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The absolute first thing that I have to say is that I would not have been turned on to Genesis with a conversation with Josiah Beers. His influence is what got me to test out Genesis about two weeks before Nats, and had it not been for him, I wouldn't have thought to give Genesis serious consideration, and as a result, I don't believe I would have gotten fourth place without him. I also owe a huge debt to Justin, who gave me some excellent advice and allowed me to test the deck against a variety of different uncommon decks. All of the cards I used aside from one were also borrowed from him. John Earley and Andrew Wester also get a lot of credit for their input and helping me playtest. Without these four gentlemen, I would not have made top cut, plain and simple.

Looking back on it, I think there are two key virtues to Genesis that allowed me to use them so effectively this year. The first is that Genesis provides more variety in effective rescues than any other offense in the game. Joseph is clearly the go-to rescue right now, but failing that, Zebulun and Simeon are both excellent backups, Jacob can be used extremely effectively, and Eve's ignore and unique speed are brilliant. The result is that I very rarely don't feel I should initiate a battle, as I can always accomplish something, even if that something isn't rescuing a soul that turn. The second virtue is directly related to the first: Genesis excels at recovering from bad opening draws. The worst draw of the game for me was against Josiah Beers, and he was quickly able to rescue three souls and put the game at 0-3, while I had only managed to draw a single character: Simeon. A first turn RBD and Mayhem during the third turn was enough to let me spring back and win that game 5-3. Now admittedly, a Mayhem and RBD can save a lot of decks from a lot of different circumstances, but if Genesis wasn't so effective on offense and so effective and fast on defense, that recovery simply wouldn't have been possible.
In my seven regular games, my deck only had an average-to-optimal draw three times. The other four were all below average, and I was able to recover from three of them. Overall, I took three losses, and two of them were to the same player, who ultimately won the entire tournament. The third was to John Earley, who will be the first to admit that my draw in our game was truly terrible (the worst in the tournament for me, save the game against Josiah), and my deck even has a slight advantage against him, making our odds somewhere around 55-45 in my favor. Still, John is one of the best players in the game, and that does not diminish his defeating me in the least. The point being, Genesis tends to recover much better from bad draws than the average top tier deck, and only in the absolute worst (e.g. Earley) can it not recover.

If I could play it again, I'm not sure I would make any changes. Answer to Prayer would have come in handy more than Nazareth in this deck, but Nazareth is still an excellent play if your deck isn't too search heavy, and it's an especially unexpected play for Genesis. I didn't once use Promised Land, but my philosophy is that it's only one card, and when I need it, I need it badly. I would still probably keep it in for insurance. Jubilee was the very last add to the deck, pushing it to 51, and I would keep it, as I used it twice to pull out enhancements, and used it in most every other game for I Am Holy. It was a card Justin brought up to me, and now, I can't imagine playing the deck without it.

There is no way for me to be truly unbiased, but I honestly believe this was the best deck at the tournament. The three games I lost included two where my opponent (the national champion) had unbelievable draws, getting 8 Disciples (including Thad) within two turns both games, among other goodies, and one game where I simply had a bad draw, and even if I'd had an exceptional one, I still could have lost simply because Earley is one of the best players in the game. I would play Genesis again in a heartbeat if I could do it over.

This is the reason I was going to play The Deck instead of the deck I planned on playing up until a week before.

Thanks for the credit on this but your giving me to much. You built and ran a top deck.  I would contend that Jerome's deck was the best deck in the tournament but perhaps that's my bias.  I would still have ranked yours 2nd.  I'm just pumped Genesis did so well.

To Kirk
I give Chris credit for understanding his own thinking process in the game and knowing it was a better play for him to play the prison which creates potential for early game soft lock. Plus Naz stops the search.  Personally I never run 7yrs either it's good in theory but overall not worth the slot.

As for playing your defense I would be interested to see it played out against Chris's deck.  To see if that win ratio holds.

Thanks for weighing in.

1. That makes sense not to include a card you forget to take advantage of. I found that even if my search did not work the d3-7 was worth the slot.
2. I never really use GOtE with Pithom but mainly use it to take care of cards in territory I wanted to remove. This was really effective in T2 (where I used Pithom the most) and was employed by Noah W in his 3rd place T2 2p deck.
3. That is surprising no one played Assyrian/Magicians. I guess that shows the meta-game can shift dramatically. I still think the versatility of that defense is unmatched, although it does not have the brute strength of some others. I usually put a hurting on Genesis through repeated play of Invoking Terror (band to your E Magicians if mine is not on the table) or create side battles to play it off bottom and through Charms, Writ, and Assyrian Archer.

I don't play anymore but if you wanted to give you deck a spin against a version of mine, hit up Jay Chambers. He has been playing that deck well over the past couple years.

Kirk