Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I have the honor of making the dumbest move in Redemption history!   

It was Redemption SE Regionals 2008. I was playing in T1 Multiplayer. I was blocking with Fallen Warrior, and I have an Ashdod on the board. I play Joseph's Brother's Scheme (this is where I first heard the phrase Jo-Bro's-Scheme!) and take an opponent's Faithful Servant promo. I play Sword of Punishment from my hand on the Faithful Servant and killed my evil character. That was quite an accomplishment.

All nighters with RTSmaniac making decks, playing, taking apart, making, playing repeat and so on
All nighters with Roger and RTSmaniac with cards on the game for type 2 multi
Roadtrips to tourneys with RTSmaniac
Nats with the whole GA crew
Nats with E-Large
Meeting Nathan/Papa Voigt
The TN guys
My first nats, NY, and ranking 3rd in t2 2p. 2nd in t2mp and 7th in bdraft
Ranking third in type 1!!!!! 2p at boston with a turtle
Having my turtle remade by Wester and it getting 3rd the next nats
Rob's house for NC state
Me saying a comment not meant for Rob to hear, and Clift telling Rob then giving me "props" for saying it...
Wrestling at GA states/SE regionals
Every Nationals, especially ranking in them
Finally beating E-large at nats
Meeting Gabe, Ben x2, Jordan/Justin, Bany, Prof U, Mitch, all my Redemption boys
Roy Cruz
Thanks for all the memories guys.

In no particular order:

• Watching my father host a tournament before there were standardized Redemption tournaments.  He had a tiny little trophy engraved for the thing and Rob sent some big Redemption posters.
• Learning how to play one afternoon in the dorms and teaching 10 other guys by that evening.
• Hosting my first tournament at Manhattan Christian College
• Going to my first Nationals in KC and taking some kids from my youth group (one of whom won a multiplayer category)
• Staying up all night with John Nesfeder creating Type 2 decks to play in the Type 2 Nationals since there was only 1 other person playing that category.
• My first trip to Rochester, MN for a Bany-backed Nationals event.
• Going to the KC area (Lee's Summit, Gladstone, Platt City, etc...) for many a tournament
• Hosting many a tourny in Emporia and having lots of friends from other playgroups come
• And of course, making friends with so many great people over the years. 

0. Seeing redemption sold for the first time at an Ichthus Music Festival and not thinking much of it.  Kinda wish I had started from the beginning
1. Learning to play redemption with Jonathan Greeson during the 2003/2004 years.
2. Me and Jon driving 3 and 1/2 hours to play at our first tournament ever in Ohio and then meeting someone who lived in my SAME TOWN at that tournament.
3. winning my first T1-2 Player tournament with a defenseless site lock out (before they changed the ruling on Every Mans Sword)
4. Seeing "A New Beginning" for the first time.....
5. Winning my first state/Regional categories
6. HOSTING my first state.


Nats Memories
2007 - KC Nats and watching my false peace deck get destroyed at the final table by a SitC deck.  I was in awe as it comboed off against me.  Sucked to lose but it was so much fun to watch.
2007- KC Nats -  The "Kiss"
2008 - Nats in Columbus- the Proposal
2010 - Nats in Boston where I placed 4th in t2-2player, 4th in T2-MP and 5th in T2-MP...Always a bridesmaid and never a bride....
2010 -  Eating a king beef Roast Beef Sandwich @ a local boston dive.  it was divine....

1. Rob's ability to troll every game of Booster Draft that has Brandan, Eric W., and me drafting together.

2. The T2MP game Justin, Kirk, and I played over AIM. 3 hours later, I was using charts.

3. All 6 of us CA T2 players being paired against one another in the first round at CA Nats 2009.

4. Winning 2011 RNRS for Booster, considering I spent the season blind.

5. That one time I beat Kurt in T2 because he drew no characters the entire game. Asked him if he now knew how we feel.

10. Finally beating Martin and Nathan in Teams.

You're welcome. 

6) 2001-2002, I had created one of the great "break the game" decks. Attack, make a side battle with my own Pharisees, play a bunch of gray stuff, play Idle Gossip to side battle two of my Gold guys, play a bunch of gold stuff, play Highway and return all the enhancements (including grays) to my hand, go back to Pharisees battling, rinse and repeat. Did pretty decent, but this was the year I decided, hey, it would work better if I had more chances to draw the cards I need; let's play T2! So, I modified it to be a T2 deck and placed 3rd at Nats. The T2 onslaught begins....

7a) Nats 2003, Green/Brown T2 deck. I went 6-1 (or 7-1) and took first! Hooray! Also, Kyle Hostutler showed me his T1 deck. I thought it was just alright. He was like, "Alright?! This is gonna win." I was like, "Sure..." He won.

7b) Pants...I lost them. Fun times were had by all. Except for the part where my wallet was in them and I had to fly out the next day with no license. Oh, wait, that trip to the police station was fun too. 

8 ) Nats 2004...Hmm...LA...we drove...I placed 3rd...don't remember what I played...fun was had by all? I think this picture was from there. In that case, I played Green/Black with lots of Provisions. I just like this picture because notice my side of the table...and then look at Ron's....now look back at mine...and then look at Ron's. Fun times indeed.

9) East Central Regionals 2005, I was trying to sleep on the hard gym floor at Darcy's church, but my mind was racing. Thinking about strategies, different cards, etc... Suddenly, I come up with an amazing idea! What if I play a Red deck that puts either FBTN characters or Ethiopian Treasurers (or Mentor to band to ET) under Ambush? They will have no idea what's coming...either FTBN big haus or Authority of Christ! It was amazing. Took it to nats and placed 3rd with it. Still, my favorite deck of all-time.

10) Nats 2006, Ross Lang dominated T2. I took 2nd and my homie-g Mr. Hiatus took 3rd. Better luck next year Tyler... Oh, this was also the year that Tyler and I woke up late. As in the tournament started 5 min after we woke up. Nothing like waking up, throwing on deodorant, and running half a mile with 30 pounds of cards on your back!

11) Nats 2007, honestly, I remember less about this than my first nats. Maybe because for the first time in 5 years that I did not place in T2 2p. However, did get 3rd in T2 multi, so I guess I'm still ok.

12) Nats 2008, the beginning of the end? First full year as a full-time teacher. New teacher orientation was during Nats and there was no way I could miss it. Sad day...

13) Nats 2009, sunny Cali. Fun times, as always, and this was a tournament of many firsts. First time I spent any extended time in Cali (stopped at LAX on my way back from Thailand), first time I had ever seen a wild coyote (saw it when I went outside of the church one night, just chillin' in the parking lot), and first time Tyler beat me in a Nats (see his post). Also, first nats that I attended and did not place in any T2 category. Sad day indeed...

It's been a long and crazy journey and I have not officially quit playing. I've just had a little hiatus including getting married, not having a full-time job, and playing too much WoW (I have quit that, however).

Here are some honorable mentions for favorite memories in a not chronological order whatsoever:
-Southeast Regionals 2003
-Crazy Ariases
-Pegrams
-Raul!!
-Drew Pegram doing donuts in his El Camino in my church parking lot with my brother in the back
-Several hour phone calls with Martin Burkholder, playing Redemption over the phone (before AIM or RTS)
-Doug drawing Martin's and my names into Book of Life. Thanks Doug!
-Playtesting and seeing certain cards come to life and somehow missing the overpoweredness of others.
-The almighty Buckler!
-Multiple Atlanta Fests and playing Redemption instead of watching concerts.
-Helping David Easterling run the Redemption booths at several festivals (Creation East and some others I don't remember)
-Crazy Clift and his crazy deck ideas...
-Crazy Clift having a good deck idea in Sin in the Camp
-Crazy Clift playing Sin in the Camp so much that he lost because we built our decks to counter Sin in the Camp
-Driving/Flying all over the country playing an awesome game and meeting awesome people!

Eric "don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years" Largent

- The Beginnings - Making my deck 7 cards larger every time I opened another Lost Soul because bigger decks are better. Until I learned from Kyle Hostutler at Creation 2004 after a thorough beating that smaller decks are better.
- 2006 Nats: Welcome to the Club - Meeting many for the first time face to face and staying up all night playing Settlers/Attacktix/etc on the top floor of Hofstra dorms amidst Mountain Dew addicts and lots of laughter with Josh Kopp, Ben Arp, Matt Sinclair, and Andrew Wester. Waking up late the next morning and arriving late for T1 multi.
- 2007 Nats: "Am I the only one playing defense here?" - A ridiculous finish to a great T2 multi event with Nathan Voigt plodding in for his 7th as time expired to break a 6-6-6-6 tie in a game where I played 37 out of 41 evil cards in my deck (including all my Plots), leading to the destruction of 17 of his heroes - not enough to stop his Peter he drew. Nathan took 1st and I dropped to 4th. Also going 5-1 to place 3rd in T2 2p with my first break the game combo deck.
- 2007 SE Regionals: "Which way is the petting zoo?" - with Daniel Huisinga and flip flop chasing. Playing a T2 multi game with Tyler Stevens, Josh Stanley, and Clift Crysel where Clift was the only player NOT playing Chemoshes. To make matters worse - he was playing an Elders offense. (Spoiler alert: Clift didn't get anywhere that game).
- 2008 Nats: "Oohh, bad scrabble" - with Daniel, Colin Boydale, and Ben Arp, staying up almost the entire night on the last day and passing out on the floor at 6 am or so only to be woken by vacuums from cleaning staff. Placing 4th in T1 2p using my Zebulun/Judas deck and winning teams for the 2nd straight year with Ben.
- 2009 Nats: "Half, half, half" - with Ben. Ben realized he could make a deck with 20 copies of the newly released Gates of Hell and 20 2-liners in the deck. Going 5-1 to place 3rd in T2 2p with my 2nd break the game combo deck and my Agur deck (3 games apiece). Also pulling off my T1 version of my 1st T2 break the game combo deck in T1 2p against 2 opponents to the dismay of my opponents who didn't think combos were a threat in T1.
- 2010 Nats: "Are you sure there is nothing I can do?" - Pulling off my 3rd break the game combo deck on turn 1 in T2 2p against next day T1 2p champ Jonathan Greeson. This was his first T2 season and it was fun to break him in. Also pulling off the combo within the first 4 turns of my other 5 games en route to my third 3rd place finish in 4 tries. Very blessed to be able to place at all having made a critical mistake against James Roepke (2nd place) that lost me the game.
- Break the Game Time - Spending hours at Steak and Shake and Borders with Jon Pequinot brainstorming how to make even better break the game decks.
- Redemption as a Ministry - Living with Travis Brown and learning from his example how Redemption can be used as a ministry tool and being able to serve alongside him in sharing the love of Jesus through Redemption to people in need of salvation.
- Others Blessing Me - Playing in tournaments across 14 states (living in 6 of them): NY, NJ, MD, VA, GA, FL, AR, MO, TN, OH, KY, WI, MN, and CA and being able to meet all sorts of tremendous brothers and sisters in Christ. I have been incredibly blessed by the hospitality of many who have housed me and shown me such generosity. I would like to give a shout out to the following individuals who have shown me incredible kindness over the years (in no particular order): Reyzen, Sean Wenzel, Ginger DiMaggio, Travis Brown, Mark Underwood, Craig Fountain, Ken Locklin, Bill Voigt, Matt Brinkman, Gabe Isbell, John Earley, Clift Crysel.