Cactus Game Design Message Boards

You have too many dominants, your deck is illegal. You can only have as my dominants as you have non-hopper souls in your decks.

Personally I feel like Goys isn't going to help you as much as vain philosophy or DoN.and no artifacts or curses? CoM is nifty when you play with philis and their high numbers And pride of simon is always nice playing black brigade

I don't see how Guardian of Your Souls could be disadvantageous to have in a deck.

It is not a disadvantage, but it is less of an advantage than other doms.  That's the effect of the dom cap: you only have 7 slots, and you have to maximize them.  Given that you have only a little better chance of outdrawing your opponent to get Guardian out before they Falling Away you if you are both playing them, it is questionable whether to use it.  When you consider that a lot of people don't even run Falling Away due to dom cap (and people playing Guardian less), there is even more of an opportunity cost.

Vain Philosophy is nice, but I didn't have the room for it.

VP is in the top-tier of doms, easily.  Look-at-hand is very powerful alone, but if you do the underdeck turn 1 or mid-game, you can cripple your opponent or delay SoG+NJ.  It is an easy way to win a battle, or win a game.  If you do not have space for it, I say look at what I said above about opportunity cost with dom cap, and look at the power of this card.

I love angels, and Just a couple of Ideas, Wings is good, but not as necessary as other better enhancements, and I would add artifacts, for sure ones like Golden Cherubim and unholy writ. Another good one is Given over to captivity to add.

I would take out:
Commissioned
Angel at Shur (unless you use angels combined with humans)
Wings
Ashtaroth Worship (exchange with the new sing and praise, you can use it more and Gabriel recurs it)
Lahmi's Spear
Joseph in Prison (not useful if you have a covenant of eden)

I would Add:
Angel of the Harvest
Sing and Praise
Go into Captivity (or Burial Shroud to give your angels more time)
Displeased Phillistines (very useful if you have inniciative to play it)
Ishbibinobs sword
Wrath of Satan (amazing since your angels will be saved and your opponent destroyed! Goes well with Isbibinob's sword to negate a lot of what the opponent could do)

Also, your angels are not as fast as they could be, I would consider adding speed like AUtO, and ones that help you more than them.

Just my thoughts!


Phillistines are not as good against Judges so I would consider adding possible Hezikiah's signet ring since you have so little artifacts, and even Nazareth to help against most decks, if you don't mind not searching.
Also against other decks, Rain becomes dust, AMAZING! My favorite curse!

Ok, plenty of ideas there. Let me see:

Commissioned: I adore Commissioned. It's like a Harvest Time that I can recycle with Gabriel that I can still use if my opponent has Lost Souls in play.
Angel at Shur: Angel at Shur searches for OT male Heroes. It does not specify humans. Angel at Shur therefore searches for Angel in the Path, Angel of His Presence, and The Destroyer.
Winds: Winds has too many opportunities. However, I will accept that there may be better options.
Ashtaroth Worship: I am still juggling between knocking this card for Sing and Praise and keeping it as is. I get that Gabriel recycles it, but the fact that it leaves Heroes in the discard pile sounds really obnoxious to me, specifically for purposes such as Gideon and The Angel Under the Oak. If I can Christian Martyr the Angel and Ashtaroth Worship it from the game, I'd feel a lot more comfortable taking on the Judges.
Lahmi's Spear: Lahmi's Spear lets me discard a Hero at the drop of a hat. I'd be surprised to find something more useful. Since it doesn't even have to be in battle, this is another card that lets me throw The Angel Under the Oak away as soon as possible.
Joseph in Prison: Covenant of Eden is virtually never active. Otherwise, cards like this one and Ashtaroth Worship would be heavily restricted. Covenant of Eden is only ever active for a single purpose: The Destroyer. If I ever want to play Joseph in Prison, I can simply deactivate Covenant of Eden beforehand.

As for the additions:
Angel of the Harvest: I'm not so sure revealing the top of my opponent's deck only to potentially hand it to them in the 50/50 chance that it's a good card is really all that helpful. Is that better than I give it credit for?
Sing and Praise: See Ashtaroth Worship above
Go into Captivity: I'd rather not capture anything if I can avoid it. I'd prefer taking Characters out to throwing them into my Land of Bondage for my opponent to rescue.
Burial Shroud: Possible. If I may be so bold, I think these Angels are just a little faster than you give them credit for. They're surprisingly self-sufficient. I don't think I have ever felt the need to give them more time.
Displeased Philistines: I don't think preventing the drawing/searching of my opponent for a single turn outweighs the combative power of the black Enhancements currently in the deck.
Ishbibenob's Sword is already in the deck.
Wrath of Satan: I have thought long and hard over this one for quite some time. As soon as I saw this card, I got incredibly excited by its potential, especially when combined with things like Ashtaroth Worship. However, I began to question whether or not it could be used as effectively as I had originally hoped. I'm still not 100% sure about this one.
The Angel Under the Oak: How does that help a deck devoid of Judges?
Hezekiah's Signet Ring/Nazareth: These would shut down my own Angel at Shur, Attending Angel, Angel of Warning, Angelic Guidance, and the whole Philistine Outpost/Philistine Armor Bearer thing. These would probably do just as much damage to me as to my opponent, if not more. Hezekiah's Signet Ring I could arguably turn off, but not Nazareth.
Rain Becomes Dust: It's not that this is not a good card, but I do question whether or not it's really so useful as to replace another card in this deck.

Wrath of Satan, though... what would it replace?

I hear the critiques of Angel at Shur and Angel of His Presence. Why, though, is The Angel Under the Oak so much better? Without Judges, all it does is draw 2 without being negated. Is that really all that much better than Angel of His Presence, especially if he's holding Angel's Sword? He gets to draw one, and then he gets special initiative. Is Angel Under the Oak really so superior?
I still feel The Destroyer/Covenant of Eden combo is a little too useful to dismiss, especially with Winds to grab it again from out of the Chamber. If I play my cards right, I can have three consecutive rescue attempts with The Destroyer: first normally; then Winds him back into battle with any other angel; then get Winds back with Gabriel and exchange him again. Even if I can't pull this off, the power to negate the protect abilities on Evil Fortresses and discard any Evil Character, all before the opponent even gets to block, only to have the ability to play the first Enhancement if he's holding Angel's Sword. I feel like that's enough to justify the two card slot, but I may be wrong.
You suggest using Goliath's Armor alongside Asherah Pole, which is ingenious. However, does Spiritual Beings really fail in comparison? The Armor makes me immune to purple, and of course I get to hold it, but Spiritual Beings makes me immune to humans, cannot be prevented, and is easily recycled by Gabriel. Is that still so inferior?
Gabirel Meets Zecharias will be hard to part with, but I'll consider it.

The Strong Angel and Captain of the Host shut down my entire Silver Enhancement arsenal. I feel like that can only be bad news for me.
I hear Striking Herod. I should definitely add that.
Delilah is also rather intriguing when you put it that way...
Still wondering about Wrath of Satan...
Rain Becomes Dust still doesn't seem like all that big a deal to me.
Household Idols is a great idea, though.

On a another note. Luxumbra, you seem to be very understanding of the game for it being your first live tournament. I say that whatever you play you will have deffinately used very ounce of your thought process to its highest capacity. Great job!

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone for their feedback so far. It has been very formative.

I've been considering the ideas that have been presented so far. There are a handful of ideas that I think are worthy of the space, and yet I don't really feel like using them to replace what's already there. So I was wondering what would happen if I just bumped up the deck's size, making it 56 cards instead of 50. The additions would be:

Sing and Praise
Wrath of Satan
Delilah
Striking Herod
Household Idols
Wheat and Tares, Overwhelming Presence, or something else. Babel, since I'm using Delilah? Pit? Foreign Sword?

Also, would The First Seal or Spiritual Warfare be better than Spiritual Beings?
Are these additions worth increasing the size of the deck?
Thoughts?

...drawing two is really that much of an advantage, huh?

Well, seeing as I really can't think of a better Angel to fit the slot, The Angel Under the Oak will be added in that sixth slot where I couldn't decide what to add.

Thoughts?

Good!

Awesome. Thanks, yirgogo.

Anyone else? Also, further thoughts on which is the best out of Spiritual Beings (immune to Humans, CBP)/The First Seal (immune to Humans, CBI)/Spiritual Warfare (ignore Humans)? Maybe even Consuming Fire instead?

Also, what do people think of me replacing the CBP Lost Soul with Beggar?

For the record, you can't lahmi's spear outside of battle.

No, I get that. I didn't word myself properly. I meant that the target does not have to be in battle.