Cactus Game Design Message Boards

This pretty fun T1 offense that I was play testing this year:

Gamaliel's Speech

Saint of Virtue
Cornelius
Paladin
Christian Soldier (female)
Christian Soldier (male)
Soldier of God
Children of Light
Peter
The Angel of the Winds

Sword of the Spirit (CoW)
Faith of Samson
Belt of Truth
Breastplace of Righteousness
Helmet of Salvation
Shield of Faith
Shoes of Peace
Mercy of James
Elymas Struck Blind

The new Hero helps give AoG the teeth it needs to remain strong against decks that have answers to the AoG Enhancements. Sword of the Spirit is amazing against all the orange I kept seeing. My defense had Hypocrisy which was really nice to bounce Children of Light so I could play all my AoG again.

Would Coliseum still negate all of this protection?  It does hurt all of the PC stuff that discarded them though!

There were a few other cards in the deck that adequately handled Coliseum, either through negating it or by making all my AoG CBP.

This looks like a really fun offense! I think I'll have to try it out once the new set releases.

And it's not even Genesis or prophet based! (which is weird because those are my go-to's, lol)

the new set makes AoG OP again.

There were a few other cards in the deck that adequately handled Coliseum, either through negating it or by making all my AoG CBP.

The AoGs have ongoing protect abilities that are active as long as they are placed on the hero (as all ongoing abilities with a ":" do); they are not reactivating when they enter battle (like characters do). 

Therefore, Coliseum doesn't do anything to the AoGs if they are placed in territory outside of battle and then later enter battle, because Coliseum is an ongoing Prevent, and can only prevent the activation of abilities.  Coliseum can't touch ongoing abilities already active, unless a card somehow puts Coliseum into play during battle.

This can be very confusing to the average player as a negate is also an on-going prevent.  So why wouldn't, as soon as the armor enters battle (even if placed in territory), be prevented by Coliseum, or be interrupted and prevented?  Wasn't Coliseum created as a way to help get around cards like AoG and other protect/immune abilities?

This is confusing, but it is unfortunately the way Negate abilities work.  Coliseum says "Negate protect abilities in the Field of Battle."  When Coliseum is put in play, it negates any protect abilities already active in the Field of Battle (this ability is Instant), and then it prevents all protect abilities that attempt to activate in the Field of Battle (this ability is Ongoing).

Because it is quite difficult to put Coliseum into play during the Battle Phase, the Instant portion of that ability is basically irrelevant.  The one that matters is the Ongoing Prevent.  It would have been best, in hindsight, if Coliseum said "Prevent..." instead of "Negate...", as this would be easier to understand.

At any rate, prevent abilities only target abilities that attempt to activate.  They can't do anything to abilities that are already active.  In Coliseum's case, this normally doesn't matter; characters attempt to activate when they enter battle, as do any enhancements played in battle.

Placed enhancements are the exception.  Placed enhancements that have a ":" indicate an ongoing ability that generally remains active as long as the placed enhancement remains placed on the character.  These abilities activate when they are played and do not "turn off" unless another ability negates or interrupts them. 

This is why Coliseum can't do anything to the AoG enhancements.  It can only prevent abilities that are attempting to activate, and the AoG enhancements aren't attempting to activate when they enter battle.  They are already active.

Great explanation, Josh!

Play them with Ram's Horn up and they're effectively CBN.

The weakness of this offense is how reliant it is on a single character; if your opponent runs [edited by R.O.S.E.S] you're basically out of luck.