Cactus Game Design Message Boards

"Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” - Matthew 9:16-18

It's my hope to pour some "New Wine" over all the OT themes that are running rampant this season, and maybe bust some old wine skins alone the way...

White ( 8 )
Susanna (“speed” that gets around Nazzy+CwD)
Mary Magdalene 
Mary Mother of James
Salome
Joanna
He is Risen
Magnificat
Words of Encouragement
Consider the Lilies

Gold ( 6 )
The Generous Widow (CBN)
The Thankful Leper (possible CBN)
Woman at the Well (CBN)
Zaccheus
Ambush the City
Convincing Miracle
Meeting the Messiah
Repentance and Restitution

Good Support (3)
Samaritan Water Jar
Herod’s Temple
The Garden Tomb

Pale Green ( 9 )
Balaam(the corner stone of the deck)
Assyrian Seige Army
Assyrian Survivor
Assyrian Archer
Two-Thousand Horses
Death of Unrighteous
Forgotten History
Divination (“speed” that gets around Nazzy)
Confusion

Multi (3)
Chaldeans King Manasseh
Pharaoh's Magicians
Belshazzar’s Banquet Invoking Terror

Evil Support (5)
Magic Charms
Asherah Pole
Golden Calf
Covenant with Death
Rain Becomes Dust
Nazareth

The Doms ( 9 )
SoG
NJ
AotL
Grapes
GoYS
CM
Brl
DoN
FA

Souls (7)
Lost Soul (Female)
Lost Soul (NT)
Lost Soul (Spd Bump)
Lost Soul (Revealer)
Lost Soul (Pigs)
Lost Soul (Exhange)
Lost Souls (2-Line)

The point of the deck is to offer a buffet of "techs" for the strong OT themes this season. Sometimes Asherah Pole will serve my defense best, at other times Rain Becomes Dust may slow down that Samuel Deck, at others (most others) Covenant with Death will kill their feasts and TC enhancements while cutting their heroes abilities (and mine, most CBN though).

This was originally TGT/Disiples but I thought Gold made a better tech (Jar, Ambush, WatW).

Update: Now that the deck is a lot more tight, I'd really love some fine-tuning and playing-it-well advice.

Gifts of the Magi would fit well, so you can draw more from your gold. Did you mean to have Cov. with Death in there? I don't see it listed.

...if fluffy watertomb offense...

Fluff is exactly the reason I posted this thing... I feel like I let it get too bulky in the "card shopping" process, and I need help. Though I believe the "fluffy" sentiment extends to the deck as a whole, the offense better than the defense - This is where I REALLY need help, since we are in experimental waters.

Gifts of the Magi would fit well, so you can draw more from your gold

That is a great point. The only problem is that my artifact pile will always be claimed by CwD, A-pole, or Calf. If only there were temple I could activate my A-pole in... it seems like it was yesterday... yesterday.... yester... yest...yes....

IN: Mayhem, GoyS, Confusion, Invoking Terror, King Manasseh, Egyptian Magicians, Hospitality of Martha

OUT: Chaldeans, Astrologers, Belshazzar's Banquet, Magnificat, Zaccheus, Convincing Miracle, Mary Mag, Golden Calf, Asherah Pole, Torment, LDyL, Harvest Time (Watertomb is the only decktype that doesn't need HT).

Great point about HT, consider it cut. I feel this deck is too slow for FA, is GoyS worth it? Maybe...

Astrologers gets me the same result as Egyptian Magicians (play from under) while not extending Gold Brigade to help my opponent block my TGT heroes with Genyptions. With CwD up, neither would work (both are CBI), so only the brigades really matter. Manny is the same story, I'm giving + 1 brown to let my opponent block with Gomer, Uzzah, their Manny...

Why cut Mary Mag? And I'm REALLY curious to see why you want to cut Magnificat...

Is you want anti speed you should put in the Pigs Ls.

hey just a suggestion but maybe you should put golgotha in there so you can have CwD and one of your other arts active at the same time 

ya my bad

Deck Updated, should be at exactly 50 now.

Keep Golden Calf in there it is a great card.

Golden Calf is an interesting anti-meta tweak, but I'm still on the fence about giving it a slot.

I would switch Thankful Leper with Lazarus (Di), he gives you recursion and a possible 2nd chance RA if you lose.

I only have two Samaritans as it is, I can't afford to cut another. I had considered switching Thankful Leper for Good Samaritan, except that Kindness (far from anti-meta) has a giant "DoU me" sign written all over it. Not sure.

I have mixed feelings about Golden Calf. From the the time Golden Calf came out, between my wife and I, we've always had a deck with an NT offense that took advantage of Calf and Asherah Pole. But with this deck Covenant with Death will be the preferred choice...

Has anybody else run a "Balaam" deck? I'm looking for some playing advice... I picture using Rain Becomes Dust early game while they plan to be Samming out their deck, then switching over to CwD mid-to-late game... but with Sam being based on Hero drawing it's like... does RBD really do anything that CwD doesn't cover against the current meta?

Actually the funny thing is that Calf usually does squat against Genesis decks most times because the primaries (Joe and Ben) walk by unaffected, at most it might help Rebekah from exchanging for them.

The big difference between CwD and Calf for me is the TGT girls. I usually don't care about their abilities (except Joanna's anti-Uzzah) and the other heroes in my deck CBN. If I needed to pull of a Tomb search or Ignore somebody with a weapon I could flip down CwD for calf... hm...

My woman at the well gets shut down by Nazareth (when it finally comes out, grr). Should I keep her for the times that I can pull it off or switch her for Good Samaritan to get better inish? If I do, is Kindness even worth consideration?

I'll note your advice... but dropping Ashera Pole would be the last straw in killing the original theme of the deck (anti-OT via calf and pole). HHI seems kind of fluffy, but it's a great thought with ignore portion of the HHI shutting down Jacob, Sam, and (banding to) Ahimelek.