Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Total Cards 50

Doms 7

Son of God
Angel of the Lord
The Second Coming
Valley of Dry Bones
Guardian of Your Souls
Three Woes
Falling Away (CoW)

Lost Souls 7

Wanderer
Darkness
Humble
Covet
Exiles
Prosperity
Hunter

Utility 7

Hopper
The Ends of the Earth
Treacherous Land
Book of the Covenant
Endless Treasures
The Great White Throne
Four-Drachma Coin

Heroes 13

Angel from the Sun
The Angel of the Winds
Captive Priest
Priests of Christ
The Woman with Child
Justin Martyr
Polycarp
Philemon
Epaphras
Onesimus
The Watchful Leaders
Peter
Paul

Good Enhancements 7

Reverence and Awe
Fifth Seal / Justice Seekers
Life Through Christ
Faith of Moses' Parents
Overcome!
Eternal Inheritance
Consider the Lilies

Evil Characters 6

Fire Foxes
Foreign Wives
Uzzah
The Deceiver
Sabbath Breaker
Sabbath Breaker (LR)

Evil Enhancements 3

Mourn and Weep
Scattered
False Peace (Old)

Reserve 10

The 24 Elders
Blood of the Lamb
Word of Their Testimony
Gamaliel's Speech
You Will Remain
I Am Creator
Captured Ark
The Fall of Man
Emperoro Vitellius
Necromancer


I decided to use an updated version of Josh's deck that I used last year, which can be found here. I like clay because I have a couple really strong opening options based on what I draw, as opposed to the typical Auto + Sam + David opening, plus it doesn't trigger opponent's Treacherous Land as much as Sam + David.

Cards in green where new additions, and cards in red where moved from the deck to the reserve or vice versa.

I was worried that I may have cut too many negates/battle winners from the offense, but I never really needed more than what I had. One battle I lost because I was one strength away from being able to win a FBTN battle, but my opponent had to Gates through a CM into a KoT.

My top 5 favorite cards or combinations of cards where,

1) Exiles + Hunter + Book + I Am Creator

Between these three cards, I think I had a turn one I Am Creator every game. This was especially helpful in getting out Onesimus or Epaphras to max out the X on Philemon and be able to protect souls.

2) Mourn and Weep

This is hands down the best EE in Multi player. The ability to effectively get an extra turn is amazing.

3) Life Through Christ + The 24 Elders

Whenever I played it, this pair was unstoppable. Protected from evil + negate evil is really hard to stop. Even just negating evil was usually good enough for a soul. I didn't remember seeing any Wicked or Humble LS.

4) Reverence and Awe + Treacherous Land

This card was really useful. Treacherous Land saved me a couple times by drawing key cards off the bottom of my deck. It was always good for at least +5.

5) Onesimus + Epaphras + Philemon

This combination is really strong. It's hard to tell how effective Onesimus was, but it's really hard to block this. If they block Scattered, I had YWR and Valley to back it up, and if they block FW, I have Eternal Inheritance. Protecting Lost Souls from Sheol and other player's Son of Gods is very strong.

Here are 3 cards that I wished I would have got to use more but didn't,

1) Valley of Dry Bones

This was an interesting choice for my 7th dominant that I wish I would have used more. In my first game, I could have used it to get a block by returning a captured hero to territory, but I didn't notice the play until someone else played SoG on the captured hero leaving a LS available. It was really nice knowing that I had another way in addition to YWR to add characters to battle, but I never had to use it.

2) Eternal Inheritance

I never had the opportunity to play this card, but it was nice knowing that I could draw with Philemon and not have to worry about FW. I don't remember seeing FW at all really. I only remember playing good enhancements in battle once or twice, usually to negate something, and that was enough to win most rescues.

3) Necromancer

I really wanted to use this card to copy a Woman with Child or Uzzah or something, but I only blocked twice all day. once with Uzzah, and once with Fire Foxes.

Of the three games I won, 2 ended in 3 turns. One game I lost because my opponent went first and got a much better opening board, and the other game came down to who was able to play Mourn and Weep.

This is the first time I've been able to play since last Nationals. This deck was really fun to pilot and I always enjoy the opportunity to play with skilled and experienced T1-Multi players.

I don't think Necromancer/Uzzah works (unless there is another Uzzah in play that you can target with the "discard Uzzah" ability).

That aside, I really like this deck. Reverence and Awe is super underrated IMO. The only change I could see myself making is trying to cram Gam's Speech into the main deck...with the power of Mourn & Weep, I think you want to give yourself the best chance to control the board in that regard.

Good point. Thanks.

If I were to fit Gamaliel's Speech in the deck I would probably swap it with Overcome, but having Overcome in the main deck makes Consider the Lilies a little more versatile. Gamaliel's Speech was almost always what I got with 5th Seal.

Another card that would be nice to have is Christian Martyr so that I could use CM + Valley to add any hero or CM + Necromancer + Woman with Child for the 5th, but I don't know if it is worth swapping Falling Away for CM.

Since I already have Reverence and Awe, Storehouse + Eternal Judgement or something else in reserve wouldn't be a bad option either.