I had the privilege of being able to attend Southwest Regionals this weekend thanks to the hospitality of Jonathan G. and his family. Though it was a smaller turnout, we had a great time and honestly between the 8 players (counting Bryon who didn't play but watched and checked out the new cards), 2 young kids and 1 very large dog, there wasn't much more room anyway.
Michael and I played T2 2P, and I ended up winning thanks to an early Flood Survivor band. Once his defense started to set up, I avoided his strong Brown defense as long as I could (using things like Dove Returns, AotL and Obedience of Noah off of Jacob) before he finally defeated my Noah/Shem/Japeth band and sent them all to the Ark after an epic battle. Fortunately for me, he used up everything for that one block and I was able to get through for the final soul shortly after that. Unfortunately Michael had to leave for work and was not able to play the remaining events, but a big shout out to him for putting in the work to get the tournament on the schedule.
Jonathan, Ben, Scott and Kurt played T1 2P and Jonathan defeated Ben in a close match to take first. Meanwhile I spent some time with Bryon showing him the new set and was thrilled at how much he liked it since it was his vision so many years ago to have a sequence of expansions that started with The Early Church and ended with a Revelation set.
Next we paired up for TEAMS and I ended up pairing with Scott. I hadn't really made a TEAMS deck but seeing his AoG offense that he used for T1 2P, I decided to use a OT WC banding deck I had built since I had Israelite Archer that could band to his Heroes if needed. That didn't end up being necessary as we both made several great rescues and blocks on our way to beating the teams of Jonathan/Ben and Andrew/Kurt to take first.
After TEAMS, Kurt and Bryon had to head out, so the remaining five of us decided to do the crazy thing and play a 5 player T2 MP game. We gave ourselves some extra time as Jonathan had a couple interruptions to take care of father duties, but when all was said and done, we had a tie for first between Jonathan and Scott with 6 LS and a three way tie for third place between myself, Ben and Andrew with 4 LS.
Ben then had to head out, but what's a Redemption tournament without a good ol' Booster Draft? Even though it wasn't going to be an official category, we put together of draft of CoW, PC, TEC, Priests, Kings, Patriarchs and Apostles. It was another close multi-player game but in the end I couldn't stop both Andrew and Scott who were both at 4. I managed to block Andrew, but used my only battle winner to do so allowing Scott to get through with his Red United Army. I pulled a Saul/Paul with 4 ways to convert him (including a PC Holy Grail), but Andrew's Bereans took advantage of me not having Wall of Protection...
Overall had a great time, thank you again to Jonathan for hosting and Michael for organizing! Don't know the next time I'll be able to get to CA for a tournament, but I hope it does happen again!
Final results--T2 2P
1. Justin A
2. Michael L
T1 2P
1. Jonathan G
2. Ben H
3. Kurt H
TEAMS
1. Justin A/Scott K
2. Jonathan G/Ben H
3. Andrew K/Kurt H
T2 MP
1. Jonathan G/Scott K tie
3. Justin A/Ben H/Andrew K tie
Unofficial Booster
1. Scott K
2. Andrew K
3. Justin A
