Cactus Game Design Message Boards

1. Ishmaiah the Gibeonite
9/4 Red (Canaanite) (W/C) X = number of OT heroes in battle
Draw X (limit 3). Negate special abilities on Evil Characters with toughness X or less. May band to a red O.T. Hero.

Versus

8. Ahimelek the Hittite
4/5 Red (Canaanite) (W/C)
Return an Evil Character to owner's hand. Protect your warrior class Heroes from capture. Cannot be negated if David is in play.

Ishmiah, Can be used with AUtO, Samuel, and armorbearer to draw 7 from special abilities in one turn.

With the amount of banding you can do in a Red or Red/Gold deck, and ways to draw out David, Ahimeleck is just nasty.  I've never been much of a fan of Ishy myself, and I think he's outclassed here.

Vote: Ahimeleck

I'd say that an Ahimelek holding FS is FAR scarier and effective.

Remember when ahimelech was going to be the next thaddeus and was going to make red the powerhouse offense? Hahaha, good times, good times.

Ishmaiah gets my vote.

Oh yea, let me draw to... On it's negated/restricted...

Every draw hero has to deal with this, yet I still see Jair/Sam/Matthew used all the time. Drawing is still a very good ability.  Every ability has a counter, just because Ismaiah's draw has a counter doesn't mean he's not useful.

Ok ill band to get bigger to my red guys... wait the played a tiny little guy?

You mean the tiny little guy that is now negated?  Yeah that negation is a really nice part of Ismaiah. Also Ismaiah banding chains often end in FBTN or CTB with Asahel, so that banding is really nice.

fill in face ripper followed by CM/Writ or any other finisher or a chump.

CM/Writ already stops most rescues so this point is kind of irrelevant.

How's that bravery? still sitting in your hand, right.

Yeah because I already won the battle.  Also if ahimelech is getting initiative to play a bravery, Ishmaiah is too, so its not like ahimelech is getting an advantage here.

Or make the bum with the play first weapon go away or so you can get inish that red desperately needs.

If weapons were more prevalent in T1 play that would be nice, but they aren't.  Also throw a sword on Ismaiah and he can get rid of that guy too, so while it takes an extra card for Ishmaiah, he can still do exactly what ahimelech is doing.  Also if you are relying on initiative to win most of your battles, you a probably not playing the game well in type I.  Heroes that can win battles without enhancements (King David, Moses, TSA, Captain, Zebulun, Thaddeus, TGT heroes, FBTN bands) are typically better than heroes that can only win with enhancements like Ahimelech. 

But with Foreign Sword he can get rid of it.