal after I played it, but I never could get it to work as well as this. Probably because I took out Habbakuk Stands Watch.

That was the exact problem!!!   

FWIW:  I didn't succumb to Gabe's pressure.  Of course, I probably don't see him as regularly as you do. 

Also, was I one of those 6 losses?  Seems like I bested you off the draw but lost to a similar deck by MKC off the draw.

If I remember right, Forsworn Angel was playing a version of your deck as well.  So does that really count?  your deck beating itself?