Round 1 I played against Braydon, Derek's stepson, who won 3rd place in type A two three years ago, 2nd place two years ago, and first place this year, this kid is going to be good and he is way better than people would think for his age. I personally can not wait to get whooped by Brayden in years to come as he grows in the game. We were both playing royalty offense but I have brown defense and he had Assyrians. I know that defense well and know that sometimes people can get tempted to draw their defense out so I did just that. Burned through his few negates, looked at his hand every turn, underdecked my lost souls through Throne and kept chipping away. I looked at his hand and saw no gray enhs for his Captain of the Chariots splash so I made a rescue with David and flipped Bathsheba for a ctb win, 4-2.
Round 2 I played Steve who is an awesome player that I met in T2 and I enjoyed talking to and getting to know him. He was playing brown defense with basically a Noah offense so I knew I was going to have to play well. I got out Throne with Solomon's Dream I think or by topdecking a fortress and had it out by turn 2. He comes in with Noah and shuffles in, well played. He also had Book of the Law with Noah out by turn 2 as well, so it was not looking good. Luckily, I had Joshua so I underdecked his Book to hold back his Noah and then I was able to not draw souls for two turns as well. One rescue I had I was able to look at his hand with Solomon (as I did throughout the day) and saw he had a Led Astray in hand and I had to attack with a Josiah to generate a lost soul. I attacked with a small Josiah band and got out his meek lost soul and acted like that sucked because now his Led Astray worked. So he plays it and then I just add to battle off Gates for a freebie because he could not block. I also was able to look at his hand and do a CtB for an EC that he couldn't really block with either. It was a close game but I edged it out, 5-3.
Round 3 I played John Steckman who was using Ruth and Assyrians which is a formidable deck. Once again, I was able to manipulate the blocked, have protection, add to battle, and just out negate people when I wanted to through Solomon. Looking at their hand to know when to play Chronicles is so strong. I won this game 4-1. John had an amazing block with a big band, negates, and capture to my territory then playing Chronicles on my negate as well. So that was a main reason for the tie and now I knew I had to block him because soul droughting was not going to be an option. He played very well but that offense I use is very strong for this category.
Fourth round I got a full win, 5-1, but I forgot who I played.
I played Derek Frank fifth round and he had a Post Exilic/Philistines defense but I drew the best hand possible and he drew the worst defensive hand possible. I was able to completely drought him, look at his hand, and slowly pick lost souls for his hand for a devastating 5-0 at the end. This just came down to Josiah/Solomon with TC negates, as so many of my rescues did.
I know I saw a royalty offense/Assyrians, Noah/meek brown, Post/Philly, Ruth/Assyrians, and I believe the fourth game was Post/Assyrians, but I am not sure. The deck was very strong and had 13 points, +16 differential, and had I remembered Josiah's ability I think I would have had 4 outright wins, but I am grateful Braydon did that move against me to remind (pretty much show) me that play.
