Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Player: John Earley
Cards in deck: 51
Lost Souls: 8
   Lost Soul (anti-burial)
   Lost Soul (Female Only)
   Lost Soul (hopper)
   Lost Soul (N.T. only)
   Lost Soul (revealer)
   Lost Soul (shuffler)
   Lost Soul (Wanderer)
   Lost Souls (3-line)

Lamb Dominants: 5
   Angel of the Lord
   Guardian Of Your Souls
   Harvest Time
   New Jerusalem
   Son of God

Grim Reaper Dominants: 4
   Burial
   Christian Martyr
   Destruction of Nehushtan
   Falling Away

Fortresses: 1
   The Garden Tomb

Artifacts: 4
   Holy Grail
   Samaritan Water Jar
   Temple Veil
   Unholy Writ

Multi-Color Heroes: 1
   Faithful Servant

White Heroes: 6
   John Earley (4/4 Musician, Returns a Hymn to bottom of deck)
   Joanna
   Lydia
   Mary the Mother of James
   Salome
   Susanna

Red Heroes: 1
   Peter

Gold Heroes: 2
   The Thankful Leper
   The Woman at the Well

Purple Heroes: 2
   John
   Lois

Multi-Color Hero Enhancements: 5
   Benedictus (Teal/White)
   First Fruits
   Lay Down Your Life
   Pentecost
   Preaching the Truth

White Hero Enhancements: 3
   Consider the Lilies
   'He Is Risen'
   Words of Encouragement

Gold Hero Enhancements: 1
   Meeting the Messiah

Purple Hero Enhancements: 2
   Authority of Christ
   Reach of Desperation

Gold Evil Characters: 1
   King of Tyrus

Gray Evil Characters: 1
   Sabbath Breaker

Brown Evil Characters: 2
   Gomer
   Uzzah

Brown Evil Enhancements: 1
   Haman's Plot

As you can see, this deck is a slightly modified version of this deck So I'll let you read that for most of the commentary - The changes between the two decks were actually quite simple:

Out of 2010 version:

Three Nails
Joanna (Green)
The Generous Widow
Convincing Miracle

In 2011 version:

John Earley
Joanna (White)
Benedictus
Lay Down your Life

The Joanna change is pretty much irrelevant, but I really liked the other three changes - I can't count the number of times Lay Down your Life saved me from CM. Benedictus was a no-brainer to me because of Golgatha, but I don't think I used it once to stop Golgatha. The custom hero was in because c'mon, how legit is that, and because I wanted a way to recur Benedictus, Ethan was in version 2 and 3.

I only played the deck in two tournaments this year - NC regionals where I tied for third at 5-1, and Nationals where I placed second at 9-1. I have never ripped a plot whilst playing this deck, and only strongly considered playing it twice, against John N. in the last round at Nationals, but he had AotL available so I didn't get the chance to. And then against Matt I had it, but had no way of getting a character into battle against his TGT, otherwise I would have played it there as well.

This deck is FTW.  modding a deck from last season that shouldn't work anymore and getting 2nd place at the biggest tournament in 2 years is epic.(It shouldn't work as good if di sites were played but they weren't)

Because, despite it's crazy popularity, the chance of drawing it in the opening hand, and the perception that a FTM will win you the game most of the time, I simply don't think its that good. I had three people play first or second turn Mayhem's against me - I beat 2 of them, and the game I lost (to Matt) wasn't necessarily because of mayhem. Also, in order to truly take advantage of Mayhem, it helps to be able to get, and keep your hand at a small number. This deck tends to play a bit enhancement heavy, and I hate to play down my EC's, so I can't use it very effectively. The only reason I would consider playing it would be for lost soul generation, and I think I've got plenty of that already.