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In T2-MP, I decided to run the deck I used against Joe on my channel that triggered all this LaFS nonsense: ANB Reset. I knew it'd be a little riskier in multiplayer, but I figured it'd be a lot more fun and that it certainly was.

The idea for the deck if you haven't seen the video or know it already, is to play A New Beginning with the Thorns and Pigs Lost Souls out. Thorns protects all LSs from being shuffled and Pigs means that nobody draws eight from ANB (hey, at least this combo is balanced...). Then I build my deck to optimize my chances of drawing a Hero in my d3, or at least something that will let me get to a Hero. LoC introduced a Star ability on 5 different cards that says "Reveal hand: If there's no Hero you may take one from deck" so I used two copies of each of the 4 GEs and then one Matthew's Begats in addition to 12 main deck Heroes. I also had some Heroes in Reserve that I could grab with Remnant which I could play from my deck in upkeep by using Imitate LS on my Awake LS. The defense utilizes the Syrian protect fortress, House of Rimmon, which protects Syrians from shuffle, so I can increase my odds of finding a Hero even more by keeping most of my ECs on the table.

I did make a few changes since the recorded game with Joe, namely adding some better targets for Hero-fetching Stars like Zerubbabel and Achim, as well as adding a few false prophets on defense to help reset more consistently via False Peace. Things were a bit shaky at times, but overall the deck worked fairly well and I think led to a lot of fun in the games which a Throne deck like I had played the few years might not have quite as much. I will admit though, I was very close to building a LaFS deck for multi. I had a list written out the night before and I considered putting it together last-minute, but I ultimately decided against it and am pretty glad that I did. The one change I would definitely make after playing it out is swapping Covenant with Abraham for another Hero in Reserve. Cov w/ Abe sort of just ends up in all of my decks these days, but without Exiles to grab it’s not very good and I’d rather have more options for Remnant and such. Perhaps Zaccheus would be a sneaky add to get House of Rimmon back right away after a reset to set up for another one, but something like The Three Visitors to switch for Jacob or Abe would probably be better.

Also, since there were two Joe’s, I’ll be referring to Joe Schaepher as Joe and Joseph Roberts as Joseph.

Deck: 100

Neutral: 24

Lost Souls: 14
2 - Awake LS
2 - Imitate LS
2 - Lawless LS
2 - Pigs LS
2 - Remnant LS
2 - Thorns LS
1 - Escape LS
1 - Hunter LS

Neutral Utility: 6
2 - Hopper LS
3 - Hidden Treasures
1 - Book of the Covenant (PoC)
1 - Endless Treasures
1 - Matthew’s Begats

Dual-Alignment Cards: 4
1 - Chronicles of the Kings
1 - Destruction of Nehushtan
1 - Three Woes
1 - Delivered

Good: 38

Good Dominants: 5
1 - Angel of the Lord (O.T.)
1 - Guardian of Your Souls (RoJ)
1 - Ride on Victoriously/Awesome Things
1 - Son of God (Promo)
1 - The Second Coming

Good Utility: 1
1 - Bethlehem (LoC)

Heroes: 12
1 - Father Abraham/...
1 - Jacob, Follower of God/…
1 - Noah, the Righteous/…
2 - Moses, Friend of God
1 - Amos (PoC)
1 - Malachi (PoC)
1 - David, Heart After God/…
1 - Obed, the Servant/…
1 - Achim, the Compiler/…
1 - Zerubbabel, the Builder/…
1 - Nahor, the Scorched/…

Good Enhancements: 19
1 - Offering Your Son
1 - The Emmaus Road
1 - The First Sacrifice
2 - Abraham’s Descendant (LoC)
2 - Boaz’ Offspring
2 - David’s Descendant
2 - Solomon’s Dream
2 - Zerubbabel’s Plumb Line
2 - A Soldier’s Prayer
4 - A New Beginning

Evil: 38

Evil Dominants: 6
1 - Burial
1 - Christian Martyr
1 - Falling Away (Wo)
1 - Mayhem
1 - Vain Philosophy
1 - Vain Vision

Evil Utility: 5
3 - House of Rimmon
2 - Unsuccessful (PoC)

Evil Characters: 16
1 - Pagan Sailors
1 - Profane Daughters
2 - The Lying Prophet
1 - False Leaders
1 - Laban (Promo)
3 - Syrian Mercenaries
1 - Captain of the Chariots
1 - Naaman
1 - King Cushan-Rishathaim
1 - King Rezin (PoC)
1 - Rezon, Son of Eliada
1 - Syrian Archer
1 - The Syrian Reinforcements

Evil Enhancements: 10
2 - Balaam’s Prophecy
2 - Foreign Exile
2 - False Peace (PoC)
4 - False Prophecy (PoC)


Reserve: 15
2 - Damascus (TEC)
1 - Golden Calf (FoM)

1 - Covenant with Abraham (PoC)
1 - Covenant with Noah (PoC)
1 - Oath of Purity
1 - Jeshua, the Restorer
1 - Matthan, the Defender/…
1 - The Angel of the Winds

1 - Captured Ark
1 - Confusion of Mind
1 - Rain Becomes Dust
2 - Naaman’s Chariot & Horses
1 - Gold Shield

Round 3: Joe and Emmanuel

I knew that this would for sure be the game to win. Both of these guys won the games I wasn't at and were in position to take the lead from me if they won this game. They had both been at a table with me already and knew what was coming which certainly didn't do me any favors this game. It was a very defensive game and I in particular seemed to be getting blocked left and right to the point where it was 0-2-2 (or 1, not sure if Emmanuel rescued on his last turn) going into the final round of the game. I was hoping to at least tie it up as I had yet to see either of the big two. Joe's turn before the last round, he had attacked me and since I didn't have any false prophets, I played a False Peace in battle to search for A Soldier's Prayer so I could at least get a Solomon's Dream back to find Son of God and guarantee one. We actually realized later that it should have been tossed by Emmanuel's Goshen but it was ruled that we had passed the point of undoing it. Emmanuel took his turn, which may have been when he got to two. Looking at my hand and the defense on the table, I wasn't even sure I'd be able to make a rescue without drawing into something good, but I did exactly that.

I'm starting a new paragraph because of how crazy the series of events of my last turn were. I started off drawing Amos, Jacob, and Hidden Treasures (at least I think the last card was HT, I may have had it already but I drew Amos and Jacob for sure). Amos let me pull out a Pigs (might have been a Thorns, I know I had one of them already though). I played the ASP to grab Solomon's Dream to get SoG to get to one. Then I used Jacob and HT to search for and play ANB, hoping for a Hero to tie it up because I certainly wasn't going to rescue without ANB. I didn't draw a Hero or a way to search for one, but I wasn't all that upset about it because I did draw TSC so I knew I'd at least get two. The other cards I drew were The First Sacrifice and False Prophecy, so I at least had a way to more or less ensure that Joe didn't draw a Hero either. I did have my Imitate though as well as an Awake and a Lawless that I could target with it, but I had run out of Heroes in Reserve so grabbing a Remnant with an Imitated Awake wouldn't do the trick like it normally did, leaving me to try my luck with Lawless. With no false prophets on the table, I'm pretty sure my only outs were Mayhem and Balaam's Prophecy and I managed to find a Balaam’s. I still had my Syrian ECs out because I had House of Rimmon, so I played Balaam's Prophecy, hoping to find a Hero. This was a case where finding a "Hero-fetching Star Enhancement" would be a pretty big let-down, but the 12 main deck Heroes I used all have Star abilities so there was hope. The fifth card I revealed was Noah, which I promptly took and made a rescue with putting me at 3 after playing TSC and then False Prophecy to make sure Joe didn't have a Hero in his top 3. So after a long, drudging game, I went from 0 to 3 on the last turn which was enough to win it.

Timeout win: 3-2-2

Round 4: Joe and Joseph

This game was a little bit scary as I didn't really have much going for me and Joe was off to a pretty quick start. Joseph also got some nice acceleration early since no matter how many times I played ANB, he always seemed to find a Mighty Men. Always. Not sure which turn it was, but Joe activated Hidden Treasures and was about to go to battle. I waffled about playing Mayhem to potentially disrupt a Creation that I figured was coming, but I decided to let it happen, partially because of the Abraham's Descendant in my hand. I let him pull it off and knew that I would have to find a way to play ANB soon before he pulled too far ahead. A turn or two later, Joseph had Rapha sitting in territory and, looking over at Joe's Genesis army, I hoped Joseph would catch my play here and let it happen. I attacked him with Jacob and searched for ANB, thinking he might just let me do it, but he must have been sitting fairly comfortably with his cards as he opted to block and play a battlewinner. This is where that Abe's Descendant came in handy because I could negate the EE and band to Joe's entire offense. I think I would have won the battle with that, but I decided I'd be better off hitting the reset button here while I had the chance, so I used Joe's Adam to search for and band to my Noah so that I could play Awesome Things and then ANB on my Noah. I think this was the first of 3 ANBs I played that game and each of them worked out pretty well for me, giving me the points I needed to stay ahead of Emmanuel even after his full win at the other table.

Timeout win: 5-3-4

Final Results: 4-0 (all timeouts so 8 points), 19 LSs rescued