Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Which is the better Redemption hero?

Samuel [RoA2]
Watchful Servant

Samuel as a hero is just.... bad. Anyone who has played a samuel deck should agree sammy on his on is a sitting duck.

Johny Earley voted for Samuel. I watched him do it.

And it's....tied?  Wow.  We might see a lot of upsets this season.

Watchful Servant, his ability wins battles and Sam's doesn't. 

Actually, Sam wins off his special ability more effectively than WS. The problem with WS is that your opponent has to deck out before he's any good. Against Sam/Genesis/GardenDi/ect, you'll probably have lost by then.

Well two things:

a. I'm not so concerned which character is in the better deck

b. how does Sam win more battles? I see the band, but that doesn't necessarily mean a win unless the right character is out

I have to agree on this one.

I prefer my heroes to be just as good no matter who I'm playing. Watchful Servant is next to useless against a turtle, balanced, or starter deck. Pass.

Samuel with Samuel's Edict is a CBN battle winner, and one of the best good battle winners in the game. Can it be played on Gideon? Absolutely, but it doesn't need to be. Samuel can band to an assortment of different heroes, including both Davids and King Saul, Ahimelek, Abiathar, and of course, Armorbearer. Samuel can search for five different unique characters (both Davids and King David, good King Saul and evil King Saul), an ability that's very, very good in T2 (and of course, T1, but less so). He can be banded to or exchanged by a number of different heroes, including both the Angels, Eli the Priest, etc. He can play both gold and green enhancements, a few of which are some of the best in the game, including, as I said, Samuel's Edict, Spiritual Warfare Two Bears, Provisions, Wheel within a Wheel, Deborah's Directive, Ehud's Dagger, etc. He negates play abilities, but can still search an opponent's deck via Hidden Treasures to take out Haman's Plot, Confusion, or other goodies like that.

Watchful Servant is protected from conversion and capture, and that's all he has for the majority of the game. Good abilities to be sure, but nothing to beat all that Sam has at his disposal. In the meantime, Watchful Servant has to rely on a very strong defense to have any chance of winning a game. If the opponent is using a NT defense (rare, but it happens) with Golgotha, Watchful Servant loses. If they uses Magic Charms and save Son of God and New Jerusalem, Watchful Servant loses. And above all, if the defense doesn't hold up, or gets a bad draw, there's no recovery; Watchful Servant loses. The problem with WS decks is big decks are much, much less viable this year (anyone who says otherwise needs to cite decks, records, and who they've played; I'm tired of hearing "turtles are good!" with nothing to back it up), and WS relies on a strong defense, which doesn't usually work out.

I'm just entirely unsure how many people are making it into a position where Watchful Servant would be able to walk in for three Lost Souls to win. Are people outside of the online meta really just not playing good offenses or what?