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As the emperor would say, my journey toward the dark side is complete. Until this year, T2 has been something I would pretty much only play if I had nothing better to do at a tournament. However, something snapped earlier this year, and, after this weekend, I don't know if I can ever go back.

Before I begin talking about how awesome I am  , I just want to say a huge thanks to Gabe, Kevin, and Gabe's family for all of their hard work in setting up and running an awesome (and huge!) tournament. It was a lot of fun to see everyone there, and meet new people. It was well worth the 5 hour drive there and back with a full van, even if it meant having to go to the middle of Iowa...

Sunday Night

The TC caravan got split up pretty early on in our trip (people in my van were hungry...what can I say?). And the Brinkmann's ride was the most eventful, as they ended up getting a flat tire. Fortunately they got it fixed, and MJB got there just in time to be an easy opponent for me to beat in T2 Multi...Thanks Matt!

T2 Multi

Game 1: vs. John "I bring stuffed animals to tournaments" Earley, Matt "I tried to get out of playing Jordan by driving over a curb" Brinkmann, and Scott "I had to drive three hours in a car with Rawrlolsauce!, take it easy on me" Reuter

My whole T2 Multi night was helped by good draws in pretty much every game. I got Guardian of Your Souls within the first few turns in all games, and in this particular game it was the first card I drew. I was using my Silver/Judges deck with Bulletproof Samson and a Pharisees defense, and I got an early Israelite Archer and Captain that helped me avoid the various Writs and Charms that were out. I managed to get three fairly quickly, with my opponents each having two. Due to my setup, John made a high-risk play by playing Benedictus to negate Matt's Nazareth, attacked with his provisioned Hero to choose a guy to give him initiative, and played ANB. He was hoping to try to even out the game a bit, but I turned out that I redrew an Archer, Captain, and TSA, and with everyone else's reset defense, I was able to get to four. I played SoG/NJ defensively, and on my last turn, I used Consuming Fire to negate Scott's Horses on his emperor, used Stalks of Flax to switch for his Michael, and when he was forced to block, I used Striking Herod ftw. Two of the most underrated cards in TexP for sure. Score: 7-4-4-4

Game 2: vs. Gabe "Wait, you searched for Samson with that?" Isbell, Nathan "Oh, that's what that LS does" Voigt, and Mitch "But if I attack Gabe, then he'll get to draw" Stewart

This game was intense to the max, and featured the eventual top four placers for the night. I again got my Guardian quickly, and I drew an early Ehud. However, Nathan drew an early block, and quickly dispatched my Ehud. I failed to draw a Hero for the next three turns, despite having 16 in my deck and Laver and Proud Pharisees supposed to help me draw faster. I finally drew my Gabriel, and was really excited, because I had 2x Birth Foretold in my hand. I searched for my Samson (which is how Gabe got his nickname for the game when he was duly surprised) and then I played my other one to get SoG (I had been holding Nazareth in my hand since turn 1, waiting for the chance to play my BF's). Naturally, Gabe had to be meddlesome and point out Mitch's Darius' Decree. I shuffled SoG and Samson back, and my frustration with that play caused me to attack with Gabriel against Mitch, the only player at the table who would probably be able to get rid of Gabriel without giving me initiative to play my BF's. Sure enough, he blocked low, and removed me from the game. There goes my second Hero I drew all game. Defenses were tough, and while the occasional soul was handed out, the game went slowly. Eventually, I reached a turning point. Mitch had turned down DD, and I drew Angel of Warning, which allowed me to fetch my Samson, SoG, and then put down Naz. A combo of my Bulletproof Samson (with Entertaining Angels to avoid Balaam's Disobedience from being a battle winner against Samson, I was able to get up to 4, where everyone else had been for a few turns. On his turn, Nathan attacked me with a band that I couldn't defeat, and I had SoG/NJ in hand. Nathan had attacked for the NT only, with Lampstand up, which is usually a sure way to avoid dominant blocks. However, Mitch noticed the FBTN LS sitting in Gabe's territory, and played his SoG (no NJ) before me. The next round went by, and I had four with SoG/NJ in hand, Mitch and Nathan had 6 and had both played SoG, and Gabe had four without playing either. He attacked, and his Hero got martyred. He played his SoG (no NJ yet) and I played my two. Score: 6-6-6-5

Game 3: vs. Mitch Stewart

I had played Mitch's deck the week before on RTS, so I knew what was coming (but of course he did too). I was able to get a few early freebies, and my defense got rolling pretty quickly, so I had an early 4-0 lead. He ended up breaking through for two, and he was eventually able to make some successful blocks, but his defense didn't last. I got my fifth, and played SoG/NJ ftw.
Score: 7-2

Game 4: vs. Tim Drown

At the T2 only in February, my game with Tim lasted about 10 minutes. I drew very little defense, and he drew seemingly everything necessary to beat me. So needless to say, I was a bit nervous. He was also using an offense that has a clear answer to my defense, but fortunately for me he didn't get it setup very quickly and was hesitant to attack before it was. Unfortunately, my offense was not at all prepared to deal with his defense for a long time, so we went back and forth for awhile, not doing much. He used SoG/NJ to get a 3-0 lead. Finally, he drew what he needed, and I hadn't drawn my counters to his counter yet, so he was able to get another soul. On my turn, I had a few drawing cards, so I basically sacrificed one of my Heroes hoping he'd give me initiative to play them. Sure enough, he did, and I drew the card I needed. After that, my defense was virtually impenetrable by his offense, and I just needed to be able to break through his. A sneaky play on my part allowed me to wipe out his D, and go in for a few freebies. He did end up making a couple more successful blocks after that, but I was eventually able to wear him out, and get the win.

Score: 7-4

I ended up in first place for the category. Even cooler though was the deck that I had helped MJB with the night before netted him third, and with Nathan second, the TC crowd swept the category.

Monday Afternoon

Unfortunately, my usual TEAMS partner, Justin, couldn't make it to Regionals, so I was planning on playing Booster Draft. But BubbleBoy needed a TEAMmate, so I said I'd play with him. I was using my standard Zebulun Herolite deck, and Jeremy was using a balanced Teal/Brown deck. We did a bit of planning, but not nearly enough to compete with the likes of Team Mayhem.

Game 1: vs. Jon Nesfeder and Nathan Voigt

The game was pretty ugly from start to finish. I think Jeremy and I had two successful bocks the whole game, and they were both Uzzah. I never drew Zeb, or anything to search for him with, and Jeremy's offense never got initiative to play anything. We did end up rescuing half of a two-liner, and we almost got a free soul (primarily so Team Mayhem could take advantage of TGT, but they decided against it in the end.
Score: 0-5

Game 2: vs. Matt Brinkmann and Bill Voigt.

We were definitely underprepared to be playing a TEAM (possibly the only TEAM ever?) to combined have over a century's worth of experiences (life experiences). Matt and Bill were using secret combo decks, that shall remain nameless until the proper time. Based on the fact that they were playing us after our stellar first round performance, it didn't seem as if the combo worked too well. Their combo never really got setup, and we made pretty easy blocks the few times they attacked. I was able to get one Zebulun rescue before Matt drew his anti-ignore stuff, but after that, we were basically done. The game timed out with us ahead 3-0.
Score: 3-0

Game 3: vs. Sean (or Sean?) Last name unknown and John Isbell.

This game was pretty uneventful. Jeremy and I both had Ahimaaz and Urim and Thummim, and were thus about as familiar with our opponents' hands as they were. This helped us know pretty much exactly how to attack and block, and while their team made a few good moves to rescue two souls, we ended it fairly quickly. Zeb never showed up, so Jeremy made all of the rescues.
Score: 5-2

We probably placed fifth or sixth out of ten TEAMS I would guess, but I'm not entirely sure.

Overall, it was a very fun tournament, and it was great seeing people, hanging out, and my wins were icing on the cake. Other tournament highlights would be experiencing Wild Bill's fine-tuned navigation skillz first hand, getting trolled by the Perkins parking lot (you'd think that the street that Perkins faces would have an entrance to the lot) and getting away with not having to take a shot of Big Red after my egregious mistake vs. Nathan in 2P.* Thanks to all who made it such a great time, and we hope all who made it can travel the extra 300 miles northward to the Twin Cities for Nationals in August!


*It's a tradition that people who make potentially game-costing mistakes take a shot of Big Red. For those of you who don't know what Big Red is, make sure to come to Nats. It promises to offend every taste bud that it doesn't kill.