Cactus Game Design Message Boards

FoM Blue Part 2: Keeping the good times rolling

(Disclaimer: This is from a T2 perspective, but some parts may apply to T1)

(Part 1: http://www.cactusforums.com/redemption-card-play/fom-blue-part-one-return-with-a-vengeance/)

Ok so in my previous topic, I talked about how I thought Blue (specifically Sons of Jacob) might be ready to be a powerful theme again.  That topic was mainly about Deceit and Vengeance, and how powerful I believe it to be.
 
But just having strong cards in your deck isn’t really enough on its own, especially when these cards need to be used in combination with specific other cards to maximize their potential.  And of course, you want to be able to use these strong combinations turn after turn.  To reliably pull this off you will either need a repeatable search engine (think music leader) or a lot of card draw.  Blue already had some pretty good cards for this prior to FoM such as Book of Hosai and Seven Years of Plenty, but today I want to talk about one of their new options.

The card I want to talk about is Midianite’s Slave.

Spoiler (hover to show)

Honestly, I’m actually a little on the fence about this one because it allows both players to draw 2, and allowing your opponent to draw extra cards (even if you are also) can be very dangerous.  To accept this risk, you must believe that getting your deck going is better than your opponent doing the same.  And I really do believe that CBN Deceit and Vengeance is just that strong.  But there are some ways to get extra advantage out of Midianite’s slave.
 
The most basic of these is Gifts of the Magi, and I think it is an excellent option.  Gifts essentially ensures that you will always get at least 2 cards more than your opponent, either 4 for you and 2 for them, or 2 for you and 0 for them.
 
Another way to gain extra advantage out of Midianite’s Slave is to abuse the fact that it captures itself to your opponent’s land of bondage.  Generating a Lost Soul for you to be able to rescue later definitely can be a good option at times, but I think the more interesting options involve having a captured character available for other purposes.
I think Levi is supposed to be the obvious option for this, as Midianite’s Slave can directly add him to battle.  And sure, getting to discard a male evil character is nice, but then after that you are stuck in battle with a 10/10 and maybe also a 11/8 (Simeon) giving your opponent loads of initiative.  Sometimes that will be enough on its own, and if you want to get exotic you can even use Helmet of Brass to play first!  But overall I don't think it will be very reliable and I prefer the less direct option: Abram’s Army.
 
Abram’s Army cannot be added directly to battle by Midianite’s Slave however, and while waiting until the next turn and just attacking with it then is certainly fine, I think you will get the most out of both cards if you add a low initiative Son of Jacob first and then get clever with bringing Abram’s Army in mid battle.  There it can just win the battle if needed (even CBI against OT), and also release Midianite’s Slave to be used again next turn.  So what are the good ways to get Abram’s Army into battle?  If you have one in deck (and Shrine to Artemis is great for recycling) Numerous as the Stars is a great option, and it also reshuffles itself for later use!  Answer to Prayer, the swiss army knife of Genesis, can also search one out of deck.  If you have an Abram’s Army in play, Unified Language (which happens to be Genesis) can band it into battle (plus any beneficial character belonging to opponent), and Not Alone can interrupt an opponent’s evil or neutral card and then band Abram’s Army (and another of your characters) into battle for the win.

Another way to get extra advantage out of Midianite’s Slave is to use the artifact side of The Rainbow.  While technically not extra card advantage as it only topdecks a card from reserve, having one of the cards that you draw from Midianite’s Slave be the exact card that you will need in the coming battle is extremely valuable.  (Side note on The Rainbow, you can also use it in combination with Ends of the Earth to grab the enhancement that you topdeck that turn.)

Anyways, I’m not sure how it will actually turn out, but I am excited to get my hands on Midianite’s Slave and start testing him out to see how good he actually is!  Are there any more great combos that I missed?  How good do you think Midianite’s Slave will be?

One thing to be mindful of is how potent Gideon's Ephod will be in this meta. We finally have a defensive card which balances out the issue of initiative heroes being so lethal. This in combination with the protected from discard no longer being above game rule ie decreased to /0

I recommend maybe running a few copies of Jacob Buries the Foreign gods to play with even special initiative. This will help ensure you have your power play rescues with your best heroes without having to worry about losing them to Ephod.. Which in all honesty imo every deck should have Crimson/Brown Outsiders with Ephod in reserve.. It's that good.

I definitely agree about Jacob Buries the Foreign gods to combat Ephod for sure.  I really like how JBtFg makes the strong combo you mention of Outsiders>Ephod look bad...it negates and discards Ephod and wins the battle by itself.  Joseph before Pharoah is another good option to get rid of Ephod that I plan on running, as well as Three Woes, DoN and possibly Treasures of War.

Have you considered running Noah/AnB with hypocrisy and maybe the flood? Contrary to running The Flood like your point about how they can't block with a duplicate if it's set aside, but if you Flood then AnB they are all dc and reset. Not sure what you are doing on defense but blue should be pretty fast now. I can imagine you would be able to setup the combo and once you reset them hitting them again with the initiative heroes and cbn winners is pretty strong.

AnB might be worth testing out, it is definitely a strong card, but I get nervous when thinking about how anything could happen after it is played.  Defense I think I am leaning towards brown (proably Kings of Judah) right now, but I haven't fully decided.

Little off topic, but why does everyone thing Ephod is so strong? I get that it's good, but it just doesn't seem that amazing to me.

I'd like to know this as well, RoP seems to be covered by individual enhancements now and the decrease is nothing we haven't seen on an artifact before.

Little off topic, but why does everyone think Ephod is so strong? I get that it's good, but it just doesn't seem that amazing to me.

It autoblocks the worst offenders of initiative abuse with Brown Crimson Outsiders and fits into any reserve.. It's an autoblock and then it's uzzah chowder

If you had areopagus, you can activate Ephod on that plus have Plagued with diseases for a decrease of 0/6 and that even gets worst with teams if your partner does the same 

Little off topic, but why does everyone think Ephod is so strong? I get that it's good, but it just doesn't seem that amazing to me.

I like the idea of attacking with a 4/1 Samuel, and then playing Samuel’s Edict.