Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Booster Record:

Derek T. - 2/2 Tie
George C. - 5/2 Win
Neeka P. - 5/2 Win
Shon S. - 3/5 Loss
Steve L. - 5/3 Win
Chris F. - 5/3 Win
Brayden E. - 5/2 Win

Decklist: 50

Heroes: 13
2x Shelah, the Subsumed
Issac, Willing Sacrifice
Shem, Covenant Keeper
Eber, the Unwilling
Jared, the Beholder
Rebekah, the Bride
Mahalalel, the Interpreter
Serug, the Branch
Hezron, the Enclosed
Enosh, the Worshipper
Enoch, the Pure
Mary, Faithful Servant

Good Enhancements: 7
2x Jacob Buries the Idols
Answer to Prayer
Wild Ox (never played as an EC)
Israel's Sword
Israel's Bow
Root of Jesse

Evil Characters: 10
2x Ahaziah, the Wicked
Jehoiachin, the Conquered
Aliens (Brown/Grey)
Abijam, the Half-Hearted
Joash, the Murderer
Jehoiakim, Puppet King
Mattan, Priest of Baal
Rezon, Son of Eliada
Syrian Marauders

Evil Enhancements: 9
2x Murder in the Temple
2x Torn Kingdom (played once as a GE)
Return the Captives
Turncoat
All the Curses (never played as an artifact)
Destroying Bands
Mercenary Chariots

Support: 4
Ride on Victoriously
Land of Moab
Stalks of Flax
Asherah Pole

Souls: 7
7x Meek

Reserve: 7
Amminadab, the Generous
Boaz' Reapers
Jehoiada, King Maker
Edomite Camp
Syrian Archer
All the Curses
King's Signet Ring

Booster Report:

Booster is not a category I have much experience in as I try to avoid competitive Redemption multiplayer whenever possible but after the change to a 2 player format, it is becoming one of my favorites. This was my first draft with LoC super packs and it was an interesting experience knowing every single card drafted would end up in my deck (or at least Reserve). My draft strategy was simply to take whatever good and evil brigade I got strong cards from first (blue/brown) then take every single card possible of those colors for the first 1-2 packs. I passed a few stronger cards in other colors but the plan payed off when I started getting passed every single blue/brown card in the last few packs, providing me enough cards to have a single cohesive brigade through the whole deck (except for the splash of grey). I tried to get fancy in the last pack or two with the Boaz' Reapers but never found an enhancement to combo with him.

The notable weaknesses of the deck were a complete lack of interrupts on offense and a general lack of powerful combos. All my cards were decently strong in a vacuum but I didn't really have anything particularly powerful going on which let me outlast less consistent decks but couldn't keep up with top tier decks in the pool. As for individual cards, Stalks of Flax far exceeded my expectations. I have never played the card before this Nats despite playing the game for over a decade but it was probably the single biggest thing separating me from winning and losing in multiple rounds. Asherah Pole and RoV both hardly got any use. Amminadab off Land of Moab with zero backup got way more Souls than he should have. Especially early on in the game, soul gen + tricking my opponent into thinking I had stuff to play on him before they realized I wasn't a Ruth deck turned out to be pretty strong plus the site was the most common card given away with Jehoiachin.

Overall I'm pretty confident Brown is the best defense in the format while Blue seems below average. Ruth, Gold, and Red/Purple all have higher potential but that also means that they will be fought over more leaving Blue open. My results seem to prove that simply running a consistent mono-Blue deck is decent but other colors will more consistently deliver the high power combos required to reach 1st place.

Evidently I barely exceeded the post limit on the report...

Sealed Report:

In contrast to Booster, Seal is a category I do have significant experience in. Similarly to Booster, however, I had no experience playing it with super packs. LoC super pack Sealed has the potential to produce some of the strongest Sealed decks ever seen, especially for J (already a known powerhouse) due to the overwhelming presence of White, Gold, and Purple, to say nothing of the fact that the white cards are almost all Ruth synergy.

Fortunately, I got J. Unfortunately, I did not high-roll much beyond that. You can see from the decklist that I got a few cards of pretty much each initial brigade and card type to round out the base deck with but not quite enough to switch to mono-brigade. I would have had even less to work with had I not traded (almost) all the Red/Purple cards I opened to Dario in exchange for his White and Gold. I believe I traded for 7 of the 11 LoC cards that ended up in my main deck. This trade brought me up from a terrible deck to a solid deck, and elevated Dario from a solid deck to an excellent deck. Despite immediately losing to many of my own cards that I had just traded, without the cards I got in return there was no was I could have placed. This is my #1 advice for playing Sealed, trade for absolutely anything that can go in your deck, regardless of how strong it makes your first opponent.

I did choose not to disclose the fact that I pulled a Josiah, the Restorer as I was able to provide enough value to Dario to obtain everything he was willing to give without it. Despite only having a single enhancement in the deck that I could play on him (that I never got the chance to), he directly rescued souls in several matches and indirectly rescued souls via soul gen in almost every match. On the topic of soul gen, I opted to run 56 cards rather than 50 this year due to the fact that I didn't have any individually amazing cards to dig for and the fact that I expected the brown soul manipulation from LoC to increase the average game length.

Jehoiakim's star ability and Threshing Floor underdecked many souls across multiple matches and the extra 6 cards helped increase the drought chance by a slight margin in addition to providing me with extra value in longer games. Feast of Unleavened Bread also provided excellent value in almost every game, typically pulling Goshen, Shamgar, Trumpets and Torches, Samson's Strength, and Sing and Praise. The plan was to toss Sing and Praise with Goshen but I don't recall ever getting to pull that off. Besides the already mentioned cards, Household Idols was excellent. Ruth mirror's couldn't steal my offense while I could steal theirs and Red/Purple offenses couldn't put together annoying banding chains.

Ambushed Moabites was the only real underperforming card. I only got to use the star ability a couple times and in neither instance did it hurt the opponent at all. Overall, this was a very average pull relative to what I believe LoC sealed can produce that mostly just demonstrates the power of the J deck. After my initial loss to Dario, I faced an I deck opponent along with two I mirror matches on either side of me at bottom table. Can't wait for fresh starter decks, I&J sealed is starting to get a little old (though the super packs definitely kept things interesting this year).

There were some eventful matches during this event, not least of which was the Kansas head to head between myself and Jacob (AKA Red Wing). Jacob is an underrated Sealed player with our game being the closest and hardest fought match of mine during the event. Going into the final round, Steve, Dario, and myself were all tied but had all played each other previously so we were each playing separate matches to determine first place. My final opponent was Charles and, spoilers for my upcoming T1-2P report, this was not the first event this Nats where I faced Charles Loria in my finals match. He had terrible luck with packs and was basically working with a stock starter deck (J though it was) so I was quite impressed to see him within striking distance of a win going into the final round (which would have required Steve, Dario, and I to all lose our games but was possible). I look forward to seeing Charles continue to put up impressive results and congrats to Dario for his first Sealed championship!