Can you believe Nationals is coming right up?! I have been so excited for this time since the winter and it’s finally arrived! The meta is raging like a bee hive! Are you going to get your Honey From a Lion with the new Esau the Hunter Regional Promo?
With nearly 30 players from multiple states including National Champions I knew there would be no way to know who was going to win T1-2P. The level of competition is higher than it’s ever been in the East Central region! Luke Marshall who won Booster Draft, Tyler Stevens who placed 2nd in Booster, Daniel Huisinga who placed 3rd in Booster and 1st in T1-Teams with Brian Jones (never surrending a soul without playing Falling Away going 5-0 in all 3 of their teams games) who also placed 1st in T1-Multi, Jay Chambers who placed 2nd in T1-2P and 3rd in T2-2P and Wyatt Marcum who placed 3rd in T1-2P along with many other fine players one of whom, Nic Marshall, placed 2nd at Nationals in T1-2P in 2010. It was awesome to meet some new friends and see our Redemption family here in the East Central Region all excited for Nationals! The Cloud boost was once again amazing, Luke and I had a hilarious moment at our table in Booster where we both had Leviathan and were shouting out laughing “The Fish! The Fish!” Getting autoblocks with this massive 12/12 fish!
Rex Adams is a phenomenal tournament host and for all his accomodations to comfortably room everyone in attendance, many of us stayed up all night after Booster Draft playing games and having fun trading Cloud cards!! I got about an hour and a half of sleep after The Long Day due to the excitement of playing T1-2P in the morning!
After going undefeated at State with my Eternal Inheritance deck in T1-2P (which can be found here – https://landofredemption.com/?p=5176) I was pretty sure with a few modifications it would prove top tier.
1st Place T1-2P Deck at the 2016 East Central Regionals:
Eternal Inheritance
51 Cards
Artifacts/Covenants: 4
Miraculous Handkerchiefs (TEC)
Holy Grail (PC)
You Will Remain
Eternal Covenant
Dominants: 7
Son of God (I) pretty
Angel of the Lord (F)
Christian Martyr (J)
Guardian of Your Souls (Ap)
The Second Coming (Cloud of Witnesses)
Mayhem(TxP)
Falling Away (Women)
Evil Enhancements: 6
Christian Suing Another
Scattered
Disagreement over Mark
Dissension in Antioch
Nebuchadnezzar’s Pride
Hypocrisy (EC)
Evil Characters: 8
The Egyptian Rebel (PC)
Deluders (PC)
The Serpent (Promo)
Simon the Magician (EC)
Philetus (PC)
Judas Iscariot (Pi)
Sapphira (Women)
Hymenaeus (PC)
Good Fortress: 1
Herod’s Temple (Di)
Good Enhancements: 7
Elymas Struck Blind (TEC)
Faith of Moses (Cloud of Witnesses)
Praise from Prison (TEC)
Mercy of James (PC)
Eternal Inheritance (Cloud of Witnesses)
Peter’s Sermon (TEC)
Word of Christ (PC)
Heroes: 10
Peter (TEC)
Jude (PC)
Onesimus (PC)
The Angel of the Winds (Cloud of Witnesses)
Epaphras (PC)
Music Leader (PC)
Claudia (PC)
The Watchful Leaders (Cloud of Witnesses)
Philemon (PC)
Barnabas (TEC)
Lost Souls: 8
Revealer (AW)
Dull (Cloud of Witnesses)
Lawless (Cloud of Witnesses)
Pigs (Di)
Slaves (Cloud of Witnesses)
Hopper (Kings)
Awake (PC)
Thorns (Pi)
Record:
5-3
5-0
5-3
5-3
5-1
Top Plays:
Eternal Inheritance in nearly every game
Game 1
He came out strong with an Attending Angel, but I had a Dull soul so I had an answer. He played Son of God/New Jerusalem for 3, but couldn’t get through and I was able to walk.
Game 2
Turn one he played King Hiram to search for Gates of Samaria. I block with The Egyptian Rebel banded to Sapphira from hand and negated the search + blocked and he never recovered because he couldn’t set up Gates of Samaria with Samaria sites. I rescued a few with Barnabas fishing out souls then he drew into some souls and I had Son of God + The Second Coming and an Eternal Inheritance.
Game 3
He played Nebuchadnezzar’s Pride on Judas while blocking my Epaphras/Philemon band and I removed You Will Remain to add Onesimus to the lonely battlefield for a soul.
He was playing Hezekiah’s Signet Ring, but I was able to easily take it out with Faith of Moses so my searching and The Second Coming would work for the rest of the game.
I paralyzed his Jephthah in territory for 3 while he had 2 souls and let him walk for 3 to prevent him from drawing with Faith of Samuel.
He had Son of God but couldn’t draw Hypocrisy and had already played Christian Martyr and Invoking Terror, so it looked like those were his only ways of getting rid of Jephthah to play his good dominants.
I rescued with low strength heroes and Eternal Inheritance for 5 after he blocked and gave me initiative.
Game 4
Turn one I drew Awake soul to search their deck seeing they have everything you would play the new Confusion with knowing it must be in their hand, so I rescued with low strength heroes like Epaphras, Onesimus, and Jude even though I had out my entire banding chain just to keep Son of God in my deck saying outloud “It just doesn’t make sense does it? Why wouldn’t I band?” As I walked for nearly 3 free souls because he couldn’t get initiative on my heroes and I knew they could get through with a fistful of converts, negates, interrupts, and Eternal Inheritance.
Game 5
I played Epaphras into battle to search and draw with Philemon into my opponents Dull soul to let them search for an evil Enhancement or Evil Character. They searched for the new Confusion, then blocked with The Serpent and tried to paralyze Onesimus. Onesimus was protected, but I Christian Martyr him to make a statement, then played Son of God on the Dull soul to negate the search after he blocked and get a soul since he didn’t have anything else to play on The Serpent to block. It was a pretty intimidating move and after this rescue I could tell the game was picking up momentum.
Auto blocked 6/6 Gideon with Sapphira.
After rescuing a cool soul with Jude because of his numbers I chose Hymenaeus and took out his Hezekiah’s Signet Ring with Faith of Moses. Then played Elymas Struck Blind to underdeck my Hymenaeus and rescue a soul.
I slapped down Guardian of Your Souls and sure enough he was playing Women’s Falling Away. He used Urim and Thummim to look at my hand seeing The Serpent and Christian Suing Another. He was hesitant to rescue because he knew someone would be paralyzed. He decided to rescue with Samuel so I went ahead and paralyzed his Joshua with The Serpent and played Christian Suing Another to get a reveal off Claudia, band to Epaphras, The Watchful Leaders, and draw 3 with Philemon winning the side battle.
He rescues with solo Samuel but had David already in territory indicating to me he was planning to play Samuel’s Edict. I blocked with Sapphira and he played Live Coal for numbers. I played Dissension in Antioch to withdraw Samuel and he played Samuel’s Edict to negate Dissension in Antioch and discard Sapphira which I used Herod’s Temple instead, discarding The Egyptian Rebel and 4 cards off the top of my deck which were not important at that point in the game, then played Hypocrisy to return Samuel to his hand for a block.
On my last turn he waited for me to draw, then played Mayhem to try to set me back with a Foreign Wives block, but I drew into Peter’s Sermon and made a rescue attempt with Jude converting Foreign Wives to clay, regardless of protection. Then before he handed over the 5th soul I dropped my Women’s Falling Away to finish 5-1
Note worthy strategies:
Jude choose the blocker is very, very strong!
Eternal Inheritance is beautiful.
You Will Remain is amazing.
Other thoughts:
There are very powerful banding cards in the current meta. Household Idols, Torn Mantle, and Four Horns can be great cards depending on the type of offense you are running and both of these enhancements can be more effective Scattered alternatives. Hunger is also a very powerful card which can be played first on King Achish or with a black brigade defense running Coliseum, since it has so many interrupts/negates.
It is nearly impossible to know what your opponent may be playing in constructed formats at the beginning of a game! This makes newer lost souls like the Awake Soul, Lawless Soul, and the Revealer very important to your decks going to Nationals! East Central regionals brought many out of state players who have their own unique strategies. I found these lost souls invaluable to knowing what I was getting in to with each game in T1-2P! Nationals will be no different! The more information you can get early game, the better. Awake soul and Barnabas allowed me to scout out several opponents decks to determine what they may have in hand and what I was up against.
East Central Regionals was a wonderful time of fellowship and gathering in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ! Give Christ the glory and praise His holy name! You Will Remain!
Shout out to Gabe for turning me on to this great deck in his High Level Play video with John Earley!
Hope to see you at nationals in two weeks!
Blessings and best wishes always, in Christ,
-John David Cunningham (Karius Vega)
To buy singles, sealed product, and other gaming supplies, please visit Three Lions Gaming!
Justin A.
Awesome job!
How useful did you find Miraculous Handkerchiefs?
Were you concerned with Coliseum making 2 of your EE worthless? I would have considered cutting one of those for Deceitful Sin or Deceit of Sapphira.
John David Cunningham
it’s a pretty versatile artifact. i was using it or you will remain mostly unless they had 1 ec i could take out with grail. eternal cov is more late game/ei $$$
i feel you deceit is definitely on the list of considerations along with some others possibly! in most of my games it seems like i wind up playing the cbn stuff before coliseum shows up
Rex Adams (Spacy32)
I found miraculous handkerchiefs to be amazing in teams and 2 player. It kept my heroes from being discarded by me or anyone else. I could still discard theirs though. Wrath of Satan with it was mean.
On another note some of us stayed up all night.
Benjamin Campbell
I have not been active in tournament play in a LONG time, so it is very interesting to see what is competitive. I appreciate that you were willing to share your deck. I had no idea what a good clay deck would look like. I think Redemption is at a really exciting point with so many competitive decks. Its awesome to see.