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After coming off of a T2 Sweep at NC Regionals, one of my goals winning at least one of the T2 categories, and put myself in decent position for RNRS placing. My other goals were to have a lot of fun playing Redemption, and having a lot of fun hanging out with other people. Meh, 2 outta three ain't bad right? 

Day 1:

T2-MP

I was using my same old Samson/Birth Foretold deck, with a Pharisees defense, as I had been for the past several tournaments.

Round 1: vs. Mitch Stewart, Mike Nordby, Jason Chandler

This game started out really slowly. After about 45 minutes, the score was 1-1-0-0. The reason for that was Jason's stingy Philistine defense, my slow draw (due to not drawing many LS's for my opponent's to allow me to block with my Pharisees and get my drawing going) and everyone else's offensive draws being largely unimpressive. Eventually things got rolling, and everyone was picking up souls. My Samsons eventually came out, and he was able to walk around plenty of Writs and Charms due to BF, and he got around a Balaam's Dispbedience with Entertaining Angels. Moses also got a couple of rescues, and I was in the lead heading into the last round. I allowed Mitch to get his fifth instead of using Writ on his Susanna, then I used my Writ on Mike to avoid him getting his sixth.
Timeout Win: 6-5-5-5

Round 2: vs. Scott Reuter, Jayden Alstad, Nathan Voigt

Three of us were using Pharisee defenses, which mostly meant that Scott's Michael was able to get 6 rescues in the game. The biggest factor in the game though was Scott's Pigs LS. This stopped everyone's Lavers and Pharisees, and Jayden was the only one who could draw his SoG, which he used defensively. I went in for my seventh rescue against Nathan, using Israelite Archer banded to Ehud, who chose Nathan's lone Proud Pharisee to block. Unfortunately, Nathan had one more Balaam's Disobedience, and I didn't have either my Entertaining Angels or Ambush the City to get around it. Next turn Scott's Michael made his 6th and final rescue, combined with the one rescue by Scott's Strong Angel, gave Scott the win.
Scott wins, 7-6-6-5 (Nathan had 5)

I ended up in fourth place with 2.5 points, so no win there, but I was more hoping to win 2P, since by its very nature T2-MP is a nigh untameable beast.

Booster Draft

I thought I had gotten a decent offense with some nice Battle Winners, especially on defense (2 DoU's and an Achan's Sin for PG, and a Balaam's Disobedience for gray). I tried my trick of making a 57 card deck to have the best chance of going first with my defense, but it never worked out.

Round 1: vs. Jayden Alstad, Mitch Stewart, and Brandon Stewart

Ugh. After getting two rescues fairly uneventfully on my first few rounds, I never had a chance to rescue a soul the rest of the game. Jayden (who was to my right) gave away five of his LS's in the first two rounds. Mitch and Jayden both had WC banders that could bring each other's guys in, and they were getting past most defenders. It was frustrating, but I guess that's the way it goes in draft.

5-4-3-2 (I had 2, Mitch Won)


Round 2: vs. Martin Miller, Britta Alstad

This time my opponents consistently had LS's but they also had sites. My only Hero I drew with access to any of the sites was Nehemiah, and my only enhancement I had for him was Ship to Cyprus (which fails vs. Martin's Nazareth). Nehemiah is pretty awful in draft, since he pretty much forces stalemates without support, so I had very few attacks. I might have rescued one. My defense was doing okay, but Britta went after me with a small angel. I blocked with my Beast from the Sea, and I had DoU in hand in case she ended up getting high enough numbers. So she plays Death of Firstborn, and my only other EC was a small blocker with no enhancement support, so she ended up winning.

5-3-2 (I again had 2, Britta won)


Round 3: vs. Martin Miller, David Carlson

I was tired, and a bit frustrated about my luck thus far, but again, that's how BD goes. From a gameplay point of view, the game was awful; from a time point of view, it was perfect, as I walked in for 4 essentially unopposed rescues with Nathan (once I had to band in a Bartholomew with Paul's Books and Parchments) and the last with King Amaziah choosing a low King of Israel that my opponent had no support for. The game lasted 10 minutes, but I was as far from placing as a person who won a table could be, so it didn't matter too much.

I won, 5-2-2


The rest of the night involved Perkins, planning with Nathan V for our TEAMS decks, and a few hours of sleep.

TEAMS

Nathan and I had decided at Regionals that we should team up for MN State, and had been planning for awhile. We both used TGT ladies, with me adding in some Luke/John gold Heroes to add some helpful NT females and SWJ. On defense, we both had Herods, and Nathan tossed in some Sadducees, since Salome+HAII+HP Ananias can make a nice CBN band that can take on at least some of the ever-so-popular FBTN banding decks seen in TEAMS. We also added a few cards that we thought could be really helpful for TEAMS, but that information is strictly confidential.

Round 1: vs. Alan Rice and Andrew Wester

Alan was using a purely offensive deck with a few defensive cards to help their strategy, and Andrew was using a huge defensive deck with a bit of offense. I had to relieve some pressure in my hand so I played SoG and NJ on one of their 2-Liners, but since they had three of them between the two decks, they were able to stifle our two successful rescues by giving us the two halves. They never made a successful rescue except for the big two, but they likely would have with more time (and more observance of something we had done previously).

T, 2-2

Round 2: vs. Chris and Kim Carlson

The husband and wife team had joined the event with their T1-2P decks in order to ensure there would be no byes, but they hadn't coordinated them at all. They did make a few good blocks, but our defense was stifling, and eventually our TGT ladies broke through. They did get SoG/NJ in time, to make the score 5-2.

W, 5-2

Round 3: vs. Scott Reuter and Jason Chandler

Going into the last round there were four teams that had tied one game and won one game, so in order to win, we had to win the game and have more differential than the winner on the other table. Scott's Rain Becomes Dust held off our drawing, but in a desparate move to win a battle, Jason had to play Gloria in Excelsis Deo and discard it. That allowed us to play Mayhem when we didn't have a blocker the next attack, and we got a blocker. Eventually, we were ahead 4-1, and my TGW with Nathan's Gifts allowed him to draw 6, he drew SoG and we won.

W, 5-1

Alan and Andrew ended up winning 5-1 as well, which resulted in a tie for first between us and them overall.

So despite not accomplishing my goal of winning a T2 category, I had a great time both playing and hanging out with fellow Minnesotans (and a couple of Iowans) and now I get to look forward to Nationals. Thanks to Scott and Jason for hosting, it was a great time.

Round 3: vs. Martin Miller, David Carlson

I was tired, and a bit frustrated about my luck thus far, but again, that's how BD goes. From a gameplay point of view, the game was awful; from a time point of view, it was perfect, as I walked in for 4 essentially unopposed rescues with Nathan (once I had to band in a Bartholomew with Paul's Books and Parchments) and the last with King Amaziah choosing a low King of Israel that my opponent had no support for. The game lasted 10 minutes, but I was as far from placing as a person who won a table could be, so it didn't matter too much.

I won, 5-2-2

that game was not fun. almost none had defense and we all druw Lss to spare 

Does John live near you? He was talking about going... I completely understand the Redemption fatigue for your wife, though, since the NC Regionals was plenty for my wife. Either way, you are definitely welcome!

If there was Teams, I would totally go too...but alas.

Yeah, due to the time restrictions, anyone playing Booster Draft and Type 1 2-player definitely wouldn't be able to play another category. We're looking into offering more/different categories at our monthly tournaments, though. And next year we will probably do a 2-day event.