Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Round 1 -- Kye Murphy (Red Warriors/Canaanite and Philistine Giants)
After the pairings were announced I said, "Ah, starting off easy." This was obviously a joke as Kye is certainly an experienced Type 2 player, but unfortunately for Kye, I got about the best draw that I think I got all day and was quickly able to set up. My first turn Charms got my defense ready to go and AUtO->Sam->Dave got the rest. When Kye attacked with David the Shepherd on his turn I was a little confused as I was expecting him to increase the value of my Charms, but then he puts Mighty Warrior on the table and I think, "Ah, right..." I end up having to capture the lone David, but Mighty Warrior then was able to walk in next turn after grabbing a Hailstones with A Soldiers Prayer that I knew I would be unable to negate due to the toss. Fortunately I was able to get an answer the next turn and after that my defense was pretty much set to go. Once I got Medium in Endor and Nazareth/CwD I was able to swap his Heroes with his The Angel of the Winds and that stalled him for awhile. Of course the downside of stopping searching and discouraging drawing with Mediums is soul drought, which Kye was able to utilize for a good portion of the game.

We got to the final round and I needed one more to win. Urim and Thummim showed me a handful of Siezed by Rioters and a single Babel that I knew would be dangerous with what seemed like my entire defense lined up. I had Ambush the City, Daughter's Grief, Trumpets and Torches, and Samuel's Edict at my disposal. I started out with Jair, baiting out his Demetrius and allowing me to play Ambush the City, and I went out with AUtO->Sam to have someone for CBN Edict. Kye blocked with all three Sons of Anak, forcing me to withdraw Samuel, which I decided to do to bring Gideon into battle with You Will Remain. In hindsight I realized I made a mistake and should've done Gideon from the get-go, because after I brought him in it was stalemate and Gideon was in last, giving Kye iniative. And then, ya know, Babel. Kye brought my entire defense that was all CBN due to The Judean Mediums or CBI, but fortunately for me he made an oversight of not using the CBN band on Mediums to bring in Red Dragon. So after all the drawing I was able to use Edict and Daughter's Grief to negate Babel, discard one giant, and then set aside the other two, winning the soul.

Result: 7-1

Round 2 -- Nathan Voigt (Prophets/Babylonians)
Remember when I said I built the deck to counter cards like Jonah and The Babylonian Merchants? Well, things didn't quite work as I had hoped in this particular matchup. Seeing my first 8 I thought I was sitting pretty cozy. I had Damsel and Martyr in hand for my block and a way to get AUtO on my turn, but when Nathan started with Elisha and shuffled both my Martyr and Rubble and Dust, I had to go with the safer option of Simon and Balaam's Teaching rather than Damsel's draw. Meanwhile on my turn, Nathan's Dull persuaded me to grab Moses with my AUtO rather than Samuel or Gideon, which I realized later to be a mistake once his Seized by Babylon rendered my Edict useless and me Moses-less against Dull and the Jonah he drew a couple turns later. The trend of unfortunate events continued with a Two Bears sniping 3 of my ECs and none of his and then a surprise Bab Soldiers taking out a Charms that I guess I should've used before the block. Eventually I was able to utilize my empty territory to search through Jonah and get one hard earned rescue, but obviously that's not ideal. A short reprieve came when I was able to Woes Jonah, but by the time I was able to get Nazareth and start setting up some defense, it was too late and his preblock His Name was able to reserve my Martyr and Two Bears my EC for number seven. The upside to all this was a relatively quick game right before the lunch break.

Result: 2-7

Brief summary of current situation for dramatic effect:
Justin was currently in first with his three wins and a timeout loss to Andy. Greg Miller, Nathan Voigt, and myself were all a point behind him with Greg having lost to Justin, Nathan having lost to Greg, and me having lost to Nathan. My +11 soul differential put me ahead of Greg and Nathan though, putting me against Justin and both Greg and Nathan against the players in or around 5th and 6th place, respectively. This meant Nathan needed me to win and Greg to lose in order to win, Greg needed me to not win by two more than he won, and I needed Nathan to lose. After having beat Simon and lost to Nathan I was admittedly pessimistic. Simon is certainly a good player, but Nathan's experience in Type 2 and his strong meta deck had me leaning in his favor, but that certainly didn't mean I could just hand it over to Justin.

Round 5 -- Justin Alstad (Red Warriors/Black Splash)
After four rounds my tired brain was hardly prepared for the seemingly inevitable brother battle, a matchup that no matter how many times it happens, always seems to the one where I make the most mistakes. In between rounds I went outside for a couple minutes to get some fresh air and mentally prepare, which I actually think helped significantly. Justin started off quick and I believe this was the only game all day that I didn't get a first turn AUtO (See Justin? I don't always get it... ). Meanwhile Justin got two early Betrayals to win the battles and get the d3 and at least once he got a d6 off a Mighty Men. To his dismay, however, he didn't get a Priest of Zeus to keep me from catching up, which I eventually did. Early on he got through my King of Tyrus, but only after he decided to invest his TSC to Woes in making sure KoT died. After being able to hold him to the one soul in the early game, I was able to stall for awhile with Scattered and Martyr, as he saw with Urim and Thummim. This forced him to rescue solo to try and bait the Martyr as I tried to block without it. He eventually forced me to use it, but it wasn't long until I drew Falling Away and he was facing the same problem. The Judean Mediums was also helpful to slow him down until I drew Nazareth. Again, Ehud used his Dagger to snipe a KoT, and again I had to navigate ways to avoid getting Seized by Demetrius, which usually involved bulletproof Gideon. Before my last rescue he Martyr'd AUtO in territory as a last ditch effort to get around him but fortunately I was ready to go with another from my hand. After a seemingly slow start, I was able to turn things around, which goes to show the tide can turn pretty quickly in Type 2, certainly moreso than in Type 1 in my opinion.

Result: 7-1

The game took us to the last round and I knew Greg, who was playing at the same table as Justin and I, won his game but I was pretty sure it wasn't 7-0. That left Nathan and Simon's game as the determining factor, which I eventually found out Simon had won, putting me in first place. Simon, many thanks to you sir and I apologize for doubting you. To be fair, you were pessimistic about our game before it even started though.
 
Overall: 12 points, +17 LS differential

While the numbers weren't what they used to be, it was still a great tournament and it was fun to see and play those who were there. Many thanks to Justin and Britta for hosting, Bill, Gabe, and John for judging, and Josh for being the best Multi-team Booster teammate I've ever had.