This week’s article will be rather brief, at least compared to what’s normal for me. Last Saturday we had a District Redemption tournament in our area. I’d like to take a moment to share with you a summary of that event.

We had a total of 14 people in attendance throughout the day. For our area that’s on the smaller side of average for a turnout. You never know what you’re going to get around the holidays though. Sometimes people are free and sometimes they have a lot going on. There were a few really experienced players as well as a few very new players and several in between.

T1-2P was the first event of the day. It was won by one of our local players who’s really grown this past year in his understanding and ability to play the game. This is his second win with his Spiritual Warrior (Armor of God) and Romans deck. Second place was a white/purple Gardenciples deck. Who said Garden Tomb decks are dead? Apparently pre-block ignore still works pretty well even with the rule changes from last summer.

T2-2P consisted of our 4 veteran players. It was narrowly won by a judges/Canaanite deck. Second place went to a Daniel deck. The Foretelling Angel makes what that deck is capable of pretty insane!

Teams is a favorite of most of the local players here. Unfortunately I didn’t get a good look at the decks that won the event. I’m pretty sure one was a Gardensiples variant, different than the one that took second in T1-2P.

T2-MP was a grueling experience where players were keeping the opponent’s from implementing their strategies through various counters. In the end a teal/purple/red offense with a brown defense came out on top. The offense implemented some cool tricks I had not seen before.

We closed the day out with a booster draft. We used Apostles, Patriarchs, Kings, Angel Wars, Priests, and Persecuted Church packs. As usual, people who drafted heavy offense won the day, although we ended up with a 2 way tie for 1st. We had a player open an ultra rare Holy Grail and another got The Strong Angel in his draft. For the first time in booster draft I saw a player with 5 special ability Lost Souls in his deck!

One of the players drafted a Drusilla. In the second round he was the only person drawing Lost Souls so everyone was attempting to rescue from him. Drusilla got 6 blocks in a row with her deck discard/withdraw ability! It was pretty amazing!

We all had a really great time. Everyone that was there got to open at least one prize pack. Some players that did not previously own a Dragon Raid promo had one at the end of the day. Players with smaller collections got stacks of new cards. Fun was had by everyone and there were opportunities to practice good sportsmanship.

If you haven’t participated in or hosted a Redemption tournament lately, you should consider doing so. You won’t regret it!

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

By Gabe

Gabe has been playing Redemption since early in 2006. While life has changed a lot since that time, his love for Redemption has not. He hosts a playgroup and assists with the design and development of upcoming set releases and even plays competitively on occasion.