Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Matt,

It was a great tournament, and you did an amazing job keeping everything running smooth, I too enjoyed seeing everyone again.

Your constant ruling question pestering totally took me off my game, I should have had a +30 differential It's always good to have a crew as solid as the NC (6 elders, 4 of whom showed) to back up the ruling decisions.

I feel truly blessed to do as well as I did - With a field that tough I could have easily gone 3-3 and been well outside the top 3.

I have my tourney report typed up, but I'll not post it until after nationals, so that my opponents (And my ) Decks stay secret.

Great tournament Matt! It was fun to play instead of Hosting.

You forgot to mention the results of Type S.

Jeremiah Thiessin, MN   Won Type S-1
Steve Nesfeder, MO  Won Type S-2 (due to a controversial ruling)

"GO THAT WAY!! MOVE!"

So good!

I have RNRS ponts w00t!!!!

Game 4 vs. Steve Thiessen

The father of one of MN's great T2 players (Jeremiah Thiessen) had never played before in his life. Which means he didn't know the cards very well. Which means his turns were very long. He was a really nice guy, and since I had no chance of placing anyway, I figured I wouldn't get on his case about 5 minute turns where he did nothing but read his cards. I didn't want his first tourney to be full of losses AND crummy attitudes from players. Of course, Heroless already times out often enough because of the strategy involved, but slow opponents multiply the problem tenfold. The only game I lost at '07 Regionals was against a slower player that I knew to be slow, so I used an alternate deck.

Fortunately, my second to last turn (10 minutes to go) I got NJ, Holy Grail, and Lampstand. S/P was already protected in my territory by High Priest's Palace, so I looked at his hand with U&T, saw nothing to stop me, and converted S/P after activating Grail and Lampstand.  Next turn, I activated Hidden Treasures, went for an RA. and played AoCP. He handed me the soul, took his turn, and failed the RA. I laid SoG/NJ for the TO win.

Result: 3-2

Game 5 vs. Bill "everytribe" Voigt:

This game was mostly fun for me because of the ridiculous play I pulled off. Right after I polished off his Chariot with DoN early on, he puts down Temple of Dagon, and, you guessed it, Altar of Dagon. Captured Ark wouldn't work, and I felt I was out of options. Hopefully I could earn a 2-2 tie. Bill kept trying to attack to no avail (it was by far my best draw of the day), and I kept trying to figure out how to win. Finally it came to me. Eventually he attacked with a non-BtN character, so I blocked with Philistine Priests, who, in probably one of Redemption's greatest ironies, negated and deactivated Altar of Dagon. The next turn I activated Holy Grail, converted Saul, and went on to rescue 2 more LS's before he was able to block with a Simon from hand and use JiP (I saw it coming, but there was nothing I could do about it). He never attacked me again, so I couldn't deactivate AoD again, so the game ended where it was.

Result: 4-2

Game 6 vs. Britta "Achaewon Enleaye" Alstad:

Yep. Last round vs. my sister. She probably hates Heroless more than anyone else on the face of the earth, and would be the least sad to see it (at least the Northern version) go. However, she was doing fairly well, and may have won, but for one critical mistake. She had a big banding chain where she drew a lot of cards, and played a lot of enhancements, the last being a banding card to bring in Elijah. She then played AotL on my Simon when I blocked with Lot's Wife banded to him. So I figured I was in a pickle, as I didn't think there was any way she didn't have Abe's Servant or Words to interrupt my Wrath. Then I realized: Wrath wouldn't give her initiative, because of Elijah. So I played it, and then used Writ on Elijah, leaving her with one hero left. I finished off King David fairly easily, and DoN'd her Chariot to ruin her chances. I was then able to get my 5 rescues, and won the game. She didn't especially appreciate that, but I think she's okay now.

Result: 5-3

So my overall point total was 10 (-4), which landed me probably about halfway to the top. I don't view that as a good enough performance to even compete in most MN locals. With each new set, I will determine if the Heroless of the North could be resurrected, but I don't foresee that happening in the near future. Alas poor Heroless, I knew thee well! Goodbye, old friend. 

It was an awesome tournament. I was finally able to redeem myself after I made a huge mistake that cost me second place last year. I honestly feel I only made 2 mistakes in t1-2p, one of which was very minor. Things were going good . I think I drew 5 first turn POCs all tournament and he searched for a grand total of 0 dominants and only had a successful rescue in one game.



TEAMS
My TEAMS partner was the mighty Ring Wraith. I'd explain our decks, but he will being using them for nationals so I won't spoil the awesomeness.

Game 1 - Team Missing Person (two locals, don't remember the names)
This game was pretty quick. Not much to say, I don't believe they blocked us all game. We won 5-2 I believe.

Game 2 - I don't remember the team name (Jordan Alstad and Chris Bany)
This game was pretty epic. Ring Wraith and I started out strong, really strong. We were up 4-0 or 4-1 at one point but their defense held us off. Thankfully we burned off their defense eventually and snuck in for our 5th soul, winning 5-4.

Game 3 - Team OG (Master KChief and TheHobbit13)
We agreed before the game loser gets a tat. MKC and Hobbit got out to a strong start, and made our offense look just silly. Eventually we drew some counters to their offensive strategy and we had them hanging on the ropes (in my opinion. I believe that they wouldn't be able to win another soul unless they sacrificed 90% of their heroes and I believe they only had one block left) despite them having more souls rescued. Unfortunately, we timed out just as I made the last rescue. The final score was 4-4. No tats were given.

Game 4 - Team Rawrlolsauce! and Ring Wraith (JSB and The Unforgivable)
This game started out so promising. Ring Wraith and I both drew a first turn POC. It didn't work. And then we drew absolutely no offense after that point. We lost 5-1 or 5-2.

Final placing: 4th or 5th I think. I might have missed a game....



T1 2P
Oh yeah boi. The main event, and I was seeking some redemption after my embarrassing loss against Gabe Isbell last year. I built my deck at 3AM on Thursday, and I wasn't feeling too confident about it. It turns out I didn't have Captured Ark in there, and I didn't realize until after the tournie. Good thing it didn't matter.

Game 1 - Against Sorry I can't remember your name
This game was against one of the locals. I drew a first turn Red Dragon and that stopped him until he got AOTL. He then played SOG and NJ before I drew mine, which left me with a 5-3 victory.

Game 2 - Against Forsworn Angel
This was my ROOT game, fortunate I was matched up against him . We both had pretty good draws it seems, but I had the perfect counter for everything. Literally. He used his Thorn in the Flesh, I used my Strength in Weakness. It rocked. I won 5-0

Game 3 - Against SirNobody
This was a little intimidating. I believe Tim handed me my first loss last year when I was feeling positive about the game, and I was afraid of that happening again. I was off to a fairly good start, and I had Uzzah waiting in my hand the first few turns, but that doesn't really matter when your opponent doesn't have a hero. I drew SOG and NJ near the beginning of the game, but instead of playing smart I just yelled "wow. Mayhem. Mayhem. Its so obvious. Play it before he drops Mayhem. Noob." in my head over and over. Eventually I did just drop them to rescue a couple of my own souls, which turned out to be the right play. That turn, I made a RA and he was forced to use his SOG defensively and rescued the shuffler. Had I kept SOG NJ in my hand, he would have probably rescued the 2-liner which would have ended the game 5-3 in my favor instead of 5-2 in my favor.

Game 4 - Against Teh Unforgivable
Martin handed Gabe Isbell and Jordan Alstad pretty bad losses, so I obviously had to play carefully. We both had really good draws, I think I played 3 doms first turn and he played 2. They kept flowing in from that. The game just came down to the fact I was able to block him once or twice and I believe all my of rescues (except 1?) were successful. I won 5-2 I think.

Game 5 - Against Red Dragon Thorn
We were the only ones left undefeated. RDT got off to one of the best starts you can in Redemption, yet I proceeded to dominate him. I was up 4-0 at one point when I made a MASSIVE mistake. That mistake handed me a 5-4 loss instead of a 5-0 win. Yuck.

Nice report Rawrlsauce,

Your sixth round opponent was Joshua Knipp from wisconsin.

Our game was truly a masterpiece of crazyness - You know something is wierd when you can SWJ out Son of God and NJ and still be down 4-0 after 4 turns.