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Round 3: Drew Wills. 5-4 Win by the Grace of the Almighty.
Drew is a solid player. Drew beat me at TN State 5-4, so I reckon it was time for reciprocation? I drew nothing this game. My draw was horrible. While Drew is racing past me with The Throne of David and Ishmaiah, I'm poking around doing next to nothing. Drew continuously keeps me off my heroes, which aren't coming in thick anyway, and hits a quick four souls. At the three turn sequence that won me the game, I'm at 2. Drew has four, having played SOG/TSC. I need to whiff souls for three turns and get good luck to win. I'm also aware of that fact, so I play accordingly. I have Michael+Day of Fury and Angel of the Lord in hand. I attack with Michael, and get blocked by Coliseum Lion banded to Lion. I ask for insh, play Day of Fury, negate??? No negate, I go to three. I play down three woes as Evil, target ends of the earth. Soul drought turn 1. He takes a turn, and passes back to me. Do I draw a soul? No soul. Whew. I attack with Michael, blocked by a deluders, play Angel. Soul 4. 4-4 game. He takes his turn and passes. I doubt that I can get a soul without drawing second coming here. I have three ways to it in deck. I have Woman with Child in discard. I need fifth seal, Second Coming, or Eternal Covenant to win. I d3, puzzledly look at fifth seal and eternal covenant and then realize I won. I say, Good Game, and activate Eternal Covenant to get WWC to win. This game was weird, as was the tournament.

Game 4: Mack Marshall. 5-1 win.
Luke and Nic Marshall are both known as incredibly good players. Luke top 8'd Nationals last year, and Nic took 2nd in 2010. What many people do not know is that a third Marshall plays Redemption. Mack is 13 and a cool dude. He handles his cards well but his deck was a tad bit outdated. I play my second Throne deck of the tournament. The draw is weird, as it has been all tournament. I hit open hand soul and see falling Away Women's in his hand. I have the Great White throne but no evil in my hand. My mission is to get WWC as quick as possible to hit Guardian. This was not as easy as I thought. Goliath kinda survives when he makes blocks. After misplaying turns 1-2, I get Guardian and start taking souls. I win souls 1-3 in three turns, getting a soul off a Guardian trigger. DOU and SSS aren't as solid anymore. He had a liner tap for soul two, but SOG took care of that. At some point in the game he rescued a soul but other than that I kept him off souls.

Game 5: Katrina Underwood. 5-1 Win.
Instead of playing Daniel Husinga, JD, or Luke Marshal, I get Katrina Underwood. Katrina is 12. I've been playing Redemption about as long as she's been alive. This was a much easier game than the others would have been. She soul droughts a bit after I rescue my initial soul, but I aggressively use Imitate and Lawless to underdeck her cards and generate lost souls. Her defense was not much of a challenge, and she was unable to rescue more than 1 because I underdeck SOG+NJ.

4-1, Second place, soul diff of 9. I barely placed above Daniel due to one soul diff higher having never played. I did not deserve this second place, and will say that I do not like using soul diff as a tiebreaker. I would advocate Redemption move to a Strength of Schedule approach as a third tiebreak. In that case I would have got the third place my performance deserved.

This tournament, despite the weird luck and games, really was a needed confidence boost even if I don't think I deserved a second place. I've become well aquainted with second place, taking 2nd, 5 out of 6 past TN tournaments I've played in. I will say I love the Revelation of John format, and am excited to see how the meta develops for Nationals!