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Second Event: Type 2-2 Player

I hadn't played T2 in any tournaments in the past 5 years, and despite doing some research I didn't really know what to expect. But I had a theory: with the addition of Wandering Spirit and Gates of Hell to the game, Panic Demons could make a legit T2 defense. So my deck was Judges with Sword Against Sword (theoretically to force blockers to fight my PD's) and Samson's Sacrifice recursion with Agur to clear my opponent's territory every once in awhile (fortunately I never played any demon defenses, which would likely have crushed me). At any rate, I was hoping to have fun.

Game 1:Vs. Eli Riley

Eli had an interesting hybrid of a defense between Gold deck discard and Gray hand discard. His offense was so sparse during our game (he attacked only a few times) that I can't even remember what it was. Basically, anytime he could attack, he had no response to a horde of Panic Demons blocking. And after clearing his territory and a few sites once or twice, my Judges went in mostly unopposed.

Game Result: 7-0 W

Game 2: Vs. Jeremiah Thiessen

I've never known Jeremiah too well, but I've seen him play T2 bunches of times at tournies, and he's had some good, close matches with Justin, so he's definitely no slouch. Also, the fact that we were paired up after me gaining +7 differential demonstrated his capabilities as well. I was a bit nervous, and even more so after my early defensive draw was fairly weak, and he got three rescues pretty easily. I was able to take away one of them with Falling Away, but I needed a better draw. And that's when things started clicking. I drew a bunch of demons in the next few rounds, as well as GoH and a Wandering Spirit. Which basically meant that his TGT offense would have quite a bit of trouble rescuing against me. I was right; his only two rescues after that were SoG/NJ. My Israelite Archers were very effective at picking off his Babylonians with a couple of I am Healings to keep them around, and when he could block, I had plenty of firepower to beat him.

Game Result: 7-4 W

Game 3: Vs. Nathan Voigt

The Hobbit and I have played countless games, but I don't think that we had ever played a T2 game up until that point. My lack of experience in T2 finally showed. He got his namesake card early on, which messed with the few early defenders I had, and while I stalemated him once or twice, it was only a matter of time. Then the ET/AoC's started coming, and my Purple sites and Color Guards were nowhere to be found (I believe my Darius Decree was shuffled via Captured Ark). As far as my attacking went, between Nebuchadnezzar and Swift Horses, I was never able to even play a good enhancement. My lone rescue came from SoG on a "block" but then that paved the way for his TGT heroes to finish me off. I ended up discarding about half of my deck in a desperate attempt to block, which stalled him for a turn or two, but the end was in sight.

Game Result: 1-7 L

Third Event: Type 2-Multiplayer

The last time I had played Type 2-Multiplayer before Saturday was Nationals in 2004...I did really well then, earning second place, but obviously the game has changed considerably since before Angel Wars was released. I had no idea what to expect, so I turned to Justin for help. He lent me one of his decks, which I made some slight modifications to, and I was good to go with Prophets, Priests, Magicians and Demons.

Game 1: Vs. Nathan Voigt, Gabe Isbell, and Josh Aydelotte

Going into the game, I was not exactly ecstatic about facing two former Type 2 National champions and one of Redemption's upcoming stars (Josh) who has been under the tutelage of Gabe his entire Redemption career. I knew that the game would be intense, and as CountFount pointed out, our table was a stark contrast to his in terms of noise level: They were having a raucous good time playing their ANBs like no tomorrow, while we were all focused, concentrating, and basically silent. The game started with me drawing a bunch of Lost Souls, and no EC's to accompany them. So everyone got a few freebies off of me. Adding insult to injury at the time was when I had 3 Lost Souls, everyone else had 4, and I had Falling Away played on me, even though Nathan didn't have his Guardian. Still, having the deficit allowed me to earn a few pity rescues, and the score was about even. The turning point for me came when I blocked Josh with Damsel, and revealed Shoes of Peace, allowing me to draw 8. Within that 8 were Son of God, Christian Martyr, and Burial. I ended up ending the battle with Worshipping Demons (with HHI up) and then it was Nathan's turn. Nathan had a pretty bad stroke of luck when earlier in the game he was holding SoG/NJ, and had 4 redeemed souls, when Gabe played Mayhem. In the next round, everyone but Gabe got to five Lost Souls, and then it was my turn again. Josh had the only available soul, and he had Nebuchadnezzar in his territory. I had SoG in hand, Joel in territory, and a Search, but I wasn't sure if Nebby would allow me to play anything. I decided to go for it, as last time Josh had merely pulled Leviathan out for some huge numbers. So I attack, and he blocks with Sapphira. Elated, I played Search, and got NJ for the win. Whew.

Game result: 7-5-5-4 W

Game 2: Vs. Craig Fountain, Alan Rice, and one of the KC guys (I think it was Lurch?)

I had a bit more confidence about this game, and the mood was lighter, but I certainly wasn't overjoyed at having to put up with ANB's all game, as I knew I would with Craig playing. He only ended up using three of them, but he was pretty successful at it. The game just kept going, with few LS's on the table, and a few ninja blocks from Uzzah types. The game-changing moment was probably when Craig's SoG was revealed, considering he had 5 redeemed souls, and a prophet with HT and Search. He did end up getting SoG with Search, but had to use it to stop one of my rescues, so he had 6. After that, not enough LS's were available for anyone to put together a successful rescue, so the game ended on a timeout.

Game result: 5-6-5-4 L

Game 3: Vs. Andrew Wester and Cousin It

At this point, I was the only one at the table with a decent shot at placing, and that kept me focused. Andrew was a shell of his usual self, and really just wanted to sleep. The craziest part of the game was that I would rescue all of Cousin It's LS's, and Andrew was using his 2-player deck (site-lock) so both of my opponents repeatedly attacked me. I think I used 4 each of Worshipping Demons and Forgotten History to hold them both off. Eventually Andrew was the only one drawing LS's (aside from me) so I had to get access to his sites. Fortunately Provisions and Nahum helped with that once, but the second time I got him, there was an Unholy Writ up. It was eventually turned down, so I got another Soul from Andrew. Finally, I drew my NJ to go along with SoG, and I got the win.

Game result: 7-4-4

Record: 2-1 (Timeout Loss)

Event result: 2nd place

With my second place finish, I got two out of twelve chances to win a full TexP set in the raffle...and my name was drawn. Which was one of the highlights of the tourney for obvious reasons. But beyond that, this tourney was easily one of the best Redemption experiences I've ever had. I can't say that I've fully converted to being a T2 player, but I definitely know that I will probably try it a bit more. And after seeing how annoying Nebuchadnezzar was, I think I'll put a Kings Gabriel or Michael in pretty much any T2 deck I build from now on...

Wall of text, and I assume there's nothing about me in there, so...

okay, only one mention of Mayhem...

I'm always happy to oblige.  Have I mentioned that Mayhem is the most amazing card... ever?  And often I don't even play it right!

Great report Prof.  If I find time to write one it will only be a shadow compared to your literary finesse.

I was the "other KC guy" in Game 3 of Multiplayer.  And you are VERY right:  Jordan was completely out of it.    But then I kinda was too.  I'm still blown away by how many times you were able to block both of us.  It was actaully my most enjoyable multi game that whole tournament though.  Even though I lost by a considerable margin, I still felt I did all right and didn't just hand out LSs.  Fun times.

Actually I'm Jordan, Andrew was the one with the site deck and earnest desire to sleep. And I'm glad you enjoyed the game. I will fix my above post to reflect your participation.

Wow, I don't remember any of these games at all. I must have been really tired. It might also be partially due to the fact that I was at home.

By the way, this is apparently my 5000th post. ...Yay me.

This is my best recollection of Type 2-2 player.

Big variety of decks.  That was good to see. I don’t think type 2 will be dominated by any certain type or by combo decks at nationals.

1st Round surprises:  Alan Rice ambushed Kirk Dennison.  Last year Alan also surprised Sir Nobody in the first round. Kirk almost came back to place in the top 3 but had a timed out loss to Jordan Alstad in Round 4.  Josh Brinkman also beat Craig Fountain with a deck he had borrowed from Craig.

2nd Round key matchup:  Matt Brinkman was hoping to dethrone Gabe Isbell but Gabe was on a roll all day and gave Matt his first loss. Gabe had a nice 100 card deck that drew well all day (by design).  At day’s end Gabe had 15 points and a +26 lost soul differential.

3rd Round KC Throw Down: Tim Drown vs. Jacob Fountain (the handsome one of the father and son duo) Tim rebounded from his second round loss to the now famous Alan Rice and  beat Jacob 7-5. Tim  went  on to win the rest of his matches and claim KC bragging rights for the ride home.

4th Round Intense Match of the Day. It was getting to be crunch time and a win for one of these college boys would critical. The brain power being released was amazing. A lot of thought had went into these two decks and Jordan had a timed out 4-2 win over Kirk. Kirk sort of had a combo deck and Jordan sort of had a concept deck.  Josh Aydelotte was having a good tournament (one of his first) and after a slight glitch in the first round, a timed out win over Brad Coverdale. He beat Martin Miller to slid into the title match with Gabe.

5th and last round. (Next year Matt says we will have 6 rounds. Had 28 Type 2-2 players so just 4 short) Top 2 tables.
      Table two:  “The Old Man and the Hobbit” They played a long game with the winner placing second. Nathan Voigt outlasted Craig Fountain 7-5. (Craig was unanimously  vote most improved player of the year after being stomped on last year by almost everybody)
     Table one: Josh came up short against his mentor Gabe 4-7. (I heard Gabe say something to Josh before their match about him possibly walking back to Iowa)

There were two more undefeated player but they couldn’t stay the whole time so we will never find out how good they would have done. Red Dragon Thorn and Jayden Alstad each went 1-0.

Travel Award: Brad Coverdale, first person to ever fly to a local Redemption tournament. (Arrived before Kirk) Brad didn’t have that bad of a tournament. Only really lost once. (1 loss, 1 timed out loss, 1 timed out tie and 2 wins)

Apologies to Andrew Wester for Leaving the stuff in my garage for type S.

Kudos’s to the Austin and KC gangs for lots of laughs and little sleep.

The Princess award goes to Britta Alstad our only female participant.

Big thanks to Tim Maley for helping judge. Made my job a lot easier.  (Although don’t ask me why he drove all the way from Nebraska and didn’t play)When you are judging a tournament with players that know the rules better than you do it can get a little interesting.  Questions about Redemption rulings are a lot like questions about the bible. The more you know the harder the questions get. Maybe I’ll just have to hire him to judge next year. He did a great job.

Tired Bill

That's right, and tell the Hobbit I demand that Chariot of Fire promo...

Thanks Bill! A win is always nice. And now, as I told Justin, I might have just caught the T2 multi bug...4 players...1.5 hours...so much fun...can't...stop...playing...

That said, we can still pair up for TEAMS anytime, you know, in case Matt and Nathan get uppity again.