Join top Redemption player Luke Marshall as he reflects on the 2021-2022 Redemption season which is one he was particularly involved in.
The Start-
I’m a competitive person. Those that know me probably see me as just a nice guy but just because i’m a nice guy it does not mean that I don’t play to win. In fact everything I have participated in since I was a child compelled me to give me best effort. Trying desperately to be the best I could be at any particular hobby or game. This made me slightly obsessive over some things growing up. For instance when I discovered basketball in the 6th grade I fell in love with the challenge of putting a bouncing ball through an iron hoop. As a result I started practicing 3 hours a day until I graduated as a senior and had become a good basketball player. This same drive is what I took into this season of Redemption. With Jay Chambers moving closer to me in Michigan and the Rotation format bringing a fresh look on the game our small play group there became much more active. I participated in more tournaments and played more Redemption this year than I had since I was a kid. While I was having fun, I will be honest, every time I played I was intending to win. I know this mentality is not for everyone in the community but it is just how I live my life. If I am going to do something I am going to do it to the best of my ability.
Entering the tournament season and I was having a great year. It seemed that I really had Jay’s number this year where he claims I had never beaten him in a tournament before this year. This year I beat him in at least one category in every tournament we attended.
The Stretch-
During the Lackey Grand Prix #3 after the rule change helping tone down the Widow – Life in The Son interaction I stumbled upon a great deck that I would play at Nationals this year. The belief that many people had after Widow got toned down was that it was still very playable just not utterly broken as before. I disagreed, the interaction still seems too good to be true but just needs a little more help now. So I set out to make the deck that could best utilize Widow after the errata so I built my Disciples deck with two goals. 1) Have the ability to get big draws off Widow without making that the main purpose and goal of the deck. 2) Have multiple choices for battle winners to recur with Widow in the late game so that you had so much fire power that the opponent would be overwhelmed. With Matthew being the turn one attack and the following turns being Simon, with Bart pinch hitting when something was going wrong the deck worked like a charm from the beginning. It turns out that you just always have a battle winner in your hand and then you stand a good chance of winning games where you are likely to draw the big two every game. The deck even when unrefined went undefeated against everyone (except Rob Smith aka Demonhunter85 who took me down in a great game in the semi-finals). In fact the only games I lost in a tournament before Nationals (playing Disciple/widow) were when I went off script and played a different strategy (special shout out to randomly playing Jayden with my 100 card angel party deck when he was trying to mill me out.. what are the odds). Overall this was an amazing tournament season and I’m so excited I got play as much as I did and try to win as much as I did.
The Finish-
I was disappointed with my finish at Nationals this year in Type 1-2 player because I think I could have played better. However, I am not disappointed with my effort this year because I got to give it my best shot. I look forward to learning, sharpening skills, and competing again next year in Tennessee.
The biggest take away I learned this year is that other people’s input is vital to showing up at Nationals with a deck ready to preform well. As I was playing and realizing that this was the strategy I would be playing at Nats. I shared the deck with anyone that would ask for it and started receiving feed back from people. This would become an amazing refining process to get the deck to what I believed was its best form. JD Cunningham suggesting sustain counters like The Fallen Star and others suggesting other counters. Cards like Bethlehem where so important to the decks performance this year. However, the most notable changes came at Jay’s Regional tournament after getting to play a great field and taking it down. Josh Potratz asked if he could lay out the deck and analyze it thinking it might be a similar strategy to what he wanted to build for Nats this year. I was honestly hesitant to give up the full list (so close to Nats) but I figured that he’s such a great player and deck builder that I had a better chance to preform well at Nationals with his help then without it. He suggested a few changes and changed up a few things so that the deck ran smoother and more consistently.
When I showed up to Nationals I felt very confident that I had a great shot to be in contention to win the day but I was still a little concerned that I didn’t have a perfect read on the meta. Josh asked to play a test game with what he was planning to play (it was Jeremy Chamber’s circus deck) and we both admitted that the Circus deck was a better turn one but thought that mine would have more chance in the late game of turning a game around and would take significantly faster turns (with the clock being a concern). So Josh decided to switch back to my deck the night before and help me tune it specifically for what we believed the meta would be. We laid it out and debated many individual cards deciding what would be more important and what cards would be needed to get wins. It was so much fun and I believe this allowed me to start Type 1-2 player with my best possible chance to win the day. I started the day out great with a couple wins then I lost to Josh in the card for card mirror after he mind ninja’d me into playing him in rock, paper, scissors to decide who would go first. I am now convinced that he somehow has an advantage in that game. He went first and was able to take the win in that great game. After that game I thought I still had a great chance to place so I was a ready for the second half of the day. Then it happened, I saved my greatest misplay for the time I needed a win most. I was playing Shon Seivers and after winning the die roll I did not check my hand well because I let myself be distracted thinking about other things. I did not see a hero so I said he could go first: it was at that moment that I looked at my hand again and saw my Patmos staring me back in the face! What a terrible blunder as Shon was on circus. He had an amazing turn one getting rid of most of my hand and the game was over as he piloted his deck well on to his victory. I would finish the day at 5 – 3 picking up another loss to Derek in a great game against his Golden calf / Red Warriors deck. Side note: In the future if I am not the aggro deck in the format I will be playing golden calf because It totally shut me down without woes.
Conclusion-
All this to say I had an amazing time playing Redemption this year and hope I get the privilege of being this involved next year as well. Lastly as I reflect on the season is that I wanted to thank the Elder team for making this year a truly memorable one. You did a great job getting everyone excited for Nationals and making wonderful Starter decks (K/L) and an amazing set (GoC). Also thank you everyone that volunteered and helped at Nats allowing me to play. Lastly thank you Gabe for being a wonderful host. You created an event that I was able to attend with my brother and we had an amazing experience.
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