Join Chad (CtheTree) as he shares his experience in the Lackey Grand Prix tournaments this tournament season which ended much better than he anticipated. In this first part he shares background info and the deck he succeeded with. The second part will include a tournament report.
Introduction:
Hello again Redemption community! The last time I wrote an article to share with you guys was after I won Type 1-2 Player at the Northwest Regional Tournament back in May. I shared my experience piloting the Once Upon a Time in Zion deck build which I went undefeated with in tournament play (13-0 record) this 2021-2022 tournament season across five tournaments including the cap stone tournament of the Northwest Regional. In that article I mentioned since I could not go to Nationals this year I prepped for the Northwest Regional tournament as if it were the National tournament and winning that tournament was quite satisfying. You can check out my previous article here. I truly thought the Northwest Regional tournament would be my last tournament for the season due to a busy summer schedule.
Well it turned out my tournament season was not over quite yet. This tournament season witnessed the advent of the Lackey Grand Prix tournament series and boy was it an exciting and competitive tournament series. The level of competition in these Lackey Grand Prix tournaments throughout the season rivaled Nationals itself. In total by the time the NW Regional happened three Lackey Grand Prix tournaments had taken place. I myself had competed in the first and the third installments of the Lackey Grand Prix to that point. Well I realized there would be a fourth and final Lackey Grand Prix tournament for this season and even though I thought I was done with tournaments for the season I wanted to give the Lackey Grand Prix one more shot. I was so close both of the previous LGP’s I was in to making top cut. In the Lackey Grand Prix the top 4 players make top cut. In the first Lackey Grand Prix I placed 5th narrowly missing top cut (Joshua Potratz, Jayden Alstad, Luke Marshall, and Brad Gailard made top cut and Josh pulled off the tournament victory). The second Lackey Grand Prix I did not participate and JD Cunningham, John Earley, Jay Chambers, and Rob Smith made top cut with JD Cunningham pulling off the tournament victory. The third LGP I had a shot at top cut going into the final round. Rob Smith and I were playing each other for the final top cut spot and he beat me 5-4 and he made top cut alongside Jayden Alstad, Luke Marshall, and Matt Sinclair with Jayden pulling off the tournament victory. I was experimenting with various decks in these first two Grand Prix’s with only my Zion deck performing particularly well and the others faltering a bit. I was a bit bummed though to not make top cut in either one (understandably so though with the top notch level of competition) so I decided to give it a go and participate in Lackey Grand Prix #4. As you can see from the players who made top cut and the champions of these first three LGP tournaments the level of competition in these tournaments was insane. When players like Jay Chambers, Jeremy Chambers, Joe Schaefer, Jayden Alstad, and Josh Potratz are not top cutting in a tournament you know the competition is top notch and sure enough there were individual LGP tournaments where players of that caliber did not top cut. Truly these tournaments I believe presented the highest level of competition outside of Nationals itself this tournament season.
Going in to LGP #4 I felt Once Upon a Time in Zion was obsolete due to the presence of Widow decks so I crafted a new deck for the tournament. Back in T1-2P pre-Rotation and pre-Reserve rule I had a deck I loved crafted around abusing Clement. Basically I looked to get Coliseum out and have The Watchful Leaders (played as Philippi with Joy on them since Coliseum negates protect abilities ) and The Generous Givers banded to Clement. I also looked to use Potter and the Clay to boost Clements numbers and to play Peace on him and enter battle. I ran characters like Barnabas, Hope, Paul, The Mighty Warrior, Euodia, and Syntyche in the deck since they did not ruin Clement’s unity. Barnabas and Paul being missionaries meant they would gain the church identifier of the church I had the most heroes in play of. The deck did well overall as I could get both Clement and The Watchful Leaders on turn 1 back when you could access the reserve on turn 1. Well I had thought a Clement deck would be better post-GoC with all the new Clay tools so I went to work at revamping the deck. What I came up with I was proud of. I realized the new Disciples work with Clement since they are missionaries. This meant I could run strong heroes like Matthew and Simon with Clement. I crafted the deck to seek to get a turn 1 Matthew and I included The First Combo as supplemental speed to hopefully draw most of my deck between it and Matthew. I also switched to The Cross from Coliseum since it works so much better with the offense stopping Dominants from interfering. In testing the deck did pretty good. And then a huge boon to the deck happened: a new ruling on Peace came out. I was already running Peace in the deck to put on a solo boosted Clement from Potter and the Clay but then once it was ruled a hero bearing Peace beginning a rescue could band to a character and Peace would still work my offense became even better. I could put Peace on The Generous Givers or The Watchful Leaders and then band to whichever one did not have Peace and then band with the other to Clement. This rocked in my mind! I was ready to run the deck in Lackey Grand Prix #4. The deck changed midway through the tournament and took shape into something special at that point. Be sure to read the tournamnet write up to see how things turned around in this tournament for me after losing the first two rounds. Amazingly not only did I make top cut but I went on to win the entire tournament after losing the first two rounds! Without further ado here is the deck I ran in its final form.
The Deck:
Clement’s Express (50 cards):
1 The Second Coming (CoW)
1 Son of God (Promo 2018)
1 Harvest Time (GoC)
1 Crowd’s Choice (GoC)
1 Three Woes (RoJ)
1 Shipwreck (Promo)
1 Vain Philosophy (PoC)
1 Lost Soul (Wanderer) (FoM)
1 Lost Soul (Awake)
1 Lost Soul (Escape)
1 Lost Soul (Crowds) Luke 5:15
1 Lost Soul (Distressed)
1 Lost Soul (Hunter)
1 Lost Soul (Darkness)
1 The New Covenant (I/J+)
1 Denarius (I/J+)
1 The Cross (GoC)
1 Patmos (RoJ)
1 Golgotha (GoC)
1 Babel (FoM)
1 The Angel of the Winds (CoW)
1 Reassuring Angel (EC)
1 Angel from the Sun (RoJ)
1 Noah, the Righteous / Noah (Rest and Comfort) (LoC)
1 Bereans
1 Matthew the Publican / Matthew (Levi) (GoC)
1 Simon, the Zealous / Saint Simon (GoC)
1 Bartholomew (Nathanael) / Bartholomew the True (GoC)
1 Matthias (GoC)
1 Ephesian Widow
1 The Lord’s Prayer (GoC)
1 Love One Another (GoC)
1 Spirit as a Dove (GoC)
1 Authority of Christ (GoC UR+)
1 The Great Commission (GoC)
1 Fifth Seal, Justice Seekers (RoJ)
1 Good Seed (GoC)
1 Life in the Son (GoC)
1 Life Through Christ
1 Delivered
1 Gamaliel’s Speech
1 Goliath (FoM Promo)
1 Outsiders (Black/Gold) (RoJ)
1 Emperor Nero (Promo)
1 The Deceiver (RoJ)
1 Foreign Wives
1 High Priest Ananias (RoJ)
1 The Wages of Sin (FoM)
1 Stricken
1 High Priest’s Plot (GoC)
Reserve:
1 Send the Helper (GoC)
1 Peace (EC)
1 Eternal Inheritance (CoW AB)
1 Untouchable (GoC)
1 Bless the Nations
1 His Sacrifice (GoC UR+)
1 Supercilious Scribes (GoC)
1 Unsuccessful (PoC)
1 Plot to Kill (RoJ)
1 Fire Foxes
Deck Summary:
NOTE: Please read the tournament report below. The above deck build was a work in progress and did not take similar shape to what it is now till round 3 of the tournament. Clement is what the deck was originally built around but the rescues featuring Clement I realized did not need him and the deck was more effective without him. The deck is named after him though.
Offense-
The backbone of this deck is seeking to do strong rescues with The Cross active. First of all we have the Peace bands of Bereans (with Peace on them) banded to Simon to CTB or Matthew to draw or Bartholomew to play a needed soul from their deck. In battle I can toss Bless the Nations to defeat protected characters like Foreign Wives and Red Dragon. Also I can toss His Sacrifice or Untouchable off Peace as well to defeat opponents characters. I was running Phillip in my previous version of this build but he proved unnecessary since Bereans plus another character proved to be enough of a band and when I cut Harvest LS for Wanderer LS I wanted a bit more soul gen beyond Harvest Time so I went with Bart over Phillip.
Another notable rescue with Peace bands/The Cross active is too add Matthias to battle with Good Seed to bounce their lone EC in battle. This is practically CBN since Peace tosses any interrupt or negate and The Cross prevents them from interacting with a Dominant. This is especially strong when I can band to Simon with Bereans to choose a blocker which I know Matthias can dispatch with ease. In my Zion deck I used to run something similar with Jeremiah in battle and a red warrior king being added to battle by Faith of David with Temple Spears and Shields equipped. This is far better though since I can even CTB with Simon prior to adding Matthias to battle. Also having The Cross as support is huge.
Other notable rescues in this deck involve Simon. Lone Simon with The Cross active to choose a blocker with toughness and then tossing Untouchable off The Cross to defeat that character came in handy quite a bit in this tournament. Also with The Cross active on Golgotha and a covenant active using Simon to CTB and play Eternal Inheritance on my final rescue is great. Last but not least Simon and His Sacrifice is a dream combo being able to choose a Demon to block with Simon and then dispatch them CBI with His Sacrifice is great. Also His Sacrifice works with The Cross active so even better.
Another strong rescue is lone Noah with Peace on him with The Cross active. Nasty and he is better than Clement was due to that and the fact he can shuffle a card. Oh yeah and I run the big three Disciples enhancements: Authority of Christ, The Great Commission, and Love One Another. I run these main deck so Matthew tends to get to a battle winner turn 1 off his draw. Bereans are sneaky in that I can sacrifice Delivered, Bless the Nations, or Fire Foxes to recur something like Authority of Christ or Gam’s Speech. I really like what this deck does offensively and for Disciples this is my favorite offensive package I have seen.
Game plan-
The game plan of the deck is to get to Matthew turn 1. I have 13 total potential ways to Matthew on turn 1. After the Matthew draw I am aiming to combo with Widow to draw a ton. I have 9 ways to Widow main deck and 8 ways to Life in the Son main deck. Once I draw cards I want to set the following board state up: I want to get Distressed LS and Crowds LS active, I want to hit opponent’s hand with Vain Philosophy and High Priest’s Plot, I want to get Gam’s Speech active to limit my opponents ability to set up a Circus play off Numerous as the stars or to tutor for Matthew or Widow or to tutor for Delivered to activate Three Nails for the reset. Gam’s hits the tutors for all of these. I debated running Golden Calf instead of Gam’s but Gam’s works way more consistently than Calf since I often found drawing into Calf was a risk in gold fishing. Also I want Babel up. Babel shuts down Widow, Obed, and so much else. It also is non-artifact so it pretty much always works. I want to play Harvest Time to get souls out and slam down the SoG+TSC and then I want if at all possible to activate The Cross to stop my opponent from getting rid of my counters. I found it to be rare that I got The Cross turn 1 active but in general the other counters are enough.
I want to talk a little bit about The Cross. I believe this card has been vastly undervalued. It is a very strong card in this deck in that it is a huge boon to the offense creating rescues that are complicated to interact with. Yes an opponent can negate The Cross or interact with it but I found that it generally helped me in most games to get at least two very strong rescues. Additionally locking an opponent out from Doms and CBN enhancements is huge. I do feel a deck trying to run The Cross as it’s primary counter is misguided but a deck seeking to use The Cross in a supplemental fashion to the offense and even defense and to slow an opponent down is great. I should note my defense works flawlessly with The Cross and benefits from it. In the top 8 at Nationals Jayden Alstad is the only player who ran The Cross and I think that was an amazingly good call since it supports his Postee’s banding offense so well. Naturally I feel my offense with Peace banding off Bereans is slightly more potent than his but his Postee bands backed by the hand control of Teaching in Parables, The First Sacrifice, Betrayal, High Priest’s Plot, and Vain Philosophy is very good especially with The Cross. Jayden’s defense like mine also benefited from The Cross. Jayden made the right call running The Cross and I believe more decks should be running it ESPECIALLY Disciple offenses.
Lastly I want to point out something I feel Redemption decks may need to shift to in turbo metas like this one: if you notice I am not running a single battle winning Dominant in this deck. All of my Dominants are interaction Dominants and the only two that can potentially contribute to a battle are Crowd’s Choice, Harvest Time (by getting souls out), and Three Woes as a negate. Since this is a meta where if your opponent goes first they are likely to win the game having interaction is more valuable than battle winning potential in my mind. That being said you HAVE to run a robust offensive package that can win battles without Dominant support. This offense is exactly that. I was running Angel of the Lord for a while but cut it for Harvest Time which the reasoning for the change is explained below. I found I do not miss Angel of the Lord much at all since this offense is so strong it really does not need it. Also not relying on battle winning Dominants is ideal with seeking to have The Cross active while I am rescuing. I think we are so used to relying on battle winning Dominants in our deck building in Redemption that it can be restrictive to optimizing deck builds and teching for the meta. I am thankful I went against the grain and found what I believe to be an original approach to the Disciples offense paired with The Cross that does not need Dominant support to win battles. This allowed for me to run more interaction in Dominant slots than any other deck I saw this tournament season.
Interaction-
A big distinguishing factor of this deck versus other Disciple based decks with the Widow combo I have seen is the amount of turn 0 interaction I run. The following cards all lead to turn 0 interaction: Vain Philosophy, Harvest Time, Three Woes, Crowd’s Choice, Shipwreck, Stricken (Star ability), Distressed LS, Crowds LS, Awake LS, Escape LS, Hunter LS, Wanderer LS, Son of God, and worst case scenario The Second Coming. These all lead to PREMIUM turn 0 interaction for this meta. Vain Philosophy should have been a staple Dominant at Nats. Only Jayden Alstad and Jeremy Chambers ran it out of the top 8 players. Vain Philosophy gives you a chance if your opponent goes first. You can underdeck a way to Matthew or any other key card that would allow the opponent to get off to a blazing start. Also if you go first you can underdeck your opponents way to Delivered to Three Nails for the reset or anything else. Vain Philosophy also can mitigate an opponent activating a counter through delivered or Offering Your Son like Golden Calf if they go first. It is incredibly versatile and such a good card if you end up going second but it is also strong if you go first to set your opponent back.
The second key type of interaction in this deck are the counter souls of Distressed and Crowds. Distressed shuts down negate neutral characters or Jesse who shuts down TC characters and of course Distressed shuts down Widow. Crowds LS stops Matthew from drawing and Impartial Judgment plays. Crowds is important as well for mitigating all the hand control running around if an opponent goes first like Vain Philosophy, High Priest’s Plot, Betrayal, Sorrow of Mary, and The First Sacrifice. Teaching in Parables gets around it but it is what it is. These two souls together formulate a lock that shuts down Disciple/Widow decks if an opponent cannot get around them and these two souls hurt many other deck builds too. And the best part is unlike artifact counters like Golden Calf I can set them up if my opponent goes first. Out of the top 8 decks at Nats 7 ran Distressed and 3 ran crowds. It is good to see folks were running Distressed but I feel more decks should have been running Crowds. In connection with these souls Awake, Escape, and Hunter all turn into turn 0 interaction by being able to tutor for these souls.
This leads to what I believe is one of the biggest pieces of interaction that folks missed at Nats. No one ran this card in the top 8: Harvest Time. Harvest Time is a huge piece of turn 0 interaction since it can tutor for both Distressed and Crowds in a pinch! Also it doubles as soul gen in so doing and it can tutor for Wanderer LS which is important. I figured people would start running Distressed and Crowds in their decks which hurt my offense so Wanderer gives me a way outside SoG+TSC to interact with annoying souls. Wanderer was only run in two of the top 8 decks at Nats and is vital I feel for a deck like this to have another way to get around an opponent’s annoying Lost Souls. After all, I figured if I was high on Distressed and Crowds and their counter potential other players might be too! Therefore Harvest Time does so much in this deck by being able to tutor for Distressed and Crowds to try to stop an opponent from an explosive start going first, by generating a piece in Wanderer to protect my goals, and generating lost souls. Generating lost souls with Harvest Time on my first turn is great since then I normally can slam down SoG+TSC and then get The Cross active. Harvest Time also is good against soul manipulation defenses. Great Dominant especially in this meta. I mentioned the idea of Harvest Time as turn 0 interaction to a couple players before Nats and one player ended up running it but was running a sub-optimal deck for the meta and did not make the top 8. This I believe was a big miss.
Harvest Time and Vain Philosophy mean that Crowd’s Choice is a turn 0 interaction piece since it can tutor for either one. Stricken is another card that many folks missed. For one, it fits seamlessly with my defense. Secondly the star ability on Stricken shuts down a turn 1 Matthew, Angel of the Winds, David, HAG, and many other turn 1 battle strategies. Amazing turn 0 interaction and only Jayden Alstad ran this card out of the top 8 players at Nationals. Three Woes is a staple and is great for stopping the Widow Combo since you can just Three Woes Widow when it attempts to recur Life in the Son. It truly is a staple Dominant and every deck in the top 8 at Nats ran it. Shipwreck I feel is necessary in a deck running Widow Combo since a turn 1 Babel makes it quite likely that Widow gets negated. Also Sheol and Gates I felt were seeing a lot of play and very necessary to have a way to deal with. Not to mention if the opponent goes first and gets Storehouse active a way is needed around that. Last but not least worst case scenario I would consider using The Second Coming to get to Harvest Time or to Crowd’s Choice to Vain Philosophy depending on the matchup. This is something I would do with great reservation but could be necessary. Son of God is a staple of course and a great way to remove opponent’s soul counters. Overall I feel running all of this turn 0 interaction gave me a good shot of staying in the game if my opponent went first.
People have been lamenting how going first is a big advantage in Redemption. To a point there is validity that it is an advantage. However, there is a good amount of interaction that you can use on your opponents turn and that is proved by this deck that I built. I hope this helps you see you can interact with your opponent on their turn in a meaningful way with the cards currently printed in Redemption and minimize the impact of your opponent going first.
For interaction if I go first I like to hit the opponents hand with High Priest’s Plot and Vain Philosophy and I like to hurt them with my counter souls of Distressed and Crowds (just as good if I go first at slowing down the opponent) and I like to get Babel and Gam’s Speech up. If you play Gam’s Speech correctly it really slows an opponent down. All of my interaction/counters work if I draw them other than The Cross which to me is an important thing in a deck which draws so much.
Consistency-
I already remarked on consistency in getting to Matthew and Widow Combo but I would like to remark about consistency for my tutors. I have five ways to have a character turn 1 to play Fifth Seal on (remember Patmos leads to a way), I have six ways to play Spirit as a Dove turn 1, and I have five ways to play Wages of Sin turn 1. I thought I had four ways to play Delivered turn 1 (Darkness LS gives me a way) but I realized in my final match with JD Cunningham I only actually have three ways to play Delivered on turn 1. I will explain more on why this is later…
Overall though the deck offers great consistency for being able to play my key tutors.
In terms of speed I feel Denarius is too good not to run. In terms of ramp you are netting three cards at no cost or even four. Also Emperor Nero proved to be a great blocker for me this tournament season in this deck and in Once Upon a Time in Zion especially when backed by a negate. I like grabbing him early. Denarius also helps mitigate the potential bad opening hand since it gives a way to draw into a way to Matthew.
It does not often get talked about but the fact disciples have Angel of the Winds, Reassuring Angels, Angel from the Sun, and Patmos gives the offense an amazing amount of consistency (and even recursion through Patmos and Reassuring Angels) that I do not see any other offense in the game having currently. It reminds me of Judges back when they had AwSN, AutO, and AotW.
Defense-
The defense is nothing glamorous but it gets the job done. Personally I felt Black is the right defense to utilize due to the fact Stricken fits well with it and High Priest’s Plot. Additionally I felt black pairs best with Emperor Nero since both Stricken and Plot to Kill work with Nero as well as the other Black characters. Another thing is I feel Black is better than Orange in this meta. Yes Orange has Red Dragon, KoT, and Fallen Star but if you really think about it KoT is weak in this meta. Most people are running NT characters. Black has Goliath who is a close parallel to Fallen Star and I would way rather run High Priest Ananias than KoT in this meta. Nero in my mind slots in where Red Dragon does and is a poor man’s Red Dragon. Most Disciple offenses are primarily solo rescues in this meta so Nero fairs well. Outsiders (Black/Gold) is a great card if your opponent goes first and can get rid of annoyances they set up like Babel or Golden Calf and block too and draw cards. I like Herdsman of Gerar but Outsiders does a bit more. Round out the defense with Supercilious Scribes to Unsuccessful block, Foreign Wives, and Fire Foxes (Good Seed can grab Fire Foxes) and I found the defense blocked competently enough for me to win the game with my offense. I do miss Undesirables for extra blocking power but getting rid of it for interaction was necessary.
Mitigating Threats-
The interaction package mentioned above helps very much with mitigating threats. Shipwreck in particular is quite important in that regard and Wanderer LS (and all the ways to it) since certain LS can shut down my plans. Noah is sneaky good at dealing with annoyances like Golden Calf, Fallen Star, Storehouse, etc. and the fact Peace played on him is such a good rescue option makes him pleasant to rescue with. Some Disciple decks run Mary, Holy Virgin but I find I would rather mitigate a threat with Noah/Peace since he is a stronger rescue than her. Mary’s advantage is she can get rid of Babel but overall Noah does more in this deck than her and makes Fifth Seal more consistent. Also Mary’s unity does not like Bereans very much and Noah does not mind Bereans at all. His Sacrifice artifact side is a great way to dispatch counters. His Sacrifice is a very underrated card in my mind with no one running it in the top 8 at Nats. Not only is it stellar with Simon especially with The Cross up but its artifact side is a great way to deal with counters. Now you might say: Chad Noah ruins your unity! No problem I just bounce Noah with Send the Helper or Life in the Son prior to using His Sacrifice in battle or if I am using the artifact side I am careful to bounce Noah with Life in the Son or not play him in territory. Lastly, Outsiders (B/G) is a great potential way to mitigate threats.
Possible Changes-
The biggest miss in my deck build is a mistake I realized in my final of the LGP #4 with JD Cunningham. I had counted Outsiders (B/G) as a fourth way to be able to play Delivered on my first turn with me going first. Well it turns out that if the opponent has no good brigades in play the minute Outsiders (B/G) enters territory they die… JD caught it and they sure enough died. I feel three ways to play Delivered main deck is not enough (Noah, Foreign Wives, and Darkness LS) so I need another way. I love Outsiders blocking potential and how they can mitigate counters so I would rather get another way to play Delivered elsewhere. The deck build is very tight so it is hard choosing what I would change. Delivered is a great card since it can lead to ramp through Denarius, tutor anything in the deck through New Covenant (I/J +), and can get The Cross active during my discard phase post Matthew draw and hopefully during Widow draw after playing the big 2: SoG and TSC. Post phase 2 of GoC the new Peter fits great in this deck making my Peace bands bigger and he has green so I would probably cut Bart for him (I will miss Bart’s soul gen potential but oh well). Pre-phase 2 I probably would have run The Amalekite’s Slave instead of Outsiders since The Amalekite’s Slave is another way to a block like Goliath, HPA, Foreign Wives or Nero and I can play Delivered on them. In reality if I did not block with Outsiders turn 1 with my opponent going first they were pretty much useless other than being a character to play Delivered on since I almost always had Board Advantage and had very few cards in deck to draw. So yeah that is likely the swap I would have made is Outsiders (B/G) for The Amalekite’s Slave. I think the deck would function just fine and TAS is soul gen and gets to my blockers.
Another card I would love to run main deck is Angelic Guidance. I was running it main deck but cut it to be able to run Gam’s Speech main deck which is the right call. I felt I had enough tutors and needed Gam’s Speech to interact with my opponent and try to stop them from coming back when I go first. However, Angelic Guidance fits great in this deck. It is a great way to get to Matthew and Ephesian Widow from New Covenant without needing to use Spirit as a Dove. It is also a great way to get to Patmos or Golgotha if they are needed. I have five ways to play it main deck due to Noah, Patmos, and the three angels. Also the hand spy on it is handy too. It also can directly tutor for Noah which is good. I thought about running it instead of Denarius but Denarius just provides more consistent value in my mind.
Other Dominants I considered in this deck build are Chronicles of the Kings, Falling Away (CoW), and Christian Martyr. All of these provide interaction in the dom slots since CotK can negate TC enhancements of the specified alignment for a phase, Martyr can kill widow after her first recursion of Life in the Son, Falling Away can convert Widow after her first recursion of Life in the Son. Also Martyr and Falling Away can snipe a character in the opponent’s territory who they need to play a key TC enhancement on. My problem with both of them is there are ways around them to a point. If you play it right Life in the Son still draws 6 after the initial draw and the first recursion even if Widow gets Martyred of FA’d. CotK is the better of the three since I would normally play it after the Matthew draw during the discard phase to stall Life in the Son from working that turn. Still though the opponent gets to draw off Matthew. I found I preferred both Vain Philosophy and Harvest Time (to Distressed and Crowds) as Dominant interaction since they are more proactive and look to stop the opponent from doing much of anything. CotK though would have been nice to have an additional way around Golden Calf or Confusion of Mind so I could see an argument for running it.
I did have Mayhem in earlier versions of this deck and it fits well but reliable interaction less reliant on luck is more important. The extra speed from Mayhem is great of course and the auto block potential with Foreign Wives but I really don’t need the extra speed with how fast the deck is. I briefly considered Voice from Heaven since it can banish Life in the Son after the first use but I felt as a whole the Dominant is a bit less versatile and I don’t particularly want to hit my reserve. The regardless of protect aspect is nice but the offense I have does pretty well against protected characters.
I definitely considered Golden Calf and it is a great counter but I feel I would rather have counters that work if I happen to draw into them.
Betrayal and Distressing People are both cards I considered and would be nice to have but just did not have space for. Distressing People is not as good of interaction in my mind since Life in the Son just bounces them. I do like that they negate the opponent’s Lost Soul though which aids my offensive plans if the opponent has an annoying soul or two out. Also they set up Simon for a nice easy rescue.
As I mentioned earlier I considered Mary, Holy Virgin in this deck but felt Noah accomplished what she would pretty well and that he fits better with Bereans who are a key part of the deck build.
“Today” is a card I considered running instead of His Sacrifice since I saw alot of Sheol and Gates of Hell in this meta however I decided His Sacrifice is more versatile and generally Shipwreck is enough to deal with those.
The other thing I have contemplated is running another way to deal with Golden Calf and Confusion of Mind. For Confusion of Mind all I have is His Sacrifice and Outsiders. For Golden Calf all I have is Three Woes, Outsiders, and Noah. Also at least pre- phase 2 of GoC the current version of the deck would be running The Amalekite’s Slave instead of Outsiders so that is one less way to deal with these annoying artifacts. In all fairness I did not run into issues with either in playing the deck but it is good to be prepared. Options I thought of is running CotK over Vain Philosophy or Harvest Time since CotK can interact with annoying territory class stuff but it just is not as good as the other interaction pieces with pure interaction. Another thing I thought of is running Persian Horsemen and Confusion in reserve instead of Supercilious Scribes and Unsuccessful. With Confusion hitting SoG or TSC it can work like a block or even better if SoG is hit before it has been played. Also Persian Horsemen can hit either Golden Calf or Confusion of Mind on a turn 2 block. I do like Golgotha being able to grab Supercilious Scribes and make its play of Unsuccessful CBP. Wages can grab Persian Horsemen so that is nice but the CBP play of Unsuccessful is great with Golgotha. Worth testing out anyway. Naturally Assyrian Affliction would be stellar to include since it can deal with pretty much any artifact with ease but Crowd’s Choice is the only way I have to grab it from reserve.
Clement would be nice to add in and he could fit here if I went with Generous Givers instead of Bereans but I still feel he is superfluous. The one perk to him would be FBTN support against some chump blocks like Fire Foxes and Dubious Doubters. The deck though can win without him and playing around his unity is bothersome. I can’t actually really run Widow well with him since the number of Jerusalem disciples will often outnumber the number of Philippi heroes so those Disciples will not gain Philippi. I need the meek disciples for Life in the Son and with Clement I can’t run Noah and have to run Saint Patrick in that slot since he is a missionary and can be Philippi which is not nearly as good. Noah does provide solid FBTN support which does work with Peace so well so I think Noah takes care of the FBTN stuff just fine. So yeah Clement does not fit here ultimately and is not really needed.
Conclusion:
This deck went on amazingly to win the Lackey Grand Prix #4 and in the process defeated Rob Smith, Jayden Alstad, Joshua Potratz, Jay Chambers (top cut), and JD Cunningham (final) in consecutive rounds. This was a far better result than I anticipated! Stay tuned for the tournament report in the next part of this two part series!
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