Author Topic: 2019 T1-2P 2nd Place #JetPriest  (Read 5091 times)

Offline Kevinthedude

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2019 T1-2P 2nd Place #JetPriest
« on: August 06, 2019, 02:19:24 PM »
+6
Turns out teal is good again. Old version from PoC phase 1 here. PoC Phase 2 massively buffed this deck. Jeremiah is an absolute boss, Bearing Our Sin can keep Martyr from ever being a block against a deck that is usually very susceptible to it as well as improving consistency, and Delivered+Endless Treasures adds to the critical mass of consistency cards. The consistent speed provides so much tempo that I was able to switch the old crimson defense out for an even smaller grey package based entirely around stalling. When I goldfished this deck, I imagined that the opposing offense had infinite interrupts so every reliable block had to be CBN/I. Proud Pharisee->Unsuccessful is one of the strongest blocks possible in the game and very difficult to interact with while False Prophecy is CBN against almost every deck in the meta. The inherent weakness of cards like Balaam's Disobedience and False Prophecy has always been that they just Angel your guy but this deck already has so many blocks that demand Angel to answer them (Horsemen->Scattered, Daughters->Charms) so Angel is rarely available for that. The downside is that this defense has a very defined number of blocks unless you get to recur unsuccessful with Balaam a few times. The deck's high tempo compensates for this in most scenarios but as I discovered in top cut, the defense falls about one block short against the best players.

The things I'm looking to change post Nats is fitting in a Hunter->Remnant package, replacing Flying Scroll with Golden Calf, cutting Wicked since it doesn't really do anything in this version of the deck, and possibly exploring Storehouse over House of Prayer. YWR and Scapegoat were seldom used but I think they still belong in the deck. They're both in here to stop the things that have the highest potential to harm the deck and most people just weren't playing those cards.

Heroes:
1   Eleazar, Son of Aaron
1   Phinehas, son of Eleazar
1   Captive Priest
1   Joshua the High Priest
1   Melchizedek
1   Dutiful Priest
1   Zadok (PoC)
1   Jeremiah (PoC)
1   Ezekiel (FooF)

Consistency GEs:
1   Pentecost
1   First Fruits
1   Delivered
1   The Emmaus Road
1   Offering Your Son
1   Covenant with David (PoC)
1   Bearing Our Sin
Battle GEs:
1   Jordan Interrupted (PoC)
1   Gifts and Offerings
1   Zeal for the Lord

Evil Characters:
1   Profane Daughters
1   The Lying Prophet
1   Persian Horsemen
1   Proud Pharisee
1   False Prophets (PoC)
1   Balaam
1   Coliseum Lion

EEs:
1   False Peace (PoC)
1   Unsuccessful (PoC)
1   False Prophecy (PoC)
1   Balaam's Disobedience

Support:
1   The Tabernacle
1   House of Prayer
1   The Ends of the Earth
1   Book of the Covenant
1   Endless Treasures
1   Lost Soul (Hopper)

Souls:
1   Lost Soul (Humble)
1   Lost Soul (Wanderer)
1   Lost Soul (Orphans)
1   Lost Soul (Distressed)
1   Lost Soul (Prosperity)
1   Lost Soul (Covet)
1   Lost Soul (Wicked)

Dominants:
1   Angel of the Lord
1   Christian Martyr
1   Son of God
1   The Second Coming
1   Three Woes
1   Falling Away
1   Destruction of Nehushtan (PoC)

Reserve:
1   You Will Remain
1   New Covenant
1   Covenant with Adam (PoC)
1   Covenant of Prayer
1   Scapegoat (PoC)
1   Lacking Prophecy
1   Flying Scroll
1   Rain Becomes Dust
1   Magic Charms
1   Scattered

I think the most misunderstood aspect of this deck is how much it doesn't rely on any single combo or value engine to win games. In the past if you killed Eleazar, banished Zeal, discarded Tabernacle, or landed T1 Moses/CwD, the deck just fell apart. I've had games in testing where Eleazar and Zeal got banished turn 1 and my Tabernacle holding BotC holding YWR was discarded and I still won. BotC is plan A for getting out covenants but HoP does it almost as well, especially when I'm exchanging curses back to reserve to enable Treasures. Eleazar+Tabernacle is the best value engine to spam Gifts and Zeal every turn but both Covenant with Adam and New Covenant recur on their own. Phinehas->Zeal is a scary CBN option but Ezekiel->New Covenant is always there as a backup. Jeremiah walks in because opponents assume I have a battle winner and their negate will just be tossed when I'm actually sitting on a hand full of defense. The strongest recommendation I can make for playing against this deck is never let Jeremiah walk in. Unless I have Eleazar+Tabernacle combo assembled, at least force me to play a battle winner every turn. The deck actually runs out of them quite easily early on before one of the engines gets going.
« Last Edit: August 06, 2019, 03:55:38 PM by Kevinthedude »

Offline Kevinthedude

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Re: 2019 T1-2P 2nd Place #JetPriest
« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2019, 02:20:06 PM »
+2
Game 1 - Richard Huffman 5-1 Win

I don't remember much about some of the earlier games because I wasn't really thinking about the possibility of placing and writing a report so I made no notes. Richard was working with some older cards so the decks weren't really a fair match but he was a pleasure to play against.

Game 2 - Ray Celotto 5-0 Win

Ray's deck got a bit of a poor start especially after I Flying Scroll's his only king after he found Throne and then we found out that he had mistakenly made his deck illegal by running both purple Davids. I felt pretty bad for him since this is an easy mistake to make (I ran The Second Seal and Second Seal/War in my T1 deck last year and no one realized it was illegal until I posted my deck afterwards) since in many other card games the name is all that matters and cards legally different unless they have the exact same name so at first glance David, God's King and David, the Shepherd seem like different cards. Ray only received a warning since one David was in his reserve and cutting it didn't strand him with an illegal deck but the whole situation understandably shook his concentration and his mind wasn't really on the rest of the game.

Game 3 - Justin Alstad 3-4 Timeout Loss

Justin always plays well and angels are favored against this defense (Scattered, Lacking Prophecy, and Balaam's Disobedience rarely do anything) so I was a bit worried about this match-up. He was playing mono-brown with an evil prophets focus but I managed to keep him from playing confusion by spamming Jeremiah and Dutiful. The game was actually going pretty well until he ripped a plot to discard all three of my Heroes. After I played all my offensive dominants he got to play Confusion and named Bearing Our Sin to enable Martyr as a block to keep as tied at 3-3. Once time was running out, we each pulled a battle restrict from Reserve (He had Mourn and Weep while I had Scapegoat) to try and tip the timeout in our favor if necessary. I was trying to play too quickly the last turn and despite having Scapegoat out I forgot that it has to be used prior to the opponent's next turn not just prior to their battle phase like Mourn and Weep so he was able to attack on his last turn and get the 4th soul for the win.

Game 4 - Caleb Beers 2-5 Loss

I'd previously said that despite this meta seeming to strongly favor going first, my deck was quite content going second because the extra cards on the first turn often enabled enough tempo to offset going second. I still hold that to be true for the most part, but in this game that was absolutely not the case. Caleb had Book->IaC->AUtO and since Throne almost always bands I figured Martyring AUtO in territory to stop their speed and possibly even kill their only first turn rescue option. Caleb immediately dropped Josh+Captain to prove me wrong. I had Horsemen in hand to potentially pull Scattered but no Humble in play for Horsemen to get through Captain. FBTN is one of the strongest options against this defense and now that Caleb knew I didn't have an answer he walked in a few times with it because switching to the throne band for some speed to find his dominants and close out the game quickly before I could stabilize.

Game 5 - Brian Jones 5-0 Win

I got a D9 from Lying Prophet. Pretty much any deck gets a massive boost from nine extra cards but in #JetPriest it's just ridiculous. I had absolutely everything I wanted for the rest of the game. Brian is a strong player and I was initially pretty worried for this game especially after getting demolished by a Throne deck last round but it turns out drawing cards is good.

Game 6 - Jeremy Chambers 5-3 Win

We were staying in the same room at the church so I'd had an opportunity to see his defense and was a little scared of it especially since I knew he was playing some Throne variant and ran Moses. I found out during the game he was running some interesting tech like PoC Aaron and Zadok but they don't really do anything to my defense. I don't remember anything extraordinary happening this game though. My deck got a decent start and tempo'd its way to victory.
« Last Edit: August 06, 2019, 04:14:55 PM by Kevinthedude »

Offline Xonathan

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Re: 2019 T1-2P 2nd Place #JetPriest
« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2019, 03:25:21 PM »
0
So glad you posted this. That deck is amazing.
Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.
1 Chronicles 16:11

Offline Red Wing

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Re: 2019 T1-2P 2nd Place #JetPriest
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2019, 03:36:12 PM »
+4
Being the primary playtest dummy for this deck was not fun. You're welcome.
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Offline Kevinthedude

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Re: 2019 T1-2P 2nd Place #JetPriest
« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2019, 03:48:58 PM »
+2
Game 7 Jonathan Gomez 5-3 Win

I finally got to play the infamous deck discard Exodus deck that I'd been hearing whispers about all day. If I'd been taken by surprise the game might have gone a little different but I'd heard about most of the tricks in his deck by now and managed to assemble my answers in time. Variance also seemed to be a bit favored toward me this game. He had Cursed Egyptians->Given Over in his opening hand but his a Soul off the first discard so it went away immediately. When he Jar'd me it hit SoG and TSC which was actually good for me since it meant they were safe from deck discard until I could set up and quickly draw into them. He did manage to still snipe my TSC though. I had Destruction for Hidden Treasures and Angel for Scapegoat (Which he discarded from my Reserve then stole with Plunder and Pillage). This was definitely the most interesting and creative deck I saw at Nats and would have loved to see him top cut.

Game 8 Justin Alstad 4-4 Timeout Tie

This game was pretty similar to our first. Our decks both did what they were designed to do but my defense just didn't have enough blocks against angels to make it to a full win. We unofficially finished the game after time and Justin did make it to 5. I advanced to the next round due to being higher seed. I didn't have this scenario in mind when I built the defense but it's certainly suited for it. I'm a bit worried about this rule continuing to exist since a deck running a stall defense with Scapegoat and Mourn and Weep could easily exploit it intentionally.

Game 9 Greg Miller 4-4 Timeout Tie

This game was wildly different than the previous but managed to end the same way. Greg was on Flood Survivors with a Babylonian defense and I did a pretty mediocre job of playing around Merchants+Sheol which cost me one or two battles. I failed to noticed that Sheol could underdeck opponent's Souls so when I started searching safely behind Distressed negating Merchants, he underdecked my Distressed to turn Merchants back on. I also started out by foolishly dropped False Prophets->RBD off his star ability into Greg's Hunter->Remnant so I had to spend some early searches pulling Scapegoat to kill my own RBD which didn't feel great. Eventually I made it to 4-2 and he didn't have a block for my next turn so he dropped ANB in his draw phase. We both set back up rather quickly but I lost a couple key defensive cards and he found his so he started making his comeback. I don't feel quite as bad about timing out this game since there was an ANB involved but once again my opponent won when we unofficially played out the rest of the game. This was a rare occasion where my deck still had strong blocks remaining at the end of the game but I couldn't get them out of my deck fast enough. I think barring ANB shenanigans this defense is fairly favored against Flood. I hoped I would get a chance to rematch Jay after losing to his Flood last year but Greg was definitely a worthy Flood opponent in his stead.

Game 10 - John Early 5-3 Loss

I knew at least one of John's decks was Judges/Prophets anti-speed but I also thought he might have actually checked #Mayhem 2.0 as well and was hoping for a chance to rematch that deck from last year but alas he was just running three of the same deck baring a tech card or two. My deck runs a very smaller defense and relies on the tempo generated by the offense to draw into the defense quickly even if I start without any in my hand. John's deck was the first one I ran into all day designed to punish such a strategy and John's decks tend to do what they're designed to do so I found myself facing a first turn CwD with almost no defense in hand and plenty of stranded territory class speed. Despite this I still had enough gas in my hand to race offensively and I believe I could have actually pulled it off had it not been for John's drought. That's not to say that he won by luck since he worked to maintain the drought by sending in David as a suboptimal attack which I unfortunately couldn't punish due to my lack of Evil Characters. The CwD compounded with the drought, Necromancer sniping my Falling Away, Woes for my Ends of the Earth, and SoG for my Hopper earned John his second T1 victory in a row.

It always feels bad to be one game away from winning a category and failing but I was still pretty happy with this result since I had no idea how my deck would stack up against the meta as the majority of my testing was just goldfishing. I also would have felt kinda bad "winning" a category after two timeout ties. 2nd place is enough to prove the power of Teal and earn myself a Christian Martyr promo so this was definitely a successful Nationals for me.
« Last Edit: August 06, 2019, 11:31:44 PM by Kevinthedude »

Offline Kevinthedude

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Re: 2019 T1-2P 2nd Place #JetPriest
« Reply #5 on: August 06, 2019, 03:53:44 PM »
+1
Being the primary playtest dummy for this deck was not fun. You're welcome.

First CoL and now this, its a miracle you still play Redemption with me. Shoutout to my playtest partner who makes creating these decks possible.

Offline Bobbert

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Re: 2019 T1-2P 2nd Place #JetPriest
« Reply #6 on: August 06, 2019, 04:09:44 PM »
0
There was a game where I foolishly dropped False Prophets->RBD in star phase into my opponent's Hunter->Remnant->Steal False Prophets and I can't remember whether it was this game or a later one but I think it was this one.

I think this one was our game. I seem to recall that you then got rid of RBD and I blocked Jerry with FP to force you to play something.
Definitely a solid deck - as a longtime Teal fan I'm happy to see it do so well.
ANB is good. Change my mind.

Offline Red Dragon Thorn

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Re: 2019 T1-2P 2nd Place #JetPriest
« Reply #7 on: August 06, 2019, 11:20:02 PM »
0
had it not been for John's drought.

For the record - I went back and watched our game footage, I had 2 turns of drought. You had 1 turn of drought. That doesn't seem significant to me. (That being said, I think you only had four turns total, so it probably feels more significant since the game didn't go long)
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Offline Kevinthedude

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Re: 2019 T1-2P 2nd Place #JetPriest
« Reply #8 on: August 06, 2019, 11:28:42 PM »
0
had it not been for John's drought.

For the record - I went back and watched our game footage, I had 2 turns of drought. You had 1 turn of drought. That doesn't seem significant to me. (That being said, I think you only had four turns total, so it probably feels more significant since the game didn't go long)

2 turns of drought seems fairly significant when I lost by 2 souls and with a hand full of offense. Rescue attempts would also have given me the opportunity to play some of my territory speed in battle and potentially draw into defense or dominants.

Offline Xonathan

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Re: 2019 T1-2P 2nd Place #JetPriest
« Reply #9 on: August 16, 2019, 08:18:46 AM »
0
Which Melchizedek did you use?
Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.
1 Chronicles 16:11

Offline The Guardian

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Re: 2019 T1-2P 2nd Place #JetPriest
« Reply #10 on: August 16, 2019, 10:11:56 AM »
+1
PoC version. I remember because I had to play around it until I drew my Babel... ::)
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Offline Red Dragon Thorn

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Re: 2019 T1-2P 2nd Place #JetPriest
« Reply #11 on: August 16, 2019, 10:18:26 AM »
0
PoC version. I remember because I had to play around it until I drew my Babel... ::)

And I misplayed into it thinking it was the other one that's 4/4.
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