Author Topic: 2008 T1-2P 1st Place (Read 22806 times)

TimMierz · « **on:** August 10, 2008, 02:35:33 PM »

Builder: Tim Mierzejewski
Place Used: 2008 National Tournament
Performance: First Place(9-1)
Cards: 56
Type: Level 1 - 2 Player

~~Throwing It All Away~~
~~Rome-o and Genesis-iet~~
~~Discard, Datcard~~
Genesis & Rome

56 Cards

Heroes (8)
Angel at Shur (Promo)
Benjamin
Dan
Jacob (FooF)
Rebekah
Sarah
Simeon (FooF)
Zebulun

Good Enhancements (8)
Abraham's Servant to Ur
Answer to Prayer
Buying Grain
Jacob's Dream
Journey to Egypt
Obedience of Noah (D deck)
Reuben's Torn Clothes
Shoes of Peace (F deck)

Evil Characters (9)
Ahithophel (Kings)
Emperor Augustus
Emperor Claudius
Emperor Galba
Emperor Nero
King Menahem
Lying Spirit
Naaman
Sabbath Breaker

Evil Enhancements (7)
Balaam's Disobedience
Chains
Expelling the Jews
Heavy Taxes
Lurking
Mask of Fear
Namaan's Chariot and Horses

Artifacts, Covenants, and Curses (6)
Chariot of Fire
Confusion of Mind
Covenant of Noah
Priestly Crown
Rain Becomes Dust
Unknown Nation

Fortresses (2)
Rome
Wall of Protection

Lost Soul Sites (2)
Hormah
Promised Land

Lost Souls (7)
Site-Discard
Discarder
Revealer
Shuffler
Wanderer
Female-Only
Lost Souls (3 lines)

Dominants (7)
Son of God
New Jerusalem
Angel of the Lord
Burial
Christian Martyr
Destruction of Nehushtan
Falling Away

This deck went 9-1 in Type I 2-player at the 2008 National Tournament. (Chad Soderstrom beat me 5-3 in round 7 or 8.) The record exceeded my wildest dreams and expectations, but it kept performing. Through repeated use of cards like Simeon, Dan, Emperor Galba, King Menahem, and the discarding Lost Souls, the opponent's hand would be running fairly low the whole time, hopefully making him get rid of helpful cards to stop him from successfully blocking and rescuing. As you can see from the list, that's not the entirety of the deck - there are some great battle winners and characters in there for other purposes. But I won games both by being able to do things like Benjamin/Obedience at the right times, and by wearing down the defense through Simeon/Chariot, so it's not completely single-minded. Using mainly a single color on both offense and defense gave me many options, keeping the deck versatile. Some cards, like Answer to Prayer and Lurking, have a great many applications and situations in which they can potentially win me a battle. Other incredibly helpful cards were Confusion of Mind, Balaam's Disobedience, and Heavy Taxes. I never rescued 6 souls in a single game.

If I were to make some non-RoA changes, I would swap out Mask of Fear for Harvest Time or Guardian of Your Souls. I rarely got the opportunity and desire to play Mask of Fear during the tournament, even though it had helped me many times in the last several months. I did often find myself hurting for souls to rescue, and in all but two games of the ten my souls were the target of Falling Away. But I've got bigger fish to fry after getting a complete set of awesome new cards. :)

If you have any questions like, "Why is card X in your deck?" or "Seriously, a winning deck with Sarah, Rebekah, and Ahithophel?" or "How the heck did you win?", I would be more than happy to answer them. I am also thrilled that something other than a splash deck won.

I found this interesting: here's the set breakdown, using the earliest release for equivalent cards:
Original: 7
Prophets: 0
Women: 3
Warriors: 4
C/D: 1
Patriarchs: 7
Apostles: 3
Kings: 2
E/F: 3
Angel Wars: 2
G/H: 1
Priests: 5
Faith of Our Fathers: 16
Promo: 2

Sean · « **Reply #1 on:** August 10, 2008, 03:25:41 PM »

Congratulations Tim and thanks for posting the winning deck list.

For what its worth, Ahithopel goes in all of the gray defenses I ever use.

Sean

Alex_Olijar · « **Reply #2 on:** August 10, 2008, 03:35:11 PM »

No surprise there, FooF made this possible. Though, I am slightly surprised Patriarchs had more usage then Apostles at first, but then I think about gray enhancements and it makes more sense.

Alex-CB · « **Reply #3 on:** August 10, 2008, 03:37:48 PM »

With the non-RoA changes, if you took out Mask of Fear would you still keep in Rome?

Alex_Olijar · « **Reply #4 on:** August 10, 2008, 03:41:08 PM »

I don't want to answer for Tim, but I can tell you he would. When he and BrianGabe were working together to toss around ideas about the deck, Gabe suggested he take Rome at. After one battle between Moses/Covenant with Moses, and an Emperor, Gabe sided with Tim. In a FBTN battle, Rome will get the emperor the win almost every time.

TimMierz · « **Reply #5 on:** August 10, 2008, 03:43:06 PM »

Quote from: J4n1ss4ry_teh_n008 on August 10, 2008, 03:35:11 PM

No surprise there, FooF made this possible. Though, I am slightly surprised Patriarchs had more usage then Apostles at first, but then I think about gray enhancements and it makes more sense.

Patriarchs: Journey to Egypt, Jacob's Dream, Abraham's Servant to Ur, Balaam's Disobedience, Promised Land, Destruction of Nehushtan, Covenant of Noah
Apostles: Emperor Nero, Emperor Claudius, Wall of Protection

It was mainly blue, not gray, cards that bumped up Patriarchs' count.

Quote from: Alex-CB on August 10, 2008, 03:37:48 PM

With the non-RoA changes, if you took out Mask of Fear would you still keep in Rome?

Totally. Besides letting Nero, Augustus, and Galba use Mask of Fear, I could:
- Retrieve it with Galba. Besides making my deck 1 card faster in drawing terms, I could retrieve it from DISCARD too. Whenever I had to discard an evil card from territory (like with my Discarder soul), Rome was the first to go. With Galba around, I could repeat at will.
- Have first strike. Any of my emperors could beat any BTN Hero one-on-one. With two emperors in battle (Unknown Nation) I beat a White Hero/Transfig/Moses/Cov with Moses attack without a single enhancement. First Strike has won me countless battles, much to my surprise.
- Let Emperor Claudius play Heavy Taxes. It didn't happen in the tournament, but any chance to play Heavy Taxes is happiness for me.

Alex_Olijar · « **Reply #6 on:** August 10, 2008, 03:44:52 PM »

Hmm. Interesting.

Alex-CB · « **Reply #7 on:** August 10, 2008, 03:46:11 PM »

Also how why did you have Rain Becomes Dust in your deck? To combat speed?

Alex_Olijar · « **Reply #8 on:** August 10, 2008, 03:47:19 PM »

How useful was Naaman to your cause?

TimMierz · « **Reply #9 on:** August 10, 2008, 03:51:43 PM »

Rain Becomes Dust was mainly in there to combat speed, yes. I fought around 3 speed decks I think in my 10 games. In one of those, I drew RbD after he completely decked. In another, I drew it from Sabbath Breaker's special ability and played it in battle for the 5 defense, winning me the block. In the final one, it was very effective, stopping his Words and Reach (and getting rid of 6 cards from his deck).

Namaan was somewhat useful. The CBN is definitely sweet, but only Chains and Chariot are really affected by that in my deck. More than once I used him as Obedience fodder when I didn't have anyone smaller. It's always nice when Chains wins a numbers battle though. Namaan was one card Gabe suggested I add to make King David less of a threat, and I'm glad I did. Incidentally, I only saw 1 King David played by my opponents, and I was able to block him successfully (and then Angel of the Lord and Christian Martyr fell onto the table anyways).

Alex-CB · « **Reply #10 on:** August 10, 2008, 05:23:24 PM »

Hmmm. Since FoOF I wanted to make a Roman Defense. Just didn't ever get around to actually trying it. Now I might try a Genesis/Rome... but I think it would be better if I tried my own ideas...

Nice job on winning Nats with such a different type of deck. I don't think anyone has tried a hand discard deck like this before. Congrats.

MichaelHue · « **Reply #11 on:** August 10, 2008, 05:47:19 PM »

I just wanted to say again that I'm really glad you won. I think it's great that somebody won nationals with such a cool and unique deck. Most people wouldn't even consider hand destruction a viable strategy, but now that should change

Congratulations.

DaClock · « **Reply #12 on:** August 10, 2008, 07:24:41 PM »

I am also glad that a hand-control based deck won nationals. This is a strategy that has been hurting for a long time and is finally viable. Congratulations!

777Godspeed · « **Reply #13 on:** August 10, 2008, 08:42:35 PM »

Tim, you took an underestimated archetype to Nationals and proved to everyone that it is not only vialbe, but National Championship worthy. Once again, a huge congratulations to you.

Godspeed,
Mike

Hedgehogman · « **Reply #14 on:** August 10, 2008, 08:52:36 PM »

Tim, other than winning myself, nothing could have made me happier than seeing you win it all with a single color deck (99% anyway). Big props. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Although I will ask, why is Lying Spirit in your deck? I couldn't figure that one out. Random banding, perhaps?

TimMierz · « **Reply #15 on:** August 10, 2008, 09:57:32 PM »

Quote from: Hedgehogman on August 10, 2008, 08:52:36 PM

Although I will ask, why is Lying Spirit in your deck? I couldn't figure that one out. Random banding, perhaps?

I don't have any other banding in there (save for Unknown Nation), so it's a useful thing to have around. A little more numbers against a Captain band, some insurance against Angel of the Lord, and somewhat low numbers if I want them against someone and have them stick in. It will probably head out in favor of The Terrifying Beast, but we'll see. As it is though, it can mess with the opponent by banding in their ECs too.

DaClock · « **Reply #16 on:** August 10, 2008, 10:38:26 PM »

I would recommend that you post this on Holders Heroes because Schaef really would like some tournament-winning decks on there.

TheKarazyvicePresidentRR · « **Reply #17 on:** August 10, 2008, 10:47:04 PM »

Quote from: TimMierz on August 10, 2008, 03:43:06 PM

Patriarchs: Journey to Egypt

I hate jooo

Quote from: TimMierz on August 10, 2008, 03:51:43 PM

Rain Becomes Dust was mainly in there to combat speed, yes.yways).

I hate you moooreeee... My poor swift horses! What kinda noob uses hand d/c!

Naw just kidding I am glad you won with such an odd deck. Too bad I didn't beat ya like regionals so I could post heroless won nationals

. Congrats on making such an annoying deck!

redemption99 · « **Reply #18 on:** August 10, 2008, 10:47:12 PM »

He can get ours from tim maly =)

Alex-CB · « **Reply #19 on:** August 11, 2008, 01:54:37 PM »

Well I decided to build a Genesis/Rome deck and looking at yours I was wondering, "Why no Captured Ark?"
My deck will be different from yours (just so I can call it mine) but was there a reason you didn't include Captured Ark in your deck?

TimMierz · « **Reply #20 on:** August 11, 2008, 01:57:22 PM »

There are very few artifacts that greatly hurt my deck that I've seen in common use. Destruction has always been enough for me; never needed to use Captured Ark. Usually my artifact slot was better filled with Confusion of Mind, Covenant of Noah, or Chariot of Fire.

TimMierz · « **Reply #21 on:** August 13, 2008, 09:17:02 AM »

Quote from: BrianGabe on August 13, 2008, 09:11:51 AM

Thank you for sharing your deck with the public. I'll echo Ben's request that you submit this to Holder's Heroes. I have a lot of respect for people like you that do well and then generously give to others to make this game better.

I will definitely be posting to Holder's Heroes. Monday and today are gaming days though, and yesterday was laundry day plus online-game-show-with-my-friends day.

Thank you again for the kind words, but don't downplay your own modifications, suggestions, and support. It's a biiiit more than the 1% you admitted to at Nationals.

slugfencer · « **Reply #22 on:** August 14, 2008, 07:51:03 PM »

Awesome job Tim!! Innovative and cool deck!!
SC redemption players rock!!!

Somewhere larry the zombie is smiling.....

SoulSaver · « **Reply #23 on:** August 14, 2008, 09:38:09 PM »

Congrats man, great performance.

christian_fong · « **Reply #24 on:** August 15, 2008, 11:42:01 AM »

congrats Tim

Our game was fun and ur deck is one of a kind. thats the first time i saw a deck like that. i loved it. congrats again.

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Author Topic: 2008 T1-2P 1st Place (Read 22806 times)

Alex-CB

Alex-CB

Alex-CB

Alex-CB

slugfencer

SoulSaver