Cactus Game Design Message Boards

It's sad that Judean Mediums (in Reserve) is almost required in defenses nowadays. That said, Reserve evil cards are shot by Green's STAR cards, so there's almost no point in relying on anything in Reserve anymore...

Honestly, this kind of small defense crumbles if the Green gets even a remotely decent draw. Green is now stacked with interrupts aplenty, not even mentioning anything forthcoming (First Sacrifice is Samuel's Edict but better, for some reason?). You're basically hoping to have the better Dom matchup; ie hope the Green doesn't have Grapes or CoF to extend the battle if you decide to block and win, hope you have CM for Ezekiel or Isaiah at the right time (or hope they don't draw their plethora of CBN Enhancements), hope you don't get hit with Cherubim or Elisha when you have a few evil Doms in hand, and hope you're able to do all of that around Jonah and/or Habbakuk.

It's all doable, of course, but it's a pain. And considering most decks should be running the Orphans LS, I wouldn't rely on Bear a lick (not to mention Zeke kills Bear CBN with both his Enhancements, with no effort). Unless you have Love and no one runs Orphans.

First Sacrifice just seems underwhelming in the face of a ton of other things out there in my opinion.

First Sacrifice just seems underwhelming in the face of a ton of other things out there in my opinion.

Such as...?

It's easily a more flexible Sam's Edict, which is 100% worse:

Negate an evil or neutral card - hit just about anything your opponent has that can stop your rescue, in battle, territory, or even a capture Art. Stellar. Then you get to choose between 2 abilities that can both win you the battle - Underdeck an evil card from opponent's hand or an opposing card in battle. Either will win if played correctly, and to make it worse you can even use it outside of battle to look at their hand and hinder their block before you even rescue. It even works during side battles to underdeck a Hero, so there's that.

And of course KtD mentioned the CBN on Isaiah, but he neglected to mention the really big one - Benjamin. This is a better Joseph Before Pharaoh, and we all know how good that is. Not to also mention Teal has 2 Heroes to make this CBN. Not to also mention how easily recurred this is.

Given that this does everything Sam's Edict does and more, I fail to see how it isn't an auto-include in decks that use the 3 brigades it's packing, since it is tied to no themes and has no drawbacks. Enlighten me, please.

Keep in mind that card previews do not guarantee that the card is finalized. We are still testing and evaluating, and First Sacrifice is one of the cards we have our eye on. I agree with pretty much everything Master Q and KtD shared regarding its comparison to Edict, but in fairness I will point out a few things regarding that comparison.

1. Edict discards instead of underdecks. In one game I tested FS, I used it pre-block to underdeck The Deceiver, which ended up resulting in a successful rescue (however I did need to have another battle winner in hand as well). However, thanks to a shuffle and some extra drawing, my opponent had The Deceiver back in his hand the very next turn.

2. Edict is a winner for the key Hero in a massive drawing engine (Samuel) and a Hero who can become CBN protected from everything (Gideon).

3. Edict is mono-brigade (which is an advantage in T2) whereas tri-brigade is more of an advantage in T1.

Personally I believe FS needs to be toned down in some way, but further testing is certainly warranted before making any changes.

Quote from: Red on February 27, 2019, 04:21:30 PM

First Sacrifice just seems underwhelming in the face of a ton of other things out there in my opinion.

Such as...?

It's easily a more flexible Sam's Edict, which is 100% worse:

Negate an evil or neutral card - hit just about anything your opponent has that can stop your rescue, in battle, territory, or even a capture Art. Stellar. Then you get to choose between 2 abilities that can both win you the battle - Underdeck an evil card from opponent's hand or an opposing card in battle. Either will win if played correctly, and to make it worse you can even use it outside of battle to look at their hand and hinder their block before you even rescue. It even works during side battles to underdeck a Hero, so there's that.

And of course KtD mentioned the CBN on Isaiah, but he neglected to mention the really big one - Benjamin. This is a better Joseph Before Pharaoh, and we all know how good that is. Not to also mention Teal has 2 Heroes to make this CBN. Not to also mention how easily recurred this is.

Given that this does everything Sam's Edict does and more, I fail to see how it isn't an auto-include in decks that use the 3 brigades it's packing, since it is tied to no themes and has no drawbacks. Enlighten me, please.

A Series of Thoughts

1. I totally missed the reference and generally have glossed over star Isaiah. So my bad.
2. I think this card is in the same ballpark as all Edictesque cards. I would argue that cards like Faith and Overcome! are on the whole better cards than Edict derivatives due to consistency and recursion.
3. Being Tri-Brigade is a hinderance, not a help.