Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I just built this deck last night and made a couple of changes to it this morning already but I wanted to get you feedback on what I should take out and what I should put in for the cards taken out. I feel like I need to put Raider's Camp in already but not sure what to take out for it. Do I really need site lock-out with red/green or will that even be effective in the current meta game? Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated...

56 Card Deck

Lost Souls: 7
Hand Discard
Evil Character Suprise
Cannot Be Prevented
Site Doubler
Two-Liner
Shut The Door
Shuffler

Dominants: 7
Son of God
New Jersualem
Angel of the Lord
Burial
Christian Martyr
Falling Away
Mayhem

Fortresses: 3
Headquarters at Riblah
Obadiah's Caves
The Name of the Lord

Sites: 4
Babylonian Banquet Hall
Babylon
Babylon
Babylon

Artifacts: 4
Unholy Writ
Hidden Treasures
Magic Charms
Chariot of Fire

Curse: 1
Go Into Captivity

Heroes: 7
Ezekiel (teal/green)
Priests of Christ (teal)
Phinehas, son of Eleazar (teal)
Cheribum (silver)
Angel at Shur (silver)
Nathan (green)
Hosea (green)

Good Enhancements: 7
Protection of Angels (silver)
Spiritual Warfare (green/silver)
Live Coal (green/silver)
Wheel Within a Wheel (green/silver)
Visions (green)
Two Bears (green)
Zeal for the Lord (teal)

Good/Evil Enhancements: 2
Forest Fire (green/crimson)
Drawn Sword (green/crimson)

Villans: 7
Astrologers (pale green/crimson)
Chaldeans (pale green/crimson)
The Imperial Guard (crimson)
Babylonian Soldiers (crimson)
King Belshazzar (crimson)
Nebuchadnezzar (crimson)
Nergalsharezer (crimson)

Evil Enhancements: 7
Torment (all colors)
Desecrate the Temple (crimson)
Carried into Exile (crimson)
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream (crimson)
Swift Horses (crimson)
Nebuchadnezzar's Pride (crimson)
Belshazzar's Banquet (crimson)

Too capture reliant. Tassels/Covenant with Palestine shuts it down, and you have almost no Artifact destruction. I'd take out the The Name of the Lord and the sites. I'd put in Captured Ark and try to fit in more teal with some of the Feasts.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will be playtesting this week at camp and will report back the results.

Travis,

I like the deck! With all your ECs being Babylonian anyways Head of Gold > Carried into Exile.

I would use Invoking Terror because there is limited protection against it (compared with capture, discard, etc), it can be played repeatedly to stall your opponent by getting rid of heroes temporarily, and is a great help against FBN. I think it is one of the best cards in the new set. Plus if the grail one of your own ECs you can put it back in your deck to use again as an EC.

I would also use Sword of the Lord over Visions. I know Visions keeps their enhancements from working, but you can play Sword pre-block with Hidden Treasures. On that note, I am a big fan of Great Image when using side battles as I have more chances to play it. Especially in this deck you can block low w Soldiers, play Great Image + Banquet and die, then play Invoking Terror to get rid of their hero who made the rescue.

I would also think about boosting to 8 ECs and Heroes. Maybe the Name of the Lord could go.

Kirk

Alright...I have been play testing the deck this past week and have come up with the following deck taking into account both the suggestions you all gave me and the experience I have gained while actually playing. I think that this is close to being a final deck list but I will need to adjust it slightly after playing it some more. Any critique on the changes I made? Any glaring weaknesses in this deck as it stands? Thanks!

56 Card Deck

Lost Souls: 7
Cannot Be Prevented
Two-Liner
Shut The Door
Shuffler
1st Round Protect
Shame
N.T. Soul Hider

Dominants: 6
Son of God
New Jersualem
Angel of the Lord
Burial
Destruction of Nehushtan
Mayhem

Fortresses: 3
Headquarters at Riblah
Obadiah's Caves
Raiders' Camp

Artifacts: 4
Unholy Writ
Hidden Treasures
Magic Charms
Chariot of Fire

Curse: 2
Go Into Captivity
Captured Ark

Heroes: 8
Ezekiel (teal/green)
Priests of Christ (teal)
Phinehas, son of Eleazar (teal)
Cheribum (silver)
Angel at Shur (silver)
Nathan (green)
Hosea (green)
Micah (green)

Good Enhancements: 8
Spiritual Warfare (green/silver)
Live Coal (green/silver)
Wheel Within a Wheel (green/silver)
Visions (green)
Two Bears (green)
Zeal for the Lord (teal)
Sword of the Lord (green)
Trumpet Blast (teal)

Good/Evil Enhancements: 2
Forest Fire (green/crimson)
Drawn Sword (green/crimson)

Villans: 8
Astrologers (pale green/crimson)
Chaldeans (pale green/crimson)
The Imperial Guard (crimson)
Babylonian Soldiers (crimson)
King Belshazzar (crimson)
Nebuchadnezzar (crimson)
Nergalsharezer (crimson)
Ashpenaz (crimson)

Evil Enhancements: 8
Carried into Exile (crimson)
Swift Horses (crimson)
Nebuchadnezzar's Pride (crimson)
Belshazzar's Banquet (crimson)
Invoking Terror (crimson/pale green)
Head of Gold (crimson)
Dream (crimson)
Great Image (crimson)

Also, your LS selection looks wrong. Shuffler is nothing more than a liability now that SoG can't be used to trigger it on demand. There's no Revealer, and the first-round is a Speed soul.

I agree with Pol.  I'd take out Shuffler and put in the */4 to be another LS that your opponent can NOT take with SoG/NJ.  For that matter I'd take out the Shame LS and put in the Female-only to be another one that NJ can't take.

Other than that, you have room for another dominant and I really think Grapes would strengthen this deck.  I also think that Confusion of Mind is worth a spot in virtually every deck these days.  With the dom crunch people don't have an extra dom to throw away anymore, and there really aren't a lot of GEs in many top decks that depend more on tons of GCs.  So CoM is sticking around more than it used to, and it does mess up many commonly used heroes without hurting your own at all.

I'm not sure what 2 cards I would take out to fit in the above, but probably 1 GE (Visions?) and 1 EE (Neb's Pride?).

The easiest add would be Axe since you're running Babs.

I would take out Forest Fire for Christian Suing Another. I never really found a great use for Forest Fire in my deck. Also, take out Chaledeans for Nebushsban. He has the same numbers, and is Warrior class so you can use Go into Captivity. also, an in battle exchanger to grab your opponents two/three liner. this is just my two cents.

I like both of these. Imperial Gaurd gets rid of a facedown artifact, Babylonian Soldiers REMOVES a captured caracter from the game to either draw X(number of captured characters) or negate and discard an artifact. I like them both.

Chaldeans needs to stay to give you a 2nd magician option for placing Magic Charms.

As for the other 2 guys, it's not a question of whether they are good, but whether there is anyone better.

Imperial Guard (killing face down arts) is good, and so is Bab Soldiers (remove captured heroes and draw or kill an art).  But is anyone better?

Pol thinks Saphira is better, but I disagree.  With all the CBP or CBN stuff out there these days on offense, blocking with Saphira probably won't stop what your opponent is trying to do, and might mess up what you want to do.

Some people like Nebushasban (switch 2 LSs) for the chance to swap the only LS in your LoB that your opponent can take for a LS in their LoB that they can NOT take.  This is a sneaky block, but I just don't see it getting pulled off in enough games to be worth it to me.

Winged Lion on the other hand is AWESOME (band to any Babylonian).  Multiple characters in battle FTW!  And he also gives you someone to block with if they come out with pre-block Spiritual Warefare.  I would add him in place of either the Guard or Soldiers.  Or you could keep them all and get rid of Forest Fire.

Alright. After considering each response I decided to take out Imperial Guard and to put in Nebushasban

For Sapphira, you can negate the protection and capture the band (only Sapphira can do), use one of the CBP battle-winners to defeat the band without fearing 'He Is Risen!' or Reach (only Sapphira can do), and keep Banquet in reserve for a second block with any of the other characters.

I have seen exactly zero good Sam decks with Hidden Treasures, much less Spiritual Warfare. Even if those were meta, any advantage Winged Lion would get avoiding that Ignore is negated by TGT.