Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Good:

Son of God
The Second Coming
Angel of the Lord
Grapes of Wrath
Guardian of Your Souls

Wall of Protection

Phinehas, son of Eleazar (FoM)
The Mighty Warrior
Joshua, son of Nun
Ahimaaz (FoM)
Uriah the Hittite
Spy x3
Mighty Men x2
Asahel
Captured Kinsmen x2
Ahimelek the Hittite
Benaiah (FoM)
Caleb (FoM)
Ishmaiah the Gibeonite
Captain of the Host (WA)

Jordan Interrupted (PoC) x2
Trumpet and Sword x2
Hailstones (FoM) x2
A Soldier's Prayer x4
Bravery of David x2
The Battle is the Lord's x2
Covenant with Adam (Patr)

Evil:
Christian Martyr
Falling Away (CoW)
Shipwreck
Vain Philosophy
Rubble & Dust

Jericho
Babel

Outsiders (B/G) x2
The Winged Leopard (PoC)
King of Tyrus (PoC)
The Amalekites Slave
The Priest of Zeus x2
Demetrius the Silversmith x2
Goliath
High Priest Ananias
Lot's Wife
Og, King of Bashan
Nebuchanezzar
The Deceiver x2

The Wages of Sin
Paying Taxes
Regrets x2
Betrayal x2
Scattered Sheep x2
Seized by Rioters x4
Baal Worship x3
The Fall of Man

Neutral/DA:

Destruction of Nehushtan
Three Woes
Book of the Covenant
Urim and Thummim
Golden Calf
Fourth Bowl of Wrath
Gibeonite Treaty
Foreign Sword
Darkness LS x2
Lawless LS x2
Covet LS x2
Prosperity LS x2
Exiles LS x2
Humble LS x2
Hunter LS x2

Reserve:
I am Creator
You Will Remain x2
Eternal Covenant
Urim and Thummim
Roman Spear
Unknown Nation
Sisera
Canaan, the Cursed
Fortify Site

Deck commentary and game recaps to come later... 

It does need a lot more work than I thought it did, (or the online meta just ended up different than the T2 Only meta), but 5 more Spies is not one of those things...

Game 1 vs Andy G.

Unfortunately this ended up being one of those "first game poor shuffle" type draws and I drew hardly any good enhancements all game. Combined with the fact that Andy had an early Red Dragon (who couldn't be overcome by my banding chains) and that meant a very poor offensive game for me. Andy also made some very nice plays, including activating Covenant of Palestine at just the right moment to take my Babel. Though I got it back a couple turns later with Caleb, it bought him the turn he needed to stay ahead. On the bright side, my defense held for the most part, and I ended up forcing the time out.

4-3 time out loss

Game 2 vs Caleb B.

This game got off to a much better start for me and my offense was rolling early and often. Caleb had a fairly bad draw as his opening hand included 3 copies of Four Drachma Coin, but he didn't draw either of his Peters until way late in the game. An early Covenant with Adam also let me pick off his small Egyptian ECs with Asahel's choose the blocker to get some easy Lost Souls, and I was able to use Rubble & Dust to discard a Dreaming Pharaoh holding a prevented Egyptian Horses. This game was the first time I ever used Betrayal as territory class and ended up playing both of them to underdeck his Storehouse, which was really helping him by protecting his hand against my Mighty Men and allowing him to cycle his enhancements while trying to set up his combo. After not being able to do much for most of the game, he made a late drawing push to get 2 with SoG/TSC, but I kept him from pulling off his all or nothing combo, and then eventually won when he forgot I had You Will Remain active and tried using Grapes for a block.

7-2 win

Game 3 vs Nathan L.

As he usually does against me, Nathan played down first turn Music Leader. I decided to be aggressive and used Christian Martyr on the Music Leader before blocking and proceeded to use 3 searches plus a draw ability. This helped me get set up very fast, which was good because as is usually the case, it wasn't long before Music Leader was back. However, between Golden Calf, Babel and Woes, Music Leader didn't end up doing much searching and a mid-game Trumpet and Sword to clear his defense helped me get the win.

7-2 win

Game 4 vs Greg M.

Nathan and I sat at the same table as Nathan Voigt and Greg during round three and though I was doing my best not to peak over at their game, it was pretty hard not to notice that by the end of the game Nathan's territory was all but empty and Greg had 40ish cards on the table. However, this game was more or less won on the opening draw. Greg had a lone Hero with one negate plus a bunch of defense and I had the first turn Mighty Men. He had gone first and I was able to get the first block Betrayal for a nice draw 3 and then on my turn got a draw 7 as he was holding Scattered, Damsel and Envy. Though he blocked with Damsel, I had put all my multi-brigade cards down before attacking (and didn't draw any with Mighty Men) so he only got a draw 1. After I got off to such a blazing start, he made the right decision to slow down and keep the Lost Souls from coming out, and I lamented that I was being soul droughted by a FooF Isaiah deck...I might be the only person ever who that has happened to... Although I was in control most of the game, my Son of God ended up being in the last three cards of my deck (the only three I didn't draw as it turns out), but I was able to rescue #6 and then played Second Coming to "search" for Son of God (being the top card of my now three card deck).

7-3 win

Game 5 vs Jayden A.

Going into the final round, I was sitting in first place with my 3 wins and 1 time-out loss, 1 point ahead of Jayden, Nathan V. and Greg who all had 3 wins and a full loss. I got off to another fantastic start as my territory development in the first two turns was pretty much the same as it had been in my game against Greg. However, there was one vital piece missing: The Priest of Zeus. Although I was set up pretty well, Jayden had just enough defense to hold me to just one early Lost Soul. Just when I thought maybe I would start breaking through, he drew a Covenant of Prayer, grabbed the AutO from his reserve and proceeded to completely outdraw me the rest of the game. I also got a bit stuck with him holding Scattered and Christian Martyr, and not having drawn my Book of the Covenant to get my You Will Remains. For some reason, I always seem to forget that Jayden will inevitably choose to run a Judges offense, and I pretty much have no answer for Auto/Gideon with Edict in my deck. I used my TSC to grab an early Three Woes, which got me that first Lost Soul, but after that I never drew Son of God and Angel was used in a fruitless attempt to defeat his demon-magician banding chain.

7-1 loss

3rd place

Jayden always runs judges. Jay always runs judges. The first three letters in Jayden’s name is J-A-Y. The Fort letter in judges is J. In order to pronounce both names you say J.
We’re on to you two.
Justin, awesome looking deck, it seems extremely fast with a lot of splash on defense, very un-Justin of you. Looks like you could’ve easily won, as about 3-5 of you guys could have.

The Battle is the Lord's over CoA is surprising to me.  But, just about every Red GE over CoA is surprising to me

One of the strategies of the deck is not only to win the battle, but to set up future rescues as well. This meant finding ways to make sure that battle winners like Hailstones (when played off a Joshua Hero) and 4th Bowl of Wrath were less likely to be negated. By using Urim and Thummim (or Spy), I would know if my opponent was holding a negate. As long as that negate was not CBP or CBN, I could play TBitL followed by my winner to ensure the winner stuck.

I think Faith of Barak is an underrated and underused Red GE.  Isn't Faith of Barak better than Hailstones in just about every scenario, except for maybe Coliseum?

And the scenario in which you have 6 Joshua Heroes (Spy x3, Caleb, Captain and Joshua) who can play Hailstones... 

Faith of Barak was in the original list, but for some reason I just wasn't needing it in the games I tested. I was having more trouble with negating my opponent's battle winners so hence TBitL.

With Ahimelek and Captured Kinsmen, no copies of Battle Cry?  (Battle Cry banding to CK is a sneaky play that could negate cards like Betrayal, Regrets, Outsiders (B/G), KoT, etc.)

With this specific list, Ahimelek probably doesn't even belong. I would have much rather had a second copy of Uriah. Captured Kinsmen was tricky...he also negates cards like my Phinehas (who often started the banding chains so I could end with Mighty Men or Asahel with Ishmaiah in between), Jordan Interrupted, Trumpet and Sword, Hailstones and 4th Bowl of Wrath. I typically only used Kinsmen for the soul gen plus I wanted to keep them on stand-by in the event an important Hero like Mighty Men or Asahel was captured.