Cactus Game Design Message Boards

It would help if you posted your defense if you have it made up already.

Apart from combining with Genesis, I've seen an Egyptian defense do two other things well. One takes advantage of the card drawing available to propel a powerful offense, such as Disciples. Your defense looks a little large for that. The second combines with a deck discarding offense to deplete the opponent's deck and win a long fought war of attrition. Your defense seems better prepared to do that. I had a pretty successful version of that style deck a couple years back. Here's the offense I used.

Ark of the Covenant
Chariot of Fire
Hidden Treasures
Holy Grail
Habakkuk
Nahum
Amasai the Raider
Jephthah
Spy
Gabriel
Angel of the Harvest
A New Beginning
Warrior's Spear

The offense is only 13 cards so you have room to bulk up the defense and deck discard. It may not look like it can win many souls, but I assure you, after discarding several cards from the opponent's deck, playing ANB to do it some more, then eliminating what they have left for Evil Characters with your Artifacts, Dominants (AotL and Grapes) and Jephthah, it's not hard to walk in for an easy 5. When taking this route, the deck plays a very untraditional game. If it's not obvious how something works feel free to ask questions.

If you go Gabe's route, one more card that could be highly effective is Crown of Thorns.  As long as it doesn't hurt your defense too much, it is a very powerful offensive artifact. 

Gabe,

I am curious for your rationale behind the inclusion of Nahum - do you mind explaining that selection?

Thanks,
Kirk

My guess is as a site access green prophet.

I used to run a Watchful Servant offense that had a combined Egyptian/Herod deck discard defense. It did fairly well, but that was a couple of years ago. Other benefits of Watchful Servant is that he can combine with other Luke/John Heroes and enhancements that force drawing for deck shrinkage. If you use Pithom (as you probably should) you might also inadvertently discard a Lost Soul from your opponent's deck, so The Thankful Leper may come in handy (and he's a Samaritan for SWJ). The following is a decent 15 card offense you could try if you want a slightly different flavor than what Gabe posted:

Sites:
The Ends of the Earth

Artifacts:
Samaritan Water Jar (Personally, this is my least favorite card in the game, but there are few better cards when it comes to shrinking decks)
Wash Basin (This is a sneaky deck discard card that can also prep you for Given Over to Egypt by putting a non-LS on top of deck)
Gifts of the Magi (Helps keep up with speedier decks, and comboes well with Gen Widow and Meeting the Messiah)

Covs:
The New Covenant (You want to keep your Watchful Servant alive and uncaptured)

Forts:
Herod's Temple (This helps to keep Watchful Servant alive, as well as if you end up including Bronze Laver or Lampstand)
Storehouse (Helps keep your enhancements until you need them, as well as helps out TDP)

Heroes:
Watchful Servant (The main event)
The Generous Widow (Shrinks deck and is really nice as an end game strategy, when opponent is decked and must simply discard two cards from hand)
The Thankful Leper (See above)
Woman at the Well (Samaritan for SWJ, also shrinks deck a bit while producing LSs)

GE's:
Meeting the Messiah (Battle winner, territory destruction, and deck shrinkage)
Lay Down Your Life (not 100% necessary, but it is a decent way to Martyr-proof an attacking Watchful Servant)
Samuel's Edict (Battle winner in case your opponent has an answer for the ignore. Just an all around good card in any gold offense)
Sword Against Sword (not 100% necessary, but you can do a lot of deck discarding damage in a side battle)

Feel free to tweak it as you see fit. Note that the offense isn't great at deck discarding per se, but Watchful Servant doesn't really care that much how the deck is shrunk. The problem with Watchful Servant is vs. bigger decks, so you may need to adjust accordingly.