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I suppose since everyone else is doing it, and presumably people enjoy reading others' ruminations regarding the past weekend, I will contribute as well.

Wednesday Night

Unbeknownst to me, my Transportation Czar duties were extended beyond coordinating rides to and from the airport. Turned out that the Travismobile broke down in Menonmonie WI, about an hour from the Cities, so Kordel Lentine and myself took our respective vans there to pick them up. It was there that the Cincy, etc. crew observed the first ever meeting of the Profs. It was epic. Fortunately, everyone arrived at the tournament safely, and I had the honor of hosting Prof Underwood and his daughter at my place for the weekend.

Thursday Night--T2-MP

T2-MP is easily the most emotionally taxing category in all of Redemption play. If you disagree with me, then you've probably never played it. But I figured that since I had a chance at RNRS points, I would forgo Booster Draft in favor of it. I was playing a Silver/Green offense complete with Bulletproof John the Baptist potential, and a Pharisees defense. All year, I had been playing almost an identical deck, except for the Prophets replaced by Samson and other Judges. I realized that since only my defense was fast, I had to depend on being attacked. My idea was to fix that by using Hidden Treasures and Sword of the Lord to have my Pharisees fight another character in play thus allowing me to draw on my turn.

Round 1: Allen Collins, Chris Fachman, Ron Sias

This game went slowly. Allen was playing with a Red offense with Centurions (Pharisees hate that), Chris with a TGT deck with Nicodemus (I didn't think Golgotha would be necessary since everyone plays gray in T2 MP) and Ron was playing with Blue/Silver (not too much of a problem for Pharisees, but he rarely attacked me. I was able to get my Pharisees out with SotL once, but I wasn't drawing nearly as fast as I would have liked. John the Baptist was doing well, with help from Two Bears and Provisions when necessary. I was nearly kicking myself when I chose Allen to block with Chris's Elymas, and Allen proceeds to play Magician's Snakes. Fortunately, I figured out that MS says "your Magicians" and since Elymas was owned by Chris, it didn't help him. The game was tied 4-4-3-3, with Chris and Ron at 3, and I had SoG/NJ in my hand. Unfortunately, I had no Guardian up*, and there were still 2 potential Falling Aways, so I didn't want to use them. Also unfortunately, Ron's RDJ had taken out my Herod's Temple with Lampstand, and I hadn't drawn either of my two Nazzy's, so I was conflicted. I ended up going for my fifth with a bulletproof John, and it was looking good, as Allen had no block. Chris proceeded to play Mayhem, which shuffled away my big two, and I kicked myself for that. After we all drew, there was still no block, so I thought I might at least get 5 for the timeout win. Then Ron played his Mayhem, after which Chris drew SoG and played it for the block. That ended up being the last round of play, and so the score ended up 4-4-4-3 TO Tie.

*It turned out that I had actually checked in a deck with an extra AotL instead of a Guardian, which I found out after not drawing it in either of my first two games. So I had to remove that and an evil card, and play in a multiplayer tournament sans arguably the most important card in multiplayer. Not thrilling.

Round 2: Matt Brinkmann, Justin Alstad, and David Carlson

This game was intense. Matt was able to get a few early Zebulun rescues by playing nearly his entire hand down, and Justin got his TGT ladies going well early. I got no heroes for the first three turns, and the first hero I did get (Gabriel) was easily taken care of by David's Babylonians. So it started off pretty rough. Things were looking up though after a few rounds, as David was really the only one the rest of us wanted to attack, and he had Babylonian Banquet Hall that he kept filling for my Green Prophets/Angels with Nazzy. Matt had Trembling Demon in territory with HoH up, Justin had Emperors with Horses out, and I had a big Pharisee band. David's Babylonians made a few good blocks, but he was trying to fend off nearly three attacks every round. I was able to get an early SoG/NJ, which I felt safe playing since I was playing from behind with no early Heroes, and I had Lampstand up. Eventually, the score was 6-6-6-4, and Justin had the last turn. He had no access to David's sites, and didn't attack. He thought he made a critical mistake when he realized he had Benedictus in his hand, but then discovered that he didn't have any white heroes out at the time, so it wouldn't have helped. Final: 6-6-6-4, TO Tie.

Friday--T2-2P

It was about March when I was riding with The Guardian to a tournament and we were talking about Thad's OP'dness. It was then that I realized that since Thad had already been ruled to protect from enhancements used by characters, that the precedent must be that everything done by enhancements must be considered to be done by characters as well, and that that should include negation. So when Creeping Deceiver said CBN by a character, it effectively means CBN by characters and enhancements. Since no Artifacts/Fortresses/LS's/Sites negate EC's abilities, Creeping Deceiver became, in my mind, the best EC in the game. My deck went through a few renditions, the first being a Job offense that was scrapped after I realized it was too slow and I couldn't get my D set up in time as often as I needed to. I switched to Disciples for speed, and I was able to take first at Regionals with that deck. I also placed second at state, and I thought that the deck had a legitimate shot to win Nationals. I added a couple Goliaths, a Philistine Armorbearer and a couple of Land Disputes to my deck (for early blocks/site delay while my defense got set up).

Round 1: Allen Collins

This game was ridiculously scary, and despite the fact that his slower play style ended up causing us to time out (when I'm confident I would have won in one more turn) I was still happy to get the tie. I drew tons of sites early, which was nice, but Allen got an early Centurion, and I only had two blockers for the first eight or nine rounds of the game. Fortunately, one of them was Goliath, and Allen's only other Hero that he had was another copy of the same Centurion for the majority of that time. He was winning 6-3 with about half an hour left in the game (he used SoG/NJ). Finally, I got my defense set up, and felt confident that I could stop him from getting another successful rescue. His magicians stalled my Disicples for awhile, but I tied the game 6-6. On his last turn, he did have access to a soul not in a site due to a draw I had made earlier, but I was able to block him with a couple Deceivers and Sapphira, and he couldn't beat my numbers. T 6-6

Round 2: Nick Jaeger

Nick was playing a TGT offense with a Magician/Demon defense. While I certainly don't mind TGT offenses because of their high numbered characters (except for Susanna) and my Wolves/Golgotha keeping my CD's able to block, Magician/Demon defenses can be quite troublesome for Disciples. He got a couple of freebie souls in the beginning, but my defense got set up soon after. It seemed like he stalled me forever, and he probably Gates'd about 30 cards in total from his deck in a few tries to get a demon. Finally, he decked out, and still couldn't get through my defense. Thaddeus was able to take over for the final few rescues with 1:30 left on the clock. W 7-3

Round 3: Craig Fountain

For those of you lucky enough to have never met Craig...
Let me start over. Craig is a great guy who was using a cheap imitation of my defense. Unfortunately for him, his CD's never got set up very well, and he never drew a Stan's Chair to stop my Thad. I however, had a great all around draw, except that I couldn't draw my Boat, and all my sites were occupied, which made access a bit difficult. Eventually on one of Craig's attacks, I block with Spirit of Temptation banded to his Creeping Deceiver, and play Suicidal Swine Stampede, freeing up all my sites for access, and getting rid of his lone blocker. I walk in for a few more freebies, and proceeded to break Craig's big heart for the second time in two days. W 7-2.

Saturday--Sealed

After two days of playing some intense T2 matches, I decided that since I never play T1-MP if I can avoid it, and I hadn't planned TEAMS decks with anyone, that I would play Sealed for the first time in a tournament in several years (Probably since 05-06). I used to be quite the Sealed fanatic, but especially since my emergence into the T2 field, and the beginning of TEAMS as an official category, I hadn't played in awhile. I also decided that since I was an usher in a wedding later that night, I would play the category with the shortest rounds and lowest intensity of any that day.

I got one of my better drafts. I got the G deck, which is by far the better of the two. I heard a few rumors that H is better, but the fact that in the last 4 rounds an H deck was nowhere to be found on the top table was good evidence to the contrary. My notable drafts were Asherah Pole (which was crucial for the later G vs. G matches) King Amaziah, and three Israelite Kings for him to choose, and A New Beginning.

Round 1: Kirkland Wilson

Kirkland is a younger kid from MN who has a surprisingly good grasp of the game for someone his age, and had beat me in Sealed in at least two other previous tournaments. I got a very favorable LS draw, which helped when he got his Dathan/Abiram band early on, and I couldn't get either Angel of the Lord, Plague of Frogs, or enough numbers to beat them for awhile. Eventually, I got AotL, and was able to start rescuing LS's. I did just enough, as I wouldn't have been able to stop his John on his next turn, so he would have walked in. As it is, I ended up with the win. W 5-4

Round 2: Allen Collins

This game was unfortunate for Allen. He drew no heroes for the first 6 or so turns of the game, and while his defense was doing well, he was at a severe disadvantage. He was able to use both of his SoG and Burial from blocks, and didn't draw any souls for awhile, which helped him get a bit on track, but I had kept mostly defense as all I needed to get my fifth was SoG. He ended up getting one more from me, but soon after I got SoG and ended up winning. W 5-2

Round 3: Josh Wester

This game was the first time I got to use ANB. I attacked with Midwives, and he blocked with a Leper he had drafted, and played Balaam's Disobedience (nice pull!). I played ANB and he drew only one soul, which was the female only. I drew Midwives and attacked again, this time he used Burial. After that, I got a few good blocks, and after the reset he never drew a lot of defense, so I ended up with the win. W 5-3

May I share this article within the August issue of The Redeemer webzine?

Turned out that the Travismobile broke down in Menonmonie WI, about an hour from the Cities, so Kordel Lentine and myself took our respective vans there to pick them up. It was there that the Cincy, etc. crew observed the first ever meeting of the Profs. It was epic. Fortunately, everyone arrived at the tournament safely, and I had the honor of hosting Prof Underwood and his daughter at my place for the weekend.

Speaking of which, do you still have the books that my daughter left in the back of your parent's minivan that you picked us up in?

Thanks again for rescuing us and hosting my daughter and I.  Hopefully I'll be able to return the favor someday