Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Player: Kirk Dennison

For background on the decks I used in other years in which I placed at nationals, view these threads:
2007
2010

Background:

After playing a Besieging the City combo for 2 years at nationals with an aggregate record of 8-2 with it in nationals tournament play I knew that it would be ill-advised to run it again at the national level. I did run it at regionals to throw smoke to the wind of what I was actually brewing.

I actually developed 2 ideas that I was confident in and had trouble picking which was my main deck.

Result: 3rd place, (5-1), 15 pts, +10 LS

1st Deck: Reuben's Torn Clothes (2-1)
(7-5 win against Josh Randolph, 7-2 loss against Tim Maly, 7-3 win against Tyler Stevens)

Cards in Deck: 112 (43/43/26)

NEUTRAL: 26

Lost Souls: 15
   Lost Soul (punisher) x2
   Lost Soul (1st round)
   Lost Soul (anti-ignore) x2
   Lost Soul (can't be prevented) x2
   Lost Soul (female only) x2
   Lost Soul (N.T. only) x2
   Lost Soul (revealer) x2
   Lost Soul (shame) x2

Artifacts: 9
   Blue Tassels
   Book of the Law x2
   Lampstand of the Sanctuary
   Priestly Crown
   Stone Pillar at Bethel x2
   Unholy Writ x2

Sites: 2
   Promised Land x2

GOOD: 43

Lamb Dominants: 4
   Angel of the Lord (G)
   Guardian of Your Souls
   New Jerusalem
   Son of God

Fortresses: 4
   Storehouse
   Wall of Protection
   Zerubbabel's Temple x2

Covenants: 3
   I am Salvation x2
   Covenant of Palestine

Heroes: 16
   Jehoram the Priest x2
   Angel at Shur (promo)
   Angel of God
   Captain of the Host (wa) x2
   Agur x2
   Benjamin x2
   Jacob (FoOF) x3
   Tribal Elder x3

Hero Enhancements: 16
   Gathering of Angels x3
   Abraham's Servant to Ur x2
   Answer to Prayer x2
   Jacob Buries the Foreign gods x2
   Obedience of Noah x2
   Reuben's Torn Clothes x5

EVIL: 43

Grim Reaper Dominants: 3
   Burial
   Christian Martyr
   Destruction of Nehushtan

Fortresses: 3
   Gates of Jerusalem
   Kingdoms of the World (P)
   The Darkness

Curses: 5
   Captured Ark x3
   Unknown Nation x2

Evil Characters: 16
   Abner (k)
   Athaliah
   Complainers x2
   Covenant Breakers
   Esau (Pat)
   Haman (promo)
   King Ahaziah
   King Jehoram
   King Zedekiah x2
   The Jeering Youths
   Unclean Spirit
   Uzzah x2
   King Rehoboam (k)

Evil Enhancements: 16
   Crucify Him
   Dungeon of Malchiah x3
   Gibeonite Trickery x5
   Haman's Plot x4
   Shimei's Malicious Curse x3

1st Deck Commentary:

I actually built 2 copies of this deck to check along with my 3rd deck for Haman's Plot abuse. I made a change the week before nationals to add Gabriel (k) x2 into the deck and I removed some enhancement and something else for him. I don't recall what the exact change was but I think Jake Buries x1 went out along with something else. I remembered Clift playing Sin in the Camp at regionals and I wanted to tech against that deck. Little did I know that Gabe was piloting that deck (to the eventual first place finish). I figured Tyler or someone else from MN might play it.

I only ripped 1 or 2 plots in my 3 games with this deck. First card out was a copy of Gabriel (k).

Strategy revolved around Tribal Elder/Jake/Captain or Jake + RTC in the early game. In the late game my win strategy was gathering Agur or Jehoram and placing RTC on Jake before banding to Angel at Shur or Angel or God. Infinite recursion due to Book of the Law, which was protected due to Lampstand (and even if they DoN'd 1 I had another), and Christian Martyr/Unholy Writ wouldn't stop my rescue due to RTC applying to all Genesis heroes, and Angel at Shur and Angel of God being Genesis angels.

King Rehoboam was there to play Jake Buries on Benjamin in a side battle if my opponent had a Golden Calf which would stall my end game recursion.

The deck worked beautifully in game 1 at nationals but I hit the deck's worst draw in any game against Tim Maly in game 2, not drawing enough evil to thwart his Garden Tomb. I switched to my 2nd deck after that loss. However, in the final match I switch back to my main deck as I was leery of ANB reset and Sin in the Camp as possible decks in my final game. Little did I know Tyler was playing ANB reset and Gabe was playing Sin in the Camp. I didn't ask around so I honestly had no idea what they were really playing. I just heard they were playing great decks.

Tyler was in 5-0 and had beaten Gabe head-to-head, Gabe was 4-1 with the best differential, and I was 4-1. In the final round I grabbed an early Jake/Captain and beat down Tyler's FBN deck even after a reset or two. My win knocked Tyler into 2nd (Gabe taking first beating John Earley) and I took 3rd.

2nd Deck Commentary:

I had created a simple but effective combo in the spring of 2007 (King Rehoboam + In the Clouds) which allowed for the defender to make 2 heroes in territory fight and play In the Clouds to bounce the rescuing hero all while the rescuing hero couldn’t stop your block. Ben Arp ran this in a T1 deck at 2007 Nats but I had never run it in a tournament before. With the release of Gates of Jerusalem, I realized how effective the combo would be for T2 due to Rehoboam’s ability being safe from negation.

The goal was infinite blocks with King Rehoboam to make my two heroes fight and play In the Clouds and Book of Jashar if needed to return up to 4 attacking heroes band to owner’s hand. Then I played Trust to return the hero and enhancements safely to hand. Coat was necessary if I needed Book but I could play the combo off Lydia or FS promo without Coat. The defense could start getting blocks quickly as I needed Gates + King Rehoboam. To complete the lock down I had Kingdom’s + Wall to stop any Choose the Blocker rescues, I put at least 1 crimson EC in Kingdom’s to stop Garden Tomb, and I activated 3 artifacts to clinch the lock down: Priestly Breastplate on Aaron to stop Jake + RTC, Holy of Holies in the temple to allow my hero enhancements to not be negated in the case of FBN, and Darius’ Decree to keep my opponent from playing any side battle cards off of Hidden Treasures, Jacob, ET, or the like. I ran the risk of DoN hitting any of my artifacts but I had backup copies of each. My thought was that it was more important to have all 3 up than to protect just 2 of them so I was willing to give up 1 soul and wait to reactivate the 2nd copy the following turn. I also placed Uzzah in the Darkness in case I miscalculated something and they had a rescue up their sleeve I had not accounted for.

This isn’t a true combo deck as it was not a one-trick-pony where I got my combo or I lost. I had a defensive combo for infinite blocks and an offensive combo for the undisputed win. I could just wait to draw into my offense but if they attacked once or twice more after seeing my defense I would get set up quickly. Several of my opponent wisely stopped attacking, realizing they couldn’t beat me and that their attempts were helping my offense.

My offense relied on playing ‘He is Risen’ to clear their Evil Characters and then using Garden Tomb for the win. I would search out all of my NT female heroes and band them into the side battle and used The Testimony to add numbers continually to the opposing hero in the side battle so my opponent never had initiative. Once I had some NT female heroes in play I could use He is Risen in the side battle so I had an uncontested rescue (barring doms or Writ/Charms) the next turn. Long term I knew my opponent would get back their ECs so I put all 6 NT female heroes in play and played HiR x2, which cleared any and all ECs they had. The Destroyer negated their protect fortress and allowed me to take out ECs in Kingdoms as well.

If my opponent kept attacking I could play He is Risen in the side battle and I had no worries. However, if they stopped attacking, I needed Gathering of Angels on a white converted Babylonian with Horses to play He is Risen and then band to a Garden Tomb hero for the soul. So I would hope to search out at least one copy of Gathering of Angels and Holy Grail on my first block with Rehoboam so I could start attacking in 4 turns regardless if they attacked me again or not.

The deck worked perfectly and stymied my 3 opponents at nationals. It worked great against Ben Arp’s CtB deck due to my flurry of CtB counters (KotW x2, Darkness, UN x2). My only headaches were against Brandon West’s Broken Cisterns, which I had not played against before. I kept doing the math wrong and killing off my own heroes by playing other colors. So I kept being set back and having to wait several more turns to get my offense set up again.

That second deck was so effective I never even knew the offense you used. I'm not sure I ever played an enhancement.

Man, great timing on the switch of decks... my Romans could've been competitive vs RTC and I could protect from HP.