Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I’ve had Redemption cards for as long as I can remember. My Grand parents got them for me and my brother when we were young just before we moved to Pennsylvania. After living in PA for a few years I was hanging out at my friend’s house and noticed that he had some cards on his floor. That was when Jerome Beers and I started trying to figure out how to play. At first we played way wrong, from having 100% illegal decks to shuffling the discard pile when we decked out, it was a mess and fun to think about. Since then we have gotten Jerome’s Brother to start playing (Josiah Beers) and have a small but fairly competitive playgroup here in Hanover PA. From the start of my playing I’ve played the same type of deck, Sons of Jacob/Egyptian. Jerome and I started traveling for tournaments and Jerome found success from the start. It seemed like every tournament we went to he was at the top table competing for 1st. I was not so fortunate typically finishing toward the bottom. But after years of playing against Jerome and Josiah and tweaking my deck over time I started finding Success. Mostly at the smaller tournaments but it was a start. Then I had the opportunity to go to nats in Knoxville Hosted by Chris F. years ago (I don’t remember what year it was). That was one of the most fun tournaments I had been to. I played really well early in t1-2p but ultimately lost a few games toward the end and missed placing by a good bit as I remember. The next nats I went to was in Minnesota (I Think) when Early Church was Released. I was lucky enough to Get to top cut that year in t1-2p and Ended up Winning t1-Multi. After that year Dane M. decided to stop Playing and he had hosted most of the tournaments that I had been going to. So I ended up not getting to many tournaments for a while. I don’t remember the year but I ended up getting a weekend off and it coincided with NY States Hosted by Jonathan Greeson and Convinced my wife to go. I want to say it had been a year or 2 since I had played but had gotten the newer cards and was able to update my deck. I want to say that was the year CoW came out. I ended up have a great tournament and got to meet even more amazing people from Jonathan, to Ben, and Al. also John Michaliszyn was there who I knew from playing at Creation Fest. I decided to attend OH states Hosted by Josh that year and had another fun tournament and played really well again. I decided to attend NE regionals that year hosted by John Michaliszyn in CT and had even more fun and meet even more great people, Other Charles, Emanuel, and more (Sorry for not listing everyone, Im horrible with names). I have gone to NE Regionals every year since and OH the next 2 years and was able to make it to Nats again for the 3rd time last year in Knoxville again and missed top cut by 1 game (Lost to John E. in last round). In all this time I’ve played the same deck with updates as sets have come up. Here is that most recent iteration of it pre-LoC and Ignore rule Change.

Total – 50 deck 10 Reserve

Doms - 7
Angel of the Lord
Falling Away (CoW)
Mayhem
Shipwreck
Son of God
The Second Coming
Three Woes

Lost Souls – 8
Darkness
Hopper
Imitate
Lawless
Negate Band
Punisher
Wanderer
Wicked

Arts/Forts/Sites/DAE - 7
Endless Treasures
Covenant with Adam (PoC)
Bethlehem (Promo)
Pharaoh’s Throne Room
Storehouse (Promo)
Egypt (PoC)
Seven Year of Plenty

Heros – 8
Benjamin
Enoch (CoW)
Jacob (CoW)
Joseph (CoW)
Melchizedek (CoW)
Rachel (FooF)
The Three Visitors
Zebulun

Good Enhancements – 5
Faith Among Corruption
Faith of Isaac
Faith of Sarah
Joseph Before Pharaoh (LR)
Well Reopened (TeXP)

Evil Characters – 10
Egyptian Magicians
Grain Tenders
Outsiders (Black/Gold)
Messenger of Satan (EC)
Pharaoh’s Baker
Taskmaster (FoM)
The Amalekites’ Slave (LR)
The Deceiver
The Dreaming Pharaoh
The Murdering Pharaoh

Evil Enhancements – 5
Egyptian Horses
Failed Objective
Swift Horses
The Wages of Sin
Wonders Forgotten

Reserve – 10
Judah (TeXP)
Abraham’s Descendant
Forgiveness of Joseph
Foreign Wives
Uzzah
Paying Taxes
Enslaved by Egypt
Unknown Nation (PoC)
Rain Becomes Dust
The Gates of Hell

I have won everything from Locals to Regionals with this deck with minor tweaks. If you have any question about certain cards, ask and I will explain why they are in here. Since the ignore rule change this deck has gone way down in ability but has still performed well at the few locals I’ve been to. But after at least 10 years of playing variations of this I am currently trying to find something else to play that is as much fun to play for the first time.

Have you ever tested with Reverance and Awe?

With 3 main deck targets (Egypt, Bethlehem, Storehouse) I think it's a great card for setting up extremely fast.

Perhaps sliding Throne Room to Reserve since that's not really a card you need in the early game could give you room for R&A (though admittedly that makes Egypt your only option for grabbing Throne Room). Well Reopened might be another option to cut -- you sacrifice the option to D1 but you gain the option to get Storehouse faster which should usually offset the loss of the D1.