Cactus Game Design Message Boards

This deck won SE Regionals (with a few tweaks since Regionals) and helped bring me to 4th place at Nats to secure my spot in top cut. Unfortunately, I lost my top cut game to the Angel party deck run by Josh P. (Kevinthedude), which caused my final ranking at Nats to be 7th place.

The deck is called Frankenstein, or Frankenstein’s Monster, due to the offense being patched together with heroes that don’t typically go together but ended up being a monster of a strong offense. Most of the heroes have large numbers too (12 is somewhere in most of the heroes’ strength and/toughness). The defense is also full of monsters (Leviathan, Behemoth, etc) and scary animals.

I wanted to use Job but not rely solely on him. And since WwC is a no-brainer add-in to bring out my good doms I wanted her in it. But I wanted to limit the humans in the deck so Job’s Faith and Unthwarted would work when I needed them to, so I used Mighty Warrior (for the toss ability) and Hope, since both are symbolic. But I ended up cutting Hope and Joy and Peace from Reserve because I simply did not need them as the offense worked so well without those cards.

Thomas (Ap) was an idea I had because his enhs are CBN, and since there were some good blue enhs that have been released recently that are not specific to Genesis heroes I added him in for the Strong CBN battle winning he provides. Then I had the idea to add in Reassuring Angels to tutor Thomas and give him clay in addition to blue, which means he could play the other enhs in my deck, making them CBN as well. This turned out to be the most powerful hero/combo in my deck and resulted in many battles, souls, and games being won. So between Job, WwC, and Thomas, I typically won many games within three to four turns.

With such a variety of heroes and enhs that typically are specific to those heroes, I used IaC to help get out who I needed when I needed, and GWT at Tyler Stevens’ recommendation (I wasn’t familiar with it as I never used it in my previous decks), which proved to be such a great card for this offense. Thanks, Tyler!

In regards to the defense, since I was using Job I had Behemoth and Leviathan in it, I figured I would just keep it simple, so I eventually went with a crimson defense with a focus on animals. I found this to be a common defense at Nats and was often mirrored with my competition’s defense. Nothing too special to mention about it; the highlight of the deck is the offense.

Many asked why I used Harvest Time. The reason was I was guaranteed not to be soul droughted (with Ends and Awake/Imitate combo helping as well). And just in case someone used SSS or DoU, I would be able to most likely win the battle. And, WwC could get it out easily. Many casual games I played I won three souls in one fell swoop with WwC using HT (SoG/TSC/HT). HT worked so well for me in the dozens of game I played I opted to keep it in the 7th dominant slot.

There is a lot more I can say about this deck and why I chose certain cards to be in it and the Reserve, but I won’t take up more space; I’m sure you all can see the nice combos in it. I’ll answer any specific questions you all may have instead.

Overall, I’m not really a meta guy. I like building decks that are either opposite meta and/or are just fun to create and play.

Enjoy playing and tweaking the deck!

Doms
SoG
TSC
AotL
3W
CM
FA (CoW)
HT

LSs
Imitate
Open Hand
Dull
Escape
Awake
Forsaken
Wicked

Arts/Covs/Curses
I Am Creator
CoP
YWR
Great White Throne
Captured Ark

Forts/Sites
Ends
Coliseum

DACs
Behemoth
Leviathan
Firefoxes
Second Bowl
Fifth Seal / Justice Seekers

Heroes
Job
WwC
Thomas (Ap)
The Mighty Warrior
Angel of Might
Reassuring Angels
Four Living Creatures
AotW

GEs
Abe’s Servant to Ur
Blood of the Lamb
Overcome!
Faith of Moses’ Parents
Sword of the Spirit

ECs
Simon the Magician
Nebuchadnezzar
The Deceiver
Lions
Coliseum Lion
The Serpent

EEs
Wages
Hypocrisy
Deceitful Sin
Scattered
Invoking Terror
Dream
Lurking

Reserve
Foreign Wives
Foreign Spearman
Enoch
DoU
Great Image
Fire from Heaven
Angelic Guidance
Job’s Faith
Unthwarted
Faith of Daniel

I love these types of decks 

Couple questions...

How did running Coliseum and Scattered/Fire Foxes work out?

Did you find Mighty Warrior to be an effective rescue option?

Was Enoch simply there for the anti-LS drought?

It has thus far been the most fun deck I’ve created and played.

Great questions. So with Coliseum I typically either held it in my hand if I had Scattered or FF and waited for my opponent to trigger either Scattered’s or FF’s ability if I knew he was about to do so, or played Scattered or FF prior to Coliseum coming out of deck. Most of the time I ended up playing Scattered and/or FF first so it wasn’t an issue. Other times I would either Woes my Coliseum (or my opponent would) or would just put it out knowing it would do more harm to my opponent than for me to use Scattered or FF. Ironically, in most of my Nats games I never drew Coliseum.

TMW worked pretty effectively in a few games I’ve played. His toss is the boss. I only used his ability for that as I didn’t have any Isaiah or OT red cards (except IaC). It worked best knowing my opponent’s hand. And seeing that he didn’t have CM or other viable defensive options I would just use him for the rescue and typically win (FA doesn’t work on him either).

Yes good observation about Enoch. He was there as the Hail Mary in the event that I was down a soul or two, and my opponent didn’t have any out and I couldn’t pull one for some reason, and I still had not used SoG or TSC, I could just use CoP to get him out and rescue him. I never had to do that though. He was a recent add in.

I will have to try this out since it looks way different than anything I'd build, but it looks like the deck is best as a sort of surprise, something that won't work if the opponent has played it before or already knows how it works. It is interesting for sure. Seems neat. 

The first thing I can say is that the lack of 24 Elders shocks me. Seems like a natural fit in every way.

Thanks.

In the first version I did have 24E in it but after playing several times 24E simply did not make the cut. It also adds in another human, which negatively affects Job’s enhs.