Author Topic: T2 2p: Judges - Magician/Assyrian (Read 1957 times)

Captain Kirk · « **on:** August 06, 2012, 02:22:38 AM »

I never used to share many tournament decks with the Redemption community as I felt it weakened my competitive edge at tournaments. However, I realize that many players can potentially benefit from seeing decks I have created. Plus as I will not be able to make nationals this deck may not be very good next year anyways, so I may as well post it now so someone or multiple someones can use it at Nationals if they choose.

Record:
Tournament Play: 10-1-3, +46 LS Differential in 14 games with only one opponent getting to 6, one to 4, and the rest less than that. Won each tournament with timeout ties coming against two site decks in which Dragon Raids and Sam's Sacrifices hid for most or all the games, the 3rd tie 6-6 against Jordan Alstad, and a 3-2 timeout loss to Noah W with the same site access being slow issue. Undefeated outside of tournament play.

Cards in deck: 112 (44/44/24)

NEUTRAL: 24

Lost Souls: 15
   Lost Soul (shut door) x2
   Lost Soul (shame) x2
   Lost Soul (Female Only) x2
   Lost Soul (N.T. only) x2
   Lost Soul (revealer) X2
   Lost Soul (FBTN) x2
   Lost Soul (Wanderer) x2
   Lost Soul (CBP)

Artifacts: 7
   Crown of Thorns
   Holy Grail
   Magic Charms x3
   Unholy Writ x2

Sites: 2
   Dragon Raid x2

GOOD: 44

Dominants: 5
   Angel of the Lord
   Grapes of Wrath
   Guardian of Your Souls
   New Jerusalem
   Son of God

Covenants: 3
   Covenant of Palestine
   I am Grace x2

Fortresses: 3
   Judge's Seat x2
   Wall of Protection

Heroes: 17
   Angel with the Secret Name (2012) x3
   The Angel Under the Oak x3
   Deborah
   Ehud (RoA) x2
   Gideon x2
   Jair (2012) x2
   Moses (wa) x2
   Othniel
   Samuel (L/U)

Hero Enhancements: 16
   Protection of Jerusalem (2012) x2
   Wheel within a Wheel (2012)
   Deborah's Directive x2
   Ehud's Dagger (RoA) x2
   Samson's Sacrifice x2
   Samuel's Edict x4
   Sword against Sword x2
   Taking Egypt's Wealth

EVIL: 45

Dominants: 5
   Burial
   Christian Martyr
   Destruction of Nehustan
   Falling Away
   Mayhem

Curses: 4
   Covenant with Death x2
   Rain Becomes Dust x2

Evil Characters: 19
   Assyrian Archer x3
   Assyrian Siege Army x3
   Assyrian Survivor x3
   Astrologers (TxP)
   Balaam (Di) x2
   Damsel with Spirit of Divination (TxP)
   Egyptian Magicians x2
   King Manasseh (Di) x2
   Spirit of Temptation
   The Amalekite's Slave

Evil Enhancements: 16
   Invoking Terror x2
   Confusion x2
   Death of Unrighteous x4
   Divination (TxP) x2
   Forgotten History x4
   Two Thousand Horses x2

Captain Kirk · « **Reply #1 on:** August 06, 2012, 02:28:42 AM »

Commentary:

I built this deck a day or so after building my T1 version of the deck so I had this built before September started. The defense was built around abusing capture artifacts (Charms and Writ) based on Siege Army being able to block and knock off Tassels/Cov w Palestine/Caves/Z's Temple and Cov w Death being able to knock off character protection. Add Invoking Terror abuse and it made for an awesome defense. After I started using this defense I heard of many similar defenses taking root around the country.

At one point I used Divination x4 and at another point I used 2kh x4. In both cases I found that I was not effectively using all my copies of 2kh or Divination so I split the difference and could not have been more pleased with the result.

Spirit of Temptation (I initially toyed w/ Uzzah in this slot) was for RTC help and an unexpected block.

I always wanted to add a temple with Lampstand or Laver to add protection from Captured Ark hitting Cov w/ Death or RBD but I had trouble making room.

I loved using Judge's Seat to snipe my own Archers/Siege Armies and triggering Protection of Jerusalem to hit my opponent's defenses. I was able to knock out Tower of Thebez/other protection forts/or pesky ECs and then walk right on through.

I never felt like my offense had any problems with any defenses but rather I had trouble drawing the right cards to grant site access or one of a handful of enhancements I could have used to finish breaking through Panic Demons.

Sword against Sword was a great way to play my Confusions even if my opponent had Nazareth out.

You may ask "Why Taking Egypt's Wealth"? Well that is the exact reason why I used it: Unexpected. It is a quite an effective card and allowed me to win a rescue a few rescues or stop what my opponents would have been able to do on their next turn. It is also one of my favorite cards to use.

I used the original Samuel because I had no need for the 2012 version and HHI keeps him from entering battle.

I would have used this deck alongside a combo deck had I attended nationals this year and played T2 2p.

Kirk

EmJayBee83 · « **Reply #2 on:** August 06, 2012, 07:50:49 AM »

Just one quick question--did you ever run into a deck that was specifically teching against Assyrians? Given--as you said--the prevalence of various forms of this defense this year, that would seem to be something that may have cropped up.

Mr.Hiatus · « **Reply #3 on:** August 06, 2012, 10:39:04 AM »

Did you prefer it being at 112, or feel every card necessary and could not cut it any more?
Once you dropped to only 2 copies of 2kh, did you ever see them not coming out as fast?
Had you faced the same defense, heavy capture artifacts, what would you do?
Good deck, very Kirky, options and 112, I like.

Captain Kirk · « **Reply #4 on:** August 06, 2012, 10:44:48 AM »

Matt,

I don't recall facing a deck specifically built to beat Assyrians but I imagine that would include Protection of Jerusalem and ways to negate evil characters. The only real way to stop ASA if he is coming from hand is to keep other Assyrians out of play, which I find is close to impossible if you can place some Survivors in their LoB. I have 10 non Assyrians as well so I figured my defense would be doing fine on numbers even if someone was teching against it.

Good question though. If I played further into the season (I didn't really after Dec) and especially if I came to a 2nd MN tournament I imagine I may have seen more opposition to this strategy. Two Bears and Zeal would seem to be effective cards to beat down on magicians.

I will say that my opponents rarely had initiative to play any enhancements unless they were using Throne of David. I never let a prophets deck play more than 1-2 good enhancements all game. Disciples also had limited time to play enhancements. Red decks mainly just played Foreign Sword by entering battle with it.

Kirk

Captain Kirk · « **Reply #5 on:** August 06, 2012, 11:08:51 AM »

Tyler,
Great questions.

Quote

Did you prefer it being at 112, or feel every card necessary and could not cut it any more?

I typically like to play at 112. All of the 3 times I have placed at nationals I have gone with 112 so I have experienced a fair amount of success with that. I mainly like 112 because I feel like I have space for 4 more artifact/cov/curse/fort/site slots and then one more hero and one more EC. If I dropped to 112 I would have had to toss and EC, RBDx1, and probably both Divinations. On the good side probably I am Gracex1, J's Seatx1, TEW, and some judge or AwtSN. So by being able to double up on a few support cards and add Divinations I felt I increased my chances of drawing a few things i needed at the expense of a slightly slower deck. And my deck was a fairly fast deck. Long story short: no, not all needed but I felt a lot more comfortable at 112.

Quote

Once you dropped to only 2 copies of 2kh, did you ever see them not coming out as fast?

They did come out a bit slower in a couple games where it would have been nice but I didnt actually need them all that much except against Throne of David and those decks use Coat of Mail anyways so I find horses don't last long in those cases anyways. Yes they are super strong with Forgotten History but I have enough low ECs that gey initiative against most decks that I didn't seem to miss much when they didn't show. Invoking, Archers, and a glut of captures always kept my opponents without many heroes to choose from.

Also since my strategy involved nuking a few of my own ECs to hit their defense I would have to kill my 2kh sometimes if I had too many down. Having only 2 kept me from tossing 2 card to make a hit.

I liked Divination primarily as a way to speed up CwD as that card would be key to making my deck hold strong. That's why I wanted them.

Quote

Had you faced the same defense, heavy capture artifacts, what would you do?

I didn't face a pure clone of my defense (might have if i played into the new year) but when I did face capture I would go out with Gideon and get a soul and then the next turn lose him to Charms on their attack. I could do that once more and then wait on Cov w Palestine. I guess if you are paranoid you can add a 2nd Palestine. ASAx3 also knocked off a great number of captures. When I didn't have Gideon I would just go with Jair/Deborah/Othniel and let them get captured to make progress (ie saving other heroes while having my opponents use their artifacts).

Do you mind PMing me what you are playing with? Just curious to hear what others are bringing to the table.

God bless,
Kirk

Cactus Game Design Message Boards

News:

Author Topic: T2 2p: Judges - Magician/Assyrian (Read 1957 times)

Captain Kirk

T2 2p: Judges - Magician/Assyrian

Captain Kirk

Re: T2 2p: Judges - Magician/Assyrian

EmJayBee83

Re: T2 2p: Judges - Magician/Assyrian

Mr.Hiatus

Re: T2 2p: Judges - Magician/Assyrian

Captain Kirk

Re: T2 2p: Judges - Magician/Assyrian

Captain Kirk

Re: T2 2p: Judges - Magician/Assyrian