Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Cards in deck: 52
Lost Souls: 8
   Lost Soul (discarder)
   Lost Soul (Female Only)
   Lost Soul (revealer)
   Lost Soul (shuffler)
   Lost Soul (Site Discard)
   Lost Soul (Wanderer)
   Lost Souls (3-line)

   Lost Soul (hopper)

Lamb Dominants: 3
   Angel of the Lord
   New Jerusalem
   Son of God

Grim Reaper Dominants: 4
   Burial
   Christian Martyr
   Destruction of Nehushtan
   Falling Away

Fortresses: 2
   Rome
   Wall of Protection

Sites: 3
   Dragon Raid
   Promised Land

   Hormah

Artifacts: 3
   Chariot of Fire
   Priestly Crown
   Unholy Writ

Curses: 2
   Confusion of Mind (Pale Green)
   Unknown Nation (Yellow)

Blue Covenant Cards: 1
   Covenant of Noah

Blue Heroes: 7
   Asher
   Benjamin
   Jacob
   Levi
   Sarah
   Simeon
   Zebulun

Blue Hero Enhancements: 5
   Abraham's Servant to Ur
   Answer to Prayer
   Jacob Buries the Foreign gods
   Obedience of Noah
   Reuben's Torn Clothes

Multi-Color Evil Characters: 1
   The Terrifying Beast

Gray Evil Characters: 7
   Ahithophel
   Emperor Galba
   Emperor Nero
   Emperor Vitellius
   King Menahem
   Lying Spirit
   Sabbath Breaker

Multi-Color Evil Enhancements: 2
   Expelling the Jews
   Romans Destroy Jerusalem

Gray Evil Enhancements: 4
   Balaam's Disobedience
   Chains
   Heavy Taxes
   Namaan's Chariot and Horses

The main thing that I'm very worried about is Angels: practically everything in my defense works exclusively against humans...)

I was wondering the same thing with Tim Mierz's Natz-wining deck.  Maybe Hormah had something to do with it.

It's really strange that you suggest taking out Zebulun because...well, he's really the main focus of my offense. I put this deck at 50 so that I could draw out my deck quick and get to use Zebulun. If I were to get rid of Zebulun, I would probably want to up this deck to 56.

you could actually add 1 card and make the deck 51 cards. 50 + the Hopper (already included). Rebekah is nice along with Sarah to allow Simeon to discard. Persistent Pestering is another Evil Gray discard that could be added. Obedience of Noah for a choose the blocker with Jake. Just a couple of ideas.


Godspeed,
Mike

You need to keep Gold Shield that's fo sure.

I would really like to keep Gold Shield, but it's the least reliable "battle-winner" in my defense and it only affects humans. I need something more to counter angels, as Heavy Taxes is currently just about the only card that would work (not including Twice Afflicted).

you could actually add 1 card and make the deck 51 cards. 50 + the Hopper (already included). Rebekah is nice along with Sarah to allow Simeon to discard. Persistent Pestering is another Evil Gray discard that could be added. Obedience of Noah for a choose the blocker with Jake. Just a couple of ideas.

I had considered kicking this deck up to 52 cards. Rebekah and Obedience were definitely "on deck" (tee-hee) when I was making this deck. However, I figured that Rebekah wasn't essential for Simeon, and Obedience of Noah would only be really reliable if I had another card like Ahithophel to CtB. Persistent Pestering isn't something that's high on my priority list, because what I really need for defense is battle-winners (preferably ones that work against angels).

If you really want to use [Zebulun] effectively I think you'd need to cut down on the enhancements in your deck so your hand isn't clogged. However, if you want to just have a Genesis focused offense I think you can do without him.

First of all, you can never do without Zebulun. Secondly, my enhancement count is already low as it is, and if I really want to, I am always able to discard enhancements from my hand, so I don't feel it's a huge issue.

Thank you everyone for your input!

Basically, what I really want is advice on what I could take out. So any advice in this area would be most appreciated.

Maybe.... all the lost souls?

Quote from: BubbleBoy on April 16, 2009, 07:35:34 PM

The main thing that I'm very worried about is Angels: practically everything in my defense works exclusively against humans...)

I was wondering the same thing with Tim Mierz's Natz-wining deck.  Maybe Hormah had something to do with it.

Angels were a fair weakness, as were defense-heavy or large decks. But luckily none of those were very popular at Nationals. I did face two defense-heavy (Heroless, in fact) decks in my first couple games, but some luck and plenty of experience against Heroless helped me with that. Against angels, my deck lost two battle winners: Balaam's Disobedience and Expelling the Jews. Even more problematic at the time was Michael and Angel's Sword, which essentially made me block with Lying Spirit flying solo, or maybe Claudius or Nero if I felt lucky. Chains and Heavy Taxes were still perfectly effective, and Lurking or Unknown Nation could still bring me out of some tight pants. In your deck, RDJ can also take care of Michael and most other popular angels besides Captain of the Host. And if they do have Captain, then hey, Jacob has a new friend, since their Wall of Protection is gone.

I really think Obedience of Noah should be in your offense. There's pretty much no reason for that to be excluded with Jacob, Asher, and Benjamin. It's a tough-to-counter battle winner most of the time, and since you can do it pre-block, unnegatable, and/or recurrable, it's a beautiful thing. You may additionally want some low-numbered fool like Ahithophel or King Pekahiah (although beware King David for the latter). Buying Grain can be ditched for Obedience of Noah. BG is nice for numbers and an okay SA, but Obedience of Noah is more than "nice."

Believe it or not, Dan was usually not that useful for me. Other than the occasional early BC, Dan barely got used due to his middlish numbers and a special ability I could almost duplicate with Simeon (discard) or Zebulun (draw), plus more "extreme" numbers. If you're looking to trash someone for Rebekah or Levi, I'd ditch him first. Both Rebekah and Levi are nice, since they enhance the effectiveness of the best Hero in the game, Simeon. If you want both Rebekah and Levi, then you may want to consider 56.

Twice Afflicted can go for something that is effective on its own. You can only play it on two characters, neither of which will have N's C&H, and neither of which are emperors. As a straight-up battle winner, I like Chains, because it works on any Hero, and no one is protected against it. Gray also has a plethora of captures, including Night Raid which can act as a Dungeon of Malchaiah, if you're not worried about protection against your stuff as much. Night Raid doesn't require a human target either.

Unholy Writ vs. Going into Captivity purely depends on how afraid you are of angels. If you think they're going to be an issue, then go for GiC, since some of your best ECs (Menahem, Galba) are WC. Unholy Writ can get you out of some other tight pants though, since you don't even need an EC (so you can get ET/AoC'd and still win, or combat pre-block ignore).

Hormah should go into any deck that has human ECs. It's well worth making a deck larger than 50 to include Hormah. I don't see anything immediately expendable, but it has got to go in.

You mention wanting to include Journey to Egypt. You already have 3 site access cards, plus maybe Levi, but against a good site defense that's nothing. Journey to Egypt is a tougher case to handle, as it's unnegatable, and the only way to get rid of the access is to get rid of the Hero. JtE is also recurrable with Asher. However, against decks without sites or Egyptians, it's nearly completely wasted (there are circumstances you need another 2/2, or you want to set aside a Hero to save him for a turn). Depends on how comfortable against sites and Egyptians you feel. I would like to warn you that both sites and Egyptians seem to be popular with defense-oriented decks, which are already a hand-discarder's worst enemy.

I think those changes would make it better, yes. I'm afraid of just saying, "Make this a clone of my deck," though, so don't put too much weight on my opinions.