Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I'd been planning to play some variation of this before the set launched, but I was scared off by R&D's buff. Now that it seems the consensus is that R&D isn't worth it in T1, I'm giving it a shot.

7 Souls
Dull
Imitate
Humble
Wanderer
Prosperity
Wicked
Darkness

7 Doms
SoG
TSC
AotL
ANB
3W
CM
FA (CoW)

6 Support
Noah's Ark
Babel
Pitch and Gopher Wood
YWR
I am Gabe
Rainbow

9 Heroes
AotW
Noah
's Wife
Ham
's Wife
Shem
's Wife
Japheth
's Wife

5 GEs
Abe's Descendant
FAC
Dove Returns
Faith o Noah
Faith o Sarah

4 DACs
Firefoxes
Two By Two
Forbidden Fruit
Flood

6 ECs
Damsel
Nimrod
Assyrian Survivor
Namaah
Wicked People
Deciever

6 EEs
DoU
2kH
FH
Corrupt Earth
Scattered
Did God Really Say?

10 Reserve
Abe's Servant to Ur
Anthropophobia
7 Years of Plenty
Behemoth
Serpent
FW
ASA
Women as Snares
Treasures of War
Shame

Offense is pretty standard. 5 ways to find Ark (P&GW, Faith o Noah, 2x2, Nimrod, 7 years from FF or Gabe), so it's pretty easy to get it out early. Most of these can also pull Babel, which makes a fantastic target for Noah (especially the ones that put Babel in hand, allowing it to reset so you can play it as a site for reserve access).
Rainbow is almost always if not exclusively an enhancement, and a common target to pull from discard when someone leaves Ark.

The defense is a mix of PG themes. Nimrod tutors the forts and Survivor, Survivor is init, and Siege Army is Shipwreck on a character. Damsel is fast. Namaah is, IMO, the best standalone antediluvian. I like the idea of Wicked People, but I haven't run into enough decks that have enhancements I can discard to make them worth it, so I might swap them for something else.

ANB is mostly played in two situations: If I get behind, I play it during my draw phase to restart my the game going first with 11 cards - with 2.5 copies of Noah to draw the biggest concern is soul drought (which Shem's wife can fix, especially if you do have Noah); otherwise, I'll play it during upkeep to rush heroes out of Ark. I haven't yet played it in battle, though there are situations where it seems good.

Between playing Babel as a site 2-3 times per game, a very open art slot to fit Gabe any turn I need it, First Fruits, and 2x2 grabbing both Behemoth and Serpent if I don't need it for Ark access, I usually get most of my reserve. The bigger issue is if I get too much of it before playing ANB and have to shuffle it back into my deck.

ECs tend to stay in hand instead of in territory, because of Flood, Faith of Noah, and Shem.

Considering adding IaC just to have an extra copy of Noah to draw. If I do then I'll toss an Uzzah in reserve - the only reason I don't have him now is because I don't have the arts to throw away. That said, I'm not sure what to cut - I think this is a deck that I really want to keep as thin as possible (in fact, I'm thinking I might cut one more card for hopper for this reason).

All in all, I think it's fairly solid, though I need more testing (and against a wider variety of decks) before I'll call it good.
Thoughts?

My reasoning behind the way it's currently set up is that Firefoxes is a more solid block, and Serpent has a higher minimum value if they play around it (since I'll normally pull the animals with 2x2, so they'll know what I'm grabbing). I could see possibly switching them, but why do it for the use of enhancements if I can get a block without enhancements?

Made a couple changes:
-Darkness
-Wicked People
-Abe's Servant to Ur (reserve)
>Treasures of War (reserve to main)
+Lawless
+IAC
+Tubal-Cain
+Ammy Slave (reserve)
+Uzzah (reserve)

Played a couple games with this. Still trying to decide on souls - Lawless is nice as another imitate target but would be much better for this deck if it was good instead of evil, so I might switch back to Darkness. I do like Tubal-Cain - had some fun with him grabbing 2kH into FH to deny the Throne that a lone DaveShep just pulled out. Ammy Slave in reserve essentially lets Babel pull ECs from deck, which is nice. It is at 51 at the moment, but I think I'm okay with that. I'm debating about whether to swap the Shame in reserve for Confusion - I haven't ever actually used Shame yet but I feel like the extra battlewinner is nice to have.

I have found that pulling Foxes out of Reserve with 2x2 really messes with my opponent precisely because they know I'm holding it. They carefully avoid using any draws or searches thinking that Foxes is my only option only to discover that I can get a block and do far more damage with the other character I was holding--so now they've been blocked, didn't get the benefit of drawing or searching and I'm still holding Foxes for next turn...

I have found this post very useful, but some of the abbreviations and short hand make it very difficult to figure out what you're talking about.

Thank you!!  I couldn’t figure out a couple for the life of me