Join Tyler for an article evaluating some new cards!
As of writing this, Nationals is just 6 days away! Within a week people will be feverishly opening packs of Israel’s Inheritance to see what new cards are in rotation.
But will there be any doubt to the new set? Will there be new cards that can change the current meta? Is Gospel of Christ just too strong and nothing else matter? Well, let’s review cards that have already been spoiled and see how they impact the meta.
The first Artifact spoiled was 12 Jordan Stones, and although it was received with lackluster emotions, I suspect it will have a huge impact on the meta, but maybe that card or cards have not come out yet. I just imagine people will have to protect certain “piles” in the near future.
The second Artifact spoiled was Selfish Belongings. Most decks I have seen from the Lackey Grand Prix and tournament winning decks lately are running very few battle winners and they are relying on their Dominants and Heroes to win battles, with having a couple Enhancements to back them up. For example, the Nativity offense is very popular right now.
If you activate Selfish Belongings and get rid of Flight Into Egypt, they lose one of their protected rescues. If you couple this Artifact with the latest Lost Soul to be spoiled, “Banished”, then now you are completely removing Nativity’s protection. Not too bad if you ask me.
Speaking of the “Banished” Lost Soul and lacking battle winners, that Lost Soul completely changes the way your opponent has to use their Son of God. I am seeing as many or more battle winners in the Reserve than in the main deck for players. When “Banished” is rescued, the opponent’s Reserve is just that, banished.
For some decks, like Impartial Judgment decks, they lose their strongest Enhancement and potentially their win condition. Since this article is about the current meta, when cards like Flight into Egypt and Star of Bethlehem are played, they go to the banish pile and not the discard pile.
Once again, that cripples Nativity offenses. If the opponent does not use their Son of God on “Banished” and they play their Son of God, then that too is banished, that’s pretty annoying. The opponent is seemingly forced into playing Son of God on this Lost Soul, and if they do not know you are playing with it, then they might have to skip on their The Second Coming into Son of God.
We can stay on the Lost Soul train and talk about The Dude, I mean “Subdued”. Moabites now have a built-in battle winner engrained in the form of a Lost Soul! If you are running this Lost Soul with some
Moabites, the opponent is forced to either protect Lost Souls from evil cards, or protect Lost Souls from being removed from play. If not, then all you have to do is block with a Moabite and die and “poof” all of your O.T. Lost Souls are shuffled, that could turn into more than 1 block.
Moabites also have a built-in chump block with Enemies to the East which loves to see Gospel banding chains. If 2 or more Heroes in battle, then all O.T. Lost Souls are protected from rescue. I imagine Moabites become the new “interactive” chumps and Gospel offenses will not like to see them. You can always protect Lost Souls and then just drop a Slaves to Eglon in the battle for another cannot be negated Enhancement. Pretty good against the current banding meta.
We have seen some of what Canaanites offer and I imagine they make an immediate impact in the meta. They have strong blocks, but they also allow for choose the blocker abilities to work more efficiently, and outside of just Gospel of Christ Heroes.
The Five Kings is a built in Glory of the Lord that can come from deck or Reserve (what does that mean?) and can be included at the end of a banding chain. If you look at all the good Enhancements in the game that have a strength of 5 or less, you will notice (I believe) 32 potential Enhancements, not counting any with a strength of X. Of those 32, a lot of them are not seeing play.
The Five Kings can give your opponent a Canaanite and if he is in a big band, there’s not much your opponent can do, and you set up an Evil Character to choose the blocker next turn!
One of my favorite cards from the set, The Terrified Chiefs, is a nuisance from turn 1, and can only get stronger as the game progresses. We know crimson has cannot be prevented and cannot be negated Enhancements, so The Terrified Chiefs already have access to strong crimson Enhancements already, and I imagine we gave them another in this set…right?
Edomites have strong cannot be interrupted and cannot be negated banding options already, already in current rotation. Couple them with The Terrified Chiefs with Enhancements to back them up and you can go toe to toe with Gospel bands with Lazarus and other negating evil cards. You can quickly banish an entire discard pile and The Terrified Chiefs can become a 20/20+ at the end of a banding chain, I would say that’s pretty good.
Edomites, who already have an add to battle (not counting Sheol) might get another tool as well to impact the battle.
A card recently spoiled was Deborah (JMP). Deborah immediately injects speed into green. Being able to grab a good O.T. card from Reserve (which is nice and broad access), Deborah can draw 2 or exchange with an O.T. green human or a Judges (not a Judge, but a human from the book of Judges) from territory. There’s some pretty good targets there in Prisoners of Gaza, Jephthah’s Daughter, Shamgar (whose unity works with Deborah), Captive Priest, Phinehas, Gideon and snag a fun side battle or battle winner, or Barak for shenanigans with more exchanging and cannot be negated Enhancements.
Those were just some Heroes from Judges, none of those targets include O.T. green humans, which really opens up the targets for Deborah to a lot of fun. She essentially turns all O.T. green humans (The Mighty Warrior), into a “take a good O.T. card from Reserve.” I expect to see more green in the upcoming meta and Deborah leading the charge.
Out of what we have shown so far, we have numerous cards that already impact the current meta. So how do we create cards that change the meta, but not destroy it, while also allowing for new archetypes and creativity? Let’s see some more cards that can potentially impact the meta, or allow other archetypes to be played in a new way.
First, we need to find ways for the green brigade to come back into a competitive light. Green has strong Heroes but lacked in the Enhancement department in the past. One of their sneaky strengths is dual-alignment Enhancements, but we wanted to give them a new tool that made their strong Heroes harder to deal with.
When Hannah prayed to the Lord for a son, she promised that if she had a son, he would be promised to the Lord. Designing cards from the bible is one of the most satisfying things I have ever done in my life. Being able to see a verse and create a card that resembles that scripture or story is an amazing experience that I love to be a part of. Just as Hannah vowed for her son, Vow for Samuel keeps your Hero in battle when harmed. I can see plenty of rescues starting with Deborah and snagging a card, exchanging to The Mighty Warrior or Jeremiah, and forcing the opponent to use resources. Book of the Covenant with You Will Remain and Vow for Samuel is insane! Book of the Covenant just gets this card back again the next turn, so your opponent will be forced to target Book of the Covenant.
A deck that stormed the gates of the meta-land was HoneyPot. Since then, HoneyPot took a back seat, mostly because of its sheer dominance and how early it was shown. Another reason is due to negating all characters and some themes simply cannot handle the constant pressure of being negated. Here is a card that might change that.
David’s Stronghold grants all of your O.T. purple warriors the ‘cannot be prevented modifier.’ They also stay protected in territory, which is always nice. You can now run Holy of Holies with David’s Mighty Men (although I doubt you need to), and all of your Heroes in an entire theme will work. The purple brigade also has Covenant with David, David, and Jehoshaphat that work with Holy of Holies. I can definitely see a new variant of HoneyPot, or just Holy of Holies decks, where the opponent’s characters constantly do not work and they have to deal with the onslaught of David’s Mighty Men, and trust me, they are mighty. Good luck having any resources and thinking you *edited by R.O.S.E.S.*. Sorry, not sure what that was. There’s also another card that can help an entire theme with Holy of Holies as well which is called *edited by R.O.S.E.S.*. I just can’t catch a break, let’s just move on.
Fortresses are running rampant in the meta. Most decks are playing Bethlehem Stable and Herod’s Temple and it becomes extremely difficult to get around their protection, and even if you do, you still can’t really get rid of Nativity Heroes with Bethlehem Stable out. A very popular defense is Herod’s who absolutely love and rely on Herod’s Temple. Maybe this card will fix that.
Joshua’s Officiators should keep your opponent on their toes and out of their comfort zone, being forced to actually block and potentially lose their characters due to not having protection. If Joshua is out, Joshua’s Officiators can just snag a Fortress. Do you want to take the opponent’s Herod’s Temple, then do it. Is Bethlehem Stable annoying you and you want to hit the opponent’s hand, then take it. Maybe Sheol, Chamber of Angels, or Nazareth is holding you back, no worries, this guy can take them all! And you know I love to see another wilderness Hero!
I have reviewed some of what the Canaanites can do and I hinted at getting The Five Kings from anywhere and in a very sneaky way, or should I say crafty.
The Crafty Gibeonites can really catch your opponent off guard. Being able to look at a hand is a solid ability and really helps with blocking. Now you can look at a hand and then exchange The Crafty Gibeonites with a human Canaanite from deck or Reserve. You can band to this character and then go to whoever you want! Coming in with a band, looking at their hand and seeing no Enhancements with strength 6 or more for The Five Kings and then exchanging to The Five Kings is a very strong block. Of course, The Five Kings requires a Canaanite to give, but I think you will find ways to constantly give and take, as Canaanites love to do.
The final card is a very strong card. Remember, Edomites have 2 Evil Characters that have the ability to play first. I foresee The King of Edom to Charioteers of Seir to be a very popular block in the near future. Remember when I said you can banish a discard pile easily enough, where now you can do it and potentially win the battle.
Access Denied allows you to banish the opponent’s discard pile and if you got a little chunk of cards banished, then the opponent doesn’t get to play Enhancements, assuming you played this on an Edomite of course. Notice that this card still works for all crimson Evil Characters, not just Edomites. Pretty sweet card design if I do say so myself, well done team!
Oh wait, I forgot Moabites! We talked about Slaves to Eglon, well what about his army? There has been a lot of talk about the old Lost Soul that used to protect Lost Souls from being rescued if the opponent had over ten cards in their hand. I miss that Lost Soul. Maybe this character will fix that.
Eglon’s Army gives you a nice little draw 1 while blocking but is an absolute unit against these offenses that are drawing at an incredible rate! Of course, we don’t want this character too easily splashed, or else gray just gets another strong character for free, so we added the additional Moabite clause. Regardless, this Evil Character can block any Hero or Heroes in the game essentially if they draw, or if they drew 3 with a full 8 cards in hand and went into battle without putting a card down, so long as they do not protect Lost Souls from evil cards. The numbers on this character is pretty nice too!
That’s everything we got! The next time you see an Israel’s Inheritance card it will be an actual card! I do want to wrap up by letting everyone know we are designing cards to interact with the meta and create new archetypes and decks to be competitive while having fun. I fully expect to see the meta to shift and players to have to start thinking more before they put down every character in their deck in territory. I imagine more decks will be competitive and see play. The design team worked tirelessly on this set and we are proud and excited for its release next week! Our intent was not to design a set that contradicts the meta, but sometimes we just can’t help ourselves with some very fun and strong cards! See you all at Nationals in Michigan!
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