Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Introduction:

Well I am back very unexpectedly. A couple days ago after I posted my Parrying with Moses deck Mr. Hiatus had some very good questions for me on the Redemption discord about my deck especially targeting High Places and Harvest Time being good inclusions for speed. Also Reth kept pushing for The First being included. The First would not work well at all with my defense in Parrying with Moses since that defense is so reliant on meek lost souls for block and Moses would negate The First ruining those blocks since it would be in my land of bondage. That being said I did mention to Reth I did think it was worth testing a different defense that is not reliant on having unity meek lost souls for blocks and including the entire The First combo (Harvest Time, High Places, and The First) within that deck. Well I did that and uncovered a gold mine.

This discovery affirmed to me that transparency is the best route. Sharing a deck build will only lead to good things for the deck builder and the community. I believe this deck below is something special. And I do believe it could be even better so I value any feedback any of you have.

Here is the deck…

Moses Magnum Opus? (50 cards):

1   Son of God (I)
1   The Second Coming (CoW AB)
1   Three Woes (RoJ AB)
1   Mayhem (FoM)
1   Crowd's Choice (GoC)
1   Harvest Time (GoC)
1   Chronicles of the Kings (LoC)

6   Lost Soul Luke 15:15-16 (J)
1   Lost Soul (The First)

1   Egypt
1   Golgotha (GoC)
1   House of Prayer

1   High Places (LoC)

1   The Cross (GoC)
1   Denarius (I/J+)

1   The New Covenant (I/J+)
1   Covenant with David (PoC)

1   Moses (Promo)
1   Pharaoh's Daughter (FoM)
1   Zadok (PoC)
1   Noah, the Righteous / Noah (Rest and Comfort) (LoC)
1   Jeremiah, Hope Bringer
1   Saint Patrick (GoC)
1   Simon, the Zealous / Saint Simon (GoC)
1   Matthew the Publican / Matthew (Levi) (GoC)
1   Captive Priest
1   The Angel of the Winds (CoW AB)

1   The Emmaus Road
1   The Lord's Prayer (GoC)
1   Spirit as a Dove (GoC)
1   Faith
1   Offering Your Son
1   Faith of Samuel (CoW AB)
1   Word of Their Testimony

1   Delivered

1   High Priest Ananias (RoJ AB)
1   Goliath (FoM Promo)
1   King of Tyrus (PoC)
1   Emperor Nero (Promo)
1   Supercilious Scribes (GoC)
1   Foreign Wives

1   The Wages of Sin (FoM)
1   Surreptitious Scheme (GoC)
1   Tenants Kill the Son (GoC)
1   Plot to Kill (RoJ AB)

Reserve:

1   Noah’s Ark (Ark of Salvation)
1   Book of the Covenant (PoC)
1   Covenant of Prayer (RoJ AB)
1   Oath of Purity (LoC)
1   Word of Christ
1   Royal Parade (LoC)
1   Authority of Christ (GoC)
1   Joshua, the Conqueror (LoC)
1   Fire Foxes (CoW AB)
1   Unsuccessful (PoC)

See below for deck summary...

Summary Continued:

This deck is truly a thing of beauty in my mind. The unexpected synergy on the offense between all these characters and the battle winners I am running literally shocks me. Also the fact none of the tutors feel forced but have plenty of characters to be played on in a mixed OT/NT offense that you just would not think would fit together is really quite remarkable. Also every card in this offense works with The Cross active aside from Authority of Christ is very, very good. This feels like the right offense to run in a deck that is trying to power out The Cross on turn 1. I am quite happy with where the offense is at. Being able to pull of The First combo so consistently is an amazing speed boost to this deck.

So how about consistency for getting The First Combo? Just how consistent is this deck in getting to The First Combo? Well there are 9 ways to get to High Places in the deck and 9 ways to get to Harvest Time. So I can get to both just as consistently as I can get to The Cross. And you might say, “well some of those routes require using Delivered to activate New Covenant so what about wanting to activate The Cross?” So? Remember if I activate New Covenant with Delivered and I draw into The Cross with The First Combo I can still activate The Cross since I have not used my one activation on the artifact pile since the other activation was by the ability on Delivered.

I would wager there are actually very few deck builds out there that can get to The First Combo as quickly and consistently as this deck without making a significant sacrifice to offensive strength to be able to somehow squeeze Solomon’s Dream in. I thought through what a build would look like that runs Solomon’s Dream but I do not like what that would do to the offense. You want Emmaus Road to get to Delivered in this deck plain and simple. One alternate route is running ruth meek heroes alongside the meek clay guys I have would allow a shift to Solomon’s Dream and Love Righteousness/Fifth Seal but those characters would just be dead draws really and do not synergize as well with what I am doing offensively. Postexilics work with Emmaus Road and Solomon’s Dream but once again running some Postexilic guys alongside the meek clay guys just does not jive as well with what this offense wants to do and they feel quite awkward. There is a marginal speed advantage with Solomon’s Dream but another big problem is you start losing characters who you can play Delivered on and are going to have to do some suspect stuff like running Silly Women on Defense to have enough characters to play Delivered on if you run Ruth or Postexilic meek characters. Both routes could get to The First combo a bit faster/more consistently but they do not fit as well with the overall purpose of this deck of building around Moses/The Cross.

As far as consistency for being able to play my tutors on characters here are the stats: 6 characters Delivered can be played on, 5 characters The Emmaus Road can be played on, 5 characters The Lord’s Prayer can be played on, 5 characters Offering Your Son can be played on, 6 characters Covenant with David can be played on, 4 characters Spirit as a Dove can be played on, 5 characters Surreptitious Scheme can be played on, and 5 characters The Wages of Sin can be played on. Just as consistent as my other deck was in being able to have characters to play my tutors on. I was shocked that this is the case!

Defense:

So the defense is enough I think. It does not block as well in my mind as the other defense but has some beefy boys that the opponent has to get through backed by negates. Goliath, High Priest Ananias, King of Tyrus, Foreign Wives, Fire Foxes, and Supercilious Scribes to Unsuccesful are solid blocks. Also I have Mayhem+FW as a block option too. It should get the job done.

Plot to Kill and Tenants Kill the Son work with every character in the defense and Tenants Kill the Son can bring Goliath and HPA into the battle for some fun. The defense should get the job done.

Considering:

Noah’s Ark (Ark of Salvation) preferably should be main deck. It is so important to keep Moses on the board. However I just do not know what to cut/move for it. Perhaps some of you could help me with that?

I did cut card draw out with Covenant with Philistia, Covenant with Moses, and Plague of Frogs. I have found I rarely am able to use Plague of Frogs though so I don’t miss that. If I am not fast enough I would probably throw Covenant with Philistia back in since I can cycle Fire Foxes with House of Prayer to draw 2 multiple times off Covenant with Philistia. Plague of Frogs would be next to bring back since it potentially can draw for quite a bit and doubles as a battle winner. Covenant with Moses is a one time draw 2 at best with Moses’ Parents gone so I think it would be last in line to be brought back in.

I thought long and hard about Eternal Inheritance instead of Authority of Christ. It works through the Cross and is fantastic with Simon’s choose the blocker ability. That being said I generally am only going to want to play EI after I have played TSC and SoG because you do not want’t EI to get negated. In that situation I would likely be playing EI when The Cross is deactivated. Authority of Christ in my mind then also will be played with The Cross not active and is more versatile for clearing the board of annoying ECs if I am struggling breaking through my opponents defense. I still would keep Eternal Inheritance in the back of my mind though it for whatever reason Authority of Christ is not proving as useful as I thought.

I should likely have another EE battlewinner or character block in reserve. I struggle with what to cut. Just a Hireling is a nice grab if the first is not on the table with Supercillious. Also an additional negate would be nice to have in reserve to back up my beefy blockers further. I just struggle with space and feeling the offense needs the battle winner support from reserve. If I were not running Book to pair with Zadok that would open things up a bit but I feel Zadok really helps my offense get access to resources fast through Book. I might be off on this though and cutting Book to be able to put another evil card in reserve might be the way to go.

Also I consider having High Priest’s Plot, Lurking, or Stricken over Plot to Kill main deck. Lurking is strong with Supercilious Scribes since you can band to Fire Foxes from reserve and the numbers are low so you just die and protect souls and Lurking interrupts their in battle soul protection. Also Lurking allows for banding to KoT in battle. However, Lurking is risky with Matthew the Publican being prevalent and Michael, Chief Prince being prevalent. The thing though is Plot to Kill has the same issue with Michael, Chief Prince. High Priest’s Plot gets around Michael, Chief Prince but it does not work with Emperor Nero which is a negative. High Priest’s Plot is especially strong with Supercilious Scribes since it allows for a nice block where I get rid of their interrupt or negate from hand and am then protecting evil cards. Stricken is a nice tech against Matthew, the Publican due to its star ability but I like the CBP nature of Plot to Kill on HPA which I feel makes it more reliable and the fact both Wages and Surreptitious Scheme can grab it.

Also I am considering going with Storehouse over House of Prayer. Matthew the Publican is prevalent so the hand protection of Storehouse is quite nice. I have a lot of NT enhancements in reserve though so House of Prayer is much better access.

I would include Golden Calf if I could but I just feel I do not have space for it.

Really great build and deck breakdown! Well done, thank you!
One question: Did you consider to add Escape LS as another tutor/support for The 1st? I always add this one since normally if drawn together with a meek LS if can grab you The First or if drawn together with The 1st it can be used before The 1st to get you the necessary meek LS. If only Escape LS is put in play you can switch it for a meek LS (and maybe still getting HP benefit). - I always add Escape LS to my The 1st package (at least so far).