Cactus Game Design Message Boards

This is the deck I've made recently. I don't know what to say. I've played close, close variations (one or two different cards for the most part. The original was a lot different, but the same idea) of this deck about 5 times (I know, not than many, this deck is only a couple days old though). Currently it is 4 wins and 1 loss, the one loss was against Gabe (That was the first variation of this deck, though. Instead of a small stand alone defense it had a 10 card PG defense) . I don't know why it is doing so well, on paper it looks too offensive heavy to be effective but it has held up so far. I've only used SOG 3 games and NJ 2 games, which is kinda shocking. I don't know how it will do against Defense Heavy, I have played a 'normal' deck once and a near defenseless though.

Version 1
Cards in deck: 56
Lost Souls: 8
   Lost Soul (anti-burial)
   Lost Soul (Female Only)
   Lost Soul (hopper)
   Lost Soul (N.T. only)
   Lost Soul (revealer)
   Lost Soul (shuffler)
   Lost Soul (Wanderer)
   Lost Souls (2-line)

Lamb Dominants: 5
   Angel of the Lord
   Guardian Of Your Souls
   Harvest Time
   New Jerusalem
   Son of God

Grim Reaper Dominants: 4
   Burial
   Christian Martyr
   Destruction of Nehushtan
   Falling Away

Fortresses: 2
   The Garden Tomb
   Wall of Protection

Multi-Color Sites: 1
   Dragon Raid

Artifacts: 4
   Chariot of Fire
   Gifts of the Magi
   Holy Grail
   Unholy Writ

White Covenant Cards: 2
   .Captured Ark (Crimson)
   .Confusion of Mind (Pale Green)

Multi-Color Heroes: 1
   Faithful Servant

Silver Heroes: 1
   Captain of the Host

White Heroes: 4
   Lydia
   Maharai
   Mary the Mother of James
   Salome

Gold Heroes: 2
   Moses
   Simeon

Green Heroes: 2
   Hur
   Joanna

Blue Heroes: 3
   Claudia
   Tribal Elder
   Jacob

Purple Heroes: 1
   John

Multi-Color Hero Enhancements: 3
   Feast of Trumpets
   First Fruits
   Pentecost

White Hero Enhancements: 3
   'He Is Risen'
   Transfiguration
   Words of Encouragement

Green Hero Enhancements: 1
   Plague of Frogs

Blue Hero Enhancements: 2
   Abraham's Servant to Ur
   Book of Hozai

Purple Hero Enhancements: 2
   Authority of Christ
   Reach of Desperation

Crimson Evil Characters: 1
   Red Dragon

Pale Green Evil Characters: 2
   Prince of this World
   Women as Snares

Gray Evil Characters: 1
   Emperor Nero

Multi-Color Evil Characters: 1
   King of Tyrus (orange)


Version 2
Cards in deck: 58 - What should I take out?
Lost Souls: 8
   Lost Soul (anti-burial)
   Lost Soul (Female Only)
   Lost Soul (hopper)
   Lost Soul (N.T. only)
   Lost Soul (revealer)
   Lost Soul (shuffler)
   Lost Soul (Wanderer)
   Lost Souls (2-line)

Lamb Dominants: 5
   Angel of the Lord
   Guardian Of Your Souls
   Harvest Time
   New Jerusalem
   Son of God

Grim Reaper Dominants: 4
   Burial
   Christian Martyr
   Destruction of Nehushtan
   Falling Away

Fortresses: 1
   The Garden Tomb

Multi-Color Sites: 1
   Dragon Raid

Artifacts: 5
   Chariot of Fire
   Gifts of the Magi
   Holy Grail
   Holy of Holies
   Unholy Writ

White Covenant Cards: 1
   .Captured Ark (Crimson)

Multi-Color Heroes: 1
   Faithful Servant

Silver Heroes: 1
   Captain of the Host

White Heroes: 4
   Lydia
   Maharai
   Mary the Mother of James
   Salome

Gold Heroes: 1
   Simeon

Green Heroes: 2
   Hur
   Joanna

Blue Heroes: 3
   Claudia
   Mary Magdalene
   Tribal Elder

Purple Heroes: 1
   John

Multi-Color Hero Enhancements: 4
   Feast of Trumpets
   First Fruits
   Pentecost
   Philosophy

White Hero Enhancements: 2
   'He Is Risen'
   Words of Encouragement

Green Hero Enhancements: 1
   Plague of Frogs

Blue Hero Enhancements: 2
   Abraham's Servant to Ur
   Book of Hozai

Purple Hero Enhancements: 2
   Authority of Christ
   Reach of Desperation

Crimson Evil Characters: 2
   King Zimri
   Seven Sons of Sceva

Gold Evil Characters: 1
   Egyptian Warden

Pale Green Evil Characters: 1
   Women as Snares

Brown Evil Characters: 1
   Uzzah

Multi-Color Evil Characters: 1
   Trembling Demon (Orange)

Multi-Color Evil Enhancements: 3
   Dance of Death
   Lying Unto God
   Torment

The idea is somewhat simple. I use some large banding for most of my rescue attempts until I get TGT out, in which case I'll widdle down their evil via AOCP, Holy Grail, Women as Snares, etc and walk in for some easy rescues. The defense isn't able to hold up long, which is why I want to cut it down to 50 cards; I just don't know what to take out. Seems like every game I only get 1-2 heroes in the first couple of turns, so I defiantly want to keep 13 heroes or more in my deck.

Current ideas
Version One
Moses/Transfiguration out, Uzzah/Torment in (Fireninja) - Applied in Version 2.

Version Two
Take out... Unholy Writ OR Captured Ark?

Yeah, Moses and Transfiguration hasn't done me much yet.

I was currently working on a suicide defense, as having so many brigades in a TGT deck = bad. I've never used suicide before, what does it look like? The only characters I can think off of the top of my head are King Zimri, Trembling Demon, and Uzzah.

Updated, I now have two versions up there.

Yes, it is. I thought it would be fun to monkey around with them and see if something useful comes out of it. So far it hasn't done as well as my original speed deck, so I'm posting it on here .

you have some drawing that takes away from what could be territory wipe

Agreed

and then you have enough territory wipe to not be able to fit enough speed. 

I disagree with this one. In my original speed deck that has done amazing in the SOT had Gifts, Hur, Feast of Trumpets, First Fruits, Pentecost, Reach of Desperation, Book of Hozoi, and Words of encouragement for drawing. This deck has all those.

I'm not sacrificing speed nor drawing, What I am sacrificing is offensive enhancement support and character count. I'm not to worried about enhancement support, my banding does wonders and the GT can pick up the other slack, all while keeping a few battle winners. I'm slightly worried about characters, I often thought 15 in a 56 card deck (Yes, I use 56 card speed) wasn't enough.

'Cmon guys, I need more help. Even if you haven't used TGT or Speed much, you still have an opinion and I want to know it.

Well, I think you're on the right path. Both decks are missing what I think is a key card, ET. Pre-block ET can help you get the job done, ET+AoC=trouble for your opponent. With Garden Tomb decks, I think you need to be playing 50 cards exact. This type of deck needs to get into a flow early and often, and I don't think a 56 carder can do that. So I suggest that you make your deck more compact, and take out useless cards like Wall of Protection, an evil character etc... From my experience this deck when made right doesn't need defense, you just need to buy like two extra turns off of cards like Uzzah, Burial Shroud, Writ etc, and that's all you really should need to win with this deck. I've played with one for awhile now, so If you have any questions I'll be glad to answer them.

First off, you missed the point of ET+AoC. It isn't in there to win you a battle (it still potentially could), it's in there to wipe out your opponents evil characters that are preventing you from using GT. And if it kills your evil characters you have down big whup, you shouldn't need defense anyways. I know, I know, everybody and their mom believes in defense. But as long as you win before they do, defense doesn't really matter. And you don't need that banding chain. I'm not saying it's bad, but you have battle winners that come out quicker than a chain can come out. If you're waiting on a banding chain to set up, and other things maybe you do need defense. Which I don't think is healthy for a deck like this to be doing. All that I said of course is just my style of play, and my thinking. You can take whatever you want from what I'm telling you, but I think it to be wise to consider my advice before blowing it off. I'm not too shabby a player myself.

Yeah, it might be. Let me know how your deck fares with the banding chains. Post RoA I've been kind of skeptical of banding.