Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Everything I'm about to say comes from a T2 Judges/Canaanite player, so bear in mind that it will be biased accordingly and I will focus mostly on the offense

Recommendations to cut (to get to 50 and to clean it up):
Burial (Especially if you keep Capturing Canaan, it just isn't useful enough)
Different Books Soul (Just not very good and won't affect things often)
Shuffler Soul (I just don't like it anymore since the rescue rules changed)
J-Tower (Just not as useful for a slot IMO)
Ark of the Covenant (Not good enough for what you need)
Chariot of Fire (You have recur, don't need it)
Samson's Strength (Not even good enough in T2, costs you a rescue and has limitations on use anyway)
Shamgar's Oxgoad (Not good enough)
Capturing Canaan (Not good enough)
Hypocrisy (Only one to play it on, and that one gets murdered pre-block a lot, just not worth the slot)
Goliath's Armor (Doesn't work in territory, so it is largely useless)
Some of the other evil enhancements...I feel you have too many to use effectively and could trim it down.

Adds (some to replace those above):
Mayhem (Replaces Burial, and is extremely valuable for you in this deck)
CBP Soul (You have no CBP on enhancements generally, this is a MUST)
Shame Soul (Generally you have someone you can lose for this, and it will take out an important opposing hero briefly)
Wheel Within a Wheel (Plays on 3 characters, recurs angels or searches who you need)
Eli's Sound Advice (LOVE this card, even if you don't use Eli for the first part, because it's numbers on Moses and still CBP for the draw+play)
Goliath (He's scary enough a lot of decks will try to play around him too much, and he can win early battles on his own)

I think this deck doesn't need as many battle winners, personally.  Simeon->AutO->Moses should win some on their own, Edict needs to win a soul or you played it wrong, SoG+NJ should be played with your speed, and Ehud should be able to get you a good enough battle to win something too.  You should be able to wear down your opponent with recursion or get out your power hitters faster than they can get the defense needed to block them, at least that's my experience.  You could still keep one of the winners I recommended cutting, but that's just my thought there.

You do have some ways to deal with Naz (Land Dispute sends it to your hand so that helps), though Hezzy's Bling will destroy you even more.

On the 56/50 deal, you should definitely go 50.  While it may be 'plenty fast', going 50 means you have a better chance of an angel, or WWW and someone to play it on, first turn, meaning that rescue is however YOU want it to be.  You also get your Land Dispute faster if Nazzy is up.  You also get to SoG/NJ faster, which is going to be key in this deck that relies on characters to win.  In addition to the cuts above, I'd recommend cutting some of the evil enhancements (as noted at the end of that section), however many you need to get down to 50.

Lastly, no Captain.  No synergy, and you will almost always have a better option with Moses, especially with Simeon.

I never run Judges without David (green) and provisions. It's just too good of a battle winner and it helps with draw. It would also make sense to run Aaron as well then as Nameless mentioned. You could probably take out Samson, especially since you're not using Birth Foretold. And yeah, some EEs should come out. Ishbibenob's Sword rarely does good if you're opponent is playing a competitive deck and whichever of the spears underdecks could probably come out too.

The judges deck I currently have built uses a Babs defense so I guess I have a little more for David with Two Bears and the Ezekiel DAEs but I feel like using David has always helped me even without that much back up. One of his best features is his ability to use Wheel. Provisions generally goes in any deck I build that uses at least 3 green heroes because even though it takes two turns, it gives you an optional draw and a very high likelihood of getting a soul or making them use CM. Definitely worth it to me.

Looking at this deck, I have a couple of thoughts.

Philli's are great, but I would consider adding Cannanites, since you would be able to take out enhancements for them, and add very few. I find that Phillistines are better going character heavy, and right now your enhancements way outnumber your characters.

Recommendations to cut (to get to 50 and to clean it up):
Burial (Especially if you keep Capturing Canaan, it just isn't useful enough)
Different Books Soul (Just not very good and won't affect things often)
Shuffler Soul (I just don't like it anymore since the rescue rules changed)
J-Tower (Just not as useful for a slot IMO)
Ark of the Covenant (Not good enough for what you need)
Chariot of Fire (You have recur, don't need it)
Samson's Strength (Not even good enough in T2, costs you a rescue and has limitations on use anyway)
Shamgar's Oxgoad (Not good enough)
Capturing Canaan (Not good enough)
Hypocrisy (Only one to play it on, and that one gets murdered pre-block a lot, just not worth the slot)
Goliath's Armor (Doesn't work in territory, so it is largely useless)
Some of the other evil enhancements...I feel you have too many to use effectively and could trim it down.

Adds (some to replace those above):
Mayhem (Replaces Burial, and is extremely valuable for you in this deck)
CBP Soul (You have no CBP on enhancements generally, this is a MUST)
Shame Soul (Generally you have someone you can lose for this, and it will take out an important opposing hero briefly)
Wheel Within a Wheel (Plays on 3 characters, recurs angels or searches who you need)
Eli's Sound Advice (LOVE this card, even if you don't use Eli for the first part, because it's numbers on Moses and still CBP for the draw+play)
Goliath (He's scary enough a lot of decks will try to play around him too much, and he can win early battles on his own)

These are great suggestions, and I would add cards like:
Stronghold in the Desert, it will help a lot with keeping heroes alive, and being able to replace chariot of fire, and being able to discard opponants cards.
Ahimilek the Hittite, Samuel can directly band to, and goes well with David and Stronghold in the Desert.
Bravery of David, Battle Winner for Red, and david can use anyways.
Foreign Sword, Necessary IMO, regardless of what you add, it is too good with phillistines.
Aprehended: Great substitute for Scattered in decks where you don't have brigades for it, better than most of your EEs.

If you would add Cannanites, here is what I would add.
Lots Wife, instead of Delilah, really good with Goliath.
Gibeonite Delegates, great evil character.
Foreign Wives, Black Female Canaanite, +everything else.
Canaan, good site, and will help instead of Kir, will be able to win battles with Ehud and Gibeonite delegates really well.
Fortify Site, great card, necessary IMO for canaanite judges decks.
Stone of thebez, amazing card that utilizes foreign wives even when they haven't drawn.
Gibeonite trickery, great end the battle card.

Quote from: KoalaKing on November 11, 2014, 12:41:06 AM

The judges deck I currently have built uses a Babs defense so I guess I have a little more for David with Two Bears and the Ezekiel DAEs but I feel like using David has always helped me even without that much back up. One of his best features is his ability to use Wheel. Provisions generally goes in any deck I build that uses at least 3 green heroes because even though it takes two turns, it gives you an optional draw and a very high likelihood of getting a soul or making them use CM. Definitely worth it to me.

It makes a lot more sense when your playing babs and have 3 additional battle winners he could play.  Do you include live coal in that deck?  Also just curious have you tried Joeseph in it? I know he would have his best stuff but the 2 DAE with 2 bears sounds like it could be fun with protection from discard.

I still used David in my fairly successful 2011-2013 Judges deck that didn't use the DAEs or Two Bears and I still liked it quite a bit. The CBN band with Sam has always been pretty nice since David has high strength.

I don't have Live Coal although that's a card I've considered adding. I haven't tried Joseph but it might interesting to test. My green right now is sitting at Sam, Dave, Zeke, Hur, and Aaron so I might try Joseph instead of Ezekiel since for the most part the game has always been over before recurring the DAEs was worth it, however it's always a great combo with Astrologers if I have them.