Cactus Game Design Message Boards

This is my take on ‘The Deck’. It has seen a lot of play in years past but seems to have fallen out of the meta a bit since the release of PC and COW and the rise of I Samuel/Throne, BOM and Clay variants.


52 Cards
7 Lost Souls
Dull
Awake
CBP
Wanderer
2Liner
Lawless
Crowds

7 Dominants
Son of God
New Jerusalem
Angel of the Lord
Mayhem
Falling Away (Wo)
Christian Martyr
Destruction of Nehushtan

3 Fortresses/Sites
Kidron Valley
Coliseum
The Throne of Grace

4 Artifacts/Covenants/Neutral
Holy Grail
Magic Charms
I am Holy
Hopper

10 Heroes
Captain of the Host (Ki)
The Strong Angel (Wa)
The Angel under the Oak
Moses (Wa)
Joshua, the Son of Nun
Ehud
Samuel
Simeon (Wa)
Aaron
Abiathar

8 Good Enhancements
Birth Foretold
Angelic Guidance
Wheel within a Wheel
Ehud’s Dagger
Samuel’s Edict
Eli’s Sound Advice
Trumpet Blast
Sword of the Spirit

9 Evil Characters
Foreign Wives
Doeg
Lions
Medium in Endor
Damsel with Spirit of Divination
King Saul (CoW)
Gomer
Messenger of Satan
King of Tyrus

4 Evil Enhancements
Gibeonite Trickery
Suicidal Swine Stampede
Hypocrisy
Invoking Terror

A quick rundown of my card selections...


The Souls are all super standard. I know the CBP soul only helps Swine Stampede but I think I need it to combat Moses decks.
No surprises with the Dominants either. I'd like to play Guardian or Grapes but neither are more important than CM and FA which help out my terrible defense. DoN and Kidron are necessary to take out HHI/HSR/RBD.
The combination of Coliseum, Throne, and I am Holy gives me a pretty solid matchup against most popular defenses except for maybe Philistines. Against Phillies I would have to rely on Grail/I am Holy and then spam Ehud. However, with a decent draw, I should be able to out speed most decks with Philistines.
10 Heroes is a bit light for this play style so I might drop Abiathar/Trumpet Blast/Samuel/Edict for Eli the Priest/Jephthah/Angel with a Secret Name/Deborah's Directive. Jephthah would give me some awesome territory destruction potential in combination with Sword of the Spirit and Grail. However, I would lose some speed by cutting Samuel.
The defense is really generic. King Manny would be nice but I consider all my ECs pretty much staple at this point. I could cut Lions but he can get rid of annoying ECs, play Hypocrisy, and has inherent Grail protection.

I don't think I would run Dagger and Edict with Coliseum.

I try to play those before Coliseum comes out. If I can't, I can still use them for Throne of Grace and I am Holy.

Running 3 TC GE that aren't Cloud also seems awfully risky without a reliable way to deal with an opponent's Moses.

That is true. However I do have Invoking Terror, Hypocrisy, Charms and CM for Moses. I should probably play a Punisher soul though.

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely consider it!