Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Players: Jordan Alstad and Matt Brinkman

I'll leave it up to MJB to post his deck if he still has the list, but the defense was in large part the same, with a TGT offense. Both decks were 154 cards with the full complement of Samarias. We went 4-1-1 with one timeout win, and our loss going to the eventual champions James and John. Our tie came at the hands of Ron Sias and Jonathan Pequinot, who had GoS decks that were much smaller.

The names of the decks were Barad Dur, based on the partial orange defense with the Eye of Sauron (Gates of Hell, for anyone who hasn't seen LotR...on these forums...lol), and Isengard, based on the TGT white offense. Together they were clearly, The Two Towers.

Lost Souls (21)
Lost Souls (3-Liner) x3
NT Only x3
Punisher x3
Wanderer x3
Speed Bump x3
Deck Discard x3
Site Guard x3

Sites (21)
Samaria x21

Artifacts (11)
The Bronze Laver x3
Household Idols x3
Crown of Thorns
Golden Calf
Holy Grail
Four-Drachma Coin x2

Dual Alignment Enhancements (1)
Siegeworks

Lamb (5)
Grapes of Wrath
Angel of the Lord
Son of God
New Jerusalem
Guardian of Your Souls

Good Fortresses (3)
Storehouse
Goshen (P)
Judge's Seat

Covenants (3)
I am Creator x3

Heroes (19)
Samuel
Moses
Simeon (Wa)
Jair
Gideon
Samson
Zacchaeus
Isaiah
King Solomon x2
King Hiram
Peter
The Angel Under the Oak x3
Angel with the Secret Name
Seraph
Seraph with a Live Coal
Mary the Mother of James

Good Enhancements (11)
Pentecost
Wheel Within a Wheel
Isaiah's Call
Live Coal
Eli's Sound Advice
Birth Foretold x2
Deborah's Directive
Samuel's Edict x3

Reapers (4)
Falling Away
Christian Martyr
Destruction of Nehushtan
Mayhem

Evil Fortresses (6)
Gates of Samaria
The Gates of Hell x2
High Places

Curses (6)
Go into Captivity x3
Unknown Nation x2
Plagued With Diseases

Evil Characters (25)
Jezebel
The Amalekite's Slave
King Nadab x2
King Ahab x2
King Jeroboam I x2
King Omri x3
King Zedekiah x2
Complainers
Uzzah x2
King Saul (Ki)
Gomer
Wandering Spirit x2
Spirit of Temptation x2
Seven Wicked Spirits
Assyrian Survivor x2

Evil Enhancements (18)
Wickedness of the Tenants x2
Gibeonite Trickery x3
Dungeon of Malchiah x3
Haman's Plot x3
Wickedness Abounds x3
Death of Unrighteous x2
Suicidal Swine Stampede x2

The decks were designed to be as fast as possible. We were banking on at least one of us getting set up before anyone put down a Nazareth, because if that had happened, we were largely sunk. As it turned out, the only Nazareth we saw came a turn to late for our opponents, and we were able to get Gates out by turn 2 every game (against James and John, we had Gates, but no EEs to use so they won before it hurt them). We even were able to wipe out an entire offense of three red Heroes during the intro-prep with Gates in one game. If we didn't have Gates right away, one of us usually got an I am Creator to get out a Solomon. Angel Under the Oak was awesome; I got him at least once every game except vs. James and John, and in one game I got all three which was nice as one got captured, and another got martyred in territory. My opponents weren't too thrilled. The strategy should probably be obvious with the TGT, and it worked beautifully: whenever we faced a moderately sized defense, we would take out any characters that weren't ignored with Samarias, and then we got free souls. I used a MMoJ to band to Matt's gals and get two strikes at free souls in a round. The bummer was that we always had plenty of brown ECs so we got Uzzah blocked a lot.

The Site Guard LSs were an awesome later addition. I rarely use it except for in multicolor sites, but I figured that since we'd be seeing a lot of prophets. It worked marvelously in one game where I was able to block an uncalled Isaiah with TAS after he had used Two Bears on my blocker. I brought in Ahab which negated Two Bears, so Ahab and my 25/25 King Jeroboam were able to beat Isaiah together. Wickedness Abounds was great, as were the Four Dolla Hollas; we needed all the speed we could get and the D4s were crucial.

There are probably a few things I would tweak in later renditions, but I was very pleased with the overall performance of the decks. Post your comments and questions here.

Nice deck.

If you are so reliant on Gates of Samaria, why did you not use 3 copies of it in your deck?

Kirk

Thanks for pointing that out. I did, just forgot the x3. You'll notice the number of EForts is correct.

Props for the 154 cards!!!

Should be titled Orthanc.

These decks are so OP...if it weren't for time limit and the occasional draw-screw. Still, mad props on making two 154s work.

I think its obvious now who carried the load last year in team "Dumb and Dumber". In case there was ever any question.