Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Summary:

As you can see in the main deck there are only 10 non-Daniel cards. Four of these are doms and 5 of the rest are all consistency pieces for getting The Foretelling Angel out. If drawn correctly they can all search each other out (remember Fifth Seal/Justice Seekers counts as a white hero for Love Righteousness to search out). The last non-Daniel card in the main deck is Majestic Heavens which is critical for soul gen but it too can be searched out by Angelic Guidance (Majestic Heavens counts as a silver card) and Large Tree.

I feel that the best Daniel build is the one that has as few non-Daniel cards as possible. The reason is that non-Daniel cards are "speed bumps" in the draw off of The Foretelling Angel. The only real reason to run a Daniel deck is the speed of The Foretelling Angel. Most of the Daniel cards are weak compared to the cards you get in other meta builds. The way that Daniel deck can be viable is due to the potential speed of The Foretelling Angel. This deck can set up incredibly fast and win quickly. I only run four dominants which are all essential. Son of God and The Second coming are a must. Three Woes is very important for cards like "The First Sacrifice" which is quite important in this build. My first version of this deck did not have Angel of the Lord and was even faster than this one as a result but I found the offense did need Angel of the Lord as a support.

In the current meta in Redemption it is all about speed. This deck enables you to get the tools you need fast to make three successful rescues. Most other decks need more than four doms to win a game but I am starting to think the Daniel deck does not. In fact I think having more doms is a detriment since they are a speed bump to getting what you need to win the game.

Consistency:

I have gold-fished this deck numerous times and have found it to be rather consistent. However, it requires incredibly precise play. I have gotten the deck to 20 cards or less by the end of turn 2 almost every time. I have gotten down to 10 cards or less by the end of turn 2 numerous times. The version that did not have Angel of the Lord was even more consistent since it has one less speed bump. The one issue I have found with consistency is that the deck really needs one or two more Daniel heroes. It is a shame when no heroes show up on the draw. Also 1-2 more tutors for The Foretelling Angel would be nice. Right now I believe the only tutors for it main deck that exist are: Love Righteousness (snags Fifth Seal/Justice Seekers), Consider the Lillies, Fifth Seal/Justice Seekers, Daniel's Prayer, Angelic Guidance, and Wheel within a Wheel. With the possibility of drawing TFA itself there are 7 total ways to get TFA out on turn one. One more would make it more consistent especially if there were more Daniel heroes.

A key to consistency is using your shuffles strategically. Most other Daniel decks have Mayhem, Wages of Sin, and Faith as other shuffle options. I tried these and found they are nice for shuffling but they are also potential speed bumps for TFA! Also only one of them (Faith) can be searched out by the other shuffle cards in the deck. I have found that Love Righteousness, Consider the Lillies, Fifth Seal/Justice Seekers, Angelic Guidance, and Wheel within a Wheel are the best shuffle options because they have the potential to search each out. Of course the Daniel shuffle cards (Daniel's Prayer and Large Tree) are great as well. You have to use these wisely to get the maximum draw off of TFA.

Offense:

The offense centers around banding Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Daniel, Servants by the River, and normally Gabriel together. This is a strong band especially with CBN support from TFA. It protects LS's from evil cards, protects human heroes from lone EC's/discard, negates evil characters and NT enh's, prevents the next enhancement, draws 1 (which is nice due to Majestic Heavens topdeck), can ensure a Daniel enhancement on top from reserve due to Abednego, and discards an EE from opponents deck with Gabriel. Add having Eternal Judgment out and this is a tough band to stop. The one downfall of Daniel decks that are not fast enough is it takes too long to assemble this band. In this build I normally have the full band assembled by turn 2 and almost always am really close by turn 3. I should also mentioned that after Nebby has blocked once if he survives he can be a great addition to the Daniel band as a hero due to his toss ability! I think that sometimes gets overlooked.


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Reserve:

The reserve is key for Daniel deck. Obviously there are plenty of tools for creating blocks for the defense that Conjurers/Persian Horsemen/Mene Mene can grab.

Noah's Ark is very important for protecting the offense and TFA. The First Sacrifice is great support for the offense.

Undefiled and Cast into Lion's Den are important for Abednego to have to topdeck to ensure CBN support from TFA. Undefiled is a nice negate as well for the offense and Cast into Lion's Den is a tool against annoyances like KoT (PoC) or Red Dragon (although he is a bit weaker due to Michael often being in play). Also Persian Horsemen can grab Cast into Lion's Den.

Support:

For soul gen I have found Majestic Heavens to be best since it can be grabbed with Large Tree or Angelic Guidance and can topdeck Hopper for extra soul gen. Meshach can draw hopper after it is topdecked. Also Heavens provides some extra reserve access.

Reserve access beyond Majestic Heavens is enough for evil with Conjurers/Persian Horsemen being able to grab the evil tools. Mene, Mene also can help here.

For good Cov Breakers can grab The First Sacrifice or Noah's Ark. Abednego can grab the Daniel enhancements from reserve.

Mene, Mene is the key reserve access tool and since it can be recurred by The Winged Lion it is not a one trick pony!

Darius Decree is a nice budget Golden Calf (for the enhancement part of the ability) and Fiery Furnace can be a great way to get a good dom out of the deck.

Conclusion:

Overall I think this version of Daniel deck is solid and I do believe it is superior to versions that have more non-Daniel cards. It requires really precise play and is a tight build.

The strength of the deck is getting 3 rescues as fast as possible, and having SoG+TSC to seal the deal. The defense can get enough blocks to survive and I believe a big part of that is the way the reserve is set up not to mention Lion's Den.

Do you have any thoughts on this build? Any ideas for it?

EDIT:

An example of the incredible speed of this build just happened. I was goldfishing the deck and by the end of my second turn only had 1 card left in the deck: Three Woes. For a start like that though you have to draw a couple of the doms normally in the first two turns. However, starts of having 10 or less cards by the end of the second turn and even the first are pretty common with this build! I have to stress the importance of using your shuffles correctly though. It is critical.

I like your build, large tree to lions den to persan horsemen is pretty cool, would totally use it if i wasnt using CwD.  Have you found soothsayers and bels mother to be very useful?

Looks really solid. Didn't realize how strong the Daniel band had gotten to be with the layers of CBN protection. Have you found the defense to be sturdy enough? I guess the shear amount of resources you can get very quickly helps, but the main problem I've seen with the deck is just not having many strong blocks.

Also, did you consider using Vain Vision or Mayhem in your Dom slots? Obviously it's not great when either gets stuck on top, but both of them work well with Foretelling by either setting the top or shuffling a non-Daniel card. Maybe just the four Dominants you have is the best option to run as few non-Daniels as possible, but they might be able to add enough value to be worth it.

No Astrologers? I suppose if the deck is decking out in the first few turns you won't have anything to reveal anyway, plus the only non-Daniel evil card you have is Woes, so I guess I see it. Having another magician for Conjurors and Soothsayers seems like it'd be good though.

Are Mene, Mene and Majestic Heavens the only ways to get Ark out of Reserve? Has that been consistent enough the same turn you get Foretelling? With all the Artifact searching these days it seems likely that a lot of decks can get to Endless+Flying Scroll just as easily as you can get to Foretelling.

Have you thought on maybe adding The Bronze Laver to the reserve? It's a good way to cycle through your deck a bit faster, especially if your stuck on something. Although it may be better in main deck

Due to encouragement from some in the community I have decided to publish this series on deck building that I am doing on Land of Redemption. The above posts are now in an article at LoR here: http://landofredemption.com/?p=10732

From now on I will publish my "CtheTree's Take On..." series on Land of Redemption and will post a link to the article here on the forums in the deck building section.

Thanks everyone for all of your feedback so far and feel free to send more feedback my way if you have any!