Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Summary:

CwD:

This deck is built around getting to CwD. All of these cards can get to CwD turn 1 for me: The Emmaus Road, Delivered, Offering Your Son, Exiles (LS), Hunter (LS), Accursed of God, and Endless Treasures. I can even as a backup use cards like Storehouse, The Rabshakeh, Ninevites, and Mounted Forces to get CwD. In testing this deck I almost always get CwD turn one.

Defense:

All three of the CwD decks I will post have essentially this same defense with some variations. All the characters are unimpacted by CwD for the most part other than Profane Daughters who are there for low numbers to get init and the fact they can use all the enhancements. Also if I do not go first and get Profane Daughters through Darkness LS or The Deceiver or just draw them then I can get Unsuccessful from reserve and usually play it due to low numbers. I really prefer Unsuccessful to Magic Charms. I feel Magic Charms gets interrupted/negated way too easily during SI. Unsuccessful off of Profane Daughters does not have this issue.

The main strategy behind this defense is having characters that create their own defense. CwD decks tend to be somewhat slow and many of these characters can grab their own defense from reserve. The Rabshakeh, Profane Daughters (if not negated by CwD), Mounted Forces, and Ninevites can all get great enhancements from reserve on their own. They do not have the low numbers of Persian Horsemen which are wildly popular but they are the same essential principle. Also then there is Balaam. Balaam is tough to deal with and guess what he can recur CwD! If my opponent discards CwD Balaam can get it back. He fits so well with a CwD deck. Also most of my enhancements can in fact be used with Balaam. Foreign Wives can use all my enhancements and is a strong block. The Serpent is just a must and can turn the tide of games on its own.

In the reserve: Scattered, Forgotten History, and Death of Unrighteous can all be grabbed by Rabshakeh, Ninevites, and Mounted Forces. One of those can normally win just about any kind of battle. My main deck enhancements fit well with just about all the characters.

Offense:

This offense pairs very well with CwD. All the heroes are essentially not impacted by CwD other than Phinehas who frankly is here not for his ability but rather interaction with Zeal for the Lord, Eleazar, and The Tabernacle.

Offensively there are so many CBN/CBI options it is crazy. Joshua, the HP, Amariah, Phinehas, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and even Elijah all create CBN/CBI opportunities. Amariah and Elijah are really nice if my opponent is running Asherah Pole or Colisseum which are nasty and can kill this CBN offense.

The main teal plays I look for are Zeal for the Lord off of Phinehas, Joshua, or Amariah. Then recur with the Tabernacle. I can use Eleazar, Phinehas, or Aaron to recur off of the tabernacle. Royal Parade is CBN/CBI off of Joshua and Amariah. Gifts and Offerings can be recurred by Tabernacle and is CBN/CBI off of Joshua and Amariah. His name is CBN/CBI off of those as well. Actually any teal ENH is even The Emmaus Road lol. Oh also don't forget New Covenant off of Ezekiel!

The main green plays are Tested by Fire off Elijah, Falling Away (CoW) with Elijah, and frankly any CTB stuff with Elijah. Elijah can use The Emmaus Road, His Name, New Covenant (Ezekiel), Tested by Fire. Plenty for him to use. Isaiah can use His Name and The Emmaus Road for CBN. Sign of Jonah is here for recursion and to have a negate.

Also I have so many interrupts: Zeal, Royal Parade, Jordan Interrupted, Hope, and Tested by Fire are all interrupts. I feel interrupts are a necessity for most offenses due to defenses running so many low number characters.

For speed I have The Tabernacle, Covenant with David, Jordan Interrupted, Eleazar, Son of Aaron, Storehouse, Ends of the Earth, Hope (such an underrated card. Can grab doms!!!), The Emmaus Road, Delivered, Endless Treasures, Book of the Covenant, and Offering Your Son. I feel it is just fast enough.

For soul Ends of the Earth does nicely.

Weaknesses:

One major weakness with this deck is a lack of ways to deal with opponents artifacts. I have Shipwreck for forts but not much to get rid of my opponents artifacts. I have Plunder and Pillage in my other two CwD decks but not sure where to squeeze it in here. I am thinking of cutting Delivered since I already have so many ways to get CwD and adding Plunder and Pillage in place of it.

The other dilemma I face is including Angel of the Winds in reserve. It normally is negated by CwD but being able to do a turn one Angel of the Winds to Priests of Christ (getting dons) or Elijah negating opponents ECs is quite nice. I originally had Light in the Darkness in reserve for another CBN option with Isaiah but cut it for Angel of the Winds.

Thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank you @Red Dragon Thorn for your insight. I value this advice very much especially considering you are perhaps the most knowledgeable on CwD decks.

1. (A) I like the idea of trying to squeeze Sheol in. In different iterations of this defense (in different CwD decks not this one) I ran Necromancer or User of Curious Arts to have unity and Sheol. If I get rid of The Lying Prophet for Necromancer (which seems like a good idea to have Sheol) what do you think I should add in place of Balaam's Disobedience and Unsuccessful? If I do not have The Lying Prophet only two characters (Balaam and Profane Daughters) can use Balaam's Disobedience and only Profane Daughters could use Unsuccessful. Now if I went with User of Curious Arts he could use both of those enhancements. Maybe he is a better add than Necromancer. Not sure. What are your thoughts on this?

(B) Would it be better to cut Storehouse or House of Prayer for Sheol? Reason I ask is my defense has lots of reserve access on its own. House of Prayer does have the bonus of being able to take from my reserve AND deck due to me running many high priests. Thoughts on this?

2. Good point on Awake. Especially if I were to keep Delivered and not add Plunder and Pillage I do not really need the extra way to get CwD. Thanks.

3. Do you think I should get rid of Delivered and add Plunder and Pillage so I have a way to deal with opponents arts like Wasting Disease? Or is there something else I should eliminate to add Plunder and Pillage?

Thanks for your help!

@TheJaylor:

Wow great thought regarding that Urim and Thummim combo. You have a great knack for thinking of combos that most of us would miss like the Jehoshaphat/Isaiah combo in your new throne deck that you posted here on the forums or your Elijah/Hidden Treasures/Banding GE/Ahimelek combos in the deck you posted here. So creative, I love it!

Ok yes that makes sense on Storehouse. You and RDT are correct on this I believe.

True regarding Unsuccesful. I agree it can stay. I like the idea of Assyrian Affliction in place of Balaam's Disobedience if I go with Necromancer over User of Curious Arts in place of The Lying Prophet. That card helps with something this deck is weak on: getting rid of artifacts.

Thank you @RDT and @TheJaylor for your insight. So glad I posted this deck here, your guys' advice is gold. Any more thoughts on this deck or on the discussion that has already occurred will be greatly appreciated.

I will be posting my second CwD deck in this series in the next few days: Dallas Cowboys CwD. Keep your eyes peeled for it. It is my personal favorite (although not the best, in my opinion) out of the three.

This deck has been updated in light of advice from RDT and TheJaylor:

1. I removed The Lying Prophet and added Foreign Wives. This creates unity for Sheol and also Foreign Wives can use all the enhancements The Lying Prophet did. Also I feel Foreign Wives is a great block in the current meta with so much offensive protection due to stuff like Isaiah/purple kings and Auto/Gideon.

2. Cut House of Prayer for Sheol.

3. I cut Foreign Horses for Two Thousand Horses. Now that The Lying Prophet is gone I feel Two Thousand Horses is the better option since it's play ability is not dependent on my opponent searching or drawing. I had Foreign Horses before so that The Lying Prophet could use it if need be.

4. I cut awake for Prosperity as RDT recommended. Also I cut Distressed for Wicked due to all the protection in the current meta and since I run CwD Distressed is really just a backup to it. Lastly I cut Dull for Lawless. I have been running Dull for a while and it very rarely gets me anything. I like the instant effect of Lawless.

Any thoughts on the new version of the deck/the changes would be appreciated!

P.S.

I did not squeeze in Urim and Thummim like TheJaylor recommended as I just am not sure what to cut. It is a cool combo though. One other reservation I had was using the Flying Scroll combo off of Urim and Thummim/Jordan Interrupted the way he recommended would require disabling CwD which could be ok but I have lots of offensive firepower in this deck anyway I feel that does not quite justify that cost.

I've got a bit of experience with Teal and I agree with leaving U&T out in T1. Deck slots are very valuable in T1 and U&T does absolutely nothing on its own. This is a bit of a hot take but I believe hand information is overrated in general in Redemption. T1 decks are so consistent that playing around an opponent's deck vs playing around their specific hand is rarely different, so hand info is not that valuable as long as you have a strong grasp of the meta. I am biased a bit though because my deck building style is to focus hyper consistency around a single strategy so the deck basically plays itself. Guardian disagrees with me regarding U&T but he also leans much more toward "toolbox" style decks that I do and in those cases I can see value in U&T.