Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Welcome to Dallas folks where the blue and silver are worn and flown proud. To this day I cannot stand the Cowboys as a team, however this deck is my personal favorite deck that I have built this year. It is not the strongest and has not had the best results but it sure is fun. Dallas Cowboys comes from the principal colors of this offense, blue and silver, which are the primary colors of the Dallas Cowboys football team.

A little bit on the idea behind the deck. When I was studying which brigades/themes work well with CwD I noticed that blue/Genesis got some solid cards that pair well with CwD in LoC. Also ever since PoC came out I liked the idea of building around O.T. angel warriors with the synergy between the new Captain of the Host and the O.T. version of Michael. This offense to me was a great opportunity to explore that since due to wanting to run Benjamin I could not have human heroes outside of Genesis. Also there is great synergy with regard to enhancements between blue/silver so the two pair well together in my opinion.

An earlier version of this deck is featured in the following Redemption with Jayden viedo on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjO2Q5JR-fc

Without further ado I present to you: Dallas Cowboys CwD

Deck (51 cards)-

Dominants: 7

1   Son of God (J)
1   Angel of the Lord (J)
1   The Second Coming (CoW AB)
1   Three Woes (RoJ AB)
1   Christian Martyr (J)
1   Shipwreck (Promo)
1   Falling Away (Wo)

Lost Souls: 7

1   Lost Soul (Hunter)
1   Lost Soul (Jeremiah 28:6) (Exiles)
1   Lost Soul (Remant)
1   Lost Soul (Darkness)
1   Lost Soul (Lawless)
1   Lost Soul (Awake)
1   Lost Soul "Remiss" (II Chronicles 24:19) (LoC)

Heroes: 9

1   Benjamin
1   Joseph, the Dreamer (PoC)
1   Father Abraham / Faithful Abraham (LoC)
1   Hezron, the Enclosed / Hezron, the Surrounded (LoC)
1   Eber, the Unwilling / Eber, the Prototypal (LoC)
1   Jacob, Follower of God / Israel, Retainer of God (LoC)
1   Michael (Ki)
1   Captain of the Host (PoC)
1   Harbingers

Good Enhancements: 8

Consistency Good Enhancements: 3

1   Wheel within a Wheel (FooF)
1   Offering Your Son (PoC)
1   Solomon's Dream (LoC)

Battle Good Enhancements: 5

1   Answer to Prayer (LoC)
1   Israel's Blessing (LoC)
1   Root of Jesse (LoC)
1   Jordan Interrupted (PoC)
1   The Lord Provides (LoC)

Dual Alignment Cards: 4

1   Coat of Many Colors (FoM)
1   Covenant with Abraham (PoC)
1   Covenant with Philistia (LoC)
1   Covenant of Eden (PoC)

Artifacts: 2

1   Matthew's Begats (LoC)
1   Endless Treasures

Fortresses: 2

1   Storehouse (Promo)
1   Wall of Protection (LoC)

Evil Characters: 8

1   Balaam (Di)
1   The Serpent (Promo)
1   The Deceiver (RoJ)
1   Mounted Forces
1   The Rabshakeh (LoC)
1   Ninevites
1   The Lying Prophet
1   Profane Daughters

Evil Enhancements: 4

1   Accursed of God
1   Balaam's Teaching (RoJ)
1   Balaam's Disobedience (FoM)
1   Foreign Horses (LoC)

Reserve: 10

1   Covenant with Death (FooF)
1   Unsuccessful (PoC)
1   Scattered
1   Forgotten History
1   Death of Unrighteous (Pa)
1   Plunder and Pillage
1   Faith Unbowed (LoC)
1   Hailstones (FoM)
1   Angel's Sword
1   Israel's Bow (LoC)


 

Offense Continued:

The third aspect of this offense is taking advantage of meek heroes. Matthew's Begats is so strong and Wall of Protection also aids my meek heroes quite a bit. The Lord Provides is a nice CBN way off of meek heroes (or Benjamin) to deal with any non-human evil characters like pesky KoT (PoC) or Red Dragon. It is also a great way to get rid of artifacts that are causing me problems. Root of Jesse and Israel's Blessing play very well off of meek heroes as well. My main meek play is using Father Abraham/Faithful Abraham to get a draw 3 (I almost always get 2 or 3 since I have 4 patriarchs total in the deck [Father Abraham, Joseph, the Dreamer, Benjamin, and Jacob]) and then taking advantage of his 1/1 typing to get initiative. Israel is also a very strong meek option. Hezron and Eber are not as strong but if Matthew's Begats is up they make nice bait to waste my opponents resources and then throw another hero in battle like Benjamin or someone else problematic.

The fourth aspect of this offense is using certain characters for niche purposes. Joseph, the Dreamer is great for consistency being able to grab Storehouse, Benjamin, Hezron, or Coat of Many Colors. Coat of Many Colors off of Joseph is great reusable reserve access. Eber is a fantastic soul gen piece and Hezron is quite nice for recursion. Harbingers is handy to get a look at opponents hand and release a captured character.

You will notice many enhancements work with both sides of the offense (Genesis and Angels): Root of Jesse, Israel's Blessing, Covenant with Abraham, Covenant of Eden, Wheel Within a Wheel, and Hailstones (sneaky since all the meek Genesis guys are also red and can use it in addition to the angels) can all be used with both for the most part.

For speed I have: Father Abraham, Joseph, the Dreamer, Answer to Prayer (so strong off of Benjamin or Abraham in battle), Offering Your Son, Jordan Interrupted (off all the meek guys), Solomon's Dream, Wheel Within a Wheel, Covenant of Eden, Storehouse, Endless Treasures, and Coat of Many Colors.

For soul gen this deck has Eber and Awake LS.

Lost Souls:

Souls are pretty straightforward but I do have a couple unorthodox choices. I chose Remiss "LS" recently over Dull "LS" which I had before due to a lack of ways to bounce my meek heroes (all I had was Israel's Bow and the rare time I got to use the star ability on Root of Jesse). Also due to the overwhelming presence of Remnant "LS" and Flying Scroll in decks right now being able to bounce characters that my opponent takes back to my hand is nice. Also being able to clear characters that have been paralyzed by The Serpent by bouncing them is really handy. The other unorthodox choice I have is the "Awake" LS. This deck has less ways than my Teal CwD deck to get to CwD and this is another way. Also Eber is my only soul gen piece so it adds another soul gen option.

Weaknesses/Uncertainties:

This deck really has had mixed results. It has won some really cool matches but has also had some bad losses. The Teal CwD deck has done better than this one. I do think in light of what RedDragonThorn mentioned about my Teal CwD deck it would be good to find a way to get unity by getting rid of The Lying Prophet to have Sheol. I am not sure what to cut for Sheol though in this particular deck.

Also this is not the fastest deck in the world. The Teal CwD deck is certainly faster and I have had issues getting what I need. I used to have Pleading for The City in this deck which I liked as a way to get my angels out but I realized I already had Wheel Within a Wheel as a way to get them out. Due to this I added Covenant of Eden to have a way to get my Genesis heroes out. I am not sure if this was the best choice but just trying to speed things up a bit.

I have also gone back and forth about if I should have Coat of Many Colors or Forbidden Fruit in this deck. Forbidden Fruit provides another way to get to CwD turn 1 and it fits well with my pale green defense. However it can only be used once whereas Coat of Many colors can be reused due to Joseph. Not sure which is better.

Any thoughts or advice any of you have on this deck would be greatly appreciated! I really like this deck and would love to see it improve.

Thanks for the insight @dermo4christ.

1. I have contemplated switching to the tin Joe. I too like the CBN element he brings to the table. The dilemma I have faced here is tin Joe’s search for Storehouse is negated by CwD (he only makes enhancements not cards in general CBN). Also he only makes enhancements that bear the name of Joseph in the title or reference CBN. There are two good quality enhancements that he can make CBN: Forgiveness of Joseph and Joseph Before Pharaoh. Forgiveness can be used by my other genesis heroes but it is somewhat weaker than other enhancements I would cut for it since it only affects human evil characters. Other enhancements like Israel's Blessing, Cov w Abraham, Cov w Philistia, etc. impact any type of evil character not just humans. Joseph Before Pharaoh can impact any type of evil character however it can only be used by a son of Jacob. The only sons of Jacob in this deck are Benjamin and Joseph. The CBN aspect of tin Joe really does appeal to me but these are the only two cards that I feel are worthwhile that he makes CBN and I feel they are weaker enhancements for the whole offense and do not fit as well as the ones I already have. I very well could be missing something here though. What are other thoughts on this? Am I missing something here? Are my concerns not really valid here? I do like the idea of tin Joe and maybe someone has a way to make him fit well over Joseph, the Dreamer.

2. Regarding The Deceiver, I have The Deceiver not for grabbing from my reserve or even for effective blocks. I basically never end up completing a block with The Deceiver. The whole point with The Deceiver is to exchange with evil characters in my deck. The Deceiver allows me to grab great evil characters in my deck like Balaam, The Rabshakeh, or Mounted Forces. Also I can grab The Lying Prophet with The Deceiver from my deck and get the draw affect of Damsel that you described. This is the beauty of The Deceiver, the guy can exchange from reserve OR deck. All that being said I have considered swapping The Lying Prophet for Damsel in all my CwD decks (including my Teal CwD deck I posted a while back) so I have unity and can include Sheol. Still trying to decide on that though.

Thanks for the thoughts and would value any further feedback on the Joe, Dreamer vs. Tin Joe conundrum.