Ah Redemption is in the air and souls are being saved! We’re only a month away from Nationals! Are you ready?! (cue dance music)

WOOHOO!! I GOT JOB !!! YAY!!

East Central Regionals has had a great turn out for the passed 3 years now! This year was no exception with the largest East Central Regional Tournament in a while! With around 40 in attendance and 4 top cut placing players from last year’s National tournament, there is certainly some top tier competition!

Daniel Huisinga, 2015 Undefeated Booster Draft Champion and creator of the card Coliseum.

Brian Jones, Multiplayer Champion who placed 2nd in T1-2P at last year’s National Tournament.

Luke Marshall who also made top cut, as well as Jay Chambers who placed 1st in Iron Man last year at Nationals! Plus myself, Iron Man Champion and 3rd place in T1-2P last year! Whew what a roster! We also had a surprise inclusion of Professor Underwood who brought his family to compete! You could say it was an all star line up of titans ready to rumble! Who knew how it could unfold with all of their unique talents and strategies?!

Friday night we started off with Booster Draft!

Personally, I got an amazing draft and was at a table of 2 new players and one veteran. Three blue Ehud, 1 blue Ira, 3 Abraham’s Servant to Ur, 1 blue Ehud’s Dagger, a ton of purple kings Prosperity, Saul’s Javelin, Cloud Sword of the Spirit, King Solomon, King Hiram, King Jotham, Nathan, Apollos, clay Claudia, Ephesian Widow with the Ephesian Elders, Preaching in the Synagogue, David the Psalmist, Words of Encouragement, Visions but the real stars of my booster deck were simply: Lawless Soul, Imitate Soul and the one and only… Ends of the Earth !!! This card was created by 2016 Booster Draft Champion Josh Knitt who I had the pleasure of playing with at Nationals 2016 when he won, and this card is amazing in booster draft! I somehow managed to draw Ends of the Earth turn 1 in nearly every game and it was fantastic for strategically targeting players who had given up the least souls and attacking them to not only rescue, but also know what they were going to be drawing. In the last game I had to use Lawless and Ends of the Earth on Michael 4 or 5 times before Luke rescued a soul with his Barnabas, shuffling Michael’s deck and almost surely setting his deck to allow me to rescue with Ends of the Earth. Overall record?

4-0 Victory

Type 1 the next morning was no different challenge. Each top competitor has opened many Revelation of John packs by now and is well loaded with unique and powerful offenses and defenses. It’s great when a new set comes out because it makes people’s plays far less predicatable and the game that much more exciting!

First and foremost I want to give a shout out to 2012 T1 National Champion Martin Miller. He went so hard at Iowa State and I had the honor of playing him in our last round for 1st place. He built an incredible deck which is beautifully thematic and truly conveys the gospel in play. I built a version of it and tested it a ton before Regionals and believed it would be everything needed for victory.

T1-2p record: 5-0

5-1 first match up with John Perez

I had a decent opening hand, got rolling, and there were plenty of souls to rescue. Defense did work and pulled through. He got 1 with Son of God, but with the offense there seemed to be little he could do to block.

5-0 this game was with Jedediah who won 2016 Type-A

He was running a lot of RoJ angels which I know are formidable. He also had strong demons, which weren’t much of a match for the offense due to it being able to handle them. He did not have many resources to use early game which cost him later on. He was also apparently convinced to play Doubt, but this certainly cost him a block. Overall 5-0 finish

5-2 with Daniel Huisinga

He was playing the deck that he won TN State with this year, so I knew it was certainly going to be a tough match up. Megamanlan convinced me that Hezekiah’s Signet Ring has still got a lot of flavor in this meta, and I got it up turn one along with lots of power and souls on the table so ultimately I was able to push through steadily and block efficiently

5-2 with Brian Jones

Cannot be negated Word of Their Testimony on John, the Apocalyptist won this game against some serious demon bands + Hezekiah’s Signet Ring to keep him from playing The Second Coming.

5-2 Luke Marshall

Played Son of God 3 times this game due to Son of God being removed by his Forgotten History from my discard pile early on. I know this was intentional to dominant block me for a few turns. Then I got a most clutch Covenant of Prayer in a battle against King of Tyrus thanks to the Humble Soul for the win. This is the first competitive game I know of where a player has successfully played Son of God 3 times!!

Finishing thoughts, what a game.. The meta is on fire with serious strategies, and each game easily could have finished 5-4 on either side of the table. Each player who made top cut last year (50% of total top cut) in T1 played each other at this regional tournament. Each player brings a level of strategy, experience, and competitive edge and could have been victorious. Overall I gotta give the glory to God here as a lot of pieces have come together to allow us all to play this wonderful game which is His ministry!

T2 3-0 victory

My T2 deck is very much so enabled by RoJ, but with only 2 other competitors in Type 2 it was simply a lack of competition because everyone wanted to play Teams. Played two games with a bye and both games I combo’ed turn 2 or 3 for a strong finish.

The Triple Crown! This year at the National Redemption Tournament one player could potentially win 3 categories and go on to create 3 cards!! This is the first time in Redemption we have seen this kind of opportunity! Not to mention the extremely cool winner cards from last year that are fetching a high market value, AND THE TABERNACLE!!! Plus you get 1 copy of The Tabernacle for each category you compete in!! You are practically getting paid to play Redemption! Making it to Nationals makes you a PRO!

If I won all 3 I would like to see a reprint of Love, a card for Hope, and a card for Faith. Faith Hope and Love!! 🙂

What 3 cards would you create if you managed to pull the Triple Crown victory at Nationals??

Be sure to preregister for Nationals and hope to see you there!!

To buy singles, sealed product, and other gaming supplies mentioned, please visit Three Lions Gaming!

By JD

JD loves playing Redemption! On any given day chances are you will find him playing on Lackey. He has played thousands of games with The Guardian, Gabe, ProfessorAlstad, Red, Minister Polarius, MitchRobStew, Jerome, Jbeers, JMHartz, Red Dragon Thorn, Xonathan, and many more fine Redemption players. He started playing Redemption in the year 2000 right around the release of Warriors and had a ton of fun playing with Daniel Huisinga. He got back into the game around the end of 2014 and has been playing competitively ever since. He's placed 1st at Local, District, State, Regional, and National Tournaments in various T1 categories. Catch him on Lackey or join our monthly ROOT tournament today!