First off Brian and I were just going to play judges but then Jay informed us of the fact protected Gideon can now be CM‘d or fell away with the new protection ruling. 😮 😉 (editor’s note: inside joke, don’t try this at home)
Josiah’s Deck 50
Good Dom’s: 2
Arts: 2
Forts: 1
Heroes: 10
Peter (I/J)
GE’s 7
Evil Dom’s: 5
Falling Away (Wo)
Evil Characters: 5
King Rehoboam (crimson one)
EE’s 5
Neutral: 5
King Saul – mostly Hero
Fire Foxes – Always an Evil Character
Lost Souls: 8
Ls Hopper
Ls Wanderer
Ls Escape
Ls Imitate
Ls Dull
Ls FbtN
Ls Humble
Ls 3liner
Reserve: 10
Good:
Evil:
Outsiders (crimson/brown)
Outsiders (black/gold)
Neutral:
Brian’s Deck 50
Dom’s: 7
Guardian of Your Souls (RoJ)
Falling Away (CoW)
Lost Souls: 8
Ls Dull
Ls Imitate
Ls FbtN
Ls Hopper
Ls Forsaken
Ls Wanderer
Ls 3liner
Ls Escape
Heroes: 11
Peter (EC)
GE’s: 8
Covenants: 2
Neutral: 3
EC’s: 8
EE’s 3
Reserve: 10
Outsiders (brown/Crimson)
Brian and I decided we would be teammates pretty much immediately after our 3rd place finish last year. We felt like we had unfinished business to take care. Even though we knew we would be teaming up we failed to even flesh out basic deck ideas until Friday Night/Saturday Morning of the teams tournament.
We started working on our deck ideas around 9pm Friday night and couldn’t decide what to do. We were debating TToD, BoM, Judges, Music/Martyrs and even had some slight discussion about sharing the Broken Covenant in Pithom.
Around 11pm we had only slapped together some shoddy decks and were beginning to feel the drain of the weekend. My brain was exhausted and I was tapping out. Then JD showed up, still gleeful and almost giddy from his t1-2p championship he went on an hour long rant about how we should play The Woman with Child because it will win in 5 minutes. 😉
It was now midnight and JD went off to bed. Brian and I still felt lost. I finally said to Brian why don’t I run what I built and you run what you built. Who says teams decks need to be identical. This would give us 2 styles of offense and 2 styles of defense.
Brian asked me “Are you just checking out and cashing it in?” My midnight brain knew I didn’t like the decks but my tiredness overwhelmed me. I said “No, this is a good idea”. 5 hours later I woke up at 5am. I knew the decks weren’t good enough and I hopped in the shower. While showering I began to realize that if we had bad decks we would be stuck playing a category all day where we had no chance to even compete, let alone place. This was unsettling, I hopped out of the shower got dressed and went to wake up Brian.
“Brian, wake up. How do you feel about our decks? Are they good enough?” He groggily woke up and stated “Yeah, they’re fine” and he went back to bed. At this point I figured even though the decks weren’t ready at least Brian wouldn’t be able to solely blame me for whimping out the night before. (Since he was tapping out that morning.)
By the time I walked back down stairs, I heard Brian’s voice from balcony. “We have to play these decks all day so I change my mind, lets work on them”. I literally laughed out loud. (Sorry if my deep chuckle woke any of you up at 5:45am that morning.)
Brian and I made several key changes to our decks.
1. We each added one of the 1/1 kings of Israel to our defense so King Amaziah would have several different brigade EC’s to choose as the blocker.
2. We added Deluders to my defense to enhance CM and FA (CoW) while giving Brian a CtB option by adding Jude.
3. We decided that teams games timeout way to often. We figured a way to speed it up was to forgo Lost Soul abilities for the Fbtn LS and the NT Exhanger to try and get it out as fast as possible.
4. I believe this was also the time which we put faith if David into brian’s deck which was so clutch for us in 4 out of 5 rounds.
5. We added King Zimiri to my reserve to have a stopper for Michael+TSA+Heavenly Temple.
By this time we were at deck check in time so we went for it.
Game 1 Jayden and Justin 3-4 timeout loss. They played the big 2 and we did not. Both teams felt that if they would’ve clocked the other team, they would’ve won out right. None the less is was brutal round 1 matchup.
Game 2 Noah and Issac 5-2 win for Brian and I. I don’t remember a ton of what happened in this game. I think Brian and i waited to draw into Issac’s Music leader for awhile but when we got a lead we felt it was worth drawing into it.
Game 3 Kye and Aiden 5-0 win for Brian and I. I forget what happened exactly but I know Kye has some excellent gamesmanship skills and got me on tilt at one point. Thankfully when I swapped to my Gomer instead of Foreign wives I was able to band to my Nebuchadnezzar and come up with a block. Brian helped me balance out and we were able to roll on in that game. Kye and Aiden were definetly underrated and different draw could changed that game drastically.
Game 4 Nathan and Martin 5-2 win for Brian and I. We knew this game was going to set up the final stretch of the tournament. Whoever won this game was going to be set up to control their own destiny. Nathan and Martin had beaten Jayden and Justin in a 3-2 timeout in the previous round. Brian and I knew an outright win put us in 1st. Martin and Nathan knew a win in any form for them would set them up in a solid 1st place lead. If I remember correctly the game had several really good plays but the game ended when Martin blocked me with the Deceiver to Uzzah. TToD triggered and I played council of Abigail to interrupt and underdeck Uzzah. Thankfully Martin and Nathan forgot the gates of Hell in Martins set aside area and they didn’t use it to add to the battle. Granted I still had Valley of Salt and Not alone in my hand but who knows what happens when a battle continues.
Game 5 Jesse and Seth 5-1 win for Brian and I. Seth had more defense in his deck then we saw from any other deck in teams. That said he was definetly an aggressive partner and decided to block most of the rescue attempts. Jesse had better options at times but Seth just wanted to keep blocking. I commend Jesse for his willingness to help another player learn and play teams.
I think the best none dominant card in both Brian and I’s deck was Faith of David. Adding to battle on either side and giving Brian a chance to use my King Amaziah to CtB after he got blocked was crazy good. It was also good because people often negated YWR forgetting Faith of David still gave us an ATB ability.
Thanks to everyone who played, worked at, judged and hosted! It was a great tournament!
Josiah and Brian (but mostly Josiah because Brian didn’t give me any thoughts on this write up, except to crack a joke on Jay.)
To buy singles, sealed product, and other gaming supplies mentioned, please visit Three Lions Gaming!
Brian Jones
I figured since I carried you through Nats, you could at least carry me when it came to this article. Lol
Jay Chambers
Gee thanks guys.
Ironisaac
Id say that our game against you guys was probably one of our toughest games. Not letting us use our music leaders was a pretty big stopper for a while. Loved your decks though, they worked amazing together!
Josiah Beers
Just like the deck I built for you (Brian) that carried you to a 2nd place finish despite your fumbling? 😉
Your welcome Jay! 😉
Brian Jones
You giving advice is far from you building. If I use your logic, I built your deck since I gave you advice on abbadon. We all know what happens next, spoiler you fumble and come third. Mic drop 🎤