Join Chad (CtheTree) for the second part of his article series on his experience in the Lackey Grand Prix tournament series this tournament season. This article includes a tournament report on the final leg of the LGP series which he managed to win and a video of the championship match.
Introduction:
Now with an understanding of the deck I ran in the Lackey Grand Prix #4 being established in my previous article and what it became here is a report of the Lackey Grand Prix #4 tournament itself. I am very pleased with the result.
The Tournament- Lackey Grand Prix #4:
Swiss-
This Lackey Grand Prix did not start well for me. In the first round I lost to Jay Chambers Flood deck 5-4. The game against Jay was close and he definitely played better and deserved the win. He managed to get a reset mid game which definitely helped him to win. I looked at the game as one where the loss did not mean the deck was flawed and was ready to move onto the next round.
In the second round I played Matt Sinclair (Christiangamer25) and lost 4-3 in a timeout loss to his Disciples/Sadducees deck. This loss was highly discouraging to me and I felt it pretty much ruined my chances at making top cut in this Lackey Grand Prix. Still though I felt the deck I had was potentially good but I realized I needed to change some things up. I decided I would keep trying my best in the tournament and even though I was very unlikely to make top cut I figured I would try and do the best I could in the rest of the tournament. After scrutinizing my deck I realized that The First Combo was too inconsistent of a speed engine. When I initially crafted the deck I wanted to include the Widow Combo as a speed engine instead of The First Combo but did not since Ephesian Widow breaks Clement’s unity. But then I realized after my loss to Matt I was missing something: Ephesian Widow ends up back in hand due to the bounce on Life in the Son. At this point I switched to her and cut The First Combo. But then I realized something else: Clement was superfluous. I like him as a hero and the deck is named after him but he was unnecessary. I could do my Peace bands with The Cross up with Disciples and did not really need the FBTN support per se. So I cut Clement. Then, I decided to go with Bereans over The Generous Givers due to their recursion potential, higher toughness for toss wars, and the fact Generous Givers allows my opponent to draw a card. The deck in principle now had all of the strong rescues augmented by The Cross as my version with Clement but now was more consistent and streamlined.
So I moved onto the next round of the tournament round 3 and was facing Rob Smith aka Demonhunter85 running his Disciple/Widow deck. Rob had made top cut in the previous two Lackey Grand Prix’s and was on a roll to say the least. He knocked me out of making top cut in the previous LGP and so I wanted to win against him. My revamped deck performed fantastic and I won against Rob 5-2. My Peace band rescues and Simon shenanigans explained in the deck write up worked great.
In round 4 I got paired with Jayden Alstad. Going into this game I had only beat Jayden once or twice in a legit game where he was running one of his good decks. To say the least I was not high on my chances of winning. Well I managed to beat Jayden 5-4. He was running a version of his Postee’s/Philistines deck that went on to win T1-2P at Nationals this year. It was a well fought game and his Herdsmen of Gerar tech did let him draw a good amount of cards after I drew with Matthew. My strong rescues with Simon and co. though were enough and I pulled off the win. At this point I thought the tournament was over since other LGP tournaments had been four regular rounds and then top cut. Well much to my surprise there was a fifth round!
In round 5 I got paired with Joshua Potratz. Going into this round I realized if somehow I managed to beat Josh I had a good chance at making top cut. However, getting paired in back to back rounds with reigning National champions (Josh being T1-2P champ in 2021 and Jayden T2-2P champ in 2021) I felt my chances were slim. I had only played Josh once before at Nats 2021 in a non-tournament game post Nats. Well as the game unfolded I got the start I wanted and cruised through with my strong rescue package to a 5-2 victory. At this point I knew I had made top cut! I was ecstatic. To go from losing the first two rounds to top cut in a tournament with such a high level of competition I could barely believe it! Also beating in back to back rounds the two reigning National champions for the main constructed categories in Redemption truly is something I would have never thought I would have accomplished.
Top Cut-
Going into top cut I realized I needed to refine my build a bit. The version I ran against Rob, Jayden, and Josh was all in toward supporting my very strong offense and ran Angel of the Lord as a Dominant and had a lost soul package focused on abusing Undesirables which did well for me actually in the three rounds I ran this version of my deck in swiss. I was not running any counters in the deck though aside from The Cross and I realized I really needed to run more interaction since I would probably be facing Widow decks in top cut. In the process I discovered I believe a type of deck build that could have won Nationals if I was able to attend. I ran a large amount of turn 0 interaction in this deck meaning interaction that would work if my opponent went first. I also shifted the deck around to fit counters in so if I went first my opponent would have a hard time coming back. Please read the deck write up above to see what exactly I discovered.
In the semi-final of top cut I played Jay Chambers. Jay beat me 5-4 in the first round with his flood deck but I was fairly certain he would be running a version of the Circus deck his brother Jeremy had crafted. I was aware of what the deck did and my deck was tuned for both Disciples/Widow and Circus. I went first and drew most of my deck. Jay did manage to get a Three Nails reset but I had interaction in hand off Three Nails and stopped him from setting up the Circus play with Numerous as the Stars. I made a significant misplay and was unable to draw with Matthew my next turn. However, as the game played out Jay was unable to get to the Widow Combo with his deck as I Gam’s Speeched his Numerous as the Stars. I eventually drew cards and my strong rescue package sealed the game 5-4.
In the final I knew I would probably be facing the player who had dominated the Lackey Grand Prix series more than any other: JD Cunningham. JD won the Lackey Grand Prix #2 going undefeated and beating Redemption legend John Earley in the final. JD was undefeated in the Lackey Grand Prix #4 going into the final as well. The man had not lost a game in LGP play all season. He was rolling and understood Widow combo decks better than just about anyone else. I had witnessed him play the deck so lightning fast in recorded games it was not even funny. In my mind out of all players this tournament season JD was the most dominant. He dispatched so many top players including Josh Potratz, Jayden Alstad, and John Earley. No one seemed able to stop him. Our game got delayed a bit since I had a youth summer camp and then JD was traveling so we did not play our game after Nats. Seeing that a non-Widow combo deck won Nats in the hands of Jayden and seeing that Jayden and Josh placed 1st and 2nd in T1-2P I realized that I had a shot against JD since I had just beat both of them in the Grand Prix (albeit Josh did not run a widow deck against me in the Grand Prix and he did run one at Nats). I noticed in the deck stats from Nats that only Jayden, Josh, and Jeremy who placed 1, 2, and 3 respectively ran much turn 0 interaction. I realized that I was on interaction tech that no one else ran in the top 8 at Nats. I felt maybe I did have a chance to dethrone the seemingly unbeatable JD…
Well in the game I managed to go first. Had I not gone first though I believe I still would have won. JD did not have a way to Matthew or a way to Widow Combo in his first 8 and I had an interaction soul, Vain Philosophy, and Crowd’s Choice which could get me to additional turn 0 interaction in my first 8. I went first and drew almost my whole deck. JD was unable to get significant counter play and my Peace band rescues cruised through along with Simon shenanigans for the 5-3 win. It was official not only did I make top cut in the Lackey Grand Prix #4 but I managed to win the tournament and hand JD his first loss in the Grand Prix series. In a way this was an alternate National tournament experience for me facing a similar level of competition as I would have at Nationals.
Check out the whole championship game with JD Cunningham with commentary by both of us here:
Reflection-
I learned several lessons from this tournament. First of all I learned to never give up in a Redemption tournament. If you would have told me I would have gone on from losing the first two rounds to winning the whole tournament and beating Jayden Alstad (running the deck he won Nats with), Joshua Potratz, Jay Chambers, and JD Cunningham in consecutive rounds I would have called you crazy. This is truly the greatest success I have had in a Redemption tournament hands down. Jayden, JD, and Josh are all National champions in T1-2P with Jayden being the reigning champ. Jay Chambers is one of the best players in the game and has placed top 3 in T1-2P at Nats before. The turnaround that happened in this tournament is one that was certainly shocking. Lesson learned: never give up.
Secondly I learned the great value in running turn 0 interaction in a Redemption deck. This is what I believe gave me the edge against Jay and JD is the fact I had a good chance of winning if I went second or after a reset from Three Nails. In the game with Jay my high concentration of interaction meant I had a way after he played Three Nails to stop him from comboing. Against JD had I gone second my interaction would have meant I would have been able to stop him from doing much of anything even if he did have Matthew in hand (which he did not). This is something I feel was missed by many players at Nationals this year and Jayden, Josh, and Jeremy were keen to notice it was necessary.
Thirdly I learned the importance of not just thinking something like the Widow combo is enough to win. It is a speed engine folks. I had a solid offense crafted that is unique and my favorite take on the Disciples based offense I have seen yet. I had The First Combo as a supplemental speed engine to get my offense out and shifted to the Widow combo. Honestly I felt many of the Disciples offenses paired with Widow that I have seen were not optimized. A deck needs to be complete and can’t win through a broken speed engine alone.
Fourth, I learned the importance in a speedy deck of running non-artifact counters. Artifact counters like Golden Calf are great but in a speedy deck like this there is a decent chance of drawing into them. I found Babel, Gam’s Speech, Distressed LS, and Crowds LS to be far more reliable since they always worked if I drew into them.
Fifth, I learned that something like the Lackey Grand Prix series is very good for the game of Redemption. We learned the meta better through these tournaments and the high level of competition led to all of us who participated to improve. Thanks Josh Potratz and Jay Chambers for organizing these tournaments.
Sixth, I learned when something broken like the Widow combo exists don’t just throw up your hands and pout about it. Do your best to craft the very best deck you can including that combo or the best deck you can that you think can beat the combo deck. I truly believe this deck I won this tournament with is something special and it is the fruit of many hours of careful deck building. I sure had fun working on this deck and am glad I did not get discouraged by the Widow Combo existing.
Conclusion:
Overall I am proud of this deck build and what it accomplished. I went into Lackey Grand Prix #4 just wanting to make top cut and after losing the first two rounds I thought there was pretty much no way that would happen. To go on and win the tournament was a better result than I could have ever imagined. I hope that this write up on my winning deck build and what I discovered along the way is helpful to you. Also I want to congratulate my fellow champions from this Lackey Grand Prix series: Josh Potratz, JD Cunningham, and Jayden Alstad. Winning one of these tournaments with the caliber of competition in each of them is no easy task and each of those three players are some of the very best players in this game. To be a Lackey Grand Prix champion alongside them is an honor.
I look forward to this next series of Lackey Grand Prix tournaments and hope to see many familiar and new faces competing!
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