Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I would put Hosea in just for versatility.
Soul generation, able to capture a large amount of the popular defenses, and just an all around great character.

First, I don't see Protection of Jerusalem in this deck.  I did the math, and your 51-card-count included PoJ, so I guess you don't need to worry about that.

I would consider replacing Confusion with Achan's Sin.  I know Assyrians got an awesome inish character, but you have zero interrupts/negates on D except for 2kh.  Now if playtesting determines that the deck draws fast enough to make Confusion a threat, that's a different story.

Personally, I'd probably cut either Birth Foretold or Provisions.  You already have 10 GEs and if Isaiah is up and running properly, you won't even really need GEs.  And many of your GEs are recurrable with the Isaiah combos anyways.  Plus, you may run into decks that have both Darius Decree and Covenant with Death, and you have so many GEs that need to be played outside of battle, perhaps cutting one won't kill.

I would cut John the Baptist, Birth Foretold, and Provisions and add Ezekiel and Forest Fire maybe.  Zeke + Forest Fire is like a Thomas that can recur My Lord and My God.

My two cents.

EDIT:  Thomas Hunter, Assyrian Camp needs to stay out of this deck so he can discard his own Assyrians in territory with Seraph with Live Coal to activate Protection of Jerusalem.  Assyrian Camp protects from all discard, not just opponents.

EDIT^2:  You might want to consider the Evil Discard LS, as it would let you discard one of your Assyrians, and you make your opponent discard a good card and you get to activate PoJ as well.

I figure that given the facts that I have Siege Army and that I assume Nazareth will be less popular in T1 this year in the new meta, both Search and Confusion might come in handy, especially since Assyrian Survivor is protected from discard and has great initiative. Whaddaya think?

What are you talking about? Nazereth is 10x better this year.

Well, so far this deck is 4-1 with its only loss 5-4 to another Isaiah/Assyrians deck that got the drop on me and had a few extra tricks up its sleeve. Overall I'm very happy with it. A few notes:

It was pointed out to me by the opponent who beat me that Angel at Shur is probably unnecessary, and I agree. I haven't used him at all in 5 games, as the deck's size plus other ways to fetch Isaiah make it fairly unlikely I won't have him by at least turn three.

Confusion has helped immensely. I have been able to use it in all 5 games, once to get rid of my opponent's Mayhem (my own Mayhem that I used after realizing he had both of the big two in his hand made what probably would have been a 5-1 game into a much closer 5-4 game), twice to get Son of God (which, ironically, was once shuffled by a Mayhem that my opponent played thinking I was about to use Confusion...the Mayhem allowed me to draw Confusion and DoU (the latter of which I did have before Mayhem and had wanted to play) and thus I discarded SoG, and played DoU. The other two times, I confused a New Jerusalem, and an AotL. Assyrian Survivor makes the likelihood of a successful Confusion so much greater, since neither Grapes nor AotL can stop it from happening (once my opponent even used CM on his attacking Hero so I wouldn't get initiative).

Assyria's Tribute has also been very helpful as well. My Siege Army is much more likely to survive battles when he becomes basically a KoT (but with a way more awesome ability). And the more often he survives battles, the more likely he is to do even more damage to my opponents strategies. Even if I just have to block to make Joseph targetable by CM, I definitely think Tribute will stay.

Birth Foretold and John the Baptist have never worked out, but I'm not convinced I should abandon them just yet. I will probably do a bit more testing to see if they're worth the spot, but they'll likely be replaced.

I'm considering adding High Places for Siegeworks, because I have had a bit of trouble with TGT decks. With only 6 EC's that have no kind of protection, and the fact that I try to kill one or two of them on my own, it's hard to have 2 PG guys to be able to block. The fact that Isaiah can recur Siegeworks in case my opponent gets rid of it is also really helpful.

I also want to try adding a Magician or two as well as Magic Charms, either way, I want to use Invoking Terror. I recently looked over the card closely, and it can be ridiculously good vs. other decks that rely on a main Hero (Isaiah, Joseph, Thaddeus, etc.). Plus if my magician is Astrologers, which is nice for initiative anyway, it makes Invoking that much better.

I realize that GiC definitely deserves a spot as well. It's another card that can help ASA survive longer, and is just too good in a deck with all WC EC's.

I will edit the deck accordingly when I figure out what I want to add, and what I want to take out. Feel free to add comments.

I don't really question the inclusion of Birth Foretold - Having that to free up your Search for something else is really nice - Since he's not speedy in the sense that he's drawing a ton of cards having that extra option to get SoG is really nice - Then it follows naturally to include John since it makes Birth Foretold a useful card even after he draws SoG.

Which is why I like John, because it stops BF from being a dead spot.

Which is why I like John, because it stops BF from being a dead spot.

Imo it's another dead spot pretending to cover a different dead spot. Kind of like using your mom's quilt to clean up the spilled liquor so she won't know you had a party.

Thanks all for the input. The main reason John is there is as another avenue for negating LS's/rescuing NT only, and then Birth Foretold. Also, if I take out both him and Angel at Shur, I only have 7 heroes. Is that enough for T1 these days? Especially with no Chariot? I figure Chariot is mostly useless unless I want to put in that and Lampstand and a temple, none of which would be especially helpful for anything else.

If you end up taking out John/BF, you could always add King Hezekiah (Priests).  With Isaiah, you can bulletproof Hezzy each turn, 9/11 > 7/4 (even if you have no enhancements to play on him), and he can get rid of both an EE in your territory and an opponent's Asherah Pole (which could be your demise, if they manage to play Korah's Rebellion/Achan's Sin/Joseph In Prison against your Isaiah band).  Just thinking out loud here.

If you're worried about not having enough heroes after taking Angel and JtB out, you could consider adding Habakkuk. You could use him to discard your own WC Assyrian to trigger PoJ.