Join Chad for a look into the deck that he won Type 1-2 Player at the Oregon State Tournament and most recently the Northwest Regional Tournament with during the 2022 tournament season and what he believes it teaches about the meta.

Introduction:

A while back I wrote a write up on the Redemption forums about a deck list that won T1-2P at the Oregon State tournament for me. I shared the list because I thought there was a good possibility at the biggest tournament of the year for me (the Northwest Regional Tournament) I would run a different deck I had been brewing: my Moses/The Cross turn 1 lock down deck also known as “Parrying with Moses”. I felt the Moses/The Cross turn 1 lock down would be a stronger deck in the current meta. Well after the Oregon State tournament I poured numerous hours into working on refining my Moses/The Cross builds and shared two of them on the message boards. Then I proceeded to test the Moses/The Cross deck out in the current Lackey Grand Prix tournament and in casual play. Much to my surprise the results were underwhelming. In the current Lackey Grand Prix I won the second round 5-3 with my Moses/The Cross deck but then proceeded to lose the next two rounds with it to Luke M 5-3 and Rob S (Demonhunter85) 5-4. I was not pleased with these results and tried to figure out why a deck that was meant to lock the opponent down and allow me to win in an oppressive board state environment was not working. Well I realized the problem: Moses/The Cross set up turn 1 are very strong counters but are meta dependent. Luke and Rob both were running Disciple variant decks aiming to rescue early with Matthew the Publican to get a big draw. Moses/The Cross do nothing to stop Matthew the Publican and my Moses/The Cross build wants to keep good battle winners with several brigades in hand for rescues. All that to say I realized my counter deck was not really effective at countering the main speed engine in the current meta: Matthew the Publican. I still really like my Moses/The Cross turn 1 lock down deck and perhaps in a future meta it will be more viable. Currently though as long as Disciple variant decks are prevalent with Matthew it is not the ideal deck to run.

So I was left wondering what deck I should run at the Northwest Regional Tournament. Since I cannot go to Nationals this year I have been preparing for the Northwest Regional Tournament as if it were the National tournament. I have spent many, many hours refining my Moses/The Cross build since I felt it was my best deck and gave me the best winning chances. However, then in the Lackey Grand Prix I realized with how effective Disciple variant decks are in this meta that I had to change course. This was a hard pill to swallow since I had put so many hours into a deck that I thought was going to work in the meta but quite simply fell short. To make matters worse when I lost to Rob S in the final round of the Lackey Grand Prix 5-4 with my Moses deck and did not make top cut as a result and reality sunk in that I needed to change course I only had a couple weeks till the Northwest Regional Tournament.

One thing that is important I have been learning in Redemption is if you want to be competitive you have to adjust with the meta. We all have certain deck builds that are our favorite and when the meta changes we still want our outdated build to work. Or we will work really hard on a deck build that we think will be effective only to experience unsatisfactory results like I experienced with my Moses/The Cross turn 1 lock down deck build. The tempting thing to do at that point is to just stick with what is not working just because we like it or put a bunch of time into it. That approach I am realizing is not effective in terms of actually being competitive at the game. When the meta shifts it is best to shift with it. When you put a ton of time into a deck build only to find out it is not ideal for the current meta then it is best to set it aside and work on something else. I am not going to abandon my Moses/The Cross deck build since I do think it has merit and even putting a different counter alongside Moses other than The Cross might make the build viable in a different meta. But long story short: once I got knocked out of the Lackey Grand Prix and lost two rounds in a row with my Moses/The Cross deck and realized that it was not just misplays that cost me those games (which I did make some especially against Luke) but the reality that my deck did not actually counter my opponents main speed engine: Matthew, I decided it was time to move on to something else.

So there I was a deckless desperado destined for a clash with seasoned players at the Northwest Regional Tournament in two weeks. At that point I decided I needed to just take some time and think about the meta. I realized swiftly the top decks in the meta were Disciple variant decks. Three out of the four players who made top cut in the current Lackey Grand Prix were running Disciple variant decks. I would like at this point to clarify what a Disciple variant deck is in my mind. A Disciple variant deck is any deck that utilizes the strongest Disciple cards such as Matthew the Publican, Simon, Authority of Christ, etc. and supplements those either with other Disciple cards or other strong rescue options like 24 elders, The Strong Angel, Noah, etc. In this current meta people running Disciple variant decks seemed to be having the best results and the Lackey Grand Prix players who made top cut demonstrated that. So I decided I had to options: find a way to beat them or join them. Either I could start running a Disciple variant deck or I could find a deck build I felt could consistently beat a Disciple variant deck. Personally I think the best deck out there currently is likely a Disciple variant deck. I think there is a good chance someone will optimize a Disciple variant deck and win Nationals with it. However, I decided I wanted to try and find a way to beat Disciple variant decks.

I looked at so many different deck builds and ideas and just did not feel happy with any of them. And then it hit me… I had beat a Disciple variant list… In round one of the current Lackey Grand Prix I faced a Disciple variant list and won 5-4. David Smith the brother of Rob Smith ran a Disciple variant list against me and I defeated him. He even got a sizable draw off Matthew and I still won. The list I ran in that game? Well it was my Once Upon a Time in Zion list. After that round I decided to run Moses/The Cross the rest of the tournament and we know how that turned out: not great. At this point I decided to scrutinize the one game where I actually defeated a Disciple variant list. My Once Upon a Time in Zion list is one that I experienced good success with in tournament play even winning the Oregon State Tournament with it but I felt it was too fragile to really succeed completely in the meta. The bottom line though is the deck was winning games. It was undefeated in tournament play and even beat a Disciple variant list. I do believe a real reflection on the quality of a deck is seen in how it performs. Once Upon a Time in Zion had consistently performed well. I had misgivings about it which is why I had decided to move on to Moses/The Cross turn 1 lock down but that deck build did not consistently perform well so it was time to reevaluate the deck build that had performed well.

So at that point I decided to see if I could revise my Once Upon a Time in Zion list to make it more resilient and able to survive if my opponent went first established early counters. The first thing I did was I made changes and then tried the deck out against one of the better players in my play group. He held me to a 4-3 timeout win with me piloting the deck at the Oregon State tournament so I felt testing the changes against him would be a good call. The changes help up great and the deck performed well. So at this point with such a short time till the Regional tournament I decided I would run One Upon a Time in Zion and I scrutinized what final changes I could make. The list below is what I ended up with and is what won the Northwest Regional Tournament for me.

Once Upon a Time in Zion “Flu Game Edition” (50 cards):

1 Son of God (2020 Promo)
1 The Second Coming (CoW AB)
1 Angel of the Lord (2020 Promo)
1 Ride on Victoriously / Awesome Things (LoC)
1 Three Woes (RoJ AB)
1 Crowd’s Choice
1 Mayhem (FoM)

1 Lost Soul (Awake)
1 Lost Soul (Prosperity)
1 Lost Soul (Imitate)
1 Lost Soul (Escape)
1 Lost Soul (Distressed)
1 Lost Soul “Darkness” (Job 30:26) (Promo)
1 Lost Soul (Lawless) (Promo)

1 Zion
1 The Throne of David (LoC)
1 Storehouse (Promo)
1 Majestic Heavens (Promo)

1 Denarius (I/J+)
1 David’s Harp (Promo)

1 The New Covenant (I/J+)
1 Covenant with David (PoC)

1 The Angel of the Winds (Promo)
1 David, Heart After God / David, the Contrite (LoC Plus)
1 Jeshua, the Restorer (LoC)
1 Joshua the Conqueror
1 Jehoshaphat, the Seeker / Jehoshaphat, the Meek (LoC)
1 Josiah, the Restorer / Josiah, the Righteous (LoC)
1 Bathsheba, the Helper / Bathsheba, the Prostrate (LoC)
1 Asa, the Upright / Asa, the Blameless (LoC)
1 Hezekiah, the Devout / Hezekiah, the Repentant (LoC)
1 Achim, the Compiler / Achim, the Talmid (LoC)
1 Jotham, the Mighty / Jotham, the Upright (LoC)
1 Noah, the Righteous / Noah (Rest and Comfort) (LoC)
1 Prophets of Gibeath

1 Solomon’s Dream (LoC)
1 Zerubbabel’s Plumb Line (LoC)
1 Faith
1 The Emmaus Road
1 Impartial Judgment (LoC)
1 David’s Descendant (LoC)
1 The Lord’s Prayer

1 Delivered

1 Profane Daughters
1 The Amalekites’ Slave (FoM)
1 The Lying Prophet
1 Emperor Nero (Promo)
1 Foreign Wives

1 Balaam’s Prophecy
1 Balaam’s Disobedience (FoM)

Reserve:

1 Faith of David (CoW AB)
1 The Coming Prince
1 Oath of Purity (LoC)
1 The Lord Goes Before You
1 Royal Parade (LoC)
1 Faith of Barak (CoW)
1 Unsuccessful (PoC)
1 Fire Foxes (CoW AB)
1 False Prophecy (PoC)
1 Scattered (Promo)

Performance:

This deck build has a 13-0 record in tournament play across five tournaments: Lackey Grand Prix #1 (I ran it in two out of four rounds there), an Oregon Local Tournament where it won T1-2P, the Oregon State Tournament where it won T1-2P, Lackey Grand Prix #3 (I ran it in the first round there), and the Northwest Regional Tournament.

Perhaps just as remarkably the only game I have ever lost with this deck in casual play was the first game I ever used it in against Jayden Alstad on Redemption with Jayden back in fall 2021. That was a fairly unrefined version of the list with it being the first game I ever actually played the deck in and after that game I changed several key things. Since then I have played versions of this deck build in all of the tournaments mentioned above and many casual games and it has never lost. It is somewhat remarkable to me since I do not think I have ever had a deck perform quite so well so consistently and I am shocked a deck running only five evil characters and one evil battle winner main deck has managed this.

Why Does This Deck Work?

I did a fairly in depth write up on the version of this deck build that won the Oregon State tournament including a full break down of the offense and defense that you can read here. I will not rehash all of that since much of the deck is the same with only a few changes but rather I will focus on what I changed from that deck to this one and why I think this deck works.

First of all why does this deck work? I have often wondered that myself and I have particularly wondered why this deck works against Disciple variant decks since it does not aim at all really to have a low brigade count. There are many brigades in this deck and several high brigade cards main deck like Faith, Noah, and Foreign Wives that Matthew the Publican feasts on. So why does this deck work against those decks and manages to win?

Well I think it comes down to the nature of what this deck is trying to accomplish. The main goal of this deck is to accomplish a large Impartial Judgment play on Turn 1 or Turn 2. This deck I believe is one of the (if not the) fastest deck in the format at being able to achieve an early big Impartial Judgment play (I am for 4-5 meek heroes for IJ). If I do not do a turn 1 Impartial Judgment I am doing a turn 1 rescue with David, HAG who is grabbing Angel of the Lord for a solid turn 1 rescue and then turn 2 I will bounce David with Jehoshaphat and grab Awesome Things or Impartial Judgment (whichever one I am missing) or an extra meek guy to band to so I can make my IJ play bigger if I have both. Jeshua is a key value engine to be able to get meek heroes, Awesome Things, or Impartial Judgment as needed through New Covenant to Emmaus Road to Z Plumb Line and Lord’s Prayer to Emmaus Road to Z Plumb Line. Also Balaam’s Prophecy and Jeshua offers huge value. The deck spits out meek heroes so fast since I have so many ways to get to Emmaus Road which grabs them directly. The key engines to get an early Impartial Judgment play are David, HAG and Jeshua and I have so many ways in the deck to get to both of them. This is a very proactive deck build that focuses on having optimal rescues on turn 1 and 2 and gets to them very consistently. Another key thing to note is lets say my opponent goes first and they know I am going for a big Impartial Judgment and they plop a bunch of evil characters down in their territory. Well then on my turn instead of playing Impartial Judgment pre-block with Awesome Things I will play David’s Descendant pre-block with Awesome Things to wipe out a ton of evil characters in their territory. David’s Descendant with Awesome Things is Impartial Judgment but for territory instead of hand.

A key advantage this deck has is that I can run Zion and have numerous ways to get to it (David’s Harp, Covenant with David, David’s Descendant etc.) Zion is a game changer in that it allows me to tutor for David or Jeshua or if my opponent gets counters up: Joshua the Conqueror. All I need is one royal hero in hand and then I can play Zion down and get whatever hero I would like. Zion is also able to be topdecked by the star abilities of Noah and Jotham if I happen to not be going first and then I can draw it when I draw 3. I like that play since often my opponent will get a counter up on their first turn and I can go from Zion to Joshua the Conqueror or Noah to deal with that counter.

I think a big reason this deck works is that I am not wasting any time but am aggressively seeking to start the game with a strong rescue either with Angel of the Lord or Impartial Judgment right away and then I have easily accessible strong rescues to back that up. The early Impartial Judgment play is such a strong way to start the game and is difficult for an opponent to recover from. Then I follow it up with either an Angel of the Lord rescue or Noah/Royal Parade, a low number royal and The Lord Goes Before You, or Faith of Barak if my opponent is banding on the defense. If I do not have enough meek guys turn 1 for a big Impartial Judgment play then I just do a rescue with David banded to a meek (to avoid being Christian Martyred) and grab Angel of the Lord. In my experience that is one of the strongest rescues available turn 1. The whole premise of banding to a meek hero is prevalent in this offense with guys like David and Jotham being able to do it. I find this to be helpful to avoid Christian Martyr and Falling Away being blocks. I often find myself going in with David and banding to a meek peep. Bathsheba as meek is a great one to band to because you are still highly likely to get initiative. This deck is built to have many ways to get to my battle winners in reserve for turns 2 and following: Jotham, Prophets of Gibeath (due to Jeshua), David’s Harp, Storehouse, and Majestic Heavens (due to Jeshua). Basically I get my early Impartial Judgment play and then cruise in for rescues with strong battle winners. This deck aims to win the game in three turns plain and simple and normally it does. A key to this is how consistent the deck is. I do not often find myself wishing I had a way to get to one of my rescues but rather it is easy for me to get to resources.

This deck also works because it is so easy for me to reset and reuse David, HAG with Jehoshaphat. I have so many ways to get to Jehoshaphat so I can use David on both of my first two turns. New Covenant/The Lord’s Prayer/The Emmaus Road/Zion/The Throne of David/The Angel of the Winds/Crowd’s Choice/Delivered/Solomon’s Dream/Zerubbabel’s Plumb Line can all get Jehoshaphat for me on my second turn to reset David to grab Awesome Things/Impartial Judgment/Angel of the Lord or whatever else I want.

Why does this deck work against Disciple variant decks? Well one reason is that I don’t really care about how fast they are going. I am going to be able to just as quickly get my rescues in and seal off the game. In the game in the Lackey Grand Prix I won against a Disciple variant deck my opponent got a big Matthew the Publican draw and I still won since I just cruised through with my strong rescues and won the race to 5 souls. If my opponent goes first and gets a big draw early with Matthew I have a decent chance at getting rescues to get to 5 and being able to block the Disciple offense at least once or twice.

The second reason this deck works against Disciple variant decks is if I go first my opponent will not be drawing much with Matthew. Firstly, this deck gets an early Storehouse quite easily which shuts Matthew down. Secondly, I can play down pretty much every card in my deck on turn 1 and leave very few brigades in hand for my opponents turn.

Lastly this deck works against Disciple variant decks since it often outpaces them and gets to 5 souls faster than they do. This deck is very consistent at accomplishing its objectives. Also my rescue plan is not really dependent upon the opponent like a Disciple variant deck is. Those decks rely on the opponent having a decent number of brigades in hand and then hope to draw into a strong battle winner or Angel of the Lord. This deck is going to seek to do the same thing against most deck builds.

Another reason this deck works is it actually sets up a slim counter package for the current meta and gets the job done with how fast the deck is. Distressed LS, Achim, and Storehouse slow down my opponent just enough.

This deck works because it is about as consistent as they come at achieving its primary objectives. The tutor package here gets me to the cards I want with ease. Denarius and Mayhem provide great card draw. Mayhem in this deck is almost always netting 4-6 cards since I can play most of the cards in the deck down from my hand. It is a linear consistent deck that gets me to David, meek guys, and Awesome Things or IJ leaving the other one to be grabbed by David. I also due to all the ways to Zion very easily can get to Jeshua if I have a way to get to or have a Jeshua card I want to use like plumb line or Balaam’s Prophecy.

Another reason this deck works is Jeshua. He provides great value early and later in the game. I do not believe there is a better territory class value engine in the game than Jeshua right now and my deck can get to him faster than most.

Another reason this deck works is soul gen. I am aiming to win in three turns and Awake/Imitate/Escape along with Majestic Heavens, Amalekite’s Slave, and Josiah help ensure I am getting souls out. Awake/Imitate/Escape package I have found to be very good for soul gen. I also have had some games where Amalekite’s Slave ends the game in that I have SoG/TSC in hand but just need one more soul to rescue and can’t get it out on my turn. My opponent rescues on their turn and I block with TAS and end the game then and there by rescuing it and the other souls with SoG/TSC.

With this deck a key thing is it is very easy for me to find SoG/TSC which means I really am looking to just get three rescues as soon as possible and then play the big two to end the game. The deck gets to the two best cards in the game quite fast.

On the note of soul gen with the lost soul package: this lost soul package is built for speed. Prosperity, Lawless, and the ability to reuse Lawless being getting Imitate out allows my souls to put in work for me at getting resources which is important in a proactive deck.

Lastly this deck works because the defense gets blocks. Some people are running The Cross but Noah, Joshua, and Achim all deal with The Cross quite well. The CBN and chumpy blocking enhancements like Balaam’s Disobedience, Scattered, and Unsuccessful are really quite effective just quite simply work at getting blocks. Also all of my EE’s do work on Nero and I have found him to be a good blocker even on his own without EE support especially on the first turn. Mayem+FW block is still good as is Fire Foxes. This is a small defense but it gets the job done. Another thing is this defense doesn’t really care if my opponent has a big protected band since Fire Foxes, False Prophecy, Balaam’s Disobedience, and Unsuccessful all work against protection. I am seeing a fair amount of protection whether it be people protecting through Mary, Shields and Temple Spears and Shields, or protecting 24 Elders through things like Temple Dedication. This defense looks at the protection, recognizes it as cute, and blocks anyway.

The “Flu Game” Tournament Performance- Northwest Regional 2022:

I piloted the exact above deck list at the Northwest regional tournament and managed to place 1st in T1-2P with it. I believe the four rounds I played this deck in reveal the above sentiments about the deck to be accurate. The deck performed as follows across four rounds: 5-1, 5-0, 5-0, 5-1.

I was amazed to experience this success especially since during the NW Regional tournament I got quite sick and had to drop out of Booster draft to go to the doctor and tested positive for strep throat there. They gave me medication and when I got back to the regional tournament they had finished booster and were about to start T1-2P. The tournament director and other participants decided they were alright with me participating since they had already been exposed to me. I went in with low expectations as I was not feeling well at all.

A while back the renowned basketball player Michael Jordan put together a remarkable performance in a playoff game when he was really sick and led his team to victory. That performance has been referred to as his “flu game”. In this Northwest regional tournament it was mentioned after by one of my play group guys that I turned in a “flu game” performance being sick and managing to win the tournament while only surrendering two lost souls in the process. Here is exactly what took place…

In the first round I faced a deck running a Ruth offense. I managed to pull off an early Impartial Judgment and won the game on the third turn. My opponent got one soul off a first turn rescue where I had no block but after that my little chump block defense got the blocks for me. 5-1 win.

In the second round I faced a deck running a NT gold offense. I managed an early Impartial Judgment play and once again won the game on the third turn. My opponent included the new regional promo Bartimaeus in his NT gold deck (it is a great fit in NT gold by the way) and I had to call the tournament director over. He had initiated a rescue with Bartimaeus and had to remove him from his deck. Thankfully he had enough cards in his deck for it to still be legal but that definitely hurt. All that being said I do not think it would have really changed the outcome much at all. The chump block defense held up again just fine. 5-0 win. [Joint Editor’s Note: So Redemption Elder Gabe Isbell edited this article for me and when he noticed this section he pointed out that the old ruling was promos were not legal at the first tournament they were released at but that ruling has since been changed. Prior to the Redemption Regional Tournament a different Redemption Elder had posted on the Redemption Discord that the old ruling was still the current ruling and having read that recently I called the tournament director over when I saw Bartimaeus. The tournament director was under the impression to that the old ruling was current so he ruled that way. Well it turns out he, I, and the Redemption Elder who posted on the Redemption Discord were all wrong. Promos are now legal to be used at the tournament they are released at. It is good to have this clarified and when I scrolled through the Discord I realized Gabe had corrected the ruling of the other Redemption Elder back when he made it but I had not seen the correction back then. All that to say, if my opponent had been able to have Bartimaeus in his deck this game could have been 5-1 and not 5-0 because he would have got initiative with Bartimaeus to play an enhancement and I did not have an interrupt or negate. However, I think I may have had Emperor Nero (can’t remember exactly) which could have been enough to get a block. Anyway, it could have changed the outcome of the individual battle but it would not have changed the outcome of the game as a whole].

In the third round I faced a Ruth offense and a Philistines defense. Once again I managed an early Impartial Judgment play and won the game in three turns. My opponent did do a nice block at one point with Abimelech banded to Herdsmen of Gerar when I was aiming to rescue with a band backed by Angel of the Lord and he drew a decent number of cards since I had used Denarius on that turn. The only problem is my opponent played Bringing Fear which negated Abimelech’s band kicking Herdsmen of Gerar out of the battle and and I was able to Angel of the Lord Abimelech for the rescue. My opponent could not get through the chump block defense as it got me the blocks I needed. 5-0 win.

In the fourth round I faced a really well crafted Disciple variant deck. This was the matchup I had been anticipating. I figured a Disciple variant deck would do well at the tournament and sure enough here I was facing one for the Northwest Regional T1-2P title. This game would determine if I made the right choice in running this deck or not. My opponent was running the usual Disciple suspects (Matthew, Simon, Authority of Christ etc.) but backed this up with rescues centered on David, Outcast’s Refuge bands backed by Shields and Temple Spears & Shields. He sought to bounce the character with the equipped weapon to make the protection CBN. He sought to do this through things like having Jehoshaphat at the end of the band or a warrior with Israel’s Sword equipped at the end of the band. Definitely a clever approach to make the protection of Shields and Temple Spears & Shields CBN. He also had a formidable gray defense including the Rezin/Captain of the Chariots deal that seemed to do very well the first three rounds. Going into the last round my opponent was undefeated and had done very well winning all three rounds prior. Basically the winner of our game would be the regional champion. I was nervous to say the least since I had just lost two games in the Lackey Grand Prix to Disciple variant decks and this one was novel and well crafted. Well I managed a first turn Impartial Judgment for four that wiped out all of his evil cards in hand. At the end of my turn I emptied most of my hand leaving only one brigade in hand. On his turn he of course rescued with Matthew the Publican and only drew one card off Matthew! I easily blocked Matthew with Emperor Nero from what I recall. I rescued turn two with Jehoshaphat to David, HAG band and grabbed Angel of the Lord and he had no block. On my opponent’s second turn he entered battle with David, Outcasts Refuge and banded to Hannaniah from reserve who equipped Temple Spears and Shields and then he banded to my Jehoshaphat who bounced Hananiah with T S&S making the protection CBN and banded to my meek Hezekiah too. Talk about a nice rescue. But I just blocked with Profane Daugthers to Unsuccessful. Then third turn I rescued with a hand full of Royal Parade, The Lord Goes Before You, and Angel of the Lord. My opponent blocked with Simon the Host and chose a hero to attack and I played Angel of the Lord on Simon. Game over. My opponent managed to rescue one lost soul with Son of God. I blocked his rescue attempts from what I recall with Nero and then Profane Daughters to Unsuccesful. I won the game in three turns once again. 5-1 win.

Overall my deck performed very well. As has happened all tournament season I am getting a big Impartial Judgment play with this deck often on turn 1 and definitely by turn 2. Even if I do the IJ play turn 2 I find turn 1 is not a waste because I am rescuing with David and snagging Angel of the Lord and almost always rescuing a soul that way. If I recall correctly, every game at the Northwest regional tournament I won in three turns (either on my third turn or on my opponents third turn if I needed to generate an extra soul to rescue with SoG/TSC pair by using The Amalekite’s Slave). In my game against the Disciple variant deck that had dominated the playing field until I faced it my deck I was very happy I had the deck that I did. When you are facing a proactive deck you either need to counter the proactive deck or outpace the proactive deck. My deck I believe outpaces most proactive Disciple variant decks I have seen and even if they are chugging along so am I.

Changes and How To Make it Better:

So from the version that I won the Oregon state tournament with I changed several things. I should note that once many hours have been put into the deck the core part of the deck is locked in. Changes tend to be minor revisions meant to optimize the deck. To begin with compared to the version of this deck build I ran at the Oregon State tournament, this version runs David’s Harp instead of Reverence & Awe. David’s Harp gets to Zion for the unity play just like Reverence & Awe does since David’s Harp can get me to Covenant with David. Also David’s Harp means Delivered on an evil character (TAS, FW, or Profane Daugthers work) can get me to Zion too. In addition, David’s Harp is far superior to Reverence & Awe as a value engine since it helps me interact with demon defenses better and can grab battle winners from my reserve. Lastly, Reverence & Awe is bad with Matthew the Publican lurking and David’s Harp has zero brigades. The only reason I did not run David’s Harp over Reverence & Awe at the Oregon State tournament is I did not own one. I won a David’s Harp by winning T1-2P at the Oregon State tournament and so I quickly switched over to David’s Harp.

The next change I made is The Lord’s Prayer for Triumphal Entry. Triumphal Entry is great in this deck paired with Jeshua and is easy enough to get to due to Emmaus Road and New Covenant. That being said I feel The Lord’s Prayer is a bit better. For one it accomplishes the same purpose as Triumphal Entry since it can get to Solomon’s Dream or Zerubbabel Plumb Line by getting to Emmaus Road which can grab meek guys, Awesome Things, Impartial Judgment, or whatever other good card I need. I feel The Lord’s Prayer is better than Triumphal Entry for if my opponent does deal with Jeshua since The Lord’s Prayer can get to Emmaus Road to get so many of my heroes and resources directly.

Since I cut Triumphal Entry I did change over from Covenant with Adam in Reserve to The Coming Prince. I played one game with just The Lord’s Prayer change and found myself missing the additional way to get to SoG/TSC and therefore could not close out the game as quickly as I wanted. I contemplated just going back to Triumphal Entry but realized that I really did like how The Lord’s Prayer could dig through my deck and get to more diversified resources such as David’s Descendant to get to The Throne of David or Storehouse or Majestic Heavens. At this point I decided The Coming Prince in reserve would easily accomplish that same general purpose of Triumphal Entry since I can topdeck either Plumb Line or Solomon’s Dream with it from discard pile. Also The Coming Prince is a negate just like Covenant with Adam so it is dual purpose. I used Emmaus/New Cov/The Lord’s Prayer to The Coming Prince on turn 2 and following quite a bit at the Regional tournament. On turn 1 I would be going from The Lord’s Prayer to Emmaus to Solomon’s Dream or Z Plumb Line anyway so the Triumphal Entry type effect being in reserve is not a big deal. Overall I like the change from Triumphal Entry/Covenant with Adam to The Lord’s Prayer/The Coming Prince. Overall I think it makes my deck more consistent and the latter package does give me more value if Jeshua gets dealt with by the opponent.

This deck is susceptible to common counters especially Golden Calf and Babel. I was left trying to figure out the best way to handle these and found myself really wanting Joshua the Conqueror since he is so easy to find in the deck and exchanges with most of the offense and can exchange with even more like David, HAG through Jehoshaphat. I decided that while I liked the hand spy of Solomon and the strength of him being added to battle off Faith of David if my opponent removes my last hero from battle, he ultimately is not as important as Joshua the Conqueror making the deck more resilient by giving me a key way to mitigate counters. I did have a slight concern about cutting a royal hero for a non-royal hero since I like to maintain a density of royals to make sure I have one for Zion but in the four games at the regional tournament that was never an issue. I think it was the right move to go from Solomon to Joshua the Conqueror.

The final change I made is I got rid of Temple Spears & Shields for The Lord Goes Before You and Jeremiah for Prophets of Gibeath. The logic behind this change was the main play I had with Jeremiah was the combo where I enter battle with Jeremiah while having Faith of David in territory and Temple Spears & Shields equipped to a red royal warrior and then when an evil character blocks I discard Faith of David to add the red royal warrior with T S&S to battle to bounce the lone EC in battle and Jeremiah will toss their interrupt or negate. I have pulled this rescue off before as a closer and it tends to be a final rescue to seal off the game on my third turn or later since it takes a bit to assemble the pieces. That being said I decided The Lord Goes Before You is almost just as reliable as a cheesy type of rescue since I have two heroes: Bathsheba and David who almost always get initiative and due to the way The Lord Goes Before You Works if I give myself an EC in the side battle with lower numbers and my opponent the bigger EC and I let my EC die, then the opponent’s EC gets discarded by The Lord Goes Before You without creating special initiative. I almost always get David early in the game and so I felt The Lord Goes Before You would be a more consistent way to rescue a soul for me than the Jeremiah/Faith of David/Temple Spears & Shields/Red royal warrior combo. I think this is the right call especially since David’s Harp can grab The Lord Goes Before You from reserve so it is so easy for me to get access too. Another cool idea is to rescue with David alone, choose the blocker with Bathsheba, and play The Lord Goes Before You.

That being said when I made this change I wondered if I really wanted to keep Jeremiah around or if there was a better hero I could add. One thing I had run into when I played was wanting a way to go from Jehoshaphat to Noah. I had several games where I would bounce Noah with Jehoshaphat and then band to an opponent’s Mighty Men or Zadok to bring Noah into battle. Due to that being crucial in a couple games to mitigate a counter or to set up a winning battle I found myself wanting to be able to do that without needing an opponent to have a hero Jehoshaphat can band to and then band to Noah. Zadok I felt did not fit all that well in the deck since Noah would be the only hero he could band to. Prophets of Gibeath came to mind since they can band to Noah or David and they work great with Jeshua to be able to grab The Lord Goes Before You or Royal Parade on their own and then topdeck to draw with Jeshua. I felt the ability of Prophets of Gibeath to generate a strong battle winner paired with Jeshua and the ability to be able to go from Jehoshaphat to bounce to Noah to then band to Prophets of Gibeath and then to band to Noah was stronger than the benefits of Jeremiah. I never really missed Jeremiah during the Northwest regional tournament but I never actually used Prophets of Gibeath either. Part of me wonders if Jeremiah is better since he is strong on his own and pairs great with Oath of Purity, Royal Parade, and The Coming Prince for battle winning potential. Prophets of Gibeath can with Jeshua active generate their own battle winner to use and can allow me to reset and use Noah easier so those are perks to them. There are arguments for both I think I need to test it further.

Also I have found not too many people are running banding defenses so I think Temple Spears & Shields might be better than Faith of Barak. I did not use Faith of Barak once at the regional and actually believe I have only used it once in all the games I have played with this deck. This deck is vulnerable to High Priest Ananias and the Jeremiah/Faith of David/red royal warrior/Temple Spears & Shields combo gets around HPA with ease.

So if I were to have more tournaments this season I would consider cutting Prophets of Gibeath, cutting Faith of Barak, adding back Jeremiah, and adding back Temple Spears & Shields. The Lord Goes Before You is definitely a good add and is better in this deck than the combo I had with Temple Spears & Shields/Jeremiah/Faith of David but the other changes that came with it may not have been quite as good and I actually think running all of the above might be better than Prophets of Gibeath for Noah reset/battle winner obtaining and Faith of Barak.

Another change I would consider is regarding the Lost Soul package. I could see an argument for Wanderer instead of Escape so I have a way to deal with annoying souls like Punisher. Also there is an argument in this meta for running Crowds LS as a tech against Matthew the Publican.

Conclusion:

Well that about wraps up my journey with Once Upon a Time in Zion. This deck build will live on in my mind as one that was very fun to play and surprisingly just kept on winning games even when I did not think it would per se. I doubt I will ever have a deck that goes 13-0 in tournament season play again. I was especially shocked to experience this kind of success with a single deck list due to trying to figure out how to deck build for the Rotation format with the reserve rule which was tricky for me at first. My experience with Once Upon a Time in Zion proved to me the importance of learning a deck inside and out by playing it over and over again and how valuable that is. Even when I was very sick with strep throat playing this deck was not hard for me because I was so familiar with it. Also the success of this deck cemented something in my mind: proactive decks that try to win fast tend to fare well in Redemption. I have felt this way for a while and I actually found a deck build that won Nationals that had a similar premise as my deck: Nic Marshall’s T1-2P National championship Throne deck in 2020. You can check out his deck here. As you can see Nic’s deck like mine ran a very small defense that relied primarily on chump style blocks and a large crushing offense. His deck was very good at getting to its strong rescues and sought to win the game quickly.

This style of Redemption deck is not exactly orthodox per se since many championship decks tend to have a little bit larger defense but I do believe in a speedy meta a proactive deck with strong early rescues that seeks to outpace the opponent has a good shot. Also my experience with this deck confirmed an early Impartial Judgment in my mind is one of the strongest early rescues in the game. It secures a soul and sets the opponent back. That is a win win. I will say this deck build is not easy to pilot and requires an in depth knowledge of the tutor lines and a good feel of when to go for the IJ play and when to wait. Also playing with such a lean defense is not easy either and requires careful play. Overall though if piloted correctly this deck can do quite well and seems to fare well in the current meta.

I hope this article helps you as you seek to further understand the meta and prepare for Nationals. For me now my tournament season is over and I get to start thinking toward the next one. I enjoyed this tournament season and look forward to the next one!

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By Chad

Chad played Redemption in high school but took close to a 10 year hiatus from the game until 2019 when he came back to the game as a collector. He realized when he came back that he quite possibly never knew how to play the game correctly! Since the return he has in addition to collecting been learning how to actually play Redemption and is loving every minute of it! He started and runs a play group and loves deck building/competitive play.