Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Hey, everyone. Long time no see.

I'm just getting back into the game after a couple year hiatus - the last time I played seriously was back just before TEC launched. My brothers and I went to MN state a couple weeks ago and, to nobody's great surprise, got pretty well destroyed with our two-year old decks (except for Si, who won t1 multi with red/phillies. Go figure).

What's the meta look like these days? I've seen a few of the newer cards (and pulled a new Moses in booster), but haven't looked deeply enough to see what's really good and what's just new and shiny (because the last three sets are new and shiny to me).
I used to play a monstrosity of prophets/judges/Assyrians/magicians back in the day. Any of these deck types still good? Any deck types (beyond FBTN chains) that only use a few of the newer cards, and would be easy for someone in my situation to build? What cards (besides Second Coming  ) do I need to be competitive?

Take a look at LandofRedemption.com and read as many articles as you have time for. There's a huge variety of articles (strategy/tournament reports/deck ideas) and all the cards mentioned in the articles pop out so you can immediately see what is being referred to.

I'll just continue the discussion in kram's post since it was so good.

With the advent of Coliseum (it tosses enhancements with the phrase "cannot be negated"), characters that assign CBN to enhancements are very strong.  Especially on defense.  Naaman, Nergalsharezar, Simon the Magician (TEC) (especially now that Clay decks, and Peter, aren't that common anymore), Sisera, etc. are arguably the most powerful ECs.  Their horses are really good too.

Because of Moses, people are playing fewer TC enhancements. 

Genesis got probably the most new CoW cards in terms of quantity, but to refer to a deck as a "Genesis" deck doesn't mean much these days, as there is quite a bit of variety with them.

More brigades than ever are being played on offense.  Emperor Vitellius and Punisher LS are popular.

There are basically two camps of decks in terms of the LS used:  Either you play the FBTN LS and Escape LS, and maybe Moses too, to negate LS, or you run a smattering of the new LS (and some old LS) to try and take advantage of all the new powerful LS.  Forsaken (negates opponent's band abilities) and Dull (searches your deck for an EC or EE when opponent uses a good look/reveal/search during battle) are the "hammers" that anchor these LS choices.  Female only and NT only are quite uncommon now, since the new LS are so powerful.

Moses' power, besides the obvious "mini CWD" functionality while he's in territory and the fact that he's a 3-brigade FBTN hero, is that there are a decent number of GEs he can use that he doesn't prevent - cards like Faith of Moses' Parents, Faith of Samuel, Faith of Daniel, Faith of Moses, etc.  Coupled with Coliseum, this is brutal, because Moses can use battlewinners and you can't, unless you have CBP EEs or one of the ECs I mentioned earlier (like Naaman).

There are a handful of "game changing" EEs that are used in most defenses these days.  These are so powerful they have the ability to swing a game that's going badly, or put away a close one:

-Hypocrisy (Combo it with Mayhem to clear their territory and get +10 or more card advantage)
-Great Image (With all the new offensive search abilities, territories fill up with heroes fast these days)
-Confusion (CoW) (So easy to snipe SoG, AotL, etc.)
-Besieging the City (The only reason no one is really playing this card is because no one is really playing evil Gold)
-Haman's Plot (Because of the old wording, Plot is not tossed by Coliseum)
-Honorable mention:  DoU/SSS (Coliseum makes these easier to use, and the CoW expansion didn't give very much in the way of protecting LS from these two cards)

The two new covenants, Eternal Covenant and You Will Remain, are very strong and very popular.  They also stop the CBP LS.

basically, if I toss Sam's Edict, it gets discarded and an opposing EC gets decreased by the numbers on Edict(3/3)

More specifically, a tossed enhancement decreases an opponents character (in battle) by X/X where X is the strength of the tossed enhancement. In the case of Sam's Edict which is 3/3, X=3 so the opponent's character is decreased 3/3. If I tossed Deb's Directive (4/3), then the opponent's character would be decreased 4/4. The special ability on the tossed enhancement does nothing.

If you'd like to have a mix of having fun and maybe being a bit competitive, you could always spend some time getting somewhat familiar with the newer cards and then play Booster Draft as you'll see far fewer of the newer cards than you would playing the open deck categories. The same could be said for T1 MP-- as Thomas mentioned in the original post, at MN state we had a player who literally hadn't played in 2 years (he owned 0 cards from TEC, PC and CoW) and he ended up winning T1 MP).

I've about decided: I can't be competitive, so I will just enjoy the time and seeing my friends again.

How about this:  You tell me a deck archetype that you are familiar/comfortable with from when you last played (Disciples/Pharisees, Judges/Magicians/Assyrians, etc.) and I'll build you an updated version of that deck, taking into account the new cards you aren't familiar with as well as the current meta. 

As long as you are aware of how much Moses and Coliseum can impact a game, an updated deck that you are comfortable playing and familiar with will probably do pretty well.  Especially if I build it   

siegeworks is always a good option, especially when it is cbn on isaiah. 

Babs havent changed too much, except for including Nimrod and Coliseum, both of which are great for them.