Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Cards in Deck: 51

Reserve: 10

Dominants: 7
Son of God
Second Coming
Ride On
The Resurrection
Angel of the Lord
Three Woes
Falling Away

Lost Souls: 8
Hopper
Harvest
Thorns
Orphans
Crowds
Darkness
Distressed
Humble

Arts: 4
Book of the Covenant
Temple Veil
Four Drachma Coin
The New Covenant

Sites/Fortresses: 6
Patmos
The Ends of the Earth
Majestic Heavens
Herod's Temple
Bethlehem Stable
Sheol

Heroes: 11
The Angel of the Winds
The Reassuring Angel
Angel From the Sun
John, the Fisherman
Simon Peter
Matthew the Publican
Polycarp
Joanna, the Generous
Matthias
Achim, the Compiler
Lazarus, the Called

Good Enhancements: 5
Good Seed
The Ascension
Authority of Christ
Love One Another
Spirit as a Dove

Evil Characters: 6
Herod Agrippa I
Herod the Great
Herod Archelaus
Herod's Guard
Outsiders
The Deceiver

Evil Enhancements: 4
Abandonment
Futile Inquisition
Contagious Fear
Delivered

Reserve: 10
Simon the Zealous
Eternal Inheritance
Life in the Son
Untouchable
Lost Child Found
Send the Helper
His Sacrifice
You Will Remain
Herod's Executioner
Foreign Horses

Well, this was an exciting return to a game I started loving 15 years ago. I actually haven't touched my cards since Nationals 2020, but on the fateful day of June 19 2023, my brother sent me that fateful message informing me that Nate would be held only about 3 hours away from my domicile. What a great excuse it was to go spend two full days hanging out with my bros and playing a game I grew up with. I had so many cards I'd never seen before that I had to get up to speed with, but as it turns out the game hasn't changed a whole lot from my time 3 years ago. Here's what I mean by that.

The best blocks in the game are End the Battle as stalemate, protect lost souls from opponents, CBN pwn the big bands, and CBN protection. Much to my surprise, Herods offered all of these things in a neat little 10 card package which I've always thought is perfect for a defense (you'll notice my evil enhancements are all one-ofs of these items and Herod's Temple essentially makes the herods protection CBN. So with these 4 blocks being the best in the game, I knew I needed to construct an offense centered on dealing with these 4 blocks while also drawing the most amount of cards possible.

The main gameplay of the deck is well known to all - Draw as many cards as possible with Matthew, but even without a T1 Matthew, the deck can draw insanely fast. I firmly believe the best rescue in the game right now is playing The Ascension or The Resurrection post block banding in John the Fisherman and Matthias to get a bounce the evil character with a toss the next essentially making you unstoppable while also getting so much value out of all the other characters.

Game 1 - Jonathan (5-2)

Game 2 - Kevin (5-2)

Game 3 - Jay (5-2)

Game 4 - Jayden (5-3)

Game 5 - Noah (5-2)

Game 6 - Luke (5-4)

Game 7 - Jeremy (3-5)

Game 8 - Josh (5-2)

The first 5 games were definitely not easy in terms of decisions to make as I piloted the deck, but they were also not very close. The defense was effective at dealing with so many different strategies. You can actually view the footage of my games 2-8 on Jayden's YouTube channel if you feel so inclined.

The game against my brother Luke was definitely the closest game, because we think a lot alike and obviously both have our offenses tech'd against the best blocks in the game (we were running the exact same defense). Luke's build of the deck was a bit more combo heavy using Star of Bethlehem and Impartial Judgment, but the value I could get off The Ascension edged it out and a smooth Polycarp activation won the final battle for me.

Game 7 against Jeremy was one of my poorest showings in a long time. I played bad and Jeremy played flawlessly. I think our matchup would have been pretty close but alas - this game was not close and he defeated me quite soundly. After this game, I took some ibuprofen and a nap and felt much more refreshed ready to start into the last round.

Changes to the deck:

- Cut Sheol (I maybe activated it once. It was always negated when it would have been relevant) (get the deck down to 50 cards. I only played 51 cards to make Josh mad...)

- Majestic Heavens out for Fishing Boat. I want one more main deck add to battle card just in case I have an opponent running CM and FA.

- Cut Herod's Guard for Amalekites Slave - I want the soul get way more than the prevent the next and I need to be able to search for Outsiders first turn cause that's usually the only turn that card is relevant in this deck (if I go second)

- Cut Achim, the Compiler for Priests of Christ as one more way to Matthew on the first turn (if they block from hand or you'll just get a soul) I'm not sure about this but I'd like to try it out.