Commentary:I was not able to make nationals last year but I moved to WI and had a lot of free time on my hands in August/September and began heavily delving into making decks with the new cards.. The first version of the defense was paired with a Blue Genesis offense and only had one Assyrian (Survivor) but Polarius pointed out that my defense had more strength with ASA and A Archer and that it had more synergy with Judges. I made the first draft of this deck 2 weeks after nationals so I believe I am one of the first players to construct a Judges and Magician/Assyrian deck.
After a few games with 7 judges (one of those Samuel) and Aaron as a 2nd prophet (alongside Samuel), I realized that Hosea would be a tremendous addition to the deck especially as I had 3 banding ECs that could be used as fodder for him. Plus it gave me more options to play Wheel on and get my offense sooner.
This deck was fairly quick. Although it was outsped by Egyptian defenses and pure Samuel decks, I never once lost to any of those decks.
This was one of my most fun decks to play with ever in T1 2p. Some of my MVPs:
Invoking Terror - I was able to play it 4 times in some games much to the dismay of my opponent.
Balaam - Best character to block Susanna. Their only respite was AotL/Grapes/FioHP. I played RBD out of my d/c pile so many games for a 7/12 EC to keep stalling near the end of games.
Habakkuk Stands Watch - This was one of the sneaky cards no one expected to hit play. Won many a rescue based on that.
Next 5 cards in: (no particular order)Judge's Seat - early versions of the deck had this card. I usually abide by the principle that if I don't use a card in 1/3 games then I should probably look for a stronger card. I rarely found the card helpful more than reducing my deck by 1 card via Jair pulling it. And since Jair can d2 anyways, I realized that I would rather have any 2 cards in many more situations than I wanted J's Seat. Against large defenses it can be a helpful card but I found that my deck had several tricks up its sleeve anyways.
Divination - I love this card as I can stall my opponent by playing it right after DoU and hiding souls that might have surfaced. However I did not use it as often as other cards to merit its use.
Dragon Raid - I know this is a gamble not running an access site but I faced very few site decks. The only real decks that had sites other than a Hormah splash were Samaria decks so I knew that Nazareth would give me access along with my 3 green heroes. I initially decked Nazareth and Dragon Raid. I switched DR out for Habakkuk Stands Watch as that card would give me access for a turn but would also serve as a battle winner. With Hopper, TAS, A Survivor, and Hosea I felt confident I could produce enough lost souls that my opponent couldn't site before I could have a chance at them. Also I had Grail to make a hero of any brigade with AotL and Provisions to support a hero of any color. And Samson's Sacrifice could be used in a pinch for access. I never once lost to a deck with sites after making the switch from Dragon Raid to Habbakuk Stands Watch. I was able to use it as a battle winner on 2/3 of games on Hosea/Aaron when my opponent figured I was bluffing on a RA and had nothing to play.
King David - This deck's only challenge was Samaria defenses that got set up very early and I felt King David would be a way to bypass most of their ECs as Hosea could snipe Gomer and Uzzah would kill himself. I do not see many non-royalty brown ECs in decks this year. I would plan to speed my deck up a card with him and band him in off Deb's Directive if needed but he kept coming in and out of the deck.
Obadiah's Caves - A few games my win was delayed a turn or two by a pesky Writ or Charms that I had to get past. In those games, either Gideon was captured earlier or I didn't have Oak yet so I had to go with Aaron/Moses. Caves would have allowed for others to get past capture.
First card to come out:Nazareth - Naz gave me flexibility to slow down decks that relied on searching and helped against Captured Ark and Mayhem more times than I can count. I played it a few games before I did my own searches because I was worried of my opponents' Sam deck. Some games I discarded Nazareth because I wanted to search myself still.
God bless,
Kirk
