Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I haven't seen any straight red decks in awhile. No tricks, just red. How does it play? I don't know, since I haven't played it yet. 

Lost Souls: 7
Humble
Darkness
Prosperity
Orphans
Covet
Vindicated
Wanderer

Dominants: 7
SoG
TSC
AotL
3 Woes
Mayhem
CM
FA (w)

Arts/Forts/Sites: 5
Book of the Covenant
The Great White Throne
Unknown Nation
Hebron
The Ends of the Earth

Heroes: 10
The Mighty Warrior
David, the Shepherd
Asahel
Caleb
Ishmaiah, the Gibeonite
Ahimilek
Spy
Benaiah
Mighty Men
Elhanan

GE: 6
Not Alone
Sword of the Spirit
Counsel of Abigail
Jordan Interrupted
Bravery of David
A Soldier’s Prayer

DAC: 1
Gibeonite Treaty

EC: 9
War
The Deceiver
King of Tyrus (PoC)
Og, King of Bashan
Talmai
Sheshai
Goliath
Saph
Philistine Armorbearer

EE: 5
Envy
Wages of Sin
Plot to Kill
Baal Worship
Seized by Rioters


Reserve: 10
You Will Remain
Seventh Seal
Covenant with Palestine
Trumpet in Zion
David’s Triumph
Foreign Sword
Ahiman
Sisera
Every Man’s Sword
Lahmi’s Spear

Had the same thought about War. How do you get Trumpet in Zion and David's Triumph out of Reserve?

Ah right, I hadn't looked at Elhanan recently and forgot that's what he did.

While I haven't played this type of deck as a T1 deck, I can say the T2 version works pretty well... 

Having played a (mostly) straight red deck for the last tournament season, I have a few comments:

I'd move Triumph to main and Sword to reserve, as I've found I'm more likely to use Caleb than Elhanan. I may also cut Foreign Sword for Jehu's sword, as even though you lose a negate and return an evil or neutral card, Jehu's sword gives a conditional CBI discard an evil human. Granted, you can't use it on defense, but FS isn't all that good on defense.

Spy kinda feels weak in this deck, especially with the new Ahamaaz, who can give reserve knowledge and protects himself. I may switch those, though that does mean another brigade for Punisher/Babel. I kinda feel the same about Ishmiah, especially with Scattered, Abandonment, and Scattered Sheep in the cardpool (and probably in a lot of decks). That, and his draw fails when Benaiah enters battle, and I've found that Benaiah capping off the band makes every rescue much more likely to succeed.

With both Counsel of Abigail and Not Alone, why not run Throne? If nothing else, it means that you can get some good mileage on those setup turns where you use David to grab things (Though it's another card he searches) and allows you to beat things like Fire Foxes and Serpent (Interrupting them before they can die).

I'm not going to say too much about the defense (as I may try something closer to it soon and am unsure about mine as is, but I have to ask; Why no black/gold Outsiders? They're good for both a battle-winner/territory destruction, and draw cards.

Theres quite a lot of options for this deck in reality.

Hailstones is pretty brutal when you can play it off Spy or Caleb and makes for good numbers for Benny. Old wheel within a wheel is fun to surprise ahimelek. King jehu is also just a crazy card to abuse as Nats showed. Overall offense preference is just play your favorite stuff in Red imo.

On the defense side theres tons of options for you. Having a demetrius in the deck or reserve for CBN seized or early init is good. Playing the new sodom and gomorrah city is great with canaanites in general and allows you to put things like scattered sheep, jip, or gib trick in the reserve for some surprise blocks. Canaan the cursed doesnt have to get an evil canaanite either if I remeber correctly so he could help fuel the offense some. You can play with some of the canaanite give strategy stuff like the canaan site and make asahel/jepthahahs daughters really good if opponents arent playing black. Lots wife and daughters are pretty good options.

Just some quick thoughts there.

Can't give away all my secrets...

So I swapped out a few things (Rapha for War, Philly Chariots for Cov w Palestine). Still haven't played it though.

Kind of a mass response here, but:

@Asahel-

I'm more concerned with demons than humans. KoT and Red Dragon in particular. Sword helps against that, Triumph doesn't. Elhanan can grab Triumph but not Sword. I know Caleb can grab it, but I'd not want to rely on Caleb when I could play Sword in battle if need be.

I don't really want to add anymore brigades and Throne & King Jehu would require a re-shuffling of the offense that I don't really want to do. If anything I'd like to run Coliseum.

B/G Outsiders is a good option for most people but it hasn't done a whole lot in most of the games I've actually tried it. I face offenses with fewer brigades more often, and Babel is more or less a staple around here.

@Schaefer-
There are many options indeed. I've personally played an Abe/Caananites deck earlier last year with a lot of mix-up blocks and it was pretty good, but I wanted to get as much from my defense this time around for as little as possible (big bodies with negates and some nasty abilities). This might be good, might not, I don't know. I feel like black might be popular (at least running black-compatible enhancements should be), so committing to the give/CtB strategy isn't something I want to spend too many cards on.

I'll probably run Hailstones if I can fit in Coliseum (since Coliseum tosses Bravery) since that is pretty ridiculous with Spy.

@Guardian-

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