Cactus Game Design Message Boards

King Manasseh
May band to a demon or magician, or you may discard 2 of your human Evil Characters to return a Hero to owner’s hand.

Antiochus IV Epiphanes
If another Greek Evil Character is in play, discard a Hero. Opponent may discard a card of matching brigade from hand or territory instead. Cannot be negated.

I'm kind of surprised Manny is winning by such a large margin, to be honest.  Sure, he can be in either magicians, demons, or Kings of Judah, but the common offenses just roll him.  The Deck can negate his ability (unless GoJ is out), and then just play ESA or Dagger to negate any enhancements.  Disciples don't even let him block with their territory destruction and TGT.  The Fury can just straight up play around Mannykins.  And Genesis will burn all EEs in the hand.  Antiochus gives you the control directly on the ability, and is CBN, which is exactly what you need against the meta offenses.  Furthermore, A-Bomb can take out troubling things like TGT.

I think the main problem is that Antiochus is only usable in a theme that's pretty terrible at the moment. It's true that Manny gets run over or side-stepped entirely by a lot, but he's still going to see more consistent play.

Greeks aren't nearly as bad as people make them out to be, the issue becomes when people try to build entire lists around them.  Realistically, Antiochus can be used in Greeks, Demons, and Syrians, not to mention is partners with the legendary Moses killer, The Goat with Horn.