what do i need to take?

What is the name of your state? Oklahoma.

Hi everyone. My former landlord has taken me to small claims for damages to rental house. Well, I'm not sure what it is I need to take. He is suing for $2900.00, and I haven't even seen a list of what he is saying was damaged in the house. I know there was some damage, but nowhere near that much. This is a first for me. He is saying that I only paid half of the deposit, but I know I paid all of it. In OK, I looked it up and the landlord is supposed to put the deposit money in an escrow account. I always paid the guy in cash, and there was never any receipts. Also, there was never a lease agreement between us at all. How much will that hurt/help me? How much will that hurt/help him? Thanks for any help everyone.

Obviously, no one can answer whether your case is hurt or helped, but I can safely say that anything you are going to claim that you do not have proof for, is likely NOT going to be helped.

Take EVERYTHING you have, including checks, bank statements (showing cash withdrawals), letters, photos/video of condition when you moved, etc.

Also, it wouldn't hurt for you to take printouts of your state landlord-tenant laws with all the landlord violations highlighted.