I started Type 2 by taking my Type 1 deck and making it Type 2. Most of the time, either you don't have enough of the same cards to fit an exact strategy, so this works quite well.
But for Type 2, you usually focus on a specific strategy and capitalize on the multiples that you can have for that strategy. For example, take a Genesis offense with Zebulun and Reuben's Torn Clothes. Fairly strong in Type 1, but you can only play Reuben's Torn Clothes once unless you recur it. However, in Type 2, you can have 5 of them. Combine this with some Obedience of Noah's, Baptisms, Paying Tributes, and a few Sign of the Rainbows and you have strong Blue offense. This can be done for just about any color. And then there are some colors where there's just too much good stuff to choose from that it's hard to fit it all in.
Keeping your deck relatively small is one of the hardest parts, in my opinion. Typically, people like to run 105 card decks, however, I am usually against that and have either 112 or 119. Because like I said, it's hard to fit it all in.
Typically, also the ratios are a bit different in Type 2. Something like 16 Heroes and 20 enhancements is pretty common to see. This is because Dominants, Fortress, Covenants, and any other Multicolors are good. So, if you play with 5 Dominants, 3 Fortresses, and 2 Covenants or Multis, then you're already up to 46 good cards. Since good must equal evil, with 46 evil cards, that puts you at 92 cards before Artifacts, Sites, and Lost Souls. So, 3 access sites, 8 artifacts, and 16 Lost Souls puts you at 119. So, like I said, trimming it down can be tough. For your first deck though, I would say shoot for 112. Also, try and make sure you have some drawing or searching ability. Book of Hozai and Answer to Prayer to help draw and search would also benefit your Blue offense.
For someone starting out, if you don't have all the doubles from tins, you might have doubles of starters. The easiest thing would be to build either a Green or a Gold offense based around the 10th Anniversary starters and a Crimson defense. A lot of Crimson's good cards are commons and uncommons so typically it's the easy defense to start with. Midianite Attack, Carried into Exile, Deceit of Sapphira, Red Dragon, King Zimri, and Sapphira are great cards that are pretty easy to get and get in multiples. Speaking of multiples, one rule that I typically abide by as far as enhancements go, is never put in just 1. Characters are easier to make exceptions for, but again, referring back to the trying to get everything to fit, sometimes I make exceptions with enhancements too. But not very often.
Check out
Redemption Nebraska for Nationals winning decks from the past years for ideas. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
Eric "the power of the dark side brings another one over" Largent
