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Funny you should mention this because I am designing a meek-themed offense.  So I’ll let you know once I get some games in with it (hopefully one of them with you). 😉

I definitely wouldn't go so far as to say meek is the new meta. I think it will be awhile before a meek Hero offense is able to compete with the top dogs, but there are some cards that make it a tempting option like Windows of Narrow Light, Goshen, Mary, and Begats. At this point though I think their role is mostly in support for strategies like Impartial Judgment, or just for use with bounce cards when it comes to David, HAG, Father Abe, Noah, and Zerubbabel. There's maybe an argument to be made for Judges offenses with Samuel's Edict, but usually Gideon and maybe Samson are the only ones used.

I sadly haven't made many Type 2 decks lately since there haven't been any tournaments here and there aren't many people willing to play it online... But there may be some meek Type 2 strategies since you can use multiples of the payoff cards like Impartial Judgment and Solomon's Dream, but again, I think they're mainly support at this point though I would be curious to see what meek-focused decks people are trying out. Closest I've come so far is my Legion of Angels deck. 

Oh yeah, and I think for a red offense, David, Outcasts' Refuge is better in pretty much every case, in my opinion. I think in the current meta, David, the Shepherd just doesn't do enough. If he searched AND banded, then maybe, but as is he's too slow compared to Outcasts' Refuge. I could see running one of each in Type 2 since you'll have more Heroes to pull from deck and the games are a little slower-paced anyway, but in Type 1, having the option to band to Benaiah from Reserve on turn 1 is super strong and having Angel of the Winds in Reserve as well all but guarantees you can get to David right away with all the Artifact- and Hero-fetching from Reserve going on these days. Just ask Watchman, he's got a pretty solid red build he's been running and tweaking since Nats at least. The only case I think I could really see for running the Shepherd these days is a royalty unity deck with Throne, Zion, etc. since God's King got nerfed with the ignore change, but even then I think people would still run Outcasts' Refuge to band to Jehoshaphat (and the other purple/red kings) with the Isaiah splashed in there. In that build and others, Outcasts' Refuge also has the flexibility of drawing as well from the meek kings you'd probably be running. Stuff like Reverence and Awe and David's Descendent make the "play Throne from deck" part of the Shepherd a little less exciting too.

I definitely wouldn't go so far as to say meek is the new meta. I think it will be awhile before a meek Hero offense is able to compete with the top dogs, but there are some cards that make it a tempting option like Windows of Narrow Light, Goshen, Mary, and Begats. At this point though I think their role is mostly in support for strategies like Impartial Judgment, or just for use with bounce cards when it comes to David, HAG, Father Abe, Noah, and Zerubbabel. There's maybe an argument to be made for Judges offenses with Samuel's Edict, but usually Gideon and maybe Samson are the only ones used.

I sadly haven't made many Type 2 decks lately since there haven't been any tournaments here and there aren't many people willing to play it online... But there may be some meek Type 2 strategies since you can use multiples of the payoff cards like Impartial Judgment and Solomon's Dream, but again, I think they're mainly support at this point though I would be curious to see what meek-focused decks people are trying out. Closest I've come so far is my Legion of Angels deck. 

I personally think that a variation of postexillics is out there that focuses on Meek Support over banding to Zechariah. I also may or may not know that said variation won TN State in a landslide.

Meek has some great support. And I mean GREAT. For type 2 I feel like many powerful offenses can and probably should run some meek support strictly based on the power of some of those support cards. Solomons dream in particular.

As for a deck that's primarily meek characters that is probably tbd. Postexillic is likely the shell imo. Mostly due to cards like Nehemiah, and that the other meek offenses seem to be better served utilizing SAs with some meek capabilities.

IMO meek heroes are strongest RN when being able to repeatable use them from non-meek to meek and bouncing them again. This triggers their SAs while when they activated they get more or less CBI and after they turned to meek they benefit from all the support cards (e.g. TC heroes). Also if you manage to activate enough cards like Window of Narrow Lights trigger.

Where these kind of things become even more interesting is the LoC only format since there are so many in this set!

Regarding powerful offenses to my experience in T1 2P strongest are the big, quick setting up banding chains which benefit from all their SAs like Red Warriors/Throne, Postexilic Speed and Daniel builds which in addition provides several layers of protection. This speed and power IMO you cannot achieve with TC class setup cards.

Great analysis guys, and yes Chris I think you hit the nail on the head - for a meek (only) Hero offense to be viable, we do need enhancements like that:

"Given that we need some killer enhancements that do tremendous things that "if used by meek" or "X = # of meek heroes" or "convert your hero to meek to do."

Like Samuel's Edict

@Watchman gotcha, I agree that the CBN band - such as from Reserve to Benaiah - is super strong and awesome on DOR. And while Bravery of David requires just 1 Hero in battle, red has many great enhancements. It's fun that there are so many great options to choose from!

Quote from: Watchman on March 19, 2021, 12:29:04 PM

@Crashfach I personally like the convert to meek abilities as I feel you get the most bang for your buck with those:  you’re using an ability, gaining a benefit, and have meek strategies going on. Yes, meek-specific enhs are great, but the convert to meek I feel is better.

I agree that convert to meek is a much "better" ability, but is it REALLY a meek deck if you are abusing character abilities over and over again like we currently are with LoC.  I guess that is a matter of personal definition but if you talking a "truly" meek deck Judges is the only one that has really been done based on not using character abilities.

The convert to meek may actually be just as meek as "judges". Thats only cause AUTO typically enters first then likely meek Gideon if were looking at meek. Which you can do that every turn if you have both. That seems really similar to needed a convert to meek character and a bounce effect every turn to utilize the converteffect every turn.

Though I do like theme specific enhancements so I'd be of the opinion that a mix of both would be good. Just varying degrees among meek themes.

What if you had Heroes that had special abilities that played off of meek Enhancements?

But yeah, it would be cool to see some new meek Enhancement synergy with Heroes. Closest I've come is using Letters to the Churches with Coliseum and Ethiopian Treasurer. Maybe a Hero that says something like, "Meek Enhancements played on this Hero gain 'Negate an evil card', 'Draw 2 cards', or 'Band to a Hero'."

I was thinking along those lines at first but then I thought instead of using Sites, Fortresses, and Artifacts to generate boosts for meek cards as Threshing Floor does but instead incorporate the trigger type stuff.  "if your meek Hero is being discarded do X instead"  "if you play a meek enhancement, do X"  "If your meek Hero enters battle, band all meek heroes into battle. (unity meek Heroes)"

@Crashfach, one of the problems with not using the abilities to convert to meek to gain some benefit is there is no mechanism/ability in place that would allow for meek heroes to initially band when entering battle.  Short of enhancements like Marriage Covenant, etc., there would need to be support cards, like a Paul's Books and Parchments kind of card that would allow for meek heroes to initially band.

Ah, now we are getting to the real question at hand and why I asked this question in the first place.  I like a lot of the ideas that have been throw around and there are a couple that I haven't thought of yet.  But I LOVE what LoC did and would like to try to find ways to continue to use it and even figure out a way to make playing mostly if not all meek could be a solid and viable strategy.  Easier said than done, but I've liked the conversation so far!