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I started an article a couple months back about why I don't like Garden Tomb (even though I have used it too).  I recently wrote a piece about all tournament decks looking the same to me (but having only played for 14 months or so many said there's more variety now than ever).

Now I want to directly address the deck that I'm seeing so often now.  Maharai bands to Claudia bands Ethiopian Treasurer and then proceeds to draw 8-9 cards, OR Claudia bands to Simeon bands to Jacob (prophet) bands to COTH (also prophet) and its by the numbers except banding .  Throw in first fruits and pentecost to set aside and immediately draw 3-4 cards.  Throw in Hur + Gifts of the Maji to draw even more cards.  Basically I'm seeing decks that with the right draw of cards can have their 50 card deck drawn out in 5 or so turns.  Basically its all about getting the dominants before your opponent does, and creating banding chains so large that nothing can stop them.  Throw in some cannot be negated battle winners on offense and defense (a small defense), and there you go.

I know the 16 cards at one time rule was meant to slow this down.  Did it work?

More importantly, do I have to make a speed deck now (and I do have all the needed cards except a couple cheapies) just to compete? 

If not, how do you stop it?

Artifacts - Any defensive artifact is fighting a losing battle, in my opinion.  Unholy Writ, Household Idols, Asherah Pole, Confusion of Mind and Golden Calf, Darius' Decree are all vulnerable to DON or captured ark being played before the rescue attempt is made (Darius' Decree is the exception and is fun when it works).  Also, I don't know of a way to protect these "evil" artifacts from discard like you can with Glory of the Lord on temple artifacts.  Do I need to have all 6 of these (and others I have not thought of) in my deck?

Sites - I admit that sites MIGHT slow "speed" down a little.  But with "cannot be negated" Hur forcing me to draw seven cards and Mayhem now making me draw 6 more, site lockout is suffering.  You also have the hopper LS, Am Slave, and Revealer LS making it hard for site lockout (and probably more that I have not thought of).  And of course your opponent will likely have an Ends of the Earth, Dragon Raid, Promised Land, etc in their deck.  Keep in mind they also have many different brigade colors.  There are some great anti-site enhancements, but in a FBTN battle how can you play them?

Evil Characters/Enhancements - Again, making the battle FBTN except banding makes Uzzah, KOT, etc, worthless.  Naaman and others like him are helpful because of their Cannot be Negated stuff, but it makes them a huge dominant magnet too (which Torment will not save them from).

Dominants - Who do you target?  I assume you Martyr COTH, but a well timed Brass Serpent or Chariot of Fire will have him back pretty soon.

One of our younger local playgroup members asked me earlier this week, "What can you do against speed?", and I really didn't have a good answer for him.  I refuse to make the same deck myself on principal and wanting a little more of a personal touch in my decks.  So those of you that have come up with the strategy to defeat "Speed", could you please share with the rest of us how you did it?

Let me conclude by saying that I do respect and admire the players that use these speed decks, and I get along very well with these people as they are just as friendly as every other Redemption player I know.  So please no one take any of this as a personal attack against your play-style.  I'm just tired of losing to this type of deck and I'm seeking the advice of other wiser and more experienced players, and I think this forum is the proper place to seek this guidance.

Thank you all for your understanding and your help.

Note: This response is over the 5000 character limit, so this is post 2 of 2.

Also, I don't know of a way to protect these "evil" artifacts from discard like you can with Glory of the Lord on temple artifacts.

Speed will rarely use LUG or other discarders, so I tend to only worry about Captured Ark and DON. Just activate Lampstand, and multiple other artifacts. You may just have to grin and bear it, though. Usually artifact manipulation doesn't play a huge role in the game. (Remember: The 2009 2nd place nationals deck did not include DON)

Do I need to have all 6 of these (and others I have not thought of) in my deck?

No, no artifacts are required. Although, I tend to use DD, Writ, Lampstand, and COM often and they tend to help more times than not.

There are some great anti-site enhancements, but in a FBTN battle how can you play them?

You can create side battles. I believe that Philistine Territory Enhancement steals sites. OR, you can make sure the battle isn't FBTN (IE: Holy of Holies, Confusion of Mind, etc).

Site Decks are very tough against speed it seems like. Sure, I make you draw souls, but I can't make you draw them fast enough, and with speed I like to rescue a soul every turn. Speed decks also tend to be small, so I rarely get more than 2-3 access cards in my deck.

Evil Characters/Enhancements - Again, making the battle FBTN except banding makes Uzzah, KOT, etc, worthless.  Naaman and others like him are helpful because of their Cannot be Negated stuff, but it makes them a huge dominant magnet too (which Torment will not save them from).

If your having trouble against FBTN speed, add Holy of Holies, COM, etc. The CBN characters are great, and waste your opponent's dominants. Make sure to save your dominants for the characters giving you trouble, and DON their Chariots if they flip it up (I've never seen Brass Serpant in a speed deck outside my own). You'll have 'em gasping for air .

Dominants - Who do you target?  I assume you Martyr COTH, but a well timed Brass Serpent or Chariot of Fire will have him back pretty soon.

Most have Chariot's, but I've never seen Brass Serpant in a speed deck aside from my own. I don't really like either cards in speed decks, if my opponent has been able to kill more than one of my characters (CM) I've failed my objective.

So those of you that have come up with the strategy to defeat "Speed", could you please share with the rest of us how you did it?

I find the most effective way to beat speed is just to play well. If your deck is solid and you don't make any mistakes, it'll be a struggle for both of you (unless the draws are uneven ).

Let me conclude by saying that I do respect and admire the players that use these speed decks, and I get along very well with these people as they are just as friendly as every other Redemption player I know.  

You wouldn't get along with me. I'd throw snow balls at you and then draw 3 more cards. Yeah, and then I'd shout "Aww, lost soul!" to get you excited (beings you'll finally be able to attack me) only to throw the hopper at you. I'm mean like that  

Consider what the speed deck is.  Consider how it chooses to play the game.  Consider what it must do to win.

Once you know how a deck plays, you know how best to counter it.

The best way that I have found to counter a speed deck is simply this:  Block Rescue attempts.

No matter how you slice the game, a player must make at minimum 3 successful rescues in order to win a game.  There are only 2 Doms that allow for automatic rescues, those being SoG/NJ.

The plan for a speed deck is to simply draw/search every card in their deck out and get to their power cards as fast as possible.  They don't care about having LS in play, as they are primarily trying to beat you faster that you can beat them.

What you really need to do is not play their game.  By changing simple strategy around, you can place the Speed deck on its heels.  And there are many ways to do this.

Egyptian deck discard is one way to do this.  With High places in the format, you need to consider things that you can do on your turn that were not possible before.  One card I really like in Evil Gold is Seeminly Insignifigant.  By playing it with High Places, and playing it on your turn, by not making a rescue that turn, you can place a card from their hand on their deck, and then discard the top 2 cards, getting the card from hand plus an additional.

Another way is to make it so that they cannot rescue at all, via capture and removing all their heroes.  Most speed decks do not have a way to recover their characters once they are in a LoB or removed from game, and without heroes, they cannot make those three rescues to win the game.  Grey, Evil Gold, and even black/brown work well in this regard.

Most of these decks that run CotH, a great fortress addition to a deck would be Trap of the Devil.  Whenever your opponent hits 14 offense in battle, your evil card abilities cannot be prevented, allowing you to do some major damage.

These are just a few different ways, and will probably start writing up an aritcle on it.

Back in the day, my Heroless deck rarely if ever lost to a Speed deck. I played several, and most of the time it went like this:

Opponent draws out all of their power cards. Opponent uses all of their power cards in futile RA's (maybe 1 or 2 successful ones) vs. a huge defense. Opponent has no power cards left, and no way to get past a bunch of huge EC's.

I convert an EC to a purple hero. I discard all of their few EC's with AoC. I heal my hero as necessary. I walk through for all necessary rescues.

It was amazing how well it worked.

That said, having a sizable defense is the best way to counter speed in my opinion. Otherwise, stalling tactics like self-capture/Raider's Camp, use of the 2-liner, and ways to hide available LS's can be useful, though most speed decks have ways to get around those. Also, having a continual onslaught of attacks yourself to overwhelm the usually small defense of the speed player can often work. It just depends on who has LS's available.

I agree though. Cards like Mayhem and Darius' Decree can certainly help against speed, and can also be very useful in other situations.

I stop speed by building a faster speed deck.

Speed can be countered a number of different ways. One thing you might want to try is sometimes not to block your opponent( I know this sounds crazy) when you don't get the first initiative.(this is because many times when you block you're not going to be able to stop a good speed deck on offense and you many times open up the door for drawing and letting them set up their deck if you give them initiative) One defense that combats speed is orange(it many times gets initiative and ends the battle without any trouble+ Gates of Hell makes it a very good against speed) I'll post later more

I stop speed by building a faster speed deck.

I nominate this for post of the week. Que music!!!
I think if you hate a deck type, make your deck kill that type. How much fun is it to own someone who usually wins? Very much fun. Like savoring a snifter of cream soda

Just keep forcing them to shuffle... and shuffle... and shuffle...

Whats FBTN??? I see it a LOT and can't figure it out

WOW!! LOL! Thanks!

we don't play plus, my type-2 decks suck. but that'll change!

I hope so.  I'd be disappointed if I drove clear to Austin to play against a "sucky" deck.

Speaking of T2 decks, I have a new one I would like to test if anyone is interested 

...I don't like Garden Tomb...all tournament decks looking the same to me..."What can you do against speed?", and I really didn't have a good answer for him...

Wow, you take on TGT, proliferation of deck staples, and speed all in the short time you've been here.  You are welcome to sit at my table anytime

I agree with the good advice of others in this thread.  I really don't see too much problem from speed decks in T1-2p anymore as long as you have a strong defense.  However, since not enough people play with a strong defense in T1-mp, speed is nigh unstoppable there.

I used to beat rawrlolsauce on a regular basis remember  and guess what guys and gals I have renounced my speedy ways and my tournament deck is almost more defense than offense  and it has beaten many a speed deck (21-1 yays)

you won't have the chance. Sauce beats me too fast 

But then Isabel can play Gabe first round and beat him so you can play Gabe !

(Oh, wait. Are we still talking about type 2?)

Gabriel (wa) is a great card against speed because you can knock out a few of their super can't be negated battlewinners, which will lengthen the game for you giving you the advantage. Speed is fast and potent, but small size (50 cards) means it usually won't be able to overcome losing it's battlewinning enhancements. Speed wants a short game, and if you can slow it down with many of the above mentioned counters, you will have the upper hand. Gabriel is also versatile against other deck types.
As was mentioned above, if you want to defeat speed, playtest it alot and figure it out so then you will better understand its weaknesses and then expolit them.
As far as the 16 card limit, I have not seen it really negatively impact the modern speed/aggro decks, but it does mess with the older original versions that used to draw the entire deck in a turn or 2. The limit also helps impact the massive card drawing that type 2 saw in clift/gabe's sin in the camp deck, where the card drawing would quickly setup the lockdown and game over.
High priest's plot can be alot of fun, too. 

I didn't see the artifact mentioned, but there's an artifact called Gift of the Magi... when my friend plays speedy, if it's out, I'm drawing as much as he is as fast as he is.  It's kinda pointless... the game isn't so dramatic when we're both doing the same thing.

the hand size was made to stop speed camp in tyoe 2. 

Also, when playing brown, I'll sometimes throw Broken Cisterns into the defense. It serves two purposes for me.