This article is a continuation of a recap of my first Nationals. Last time, I talked about my Booster Draft experience. Today, I’ll recap Friday’s event: Type 1 2-Player.

Friday – Type 1 2-Player

Ever since Cloud of Witnesses was released a few months before Nationals, I played so many different decks in preparation for Nationals. I was trying to find the “best deck”. By the time Nationals rolled around, I still hadn’t decided what I wanted to play, and I built my deck in the middle of the night Thursday night. Against my better judgment, I created a new deck I had not played before: A Throne of David/Judges offense paired with a Demon defense. It had a few strong anti-meta cards in it, including Covenant With Death and Household Idols. I wanted the I Samuel drawing engine paired with CBN battlewinners (Samuel’s Edict, Valley of Salt, Authority of Christ promo), and I wanted the stoutness of a demon defense. My offense was not a prototypical I Samuel offense; I did not use any Red heroes except for David the Shepherd, and I included King Jotham because of CWD. I also used Taking Egypt’s Wealth as a second Gold enhancement to play on Samuel, Gideon (J), and Ehud. I figured Gideon’s bulletproofness or Ehud’s choose the blocker abilities would give me a chance to play this potentially devastating enhancement.

Game 1: 5-2 win against Ty Adams

I don’t remember this game well at all, despite telling myself going into it that I wanted to remember the details about my games. I do remember that Samuel/Samuel’s Edict won me a battle. If I remember correctly, Ty played Son of God/New Jerusalem for his 2, but he couldn’t get past my demons with his heroes.

Game 2: 4-5 loss against Dario Villanova

Dario was playing a I Samuel offense paired with a brown splash defense. This game went down to the wire and was a very good game.

I made a crucial misplay on my first or second turn of the game. I had the King Saul/David the Shepherd band from the beginning of the game, which is extremely strong. I band and search out Throne of David. Dario blocks with King Zedekiah. I am holding Counsel of Abigail as my battlewinner. After drawing for Throne, my decision is: Do I play CoA now so that Dario can’t play a CBN battlewinner, and risk a negate? Or do I pass on the play and take the chance on whatever Dario is holding? Fearing Scattered more than anything, I play CoA. Dario responds with Korah’s Rebellion! His block is successful, and I lose two of my best heroes and one of my battlewinners with no redeemed soul to show for it. I won’t claim that this cost me the game, but wow did it hurt.

Dario’s offense was clicking, and on his turn he also had Saul/David and Throne. Dario got to 3 without playing Son of God or New Jerusalem/The Second Coming, and since I was playing the new Falling Away, the game became a race for me.

We had an epic battle in the mid-game. Dario attacks with King Saul banded to David the Shepherd. I block with Prince of this World, holding Christian Martyr in hand instead of playing it before the block. My Foreign Wives in territory lets Dario draw up to the hand limit off of Throne of David. Dario then plays Peace Treaty off of Throne and adds Ahimelek to battle, returning Prince to my hand. I’ve got Gates of Hell in my set-aside area, and I can’t fall any further behind, so I discard it and add King of Tyrus to the battle. This negates Peace Treaty, so Ahimelek retreats to territory (although he can’t be negated). I’m still losing by numbers, so I play Christian Martyr on King Saul. Now it’s David and Peace Treaty (9/10) against KoT (10/12). Dario then plays Counsel of Abigail, underdecking KoT. Fortunately, CoA interrupts the battle, so KoT’s ability is currently interrupted when I get special initiative. This lets me play Lurking and add Foreign Wives to battle! She is protected due to all the drawing Dario has done, and Dario has no way to get past her.

After that, Dario can’t get past my defense, especially once I flip up Household Idols. However, the damage has been done, since he’s already at 3. A few strong draws off of Throne earlier has put Dario quite a ways through his deck. I know he’s digging for his good Dominants. Fortunately, he’s only drawing 3 per turn now. Eventually I’m able to start chipping away with my offense, which is recovering from Korah’s Rebellion. It gets to the point where Dario has about 6 cards left. He draws 3… Then passes the turn. My turn. If I can break through, I can actually win! I don’t need my Falling Away (CoW) on defense, so I use it to convert David the Shepherd to Evil Gold, then choose it to block with my Ehud. Ehud’s First Strike should win me the battle, unless Dario has Lurking or an evil Dominant. I believe he has already played Christian Martyr. I wait to see if Dario has anything to play… And then he plays his own Falling Away (CoW) on Ehud. On Dario’s next turn, he finds the last Dominant he needs and plays them for the win.

Game 3: 4-5 loss against Gabe Isbell

This game demands a separate recap! Look for it in my next article.

Game 4: 3-5 loss against Josh Potratz

Josh was playing Teal Priests paired with Orange Demons. I got to witness first-hand the power of Melchizedek in a Teal deck. Every turn, when Josh attacked, he would search his own deck for a Lost Soul so that he could draw 1 with Melchizedek. Also, Melchizedek’s conversion protection for Josh’s priests was huge. I had Corrupted and Falling Away (CoW) early on, but I couldn’t use them. I think I dumped them to Josh’s Sinning Hand during one of my rescues.

In the end, Josh just got to 3 too quickly. With both of us using demon defenses, things got really interesting as our territories developed. Large demon bands were threatening every block. However, this favors the person in the lead. I couldn’t make enough blocks and Josh drew his deck too quickly for the 5-3 win.

Game 5: 5-3 win against Tammie Campbell

Now that I’m sitting at 1-3 with a -1 differential, the pressure is off, so to speak. Top-cut is basically out of the question. Tammie was playing a I Samuel offense paired with Philistines on defense. This is a tough deck to play against. But it appeared Tammie was not too familiar with it. I think she made a comment about her son building the deck for her. I took the time to explain how certain cards worked and how she could use some of her cards to her advantage during the game, including a few instances where it was to my detriment. She was very thankful for the pointers and we had a very enjoyable game.

Game 6: 2-5 loss against Jon Masters

John was playing a BoM offense and a Philistine defense. He rolled right over me in this game. He had an early Moses who did most of the rescuing. I needed to draw with my offense to get enough fuel to deal with his Moses and Philistines, but the drawing just wasn’t there. I had an early King Jotham, who is fantastic against Philistines – unfortunately, Goliath wouldn’t let him stay in battle. It seemed that every battle I’d play an enhancement, and then Jon would play one, and I wouldn’t have a second.

Game 7: 5-3 win against Patrick Chaverri

Patrick was playing a Genesis offense with a Philistine defense. Patrick was using the old Joseph that makes his enhancements CBN. My defense drew well this game, and I was able to absorb the Joseph enhancements while still finding ways to make the rescues unsuccessful. One thing that helped was Patrick getting Goliath in play. I used Ehud to abuse Goliath – I’d choose Goliath with Ehud, then replace Ehud with the appropriate hero. King Jotham let me play a CBN Valley of Salt or Counsel of Abigail against Goliath. I also used Ehud to win a battle by choosing a converted hero to block. The hero was converted with either Falling Away (CoW) or Corrupted, I can’t remember which. Either would have worked since Patrick wasn’t playing Brown. In the end, I got the 5-3 win to bring my record to 3-4 with a 0 differential.

My next article will cover Game 3 against Gabe Isbell. I’ll wrap up with a 4th article on Teams after that.

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

By JoshH

Josh has collected Redemption cards since the original unlimited booster packs, but has only been playing Redemption competitively since 2010. He has fallen in love with pretty much every strategy game ever introduced to him. When Josh plays Redemption, he tries to find and build creative decks that are outside the mold of the current popular decks.