Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I know; same old, same old. But I'm not about to take apart a deck I really enjoy playing (given how little I actually play, haha).
INB4 PoC phase 2:

Lost Souls: 7
Humble
Darkness
Wanderer
Covet
Prosperity
Vindicated
Orphans

Dominants: 7
SoG
TSC
AotL
Grapes
3 Woes
CM
FA (CoW)

Arts/Forts/Sites: 6
The Great White Throne
Covenant of Prayer
You Will Remain
Unknown Nation
The Ends of the Earth
Majestic Heavens

Heroes: 9
Angel from the Sun
The Two Witnesses
Justin Martyr
Polycarp
Music Leader
The Woman with Child
The Twenty-Four Elders
Cheneniah
Hannah

GE: 7
Fifth Seal/Justice Seekers
Plague of Blood
Overcome!
Word of Christ
Hate Wickedness
Love Righteousness
Consider the Lilies

DAC: 2
Kinsmen’s Agreement
Anthropophobia

EC: 9
The Great Fish
Behemoth
Leviathan
Lions
Jackals
The Deceiver
Babylonian Siege Army
Nebuchadnezzar
Esau, the Hunter

EE: 3
The Wages of Sin
Betrayal
Regrets


Reserve: 10
Blood of the Lamb
Word of Their Testimony
Whirlwind/Everlasting Ground
Third Bowl of Wrath
Gamaliel’s Speech
Babel
Mourn & Weep
Necromancer
Job’s Wife
Fire from Heaven

I'm posting this after a few test games against the Green Machine (see here: http://www.cactusforums.com/type-1-deck-advice/prophets-babylonians/). Both decks can put up a pretty good match against the other if the draws are decent (and they rarely aren't), and some of the choices in this deck are more or less specifically teching against the GM to give it a better chance at competing. I'm asking for advice on individual card choices, as more input=more options I maybe hadn't considered.

Specifically, what would you put in place of Babel in this Reserve (Babel is this deck's weakest card in that GM matchup)? Any other thoughts in general? I'll probably post some sort of update once PoC 2 comes out, but for now I'm curious to hear what you would change.

I am liking the reserve access of Mounted Forces or Conjurers. Works with your crimson and can grab Mourn and Weep from reserve when you will get initiative. Like Necromancer, it probably wouldn’t be a primary block, but accessible with the Deceiver once you have gone to deck for what you need early game.

You're saying to put one of them in Reserve? I do like MF's band ability more than the search, but he'll give up initiative against Ezekiel and Isaiah and die instantly. Conjurers actually gets initiative but is stomped by Babel.

Usually, if I have Unknown Nation later in the game I'll try to block Deceiver-> Job's Wife -> UN -> Necromancer. That's been working pretty well so far.

Quote from: goalieking87 on January 27, 2019, 03:36:59 PM

Babel could be an issue but that’s mainly the reason I wouldn’t try to fit one in deck. How else are you accessing Mourn & Weep?

Wages of Sin normally.

Wat. Star abilities count for that? I mean, I guess that makes sense but considering they're not currently targetable by negates that seems a little odd. 

Quote from: TheJaylor on January 30, 2019, 01:02:43 PM

Quote from: Master Q on January 27, 2019, 04:07:25 PM

Quote from: goalieking87 on January 27, 2019, 03:36:59 PM

Babel could be an issue but that’s mainly the reason I wouldn’t try to fit one in deck. How else are you accessing Mourn & Weep?

Wages of Sin normally.

Wat. Star abilities count for that? I mean, I guess that makes sense but considering they're not currently targetable by negates that seems a little odd.

There's nothing special about star abilities that makes them unable to be negated, it's just that there's nothing in the game currently that happens at the right timing to be able to target them.

Oh right. I remembered Moses didn't negate them but I couldn't remember why. That's pretty neat.

I've never played this deck or one of its variants, but Treasures of War is almost always useful parked in Reserve in a Wages of Sin deck.  Confusion could be a sneaky play, but you might be required to maindeck it and put Betrayal or Regrets in Reserve.  Foreign Wives and Uzzah are usually decent Deceiver targets to have in Reserve, especially if you are running Confusion in the main.

Any consideration to running Wild Dogs over Jackals?  The dogs are still a decent inish character, and even if you ignore the protecting NT LS part of their ability, they can be a +4 if you have 2 other animals in play.

Treasures was always in for HSR, but it's actually more beneficial to allow the opponent to search nowadays for Merchants + Jonah. Without HSR, Treasures loses some value. Also, BSA and Regrets hit Arts to the point where I'm not too worried about them.

I might be tempted to use Confusion if I was running brown, but it's not worth it here. FW might go back in Reserve, but I wouldn't run Uzzah given Babel's popularity and the fact I'm also running Orphans. The problem with FW is Babel, and, of course, the STAR abilities that straight-up discard an evil card in Reserve (making a lot of Reserve inclusions a moot point, thank you very much). I also can't really afford to have BSA or Esau not trigger thanks to FW and Babel.

I forgot all about Wild Dogs, but I know it gives up initiative to Ezek. Very bad. Wild Dogs is also not CB-anything. Not reliable. Jackals gets initiative, has the bonus of getting rid of an annoying Hero (Jonah, Habakkuk, CoW Moses, etc) when he dies, and can possibly curb Watchman/Ezek recursion for later. And he's searchable with Wages- not that you'll be doing that much, but I have.