Today, we’re doing a special article. I created a card contest based on the passage from 1 Kings 10:22, which talks about the ships of Tarshish coming and trading animals and wealth with Solomon. I thought it was a fun verse—because it includes monkeys—and I wanted to see how the community would respond to it creatively.
For the top two entries, I offered a special reward: two packs of the BaboonyTim Lost Soul tokens. But I loved everyone’s submissions so much that I couldn’t choose just two winners. So, I’ve decided that everyone who participated in the card design contest will receive a pack of these tokens (once I get them in the mail). I’ll be reaching out to each person who submitted cards on Discord to get your shipping address details.
But I’d still like to try and rank everyone’s submissions! I will be ranking each collection of cards with the following 5 criteria (on a scale from 1 to 5):
- Flavor: how well do the cards abilities tie into the verses?
- Artwork & Presentation: How beautiful and professional are the compositions of the final product?
- Card Names: Bonus points for creative card names!
- Innovation/Creativity: are the abilities trying new or different ideas?
- Balanced: I’m looking for cards that could see print today. Something not overpowered, but not underpowered either. Think as if these cards were being pitched for a new set. If the card is really imbalanced and overpowered, its going to score low in this category.
Without further ado, let’s move on to each of the contestants.
BaboonyTim
The first card I created was Treasures of Tarshish. It came from a problem I noticed with some Gospel of Christ cards that chain together long or complex statements, making it difficult to understand what the card actually does. For example, Gabriel, Mouth of God strings together multiple “and” clauses, and it took me about ten reads to fully grasp his effect.
To clean this up, I propose a “choose one” mechanic. It clearly presents two distinct options, and it’s obvious that you select one. I think it looks clean. Yes, it takes up more space, but I believe it’s a solid design solution we could use moving forward for clarity.
Additionally, this card includes a third ability tied to the flavor of the ships arriving once every three years. I know it’s a bit slow, but I wasn’t sure how else to represent the “every three years” theme in gameplay.
The second card I created was Ships of Tarshish. I was inspired by the Magic: The Gathering card Fact or Fiction, which creates a fun mini-game by forcing your opponent to choose for you. I wanted to bring a similar dynamic into Redemption, and this was my attempt to do that in a compelling and interactive way. I love how it ties into the flavor of “trading” with the opponent.
I will not be assigning a rating to my own cards
Roy Harold
What I really liked about Roy’s submission was the introduction of a new type of token: the Treasure Token. He had different cards that could use these tokens in various ways, which added an interesting layer of resource management. I enjoy seeing resource mechanics in Redemption, because the game inherently lacks a built-in resource system—so introducing one creates more strategic decision-making by attaching costs to certain actions.
That said, the artwork felt a little too AI-generated for my taste, and the cards didn’t quite gel together in a coherent way. Additionally, I think some of the cards might have trouble seeing print, as they felt a bit overpowered—cannot be negated modifiers on battle withdraws, and searching for good cards directly from the deck all push the power level a little too far.
Flavor: 3
Artwork/Presentation: 2
Card Names: 2
Innovation/Creativity: 4
Balanced: 1
Overall Score: 12
Brian Jones
I really liked the final product Brian came up with—the full-art borders, the beautiful artwork, and the Ships of Tarshish artifact with monkeys spilling out of the ship was something I absolutely loved.
However, there wasn’t much diversity in the card designs themselves. All the cards he submitted were named Ship of Tarshish, and two of them were artifacts, despite being distinct in function. Because of that, I had to give low marks in both the Card Names and Flavor categories.
Brian was clearly trying to explore creative ways to implement an exchange mechanic, which I appreciated. However, each attempt felt a bit overpowered, so I had to give a 1 in the Balanced category.
Flavor: 2
Artwork/Presentation: 5
Card Names: 1
Innovation/Creativity: 4
Balanced: 1
Overall Score: 13
AgurTheWise
This is a solid group of balanced, not overpowered cards that all work together in subtle ways. Each card has a distinct flavor that ties back to the verse, which I appreciated. Unfortunately, I had to give the whole collection a 1 in the Artwork/Presentation category, as no artwork was submitted—all the designs shown here are ones I uploaded and created myself.
Additionally, none of the cards really attempt anything new or innovative, so I had to give just average marks in that area. Still, it’s a strong, well-rounded set, and I could definitely see these being printed in Redemption packs today.
Flavor: 4
Artwork/Presentation: 1
Card Names: 3
Innovation/Creativity: 3
Balanced: 5
Overal Score: 16
Marc Vellake
Mark probably had the most innovative and original concept, drawing inspiration from the Yu-Gi-Oh! trap card mechanic. He introduced Patience cards that can be activated—or discarded—for a powerful effect if certain conditions are met. This idea is genuinely new and creative, and I really liked it. However, I don’t know if the Patience mechanic quite fit in with this particular set of verses, so the flavor score took a small hit.
I also wasn’t quite sure how balanced these cards were, so I had to give a 3 in the Balance category. I think the mechanic would need some simplification before being able to see print in a new Redemption set.
The artwork is solid overall, though I’m on the fence about the inclusion of BaboonyTim in some of the cards—sometimes it adds charm, but other times it feels a little cursed (haha). I did love the card names, though—Triennial Treasures and Worth the Wait were my favorites from this batch.
Thanks for submitting, Mark. I really enjoyed reading and thinking through these designs!
Flavor: 2
Artwork/Presentation: 3
Card Names: 4
Innovation/Creativity: 5
Balanced: 3
Overal Score: 17
Seth Morlan
My favorite card from Seth’s submission was the double-sided Solomon. It’s the first and only double-sided card we’ve seen, which really stood out. That said, I was a little disappointed that different artwork wasn’t used for the evil side of Solomon.
Overall, this is a balanced group of cards that I could easily see being printed today. However, the presentation felt a bit unpolished, and the cards didn’t introduce anything particularly new or exciting (except the artifact leaving play part on evil solomon)—so I couldn’t give higher marks in the Creativity category.
Flavor: 4
Artwork/Presentation: 2
Card Names: 3
Innovation/Creativity: 3
Balanced: 5
Overall Score: 17
SonicKing
I was a big fan of how this whole group of cards turned out. The artwork on each one looks amazing, and my favorite card of the bunch is Seasick Baboon. Seasick Baboon felt a bit too powerful and not quite balanced from a gameplay perspective however, but I loved the concept of a seasick monkey aboard the trading ships.
The Bartering King also seemed to do a bit too much, and I don’t think it would print in its current form. That said, I really enjoyed the overall look of this group and appreciated the creative ideas spread across the cards. I do think there is a serious gameplay balance question about Silver and Gold, but I liked the underlying idea about what the card is trying to do.
Flavor: 3
Artwork/Presentation: 5
Card Names: 4
Innovation/Creativity: 4
Balanced: 1
Overall Score: 17
GamerDad
This group of cards has a lot going for it. The artwork on a few of them is stunning and dramatic—especially the full-border designs, which would look fantastic in a trade binder. I particularly loved the Silver and Ivory card, which cleverly ties the silver and ivory theme into the Silver and White brigades. High flavor marks were scored there!
What works against this group, however, is the power level. Many of the cards feel a bit too strong—featuring multiple cannot be negated modifiers, searching decks for cards, drawing large numbers of cards, taking cards at will, and activating any artifact on Tarshish. That last effect especially is extremely powerful and might be hard to balance in actual gameplay, especially considering how Tarshish negates opponent’s neutrals too.
Flavor: 4
Artwork/Presentation: 5
Card Names: 4
Innovation/Creativity: 4
Balanced: 1
Overall Score: 18
CardGameFanatic
While I was working on my own cards, one thing I struggled with was how to represent wealth in Redemption. I really liked Card Gamer Fanatic’s solution from a flavor standpoint—using hand advantage as a stand-in for wealth. The Nativity cards from Gospel of Christ checked if your opponent has hand advantage to trigger their effects. In a sense, Nativity cards were supposed to feel humble. It felt especially fitting for Solomon’s cards to check if you have hand advantage (pride before the fall, so to say, the opposite of humble). It’s a creative way to represent Solomon’s wealth, and I thought that was a great design choice.
From a gameplay perspective, though, a lot of these cards might struggle to function well in a real game. Some of the artwork was reused across multiple cards, and the overall presentation took a hit because the images looked very AI-generated or were just too busy visually. Still, I really appreciated the design and flavor—this is a strong and creative group of cards.
Flavor: 5
Artwork/Presentation: 2
Card Names: 3
Innovation/Creativity: 5
Balanced: 3
Overall Score: 18
Tyler Stevens (2nd Place)
The 2nd place position belongs to Tyler Stevens (one of the lead card designers for Redemption). I’d be surprised if Tyler didn’t score highly in a card creation contest!
Right off the bat, I had to give him a 5/5 on the Card Names category because of “Baboons on Board.” What a fun card! All the cards tie in together and make me want to build a 1 Kings or II Chronicles themed deck. I like what Tyler is doing here with themes of trading in the cards, and also trying to incorporate the number 3 when possible.
The weakest aspect of this group of cards is the presentation. Compared to some of the other entries in the contest, it didn’t feel right to score this higher than a 3 in that category, especially considering I don’t see any Baboons on the “Baboons on Board” card.
Thanks for taking the time to submit some cards to the contest, and congrats on getting married Tyler!
Flavor: 5
Artwork/Presentation: 3
Card Names: 5
Innovation/Creativity: 5
Balanced: 3
Overall Score: 21
Kurt Hake (1st Place Tie)
Kurt’s group of cards made me smile the most while reading through them. Each one had a unique charm and brought a real sense of joy and creativity. I especially appreciated the attention to detail—like including a banana as the set symbol at the bottom of each card.
He clearly knew his audience: the inclusion of monkeys in the artwork for every card was a highlight that absolutely won me over.
My favorite card name from the entire contest is Monkey Business. I also liked how these cards tied back into existing themes, particularly the good purple Canaanites like King Hiram. And Exotic Ape is just wonderfully annoying in the best way when you give it to your opponent.
This was a delightful and memorable group of cards that made my day!
Flavor: 5
Artwork/Presentation: 5
Card Names: 5
Innovation/Creativity: 3
Balanced: 4
Overall Score: 22
John Hendrix (1st Place Tie)
In a tie for 1st place is none other than John Hendrix of the Threshing Floor Podcast fame. The full art borders really pop, and each of the card artworks feel coherent, and epic. I’m impressed how even the lighting of the cards feels like they are from the same illustrator. These are some phenomenal compositions that don’t make me immediately think these were AI generated. I gave him a 6/5 in the artwork/presentation category b/c of the little monkey on the Merchant’s shoulder.
John is also the only one to give us a Lost Soul (which is quite a powerful card, but one I wouldn’t mind seeing print). All the cards work together, and they feel like a special promo set of cards (much like a Secret Lair product from Magic the Gathering)
Another thing John is trying out is the Horizontal Fortress layout. I think it looks awesome! I wonder if this might sway some of the Elders into trying it out on future fortresses…
Well done John, and thank you for taking the time and effort to produce this set of amazing cards!
Flavor: 5
Artwork/Presentation: 6
Card Names: 4
Innovation/Creativity: 3
Balanced: 4
Overall Score: 22
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