Cactus Game Design Message Boards

http://landofredemption.com/?p=2134 has the right up I did and it's a pretty long one.

The majority of the credit for the build goes to Jerome Beers my brother. He has unfortunately been unable to make it to Nats very often and I honestly believe he is a top caliber deck builder and player. In all reality he beats me more then I beat him. Dayne Maust also contributed to the deck as I reconstructed it at 2am Friday before the tournament. My reputation as a great player and meh deck builder holds 

Reasons I played this deck
1. The inherent protection of spirit being adds a level of deck control to the build. I wasn't concerned with cards like Holy Grail, Balaam's Disobedience, Stone of Thebez, Magic Charms, Unholy Writ, invoking Terror, The Serpant, Gold Shield ect ect
2. Adding to battle on Defense with Big bodied EC's is hard for offenses in a balanced meta to deal with. The Gates of Hell, Madness and the Site Guard Lost Soul made this possible and helped me block 10+ times throughout the tournament.

If I would play this deck again I would swap Cherubum for The Gathering Angel and I would test Fortress of Antonia, although with rule changes about deck setting It may not be as good as it would've been this year.

"Spirit Thing"

Hero's 7
The Strong Angel (wa)
The Captain of the Hosts (wa)
Gabriel (I/j)
The Angel Under the Oak
Angel at Shur (p)
Attending Angel (TXP)
Cherubim (FooF)

GE's 8 but 4 battle winners 3 support 1 negate
Support-3
Wheel within a Wheel
Angelic Guidance
Angelic News
Battle Winners-4
Fire, Smoke and Sulfur
Eaten by Worms
Striking Herod
Overwhelming Presence
Negate-1
Live coal

Artifacts/Curses-3
Shrine to Artemis
Madness
House Hold Idols

Sites 1
Promise Land

Fortresses -1
The Gates of Hell

Evil Characters - 10
King of Tyrus
The Thief
Prince of this World
Messenger of Satan
Demon Behind the Idol
Spirit of temptation
Wandering Spirit
Fallen Angel
The Trembling Demon
Foreign Wives

Evil Enhancements-5
Fiery Dart
Worshipping Demons
Persistent Pestering
Suicidal Swine Stampede
Table of Demons

Dom's-7
Son of God
New Jerusalem
Angel of the Lord
Grapes of Wrath
Christian Martyr
Mayhem
Falling Away

Lost Souls-8
Woman only
Cbp
Wanderer
3-liner
Resurrection
Fool
Site Guard
Hopper

Considering John Made the Finals I believe my deck did as well as it was going to do in the tournament. 2nd is a strong showing for a deck archetype that had previously been considered sub par.

I know your believe 51 and 50 is "negligible" difference but I remain to committed to 50 being the best solution for most decks.  Michael was in the original version Jerome built but we both felt he never used him and FBTN, Recursion or tutoring an enhancement or Another angel always seemed like a better option.

this is my opinion but
Inherent protection was good enough to warrant cutting protection of angels
News as a 4/3 > PoA 0/0
News drawing was more valuable then adding additional protection
Live coal negated tenants kill the son enough times to warrant not missing PoA

I would personally have found a way to fit Michael and CWD in this deck.  And I'm surprised The god of this World didn't make the cut over The Thief.  But congrats anyways      I love it when unusual (or unloved) decks or themes do well.

I did realize abandonment and scattered where hurt by the deck type but didn't list them because they still corked with a CBP LS or if I went Gabriel, AutO, Shur or attending.

Right, but they wouldn't have CBN status so they just become a regular battle winner for your opponent as opposed to an auto-block. Covenant with Adam or Crown of Thorns could have been a sneaky play to take out ECs like Gomer, Sanhedrin and the small Greeks.

What was Shrine used for in this deck?

Basically you will pretty much always be able to find a use for shuffling a card from your territory or set aside.

Wow! Angel/Demons....I used it a bunch of times but could never get the combinations right. Plus, I don't have the right silver enhancements.  The main enhances I've used were Coal, Guidance, News, Striking, WWW, and the silver ignore human enhance (it's title escapes me).  Was Auto good with out the Judge?