Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Player: Gabe Isbell

Everyone knows The Garden Tomb is really good.  A variety of TGT decks hung out at the top tables at Nationals all day.  The question wasn't whether or not people would be playing TGT, it was - what will you combine with your TGT offense?

I wanted to use the most annoying, complained about cards in Redemption from the past couple years so I combined TGT with Z's Temple and U&T.  The completed version of this deck went 36-2, winning against 35 different people and 36 different decks.  It went 6-1 at NC Regionals and an outstanding 8-0 performance at Nationals.

Teal works great with TGT because it has so many ways to remove opposing Evil Characters from play, which clears the way for TGT ladies to rescue unblocked.  Teals biggest weakness is lack of access to the NT LS and Female LS, which is also solved by TGT ladies.

Total 51

Domants 9
Angel of the Lord
Guardian Of Your Souls
Harvest Time
New Jerusalem
Son of God
Burial
Christian Martyr
Destruction of Nehushtan
Falling Away

Artifacts 5
Holy Grail
Holy of Holies
Lampstand of the Sanctuary
Unholy Writ
Urim and Thummim

Fortresses 2
The Garden Tomb
Zerubbabel's Temple

Access Sites 2
New Jerusalem
Promised Land

Lost Souls 8
Lost Soul (female only)
Lost Soul (first round)
Lost Soul (hopper)
Lost Soul (N.T. only)
Lost Soul (revealer)
Lost Soul (shuffler)
Lost Soul (wanderer)
Lost Souls (2-line)

Heroes 10
Haggai
Joanna
Phinehas, son of Eleazar
Joshua the High Priest
Joiada, Son of Eliashib
Abiathar
Priests of Christ
Ahimaaz
Mary the Mother of James
Salome

Good Enhancements 9
Feast of Trumpets
First Fruits
Passover & Unleavened Bread
Pentecost
Trumpet Blast
Jordan Interrupted
Filling Zerubbabel’s Temple
Holy unto the Lord
Zeal for the Lord

Evil Characters 5
The Amalekites' Slave
Uzzah
Seven Sons of Sceva
King of Tyrus
Prince of this World

Evil Enhancement 1
Haman's Plot

There were two cards changed between NC Regionals and Nationals.  Tim Maly suggested adding Holy Grail after winning 5-4 in our game at NC Regionals.  I also bumped the deck up to 51 cards by adding Haman's Plot, mostly to help against Captain bands.  Both turned out to be a great addition.  Holy Grail won me a few rescues and probably even a game vs Kurt Hake.  I registered 3 copies of the deck so I could use 3 Haman's Plot (if necessary).  I used the 3rd one during the 8th and final round.

If people are interested I'll add commentary about how to play the deck at a later time.

How did you beat John M?

I thought his offense would have crushed you unless you used the plot on him

How did you beat John M?

I thought his offense would have crushed you

Nick, I don't think they played. I checked the spread a bit ago.

...to utterly destroy the defense? i think thats the purpose of all tgt decks

im surprised to see no john/aoc promo. women as snares is also a great card for tgt.

well Another defense light deck by Gabe.  I hope this isnt the trend of things to come...

How did you beat John M?

I thought his offense would have crushed you unless you used the plot on him

You thought correctly.  I ripped my last Plot against him in the 8th and final round.  Another factor was when he forgot to exchange the "wanderer" LS for a "2 liner" LS early in the game, earning him half instead of a rescue.  Ultimately it really just came down to I drew SoG/NJ before he did.

im surprised to see no john/aoc promo. women as snares is also a great card for tgt.

Both are great ideas.

I seriously considered using purple instead of green for my third color.  Ultimately I went for the green guys because of the extra banding options they gave me and the chance to search for Z's Temple.  In the end, teal is able to remove enough ECs that AoCp wasn't entirely necessary.

Women as Snares was in the deck until Nationals.  She got the cut to make room for Holy Grail.  I found that I rarely used her.  She gives my opponent more souls to rescue and never gets a successful block (in this deck).  Part of my defense is LS manipulation via Dominants, shuffler, wanderer and 2 liner.  She works against that plan.

With two green Heroes, Provisions also seems like it would have fit nicely. Maybe for First Fruits?

Provisions was on the short list of cards I really wanted to squeeze into the deck but didn't have room if I wanted to keep it at 50 (well OK, 51 ) cards.  I don't have any ECs of my own that I want to choose (OK, Women as Snares would have been fun).  In theory I can set up some combos to take out my opponent's ECs.  This deck often doesn't have that kind of time.  By some peoples definition this might be the new face of speed.

Also, First Fruits recursion got me to my SoG/NJ or TGT quickly on more than one occasion.  I'd probably be more likely to remove Feast of Trumpets.

Why no Hormah or other sites?  especially with the two liner?

Why no Hormah or other sites?  especially with the two liner?

hormah would only trigger off 2 of his 3 human ec's...2 actually, if he uses tas' ability. those arent very good odds for a hormah inclusion.

how did the dfence fair? i know about the doms lost souls and all that jazz but what about the evil characters and plot?

The defense was able to get a few blocks in for me each game and that's typically all I need.  Unholy Writ worked great.  I'm really happy with the addition of Haman's Plot.  I can't believe I didn't try it at States or Regionals.  My intent was to only use it if I felt it's absolutely necessary.  I'm not sure I could have won any of the three games I ripped HP without it.  Two of them I still probably shouldn't have won.

Why no Hormah or other sites?  especially with the two liner?

hormah would only trigger off 2 of his 3 human ec's...2 actually, if he uses tas' ability. those arent very good odds for a hormah inclusion.

  I love Hormah and use it in almost every deck that has enough human ECs.  KChief nailed my reasoning for not including it.

How do you judge this decks record?
 This deck in it's 100% entirety (with no changes) went 36-2

 This deck in it's 90% entirety (between 1 to 3 cards exchanged).

    -or-
 
  This deck since it's conception (a possible 10 to 15 cards exchanged).

I'm asking mostly because I'm curious about something.   

The original version tried a completely different deffense (which turned out to be epic fail).  The offense was only different by three cards but even that makes a huge difference.  I consider the version that I took to States and Regionals the finished version.

Jonathan, your 5-4 win on RTS against this deck on May 21st was it's first loss.  So you're the only person to defeat me with this deck besides Tim at NC Regionals.  There's a feather for your cap!

I dunno, I just think 3-4 sites would have made this deck way stronger and not slowed it down all that much.

Including a shabbat breaker like his last Nats winning deck migh have sped it up even more I (and given him another human ec to search for with TAS and d/c for hormah)

Those are both good ideas that might work out very well.  I'm not willing to take the deck any higher than 50 cards (OK, 51 with HP).  If you want to give it a try I'd be interested to hear how it works for you.

Awesome job on winning again Gabe and congrats! 
Are they gonna make you into a dominant one day? 

Congrats!
And yes, to answer the question asked earlier, splash defenses are still positively brutal, even with TGT decks as popular as they are. It's about the only reasonable way to make a 50 card deck, and as anyone will tell you, Type 1 is a lot about who gets their dominants first.

How many other people were playing TGT against you?

I can't recall exactly but at least 4 out of 8, maybe more.  Most of the decks at the table on the stage (spots 1-4) contained TGT all day in T1-2P.

Everyone is a cynic 

Though, I agree, it makes for some boring tournaments.