Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I play majority type 2 but I like to dabble in T1 from time to time to keep me an honest man. After talking to pretty much every top player at nats about their Throne deck, playing my own version in T2, and seeing what worked in my games and what won in T1, here is my take on a T1 Throne. It is very, very fast and I do not feel like it has a dead card in it. It is 49 cards, I could either add The Emmaus Road or A Soldier's Prayer.

Wicked
Lawless
Exiles
Hunter
Darkness
Prosperity
Complacent
Remnant

FA Womens
Mayhem
3W
CotK
SoG
TSC
GoYS

BotC

Behemoth
Leviathan
The Great Fish
King Jehu
Manasseh
Solomon

Delivered

Profane Daughters
The Lying Prophet
Stubborn Heifer
The Serpent

Wither Plant/The Worm

The Wages of Sin
Scattered
Reap the Whirlwind
DoU

David, OR
Jehoshaphat
Abbie
Joshua, the C
Ish
Mighty Men
Isaiah
Elijah
Jeremiah
Zadok
Captain, PoC

Faith
Royal Parade
Valley of Salt
Counsel
The First Sacrifice
Offering Your Son

Throne
WoP

Reserve:
Hopper
Majestic Heavens
Cov w/ Philistia
Cov w/ Abraham
Cov w/ David
Fire From Heaven
Unsuccessful
Flying Scroll
The Angel of the Winds

Like I said, this deck is insanely fast. I love First Sacrifice in type 1, let alone off Solomon, let alone before Jeremiah off Jehoshaphat. The covenants make this even more fast than a normal throne with Offering Your Son in main deck, Delivered, Zadok to BotC (thanks Nic). Everyone knows this deck is all about the band so initially I have Isaiah's Call, WWW, ASP, to go alone with my other stuff, but First Sacrifice and Offering Your Son gave overall speed and flexibility. I also thought since I had 3 purple battle winners to go with Throne/the band that I was good. I am at 49 so I can test some more then add in whatever I think needs to be added. I took some of Josiah's defense and added my own twist to it. I think The Evil Sacrifice/Jeremiah is a better overall play than TSA, but that is a solid debate, but because T1 is so quick I think that underdeck from hand rescue band with Jeremiah is a huge swing. I like the Complacent soul idea Josiah pitched as well to go with no AotL and CM. This deck does not need battle winners really and both Josiah and myself never really needed AotL. Faith of David could come in but I don't use Ahimelek, I never needed him in my version so I thought I would test this for now.

I guess it must have worked for Josiah to some degree, but how well do you think the defense would do against a mirror? I feel like unless you get rid of Throne somehow the only way you can block is if you use CotK, Woes, Fire From Heaven, or Stubborn Heifer to negate their battle winner first.

Josiah didn't have Heifer in his build, although later said he wanted him in there afterwards, so that would potentially be one block which is all it takes. If I can get an Unsuccessful block, Flying Scroll their Jehoshaphat and not put down mine with WoP, get off DoU and one Scattered like battle winner with Wicked, then I'm good.

Also, do you think Counsel and Valley are both worth a slot over Root of Jesse? I guess I get Valley so you have an answer to Doubt, but I feel like Doubt isn't as common in T1 and having a CBN recurrable option seems like it would shut down the mirror defense pretty handily.

Man, Root of Jesse really did a number on you     I love that play, but I like having the two interrupts. I don't think in T1 Doubt matters, plus I only need 3 rescues and I think with RoJesse that losing the interrupt to bounce just isn't as good due to opponent's using their EC SA to block more so than their EE's, but what do I know, this is T1 we are talking about.

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I guess it must have worked for Josiah to some degree, but how well do you think the defense would do against a mirror? I feel like unless you get rid of Throne somehow the only way you can block is if you use CotK, Woes, Fire From Heaven, or Stubborn Heifer to negate their battle winner first.

Josiah didn't have Heifer in his build, although later said he wanted him in there afterwards, so that would potentially be one block which is all it takes. If I can get an Unsuccessful block, Flying Scroll their Jehoshaphat and not put down mine with WoP, get off DoU and one Scattered like battle winner with Wicked, then I'm good.

I guess what I'm thinking is that against a first turn Throne your only option is basically to Darkness Heifer into play, Leviathan to Fire From Heaven, or burn a dom. Unsuccessful, DoU, and Scattered are all good blocks against Throne but only if you get initiative. I guess since Cov with Dave is the main tutor these days then first turn Throne isn't a huge concern though.

Also, unless you're using the old WoP, your opponent's Jehoshaphat wouldn't be protected in your territory. You're better off just discarding him from hand, using your own, and assume they aren't playing a way to recur him.

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Also, do you think Counsel and Valley are both worth a slot over Root of Jesse? I guess I get Valley so you have an answer to Doubt, but I feel like Doubt isn't as common in T1 and having a CBN recurrable option seems like it would shut down the mirror defense pretty handily.

Man, Root of Jesse really did a number on you     I love that play, but I like having the two interrupts. I don't think in T1 Doubt matters, plus I only need 3 rescues and I think with RoJesse that losing the interrupt to bounce just isn't as good due to opponent's using their EC SA to block more so than their EE's, but what do I know, this is T1 we are talking about.

Ha, I mean, I was fine with it until you tossed it to kill my Doubt. And if you did switch one of those for RoJ you'll still have two interrupts with Royal Parade. I know the interrupt is probably better one for one, but I just think against something like Heifer or evil interrupts like Josiah was saying you'd want a CBN option. But yeah, you're right. We should probably stop wasting our time with this T1 nonsense.

My defense revolved around 2 things, Interrupts and the shuffle chumps (SSS and DOU) 

I feel like against TToD i shouldve had wicked and Gideon's Ephod but the defensive strategy I ran gives so many versatile options for blocks.

Yeah, I think Outsiders+Ephod in Reserve is a pretty safe bet in any brown or crimson defense, and I think I take crimson over brown versus Throne every time at this point.