Cactus Game Design Message Boards

What are the essentials for making an egyptian defense? Not just characters but supporting cards as well.

In addition to the above, Potiphera, Priest of On is a great evil character. He's a Genesis Egyptian and helps stop Capture and Conversion, which is extremely helpful in some playgroups.

Also, King of Tyrus (warriors) is a fantastic add to any deck, but especially a gold deck. He may not be egyptian, but he's a powerhouse.

Also be wary of Miriam. Cards like Pharaoh's Throne Room, Covenant With Death, Confusion of Mind, Golden Calf, Iron Pan, and the Anti-Ignore lost soul are needed counters.

Thank you, and I think the curse your thinking of is "given over to Egypt".

Here's a more succinct list of just the absolute essentials:

EC's:
TAS
Dreaming Pharaoh
Baker
Cupbearer
Magicians
King of Tyrus

EE's:
Wonders Forgotten
Failed Objective
Egyptian Horses
Swift Horses
Besieging the City
Seven Years of Plenty (IFF you're using a Genesis offense)

Support:
Storehouse (IFF you're using a Genesis offense)

Add Magician's Snakes. #1 battle winner Gold has against todays meta.

I play Genesis Egyptians and this is what I play:

Characters:
E-Wise Men
E-Magicians
E-Archer
E-Warden
The Dreaming Pharaoh
Pharaoh's Cupbearer
Pharaoh's Baker
King Manny (Optional, nice to make EM not ignored by TGT)

Enhancements:
7 yrs of Plenty
Failed Objective
Beheaded
Swift Horses (D Deck)
Wonders Forgotten
E-Horses
Invoking Terror

Arts:
UN
The Bronze Laver (Optional, nice for draws + very useful with EM)
Charms (Also Optional)

Forts:
Pithom (Even if its only used 7 times, that's 7 more cards that an Opponent can't use.)
Pharaoh's Throne Room
Storehouse

Cards I Highly don't suggest using:
Potiphera Priest of On: It may be Genesis, but it's effect is useless against the only Deck that you'd use it against and it's not a 'while in play' so it's a waste of a Card slot.

Ammy's Slave: it's too much search with UN. Use one or the other.

Given Over to Egypt: Unless you are running a big deck, there's just not enough room for this in the Deck. I'd use Pithom over this.

Neither Kir nor Golgotha give really any bonus to Egyptians. Golgotha only affects NT EC's and Throne Room can already negate Ignore abilities on Characters and Pithom can get rid of TGT too. Egypt I'd only suggest if you plan to run any cards like Enslaved by Egypt that are helped by it. Pharaoh's Prison is useful for both Potifar and TDP, so run it if you want.

Throne Room and Pithom I'd argue are more essential to an Egyptian theme then most other cards because of how well they do their job. Raiders is only good if you want to play a Capture base which I suggest against.

Evil Spirit - Too specific even if it is CBN.
Moses kills Egyptian - Can be useful, but not as much as lots of other cards.
Besieging the City - there are actual Battle-winners I'd use over this, and it's too easy to negate unless you decide to play Gomer (Wo) and Arrogance.
Capture Cards - Both are limited to Humans and one is limited to NT Human Hero. Way to specific for a Non-CBN card. Don't use, you won't be able to pull them off often.
E-Spear - It's okay, but other cards I'd suggest before playing this. Better for a bigger deck.
Ruthless - Not too bad, but also not too good. There are too many CBN/CBI Enhancements to really pull this off enough to warrant using it.
Escape to Egypt - I kinda like this one, but in a bigger Deck.
Magicians Snakes - bad option against most Decks. Too easy to negate.

E-Horsemen: Not really good enough to warrant being used in a Deck except for a place-holder or you ran out of good characters to use.
E-Chariotters - I'd use this if it was Genesis... Too bad...
Potifar and his Wife - I'd use these two if I was going to run a Capture Deck, and if I had room, I'd run Wife in my current Deck. Wife is great, Potifar's okay, Horses makes Opponent cry if you got rid of their Protect.
Queen Taphenes - It's okay, because it can destroy an Opponent's defense and make TGT not work for your Opponent either. Best in a bigger Deck.
Huge Egyptian - Like Taphenes, better in a bigger Deck and equipped w/ E-Spear.
I don't suggest using either Jannes and Jambres because they aren't that useful.
KoT: In the best Egyptian Decks I've played, there's no room for him especially since you really can't use any Enhancements on him that will work.

You don't actually have to worry about Miriam, since she rarely played, but be worried of cards like Journey to Egypt. My suggestion, CM that character when he comes back and remove that card quickly.

CwD and CoM are useful in a Deck like this... Sortof... Golden Calf not really and Iron Pan won't help at all unless you add Babylonians which won't benefit the Deck much and Anti-Ignore requires 3 or more Good Brigades that an Opponent controls to work properly.

Would you still play dreaming pharaoh in without storehouse though?  (Assuming your not using genesis offense)

If you aren't playing Genesis Egyptians don't use him. He won't help at all.

Giving up a rescue for a 'delayed' chump block and neg 3 to your opponent is...a curious way to look at it. Most decks aren't hindered at all from not drawing, as most meta decks have serious threats on the board within the first few turns. As far as the chump block, that's a highly hypothetical way of looking at it...there are many other variables that could have also prevented your opponent from not rescuing a soul in the next turn as well. Of the very few things I agree with megaman on, this would be one of those...it's a card that does absolutely nothing to help with stopping the current rescue attempt. It will be a dead draw in most scenarios which is something most T1 decks cannot afford, especially for an Egyptian defense.

I only run pithom if I'm running given over to Egypt bc pithom holds it

If your against capture y run warden?

Besiege the city is the best card in the Egyptian defense you play it when you know u RNt passing initiative and then drop wonders or failed or even just die

You may give up one rescue but it slows ur opponent and acts as a delayed chump block its amazing

Pithom is a waste if you only use it to hold Given Over. It's better with UN.

As for Warden, I don't use his effect often. He's just the end of the banding chain. I have used his effect before, but I don't commonly use it because of the constant Protect abilities.

If you can run Besieging the City and then Wonders or FO, you aren't running the Deck correctly. New Egyptians are big banders, not lone blockers. That's where they are the most effective. Trust me on this, I have won Minnesota State without it, in fact it just slows Decks down where a more effective battle-winner could be used. Also I can attest that it's not half as good as you are thinking it is. I tried to run it before.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean Master KChief, what do you mean by 'the few things we agree on'?

I used 4 on my way to a T-2 national championship just saying

And I always play it in t-1 and would its effective in 80-90% of games I played.
Of that percentage I would say I played it and followed with failed or WF 75% of the time equating in 2 blocks.

And it restricts draw so the opponent not only doesn't get a d3 but he can't draw off characters.

It also gives you a 2nd turn without your opponent improving his defense

Do note that Im 90% sure that is a Prevent and not a Restrict so it doesn't affect CBN characters. And like I said before, I play Egyptians very effectively and it just doesn't work unless your not playing Egyptians like they are meant to played currently.

You can run given over and UN

I don't play genegyptians I just use Egyptians defense

And your statement of Egyptians being "meant to be played one way" is nuts.  Part of what draws me to redemption is the multiple ways to play themes and ideas and not being stuck with a certain 12-15 cards that everyone plays if they play that style
Creativity is king

I find little use for wise men and warden when I play Egyptians the way I do

To each his own I'm just glad to know if I play you I won't have to sweat besiege the city bc u won't be playing it

 ADV me

And it plays as a restrict at least that's how it was ruled for me all year even if it is a prevent how will said CBN hero enter battle since you cnt make a rescue attempt and you can't battle challenge when a soul is available?

As I said, in T1 most Decks that want to stay even can't keep Given Over and UN. Pithom is more useful in making people second-guess using a Dom in battle. That's the #1 reason I use it.

You do know that non-Genesis Egyptians is hit or miss at best right? At least in T1, it's hard if not nearly impossible to run them very effectively. (I can't say for T2)

The creativity factor is the same here, but there are still limitations. Like for example that no matter how you play an Angel Deck, Cap's Sword is still junk no matter what. And Normal Egyptians don't work as effectively as Genesis Egyptians. And that's just because Genesis Egyptians are the only Egyptians that have the Draw/Search power.

I don't understand how you play Egyptians at all then. Too many cards Protect Decks now and That's why Genesis Egyptians are drifting away from that strategy now. Besieging the City can't win a battle and I can pull a ton of ways out to get around it as we'll because that's a continuous effect, (ItB interrupts it and if I play a card that shuts the battle down, I.e. Striking Herod, it breaks without a character to use it on)

I'm just saying that any card like a CBP/CBN TC Enhancement will get around that.

What's ADV mean?

That's not exactly advantage if you need another battle winner to even work, of which Gold is very limited in that aspect against the meta. Against the T1 meta, this card is near useless. Daniel N' Fwiends still search to their hearts content, Fbtnb won't let you get it off anyways. TGT would have just ignored you in the first place.

If you're playing it solo, giving up a lost soul in exchange for 'future' advantage is by no means what I would call a fair trade.

It's not a trade, it's another, stronger, PO. Unless your opponent is going for his 3rd Soul (or 5th if he's already dropped the deuces), it literally is a battle-winner with a massive speed cramp to boot. If you should happen to have WF or PO as well, then all the better, but neither is required to make Besieging do what it does.

It's not a trade, it's another, stronger, PO. Unless your opponent is going for his 3rd Soul (or 5th if he's already dropped the deuces), it literally is a battle-winner with a massive speed cramp to boot. If you should happen to have WF or PO as well, then all the better, but neither is required to make Besieging do what it does.

Exactly

Out of curiosity what does PO stand for?

Ammy's Slave: it's too much search with UN. Use one or the other.

Given Over to Egypt: Unless you are running a big deck, there's just not enough room for this in the Deck. I'd use Pithom over this.

I am curious why you wouldn't just use both Am Slave and UN.  Am Slave is too good of a character not to use in an Egyptian defense.  He's a staple in most non-Egyptian defenses.  Plus he's soul gen, which is crucial.

If you are going to put Pithom in a deck, you can't really say that there's not enough room for Given Over to Egypt.  It does the same thing as Pithom (except it's once per turn instead of once per opp's dom), only it puts LS in play.  Pithom's value comes more from letting you activate UN or Given Over to Egypt without taking up your art pile.  If I was building a deck, Pithom and GOtE would be all or nothing.